y, when he saw the enemy in retreat, sent Chrysler and
Crebs in pursuit, supported by Cameron. However, this came to
nothing, for Chrysler naturally enough followed the small Confederate
rear-guard that held to the main road toward Alexandria.

The pontoon bridge was at once laid, and being completed soon after
dark, the march was continued by night, McMillan, with Beal and
Rust, moving six miles to the reversed front to cover the trains.

About ten o'clock on the same morning Wharton charged down on Kilby
Smith, who was moving up to the rear of A. J. Smith's command and
of the army, but was driven off after a fight lasting an hour.

By two o'clock on the afternoon of April 24th, Beal's men being on
the south bank of Cane River, the bridge was taken up and the march
continued without further molestation by Cotile and Henderson's
Hill, the head of the column resting at night near the Bayou
Rapides.

Marching thence at six o'clock on the morning of the 25th of April,
the head of the column arrived at Alexandria at two o'clock that
afternoon, and on the following day A. J. Smith brought up the
rear. Here the fleet, with the exception of the ill-fated _Eastport_,
was found lying in safety, yet unfortunately above the falls.

Here, too, early on the 27th came Hunter, with fresh and very
positive orders from Grant to Banks, bearing date the 17th, requiring
him to bring the expedition to an immediate end, to turn over his
command at once to the next in rank, and to go himself to New
Orleans. In truth, this was but the culmination of an earnest and
persistent wish on Grant's part, shown even as far back as the
beginning of the campaign, to replace Banks in command by Hunter
or another. When, afterward, Grant came to learn of the perilous
situation of the fleet, and moreover perceived that none of the
troops engaged in the expedition could be in time to take part in
the spring campaigns east of the Mississippi, he suspended these
orders, and, without recalling that portion of them that required
Banks to go to New Orleans, directed the operations for the rescue
of the navy to go on under the senior commander present. In any
case, however, it was now clearly impossible to abandon the fleet
in its dangerous and helpless position above the rapids, with the
river falling, and an active enemy on both banks.

And Steele,--where was Steele all this time? Having rejected
Banks's advice to join him near Alexandria, marching b