A detail of twelve men, divided into two squads, under the commands of Lieutenant Tinkham and Orderly-Sergeant J. A. Titus, Company F, were secreted among bushes that bordered upon the road. Accompanied by the two detectives, who pretended to be Confederates, the party appeared about nine o’clock P.M. The detectives waited until their companions had reached the boat, when they gave a pre-arranged signal, responded to by Lieutenant Tinkham shouting the agreed-on command, “Rally on centre,” fired his pistol, and the squads dashed out from their hiding-places with a shout. One detective pretended to be killed, the other was made a prisoner; all in the plan. It was supposed the men who reached the boat would make a hot fight, but they shouted not to fire and they would agree to come in; as there was some delay in doing so, Sergeant Ballou, Company B, asked and received permission to wade out and hurry them up, taking possession and remaining upon the boat until relieved.
Under guard, the prisoners were marched to Captain Cogswell’s headquarters for examination. They proved to be Major Breedlove, a Confederate spy within the lines for nearly three months, Captain Switzer, a Confederate steamboat man, on his way to take command of a gunboat, and three other men. On the person of Captain Switzer was found $3,098.00; $2,800.00 was in one-hundred-dollar Confederate bills, the balance in notes of Louisiana State Banks, located in New Orleans. Relieved of their personal effects, the prisoners were turned over to the provost-marshal of New Orleans, and the property also. They were confined in the Parish prison for several weeks, and then released. Breedlove and Switzer afterwards visited Captain Cogswell to obtain their property.
Later, on the same night, a negro reported men loading a boat on the lake near the “White House.” Sergeant Ballou was sent with a detail of men to the spot, but did not capture any prisoners. The boat was secured, and found to contain boots, shoes, cards for carding cotton, pipes, matches and sundries.
A schooner, under a Confederate flag of truce, conveying one hundred and thirty-three United States soldiers, sailors and marines, captured at Vicksburg, paroled for exchange, arrived on the sixth, accompanied by Confederate Commissioner of Exchange, Colonel Zyminsky. The men were in a sad condition from detention upon the lake by a severe storm, three days without food or water. They were supplied with all of the food at the post, not enough to go around, and some of the men ate raw potatoes, preferring to do so instead of waiting to have them cooked. After a few hours delay sufficient supply for their immediate wants was obtained.
Colonel Zyminsky, a Pole by birth, resided in New Orleans when the war commenced. His wife was then residing in the city, and came out to the post to see him. Captain Cogswell allowed her five minutes to exchange compliments, but that was all the colonel desired, and, in fact, said he did not want to see her anyhow. Zyminsky was a giant, six feet four inches in height, as large everyway in proportion. Such a nose! A pickled blood-beet was pale beside it. He wanted a twelve-gallon demijohn of Louisiana rum more than he did a visit from his wife. He got the visit, but did not get the rum, although he clandestinely ordered it. The demijohn was brought to the wharf, where Cogswell would not allow it to pass, so Colonel Zyminsky went back across the lake very dry.
To northern soldiers all southern scenery, cities and towns, so different in character to what they were accustomed to see North, charmed the eye and senses of those men who had not travelled far away from home, until a thorough acquaintance with any locality where they were stationed produced a desire to get away. After the novelty of being in a new section of country wore off, the men were unanimous in praise of their own sections as the proper place to live, enjoy life while living, and be laid away when dead.
Lakeport was no exception to this first seductive influence. A small village, with a few one-story houses, two hotels that entertained dinner parties from New Orleans, repair shops for the Ponchartrain Railroad, and a school-house was about all there was to it. On Sundays there were many visitors from the city bent on pleasure, as though no war was in progress. The hotels for dinners and bath houses to sport in the lake water were objective points. Occasionally, large numbers of colored men and women came out early on Sunday mornings to witness ceremonies of baptism to a score of both sexes who had joined a church. The religious fervor was always great on such occasions, coupled with antics of voice and body that cannot be described. White-robed negro women would become unmanageable when ducked under, as the boys termed it; if two stout assistants did not lead their religious sisters to where the minister stood and be ready to seize them after baptism for conveyance on shore they would drown. An exhibition of this character once seen can never be forgotten. While on duty at Lakeport, Company F could not complain of a monotonous existence.
Picket duty at the Lake-end Bayou St. John requiring extra attention, ten privates were sent from Gentilly Battery, on the sixth, to reënforce Captain Coburn, and on the ninth, Lieutenant Clifford, Company B, was ordered there to assist the captain, remaining at the post until the twenty-first.
The schooner Hortense was repaired under supervision of Corporal Croome, Company F (an old sailor), who was detailed to command her, with the following crew: Kirkland A. Hawes (an old sailor) was mate; Privates John J. Upham, cook; George M. Roberts, Thomas H. Robinson, George Adams, all of Company F, and Rufus C. Greene, Company G, were seamen. Two picket-boats for night duty were respectively in charge of Corporal George L. Stone, assisted by Privates Charles M. Marsh and John Kraft; Sergeant Hiram Cowan, assisted by Privates Albert W. Cargell and James F. Harlow. These small boats captured many prisoners with contraband goods, in their attempts to cross the lake. The schooner was used for picket duty and to carry supplies to such picket-posts as were stationed on the bayou outlets.
On the fifth, Corporal Rhodes and three privates of Company B, with rations for one week, were detailed to proceed as a guard, on the schooner Concordia, carrying stores and property to Fort Pike and Fort Macomb.