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On the 10th, however, the headquarters were removed to Cayuga, eight miles beyond Rocky Springs, and, in accordance with the plan already described, McPherson moved to the north and east of the rest of the army; Sherman had the centre, while McClernand, further west, kept one division as far to the left as the Big Black river, and, in his turn, was ordered to watch the ferries, and thus secure the rear against Pemberton.
Grant's position now was with the centre, Sherman's corps.
He had at this time about forty-three thousand men in motion, besides an artillery force of one hundred and twenty guns; but these numbers include Blair's division, as well as Mc-Arthur's, of the Seventeenth corps, neither of which had yet crossed the river.
The column absolutely in march on the east side of the Mississippi, on the 10th of May, did not number more than thirty-five thousand men, and twenty light batteries.1 ‘When I crossed the Mississippi river,’ said Grant, ‘the means of ferriage were so limited, and time so important, that I started without teams, and an average of two days rations in the haversacks. . . . We picked up all the teams in the country, and free Africans to drive them.
Forage and meat were found ’
1 There were not more than sixteen thousand men in any one of the three corps at any time during the campaign, even if the whole force had come up; but Blair's division of Sherman's command did not reach the army until after the capture of Jackson, on the 14th of May; while, of McArthur's division in the Seventeenth corps, one brigade only had arrived, at the battle of Champion's Hill, on the 16th; another joined the command about the time of the battle at Black River bridge, on the 17th; and the third brigade did not get up at all, until the siege of Vicksburg. Besides these subtractions, McClernand's command was reduced, after the battle of Port Gibson, by casualties, sickness, and other contingencies, to fifteen thousand men, so that the estimate in the text is not too small.
New York Appleton 1885.
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