George H. Thomas, in Middle Tennessee; the Fifteenth, Major-General W. T. Sherman; the Sixteenth, Major-General Hurlbut, then at or near Memphis; and the Seventeenth, Major-General McPherson, also at and back of Memphis.  General Grant when at Napoleon, on the 18th of January, ordered McClernand with his own and my corps to return to Vicksburg, to disembark on the west bank, and to resume work on a canal across the peninsula, which had been begun by General Thomas Williams the summer before, the object being to turn the Mississippi River at that point, or at least to make a passage for our fleet of gunboats and transports across the peninsula, opposite Vicksburg.  General Grant then returned to Memphis, ordered to Lake Providence, about sixty miles above us, McPherson’s corps, the Seventeenth, and then came down again to give his personal supervision to the whole movement.

The Mississippi River was very high and rising, and we began that system of canals on which we expended so much hard work fruitlessly:  first, the canal at Young’s plantation, opposite Vicksburg; second, that at Lake Providence; and third, at the Yazoo Pass, leading into the head-waters of the Yazoo River.  Early in February the gunboats Indianola and Queen of the West ran the batteries of Vicksburg.  The latter was afterward crippled in Red River, and was captured by the rebels; and the Indianola was butted and sunk about forty miles below Vicksburg.  We heard the booming of the guns, but did not know of her loss till some days after.  During the months of January and February, we were digging the canal and fighting off the water of the Mississippi, which continued to rise and threatened to drown us.  We had no sure place of refuge except the narrow levee, and such steamboats as remained abreast of our camps.  My two divisions furnished alternately a detail of five hundred men a day, to work on the canal.  So high was the water in the beginning of March, that McClernand’s corps was moved to higher ground, at Milliken’s Bend, but I remained at Young’s plantation, laid off a due proportion of the levee for each subdivision of my command, and assigned other parts to such steamboats as lay at the levee.  My own headquarters were in Mrs. Grove’s house, which had the water all around it, and could only be reached by a plank-walk from the levee, built on posts.  General Frederick Steele commanded the first division, and General D. Smart the second; this latter division had been reenforced by General Hugh Ewing’s brigade, which had arrived from West Virginia.

At the time of its date I received the following note from General Grant: 

MILLIKEN’S BEND, March 16, 1863

General SHERMAN.

DEAR SIR:  I have just returned from a reconnoissance up Steele’s Bayou, with the admiral (Porter), and five of his gunboats.  With some labor in cutting tree-tops out of the way, it will be navigable for any class of steamers.

I want you to have your pioneer corps, or one regiment of good men for such work, detailed, and at the landing as soon as possible.