On Monday, March 16, 1863, while the Yazoo Pass expedition was ending in front of Fort Pemberton on the Yalobusha* River north of Confederate held Vicksburg, General Ulysses Grant and Admiral David Porter launched yet another movement against the city via Steele’s Bayou.
Eleven Union vessels supported by General William Tecumseh Sherman’s infantry would spearhead the drive through some two hundred miles of tortuous, twisting bayous from the Yazoo River to Steele’s Bayou at the rear of Vicksburg’s main defenses.
The Confederates, ready for such an effort, had obstructed the narrow waterways, making any significant progress laborious, slow, and costly to the attacking Union forces. The complex topography of Vicksburg’s low lying lands continued effectively to stymie the Union’s efforts.