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Lieutenant Rowan served as Judge Advocate in a general court-martial there
convened. On the 20th of December the brigade was ordered to proceed to
Vicksburg, Mississippi, where it arrived on the 2d of January, 1863. On the 23d
three guns of the Maryland battery were sent to Warrenton, a few miles down
the river. Two days later one section, under Sergeant Edward H. Langley, was
put aboard the steamer Archer, and went down the river, on secret service. At
this time Lieutenants Rowan and Patten, who had accompanied the wagon train
overland, had not yet come up with the horses belonging to the battery, and
Captain Latrobe and Lieutenant Erwin were away on leave of absence. The
Archer went up Red River to Fort De Russy, and on the 27th the Third Mary-
land had the pleasure of firing into the DeSoto. This vessel had been captured
by the enemy but a few days previously, while stopping at Johnson's Landing to
take on wood.

January 30 a twelve-pound howitzer, with a gun detachment under Sergeant
Daniel Toomey, was sent up the Mississippi to General Ferguson's command on
Deer Creek. Thus the battery was divided into three parts, scattered up and
down the river. Meanwhile Lieutenants Rowan and Patten, having rejoined the
battery with the horses, it was now again ready for the field. The guns at War-
renton were at this time placed under the command of Lieutenant Patten. Early
on the morning of the 2d of February, the ram Queen of the West passed the
batteries at Vicksburg and proceeded down the river. As she passed Warrenton,
Patten opened on her without effect, but as she returned on the 4th, Sergeant
Ritter hailed her with about sixty rounds of shot and shell, eliciting the compli-
ment from her commander that " those guns at Warrenton annoyed him more
on his return than the siege pieces at Vicksburg." A few-days later the Queen
of the West again passed down (during the night) and went up Red River to
Fort De Russy, where she was captured by the Confederates. Sergeant Langley's
section was now transferred to the Queen of the West from the Archer, and
immediately after the former, with the Grand Era and the Webb, proceeded up
the river to Grand Gulf, where (on the 24th) they captured the iron-clad Indianola.
The latter was a formidable craft, armed with eight and eleven-inch guns, and
had just run the blockade at Vicksburg.

Captain James McCloskey, of General Richard Taylor's staff, commanded
the Queen. The entire fleet was commanded by Major J. L. Brent.

A correspondent, speaking of this affair, says :

In closing, we cannot refrain from mentioning specially the command of Edward H.
Langley, of the Third Maryland Artillery. He had detachments for two guns (thirteen men)
on the Queen, and was in command of the two Parrott guns. He himself took charge of the
eighty-six-pounder bow gun, with which he remained during the action, neither he nor