On reaching the bayou, I found that Thayer's brigade, of Steele's division, had in some way lost its direction and filed off to the right.

Remembering the masked battery, I suspected that had something to do with the matter, and, on following it up, I learned that the Kentucky colonel before mentioned had appealed for aid against the masked battery and invisible force of rebels, and that a regiment had been ordered to him.

This regiment, filing off into the timber, had been followed by Thayer's brigade, supposing it to be advancing to the front, and thus left a single brigade to attack a superior force of the enemy in an intrenched and naturally strong position.

By the time the mistake could be rectified, it was too late.

Our loss was from one hundred and fifty to two hundred killed, and about eleven hundred prisoners and wounded.