ven off
the field by a determined charge. Lucas likewise dismounted his
men, and the two brigades, charging together afoot, drove the
Confederates from their position, and pursued them to Carroll's
saw-mill, on the southerly branch of Bayou St. Patrice, about seven
miles beyond Pleasant Hill, where, toward nightfall, they made a
strong stand. In this action, Lee took 23 prisoners, and suffered
a loss of 11 killed, 42 wounded, and 9 missing.

Ransom marched at half-past five in the morning, and at two o'clock
in the afternoon the head of his column was at Pleasant Hill,
nineteen miles distant, where he went into camp, having overtaken
the cavalry train during the march, and Dudley's brigade at the
close. Emory, closely following Ransom, arrived at Pleasant Hill
about five o'clock in the afternoon, and went into camp. The last
of the infantry and all the wagons were much retarded by a heavy
storm that broke over the rear of the column and cut up the road
badly. The night was far spent when Ransom's train joined him,
and Emory's, in spite of every exertion, could not be brought up
until late on the following morning. A. J. Smith was now a good
day's march behind Ransom and Emory.

When Lee found himself so obstinately opposed, and so hindered by
these dilatory tactics, he sent a message to Franklin, through
Banks's senior aide-de-camp, who had been riding with the advance,
asking that a brigade of infantry might be sent forward to his
assistance. Lee's view was that the infantry, advancing in skirmish
order, could make better progress than the cavalry, which, in a
country so thickly wooded, found itself reduced to the same tactics,
with the added drawback that as often as they dislodged the enemy
they had to run back after their horses before they could follow.
Franklin declined to accede to this request without orders, justly
reflecting that infantry thus advanced at night, after a hard day's
march, must be worn out in the attempt to keep touch with the
cavalry, while, in the history of these mixed forces, the instances
are rare indeed in which the mounted men have not, after bringing
on the action, left it, as the proper thing, for the infantry to
finish. However, late in the evening Banks joined Franklin, and
an hour or two before midnight ordered him to send a brigade to
Lee, to report to him at dawn. Upon this Franklin directed Ransom
to send either a brigade or a division, at his discretion, and
Ransom,