On the next day, March 4th, I wrote to General Banks a letter, which was extremely minute in conveying to him how far I felt authorized to go under my orders from General Grant.  At that time General Grant commanded the Military Division of the Mississippi, embracing my own Department of the Tennessee and that of General Steele in Arkansas, but not that of General Banks in Louisiana.  General Banks was acting on his own powers, or under the instructions of General Halleck in Washington, and our, assistance to him was designed as a loan of ten thousand men for a period of thirty days.  The instructions of March 6th to General A. J. Smith, who commanded this detachment, were full and explicit on this point.  The Diana reached Vicksburg on the 6th, where I found that the expeditionary army had come in from Canton.  One division of five thousand men was made up out of Hurlbut’s command, and placed under Brigadier-General T. Kilby Smith; and a similar division was made out of McPherson’s and Hurlbut’s troops, and placed under Brigadier-General Joseph A. Mower; the whole commanded by Brigadier-General A. J. Smith.  General Hurlbut, with the rest of his command, returned to Memphis, and General McPherson remained at Vicksburg.  General A. J. Smith’s command was in due season embarked, and proceeded to Red River, which it ascended, convoyed by Admiral Porter’s fleet.  General Mower’s division was landed near the outlet of the Atchafalaya, marched up by land and captured the fort below Alexandria known as Fort De Russy, and the whole fleet then proceeded up to Alexandria, reaching it on the day appointed, viz., March 17th, where it waited for the arrival of General Banks, who, however, did not come till some days after.  These two divisions participated in the whole of General Banks’s unfortunate Red River expedition, and were delayed so long up Red River, and subsequently on the Mississippi, that they did not share with their comrades the successes and glories of the Atlanta campaign, for which I had designed them; and, indeed, they, did not join our army till just in time to assist General George H. Thomas to defeat General Hood before Nashville, on the 15th and 16th of December, 1864.

General Grant’s letter of instructions, which was brought me by General Butterfield, who had followed me to New Orleans, enjoined on me, after concluding with General Banks the details for his Red River expedition, to make all necessary arrangements for furloughing the men entitled to that privilege, and to hurry back to the army at Huntsville, Alabama.  I accordingly gave the necessary orders to General McPherson, at Vicksburg, and continued up the river toward Memphis.  On our way we met Captain Badeau, of General Grant’s staff, bearing the following letter, of March 4th, which I answered on the 10th, and sent the answer by General Butterfield, who had accompanied me up from New Orleans.  Copies of both were also sent to General McPherson, at Vicksburg: