They tried to force their way through Black Bayou with their steamer, but, finding it slow and tedious work, debarked and pushed forward on foot.
It was night when they landed, and intensely dark.

There was but a narrow strip of land above water, and that was grown up with underbrush or cane.

The troops lighted their way through this with candles carried in their hands for a mile and a half, when they came to an open plantation.

Here the troops rested until morning.

They made twenty-one miles from this resting-place by noon the next day, and were in time to rescue the fleet.