Samuel R. Curtis to Willis A. Gorman, January 28, 1863
Brig. Gen. WILLIS A. GORMAN, Commanding District Eastern Arkansas :
GENERAL: I am in receiptof three letters of yours from Devall’s Bluff, and also your telegram of the 22d from Helena, via Memphis, saying you are busy sending force down theriver. Everything seems to depend on the results at Vicksburg, so we must work, pray, and wait. I approve of your return to Helena, as it was consistent with my orders from headquarters and my orderstoyou. Any further progress would have taken you so far away as to delay some of the troops in the down-river move, which now cannot be said of us. I hope you will retain ample force to hold Helena and the neighborhood. An order from the President authorizes General Grant to take temporary command of a portion of Eastern Arkansas, and I have written to Grantt to know what he will include insuch command. You will, of course, obey his orders if he as. sumes command extended over Helena or any other part of my department in Arkansas, as be has orders to this effect, and I have desired he should have all needful power to secure the earliest possible success.
I am, general, very
truly yours,
Major-General.
SPRINGFIELD, Mo., January 28, 1863.
Major-General OuURTTS:
if that route be chosen. It was my original intention to construct them,
but the storms and bad roads, as reported by General Herron, rendered
it, as I believed, too dangerous a packet at this season, yet we may still