...ent on down the Mississippi, expecting to sweep it of all Confederate craft. She blockaded the mouth of the Red River a few days, and then turned her prow up the Mississippi, intending to go up the Big Black River , if possible, as far as the bridge of the Vicksburg and Jackson railway, which was one of the objects of her voyage. When, at half-past 9 o'clock in the evening of the 24th, she was nearly abreast...