“Give us whatever provisions you can spare,” said General Washburne, “and then hurry up to Memphis as fast as you can with Captains Winslow and Noble. They 'll get supplies for us and have them shipped down here to meet the army by the time it arrives.”
The boat was not well provided with stores, as she had no occasion for anything beyond sufficient to feed her company to Memphis, but whatever she had was quickly rolled on the bank and handed over to the quartermaster of the division. When this had been done she immediately steamed away for Memphis, ninety miles up the river. She was obliged to lie at anchor during the night, owing to a dense fog, and did not reach Memphis until the following forenoon.
Supplies were immediately shipped to Helena, and by the morning of the fourteenth they were piled on the bank—a welcome sight to the soldiers, that marched in as closely behind the cavalry as it was possible for infantry to follow. The march from Clarendon was accomplished in little more than two days, and not a wagon was lost or left behind. By the evening of the thirteenth all the divisions had arrived, and anxiously waited the provisions which came to them on the following morning. Hundreds of hands were ready to assist in the landing, and rarely has a steamboat discharged her cargo with greater celerity.
The column was followed by a great number of negroes, who feared the treatment they would receive from their masters after the departure of the union forces from Clarendon. At one time it was remarked that there were more negroes than white men in Helena, and the support of the colored population became a matter of serious consequence. The difficulty was partially solved a few months later, when it was decided to enlist negroes as soldiers, and several regiments of them were formed for infantry and cavalry service. Thousands of able-bodied citizens of African descent were enrolled in the army, and though they had their defects they did credit to themselves, besides exasperating the rebels to an unwonted degree. Many of the rebel officers subsequently declared that their greatest mistake was that they did not arm their negroes early in the war, and promise to give them their freedom at the end.
