encountered in the march and the late hour at which our troops gained their position. The enemy was thus enabled to escape with his artillery by the Fort Jesup road to Texas. The main body of the army had moved from Cloutierville at 4.30 a. m. on the 23rd to the river. They drove in the enemy's pickets 3 miles in advance of the river, and formed a line of battle in front of the enemy's position, while General Birge was moving upon the enemy's left flank. The enemy opened with a heavy cannonade from his batteries, which was returned by our artillery with spirit and effect. The fire was continued at intervals during the morning, but the troops were held in reserve for the purpose of forcing the passage of the river at the moment that General Birge commenced his attack on the right. The action lasted trill dark, when the enemy retreated and the heights were occupied by our forces. General A. J. Smith's command had sharp skirmishing with the advance of the enemy in our rear on the 23rd. At 2 o'clock on the morning of the 24th, six guns were fired from the camp of the enemy in the rear. It was interpreted as a signal that they were ready for a combined attack, but the enemy in front had then been driven from the river and the contemplated movement upon our front and rear failed.

During the morning of the 23rd, an effort had been made by a portion of the cavalry under Colonel E. J. Davis to turn the right flank of the enemy's position by crossing the river below the ferry in the direction of Red River, which proved impracticable on account of impassable swamps. A sharp engagement occurred on the morning of the 24th, between the troops of General T. Kilby Smith and the enemy in the rear, which resulted in the repulse of the latter. Our loss was about 50 in this affair. Had the enemy concentrated his forces and fortified his position at Monett's Bluff we could not have forced him from it, and should have been compelled to accept the chances of crossing Red River above Cane River in the presence of the enemy on both sides of the river. Orders had been sent to General Grover to move with all his force upon Monett's Bluff, in the event of its being occupied by the enemy or our march seriously obstructed, and his troops were in readiness for this movement. The army marched from Monett's Bluff on the afternoon of the 24th of April, and established lines of defense at Alexandria on the 25th and 26th April.

In the twenty-four days intervening between the departure of the army from Alexandria and its return the battles of Wilson's Farm, Sabine Cross-Roads, Pleasant Grove, Pleasant Hill, Campi, Monett's Bluff, and several combats in the neighborhood of Grand Ecore, while we ere in occupation of that point, had been fought. In every one of these engagements, except that at Sabine Cross Roads, we had been successful. The failure to accomplish the main object of the expedition was due to other consideration than the actual superiority of the enemy in the field. In these operations, in which my own command had marched by land nearly 400 miles, the total loss sustained was 3,980 men, of whom 289 were killed, 1,541 wounded, and 2,150 missing. A large portion of the latter were captured and have been since exchanged, but a considerable portion returned to the army during its operations on Red River. No loss of artillery or of trains or any army material whatever was sustained, except that which occurred at Sabine Cross-Roads. We lost there Nims' battery and a section of the Missouri Howitzer Battery, 150 wagons, and 800 mules, captured by the enemy-on account of the position of the