Operations in the Trans-Mississippi Department in June, 1863.
[continued from september number.]
The following report ought to have been published just after the letter of General E. Kirby Smith in our September number, and the endorsements which follow that letter were originally on this report. But we, unfortunately, had not at the time a copy of it, and are now indebted to the courtesy of Colonel Scott, of the Archive Bureau at Washington, for this report and the explanatory letter which follows.
Report of General R. Taylor.
District West Louisiana, Richmond, 8th June, 1863.
Brigadier-General W. R. Boggs, Chief of Staff:
General—I have the honor to report the events of the past few days. As soon as I learned of the capture of Richmond by Captain McLean, of Harrison's battalion—viz: on the night of the 3d ultimo—I ordered General Walker to push on a force of two hundred infantry to insure holding the bridge, adding to it two guns of Harrison's artillery. This force crossed the Tensas in a flat which I had secured the day before and reached Richmond at
