The transports did not fare so well although they followed behind.

The road was somewhat cleared for them by the gunboats.

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.