Adam Badeau, Military history of Ulysses S. Grant from April 1861 to April 1865. Volume 1

Meanwhile, McClernand's advance had arrived at New Carthage, and was watching anxiously the issue of the operation. At first, only the burning fragments of the Henry Clay, and the barge that had been cut loose, came floating down; and an old rebel, on whose—estate McClernand's headquarters were established, was jubilant at what he supposed the defeat of the Yankees. ‘Where are your gunboats now?’ he exclaimed; ‘Vicksburg has put an end to them all;’ and the national officers feared lest his elation might prove well-founded. By daylight, however, the wrecks had all passed by; and, after a while, a gunboat appeared below the bend; and then, a transport; then, one after another, the whole fleet of iron-clads and army steamers hove in sight, from their perilous passage. The ‘Yankees’ now had their turn of rejoicing, and thanked the rebel for teaching them the word. ‘Where are your gunboats now?’ they said. ‘Did Vicksburg put an end to them all?’ But the old man was too much exasperated at the national success, to endure the taunts he had himself provoked, and rushed away in a rage. The next day he set fire to his own house, rather than allow it to shelter his enemies.

His plantation was one of the loveliest in Louisiana; high enough to be secure from inundation, it overlooked the meanderings of the Mississippi for nearly fifty miles; wide savannas teemed with the wealth of the corn and the cotton-plant, while the spacious lawns were clad in all the charms of precocious