In the evening I
returned to headquarters to hurry up reinforcements. Sherman went in
person on the 16th, taking with him Stuart's division of the 15th corps.
They took large river transports to Eagle Bend on the Mississippi, where
they debarked and marched across to Steel's Bayou, where they
re-embarked on the transports. The river steamers, with their tall
smokestacks and light guards extending out, were so much impeded that
the gunboats got far ahead. Porter, with his fleet, got within a few
hundred yards of where the sailing would have been clear and free from
the obstructions caused by felling trees into the water, when he
encountered rebel sharp-shooters, and his progress was delayed by
obstructions in his front. He could do nothing with gunboats against
sharpshooters. The rebels, learning his route, had sent in about 4,000
men--many more than there were sailors in the fleet.
Sherman went back, at the request of the admiral, to clear out Black
Bayou and to hurry up reinforcements, which were far behind. On the
night of the 19th he received notice from the admiral that he had been
attacked by sharp-shooters and was in imminent peril. Sherman at once
returned through Black Bayou in a canoe, and passed on until he met a
steamer, with the last of the reinforcements he had, coming up.
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