and obstructions were placed in the river. The Such was the condition of affairs when Genposition of the land defenses, flanked by an im-eral Banks undertook a second expedition up penetrable swamp, was such as to prevent a successful attack by the national infantry. And after a brief but gallant engagement the fleet were compelled to fall back. One principal object of their expedition, however, was accomplished. For the rebels, fearing that another attack might prove more successful, and determined not to allow their gun-boat to fall into the hands of their antagonists, applied the torch to the steamer, and floated her down toward the national fleet, one sheet of flame. Satisfied for the present with this measure of success, General Weitzel retired to Thibodeaux, near the Opelousas River, which he made his head-quarters. the Bayou Teche. Early in April he rendezvoused his forces at Brashear City. They were organized in two divisions, one under the command of General Emory, the other commanded by General Grover. General Banks accompa nied the expedition in person. The rebels had already provided a strong line of intrenchments near Franklin. A palisade of piles and earth, three feet high, protected by a natural ditch or bayou, extended for several miles from the lake on the east, across the Teche River, to impassable swampy woods on the west. The passage of the river itself was most effectually obstructed by the rebels; while the lake and swamp prevented any flank movement. The position was a strong one, and easily defended by a small number against a vastly superior force. General Banks sent General Grover with his division to effect a landing on the shore of the lake in the rear of these works, while he advanced upon them in front with General Emory's division. The movement proved successful. General Grover's landing was in vain resisted. After a brief engagement the enemy were routed and compelled to take refuge in the woods and canes. Advancing upon them, General Grover drove them before him until he had nearly reached the bank of the river. Meanwhile Generals Banks and Emory advanced directly upon the rebels by land from Brashear City. Their advance was hotly but vainly contested by the rebels, who gradually fell back to their breast-works. The successes of General Grover had rendered these untenable, and at length, on the 14th of April, after three days of fighting, the enemy abandoned their position altogether, and beat a hasty retreat. Two of their gun-boats and three transports they destroyed to prevent their falling into the Federal hands. One other was destroyed by the Union gun-boats after a hot engagement on the lake. In this battle General Banks shared all the dangers of the front in common with his soldiers. At one time he and his staff became a mark for the guns of a rebel gun-boat. One or two shells having struck near them, General Banks ordered them to disperse, and rode slowly away himself toward another part of the field. A correspondent present felt inclined to condemn his bravado. "I expected to see them gallop off at doublequick," said he; "but what was my surprise when I saw them walking their horses as if they were going to a funeral!" The result proved the superior judgment of the General. In a few minutes a shell from the boat, well-aimed, struck the ground half a mile distant, just about where he would have been had he galloped instead of walking away from the scene of danger. Curiosity is sometimes stronger than fear. At one period in the engagement a part of the infantry lay concealed upon the ground while a skirmish line was thrown out in advance. The shot and shell were whistling over their heads. Any head exposed became straightway a target for the enemy's batteries. But it was impossible to lie still, ignorant of the events which were transpiring. All along the line heads were raised, one after another, to reconnoitre the field. Some even, in their eagerness, stood upright. The most positive command from the superior officer passed unnoticed. Nor was he able to secure their concealment, till he had threatened to arrest the first man who showed himself to the enemy. The fear of arrest was greater than the fear of shot and shell. The true soldier dreads dishonor more than death. General Banks left the rebels no time to recover from the effects of their disastrous defeat. Reveille at four, breakfast at five, march at six, was the order given the morning after the battle. First Franklin, then Iberia were taken possession of by the Federal forces. In both places were large foundries. So precipitate was the rebel retreat that they had no time to destroy them. Pushing rapidly forward, meeting the enemy again at Bayou Vermilion, and compelling them to fly, passing the vicinity of Grand Coteau, on the 20th of April, eight days after leaving Brashear City, General Banks entered in triumph the city of Opelousas. During this time he had defeated the enemy in a hotly contested battle, taken two thousand prisoners, two transports, and twenty guns, and either destroyed or compelled the destruction of eight transports and three gun-boats. He had effectually protect- iles, and the scene of deeds of daring and desed New Orleans from an attack which the reb-peration, which in the Middle Ages would have els had boastfully threatened, and had obtain- been termed chivalric; but which in the nineed possession of one of the richest regions of teenth century, with truer judgment, we charthe entire South. Quantities of stores and pro-acterize as barbaric. For years it was without visions had also been captured by him. From Opelousas, too, he sent out expeditions into the surrounding country, and on the 7th of May a part of his forces entered Alexandria, which had already the day before surrendered to Admiral Porter, who, operating from above in connection with General Grant, had advanced upon it with his fleet by way of Red River. Hundreds of negroes had flocked to the Union standard during this expedition. The plantations were large, and their owners held many slaves. Soon after his occupation of Opelousas, General Banks issued a proclamation providing for the organization of African troops in regiments of five hundred men. He designed eventually an organization of eighteen regiments. It was to be termed the "Corps d'Afrique." General Banks, after a fortnight's rest, marched east, recrossed the Mississippi River, and commenced operations against Port Hudson. The rebels reoccupied Opelousas. The west bank of the Mississippi swarmed with guerrilla parties, who fired on the passing boats. On the 23d of May Brashear City was recaptured, with 1200 prisoners, sick and well, and a large quantity of stores, by a party of Texans. But the surrender of Vicksburg and Port Hudson left them without the hope of retaining what they had obtained, and by the middle of July the rebels commenced to withdraw again from the Southern Paradise, once more pursued by General Banks's victorious forces. Such, in brief, is the history and result of the Opelousas expedition. TEXAS AND THE TEXAS EXPEDITION. For many years Texas has been the chosen home of An erica's voluntary outlaws and ex any settled government. Both Mexico and the United States claimed it as their territory. The people acknowledged allegiance to neither, nor did they possess any stable government of their own. Their almost sole judiciary was Judge Lynch. Their chief reliance for government was in extemporized vigilance committees. Its condition was like that of the Israelites in the time of the Judges-"every man did that which was right in his own eyes." Its people were like those that gathered about David in the wilderness-"every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented" sought refuge in the wilds of Texas. Horse-thieves, counterfeiters, robbers, murderers-in short, all the vagabonds whose crimes had made the States a dangerous residence sought and found security in this territory. Its condition was such as to invite thither such a population and exclude all others. When the United States bought Louisiana, in 1803, we bought into a quarrel. The boundary line between the French and the Spanish possessions was unsettled. The United States claimed under her purchase to have acquired all the country to the Rio Grande. Spain claimed rights even east of the Sabine River. Where thus each nation claimed the right to govern neither exercised it efficiently. Filibustering expeditions, organized often in the United States, though never by its sanction, entered from time to time this territory, and endeavored to expel the Mexicans and secure an independent government. Of these the most notorious in history is that of the celebrated Aaron Burr. length, in 1819, by treaty between Spain and the United States, the much vexed question of At boundary was apparently settled. Florida was the independence of the State in a brief but brilliant campaign; left the military command of the Lone Star Republic to accept its presidency; proved himself as able and efficient in managing its civil affairs as he had in wielding the sword; represented her subsequently for two successive terms in the Senate of the United States; left the Senate only to be made Governor; and continued, until a short period previous to his death, the most popular, as he certainly was the most able, man which the State contained. ceded to the United States, and all territory west of the Sabine was guaranteed by the United States to Spain. We say apparently. The Southwest did not acquiesce in this treaty; nor did it prevent the continuation of individual revolutionary enterprises. Meanwhile the great fertility of the soil, salubriousness of the climate, and mineral wealth attracted thither a large emigration, in spite of the disadvantages to which we have referred. A French and German population sought and settled in Western Texas. Colonies, chiefly from the Southwestern States, settled in its eastern portion. Land speculations increased this emigration. It It Under Colonel Austin a colony of eight hundred families settled in and about the county which now bears his name. Thus the residents of Texas had very little in common with the government under which they were placed. treated them often with gross injustice. proved itself quite incompetent for their adequate protection. At length, in 1835, after some unsuccessful attempts to secure a better government in the Mexican Republic, they proclaimed their independence, and in a brief but decisive campaign of a few short months secured it. In this campaign the Texan troops were commanded by General Sam Houston, then in the forty-third year of his age, and in the zenith of his fame and power. The life of General Houston is full of romance and adventure. He was born in Vir. ginia, March 2, 1793; taken by his widowed mother to Tennessee while yet a boy; abandoned school because he could not agree with his teacher about his studies; ran away from a store, employment in which was too confining for his tastes; lived among the Indians as an adopted son of one of their chiefs for three years; returned home; entered the army as a private at the age of twenty; earned by his bravery promotions and the lasting friendship of General Jackson, under whom he served; obtained the appointment of Indian agent, in which office he distinguished himself by his zeal in preventing the importation of negroes through Florida, then a Spanish province, into the States; resigned his commission in the army; studied law six months; was forthwith elected prosecuting attorney, and honorably acquitted himself in this position; gained such popularity as to obtain almost without opposition any office the State of Tennessee could give him; was elected, first, Major-General of Militia, then Representative to Congress, then twice Governor of the State; in 1829 separated from his wife, resigned his gubernatorial office, left Tennessee forever to make his home thenceforth with the Indians; proved a faithful and valuable friend to them; accomplished the removal of several Indian agents for fraud; wearied in turn of this half savage life, emigrated to Texas; assumed at once a prominent position in this then nebulous republic as General-in-Chief of all her forces; defeated and captured Santa Anna, and secured The little republic of Texas thus launched, unfurled for its banner the Lone Star. Alone, indeed, it was, and for nine years maintained against the most serious difficulties a struggling and precarious existence until 1845, when it was annexed to the United States, under the administration of President Polk. Neither the population nor the institutions of Texas are homogeneous. The western counties are settled chiefly by French and German emigrants. They are divided into small farms and plantations, and are tilled by free labor. These people are, upon principle, warm opponents of the slave system, with which they possess no sympathy, in which they have no interest. The eastern counties, on the other hand, are settled largely by political and commercial adventurers from the States, chiefly the Southwest. There are but few of them wealthy enough to be large slaveholders, but they are among the most virulent supporters of the system. Except in the wildest counties of Arkansas and Missouri, it would not be easy to find any where a more desperate class than are assembled in some parts of Eastern Texas. Still the number of slaveholders is not large. In 1850, out of a population of 212,592, but 7747 were slaveholders. Most of their slaves were apparently household servants. Only a little over 450 of these slaveholders possessed more than 20 slaves. The general sentiment of the State is sufficiently indicated by the fact that in August, 1859, General Sam Houston, then sixty-six years of age, was triumphantly elected Governor of the State. Southern in birth, education, sympathy, and sentiment, he had nevertheless strongly opposed the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and eloquently defended the petition of the 3000 clergymen of New England against it; and he was the distinctive and outspoken candidate of the Union party. It was upon this record he was chosen Governor. Immediately after the election of President Lincoln in the fall of 1860, both parties in the State of Texas began to take sides. At first it was evident that the Union party were largely in the majority. The Governor was himself entirely opposed to secession. In the western counties of the State the feeling was almost unanimous. Even in the capital strong Union demonstrations were made. An enormous popular meeting was held as late as December. A Union pole was raised, the Stars and Stripes were unfurled, and the national airs were played in the midst of an assemblage the largest which had ever been gathered in the city of Austin. But that same timid inaction which proved so fatal to the Union cause in other States proved equally so here. The Governor, advanced in years, and worn-out by the adventurous life which he had led, longed for repose. Instead of boldly treating treason to the punishment it deserved, he temporized and tampered with it. He would not follow in the lead of fiery South Carolina; but he condemned the imagined invasion of Southern rights by Northern politicians, and demanded a union of the Southern States for their mutual protection. He did not think secession was necessary; but he was clear abolitionism was a crime. He would not call the Legislature together; but he summoned the people to elect delegates to confer in a general Convention with delegates from the other slaveholding States. He would not plunge at once into the vortex of the whirlpool; but he would sail gradually around at the circumference for the purpose of examination. Dreams of past adventure were sometimes enkindled in the bosom that dared not bare itself bravely to the present and inevitable conflict. He hinted at a possible separation of the State, alike from North and South; the conquest by military arms of its ancient enemy Mexico, and the establishment of a new Southwestern Confederacy. Let us not deal uncharitably with the memory of General Houston. His weakness was his greatest fault. The old man of nearly threescore years and ten was unable to sustain the reputation of the hero of forty-two. If General Houston had been ten years younger the rebel leaders in the State would never have dared what they did. He refused to call a Convention. An irresponsible call, signed by sixty-one individuals, was issued. He refused to summon the Legislature. It was summoned to meet by one of its own members. A brave man would have called |
