rd the Sabine,
while the remainder of the troops were conducted by Taylor himself
toward Alexandria and at last to Natchitoches. As soon as Kirby
Smith became aware that his adversary was advancing to the Red
River, he prepared to meet the menace by concentrating on Shreveport
the whole available force of the Confederacy in the Trans-Mississippi
from Texas to Missouri, numbering, according to his own estimate,
18,000 effectives. He accordingly called on Magruder for two
brigades and drew in from the line of the Arkansas the division of
John G. Walker. However, this concentration became unnecessary
and was given up the instant Smith learned that Banks had crossed
the Atchafalaya and the Mississippi and had sat down before Port
Hudson.

While this movement was in progress, Walker was on the march toward
Natchitoches or Alexandria, by varying routes, according as the
plans changed to suit the news of the day. Taylor observed Banks
and followed his march to Simmesport, while Mouton hung upon the
rear and flank of Chickering's column, guarding the big wagon-train
and the spoils of the Teche campaign.

Then Kirby Smith, not caring as yet to venture across the Atchafalaya,
ordered Taylor to take Walker's division back into Northern Louisiana
and try to break up Grant's campaign by interrupting his communications
opposite Vicksburg; but this attempt turned out badly, for Grant
had already given up his communications on the west bank of the
Mississippi and restored them on the east, and Taylor's forces,
after passing from Lake Catahoula by Little River into the Tensas,
ascending that stream to the neighborhood of Richmond and occupying
that town on the 3d of May, were roughly handled on the 7th in an
ill-judged attempt to take Young's Point and Milliken's Bend.
Then, leaving Walker with orders to do what damage he could along
the river bank--which was not much--and, if possible, as it was
not, to throw supplies of beef and corn into Vicksburg, Taylor went
back to Alexandria and prepared for his campaign in La Fourche,
from which Kirby Smith's superior orders had diverted him. Meanwhile
nearly a month had passed and Walker, after coming down to the Red
River, a week too late, was once more out of reach.

Taylor's plan was for Major, with his brigade of cavalry, to cross
the Atchafalaya at Morgan's Ferry, while Taylor himself, with the
main body under Mouton, should attempt the surprise and capture of
Brashear: then, if