Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History
Benson Lossing, Ed.

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Haines's Bluff.

At this point on the Yazoo River there were stirring military events preparatory to the siege of Vicksburg. General Sherman, with the 15th Corps, had been operating in the Yazoo region, and when Grant determined to change his base of supplies to Grand Gulf, below Vicksburg, Sherman was ordered to make a feint against Haines's Bluff, which the Nationals had been unable to pass. On the morning of April 29, 1863, he proceeded from Milliken's Bend, with Blair's division, in ten steamboats, and armored and other gunboats, and went up the Yazoo. On the morning of May 6 the armored gunboats assailed the fortifications at Haines's Bluff, and in the evening Blair's troops were landed, as if with the intention of making an attack. The bombardment was kept up until dark, when the troops were quietly re-embarked. The assault and menace were repeated the next (lay, when Sherman received an order from Grant to hasten with his troops down the west side of the Mississippi and join him at Grand Gulf. See Vicksburg.