46 



ARMY OPERATIONS. 



Yazoo and Tallahatchie to the mouth of the 

 Coldwater. The region of country through 

 which these streams flow, especially the Yazoo, 

 is very fertile, producing a large quantity of 

 cotton, and furnishing considerable supplies to 

 the rebel army at Vicksburg. 



The expedition consisted of two of the largest 

 and heaviest ironclad gunboats, one ram, six 

 light-draft gunboats, three barges laden with 

 coal, three steam tenders, and fifteen or eigh- 

 teen transports. The passage from the Mis- 

 sissippi to the mouth of the Pass, after the im- 



provement made upon it, was not attended with 

 much difficulty. On the morning of the 25th 

 of March it entered the mouth of the Pass. The 

 tortuous stream was a hundred feet wide, and 

 in some parts less. On its banks were cypress, 

 sycamore, and gigantic cottonwood trees, whose 

 branches formed a perfect arch over the stream. 

 At the upper end the current rushed with great 

 rapidity through the channel, and lower down 

 were strips of bottom land, which were over- 

 flowed, and gave to it greater width, and, con- 

 sequently, less rapidity. In the narrow and 



crooked passage it was necessary to resist the 

 force of the current by the back revolution of 

 the wheels of the boats, and by lines fastened 

 from tree to tree as they moved along. Three 

 days were thus passed in making a distance of 

 about twelve miles, and reaching the Cold- 

 water. Smokestacks were swept away, and 

 much of the light upper works of several of the 

 boats. The principal difficulty in the Pass arose 

 from the activity of the enemy, who would close 

 one end while the Federal force was opening 

 the other. In this manner time was gained to 

 prepare to resist the progress of the expedition 

 by fortifying at the mouth of the Tallahatchie. 



On the 2d of April the expedition proceeded 

 down the Coldwater. This stream was a little 

 wider than the Pass, so that the branches of 

 the trees seldom met over head, but its current 

 was more sluggish, and its channel equally 

 tortuous. Two mortar boats now joined tho 

 expedition, adding their force to the heavy guns 

 on the other boats. As it advanced it was fur- 

 ther reenforced, until it consisted of eighteer. 

 transports, five small gunboats, and two of a, 

 large size, the Chillicothe and the De Kalb. 

 The advance consisted of one division of Gen. 

 McClernand's corps, which had been stationed 

 at Helena, under command of Brig.-Gen. L. F. 

 Ross, and the 12th and 17th Missouri regiments 

 from Gen. Sherman's corps, as sharpshooters, 

 on the gunboats. The mouth of the Coldwater 

 was reached with only some damage to the 

 light work, wheels, and rudders of the trans- 

 ports. 



Proceeding down the Tallahatchie, the expe- 

 dition arrived within ten miles of Greenwood on 

 the llth. Greenwood is a small village on the 

 Yazoo river, just below the junction of the Tal- 

 lahatchie with theYallobusha, forming the Ya- 

 zoo. Just below the position of the Federal trans- 

 ports, the Tallahatchie turns to the eastward, 

 bending in the form of a horseshoe, and resumes 

 its southerly course at a point nearly south of 

 that where the transports were. The base of 

 the peninsula formed by this bend, being the 

 narrowest part, and nearly a mile across, was 

 occupied by a Confederate fortification. It 

 consisted of a single line of breastworks facing 

 westerly, and composed of cotton bales and 

 earth, and flanked on the right by a battery 

 of three heavy guns fronting the river. Other 

 field pieces were in position on the works. On 

 the right flank of the line, a defence or raft of 

 logs had been constructed, to serve as a block- 

 ade of the river. Directly in front of the breast- 

 works was a deep slough, extending across the 

 peninsula, and admirably serving the purpose 

 of a ditch. The slough was close to the base 

 of tho works at the upper end, but gradually 

 receded from them at the lower, where it was 

 several hundred yards distant. Beyond the 

 slough there was an almost impenetrable cane- 

 brake, backed by an extensive forest. Below 

 this fortification on the river, and in the arc of 

 the bend, the Yallobusha flows in from the 

 northeast, and forms its junction with the Tal- 



