page_title: Steele's Bayou expedition
section_title: Start of the expedition and Confederate response
hierarchical_section_title: Steele's Bayou expedition / Start of the expedition and Confederate response
caption_attribution_description: English: Map of the area affected by the Steele's Bayou Expedition of the American Civil War, March 1863, with emphasis on locations of Confederate defenses.
context_page_description: The Steele's Bayou expedition was a joint operation of Major General Ulysses S. Grant's Army of the Tennessee and Rear Admiral David D. Porter's Mississippi River Squadron, conducted as a part of the Vicksburg Campaign of the American Civil War. Its aim was to move Union forces from the Mississippi River to a point on the Yazoo River upstream of Confederate Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton's defenses of Vicksburg. To avoid enemy artillery in place on the bluffs to the east of the city, the expedition would leave the Yazoo and proceed indirectly on a route through a series of waterways in the flood plain to the east of the Mississippi.
  The army and navy contingents of the expedition moved separately, although their movements were coordinated. The naval flotilla moved into Steele's Bayou on March 14, 1863. Two army transports followed them on the opening leg; others were to come later if the route were to prove satisfactory. Traversing Steele's Bayou was not particularly difficult, but the second leg, along Deer Creek, proved impossible. The waterway, narrow and with frequent turns, forced the vessels to move at snail's pace.
context_section_description: The expedition entered Steele's Bayou on March 14. The naval contingent was spearheaded by five Pook turtles, USS Louisville, Cincinnati, Carondelet, Mound City, and Pittsburg. Four tugs pulling mortar rafts added to the firepower. In addition, soldiers in two Army transports followed the flotilla. General Sherman himself was with the troops. The gunboats got through Steele's Bayou and Black Bayou by the end of the second day, and there Sherman overtook them. He saw that the overgrowth would be a serious obstacle; while the armored gunboats could push aside the limbs in their path, the smokestacks and upper works of the flimsier transports would be severely battered. Nevertheless, Porter decided to push on, and Sherman returned to bring up the rest of his soldiers.
  Meanwhile, the Confederate Army was not idle. Major General Carter L. Stevenson, who commanded the Confederate district, was aware of the growing threat to Vicksburg almost as soon as the expedition cleared Steele's Bayou. He had his division commander Major General Dabney H. Maury order Brigadier General Winfield S. Featherston to take his brigade to the Rolling Fork–Deer Creek juncture. The order was intercepted by Brigadier General Stephen D. Lee, who decided on his own to reinforce Featherston's brigade with one of his own regiments.
  By March 20 Confederate troops began to arrive at the Rolling Fork and the upper end of Deer Creek. The earliest Rebel troops to arrive were those of Lee, a battalion of infantry, six field pieces of artillery, and 40 to 50 cavalry, all led by Lieutenant  Colonel Samuel W. Ferguson. They had been at Fort Pemberton, the most serious impediment to the Yazoo Pass expedition. The removal of Ferguson's men gave the Federal commander there, Brigadier General Isaac F. Quinby, a good chance to take the fort, but Quinby remained unaware of his advantage. The opportunity to satisfy that part of Grant's strategy was missed.
  The Rebel soldiers began by felling trees across Deer Creek, further impeding the progress of the flotilla. Porter sent some 300 of his sailors ashore under Lieutenant Commander John M. Murphy with orders to clear away the opposition. They occupied a small Indian mound that dominated the field and were for a time able to drive the enemy away, and the gunboats managed to crawl forward to within a 0.5 miles (0.80 km) of the Rolling Fork. There they skirmished with Ferguson's force until the light failed, and the Union shore party retired to the protection of the armor of their vessels.
  Ferguson renewed the attack the next day, March 21. Ferguson put his soldiers again to work obstructing the stream. Porter realized that he was blocked, so he began to reverse his course back down Deer Creek. About the time the ships began to move, however, a plantation slave brought word that some of the Confederate troops had slipped around the flotilla and were felling trees in their rear. The report was confirmed by (Union) Colonel Giles Smith of the 8th Missouri Infantry, who had come up Deer Creek and had counted more than forty large trees lying across the stream.  Smith's regiment was welcome protection, but they were not strong enough to drive the enemy off.
caption: Map included with report of General Dill (CSA), referencing points he mentioned in the report. Compare the irregular path of Deer Creek shown here with the smoother path shown in Porter's map.
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