o Baton Rouge, to break
the blockade of Red River and to open the way for the recapture of
New Orleans. Williams was expecting the attack and awaited the
result with calmness.

At Baton Rouge the Mississippi washes for the last time the base
of the high and steep bluffs that for so many hundreds of miles
have followed the coasts of the great river and formed the contour
of its left bank, overlooking its swift yellow waters and the vast
lowlands of the western shore. The bluff is lower at Baton Rouge
than it is above and slopes more gently to the water's edge; and
here the highland draws back from the river and gradually fades
away in a southeasterly direction toward the Gulf, while the surface
of the country becomes more open and less broken. The stiff
post-tertiary clays that compose the soil of these bluffs were in
many places covered with a rich growth of timber, great magnolias
and beautiful live oaks replacing the rank cottonwood and tangled
willows of the lowlands, as well as the giant cypresses of the
impenetrable swamps, with their mournful hangings of Spanish moss,
and the wild grape binding them fast in a deadly embrace.

Six roads led out of the town in various directions. Of these the
most northerly was the road from Bayou Sara. Passing behind the
town its course continued toward the south along the river. Between
these outstretched arms ran the road to Clinton, the Greenwell
Springs road, by which the Confederates had come, the Perkins road,
and the Clay Cut road.

In numbers the opposing forces were nearly equal. The Confederates
went into action with about 2,600, without counting the partisan
rangers and militia, numbering 400 or 500 more. Williams had about
2,500 fighting men. He had eighteen guns, the Confederates eleven.
On both sides the men were enfeebled by malaria and exposure; yet
the Confederates had left their sick behind, while the Union force
included convalescents that came out of the hospital to take part
in the battle. "There were not 1,200," said Weitzel after the
battle, "who could have marched five miles. None of our men had
been in battle; very few had been under fire." Among the Confederates
were many of the veterans of Shiloh and more of the triumphant
defenders of Vicksburg. The advantages of position was slight on
either side. On the one hand Williams was forced to post his left
with regard to the expected attack of the _Arkansas_, so that in
the centre his line f