by which it was reported that
reinforcements to Taylor were expected to arrive from Arkansas.

These military movements in Western Louisiana were due to the
operations of General Banks, who had abandoned the demonstration
made from Baton Rouge against Port Hudson, at the time Farragut passed,
and resumed his operations by the Bayous Teche and Atchafalaya. This
expedition was accompanied by four light gunboats, the Calhoun, Clifton,
Arizona, and Estrella, under the command of Lieutenant-Commander A.P.
Cooke, of the latter vessel. The land forces reached Opelousas near the
Teche, sixty miles from Alexandria, on the 20th of April; and the same
day the gunboats took Butte-a-la-Rose, on the Atchafalaya, sixty miles
from Brashear City, a fortified place, mounting two heavy guns. Banks
continued his advance upon Alexandria, and the gunboats pushed on
through the Atchafalaya for the mouth of the Red River.

On the evening of the 1st of May the Arizona arrived where the
Hartford was then lying, bringing with her despatches from Banks to
Farragut, asking his co-operation against Alexandria. The Estrella
coming a few hours later, the admiral sent the two, with the
Albatross, under Lieutenant-Commander John E. Hart, senior officer, up
the Red River on the 3d. The little detachment reached the mouth of
the Black River that afternoon, and there learned that none of the
Confederate reinforcements expected by that stream had as yet passed.
At sunset they anchored thirteen miles below Gordon's Landing. The
next day, at 5 A.M., they again went up the stream, reaching, at 8.40,
the bluff and bend which had been the scene of the capture of the
Queen of the West ten weeks before. When the Albatross, which was
leading, looked out from behind the bluff her people saw a battery
with three casemates, now called Fort De Russey, commanding the river,
covering two river steamers with steam up; alongside one of these was
a flat-boat loaded with a heavy gun, believed to be one of those taken
from the Indianola. Below the battery was a heavy raft, stretching
across the stream and secured by chains to both banks. The Albatross
went at once into action at a distance of five hundred yards, having,
at that distance, to deal not only with the battery but with
sharpshooters sheltered behind cotton barricades on board the
steamers. The ship was much embarrassed by the eddies and the
intricacy of the channel, touching several times; but the fight was
maint