his brigade, his left on the road, and extending as
far into the swamp as the ground would permit, and
then to sweep forward until he uncovered the gunboats.
The movement was rapid and well executed, and we
soon came to some large cotton-fields and could see
our gunboats in Deer Creek, occasionally firing a
heavy eight-inch gun across the cotton field into
the swamp behind. About that time Major Kirby,
of the Eighth Missouri, galloped down the road on
a horse he had picked up the night before, and met
me. He explained the situation of affairs, and
offered me his horse. I got on bareback, and
rode up the levee, the sailors coming out of their
iron-clads and cheering most vociferously as I rode
by, and as our men swept forward across the cotton-field
in full view. I soon found Admiral Porter, who
was on the deck of one of his iron-clads, with a shield
made of the section of a smoke-stack, and I doubt
if he was ever more glad to meet a friend than he
was to see me. He explained that he had almost
reached the Rolling Fork, when the woods became full
of sharp-shooters, who, taking advantage of trees,
stumps, and the levee, would shoot down every man
that poked his nose outside the protection of their
armor; so that he could not handle his clumsy boats
in the narrow channel. The rebels had evidently
dispatched a force from Haines’s Bluff up the
Sunflower to the Rolling Fork, had anticipated the
movement of Admiral Porter’s fleet, and had
completely obstructed the channel of the upper part
of Deer Creek by felling trees into it, so that further
progress in that direction was simply impossible.
It also happened that, at the instant of my arrival,
a party of about four hundred rebels, armed and supplied
with axes, had passed around the fleet and had got
below it, intending in like manner to block up the
channel by the felling of trees, so as to cut off
retreat. This was the force we had struck so
opportunely at the time before described. I inquired
of Admiral Porter what he proposed to do, and he said
he wanted to get out of that scrape as quickly as
possible. He was actually working back when
I met him, and, as we then had a sufficient force
to cover his movement completely, he continued to back
down Deer Creek. He informed me at one time
things looked so critical that he had made up his
mind to blow up the gunboats, and to escape with his
men through the swamp to the Mississippi River.
There being no longer any sharp-shooters to bother
the sailors, they made good progress; still, it took
three full days for the fleet to back out of Deer
Creek into Black Bayou, at Hill’s plantation,
whence Admiral Porter proceeded to his post at the
month of the Yazoo, leaving Captain Owen in command
of the fleet. I reported the facts to General
Grant, who was sadly disappointed at the failure of
the fleet to get through to the Yazoo above Haines’s
Bluff, and ordered us all to resume our camps at Young’s
Point. We accordingly steamed down, and regained
our camps on the 27th. As this expedition up
Deer Creek was but one of many efforts to secure a
footing from which to operate against Vicksburg, I
add the report of Brigadier-General Giles A. Smith,
who was the first to reach the fleet: