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

The plan here sketched, and which was eventually adopted, had a double chance of success. Either Sherman, going down the Mississippi to the mouth of the Yazoo, could present a new base for Grant, from which the latter could supply himself, when he also struck the Yazoo, in the interior; or, if this should be found impracticable or less desirable, Grant could hold the main body of the enemy at, or near Grenada, confronting him, while Sherman might step in and take Vicksburg. By this strategy, Grant assumed what seemed the more ungrateful part of the undertaking, leaving the prize of the campaign to be secured by his subordinate. The same peculiarity was also conspicuous in some of his later programmes, but in each instance, Fortune overruled his arrangements and brought about her own conclusions, apparently resolved to dispose of her own favors.

On the 5th of the month, in reply to Grant's suggestions, Halleck directed him not to attempt to hold the country south of the Tallahatchie, but to collect twenty-five thousand troops at Memphis, by the 20th, for the Vicksburg expedition. On the 7th, Grant answered that he would send two divisions to Memphis in a few days, and asked: ‘Do you want me to command the expedition to Vicksburg, or shall I send Sherman?’ To which Halleck replied: ‘You may move your troops as you may deem best to accomplish the great object in view. . . Ask Porter to cooperate. Telegraph what are your present plans.’ Grant answered at once, on the 8th: