I confess, at that moment I did not dream that General McClernand, or anybody else, was scheming for the mere honor of capturing Vicksburg.

We knew at the time that General Butler had been reenforced by General Banks at New Orleans, and the latter was supposed to be working his way up-stream from New Orleans, while we were working down.

That day General Grant dispatched to General Halleck, in Washington, as follows: OXFORD, December 8, 1862.
Major-General H.W.HALLECK, Washington, D.C.: General Sherman will command the expedition down the Mississippi.
He will have a force of about forty thousand men; will land above Vicksburg (up the Yazoo, if practicable), and out the Mississippi Central road and the road running east from Vicksburg, where they cross Black River.

I will cooperate from here, my movements depending on those of the enemy.

With the large cavalry force now at my command, I will be able to have them show themselves at different points on the Tallahatchie and Yalabusha; and, when an opportunity occurs, make a real attack.