Feb. 7, the Thirty Eighth and the One Hundred and Fifty Sixth marched to the stockade, seven or eight miles from the city; and, on the march back, a scrub-race took place between the two regiments,—molasses versus sour-krout, as the boys called it,—molasses coming in slightly ahead.
March 11, a number of recruits joined the regiment, for the first time in its history; the Department of the Gulf evidently not being in favor among the latter volunteers.
It should have been mentioned before, that the ladies of Cambridge, during the summer, had procured a very handsome silk flag, with the name of the regiment, and the engagements in which it had taken part, inscribed upon it in golden letters. This flag was forwarded to Baton Rouge, and entrusted to the care of the regiment by Major Allen, who read a very eloquent and patriotic letter from the donors, and also read the reply which was to be sent in the name of the regiment. Five more battles were afterward placed upon its stripes.
CHAPTER XI.
The Spring Campaign—Leave Baton Rouge—Port Hudson again—Fort de Russy—Red River Country—Alexandria—Departure of the Army for Shreveport—The Second Division left at Alexandria—Disaster—The Thirty Eighth embark on the Mittie Stephens—Guerilla Attack—Grand Ecore.
THE campaign had already opened on the Red River, with the capture of Fort de Russy by Gen. A. J. Smith; and a batch of three hundred prisoners had been sent to Baton Rouge, and thence to New Orleans. The Seventh and Twenty Second Kentucky Regiments had arrived to garrison the post; and the third brigade daily expected orders to prepare for the field.
On the 21st of March, the ever-welcome face of the paymaster was seen in camp, the regiment receiving two months’ pay; and the next day, the surplus baggage was packed, the campaign coffee and sugar bags made, the detailed men returned to their several companies, the cartridge-boxes filled, and everything made ready to start at a moment’s notice. The regiment had become well accustomed to river-steamers by this time; and, as the regimental baggage had been cut down from its former huge proportions, breaking camp was now a comparatively easy task, consequently, there was but little delay after reaching the levee; and at noon of the 23d, the transport left Baton Rouge, and steamed up the river. Much interest was manifested to see Port Hudson from the river-side; and that place, so famous in the annals of the Thirty Eighth, was reached in time to see the setting sun cast its rays on the glistening musket of the Corps d’Afrique sentinel, who walked his beat on its ramparts. The regiment had now been in front of Port Hudson, and to the rear of it, and on all sides of it, but were never destined to enter its works.
Leaving the Mississippi, the steamer entered the Red River, and, on the afternoon of the 24th, passed Fort de Russy, a grim-looking structure, but now in the hands of its rightful owners; while those two old Mississippi mud-turtles, the Benton and the Essex, lay silently at anchor, pictures of war in repose. The country of the Red River presents a striking contrast to that of the Mississippi. For miles, the traveller sails on, through an almost unbroken forest, the river taking a new turn every few yards. Occasionally a clearing comes in sight, in the centre of which stands a dilapidated building, apparently engaged in a perpetual conflict with the laws of gravitation; a few cattle and long-nosed hogs, and a great many lank dogs, roam about the apology for a garden; while groups of flaxen-headed children peer out of the doorways. It is the country of the poor whites, where labor is considered degrading, where education is unknown, and where Northern enterprise has never penetrated. But the North-western farmer boys have looked on this rich soil; the North-western and the North-eastern lumbermen have felled the tall trees near the river-bank; the mechanics of Massachusetts and New York have seen the field for improved implements in husbandry and in domestic life; and ere many years this distant Southern country will put on a new life, and be the seat of an educated, industrious people.