Comte de Paris, History of the Civil War in America. Vol. 2.
Henry Coppee , LL.D., Ed.

---

[170] could yet be saved to be conveyed out of the city; the railroad was the only means of transportation left him, for, amid the panic, the steamers, which might have been of assistance to him, had either been burnt or taken away. His artillerists formed a corps of expert gunners. As soon as the evacuation was completed he sent them to Vicksburg with a brigade composed of his best troops. These were the men whom Farragut found in that important position three weeks after, and who, by defending it during a whole month, gave Van Dorn time to come up and protect it against his attacks.

Meanwhile, the news of the departure of the troops had been spread abroad even before Lovell had made his first dispositions for retreat. This greatly increased the confusion. The entire population wandered about the streets greatly excited; some proposed to burn the city to prevent its falling into the hands of the Federals. This proposition, however, was not adopted; but under the pretext of depriving the enemy of the resources which the rich warehouses of the city offered, thousands of vagabonds set to plundering them. Night soon came to favor their depredations—a fearful night for that unfortunate city, exposed alike to the excesses of her own inhabitants and to the attacks of a victorious enemy.

The latter were, in fact, drawing every moment nearer. After the last fight with the Confederate gun-boats, Bailey had ascended the river with the Cayuga as far as the quarantine, and, meeting with the Chalmette regiment under Colonel Trymansky, he had thrown a few shells into his camp; the Confederate soldiers, who had lost all their courage, capitulated without making the least resistance. The possession of the quarantine secured to Farragut a direct communication with the sea through a bayou of the Mississippi accessible to small boats. He immediately advised Butler to avail himself of the opportunity, and to ascend this bayou to land his troops above the forts, so as to invest them completely. Then, leaving a few gun-boats to watch the enemy's ships which he had not been able to destroy, especially the Louisiana, he had resumed his victorious march. On the 25th, toward eleven o'clock in the morning, he cleared an elbow in the river from which is obtained the first glance of the great commercial