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We have observed, that, on the
fall of Vicksburg,
Grant was about to send
General Herron to the aid of
Banks, then besieging
Port Hudson,
1 when he heard of the surrender of that post.
Herron had already embarked with his troops, when the order was countermanded, and he was sent
in lighter draft vessels up the
Yazoo, for the purpose of capturing a large fleet of steamboats, which had escaped
Porter's fleet, and were then lying at
Yazoo City.
The transports were convoyed by the armored gun-boat,
De Kalb, and two of lighter armor, called “tin-clad” vessels, under
Captain Walker.
When they approached
Yazoo City, a small garrison there, of North Carolinians, fled, and the steamboats, twenty-two in number, moved rapidly up the river.
The
De Kalb pushed on, and, just as she was abreast the town, the explosion of a torpedo under her sunk her.
Herron's cavalry were landed, and, pursuing the steamers up the shore, captured and destroyed a greater portion of them.
The remainder were sunk or burned, when?
soon afterward,
Captain Walker went back after the guns of the
De Kalb.
Herron captured three hundred prisoners, six heavy guns, two hundred and fifty small-arms, eight hundred horses, and two thousand bales of Confederate cotton.
After finishing his work at
Yazoo City, he started
to cross the country to
Benton and
Canton, in aid of
Sherman, when information reached him of
Johnston's flight from
Jackson.
Then he returned to
Vicksburg.
On the day when
Vicksburg was surrendered, there were stirring events at
Helena, Arkansas, farther up the
Mississippi, which the
Confederates hoped would have a salutary bearing upon the fortunes of the garrison of the doomed city below.
Helena had been held by National troops as a depot of recruits and supplies for about a year, since
Washburne's cavalry of
Curtis's army took possession of it;
2 and in the summer of 1863 the post was in command of
General B. M. Prentiss, whose troops were so sorely smitten at
Shiloh.
3 The Confederates in
Arkansas, under such leaders as
Sterling Price,
Marmaduke,
Parsons,
Fagan,
McRae, and
Walker,. were then under the control of
General Holmes, who, at the middle of June, asked and received permission of
General Kirby Smith, commander of the Trans-Mississippi Department, to attack
Prentiss.
He designated
Clarendon, on the
White River, as the rendezvous of all the available troops under his command, and left
Little Rock for that point on the 26th of June.
Some of his troops were promptly at the rendezvous, while others, under
Price, owing to heavy rains and floods, did not reach there until the 30th.
This delay baffled his plans for surprise, for
Prentiss had been apprised of his movement and was prepared for his reception.
The post of
Helena was strongly fortified, and behind the earth-works and heavy guns and the
abatis in front of them, was a garrison of three thousand eight hundred men. The gun-boat
Tyler,
Lieutenant-commanding 
