cattered through the streams of the Yazoo country
would be at the mercy of the gunboats.

After a short preliminary reconnoissance as far as Black Bayou, which
indicated that the enterprise was feasible, though arduous, and having
received encouraging accounts of the remainder of the route, the
admiral started on the 16th of March with five ironclads: the
Louisville, Lieutenant-Commander E.K. Owen; Cincinnati, Lieutenant
George M. Bache; Carondelet, Lieutenant J.M. Murphy; Mound City,
Lieutenant Byron Wilson; Pittsburg, Lieutenant W.B. Hoel; four
mortars, and four tugs. All went well till Black Bayou was reached.
This is about four miles long, narrow, and very crooked, and was then
filled with trees. Here the crews had to go to work, dragging the
trees up by the roots, or pushing them over with the ironclads, and
cutting away the heavy overhanging branches. Having done this the
ironclads were able to force their way through the bushes and trees
which lined the banks and clung closely to the bows and sides of the
vessels, but the way remained impracticable for transports and wooden
boats. In twenty-four hours the ironclads had gotten through these
four miles to Hill's plantation, at the junction of Black Bayou and
Deer Creek.

General W.T. Sherman had been directed to support the movement with
one division of his corps and a body of pioneers. The number of
steamers fit for the bayou navigation being limited, the division was
landed on the east bank of the Mississippi and crossed by land to
Steele's Bayou, which there approaches to within a mile of the river.
The pioneers followed the admiral up Black Bayou, and when the
gunboats entered Deer Creek remained to further clear the bayou. On
the 20th the work had progressed so that two transports entered as far
as a mile and a half below Hill's, where was the first piece of dry
land between that point and the mouth of the Yazoo, the country
generally being under water.

Meanwhile the admiral had pushed on up Deer Creek, where the water was
deep but the channel narrow, crooked, and filled with young willows,
which bound the boats and made progress very difficult. The bends were
sharp, and much trouble was experienced in heaving the vessels around
them, while the banks were lined with heavy trees and overhanging
branches that would tear down the chimneys and demolish boats and
light woodwork. Still they worked on, making from half a mile to a
mile an hour. The enemy, notwit