enable the commander there to cope successfully with the Union forces that attacked the forts at Haines' Bluff.
On the 2d January the troops at Chickasaw Bayou were re-embarked. They left the Yazoo and ascended the Mississippi to Milliken's Bend, about 12 miles above Vicksburg, and there on the 4th January, General M'Clernand assumed command. To restore in as great measure as possible the morale of the troops disheartened by the failure at Haines' Bluff, General M'Clernand ordered an attack upon Fort Hindman at Arkansas Post, on the Arkansas River, a short distance from its mouth. This fort commanded the navigation of the Arkansas River and was a convenient striking point from which to interfere with the safe navigation of the Mississippi by the Union boats. Two transports had been captured by sallies of the Confederates from Fort Hindman; its garrison was known to be small and the capture would not be a difficult matter for the forces under General M'Clernand.
Fort Hindman was a regular, square bastioned work, 300 feet on each exterior side, with a parapet 18 feet high and a ditch 15 feet deep. It mounted 12 guns, two of them 8-inch and one 9-inch. The garrison comprised about 6,000 troops under command of Brigadier-General Churchill.
During the evening of the 10th January, the gun-boats bombarded the fort for about half an hour, from a distance of 400 yards. On the 11th, a combined attack of the army and navy was made, the army having been landed during the night and taken a position in the rear of the fort. The battle lasted for four hours; attack and defence were ably conducted, and when further resistance was useless, the Confederates displayed the white flag and the works were occupied by the Union forces. Seven thousand prisoners, 8,000 stand of arms, 20 pieces of artillery, and a large amount of ammunition and commissary stores were taken. The Union loss was 120 killed and about 480
