These several transfers, you will notice, carried the entire regiment to guard all the water approaches to New Orleans, save the river above the city, and Farragut the Superb was competent to attend to that approach.
According to the repeated statements of the commanding general, ‘the Thirteenth Maine regiment held the posts of honor in the Department of the Gulf.’
On the twenty-eighth of April Colonel Dow was promoted to brigadier-general, and Lieutenant-Colonel Rust succeeded to the command of the regiment. Shortly after our arrival on Ship Island, I was detailed in the adjutant's office. Adjutant Speed was promoted to captain and assigned to General Dow's staff as acting assistant adjutant-general. Sergeant-Major Wilson was promoted to adjutant, and I was ‘warranted’ to rattle around in the office vacated by him. And I found it no sinecure, for during the absence of the adjutant on several occasions, the entire duties of the office devolved on me.
When the three companies were transferred to Fort Jackson, I was detailed as acting adjutant of the post. Later I served in the same capacity at Fort St. Philip and in New Orleans.
The post—Forts Jackson and St. Philip—was commanded, for a short time, by Brigadier-General Neal Dow. Here altogether new responsibilities were thrust upon us. Vessels, and crafts of every description, passing up and down the river, were required by department orders to ‘heave to’ and obtain the permission
