The route of march was upon the railroad road-bed which ran through a swampy, thickly-wooded country a greater part of the way. The atmosphere was stifling. The first night was passed at Bayou Ramos, about six miles out from Brashear; the second night upon a plantation beyond Bayou Bœuff, where Corporal Fales and five men came in and surrendered. Starting at four o’clock on the morning of the twenty-ninth, after a march of eighteen miles, the prisoners reached Terrebonne, remaining over night. On the thirtieth they continued on to Thibodeaux and beyond, to remain over night near the La-Fourche railroad bridge. July 1st, after an early start in the morning, while en-route, the men found the hospital in which was Private Woodman, Company B, wounded in the action of June 21st. A halt for the night was made at Raceland, midway between Brashear and Algiers. Very little progress was made the next day as rations had given out, causing a delay until provisions expected from Brashear should be forwarded; meanwhile the men had to get along with what they could forage. July 3d the Federal pickets were found just before reaching Boutte Station—where the advanced troops were stationed charged with the Defences of New Orleans—and the prisoners delivered over to Federal officers.
The Confederate guard attempted to play a sharp trick that night. After turning over their prisoners, with a Texan yell they departed, but not to go far, for they hung around until night, when they made a raid upon the picket-posts. Their design had been suspected and the posts were on the alert, prepared for them; the consequence was that instead of capturing the posts many of them were made prisoners instead, and sent to New Orleans, where they arrived before the paroled men whom they had under guard from Brashear to Boutte.
The duty performed by this Forty-Second detachment, with all the necessary exposure attending it, told upon the men. On their return, July 4th, to Algiers, where they were quartered in the Iron Works building (a very dirty place), receiving poor treatment, most of them were suffering from diarrhœa, dysentery, or chills and fever, some men having a combination of these complaints. Efforts were at once made to have the Forty-Second Regiment men sent to the paroled camp at Bayou Gentilly, which was not accomplished until July 8th.
Sergeant Ballou, with Privates Clark and Fisher, remained at Brashear City five days after the Confederate troops departed, on July 22d, when two Federal gunboats arrived. These men proceeded to New Orleans by water, going into the University Hospital, and then reported to the regiment at Algiers July 28th.
With one dollar and forty cents in his pocket when made prisoner, the sergeant was fortunately enabled to borrow twenty dollars from a soldier of a Connecticut regiment. With this money he was able to subsist until carried to New Orleans, securing board with a German woman, who furnished him with one meal a day for twenty-five cents. Several of the Texan troops took meals at her house, for which she made them pay one dollar a meal. She claimed to be a good, true Unionist, and was not at all backward in saying so. Unlike many of the so-called Southern Unionists with whom the army often came in contact, this woman was as outspoken before Confederates as she was before Federals. She made no attempt to disguise her sentiments.
At Brashear Sergeant Ballou had excellent opportunities to see what was going on. Taylor and his men came down the river to Brashear in five steamboats, except the artillery, which marched overland. They had several batteries; one called the Valverde Battery they considered the best equipped in the Confederate service. They were five days removing contents of railroad cars and other material found at Brashear, carrying the same across the river to Berwick, thence to their various depots. The cars, when emptied, were ran about half a mile out upon the track and set on fire. After the fire was well under way the locomotive La-Fourche, under a full head of steam, was started from the depot and ran into the burning train, jumping some ten feet in the air when it struck.
The spoils obtained by the enemy consisted of heavy cannon and field-guns (about fifteen), small arms, ammunition, tents, baggage, commissary and quartermaster stores, with large medical supplies of great value to them. The colors of the One Hundred and Seventy-Sixth New York Regiment were also lost.
The gift of Brashear City to the enemy, with this valuable property, was without an excuse. There is but one explanation of the failure to properly defend the post: incompetency and cowardice of the senior officers. A determined stand by half the number of the raiding force under Major Hunter would have easily driven them back. Had the naval vessel remained in the river to co-operate whenever an opportunity offered Hunter would not have had easy work in forcing his men to make the attack; many of them declared that if the gunboat had not moved down the river they would not have attempted to get in. This may or may not have proved to be the case. The Texans under Colonel Green, when they attacked Donaldsonville upon the twenty-eighth, were not deterred from it even with three gunboats present, but a defeat was given them there, with severe loss to them.
A repulse of the attack made by Hunter’s raiding party would have given time to decide upon a course of action to be adopted before General Taylor made his appearance. Had it been decided to evacuate, then the train with its valuable load and other property in Brashear could have been destroyed, the garrison, with all sick men able to be moved, could have been taken by water to New Orleans, for ample facilities were at Brashear. On Monday the Hollyhock had brought around from Bayou Bœuff a number of flatboats, which were added to those already at Brashear, then there was the gunboat, the small ferry steamers used to ply across from Brashear to Berwick, with the transport-steamer that was coming up river on the morning of surrender. The flatboats were put in use by the enemy to remove captured property.
The entire force of duty men were nine months’ troops. They were what are termed raw troops, with unseasoned officers. The freshness of troops does not matter so much if they can be officered by men of experience. What fresh troops need most, in action, is to be informed of the situation of affairs, the location of other troops, and general instructions as to what they have got to do, or what is expected of them. Old troops soon acquire the art of finding out all this without being told, understanding that the least danger lies in holding together, face to the enemy, and that a stampede is running headlong into danger.