Fort Donelson will hereafter be marked in capitals on the maps of our united country, and the men who fought the battle will live in the memory of a grateful people.
U. S. Grant,
Major-General commanding.
General Grant to the Assistant Adjutant-General.
Headquarters, Department of the Tennessee,
col60 Vicksburg, Mississippi, July 6, 1863
To
Colonel J. C. Kelton,
Assistant Adjutant-General, Washington, D. C.
Colonel: I have the honor to submit the following report of the operations of the Army of the Tennessee, and co-operating forces, from the date of my assuming the immediate command of the expedition against Vicksburg, Mississippi, to the reduction of that place.
From the moment of taking command in person I became satisfied that Vicksburg could only be turned from the south side, and, in accordance with this conviction, I prosecuted the work on the canal, which had been located by Brigadier-General Williams, across the peninsula, on the Louisiana side of the river, with all vigor, hoping to make a channel which would pass transports for moving the army and carrying supplies to the new base of operations thus provided. The task was much more herculean than it at first appeared, and was made much more so by the almost continuous rains that fell during the whole of the time this work was prosecuted. The river, too, continued to rise and make a large expenditure of labor necessary to keep the water out of our camps and the canal.
Finally, on the 8th of March, the rapid rise of the river and the consequent great pressure upon the dam across the canal, near the upper end, at the main Mississippi levee, caused it to give way and let through the low lands at the back of our camps a torrent of water that separated the north and south shores of the peninsula as effectually as if the Mississippi flowed between them. This occurred when the enterprise promised success within a short time. There was some delay in trying to repair damages. It was found, however, that with the then stage of water, some other plan would have to be adopted for getting below Vicksburg with transports.
Captain F. E. Prime, Chief Engineer, and Colonel G. G. Pride, who was acting on my staff, prospected a route through the bayous which run from near Milliken's Bend on the north and New Carthage on the south, through Roundaway Bayou into the Tensas river. Their report of the practicability of this route determined me to commence work upon it. Having three dredge boats at the time, the work of opening this work was executed with great rapidity. One small steamer and a number of barges were taken through the channel thus opened, but the river commencing about the middle of April to fall rapidly, and the roads becoming passable between Milliken's Bend and New Carthage, made it impracticable and unnecessary to open water communication between these points.
Soon after commencing the first canal spoken of, I caused a channel to be cut from the Mississippi river into Lake Providence; also one from the Mississippi river into Coldwater, by way of Yazoo Pass.