Unknown to Edwin M. Stanton, November 15, 1862
Springfield, Ill., November 15, 1862.
Hon. E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War, Washington City, D. O.:
Mr. Montgomery, late editor of the Vicksburg Whig, informs me, upon the authority of his mother, just arrived from Vicksburg, that Pemberton, Smith, and Villepigue, with only 5,000 men, are at that place, and that they are repairing the portion of the railroad, 18 miles in length, leading from a point opposite Vicksburg across the Mississippi bottom, particularly for the purpose of facilitating the introduction of supplies from the Washita country.
He also says the enemy are fortifying Hainesâ Bluff, on the Yazoo River, 12 miles from Vicksburg, and communicating with that place by a ridge road; also that the enemy are fortifying Port Hudson, below Bayou Sara, declaring that they will make that point more difficult to pass than Vicksburg. Would it not be advisable that the gunboats poly Cues point should be ordered to frustrate this design, if practicable
_The way cleared from New Orleans to Vicksburg, it would be expedient that transports, under convoy of gunboats, should be sent up the Mississippi to @ point as near Vicksburg as might be found safe to meet the contingency of a determination to cross our troops over the river
below it, after having disembarked them above and marched them around.
Having already given my views as to the importance of dispatch in setting the proposed expedition for opening the Mississippi in motion, I will not consume your valuable time by adding anything more on that subject.
Yours, truly, JOHN A. McCLERNAND, Major- General.