A heavy rain-storm set in the next day, Sunday, June 21st, in the afternoon, continuing that day and all night. Some of the negroes were armed, equipped, and organized into a company, by a few of the non-commissioned officers of the Forty-Second detachment. Late in the afternoon Lieutenant-Colonel Duganne collected all the men of his regiment he could and proceeded to Bayou Bœuff, in accordance with an understanding with Major Anthony. Captain Hopkins, with a company Twenty-Third Connecticut, was stationed at Bayou Ramos, six miles from Brashear, to guard the railroad bridge. These dispositions appear to have been foolishly made. They were thus strung seven miles out from Brashear, without any food supply except what could be daily sent to them by cars, instead of concentrating at Brashear, where danger existed, and all of the necessary equipment was on hand for defence and to subsist, if properly applied.[11]
[11] Duganne, on his arrival at the Bœuff, received information from Lieutenant Robens, One Hundred and Seventy-Sixth New York, who was deputy provost-marshal at Tigerville, that a Union fugitive from Alexandria had, on the preceding Thursday, informed him that General Taylor, with fifteen thousand men (how figures do swell as they travel), was moving down the Teche River for a movement upon New Orleans.
When Stickney left for La-Fourche with all of the troops not on duty as guards, pickets, or were straggling, the force of duty men left behind was quite small. When Duganne went to Bayou Bœuff, this force was so reduced that there were in Brashear, on the morning of the twenty-second, the convalescent soldiers, some colored troops, about one hundred men of the One Hundred and Seventy-Sixth New York Infantry and Twenty-First Indiana Artillery Regiments at Fort Buchanan, forty-five men of the Forty-Second Massachusetts at the depot, and various small squads of guards over property. The fort mounted ten heavy siege-guns, for use on the water face only, commanding the rivers Teche and Atchafalaya, from a point above the fort where they make a junction. These guns were of no use whatever to repel a land attack, as they could not be swung around. No attempt was ever made to throw up breastworks to cover the open rear. The only guard against a rear attack was to station pickets in the wooded swamp.
During the twenty-second, the Forty-Second men subsisted as best they could, appropriating provisions found in the depot and vicinity. No orders from any officer were received by Sergeant Ballou, who was in a quandary as to what he should do. The post-commandant had two platform cars arranged with a barricade of railroad sleepers, with two 12 Pr. howitzers mounted upon them. These cars were sent out late in the morning, under command of Lieutenant Stevenson, One Hundred and Seventy-Sixth New York, with a small force of infantry acting as sharpshooters, to reconnoitre upon the railroad. This train returned in about two hours, after proceeding to Terrebonne, three miles from La-Fourche, where the enemy was found tearing up rails, and a few shots exchanged with a battery commanding the track.
About nine o’clock that night, Lieutenant Robens, One Hundred and Seventy-Sixth New York, was sent by Duganne from Bayou Bœuff to report to Major Anthony that a scout had brought in the intelligence of boats seen crossing Lake Pelourde; a movement which threatened both Brashear and the Bœuff, in the rear, but no steps were taken to meet it.[12]
[12] The Confederates, under Major Hunter, started at six P.M. on the twenty-second, in forty-eight skiffs and flats, from the mouth of the Teche, up the Atchafalaya into Grand Lake, where oars were muffled, and then a pull of about eight hours landed them in rear of Brashear City.
Near sunrise on the morning of the twenty-third the four-gun Confederate (Valverde) battery opened fire from Berwick upon the depot building, situated upon the river front with a wharf attached. A few solid shot crashed through that structure, and some shells reached the wharf and convalescent camp. The men under Sergeant Ballou turned out promptly, attempting to silence the battery by opening fire from the railroad wharf, but their Springfield smooth-bore guns would not carry bullets across. The gunboat fired a few rounds and then proceeded down the river without further effort to silence the battery. Some Confederate riflemen, in support of the battery, joined in the fun, blazing away lively, sending some shots well across the water (about eight hundred yards), without inflicting any serious loss. Of the Forty-Second, Sergeant Turner, Company B, had a bullet go through his blouse sleeve at the elbow. An old iron 6 Pr. gun, which was mounted upon the wharf, trained upon the Berwick side, was put into use without effect.
About an hour after this amusement commenced a few men of the One Hundred and Seventy-Sixth New York, under Lieutenant Stevenson, commander of the provost-guard, hauled a 24 Pr. gun, from the river front below, to the depot, and placed it into position, opening a fire with shells, which soon caused the Confederate battery to limber up and get out of the way. At this period there was a mixed assemblage around the depot, composed, in part, of infantry men belonging to the Forty-Second, yet Sergeant Ballou received no orders or instructions. He was ignorant of how matters stood, or the positions of what few troops remained at the post, and as to any knowledge if the post-commandant was in existence an unborn child was as learned.
Not long after this, about six o’clock, Privates Lovell and Redmond, Company A, who were on their regular tour of duty watching the surrounding country from the cupola of the depot building, saw the Confederates dash out from the woods between Fort Buchanan and the convalescent camp. Fort Buchanan was about two miles from the depot, while the camp was about one-quarter of a mile away. Giving the alarm, they joined their comrades below. In not over thirty minutes the enemy was seen coming from the direction of the fort, while some of the convalescent soldiers ran down from their camp at the same moment, shouting: “the rebs are coming!”
Major Sherod Hunter (of Baylor’s Texas Cavalry), with a small force of three hundred and twenty-five Texans (picked men), had got in from the swamps, situated in rear of the tented camps that were between the depot and fort, meeting with a slight resistance. Hunter got through about four o’clock A.M., when, on arrival in view of an imposing display made by the tents of the convalescent camps and those occupied by the One Hundred and Seventy-Sixth New York and Twenty-Third Connecticut, left standing when the men went to La-Fourche and the Bœuff, with all of their baggage in them, including knapsacks, blankets and extra clothing, his men fancied a large army was before them, and fled back to the swamps from whence they came, but Hunter succeeded in rallying them in season to make the attack as stated.[13]