Report of Maj. Jesse S. Miller, Eleventh Wisconsin Infantry.<\/p>\n

HDQRS. ELEVENTH INFANTRY, WISCONSIN VET. VOLS.,
\nBrashear City, La., November 19, 1864.<\/p>\n

CAPT.: I have the honor to submit the following report of the
\nexpedition to Bayou Portage under my command:<\/p>\n

I left Brashear City at 11 o’clock on the night of November 17 with 200
\nmen-150 of the Eleventh Infantry Wisconsin Veteran Volunteers, and
\nfifty of the Ninety-third U. S. Infantry (colored)-on board the gun-boat
\nNijanza No. 41 and steam transport Cornie, arrived at the mouth
\nof Bayou Portage at 6 a. m. November 18, and proceed up the bayou
\na short distance. The Cornie, a few rods in advance, was fired upon
\nfrom an ambush by about sixty men, killing 1 man of the Ninety-third
\nU. S. Infantry (colored). I immediately landed the force on the gunboat
\nand attempted to get in rear of the force that fired on the Cornie, but
\nthey retreated up the bayou. I then deployed one company as skirmishers
\nand advanced up the bayou, the Cornie keeping abreast of me as far up
\nas she could go. I then had all the men on board landed except
\ntwenty-five colored men and a captain, leaving them as guards for the
\nboat. I continued on up the bayou, my skirmish line keeping up a pretty
\nsharp fire with the enemy. I sent one company of about thirty men
\naround to the left for the purpose of getting into their rear, but they fell
\nin with a company of cavalry which prevented this. After driving the
\nenemy about two miles and a half we overhauled one of the large flats
\nloaded with baggage and tied up on the opposite side of the bayou, and
\nsucceeded in getting it across, although under pretty severe fire from the
\nopposite side. I ordered the baggage set on fire and the boat destroyed.
\nI also captured 1 prisoner here, from whom I learned that the other flats
\nwere some half hour the start of us. I concluded that it would be useless
\nto follow them farther, as they could row them as fast or faster than we
\ncould drive the force that was now opposing us. I therefore fell back to
\nthe boats and re-embarked, having been on shore four hours. The enemy
\nfollowed us back and exchanged a few shots with the rear before my
\nmen were all on board. It is impossible for me to say how many of the
\nenemy were killed or wounded, but I am quite positive that 2 were
\nkilled. The casualties on our side was 1 man killed and 1 slightly
\nwounded. We destroyed 1 large flat loaded with baggage and several
\nsmall boats, and barracks for about 300 men, with a considerable
\namount of camp and garrison equipage, and some cornmeal and sugar.
\nIt is impossible for me to say how strong the enemy were, but I should
\njudge them to be not less than 200 or 250 men, and under command of
\nCapt.’s Murphy, King, and Whittaker.<\/p>\n

I have the honor to remain, very respectfully, your obedient servant,<\/p>\n

J. S. MILLER,
\nMaj. Eleventh Infantry, Wisconsin Veteran Volunteers.<\/p>\n

Capt. B. B. CAMPBELL,
\nAssistant Adjutant-Gen., District of La Fourche.<\/p>\n

Source: Official Records
\nPAGE 926-83 LOUISIANA AND THE TRANS-MISSISSIPPI. [CHAP. LIII.
\n[Series I. Vol. 41. Part I, Reports. Serial No. 83.]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Report of Maj. Jesse S. Miller, Eleventh Wisconsin Infantry. HDQRS. ELEVENTH INFANTRY, WISCONSIN VET. VOLS., Brashear City, La., November 19, 1864. CAPT.: I have the honor to submit the following report of the expedition to Bayou Portage under my command: … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,30,26,15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/11wisconsinregiment.soldierstudies.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/11wisconsinregiment.soldierstudies.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/11wisconsinregiment.soldierstudies.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/11wisconsinregiment.soldierstudies.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/11wisconsinregiment.soldierstudies.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/11wisconsinregiment.soldierstudies.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/11wisconsinregiment.soldierstudies.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/11wisconsinregiment.soldierstudies.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/11wisconsinregiment.soldierstudies.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}