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Every day's delay is worth two thousand men to the enemy.’
To the same officer he said, on the 6th: ‘Send me a report of about the number of rations on hand and sent forward to Grand Gulf.
Send also to McFeely and Bingham,1 and remind them of the importance of rushing forward rations with all dispatch.
The road to below Warrenton ought now to be completed.
If so, rations can be got over by that route very rapidly. . . . How many teams have been loaded with rations and sent forward?
I want to know as near as possible how we stand in every particular for supplies.
How many wagons have you ferried over the river?
How many are still to bring over?
What teams have gone back for rations?’
On the morning of the 3d, Admiral Porter had started with a part of his fleet for the Red river, to cooperate with Banks, and left orders with Captain Owens, the naval officer next in command, to obey the directions of Grant.
Accordingly, on the 5th, Grant instructed Owens to ‘place his flag-ship in the mouth of Black river, to watch any movement of the enemy in that direction.
Leave Captain Murphy's vessel in front of Grand Gulf, to guard the stores and to convoy any steamer that may require it. . . . Send the remaining iron-clads to the vicinity of Warrenton, to watch the movements of the enemy there, and prevent them from sending troops across the river to interrupt our lines from Milliken's bend and Young's point.’
On the 4th, while the troops were resting on the Big Black, waiting for Sherman and supplies, Grant
1 The chief commissary of subsistence and chief quartermaster of the command.
New York Appleton 1885.
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