Returning to the position where I had first entered the rebel line, I received orders from General McClernand, by one of his staff, to leave General A. J. Smith in charge of the fort and prisoners, and with my troops to remain outside.  The officer explained that the general was then on the Tigress, which had moved up from below, to a point in the river just above the fort; and not understanding his orders, I concluded to go and see him in person.  My troops were then in possession of two of the three brigades which composed the army opposed to us; and my troops were also in possession of all the ground of the peninsula outside the “fort-proper” (Hindman).  I found General McClernand on the Tigress, in high spirits.  He said repeatedly:  “Glorious! glorious! my star is ever in the ascendant!” He spoke complimentarily of the troops, but was extremely jealous of the navy.  He said:  “I’ll make a splendid report;” “I had a man up a tree;” etc.  I was very hungry and tired, and fear I did not appreciate the honors in reserve for us, and asked for something to eat and drink.  He very kindly ordered something to be brought, and explained to me that by his “orders” he did not wish to interfere with the actual state of facts; that General A. J. Smith would occupy “Fort Hindman,” which his troops had first entered, and I could hold the lines outside, and go on securing the prisoners and stores as I had begun.  I returned to the position of Garland’s brigade and gave the necessary orders for marching all the prisoners, disarmed, to a pocket formed by the river and two deep gullies just above the fort, by which time it had become quite dark.  After dark another rebel regiment arrived from Pine Bluff, marched right in, and was also made prisoners.  There seemed to be a good deal of feeling among the rebel officers against Garland, who asked leave to stay with me that night, to which I of course consented.  Just outside the rebel parapet was a house which had been used for a hospital.  I had a room cleaned out, and occupied it that night.  A cavalry-soldier lent me his battered coffee-pot with some coffee and scraps of hard bread out of his nose-bag; Garland and I made some coffee, ate our bread together, and talked politics by the fire till quite late at night, when we lay down on straw that was saturated with the blood of dead or wounded men.  The next day the prisoners were all collected on their boats, lists were made out, and orders given for their transportation to St. Louis, in charge of my aide, Major Sanger.  We then proceeded to dismantle and level the forts, destroy or remove the stores, and we found in the magazine the very ammunition which had been sent for us in the Blue Wing, which was secured and afterward used in our twenty-pound Parrott guns.