When we rode to Oxford from College Hill, there happened a little circumstance which seems worthy of record.  While General Van Dorn had his headquarters in Holly Springs, viz., in October, 1862, he was very short of the comforts and luxuries of life, and resorted to every possible device to draw from the abundant supplies in Memphis.  He had no difficulty whatever in getting spies into the town for information, but he had trouble in getting bulky supplies out through our guards, though sometimes I connived at his supplies of cigars, liquors, boots, gloves, etc., for his individual use; but medicines and large supplies of all kinds were confiscated, if attempted to be passed out.  As we rode that morning toward Oxford, I observed in a farmer’s barn-yard a wagon that looked like a city furniture-wagon with springs.  We were always short of wagons, so I called the attention of the quartermaster, Colonel J. Condit Smith, saying, “There is a good wagon; go for it.”  He dropped out of the retinue with an orderly, and after we had ridden a mile or so he overtook us, and I asked him, “What luck?” He answered, “All right; I have secured that wagon, and I also got another,” and explained that he had gone to the farmer’s house to inquire about the furniture-wagon, when the farmer said it did not belong to him, but to some party in Memphis, adding that in his barn was another belonging to the same party.  They went to the barn, and there found a handsome city hearse, with pall and plumes.  The farmer said they had had a big funeral out of Memphis, but when it reached his house, the coffin was found to contain a fine assortment of medicines for the use of Van Dorn’s army.  Thus under the pretense of a first-class funeral, they had carried through our guards the very things we had tried to prevent.  It was a good trick, but diminished our respect for such pageants afterward.

As soon as I was in possession of General Grant’s instructions of December 8th, with a further request that I should dispatch Colonel Grierson, with his cavalry, across by land to Helena, to notify General Steele of the general plan, I returned to College Hill, selected the division of Brigadier-General Morgan L. Smith to return with me to Memphis; started Grierson on his errand to Helena, and ordered Generals Denver and Lauman to report to General Grant for further orders.  We started back by the most direct route, reached Memphis by noon of December 12th, and began immediately the preparations for the Vicksburg movement.  There I found two irregular divisions which had arrived at Memphis in my absence, commanded respectively by Brigadier-General A. J. Smith and Brigadier-General George W. Morgan.  These were designated the First and Third Divisions, leaving the Second Division of Morgan Z. Smith to retain its original name and number.

I also sent orders, in the name of General Grant, to General Gorman, who meantime had replaced General Steele in command of Helena, in lieu of the troops which had been east of the Mississippi and had returned, to make up a strong division to report to me on my way down.  This division was accordingly organized, and was commanded by Brigadier-General Frederick Steele, constituting my Fourth Division.