May 29th. Early this morning the Brooklyn, with her attendants, arrived from up the river, when the Flag Officer ordered the troops, fifteen hundred in number, ashore to watch the city, while we broke out of our ship’s hold nearly all of our provisions for their use. At ten o’clock the Brooklyn got under way for New Orleans, and we soon followed, leaving two gunboats to guard the place by water. We anchored at night as usual, and on the morning had the misfortune to lose our anchor by the parting of the chain. We got under way early, and reached New Orleans a little after noon, where we found a display of shipping not unlike the happiest days of the Crescent City.
There were some half dozen men-of-war here, also the U. S. mail packet Ocean Queen, a large and splendid ship; also the U. S. transport Connecticut, with a mail for us, and a large number of transports and merchantmen lining the levee, while the merchant steamers flying about the river created a lively and pleasing appearance. On this passage, Quartermaster Donnelly died of apoplexy, induced by the heat of the sun and season, being the second case from the same cause. We lay here for more than a week, during which time steamships were constantly arriving from the North, bringing mails, dispatches, &c., and a corresponding number departed, among them the U. S. sloop-of-war Dacotah.