reathing space, or time to concentrate. But this was not to be.
On learning, at New Orleans, that Banks meant to command in person,
Sherman naturally gave up all thought of accompanying the expedition,
and went back to Vicksburg to get his troops ready. The contingent
he had promised to send from the Army of the Tennessee he now made
up of two divisions of the Sixteenth Corps, united under Mower,
with Kilby Smith's division of the Seventeenth Corps, and the
command of the whole he gave to A. J. Smith.

As early as the 2d of March Porter assembled at the mouth of the
Red River a great fleet of nineteen ironclads, including fifteen
of the heavier class and four of the lighter. The fleet carried
162 guns, of which 62 were of the higher calibres, from 80-pounder
rifles up to 11-inch Dahlgrens, and the combined weight of projectiles
was but little less than five tons.

On the 10th of March, A. J. Smith embarked his force at Vicksburg
on an admirably organized fleet of nineteen river transports,
controlled by a simple system of signals from the flagship _Clara
Bell_. When, the next day, Smith joined Porter at the mouth of
the Red River, six days were still left until the time when Banks
had agreed to be at Alexandria with his army. Sherman's orders to
Smith required him to make use of the interval by co-operating with
the navy in an expedition up the Black and the Washita, for the
destruction of Harrisonburg, but Porter had already done the work
single-handed. Naturally supposing that Banks's troops were in
march up the Teche toward the point of meeting, although they knew
that Banks himself was still detained at New Orleans, Smith and
Porter determined at once to take or turn Fort De Russy, and then
to push on to Alexandria. On the morning of the 12th of March,
the combined fleet entered the Red River. At the head of the
Atchafalaya, Porter, with nine of the gunboats, turned off to the
left and descended that stream as far as Simmesport, followed by
the army transports, while Phelps, with the _Eastport_ and the
remainder of the fleet, continued the ascent of the Red River, with
a view of threatening Fort De Russy, and occupying the attention
of its defenders until Smith could land and march across country
to attack them.

On the morning of the 13th of March Smith landed, and toward
nightfall took up the line of march for Fort De Russy, distant by
land twenty-eight miles, although by the windings of the river
nea