The expedition marched ten miles into the woods towards
Black river. The Colonel asked me if I would take command of the flanking
column. I said yes. I had been on duty all night, and was pretty tired. The
woods were thick and difficult to pass through. We marched in single file, five
paces apart and five rods from the road. The marching column had a clean
passage, and it gave us good work to keep up, but we did. About three miles in
the woods we ran on to a large cattle pen, made of trees and brush. I suppose
the Texans would call it a “correll.” It was their practice to drive the cattle
from the fort on Black river down into this correll, and when there were no
gunboats in sight swim them across in the night. It appeared they had used it a
long time. Six or seven miles further on we halted at a little clear pond of
water in the woods, took a little lunch, rested a short time, and then started
on the return, halting at a creek. Next day took transports and arrived at “Turkey
Bend” at 7 p. m. Found the officers and men we left at Morganza on guard there,
on a steamboat, with all our baggage, bound for White river, Arkansas.
SOURCE: Abstracted from George G. Smith, Leaves from
a Soldier's Diary, p. 133-4
