THE RETREAT.

AT MIDNIGHT, after the close of the battle, the retreat began. How different from the advance! The 13th Army Corps was literally cut to pieces. The 4th Division was a mere shadow of its former self. The 77th, and some other Regiments, were almost annihilated. With feelings of sadness, mingled with indignation, the shattered remains of that army, turned their faces from the scene of disaster, and began their toilsome march in the direction of the Mississippi. All available means were brought into requisition for the transportation of the wounded. They were mounted on horses and mules, on artillery caissons, on carts and wagons -- in fact on any conveyance which could be pressed into the service. Major Burdett was in command of the Regiment, as he had taken that position on the death of Col. Webb. The boys lost their knapsacks and contents, for they had been unslung and left behind when they moved to the front.
        At 8 o'clock, on the morning of the 9th, the troops were at Pleasant Hill, about twenty miles from the battle field. Here the boys met their old Division Commander, Gen. A. J. Smith. As a handfull of the 77th passed him, he asked, "What Regiment is this?" Some one replied, "The 77th Illinois?" "The 77th Illinois?" exclaimed the old veteran. "I know the 77th. Brave boys, too bad, too bad. You would have gone anywhere if I had said so."
        It was evident at this point that another battle was impending. Gen. Banks, well knowing his own incompetency, or wishing to shift the responsibility of further operations, allowed Gen. Smith to take full command of the troops. The Cavalry had been terribly cut up on the preceding day while protecting the flanks of the army. The horses were maimed and bleeding, but they were now sent to the front to hold in check the advancing columns of an enemy flushed with victory and Louisiana rum. Gen. Smith arranged his forces in three lines, intending to give the rebels a warm reception. The 19th Army Corps formed the first line in the edge of the timber, with an open field to the rear. Across the middle of this field was a second line of troops supporting two guns. The 77th occupied a position just in rear of these guns and near the bank of a small stream, which meandered diagonally across the field. The third line was in the timber south of the field, supporting all the guns which were masked at this point and double shotted.
        With the forces thus disposed and feeling the utmost confidence in their new commander, the men calmly awaited the result. In the meantime, the 13th Army Corps, on account of its enfeebled condition, was sent to guard the wagon-train, having Grand Ecore on Red River, as the objective point.
        About noon the sound of musketry was heard in front. Our Cavalry contested the ground manfully, but fell back as the enemy advanced. It was not long until the battle raged furiously. The earth trembled with the constant discharges of artillery and musketry. The Cavalry was driven back on the 19th Corps, which, in accordance with preconcerted arrangements, fell back on the second line. Full of excitement and confident of success, the enemy emerged from the timber, and entered the open field, shouting and waving the captured flags of the day before. They came on in solid masses, as if determined to crush our columns by mere force of numbers. The second line then gave way in the centre, according to previous instructions, and fell upon their flanks, while the masked batteries in the front, sent such discharges of grape and cannister into their ranks, that they quailed before them. Utterly routed and demoralized they fled from the field, leaving their wounded and artillery in our hands. It was a "Pleasant Hill" for General Smith and his troops, but a very unpleasant one for the victors of the previous day.
        That night the army slept on the field of battle, and followed the line of retreat the next morning. The 13th Corps guarding the fugitive wagon-train, marched nearly all night, in the direction of Grand Ecore, thirty-five miles from Pleasant Hill, where they arrived on the 10th. Here they came under the friendly protection of the gunboats. Other troops arrived the next day. Fortifications were hastily constructed to prepare against another attack, for the enemy, although defeated, was still able to pursue. On the 12th of April there was heavy cannonading up the river. General Gordon, with 4,500 men, had gone in that direction, and the firing was occasioned by an attempt on the part of the rebels, to capture his transports.
        The troops remained at this point until the 22d. At 2 o'clock A.M. Of that day, the forward, or rather the backward, movement, was resumed. The 19th Corps was in front, the 13th in the centre, while the 16th and 17th brought up the rear. When they arrived at Kane River, they found the enemy entrenched on a bluff on the south bank of the river, prepared to dispute the passage of the retreating column. Preparations were at once made for dislodging him from his position, and for an hour or more, there was a lively shelling on the part of our batteries. There had formerly been a bridge at this place, but the rebels had destroyed it, and now it was necessary to build a pontoon for the troops to cross. This was an important point, as it was the nearest and best place at which the train could cross.
        While the shelling was in progress, the 13th Corps and a part of the 19th were ordered up the river about two miles, where they crossed by wading waist deep. After crossing, General Weitzel's Division of the 19th Corps, took the advance. After marching through the timber a mile or two they encountered the enemy's picket. A sharp engagement immediately ensued, during which Weitzel's column charged across an open field in the face of a galling fire. Several of our men fell, but the charge was successful. While this was going on, the rebels came down like an avalanche on General Smith; but he was not caught napping. With his usual intrepidity he hurled his column against the enemy, and the result was not long in doubt. Weitzel in front and Smith in the rear, both hard fighters and each doing his appropriate work, the rebels were defeated and the victory of Kane River was decisive and complete. The army then pursued the toilsome march, harrassed more or less every day until the 25th, when they reached their old camp at Alexandria.
        While here, General John A. McClernand came up the river. The 13th Army Corps, which he had so often led to victory, but which was now a mere wreck, was formed in line to welcome and salute him. The boys were glad to see him again, and only wished that they could once more be transferred to his command.
        On the morning of the 28th the Division was inspected, after which they stacked arms and received forty rounds of ammunition. This looked like business again. In the afternoon the troops left their entrenchments and moved to the front. Fighting was heard in the distance, the enemy having assailed our pickets. The line advanced about a mile, when, without bringing on a general engagement, it gradually retired and fell back into the trenches. General McClernand was in command at that time, and as he and General A. J. Smith passed along the line of the 13th Corps, they were loudly cheered.
        The army remained at Alexandria until near the middle of May. The detention was caused by the fact that the river had fallen so much since the boats passed above the rapids that they could not return. It was feared at one time they would have to be blown up and abandoned; but Colonel Baily, of Wisconsin, came to the rescue. By constructing a dam across the river, and confining the water within a narrow channel, he succeeded in extricating the gunboats and transports, and bringing them safely over the rapids.
        Two or three days after leaving Alexandria they reached the village of Marksville. At this place an artillery duel was engaged in by the batteries of the contending forces. It was an almost constant boom of artillery until noon, when the firing ceased. After passing through the town our column turned to the south, passing over a beautiful prairie. Skirting this prairie there was a piece of timber in which the rebels had planted their guns. As soon as the column came upon the prairie the rebel guns opened fire, killing two of our horses. Our batteries soon wheeled into line, firing and then limbering and circling over the prairie, the rebels making the same rapid movement. It was a beautiful sight, but the damage was not great on either side.
        As the army approached the Atchafalaya River, the enemy seemed disposed to dispute the passage of that stream. On the 18th of May they began to close in on our retreating forces. This brought on an engagement, in which the batteries and General Smith's infantry did most of the fighting. Our loss was considerable. About two hundred prisoners fell into our hands. On the 19th the 4th Division moved down to the boats on the Atchafalaya, then down the river two miles, and returned to the boats in the evening. During the day a bridge was constructed across the bows of the boats, and the 19th Corps crossed the river. The next morning the wagon-train went over, and pushed ahead in charge of the 19th Corps. In the afternoon the other troops crossed, the bridge was taken up and the boats started for the Mississippi.
        On the morning of the 21st the troops were gladdened by seeing the great river once more -- the river near which most of their army life had been spent. From the mouth of Red River they marched down the Mississippi, in the direction of Morganza. After marching about four miles, the First Brigade, consisting of the 77th Illinois, 19th Kentucky, 23d Wisconsin and 83d Ohio, together with the 96th Ohio of the Second Brigade, and five hundred Cavalry, were ordered back to the mouth of Red River. In a day or two they started down the river again, and after marching eighteen miles went into camp at Morganza.
        Thus, after these long and weary marches, our troops were again in a place of comparative safety. And what an experience they had passed through! From the opening of the battle of Mansfield on the 8th of April, until now, the rattle of musketry and the boom of artillery had been ringing in their ears almost constantly. They had been harrassed in front, rear and flank by a tireless foe. This was a new and strange experience for our boys. Heretofore, under better management, they had always been the aggressors and always victorious; but now, they were compelled to act on the defensive, and protect themselves in their retreat as best they could. Incompetency, thy name is General Banks!
        On the evening of May 24th the 77th went on board the steamer "Col. Cowles," belonging to the Quartermaster's Department, and the next day they left Morganza and started for Baton Rouge, once the capital of Louisiana, at which place they landed on the morning of the 26th. Their camp was pitched on a grassy plat of ground in the eastern limits of the city. At this place the days came and went with more monotony and less excitement than the Red River campaign had afforded. As the boys were hungry for news, much of the time was spent in reading. The paymaster came and cheered them with two months' pay. Frequent mails came to gladden their hearts. They went fishing and bathing in the Father of Waters. Heavy rains visited them and the loud clap of thunder was substituted for the roar of artillery. Temperance and religious meetings were frequently held by the Chaplains of the different regiments. Some of the boys received furloughs to visit their homes in Illinois.
        One of the sad results of the late campaign is embraced  in the following "Order" from the War Department:

WAR DEPARTMENT,
ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE,
WASHINGTON, June 11, 1864.

General Orders, No. 210.

        By direction of the President, the 13th Army Corps is temporarily discontinued. The General Commanding Division of West Mississippi will assign the troops of this Corps.
        By order of the Secretary of War.

E. D. TOWNSEND,
Assistant Adjutant General.

        And so the "Old Thirteenth" ceased to exist, for the time being, at least. It was a sad day for the members of that organization when this intelligence was received. But their past history could not be obliterated by a "General Order." When they remembered the palmy days of the 13th Army Corps -- when McClernand was chief, and Smith, Carr, Osterhaus and Hovey were his able Lieutenants -- when Landram and Burbridge and others well known were his Brigade Commanders, they felt like exclaiming: "How are the mighty fallen and the weapons of war perished."
        On the 17th of June, before the foregoing order of discontinuance was received, the 77th was transferred to the Second Brigade, Colonel Grier Commanding. But this arrangement did not continue long, for in a few days the Regiment was again transferred, this time to the Third Brigade, Third Division, 19th Army Corps, and the boys inquired "What next?"
        The 77th remained at Baton Rouge until the 20th of July, when they embarked on the ocean steamer "Tamaulipas" and were soon on the way to their old base of operations at New Orleans. Other troops were concentrating at this point, having been relieved along the river by the "hundred-dazers." It was very evident that another "objective point" had been selected, and the boys expected soon to get an invitation to the picnic.
        On the 24th, Chaplain McCulloch, who had been captured at Mansfield, returned to the Regiment from Camp Ford. He looked as though he had been on short rations for some time. He reported that the boys in prison were doing as well as could be expected under the circumstances.
        At two o'clock on the morning of the 26th the Regiment received orders to embark on the steamer "Alice Vivian" at daylight, which they did. The Second Brigade had already embarked and gone up the river. It was understood that the 77th Illinois, 83d and 96th Ohio, of the Third Brigade, were to follow; but soon after going on board orders came for them to wait for further orders. The 77th and 96th returned to camp, the 83d remaining at the river. Colonel Moore, Commanding the Brigade, had probably misunderstood the order. When the boys returned to camp they found that the camp wreckers had been there. They had carried off boards, bedding and everything else, so that the place presented a sorry appearance.
        On the 28th the Regiment turned over their Enfield rifles which they had carried so long, and were armed with Springfields. The next day they were ordered to turn over all surplus baggage and prepare for the coming campaign. About this time a scene was enacted which was not on the regular programme. The 3d Maryland Cavalry, which was composed partly of deserters from the rebel army, was dismounted and ordered to take guns as infantry. Four of the companies refused to comply with the order. The 67th Indiana was ordered out to quell the mutiny. The companies refusing to comply were put under arrest. A strong guard was also sent from the 77th with very stringent orders. There is a convincing logic in the argument of bayonets. The mutinous Marylanders soon found this out and were glad to return to their duty.