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"Capture of Fort De Russy, La., on the 14th of March, 1864, by the Federal forces under General Andrew Jackson Smith. This fort was captured, March 14th, 1864, by the Federal forces under General A. J. Smith. The expedition left Vicksburg on March 10th, landed at Summerville, La., on the 13th, and marched to Bayou Glace, where General Scurri's Confederate brigade had been encamped, which fled on the approach of the transports, leaving considerable camp equipage and commissary stores. General Smith pushed forward to Yellow Bayou, where strong fortifications had been erected; but the Confederates again fled. As he came up the enemy was pressed, and some skirmishing occurred, resulting in the capture of several prisoners and a small wagon train. At daylight the entire command started for Fort de Russy, twenty-eight miles distant, hotly pursued by General Dick Taylor, who hoped to save the fort; but Smith had the lead, and at four o'clock in the afternoon the Third and Ninth Indiana Batteries opened on the fort, which replied vigorously with three of its heaviest guns. The cannonade continued an hour, when General Smith ordered the First and Second illinois Regiments, Sixteenth Corps, under General Mower, to charge the enemy's rifle pits and storm the fort. The Eighty-ninth and One Hundred and Nineteenth Indiana and Twenty-fourth Missouri Regiments charged over deep ditches and a thick abatis in the face of a galling fire, and within twenty minutes after the order was given the [African American] sergeant of the Fifty-eighth Illinois Volunteers planted the American flag upon the enemy's works."— Frank Leslie, 1896

Fort de Russy

"Capture of Fort De Russy, La., on the 14th of March, 1864, by the Federal forces under General Andrew…

"The old stone fence."— Frank Leslie, 1896

Old Stone Fence

"The old stone fence."— Frank Leslie, 1896

"Battle of Savages Station. Brigadier General Smith's division hotly engaged with the enemy, at noon, June 28th, 1862. Our correspondent described this battle as follows: "Having left our wounded, about thirteen hundred men, in the hospital, to the tender mercies of the Confederates, our troops fell back at daybreak on Sunday from their line of entrenchments. This extended from a space of white oak swamp, near Richmond, to the Chickahominy Creek, at New Bridge. The divisions of Hooker, Kearney and Sedgwick were thrown into the woods, where a number of batteries were masked to oppose the enemy, who, advancing cautiously, clambered over the ditches and parapets, and, seeing them abandoned, signaled the main body, who came up at double quick. Taking possession of our defenses with a cheer, they raised their flag amid loud yells of demoniacal satisfaction. Then, in close order and in line of battle, they marched down the Williamsburg Road, past the scene of the Seven Pines fight, and so approached where our troops were concealed at a point denominated Peach Orchard, being an insignificant stopping place on the railroad, midway between Hancocks and Savages. When they had come so close that our troops could toss a biscuit from our line into theirs, our batteries were unmasked, and an awful blaze of flame and projectile rose from the depths of the woods. Before the Confederates could rally, our men had poured a dozen volleys of musketry into them, covering the ground with the slain."" —Leslie, 1896

Battle of Savages Station

"Battle of Savages Station. Brigadier General Smith's division hotly engaged with the enemy, at noon,…