Passed the mouth of Cane river at daylight. In the afternoon
we were hailed at a plantation by a man wanting to sell cotton. The bait was a
good one and the prow of the boat was soon pointing to the shore and our erst
while planter walked leisurely up the bluff and took a position under an old
shed on the bank and stood waiting results. Meanwhile Col. Fiske, and the
Captain of the boat stood in conversation on the hurricane deck and at the same
time watching events. I could not read their thoughts but suddenly one of the
wheels stopped and begun to back and if ever I saw a steamboat turn round that
one made the quickest time within my recollection and it did not stop after it
got round either but made good time until we were well out of range of that
boat landing. The getting of the old planter out of harms way probably saved us
from being all cut to pieces, as the bluff was twenty feet high with the levy
ten feet on top of it, behind which the enemy was undoubtedly concealed so that
there would have been no show at all for us. The plan was well laid, if plan it
was, but it did not work. At four p. m., we arrived at Grand Ecore. The First
Louisiana and thirteenth Connecticut Volunteers landed on the left bank
opposite the city. The Shinango got aground in trying to land and we were taken
off by the “Ohio Bell”.
SOURCE: Abstracted from George G. Smith, Leaves from
a Soldier's Diary, p. 94-5
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