COUNCIL OF WAR

The 16th Ohio and Sherman's fleet resumed their float down the Yazoo River to the Mississippi. They then moved north on the river to Milliken's Bend and docked for the night, the soldiers staying aboard their appointed ships. Pvt. Peter Perrine states the Union forces were joined by Gen. John A. McClernand where an expedition to Arkansas Post was planned.

It should be noted that as Sherman's force exited the Chickasaw Bayou battlefield, it was met by General John A. McClernand, on board the steamer Tigress, at the mouth of the Yazoo River. General Grant had sent McClernand to assume command of Sherman's force. McClernand brought the news that Grant's force was not coming to Vicksburg via a land route through Mississippi but had turned back to Holly Springs and Memphis. As stated by Pvt. Frank Mason, 42nd Ohio.

It was this withdrawal of Gen. Grant's attack from the North, which, as already related, had left (Confederate) Gen. Pemberton free to throw his whole army upon us at Chickasaw Bayou.

Sherman's force was re-organized by McClernand, while on board their steamers, into two Corps. The First was commanded by Gen. Geo. W. Morgan, the Second by Gen. Sherman, with Gen. McClernand being chief commander. Pvt. Mason further states:

While we had been operating on the Yazoo, a small ordnance steamer, the 'Blue WIng', coming down with a load of musket cartridges and mails for the army, was captured by a Rebel boat which had come out of the Arkansas river. The captured steamer had been towed up the latter stream to Arkansas Post, or Fort Hindman as it was called, about forty miles from the Mississippi.

This action helped form the idea, suggested by Gen. Sherman, to use their large force to remove the threat to Union boats on the Mississippi posed by the Confederate installation at Arkansas Post (Fort Hindman). Gen. McClernand fell into a good opportunity to make a name for himself while helping to restore confidence in the battered troops from Chickasaw Bayou.

* Some information, quotations and paraphrasing, above, taken from The Forty-Second Ohio Infantry - A History of the Organization and Services of That Regiment In the War of the Rebellion, 1876 - F. H. Mason, late Private of Company A - Cobb, Andrews & Co., Publisher.

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Modern day map of the 16th Ohio's journey from a point on the Yazoo River to Milliken's Bend on the Mississippi River, northwest of Vicksburg (positions approximated):

Red pin - Chickasaw Bayou battlefield, from where the 16th Ohio and Sherman's troops evacuated the evening of January 1, 1863
Blue pin - notional point where Sherman's flotilla reached on the night of January 1, 1863
Green pin - Millken's Bend, Louisiana, on the Mississippi River, where Sherman's flotilla reach and docked on the night of January 2, 1863