General Grant’s orders for the general movement past Vicksburg, by Richmond and Carthage, were dated April 20, 1863.  McClernand was to lead off with his corps, McPherson next, and my corps (the Fifteenth) to bring up the rear.  Preliminary thereto, on the night of April 16th, seven iron-clads led by Admiral Porter in person, in the Benton, with three transports, and ten barges in tow, ran the Vicksburg batteries by night.  Anticipating a scene, I had four yawl-boats hauled across the swamp, to the reach of the river below Vicksburg, and manned them with soldiers, ready to pick up any of the disabled wrecks as they floated by.  I was out in the stream when the fleet passed Vicksburg, and the scene was truly sublime.  As soon as the rebel gunners detected the Benton, which was in the lead, they opened on her, and on the others in succession, with shot and shell; houses on the Vicksburg side and on the opposite shore were set on fire, which lighted up the whole river; and the roar of cannon, the bursting of shells, and finally the burning of the Henry Clay, drifting with the current, made up a picture of the terrible not often seen.  Each gunboat returned the fire as she passed the town, while the transports hugged the opposite shore.  When the Benton had got abreast of us, I pulled off to her, boarded, had a few words with Admiral Porter, and as she was drifting rapidly toward the lower batteries at Warrenton, I left, and pulled back toward the shore, meeting the gunboat Tuscumbia towing the transport Forest Queen into the bank out of the range of fire.  The Forest Queen, Captain Conway, had been my flag-boat up the Arkansas, and for some time after, and I was very friendly with her officers.  This was the only transport whose captain would not receive volunteers as a crew, but her own officers and crew stuck to their boat, and carried her safely below the Vicksburg batteries, and afterward rendered splendid service in ferrying troops across the river at Grand Gulf and Bruinsburg.  In passing Vicksburg, she was damaged in the hull and had a steam-pipe cut away, but this was soon repaired.  The Henry Clay was set on fire by bursting shells, and burned up; one of my yawls picked up her pilot floating on a piece of wreck, and the bulk of her crew escaped in their own yawl-boat to the shore above.  The Silver Wave, Captain McMillan, the same that was with us up Steele’s Bayou, passed safely, and she also rendered good service afterward.

Subsequently, on the night of April 26th, six other transports with numerous barges loaded with hay, corn, freight, and provisions, were drifted past Vicksburg; of these the Tigress was hit, and sunk just as she reached the river-bank below, on our side:  I was there with my yawls, and saw Colonel Lagow, of General Grant’s staff, who had passed the batteries in the Tigress, and I think he was satisfied never to attempt such a thing again.  Thus General Grant’s army had below Vicksburg an abundance