guns, the loss or damage to the Confederates was trifling; they reported altogether 7 killed and 15 wounded.
During the latter half of 1862 no material advance towards the opening of the Mississippi was made. The Confederates resumed the offensive, sending the larger part of the army that withdrew from Shiloh to reinforce the army that was defending Chattanooga. The Army of the Ohio, under General Buell, was forced back through Tennessee and Kentucky; the Army of the Tennessee, under General Grant, advanced along the line of the Mississippi Central Railway and was making good progress towards a position on the line in the rear of Vicksburg. General Pemberton commanded the Confederate forces opposed to General Grant; he held the line of the Tallahatchie River, and in order to drive him from it General Grant sent a cavalry force under Generals Washburne and Hovey to cut the line of railway and menace Pemberton's communications. This movement caused him to abandon the line of the Tallahatchie and fall back to Grenada, and as soon as he had done so the Union line was advanced through Holly Springs to Oxford, where head-quarters were established on the 3d December.
Grant proceeded to accumulate large quantities of stores and munitions of war at Holly Springs preparatory to another advance. Realizing the danger of a long line of railway through an enemy's country, he decided to make an attempt to establish a position in the rear of Vicksburg, which would enable him to cut loose from his line of railway and advance, en l' air, until he could connect with the new base and thus have a secure position from which to prosecute the siege of Vicksburg. To establish this base he ordered the corps which formed his right wing to be embarked on transports and convoyed by the gun-boat fleet to the mouth of the Yazoo River a few miles above Vicksburg. Ascending the river some ten or twelve miles, it was to land and occupy Haines' Bluff, a commanding position in the rear of the city.
