Steele ' s Bayou Expedition 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 . Exploiting this , the Rebels further impeded progress by felling trees across the stream , and brought the Union force to a halt within of the Rolling Fork . The flotilla would have retreated , but Confederate troops got in their rear on Deer Creek and began felling trees there also . With his vessels effectively trapped , Porter sent an urgent appeal for help to the Army , and then issued orders to his captains to prepare to destroy their ships rather than let them fall into enemy hands . The soldiers , with the personal prodding of Major General William T . Sherman , made a forced march that got to the flotilla on March 22 . They easily drove off the Confederate patrols that were blocking the retreat , so Porter and his vessels were able to move back into Steele ' s Bayou . By March 27 , the entire expedition was back on the Mississippi , having accomplished nothing . The Steele ' s Bayou Expedition was Grant ' s last attempt to attack Pemberton ' s right flank . Following its failure , he turned his attention to the enemy left flank , and soon began the movement that led to the capture of Vicksburg . Background . The campaign to capture the Confederate stronghold at Vicksburg , Mississippi , the last major obstacle to Union control of the Mississippi River , had bogged down in the winter of 1862 – 1863 . The Union ' s Major General Ulysses S . Grant had put into motion several operations aiming at flanking Confederate Lieutenant General John C . Pemberton ' s fixed defenses . Grant wanted to keep his troops busy until he could begin active campaigning later in the spring , so he ordered them to undertake several moves that would give the appearance of activity but would not bring on a major battle . Writing in his memoirs long after the event , he stated that he did not have great confidence that any of them would prove successful , although he was prepared to take advantage of them if they did . Not only had the operations failed to produce any good results , but the last , the joint Army – Navy operation known as the Yazoo Pass Expedition , was in danger of being captured or destroyed before it could extricate itself from enemy territory . Grant and Acting Rear Admiral David D . Porter therefore set one more operation in motion . Like the others , it was an effort to get on the enemy flank ; it had the additional purpose of relieving some of the pressure on the earlier expedition . To avoid the lethargy in command that had hampered the Yazoo Pass operation , Porter himself went with the gunboats , and the Army was under the personal direction of Major General William T . Sherman . Grant ' s orders to Sherman lay out the course of the expedition . They also show that he was not completely sure of its success . " You will proceed as early as practicable up Steele ' s Bayou and through Black Bayou to Deer Creek , and thence with the gunboats now there , by any route they may take , to get into the Yazoo River for the purpose of determining the feasibility of getting an army through that route to the east bank of that river , and at a point at which they can act advantageously against Vicksburg . " Geography . The expedition was very much limited by the geography of the Mississippi Delta , the flood plain of the river occupying most of northwestern Mississippi . The land is quite low and is in fact lower in many places than the river . The region is characterized by numerous marshes , brakes , sloughs , bayous , lakes , creeks , and rivers that in the geologic past were parts of the river bed . Until the middle of the nineteenth century , overflow from the Mississippi continued to pass into these waters , and they could be used as alternatives to the main river for water transportation . When railroads provided more convenient commerce , however , levees to contain the flow had been built , and the land was partially drained . Then , when the war came , the levee was breached for the Yazoo Pass expedition , and the land was again flooded . Minor waterways swelled to the size of small rivers , raising the possibility that Union gunboats could travel on them . Porter believed that he could send his gunboats and army transports up Steele ' s Bayou ( present - day Steele Bayou ) to Black Bayou , into Deer Creek , then Rolling Fork , and finally into the ( Big ) Sunflower River . The last met the Yazoo River a short distance upstream from the bluffs where a major Union attack had been repulsed in late 1862 . Porter had to rely on imperfect maps and the advice of local citizens who did not understand the difficulties of moving heavy warships in a narrow channel with numerous bends . He was therefore unprepared for the problems presented by Deer Creek . There the straight - line distance between the entry point at Black Bayou and the exit at Rolling Fork , , was only half the distance along the creek , . He was also unaware of the impedance to mobility imposed by the overhanging trees that grew down to the water ' s edge and by the submerged vegetation that seized the hulls of his vessels . When encountered , these problems limited progress of the gunboats to as little as every two hours . Start of the expedition and Confederate response . The expedition entered Steele ' s Bayou on March 14 . The naval contingent was spearheaded by five Pook turtles , , , , , and . 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 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 . Sherman ' s army comes . Porter now had to consider the possibility that his vessels would be trapped . Although they were in no immediate danger , the Rebels could starve him out . He sent a message to Sherman outlining his predicament and urging him to hasten to the rescue . Meanwhile , preparing for the worst , he ordered his captains to be ready to destroy their ships rather than let them fall into enemy hands . The remaining Union soldiers were still at the head of Black Bayou , not yet having entered Deer Creek . They had encountered unexpected difficulties in moving from the Mississippi across Steele ' s Bayou , and consequently they were still more than by land from the flotilla . When Sherman heard the noise of battle , he put his troops into motion . After a forced march of a day and a half , they arrived just as the Confederates were mounting an attack on the 8th Missouri . Taken in the rear , the Rebels withdrew , and the sailors greeted their savior enthusiastically . Porter now had adequate Army support to be completely out of danger , so the retreat continued . Aside from minor rear guard action , the expedition was over . By March 27 , the flotilla was back in the Mississippi , where they awaited the next move that Porter and Grant had in store for them . Aftermath . With the collapse of the Steele ' s Bayou expedition , Grant had lost his last chance to attack the Confederate right flank . Porter , together with most others , thought that the Union forces should pull back to Memphis to regroup and consider what to do next . Grant , however , had no such inclination , and he turned to the prospect of attacking the Confederate left . Porter unhesitatingly accepted Grant ' s position , and he immediately began to advise the general how best to incorporate the Navy into his plans . The ensuing close working arrangement between the two men became an important part of the rest of the Vicksburg campaign . Porter ' s easy acquiescence in the plans of the commanding general is an indication of his military maturity . In the view of his biographer Chester Hearn , the failure of the Steele ' s Bayou expedition at an earlier time in his career would likely have resulted in recriminations against his subordinates , superiors , and colleagues . As it happened , however , he recognized that all the others had given their best . He also saw that success was most likely to be achieved if the Army and Navy were to collaborate fully . Seen in this light , the expedition is more than simply a failed operation ; it was a necessary prelude to final victory .