May 27, 1863, The New York Herald
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE.
OPELOUSAS, La., May 2, 1863.
I shall now attempt to give you some slight account of our operations from Brashear City to this place. We left Brashear City April 11. The advance was under General Weitzel, who, after starting up the bay three miles to where it intersects Bayou Teche, had some firing from a sugar house. On the opposite side of Berwick Bay our little earthwork fort fired a few Parrott shells, and Weitzel had no more trouble. He was followed by our division, General Emory, First brigade, Colonel Ingraham, having the advance, followed by the Second brigade, General Paine, and the Third brigade, Colonel Gooding, bringing up the rear. Lieutenant Colonel J. A. Foster, being the general officer of the day, assumed command of the rear guard and prevented stragglers and pillaging. We found our hands quite full. The One- Hundred and Seventy-fifth New York regiment was detached from the brigade and ordered to embark upon a transport. Meanwhile a long line of wagon trains brought up the rear, and thus we all slowly proceeded to Pattersonville, all the way our cavalry skirmishing with the enemy. Meanwhile the One Hundred and Seventy-fifth New York, on the opposite side of the river, was deployed to guard against batteries in the rear of the main body on our side. A long train of pontoon boats followed in the wake of the steamer towing them. They were landed and made a bridge to cross over the little bayous which intersect everything here. Thus the One Hundred and Seventy-fifth was placed upon the main island or strip of land lying between the Bayou Teche and the Atchafalaya. The map here is of little use, as all over we found even our most correct maps entirely at fault. Meanwhile the main body entered Pattersonville and encamped for the night. The next thing was to get in the trains. For hours they slowly defiled, and at night were all safely in their respective brigades. Gen. Weitzel occupied the advance and Gen. Emory’s division guarded the flanks. Pattersonville was considered a conquered city. Here it was that we lost the Diana. Here, too, the people were hearty in their denunciation of everything Union. The soldiers treated them kindly enough; but it was plain it needed but a word to fan a flame which would have led to the greatest excesses. We found plenty of families who seemed to delight at the idea of the reception we were to get when we should try the fortifications we would meet the next day. Meanwhile the officer of the day established his pickets and took a supper with a farmer, who pretended to Union sentiments, where pickets were enlarged. A railroad runs, or is projected to run, from Berwick City to Opelousas, and we followed the line of it. It is graded, but not completed. The regular road generally keeps it in view. In reconnoitering on this road we came upon a rebel picket station. It had a tent, fishing tackle, &c., and a volume of Chaucer. I took the latter, and mounted a rude tower they had made which commanded a view for a long distance. Evidently the pickets were men of refinement and taste.
I hope I may not lose it in a similar manner. Shortly after breakfast the army moved in the same order as before, General Weitzel having the extreme right of the line, General Ingraham, with the First brigade of General Emory, and General Paine, of the Second brigade, with five batteries, and the Second Rhode Island cavalry as the main body, and Colonel Goodney, with the Third brigade, in the reserve. It was the same order all day. On the opposite or north side of the bayou Colonel Bryar, with the One Hundred and Seventy-fifth New York, marched parallel with the main body. Captain Ellis, of this regiment, was deployed far in the advance and opposite General Weitzel’s brigade as skirmishers, and was very hotly engaged all day with the Eighteenth Louisiana infantry. In the afternoon he was so hotly pressed that Lieutenant Geisse, with half of his company, took the bayou side, and Captain Ellis, with the other half, the right, skirting the woods, and Captain McCarty, with Company A, took the centre. Col. Bryan reported that he was too hotly pressed, and the Thirty-first Massachusetts was sent over to support him.
In the afternoon the main army had reached the enemy works, and for half an hour an artillery duel ensued of the fiercest description. The object on our part was to try ere night to feel the enemy’s works and prove their position and strength, so that we could commence the attack understandingly in the morning. The enemy seemed to have field works of an extensive character. In the bayou the rebel gunboat Diana took a very active part, and was plainly seen delivering her fire. At last the firing ceased. During it the balls struck among the reserves, who were ordered to fall back and lie down. The loss on our side was very small. General Banks unexpectedly found himself beyond his extreme advance, and had one of his orderlies shot beside him. This taught us a greater caution. The army bivouacked on the field, and after supping slept as soundly as if in Algiers, our last camp.
Early the next morning the men were aroused, and everybody seemed ready to do his duty. It was pretty well known among the troops that General Grover was getting far in the enemy rear, so that if they were defeated by us we would drive them into his hands.
The enemy had a field about a mile and a half broad, bordered on the north by the bayou and on the south by a thick woods. On the side of the bayou was a large mansion, which the enemy had set on fire the night before to prevent our creeping upon them unperceived. This was in a pretty thick woods.
Immediately beyond this and from the bayou commenced their fortifications, consisting of a breastwork and ditch in front. The ditch was an old plantation ditch enlarged and deepened, and had water in it. It had a large earthwork, called the Star work, which commanded the bayou. This earthwork commencing here ran away across the field to the woods, and entirely concealed by them was a work which was not discovered until late in the day. Behind this work was a line of rifle pits, and still further back was a second line, with a slight ditch. In the rear of this were woods. We were to take these works, commanded by artillery and sharpshooters. The Diana ran up as near us as she dare, but did not come up as near as had been hoped she would. On learning that the left bank would be hotly contested, Colonel Gooding was ordered to take that bank with his entire brigade and hold it, and drive the enemy, not pressing them beyond the lines on the opposite side.
Meanwhile the main body advanced, and soon an artillery duel ensued with varying success. The whole line was engaged in skirmishing, and on the extreme left, as the enemy’s fire seemed very severe, an attempt was made to turn their flank by Col. Ingraham’s brigade, which drew upon them so severe a fire from the masked battery behind the woods as to compel them to retire. The enemy served their guns from every part of their works, and with such rapidity that they seemed to have a much larger battery than they in fact had. The Star fort sent very heavy shot from a pivot thirty-two pound rifled gun. In fact, at dark, but little progress had been made but to drive them up to their intrenchments, and we were ready to attempt to storm them in the morning.
Colonel Gooding, with his brigade, was sent over to the north bank, as above alluded to, by means of the repaired bridge partly destroyed by the rebels. We crossed over with the First Maine battery, and found there the One Hundred and Seventy-fifth New York and Thirty-first Massachusetts, and a squad of cavalry from Capt. Magee’s squadron. These were skirting towards a line of catalpa trees. Beyond the trees was a large field a mile and a half long, having the bayou on one side and a wood on the other. Through it and towards the enemy ran several parallel roads, all smooth. Crossing them were deep plantation ditches and cross roads. At out the middle of it was a tall cane field. Half way up the field and on the bayou was a large sugar house, supposed to be occupied by the enemy. Beyond it and also on the bayou were the smoking ruins of some buildings which had been burned by the enemy the night before. At the further end of the field were the enemy’s field works. Commencing at the bayou, the lines ran all the way across the field, being a breastwork, with a ditch in front, and a few rifle pits in front of it. At each entrance of the road was a small redoubt to guard it, and at the extreme right a large five-sided work, with a deep ditch filled with water. It had, as we afterwards found, a frame for a pivot gun. This work was on the extreme left of the enemy’s works, and was disguised by the bushes and woods. Running parallel with the woods was a plantation ditch, which was enlarged and deepened, and a breastwork, which was enfiladed by the fire from the corner fort. Across this was a small earthwork running into the woods to prevent the rebels being outflanked.
The whole of our force was concealed by the catalpa trees. Colonel Gooding received orders to drive the enemy’s light battery from the field, but not to storm the works. It turned out that there was not any battery outside the works.
The Thirty-first Massachusetts, under Lieutenant Colonel Hopkins was ordered to deploy as skirmishers, and slowly advanced, meeting no enemy until they had passed the line of the sugar house, supported by the Thirty- eighth Massachusetts, Lieutenant Colonel Rodman. Here they were hotly contested by the enemy. When we had pushed them back, Colonel Gooding and his staff rode on the field and examined all the works of the enemy. The Thirty-first Massachusetts having expended its ammunition, it was relieved by the Thirty-eighth Massachusetts.
The dispositions of the brigade were made for the day by the Thirty-eighth Massachusetts advancing and deploying as skirmishers on the left; the Fifty- third Massachusetts slightly in the rear, and at the right of the Thirty-eighth, also deployed as skirmishers, the One Hundred and Fifty-sixth New York, Lieutenant Colonel Sharpe, on the extreme right on the woods, advancing slowly and supported by the cavalry. Between the Thirty-eighth and Fifty-third Massachusetts, one section of the First Maine battery was placed on a road leading to the enemy’s works; one section between the Fifty-third Massachusetts and One Hundred and Fifty-sixth New York; the third section in reserve; the One Hundred and Seventy-fifth New York in reserve to the left and on the rear of the battery; the Thirty-first Massachusetts in reserve and in the rear of the right section of the battery.
A cautious reconnoissance of the sugar factory discovered the fact that there was no enemy in it, and after the usual precautions the entire staff entered the factory with Colonel Gooding and reconnoitered. The enemy’s works were distinctly seen to extend the whole length of the field, and in three places there appeared to be three batteries, but how many pieces was not apparent. In the corner the five sided fort was plainly seen, but appeared to be a lunette. Lieutenant Russell, of the signal corps, was on the top of the roof, signalizing, when suddenly crash came a shot through the roof, making the whole building shake. A few feet below Lieutenant Russell the ball had entered. It was a beautiful line shot, but aimed too low.
Colonel Gooding ordered those in the neighborhood of the factory to leave, with as much ostentation as possible, to prevent the enemy from making it a centre of their shot, as it was very desirable to have the building out of harm in order to have our signals seen. The lines were ordered to advance slowly but surely, the skirmishers in advance, the main body running from plantation ditch to ditch, so as not to be more exposed than necessary. Thus we passed the cane field. The One Hundred and Fifty-sixth New York were pressing the left of the enemy, intending to turn it; and here occurred an example of bravery worthy of mention. The exact position of the enemy on the right, in the woods, was unknown, when a cavalryman offered to advance and draw their fire. Slowly he rode up until almost at the woods, when suddenly a sheet of fire opened upon him. He coolly turned his horse and rode back unharmed. Col. Sharpe now advanced very close to the woods under a terrible fire. So heavy was it that the Thirty-first was ordered to support and press it on. They continued it until near the breastworks, when, with a loud cheer, they carried the works and were enabled to follow the enemy into the woods.
Meanwhile, on the left the Thirty-eighth Massachusetts charged up and drove the enemy on that side in their intrenchments, and were following them up. The Fifty-third Massachusetts was driving them up when darkness came on. An order was received by Col. Gooding to remain where they then were until the next morning. The line of skirmishers became a line of pickets, the main body sleeping on their arms, in the same position they were during the day, intending to renew it in the morning. At this time we had driven them into their intrenchments and taken their works on the right. Our artillery during the day had done a distinguished part. The two sections had kept up a brisk fire of shell and grape all the day, and at night the enemy’s batteries had plainly weakened, although they had eight pieces of twelve-pounders against our six six-pound howitzers: still we had them so well served, and our sharpshooters here kept so hot a fire, as to drive them from the ramparts, and very much to prevent their serving their cannon as sharply as our was served.
The order to keep the men concealed in the plantation ditches made our loss very small. The skirmishers cleared the way, and the regiments would pass forward from one ditch to another on a run. The disposition this made was sufficient to make the enemy apparently in the condition of the unintrenched.
During the day Colonel Gooding and his staff were the only mounted men on the field. Hence they were the most exposed of the brigade, being in plain view during the whole of the fire. The shot and shell whistled in very close proximity to them. Colonel Gooding had several narrow escapes. One shell burst directly over him, scattering the fragments on every side. Fortunately none came directly down on him. Several shots whizzed about us when near him. One shell fired at the staff group went between them. Captain Fordham, Colonel Gooding Adjutant General, rode down along the line of skirmishers, giving them orders, and received a fire from the enemy along the entire line, and yet received no injury. Lieut. Bond tried the same experiment, and with the like result. Lieut. Col. Foster had a similar fire. Singular as it may appear, not a man of us nor a horse was struck. During the evening Colonel Sharpe sent in quantities of prisoners, taken in the intrenchment which he had stormed. From the prisoners we learned that the enemy’s left was the famous Texan Seventh, the well known rangers. They dismounted and left their horses in the woods. They were supported by half of the Furness Battalion (Eighteenth Louisiana). The centre was the Crescent regiment (the Seventh of New Orleans): the other half of the Eighteenth Louisiana, with eight pieces of twelve-pounders. It was the Semmes Pelican battery, the well known battery which boasted it had never suffered defeat. Their right was held by the Thirty-eighth Mississippi and a section of the battery. In fact, we had four regiments, and eight guns, with supposed impregnable intrenchments, to be taken by five regiments, part of them having but seven companies present and six pieces of six-pounders. In fact we were outnumbered, but had outgeneralled them.
Early the next morning, at daybreak, Captain Allen, of Company D, Thirty-first Massachusetts, entered the extreme left of the enemy’s works, and at the same time Colonel Kimball, with the advance of the Fifty-eighth Massachusetts, entered the centre of their works. They were evacuated. The works were found to be stronger than we had anticipated. The left had been turned by the One Hundred and Fifty-sixth New York, and hence were, in fact, untenable. Another hour would have put us in possession of the whole works. We immediately pressed in, and the One Hundred and Fifty-sixth New York appeared on our right as cavalry, so many horses had their skirmishers picked up. Our fire had been very effective here. The dead were lying all about the woods. Their wounded were generally carried off. Where the artillery had been we found a heap of dead horses. Our howitzers had given them a good dose of grape, and it is supposed that their guns must have been quite short of horses. We followed them up through the woods for a mile, when we found the road crossed the bayou. Here the enemy had crossed over, and burned the bridge after crossing, which completely checked our course. We made a temporary bridge for the men to cross, and then rigged up one sufficiently strong for the artillery and wagons. While waiting for this we found what appeared to be a cannon wheel in the bayou. Lieutenant Colonel Foster sent a man in who fastened a rope to the wheel and put in a string of men and drew out a gun caisson for a twelve pounder. It had some ammunition, of course, quite destroyed by water. We took possession of this as a trophy. It was the only thing we had to show in the matter of cannon on our side.
On the opposite side of the bayou General Banks discovered that they had retreated in the night, and entered the works, finding that they had left their thirty-two pounder without spiking it. They had heard that Grover was in their rear, and had retreated, intending to cut through Grover. It seems that Grover, with his divisions in gunboats, had gone up the Atchafalaya and landed near Franklin, and attempted to come down on the enemy’s rear. When coming down they hit upon a party of skirmishers of the enemy. They led one of his brigades into an open field, where they had a woods on either flank and one front. They drew the brigade towards the corner of the two woods, when suddenly they had a terrific fire opened on them in the front and flank, both of musketry and cannon. So hot was it that the loss was between two and three hundred before they could form and fall back. A section of one of our batteries came very near being taken, the enemy getting within sixty yards of it before it could be withdrawn. The remainder of the division came up, and a cannonading was kept up for four hours. The enemy sent off his infantry by a cross road through them, used his artillery until the last, then sent the mass of it by the same cross road, and the cavalry kept up the fight until their army was safe, and then galloped off. In the afternoon General Banks joined General Grover, and in the evening, after building his bridge, and recrossing the river, Colonel Gooding rejoined General Emory, and all encamped at Franklin.
To sum up the whole, General Banks charged their works with vastly superior numbers, marching in column and in fair musketry range, and their fire was so hot he was obliged to give up the attempt and to resort to the slower movement of silencing their fire by artillery. Colonel Gooding, on the north bank, avoiding this trap, used the ditches and drove them out, taking the only works which were taken by a charge, and, turning their left, made the whole line entirely untenable, and compelling an evacuation by night. General Grover, marching in line, fell in a dreadful cross fire, and made his whole engagement but at most holding the enemy in check, when in fact they were then making their escape. General Banks immediately remedied the mistake by making an active pursuit.
The history of the pursuit you are already acquainted with. We pressed the enemy for one hundred and five miles to this place with the entire army, and forty miles further with the advance. The enemy became more and more demoralized, as we advanced, and were taken in scores; so that the total number of prisoners exceeds two thousand. Of the ten thousand we learn that about thirty-five hundred had reached Alexandria. Of the rest five hundred Texas cavalry is all that is left of Sibley’s brigade. Sibley himself is under arrest. The conscripts all have returned home, heartily glad to get off under any pretence, and numbers of the inhabitants are enlisting in our army. The whole Attakapas (pronounced Tuckapaw) country is in our hands. We have seized over a million dollars worth of cotton, which we have shipped to New Orleans, and sugar and molasses in immense quantities. The people are generally very kind unless they are very rich, when we find all the young men gone into the secesh army, and then they are rather bitter; yet they contrive to muzzle their mouths, as they are not altogether free to speak out. Several free spoken were used rather roughly by some of our Yankee boys, and they could not be blamed for it. We found them in a state of starvation, without money, without clothes or food, living on corn and pork, their dresses two years old, the Texans plundering them as they passed along, and now they would pretend that we are not doing them good, at the same time asking us to pay for even a glass of milk at the most exorbitant rates. They all complain of losing their horses and mules; but I explain to them that as by the Confiscation act all their property has become the property of Uncle Sam they are no losers by it. Our dear uncle is merely taking his own. The surrender of this city was rather singular. A deputation of the citizens waited upon General Banks and surrendered the city, stating that they demanded the protection of the American flag. As citizens of the United States they received it; but the whole circumstances seemed so unlike what we should have expected from an enemy’s capital that we did not hardly credit it at first. I presume we shall take Shreveport, their last capital. We have three of their four.
While our army has been thus successful our fleet was not idle. Immediately on our arrival at Franklin we started for the Diana; but they blew her up, and the Clifton reached the iron-clad ram Hart, at New Iberia, in time to see her burning up. However, we are in hopes of saving her, as she was but partly destroyed.
The rest of the fleet took the Atchafalaya (pronounced Chafly), where the Queen of the West gave fight. The ram Arizona gave her a volley, and the first shell burst in her bows, setting her on fire. The sharp fire the Arizona gave her prevented her extinguishing the flames, and she burned to her magazine, when she exploded. Her captain (Porter) is a prisoner. Our next point was to take Butte la Rose, a little fort, built very strong, at the junction of two bayous. It stood fifteen minutes’ firing and then surrendered. It is a splendid little fort; had three guns and one company, all of whom surrendered.
The next day the fleet entered the bayou and took or destroyed all the boats and steamers they could find, to the number of about thirty, and connected with us at Washington, five miles above us and Barry’s Landing, eight miles east of us. I understand that now that Grant and Banks have united their fleets we are to march over to the Mississippi, and, with twenty thousand additional men from General Grant united to our army, to attempt the taking of Port Hudson. If we succeed we will have an easy time with Vicksburg. I do not know the exact disposition we are to make; but I presume we will go above Port Hudson and come down. Our own gunboat fleet is by no means very small, but with a slight addition in the form of six iron-clads from Vicksburg can enable us to hold our own. I am very thankful for my safety thus far. Lieutenant Colonel J. A. Foster joined the staff of Colonel Gooding on the morning of the 12th, and remains with him still, and will for the present. The One Hundred and Seventy-fifth regiment is at the city of Franklin, doing provost duty. They will stay there for the present.
SKETCH OF COLONEL GOODING.
Colonel Gooding, who commanded the Third brigade and fought the battle of Bisland, on the north bank of the Teche, was born in the village of Moscow, Ind., was a graduate from West Point in the class of 1858, was appointed brevet second lieutenant of the Fourth infantry, and promoted second lieutenant of the Tenth infantry the next year; promoted first lieutenant of Tenth infantry, May 7, 1861, and captain, June 27, 1862. In the fall of 1861 a regiment was raised in Massachusetts, known as the Western Bay State regiment, to accompany the expedition then about fitting out for General Butler. As it was outside of the State organizations the War Department was requested to nominate a suitable officer of the regular army to command it, and Colonel Gooding was named and duly commissioned as its colonel. The regiment then numbered three hundred and seventeen men; preceded to New Orleans and participated in the memorable taking of that city by General Butler. Colonel Gooding for a long time had the command of the forts on the Mississippi river, and brought the regiment almost; if not quite, to the discipline of regulars. Owing to misunderstandings with General Butler he was not suffered to participate in any of the efforts of that general to open the Mississippi, and he remained with his regiment, in detached fragments, until the recall of General Butler and General Banks coming. General Banks immediately recognized his talent, and he was put in command of the Third brigade of General Emory division, which position he now occupies. His first effort, with the enemy, at the battle of Bisland, displayed his military talent. There, with a single brigade, he attacked equal if not superior numbers, in very strong intrenchments, and drove them in and turned their flanks driving before him the famous Texan brigade, and by his skilful arrangements actually suffered far less than the enemy. Night and the peremptory orders of General Banks prevented his making his victory complete by taking the entire works and capturing their forces. We predict a brilliant career to Colonel Gooding. He deserves and undoubtedly will win himself rapid promotion.