An expedition under General Weitzel and Commodore McKean Buchanan took possession of the remarkable Teche country in that State, when Banks concentrated his troops, about  twelve thousand in number, at Baton Rouge (which was then held by General Grover), for the purpose of assisting Commodore Farragut in an attempt to pass the formidable batteries at Port Hudson, twenty-five miles up the Mississippi. That attempt was made on the night of the 13th of March, when a terrible contest occurred, in the darkness, between the vessels and the land batteries. Only Farragut's flag-ship (the Hartford) and another succeeded in passing by.
Banks now sent a large portion of his available troops into the interior of Louisiana, where General Richard Taylor was in command of a Confederate force. The Nationals were concentrated at Brashear City, on the Atchafalaya, and from that point they marched triumphantly to the Red River, accompanied by Banks in person. From Alexandria, early in May, that general wrote to his Government that the Confederate power in northern and central Louisiana was broken; and with this impression he moved eastward with his troops, crossed the Mississippi River, and late in May (1863) invested Port Hudson, then in command of the Confederate general, Frank Gardner. For forty days he besieged that post, during which time many gallant deeds were performed on each side. Banks was ably assisted by the squadron of Farragut-the Hartford, Albatross, Monongahela, Richmond, Essex and Tennessee, and some mortar-boats. Finally, at the close of June, the ammunition of the closely invested garrison was almost exhausted. When news of the fall of Vicksburg reached Gardner, he perceived that further attempts at resistance would be futile; and on the 9th of July he surrendered the post to Banks, with much spoil. The National loss during the siege was about three thousand men, and that of the Confederates, exclusive of prisoners, was about eight hundred. The loss of Vicksburg and Port Hudson was a severe calamity for the Confederates. It gave the final blow in the removal of the obstructions to the navigation of the Mississippi River by Confederate batteries, and thenceforth it was free. Powerful portions of the Confederacy were "repossessed" by the National Government, and wise men among the enemies of the Republic clearly perceived that their cause was hopeless.
At the moment when Vicksburg fell, the Army of the Potomac gained an equally important victory on the soil of Pennsylvania. We left that army on the northern side of the Rappahannock River, near Fredericksburg, in charge of General Joseph Hooker. From January to April (1863), he was engaged in preparing for a vigorous summer campaign. His forces remained in comparative quiet for about three months, during which time they were reorganized and well-disciplined; and at the close of April, his army numbered one hundred thousand effective men. General Lee's army, on the other side of the river, had been divided; a large force under General Longstreet being required to watch the movements of the Nationals under General Peck, in the vicinity of Norfolk. Lee had in hand about sixty thousand well-drilled troops, lying behind strong intrenchments extending twenty-five miles along the line of the Rappahannock. For the space of three months some cavalry movements only, disturbed the two armies. General W.H.F. Lee, with a mounted force, attacked National troops at Gloucester, opposite Yorktown, early in February; and at midnight of the 8th of March, Colonel Moseby, at the head of a band of guerrillas, dashed into the village of Fairfax Court-House and carried off the commander of the Union forces there. A little later National cavalry under General Averill and Confederate horsemen led by General Fitzhugh Lee, had a severe battle near Kelly's Ford, on the Rappahannock, in which the former were repulsed. That was the first purely cavalry contest of the war.
Hooker became impatient. The time of the enlistment of many of his troops would soon expire, and he determined to put his army in motion toward Richmond early in April, notwithstanding his ranks were not full. Cavalry, under General Stoneman, were sent to destroy railways in Lee's rear, but were foiled by the high water in the streams. After a pause, Hooker determined to attempt to turn Lee's flank, and for that purpose he sent ten thousand mounted men to raid in his rear. Then he threw thirty-six thousand troops of his own right wing across the Rappahannock, with orders to halt and intrench at Chancellorsville between the Confederate army and Richmond. This movement was so masked by a demonstration on Lee's front, by Hooker's left wing under General Sedgwick, that the
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