s, to General McClernand. The total number of Confederate troops
taken was 5,000.

It was impossible that the work of the navy could be done more
thoroughly than in this instance. Every gun opposed to it was either
destroyed or dismounted, and the casemates were knocked to pieces, the
fire of the X-inch guns of the De Kalb being in the opinion of the
enemy most injurious. In performing this service the vessels did not
come off scatheless. The De Kalb had one 32-pounder gun dismounted and
one X-inch destroyed, besides undergoing severe damage to the hull.
The other vessels were repeatedly struck, but none were rendered unfit
for immediate service. The armor was found to protect them well, the
injuries to the crew being by shot entering the ports. The casualties,
confined to the Louisville and De Kalb, were 6 killed and 25 wounded.

The next morning, January 12th, the admiral despatched the De Kalb and
Cincinnati, under Lieutenant-Commander Walker, to the White River;
transports and troops, under General Gorman, accompanying. St. Charles
was reached at 11 A.M. of the 14th, and found to be evacuated; the
garrison, having left on the evening of the 12th, in the Blue Wing,
taking with them two VIII-inch guns and a field battery. Leaving the
Cincinnati here, the De Kalb with the troops pushed on to Duvall's
Bluff, fifty miles further up, where is the crossing of the railroad
to Little Rock, on the Arkansas River. The transports were left four
miles below, while the De Kalb steamed up to the bluff, arriving there
at 3 P.M. of the 16th. She was close on the heels of the Blue Wing,
which got away fifteen minutes before her arrival, but the two
VIII-inch guns were seized in the act of being loaded on the cars for
Little Rock. At this point of his progress, the orders issued by
General Grant for the return of McClernand's forces to before
Vicksburg were received. The depot buildings and captured rolling
stock having been destroyed, the gunboats and transports rejoined the
main body in the Mississippi.

The naval vessels, on the 24th of January, lay off the mouth of the
Yazoo, and from there to the neck of land opposite Vicksburg, where
the army under Grant's orders was disembarking. A few days before
Porter had been obliged to withdraw the gunboats, because the coal
supply of the fleet was exhausted. During their absence eleven
Confederate transports that had been employed on the river between
Vicksburg and Port Hudson went up