ARRIVAL AT WHITE RIVER

On this day, McClernand's flotilla and the 16th Ohio, floating up the Mississippi River in a fleet of 60 steamboats, reached the mouth of the Arkansas River in the early morning. Here, the fleet paused, seemingly in preparation for the military action soon to come.

Private Gorsuch, Company B, tells us that the wounded, carried up from Chickasaw Bayou, were sent up the river. It can be assumed these wounded were sent to hospitals in Memphis, Cairo and St. Louis.

* Some information from Civil War Diaries and Selected Letters of Robert Newton Gorsuch, a private in Company B, 16th OVI, recently published in book form by Newt Gorsuch's great grandson, Everett Gorsuch Smith, Jr. The book is available for purchase from various Internet sources.

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Modern day map of the 16th Ohio's journey north on the Mississippi River toward Arkansas Post, Arkansas (positions approximated):

Yellow pin - Notional point where Sherman's flotilla reached on the night of January 5, 1863
Blue pin - Notional point where Sherman's flotilla reached on the night of January 6, 1863
Green pin - Notional point where Sherman's flotilla reached on the night of January 7, 1863
Purple pin - Notional point where Sherman's flotilla reached on the morning of January 8, 1863 - mouth of the White River
Lavender pushpin - Site of Arkansas Post or Fort Hindman, Arkansas, a Confederate stronghold and Gen. McClernand's destination