On returning to my camp at Young’s Point, I started these two boats up the Yazoo and Steele’s Bayou, with the Eighth Missouri and some pioneers, with axes, saws, and all the tools necessary.  I gave orders for a part of Stuart’s division to proceed in the large boats up the Mississippi River to a point at Gwin’s plantation, where a bend of Steele’s Bayou neared the main river; and the next day, with one or two stag-officers and orderlies, got a navy-tug, and hurried up to overtake Admiral Porter.  About sixty miles up Steele’s Bayou we came to the gunboat Price, Lieutenant Woodworth, United States Navy; commanding, and then turned into Black Bayou, a narrow, crooked channel, obstructed by overhanging oaks, and filled with cypress and cotton-wood trees.  The gunboats had forced their way through, pushing aside trees a foot in diameter.  In about four miles we overtook the gunboat fleet just as it was emerging into Deer Creek.  Along Deer Creek the alluvium was higher, and there was a large cotton-plantation belonging to a Mr. Hill, who was absent, and the negroes were in charge of the place.  Here I overtook Admiral Porter, and accompanied him a couple of miles up Deer Creek, which was much wider and more free of trees, with plantations on both sides at intervals.  Admiral Porter thought he had passed the worst, and that he would be able to reach the Rolling Fork and Sunflower.  He requested me to return and use all possible means to clear out Black Bayou.  I returned to Hill’s plantation, which was soon reached by Major Coleman, with a part of the Eighth Missouri; the bulk of the regiment and the pioneers had been distributed along the bayous, and set to work under the general supervision of Captain Kosaak.  The Diligent and Silver Wave then returned to twin’s plantation and brought up Brigadier-General Giles A. Smith, with the Sixth Missouri, and part of the One Hundred and Sixteenth Illinois.  Admiral Porter was then working up Deer Creek with his iron-clads, but he had left me a tug, which enabled me to reconnoitre the country, which was all under water except the narrow strip along Deer Creek.  During the 19th I heard the heavy navy-guns booming more frequently than seemed consistent with mere guerrilla operations; and that night I got a message from Porter, written on tissue-paper, brought me through the swamp by a negro, who had it concealed in a piece of tobacco.

The admiral stated that he had met a force of infantry and artillery which gave him great trouble by killing the men who had to expose themselves outside the iron armor to shove off the bows of the boats, which had so little headway that they would not steer.  He begged me to come to his rescue as quickly as possible.  Giles A. Smith had only about eight hundred men with him, but I ordered him to start up Deer Creek at once, crossing to the east side by an old bridge at Hill’s plantation, which we had repaired for the purpose; to work his way up to the gunboat, fleet, and to report