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that one could barely pick his way across it, balancing himself on charred and crumbling rafters, just wide enough to pass over singly, or jumping, at imminent risk, from wet and slippery sleeper to wet and slippery sleeper.
Just beyond, the advance-guard encountered the enemy's pickets, and kept up a running fire, driving them before it. The first shot fired (by Corporal Barker, company A) killed the captain of a rebel schooner which, with another vessel, both laden with cotton, was afterward captured and sent to New-Orleans.
That night the men bivouacked on the track, cold, wet, and hungry, and disturbed at intervals by picket-firing, at a point a few miles from Ponchatoula.
At daybreak next morning the march was cautiously resumed, the advance constantly skirmishing with the enemy.
At midday the column emerged from the thickly-wooded marsh into an open tract of country, which the railroad traversed for a mile.
The marsh on each side of the narrow track was still too deep for a man to wade through.
At the further end of this open space commenced a tract of thickly-wooded and comparatively dry land, and here it was found that the enemy had resolved to make a stand.
The woods were filled with their sharp-shooters, and they had obstructed the only approach on the railroad track.
From this barricade and from the trees the enemy kept up a constant fire upon our men, while the latter constructed a barricade, tearing up a portion of the track.
This was the point at which Colonel Smith had been directed to wait Colonel Clark's signal.
At the very same point last summer, while a force of Union troops was advancing, the enemy brought down a piece of artillery on a car, and caused their precipitate retreat with great loss.
Our men on this occasion tore up the track for some distance, in order to prevent a similar occurrence.
Meantime the firing waxed pretty hot, and the enemy, doubtless seeking to gain time, sent out a flag of truce, which invited Col. Smith to a conference with the rebel commander, Lieut.-Colonel Miller, of Mississippi.
A parley ensued, and an interchange of communications between the two commanders with regard to the cotton captured on the schooners--Col. Miller declaring that it was the property of British subjects.
This ended, hostilities were resumed, and Colonel Smith soon after hearing the signal of Col. Clark, advanced with his regiment against the rebel position.
The secessionists waited only long enough to exchange a few shots, and then took refuge in the woods.
The Zouaves clambered over the barricade, and advanced toward Ponchatoula.
None of our men were killed in this skirmish, and only three were wounded, all of them slightly.
The Zouaves now advanced toward the town, and soon learned that Col. Clark, with his forces, after a sharp skirmishing with the enemy, driving them before him, had captured the place.
The conduct of the men in the whole affair was unexceptionable.
That night the weary and hungry soldiers had plenty to eat, and slept in the streets of the village.
The next day the railroad bridges beyond the town having been burned, and every thing valuable to the enemy seized or destroyed, Colonel Clark, in accordance with his instructions, fell back on the line of the railroad, and held it until the fortification at Manchac Pass was so far completed as to render it no longer necessary to interpose troops between it and the enemy.
In withdrawing, the Zouaves brought up the rear, burning the bridges and trestle-work behind them, and yesterday they embarked for the “Parapet” again.
In this necessarily contracted outline of the expedition, I have omitted many details which it is pleasanter to recur to than it was to realize.
The following are the names of the wounded Zouaves: Elias Tucker, James Brady, Joseph Reilly.
As before stated, none of them were much hurt.
The long nights of the bivouac in a Louisiana swamp; the alligators that were killed; the poisonous snakes that came out of the water to visit us; the mosquitoes that worried us; the screech owls that made night hideous; all these are perhaps better imagined than described.
Campaigning in Louisiana in all these little respects is very much more disagreeable than it is in Virginia.
Appended are the official reports of the expedition:
Colonel Clark's report.Manchac Pass, La., March 29, 1863.sir: In compliance with orders of date March twentieth, 1863, I proceeded with my command to Frenier Station, on the morning of the twenty-first, and there bivouacked for the night, assuming command at post. I found four companies, General Nickerson's brigade, at Frenier and De Sair Stations. On Sunday, the twenty-second, at seven A. M., I proceeded with the command to Manchac Pass, leaving about one hundred men to guard the bayou and road in my rear. Arrived at South Manchac Pass at one P. M. same day; at six P. M. four schooners and one small steamer containing five companies of Col. Smith's regiment, One Hundred and Sixty-fifth New-York volunteers, one company of my own regiment, two rifle field-pieces in charge of a detachment of the Ninth Connecticut volunteers, and a launch mounting one rifle, manned by detachment of Ninth Connecticut volunteers, arrived. On the morning of the twenty-third I debarked the One Hundred and Sixty-fifth New-York volunteers, placed one field-piece on the north side of the island, where the railroad bridge crosses the North Pass, and embarked the troops brought by me from Frenier, consisting of the Sixth regiment Michigan volunteers, two small companies One Hundred and Twenty-seventh New-York volunteers, one company Fourteenth Maine, and one company Twenty-fourth Maine volunteers. The embarkation was made in the midst of a terrible storm of wind and rain, which delayed us very much. I now directed Colonel Smith to proceed up the railroad, to within three miles of Ponchatoula, take position, and hold the pass
Captain----:
