Section Xiv.--in The Teche Coun-try--louisiana

tseiore the war, what was knowii a3 the New Orleans, Opelousas & Western railroad was completed irom Algiers on the Mississippi opposite New Orleans, to Brashear City, eighty miles west of the former place. The railway was projected further west, however, through a rich and beautiful section lying on Bayou Teche, known as the Teche country. Here, irom all the fertile lands tributary to Bayou Teche, was produced vast quantities of sugar till the breaking out of the war paralyzed this industry. From the inception of the rebell ion till the beginning of 1863, this fertile región was held by the Confedérate. About the middle of January, 1863, General Weitzel led an expedition from Brashear City into the Teche country. He was accompanied by a squadron of gunboats under Commodore Buchanan. Kear Patr tersonville the bayou wa3 obstructed by torpedoes, a sunken steamboat and an earthwork, Fort Bisland; just above was the Confedérate eunboat J. A. Cotton. A sharp fight ensued in which Commadore Buchanan lost his life - a ball from a Confedérate sharpshooter having passed through his head. But the infantry got in the rear of the Confedérate works and these wero soon abandoned. The following night the Confedérate gunboat CotUm was deserted and set on flre. With this success the expedition of General Weitzel returned to Brashear City. About April 10, 1863, another expedition was sent up Bayou Teche. General Richard Taylor (a son of President Zaohariah Taylor) was in command of the Confedérate forces. He made a stand at Fort Bisland, but General Emory engaged his attention in front while General Grover was striving to get in his rear. The Federáis failed in capturing the Confederates, but caused them to abandon the Teche country so hastily that they were compelled to set fire to several transports laden with stores at New Ibenia on Bayou Teche, also to an uniinished gunboat. April 20, General Banks entered Opelousas and General Taylor retreated beyond Vermillion Bayou. Later General Banks occupied Alexandria and from there ad vaneed to Port Hudson, which place ha invested about ilay 24, 1863, and six weeks afterwards, captured. The writer's regiment, having reached Algiers opposite New Orleans by steamboat, debarked (October 4, 1863,) and took the cars for Brashear City on the New Orleans, Opelousas & Western railroad. The train was made up of open flat cars, and when in motion over a rough roadway much care had to be exercised, lest soma of the men would f all overboard. The start was made early in the morning. The country traversed was covered with interminable swamps, bayous, lagoons and sluggish creeks. It was heavily timbered, and for most of the way seemed one vast wilderness. Brashear City was reached at night and next day the mana startea up uayou ïecüe. The country now seen was attractiva and many delightful houses were passed. The houses, half hidden in trees, had wide porches and large Windows. At this time oranges were ripening and the many orchards passed were bending under tho weight of this deücious fruit. Nearly all the fences were made of eypress. This wood was split into tnin boardlike pieces ad at convenient distances were posts of the sama material with mortices for the reception of the horizontal pieces. In this way a neat feiue was made. but it must have taken a great deal of time and involved much labor. When the división was halted at night 01 for dinner, every man seized one or more pieces of tihis fence and in a little time il made many fires that heated a multitude ol coflee pots and toasted innumerable slices of salt pork. Nearly every man carried au old tin can, one in whieh there had been fruit or oysters, and with a piece of wire he had made for it a bail. As soon as a fiire was made, this can filled with water was placed upon it. When the water carne to a boil, ground coffee, in which form tha article was always suppiied, was adied. Mean time a thin slice of bacon or salt pork was toasted upon the end of a stick and the fat that exuded while cooking was allowed to drip upon the hard cracker- "hard tack" - this served in lieu of gravy or butter. While upon the march coffee, made as described above, seemed delicious, and the fat meat and hard cracker were eaten with a relish that now seem almost inexplicable. Good appetites and sweet sleep, however, are two good angels that never de3ert a soldier on the march. The región was very level and the land wonderfully fertile, the soil being a deep, rich black loam. The cypress fences described above inclosed vast sugar plantations. Along the bayou, at no great distance anart. were ereat suzar milis. Many of these were built of brick, and with their costly iixtures and extensiva apparatus and machinery must each hava involved aa outlay oí hundreds of thousands of dollars. But being built on tho banks of the bayou, the sugar made was conveyed to market with the least possibla expense. The bayou was narrow in many places, too narrow for a boat to turn around, and as thera were no hills ncxt to it on either side, it 6eemed tnuch liko a great ditch. At one time, on the march, the road led through a light growtn of timber and receded quite a distance from Bayou Techa and wound about and continned away irom it f or some hours, so that the direction in which this water-coursa lay was forgotten. All at once happening to look towards the north through some stunted trees, tha vvriter's eyes feil upon a steamboat mov iug slowly westward. Itlooked for all the world like it was being propelled on land througb the I -indeed for an instant this impres3lon prerailed on the writer's mind. The water in the bayou was so little below the surface level of the country and the stream being very narrow, aühelped to make the boat seem to be moving on dry land instead of on the water. Here was an instance of a boat seeming so much and the water so little; on the great Mississippi, however, with which the writer's regiment had already had somucl to do, the water appeared vast and immense while the boat dwarfed into a mere speek in comparison. The scène of General Weitzel's and Commodore Buchanan's fight in the January previous and of General Emory's about the middle of Apúl, was passed beforo reaching Franklin. Here was seen the wreek of the burned Confedérate gun-boat Cotton. By the way, Commodore Buehanan, who lost his life here on board the "Calhoun" and whose lirst name was McKean, was an offleer on board the "Congress," destroyed in Hampton Roads in March, 1S62, by the Confedérate "Merimac" commanded by an own brolher, Franklin Buehanan, of the Southern navy. Thus in the the great civil war was brother pitted against brother in deadly strife. Franklin, a considerable town on the bayou, wasreached.and here the command stopped for a time, but, after a little, several regiments, including the writer's, wee pushed on to New Iberia, another important place on the Teche. Nearly all the inhabitants were Frenca and many of them could not speak English, the latter fact was true of the negroes as well, and it was amusing to hear them talking in a foreign tongue. A black face had so long been associated with " negro talk" that this departure was curious and in teres ting. The well-to-do people lived in quaint, many-gabled, old houses. Some of them before tha war were very wealthy. These French were genuine creóles. The October days spent at New Iberia were delightful "in the extreme- soft hazy weather. The foraging parties brought in plenty of honey, sweet potatoes, chickens, and turkeys, and milk in atundance was procured of the inhabitants. Pecans were found in plenty and oranges delicious in quality were ripening in the orchards. A printing office was found complete; this was taken possession ot by soma experts of the writer's regiment, and, upon the plain side of sheets of wall paper, a new periodical was starte.d, called the Unconditlonal Surwnder Grant. Of course, but few numbers were published, but. these were of much interest to members of the command. For a time nero the writer assisted in fitting up a church for a hospital. The pews were taken out and cots put in at convenient distances. A cavalry brigade had gone further on, to Vermillion Bayou, and here had an engagement with the enemy. There were quite a number wounded, and it was for the reception of these that the church was extemporized into a hospital. In the afternoon when they were expected coffee and tea were made, and soup, beef tea, milk punch, toddies, etc, prepared. The ambulance train, however, did not get in till in the night. The wounded were transferred fronj the ambulances to cots in the church, nearly all of which were flnally ülled. Most of the injuries received were from musket balls. The wounds had, however, been dressed, and well cared for before starting, and any needed amputations made at the time or soon after injury. In a day or two tha wounded were all put on a boat, and went in this way to a general hospital.