This point was also my headquarters with the Tyler; and as I happened to be there at the time, I made an official call upon General Canby, which he returned, and he afterward dined with me on board my ship.
In this way I came to know that a movement of our army up the White River in force was contemplated, with a view of flanking General Dick Taylor and thus retrieving, if possible, the laurels lost in the unfortunate campaign up the Atchafalaya earlier in the season.
General Canby, was very anxious to make a personal reconnaissance of the White River. So, at his request, I dispatched the Hastings up the river with the general and his staff on the morning of November 3, that he might obtain a clear idea of the proposed field of operations.
All went well with the expedition until the following day, when, in passing close in to the bank at a bend in the river, a concealed guerrilla fired at the general, who was seated on a camp-stool on the upper deck of the boat, and wounded him very severely in the thigh.
Our steamer at once opened fire upon the bushwhacker, but he escaped into the adjoining woods, evidently uninjured. As the general was found to be suffering severely from his wound and the surgeon was unable to extract the ball, Captain Rogers very properly decided to return at once to White River station.
Upon the arrival of the Hastings a consultation of army surgeons was held on board, and it was their unanimous opinion that the general could not be moved with safety, and that he must be sent down to New Orleans at once.
Accordingly General Maginnis came to me and expressed an earnest desire to have the Hastings sent down the river.
This was clearly beyond my authority, as the limits of our division only extended to Natchez, and from there to New Orleans the river was in charge of vessels of another squadron. But realizing the exigency, I first obtained an official requisition from General Maginnis, and then, severing the red tape, sent the Hastings off with the sorely wounded officer on my own responsibility.
After several months General Canby recovered and wrote me a very charming note from New Orleans acknowledging what he was pleased to call my courtesy, and in due time the Navy Department, with much less warmth, also acknowledged my official report of what I had done and condoned my unwarranted assumption of authority in consideration of the circumstances. So every one was satisfied excepting Captain Rogers. That gentleman, however, seemed to feel himself personally aggrieved in having had his steamer bushwhacked, and nothing would satisfy him but an attempt at retaliation.
A Union scout, who had been on a mission up the White River lately, came into our camp, and from him we learned that the cowardly shot that wounded General Canby had been fired by a man named Kane, who lived near by the point where he had bushwhacked our steamer. Graves said that Kane boasted of having shot the general, and the scout informed us that his house was the headquarters for all the guerrillas of the neighborhood, who were but little better than robbers, as they were largely Confederate deserters, and preyed upon their own people as well as upon the “Yanks,” as we were called.