Adam Badeau, Military history of Ulysses S. Grant from April 1861 to April 1865. Volume 1

‘ [420] am just out of bed, and find that I can write only with great difficulty. During the twenty days that I have been confined to one position on my back, I have apparently been in the most perfect health, but now that I am up on crutches I find myself very weak.’

On the same day, Halleck's dispatches of the 13th arrived, and Grant replied: ‘I will now send Sherman to West Tennessee, with two more divisions of his corps. This leaves one division of Sherman's corps here, but it is replaced by one of McPherson's, already above.’ Sherman was accordingly notified to hold his command in readiness to move to the support of Rosecrans. It was some days before the requisite transportation could be obtained, although every steamer on the river was again detained for the purpose; but, on the 27th, Sherman embarked in person for Memphis, followed by a fleet of boats, conveying Morgan L. Smith and Hugh Ewing's divisions. Tuttle's division of the Fifteenth corps was to remain with McPherson, in exchange for that of John E. Smith, which had already started for Memphis, from Helena, and of which, also, Sherman was to assume command.

As it was certain that the rebels would soon become aware of the movement of Sherman's column, and in all probability attempt at once to prevent or obstruct it, Grant now ordered McPherson to send an expedition to Canton and Jackson. This was designed to distract the enemy, and threaten other points still further east, so that, if possible, all the hostile force in Mississippi might be recalled to McPherson's front, and the march of Sherman from Memphis by way of Corinth, Tuscumbia, and Decatur