Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 2.

[580] with the land and naval forces, and attack and carry Haines's bluff, on their extreme right, while by some diversion on the Bayou the Confederates should be prevented from sending re-enforcements there in time to oppose the National Army in securing a firm footing. The latter was then to take the remaining Confederate fortifications in flank and reverse, and fight its way to Vicksburg.

preparations were made for this flank movement to begin at midnight of the 31st.

Dec, 1862.

a dense fog interposed. The enterprise became known to Pemberton, and it was abandoned. Rumors of Grant's retreat to Grand Junction had reached Sherman, and he resolved to return to Milliken's Bend on the Mississippi. The troops were all re-embarked, and ready for departure from the Yazoo, when the arrival of General McClernand, Sherman's senior in rank, was announced.

Jan. 2, 1863.

on the 4th of January that officer assumed the chief command, and the Army and navy proceeded to Milliken's Bend. The title of Sherman's force was changed to that of the Army of the Mississippi, and was divided into two corps, one of which was placed under the command of General Morgan, and the other under General Sherman.

before McClernand's arrival Sherman and Porter had agreed upon a plan for attacking Fort Hindman, or Arkansas post, on the left bank, and at a sharp Bend of the Arkansas River,¹ fifty miles from the Mississippi, while Grant was moving his Army to Memphis, preparatory to a descent of the River, to join in the further prosecution of the siege of Vicksburg. McClernand approved of the plan, and the forces moved up the Mississippi to Montgomery Point, opposite the mouth of White River. On the 9th the combined force proceeded up that River fifteen miles, and, passing through a canal into the Arkansas, reached Notrib's farm, three miles below Fort Hindman, at four o'clock in the afternoon, when preparations were made for landing the troops. This was accomplished by noon the next day,

Jan. 10, 1863.

when about twenty-five thousand men, under McClernand, Sherman, Morgan, Stewart, Steele, A. J. Smith, and Osterhaus, were ready, with a strong flotilla of armored and unarmored gun-boats, under the immediate command of Admiral Porter, to assail the Fort, garrisoned by only five thousand men, under General T. J. Churchill, who had received orders from General T. H. Holmes at little Rock, then commanding in Arkansas, to “hold on until help should arrive or all were dead.” the gun-boats moved slowly on, shelling the Confederates out of their rifle-pits along the levee, and driving every soldier into the Fort,² and in the mean time the land troops pressed forward over swamps and bayous, and bivouacked that night around Fort Hindman, without tents or fires, prepared for an assault in the morning.