n the War,"
p. 757.

(2) When Green says 800, he of course refers to the four regiments
actually engaged in the assault; for, after losing, as he says,
261 of these 800, he makes the four regiments of Major's brigade,
with two sections of Faries's battery, number 800; while his own
force, with one section of Gonzales's battery, he puts at 750.
800 + 750 + 261 = 1,811.

CHAPTER XX.
IN SUMMER QUARTERS.

Before Banks parted with Grover at Donaldsonville, he left orders
for the troops to rest and go into "summer quarters" as soon as
the pending operation should be decided. Accordingly, in the last
days of July, Weitzel broke away from the discomforts of muddy,
dusty, shadeless Donaldsonville, and marching down the bayou, once
more took up his quarters near Napoleonville and Thibodeaux, and
encamped his men at ease among the groves and orchards of the garden
of La Fourche.

On the 16th of July the steamboat _Imperial_, from St. Louis on
the 8th, rounded to at the levee at New Orleans in token that the
great river was once more free. The next day she set out on her
return trip.

On the 5th of August a despatch from Halleck, dated the 23d of
July, was received and published in orders:

"I congratulate you and your army on the crowning success of the
campaign. It was reserved for your army to strike the last blow
to open the Mississippi River. The country, and especially the
great West, will ever remember with gratitude their services."

Afterwards, on the 28th of January, 1864, Congress passed a joint
resolution of thanks

"to Major-General Nathaniel P. Banks and the officers and soldiers
under his command for the skill, courage, and endurance which
compelled the surrender of Port Hudson, and thus removed the last
obstruction to the free navigation of the Mississippi River."

Admiral Porter now came down the river to New Orleans in his flagship
_Black Hawk_, and arranged to relieve Admiral Farragut from the
trying duty of patrolling and protecting the river, so long borne
by the vessels of his fleet. Farragut then took leave of absence
and went North, leaving the West Gulf Squadron to Commodore Bell.

When Port Hudson surrendered, two of the nine-months' regiments
had already served beyond their time. The 4th Massachusetts claimed
its discharge on the 26th of June, the 50th four days later,
insisting that their time ran from the muster-in of the last company;
but, being without information from Washingt