THE BANKS EXPEDITION: Important Operations Up the Bayou Teche; DASHING CAVALRY CHARGE (1/31/1863)

New York Times - Times Machine ^ | 1/31/1863

[Homer_J_Simpson]

LAFOURCHE STATION, Friday, Jan. 16, 1863.

We have just arrived here with Gen. WEITZEL and the larger number of the forces under him, who are encamped at Thibodeaux, near this place, having accompanied them from their successful expedition up the Bayou Teche, in which they destroyed the rebel gunboat Cotton, and sent the enemy skedaddling.

If you have moral courage enough to examine any detailed hydrographical and topographical map of Southern Louisiana, and lose yourself among the labyrinthine intersections of the countless lakes and bayous there represented -- resembling more the plan of a spider's web than any portion of the habitable globe -- you will find the Lafourche Station just where the bayou of that name is crossed by the New-Orleans, Opelousas and Great Western Railroad, which extends, at present, no further than to Brashier City and Berwick's Bay, at the junction of the Atchafalaya River and Lake Palondre.

For the benefit of those of your readers who may not know -- and perhaps there are many such -- anything about these extraordinary bayous, or water-courses, it may be well to state that, although when compared to the mighty Mississippi, they sink to the insignificance of mere streamlets, -- many of them far exceed in volume the river Thames, a very short distance above London, -- and the smallest of them would, in any part of England, be considered a very respectable river.

EXPEDITION UP THE BAYOU TECHE.

Although not positively known, it had been, for some time past, pretty generally rumored that an expedition of some sort was about to take place in the neighborhood of Berwick's Bay, but when of how no one could tell. All that we knew was that the rebels were collecting forces above Donaldsonville, in the neighborhood of Plaquemine,

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Free Republic University, Department of History presents U.S. History, 1861-1865: Seminar and Discussion Forum
The American Civil War, as seen through news reports of the time and later historical accounts

First session: November 21, 2015. Last date to add: May 2025.
Reading: Self-assigned. Recommendations made and welcomed.

Posting history, in reverse order

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Link to previous New York Times thread

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[Homer_J_Simpson]

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The Banks Expedition: Important Operations Up the Bayou Teche – 2-3
Interesting From the South: The Defences of Savannah – 4-5
An Engagement Near Savannah: Probable Success of the Ericsson Monitor Montauk – 5
From the Army of the Potomac: The Officers on General Hooker’s Staff – 5
News from Washington: Progress on the Financial Measures of the Government – 5-6
The Iron-Clads at Sea: Interesting Narrative of the Voyage of the Montauk to Port Royal – 6
The Arrest of the Proprietor of the Philadelphia Evening Journal – 6
Editorial: Does the War Promote a Pro-Slavery Reaction? – 6-7
Editorial: The Monitors at Sea, and in Action – 7
Editorial: Colonizing the Western Indians and Selling Their Lands – 7-8
Editorial: The French in Mexico – 8
General News – 8