join their command. I await your direction whether I shall recall the detachment or send General Smith to re-enforce, and protect the line of communication until General McPherson come up.

JOHN A. McClernand.

PERKINS' PLANTATION, La., April 27, 1863-11 p. m.

Major General John A. McClernand, Comdg. Thirteenth Army Corps:

The position now occupied by the enemy at Choctaw Bayou is one from which they can be easily driven, if not captured, by sending a force to engage them in front, while the majority of the force take the road leading by the northeast side of Bruin's Lake. This latter road seems to be the one mass of the troops should take to reach river bank near to and below Grand Gulf.

If you satisfied that Smith's DIVISION will not find transportation here, they should start early in the morning by this route. Logan's DIVISION will also follow them to-morrow.

The troops of Osterhaus, now out, cannot be brought back until relieved by other troops, and that will be too late for them to take part in the present movement with their DIVISION. You might, if the transportation at hand will justify, leave one brigade of Smith's DIVISION to act with Osterhaus until all the troops can be brought together, and direct Smith to take command of the two regiments on the road when he comes up with them.

This force of Harrison's should be driven entirely out of the country, or captured.

U. S. GRANT.

HEADQUARTERS THIRTEENTH ARMY CORPS, Perkin's Plantation, La., April 27, 1863.

DIVISION Commanders:

Commanders of DIVISIONS to whom boats have been assigned for the embarkation of their commands will hasten to embark them, at least as far as the capacity of the boats assigned will permit, and will, when embarked, report the fact.

In moving from this landing, the ram General Price, as the

flag-ship of the transport fleet, will take and keep the lead. The Fourteenth DIVISION will follow next, the Twelfth DIVISION next.

The destination of the transport fleet is Grand Gulf. When the flag-ship General Price shall have landed or cast anchor in the vicinity of that place, the rest of the transport fleet will do the same, as near as may be in the order of its movements; but the transport will be careful to keep beyond the range of the enemy's batteries.

When the gunboats shall have silenced all the batteries commanding the river, the flag-ship General Price will hasten to the shore, which will be the signal for all the transport to do the same. Any transports that may not see the flag-ship will follow those that may immediately precede them.

In approaching the shore, and in landing, the commanders of the Fourteenth and NINTH DIVISIONS will bear in mind the importance of preserving their proper relations from right to left, and their connection with each other, and of gaining which will facilitate the seizure of the commanding positions below the bold promontory bounded on