...gh he wrote at once to McClernand; but, before the line was reopened, Sherman had embarked at Memphis, with thirty thousand men, and at Helena, was reenforced by twelve thousand more. He arrived at Milliken 's bend, on the Arkansas side, and twenty miles above Vicksburg, on the 24th of December; here he spent two or three days, in attempts to cut the Vicksburg and Shreveport railroad (by which reenforcem...