by John Beauchamp Jones
APRIL 12TH.—Cloudy—rained in the afternoon.
This is the anniversary of the first gun of the war, fired at FortSumter.
It is still said and believed that Gen. Lee will take the initiative, and attack Grant. The following shows that we have had another success :
“MOBILE, April 11th, 1864.
“To GEN. S. COOPER, A. & I. GENERAL.
“The following report was received at Baton Rouge, on the 3d inst., from the Surgeon-General of Banks’s army: We met the enemy near Shreveport. Union force repulsed with great loss. How many can you accommodate in hospitals at Baton Rouge? Steamer Essex, or Benton, destroyed by torpedoes in Red River, and a transport captured by Confederates.
“Farragut reported preparing to attack Mobile. Six monitors coming to him. The garrisons of New Orleans and Baton Rouge were very much reduced for the purpose of increasing Banks’s forces.
“D. H. MAURY, Major-General Commanding.”
