pronounced against the plan as utterly impracticable, Admiral Porter saw that the project was feasible, and requested General Banks to have the attempt made. Three thousand men and two or three hundred wagons were immediately set to work; two or three regiments of Maine men began to fell trees; all the neighboring steam mills were torn down for materials; flat-boats were built to bring down stones from above, and every one entered heartily into the undertaking, though many had little faith in its success, the falls being a mile in length over a bed of rugged rocks, and six hundred feet wide from bank to bank, the current running nine miles an hour.

The work was commenced by running out three hundred feet from the left bank a dam made of the trunks of large trees, brush, brick, and stone, cross-tied with heavy timber, and strengthened in every possible way. Four large coal barges filled with brick were sunk at the end of it. From the right bank cribs filled with stone were built out to meet the barges. The dam had nearly reached completion in eight days, and the water had risen sufficiently on the upper falls to enable the Fort Hindman, Osage, and Neosho to move down and be held in readiness to pass the dam. In another day all the vessels might have done the same. On the morning of the 9th, however, the pressure of the water increasing with its rise, two of the stone barges were swept away. The water began to fall again rapidly, and the Lexington, lying above the upper falls,

was ordered to pass them immediately, if possible, and make the attempt to go through the gap in the dam. The Lexington succeeded in getting over the falls, and steered under a full head of steam directly for the opening in the dam, through which the water was rushing furiously, rolled, hung for a May moment on the rocks, and then, 9. swept into deep water by the current, rounded to safely amid the cheers of thirty thousand spectators. The Neosho followed, but did not fare so well as the Lexington, her pilot having become frightened. She disappeared for a moment under water, and it was thought she was lost. She rose, however, and was found to have received but slight injury. The Fort Hindman and Osage also got over safely.

Three days later, Colonel Bailey had succeeded in repairing the dam, so that by the 12th of May the remaining six vessels were got through safely, in the presence and amid the cheers of all the troops. For his important services on this occasion, Lieutenant-Colonel Bailey was voted thanks and a medal by Congress, and was made a brigadier-general.

A further difficulty anticipated in crossing bars in the lower part of the river, where the depth of water was reported as being only five feet, was fortunately obviated by a rise in the Mississippi, which caused a back-water of several feet in the Red River.

Alexandria was evacuated on the 13th. About ten in the morning, fires broke out in several places at once, and spreading with great rapidity, in spite of

the utmost efforts of Generals Banks and Smith, consumed a large part of the town. To add to the distress of the inhabitants, the protection which had been guaranteed to them by General Banks was about being withdrawn. Many of the citizens had entered the Federal service, and had been sent off toward Simmsport. Their wives and children, now helpless and homeless, begged in vain for passage in the transports to New Orleans.

The army and fleet both began to arrive at Simmsport on the 16th. On the next day the Atchafalaya was bridged by means of twenty-two steamboats lashed together side by side, and by the night of the 20th the last of the division of General Smith, who brought up the rear, had passed over. Some opposition, easily overcome, was met with on the march to the Mississippi. General Banks with his troops returned to New Orleans, and was soon afterward superseded by Major-General Canby in the command of the Trans-Mississippi Department. The fleet resumed its station on the Mississippi.

The withdrawal of the army of General Banks from the Red River country left the Confederate forces, amounting to about twenty-five thousand men, at liberty to march into Arkansas, where General Steele, in accordance with the general plan of the campaign, had been operating in the endeavor to reach Shreveport, and unite there with the forces of Generals Banks and Smith.

General Steele, in command of the seventh army corps, left Little Rock on

the 23d of March, with a force, of twelve thousand infantry, and three thousand cavalry under General Carr. General Thayer, with the Army of the Frontier, consisting of about five thousand men, advanced on the 24th from Fort Smith, on the Arkansas, opposite Van Buren, with the intention of forming a junction with General Steele, and about the same time Colonel Clayton, with a small force, left Pine Bluff, on the south bank of the Arkansas, forty miles southsoutheast of Little Rock, on an expedition against Mount Elba and Longview, on the Saline. It was intended that the commands of Generals Steele and Thayer should unite at Camden, on the south bank of the Washita, eighty-seven miles south by west of Little Rock and about ninety-six miles north-northeast of Shreveport, and at the head of navigation on the Washita, which flows southsoutheast to the Red River, and which might therefore afford a means of communication with the forces in Louisiana.

The main body of the Confederate forces in Arkansas opposed to General Steele consisted of about twelve thousand men under General Price, who held a line extending from Camden to Washington, in Hampstead County, about forty miles west of Camden. On the 14th of April, General Steele had advanced as far as the Little Missouri, sixteen miles west of Camden, when he encountered a column of cavalry under General Marmaduke, and on the 16th was joined by General Thayer. In order to conceal his real object, which was the capture of Camden and to draw off the enemy

from the defence of that place, which was well fortified, General Steele crossed the Little Missouri and advanced some distance on the Shreveport road, passing the point at which it is intersected by the road leading to Camden. Acting on the belief that he was marching for Shreveport, the Confederates took up a strong position in advance of Steele on the Shreveport road. From this they were driven by a flank movement, and pursued for some distance, when General Steele turned suddenly and marched directly for Camden, pursued and harassed by the cavalry of the enemy, who, having discovered their error, hoped to detain the Federal troops long enough to permit their own infantry to regain the town. In this, however, they were disappointed; General Steele succeeded in getting possession of Camden.

Colonel Clayton's expedition from Pine Bluff to Mount Elba, on the north bank of the Saline River, twenty-five miles south, was successful; he destroyed the pontoon bridges at Longview, sixty miles south; burnt a train of thirty-five wagons loaded with camp and garrison equipments, ammunition, stores, etc., and took over three hundred prisoners; routed General Docking at Mount Elba, with twelve hundred men from Monticello, pursued him ten miles, and took many wagons, three hundred horses and mules, and two colors.

As soon as General Steele received information of the ill success of General Banks, he became aware that his own position was full of danger, and made preparations for a retrograde march to

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Little Rock. On the day following his occupation of Camden, a Confederate force appeared six miles to the south. A body of the enemy's cavalry crossed the Washita thirty miles below, and began to intercept his supplies. Trees were felled and thrown across the stream. A foraging party, sent out by General Steele on the 21st to a point sixteen miles west, with a hundred and fifty wagons and an escort of nearly a thou sand men, were attacked at Poison Spring, twelve miles west of Camden, on their return, and after a fight of several hours' duration, lost all the wagons, four guns, and two hundred and fifty men.

Another train, of two hundred and fifty wagons and six ambulances, with an escort of two hundred cavalry and twelve hundred infantry under Lieutenant-Colonel Drake, sent on the 23d of April to Pine Bluff for supplies, was attacked on the 25th, within six miles of the Saline River, by a force of Confederate cavalry under General Fagan, and captured, together with nearly the entire escort and four brass guns; two hundred and fifty men being killed or wounded, as well as most of the officers.

Under these circumstances General Steele determined to evacuate Camden at once. Before daylight on the 27th of April, the army crossed to the north side of the Washita and pushed forward as rapidly as the ill condition of the roads would permit; on the 28th encamped at Princeton Crossing, and on the next day at Salines Crossing. During the night the enemy were found to

be immediately in the rear, and General Steele made preparations to withstand the attack of a large force. Heavy rain, the badness of the roads, and the darkness made the crossing of the Saline impracticable during the night. The pontoon bridge, however, was laid and a few troops passed over, the great body encamping on the bottom land by the river. In the morning heavy rain still poured down. Soon after daylight skirmishing began in the rear, quickly followed by a general engagement, in which were united, on the part of the enemy, all their forces in southwestern Arkansas, with some from Louisiana, commanded by Generals Kirby Smith, Price, Churchill, Walker, and others. On the side of the Federals the commands engaged were those of Generals Saloman, Thayer, Rice, Ingleman, and Colonel Benton.

The contest lasted about seven hours, April and resulted in the repulse of the

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enemy, though with a loss to the Federals of seven hundred killed and wounded; notwithstanding which several colors were captured, besides three pieces of artillery. The Confederate forces also sustained severe losses. General Steele secured a safe retreat to Little Rock, and arrived at that point on the 2d of May. The Federal posts held within the State were successively surrendered, except Little Rock, Pine Bluff, Duvall's Bluff, and Fort Smith. An opportunity was thus afforded, by the gradual withdrawal of the Federal troops, for the invasion of Missouri by General Price.

The absence from Mississippi and West Tennessee of a large part of the

forces of General Sherman, withdrawn to take part in the Red River expedition, left the rebel forces in those States at liberty to concentrate and move north into Kentucky, for the purpose of surprising the Federal posts there as well as in West Tennessee. as in West Tennessee. On the 23d of March, General Forrest having gathered a force of about five thousand men at Jackson Station, seventy-five miles eastnortheast of Memphis, on the railroad leading north to Columbus, moved rapidly toward Union City, also on the railroad, and fifty-six miles north of Jackson, and from which branch railroads extend to Hickman on the Mississippi and to Paducah on the Ohio. The garrison of Union City consisted of four hundred and fifty men of the Eleventh Tennessee Cavalry, under the command of Colonel Hawkins. After several ineffectual attempts upon the works, Forrest, whose time was precious, demanded a surrender, threatening bombardment as the alternative. General Brayman was in the mean time marching from Cairo with a large force to the relief of the garrison, and had arrived on the 24th within six miles of the town, when Colonel Hawkins, against the wishes of the officers and soldiers, surrendered, only one man having been wounded in the defence. General Brayman then retired.

General Forrest, immediately after the surrender of Union City, took possession of Hickman, ten miles northwest. Then continuing his march rapidly northeast, appeared on the afternoon of the 25th of March before Paducah, at the confluence of the Tennessee with the