vice lost a brave and promising young
officer and the staff a pleasant and always cheerful comrade. The
distinguished family to which this gallant gentleman belonged had
given four brothers to the service of their country. Of these
Howard himself most nearly resembled in character, looks, and
bearing his elder brother Wilder, who fell at Antietam, honored
and lamented by all that knew him.

Upon hearing the news, Banks instantly sent order to Brigadier-General
Dwight to arrest all the white men he might find near the
line of his march to the number of one hundred, and to send them
to New Orleans to be held as hostages for the delivery of the
murderers. "The people of the neighborhood who harbor and feed
these lawless men," Banks wrote, "are even more directly responsible
for the crimes which they commit, and it is by punishing them that
this detestable practice will be stopped." There were not a hundred
white men in the region through which Dwight was marching, but many
were punished by imprisonment after this order--a harsh measure,
it must be admitted, yet not without the justification that the
countryside was infested by men wearing no uniform, who acted in
turn the part of soldiers in front of the Union army, of citizens
on its line of march, and of guerillas in its rear. When, under
a flag of truce, Dwight presently demanded from Taylor the surrender
of his brother's murderers, the Confederate officers not only
disavowed but severely condemned the crime, declaring themselves,
however, unable to pick out the criminals.

Two miles beyond Washington the Bayous Boeuf and Cocodrie unite to
form the Bayou Courtableau, out of which again, below the town,
flows the Bayou Maricoquant, forming a double connection with the
Teche at its head. For a long distance the Boeuf and the Cocodrie
keep close company, each following a crooked channel cut deeply
into the light soil. Crossing the Courtableau above Washington,
the line of march now lay along the east bank of the Boeuf, by
Holmesville and Cheneyville, through a country of increasing richness
and beauty, gradually rising with quickened undulations almost
until the bluffs that border the Red River draw in sight.

Banks had promised that he would be in Alexandria on the morning
of the 9th of May; but no opposition was encountered; the roads
were good, dry, and easy under foot; the weather fine, and the men
were filled with a desire to push the march, and with an eag