H. W. Halleck, General-in.-Chief.

I wish you would come over this evening and stay to-night, or come in the morning.  I would like to talk with you about this matter.  My notion is to send two divisions back to Memphis, and fix upon a day when they should effect a landing, and press from here with this command at the proper time to cooperate.  If I do not do this I will move our present force to Grenada, including Steele’s, repairing road as we proceed, and establish a depot of provisions there.  When a good ready is had, to move immediately on Jackson, Mississippi, cutting loose from the road.  Of the two plans I look most favorably on the former.

Come over and we will talk this matter over. 
Yours truly,

U. S. Grant, Major-General.

I repaired at once to Oxford, and found General Grant in a large house with all his staff, and we discussed every possible chance.  He explained to me that large reenforcements had been promised, which would reach Memphis very soon, if not already there; that the entire gunboat fleet, then under the command of Admiral D. D. Porter, would cooperate; that we could count on a full division from the troops at Helena; and he believed that, by a prompt movement, I could make a lodgment up the Yazoo and capture Vicksburg from the rear; that its garrison was small, and he, at Oxford, would so handle his troops as to hold Pemberton away from Vicksburg.  I also understood that, if Pemberton should retreat south, he would follow him up, and would expect to find me at the Yazoo River, if not inside of Vicksburg.  I confess, at that moment I did not dream that General McClernand, or anybody else, was scheming for the mere honor of capturing Vicksburg.  We knew at the time that General Butler had been reenforced by General Banks at New Orleans, and the latter was supposed to be working his way up-stream from New Orleans, while we were working down.  That day General Grant dispatched to General Halleck, in Washington, as follows: 

Oxford, December 8, 1862.

Major-General H. W. Halleck, Washington, D. C.: 

General Sherman will command the expedition down the Mississippi.  He will have a force of about forty thousand men; will land above Vicksburg (up the Yazoo, if practicable), and out the Mississippi Central road and the road running east from Vicksburg, where they cross Black River.  I will cooperate from here, my movements depending on those of the enemy.  With the large cavalry force now at my command, I will be able to have them show themselves at different points on the Tallahatchie and Yalabusha; and, when an opportunity occurs, make a real attack.  After cutting the two roads, General Sherman’s movements to secure the end desired will necessarily be left to his judgment.

I will occupy this road to Coffeeville.

U. S. Grant, Major-General.

I was shown this dispatch before it was sent, and afterward the general drew up for me the following letter of instructions in his own handwriting, which I now possess: