[15] Colonel James P. Major commanded the Second Cavalry Brigade, composed of mounted infantry, artillery and cavalry. His official report, dated June 30th, 1863, does not give the strength of his command, but enough is gleaned from it to know that he had regiments commanded by Colonels W. P. Lane, B. W. Stone, and Joseph Phillip, Colonel C. L. Pyron’s Second Texas Cavalry, and Captain O. J. Semmes’ battery.
Major captured Plaquemine June 18th, was at Bayou Goula at daylight on the nineteenth, at dark sent a force under Colonel Lane through a swamp direct to Thibodeaux, and at midnight followed with the rest of his men, arriving at 3.30 A.M. on the twenty-first. The rest of his report on this action does not agree with the facts.
The men lay around carelessly until afternoon, as it was extremely hot and nothing could be had to eat. Lieutenant-Colonel Stickney, when he left Brashear, did not apprehend any attack on that place for some days, and intended to return as soon as possible. Not hearing from Captain Blober, who had again been ordered to scout and cover the roads about Thibodeaux, about four o’clock he got ready to go back to Brashear upon the same train that brought him. An order was given Lieutenant Tinkham to remain at La-Fourche with his detachment, as a reënforcement to the post; Stickney remarked he did not dare to leave without doing so. Orders had also been received from New Orleans to return two companies infantry to Brashear.
As the men were about to board the cars up rode a cavalry-man in hot haste, with bare breath enough to say, “the rebs are coming, three divisions of them,” and told that they were already at Thibodeaux. Blober’s cavalry detachment came in shortly after, with a loss of two men in a close pursuit by the enemy. With no wish to weaken his force just then, but desirous to increase it, the train was hastily despatched to Terrebonne, three miles distant on the railroad, with orders for Captain Barber, Company K, One Hundred and Seventy-Sixth New York, posted with about sixty men and one piece of artillery in a stockade, to evacuate. The gun and detachment of gunners left for La-Fourche during the morning.
Throughout the morning crowds of colored people kept coming along the road, from the direction of Thibodeaux, with reports that the enemy were coming. Failing to obtain satisfactory news from these people Captain Barber rode to that town to find out the facts, arriving just as the cavalry scouts started for La-Fourche, and with them the captain went. This left young Lieutenant Phœbus W. Lyon, One Hundred and Seventy-Sixth New York, in command, without proper information of what to expect. When the Confederate troopers appeared they did not dare to attack the stockade, as they expected that the field-gun was there. They showed the convenient flag of truce. To the sergeant who was sent out to meet it a demand was made to see the commanding officer. Lieutenant Lyon, alone, went to meet them some three hundred yards from the stockade, and refused their demand for a surrender of the post, when the Confederate commander pulled out a revolver, placed it behind an ear of the lieutenant and demanded that he should go along with him. To the charge of violating a flag of truce by such a demand no attention was paid, and entirely at their mercy Lieutenant Lyon had to go with them, a prisoner of war. The enemy made a feint to charge upon the stockade, and then withdrew some distance. Without molestation the Federal troops embarked upon the train, which arrived shortly after all this occurred, and Lieutenant Lyon had to witness the evacuation, from the woods where he was held, with chagrin.
At Thibodeaux the Confederates captured all the infantry stationed there, also about one hundred men upon plantations in the vicinity (forty-seven men of the Twelfth Maine, with Lieutenants Freeman H. Chase and John W. Dana, convalescents sent by Stickney from Brashear; forty others, also convalescents from Brashear; about ten men Company D, One Hundred and Seventy-Sixth New York; and a few plantation guards). At Terrebonne Captain William H. May, Twenty-Third Connecticut, was taken prisoner.
When the cavalry-man had made his report all of the troops were ordered to “fall in,” and a line of battle was formed. The position taken is described by Lieutenant-Colonel Stickney in his official report as follows: “The levee of the Bayou La-Fourche is about twelve feet high; the railroad crosses the bayou over the top of the levee, nearly in a direction perpendicular to that of the bayou, and is about twelve feet above the level of the surrounding country. For five or six miles to the east of La-Fourche Crossing a carriage-road runs up and down the bayou on both sides close to the levee, passing under the railroad on both sides of the bayou. We were on the east side of the bayou and north of the railroad, our front being parallel with the railroad, extending about one hundred and fifty yards from the levee, and being about two hundred yards from the railroad. From the right of our front I had a line of defence running perpendicular to and resting upon the railroad. I was obliged to have my front farther from the railroad than it otherwise would have been, on account of trees standing, which could not be cut down. The country around was level, affording full play for the artillery, and was covered with tall grass, which I subsequently had cut down, as it concealed, in a measure, movements in our front.
“A detachment of about fifty men of the Twenty-Third Connecticut, under command of Major Miller, was posted in the tall grass on both sides of the road along the levee, lying down, about four hundred and fifty yards in advance of the battle line.
“The remainder of the infantry was drawn up in line, with the right flank in reverse, excepting the company of convalescent men, under Captain Fletcher, Twenty-Sixth Maine, who were posted at the railroad bridge.
“Captain Blober and his cavalry-men were posted so as to guard against the turning of the right flank, with the detachment Forty-Second Massachusetts in their front, and to the rear of the centre of the battle line.