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470 Series I Volume XLI-III Serial 85 - Price's Missouri Expedition Part III

Page 470 LOUISIANA AND THE TRANS-MISSISSIPPI. Chapter LIII.

hailed it, and they took me on and put me aboard a steamer, which brought me here. One man escaped with me belonging to the Seventeenth Corps d'Afrique. The other one was left as fireman on a boat. Saw my young master. Think he was a lieutenant. He did not recognize me. His name is T. Woodrow. Lives in La Fourche Parish. Heard soldiers say their army was going to the Arkansas River. I left the boat three weeks ago to-day (September 28).

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

H. N. FRISBIE,

Colonel, Commanding.


HEADQUARTERS POST,
Brashear City, September 29, 1864.

Captain B. B. CAMPBELL,

Assistant Adjutant-General:

In compliance with instructions from you, I sent Major Miller, with 125 men, on the gun-boat Carrabasset, and Captain Wyman, with seventy-five men, on the gun-boat Glide, the men being from my regiment. They located at 5.30 p. m. and dropped our into the stream to wait for the proper hour for starting. The Carrabasset left here at midnight and arrived at the mouth of Pigeon Bayou at 5 a. m. and anchored until 6.30 o'clock, when she crossed the bar and proceeded up to the junction of the bayou with Grand River, where she arrived at ten minutes before 12 m. They did not find any enemy and only heard of a few being in that neighborhood. The advantage guard of cavalry arrived at 6 p. m. and main body at 7.30 o'clock. Landing at Micheltre's plantation, Major Miller got information of the whereabouts of a large quantity of cotton claimed by one Joseph Block, a Jew store-keeper of Opelousas, now in New Orleans, and believing that he was violating orders in reference to trade, he seized it and also three men who were with it. The boat left there at 10 o'clock the next morning and arrived at this post at 11.30 p. m. The major reports that there is about four feet of water on the bar at the mouth of Bayou Pigeon when the tide is in; that the bayou is narrow and crooked, but has from ten to twenty feet of water. Grand River from the junction to Indian Village is full of fallen timber, and it is impossible for any king of a boat to get up. The Glide, with Captain Wyman's command, left here at 4 a. m., entered Bayou Long at 7 a. m., passed up through Belle River into Bayou "Go to Hell," finding plenty of water, but after going up four miles the bayou became so narrow that the boat had to stop. Captain Wyman then took a small boat and went up to Lake Natchez, a distance of three miles, finding three feet of water in the lake. They then returned to this place, arriving at 8.30 a. m. August 28. The captain informs me that he found at Grice's plantation, on Belle River, a large quantity of salt meat and other things that indicated a contraband trade.

Respectfully submitted.

C. L. HARRIS,

Colonel Eleventh Wisconsin Veteran Volunteer Infantry.


HDQRS. MILITARY DIVISION OF WEST MISSISSIPPI,
New Orleans, La., September 29, 1864.

Major General F. STEELE,

Little Rock, Ark.:

Your dispatch to General Reynolds of the 22nd instant has been received. The part of the Nineteenth Corps now on White River will remain and will be subject to your orders. General Reynolds will send


Page 470 LOUISIANA AND THE TRANS-MISSISSIPPI. Chapter LIII.