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The Steele's Bayou Expedition was a joint operation of Major General Ulysses S. Grant's Army of the Tennessee and Rear Admiral David D. Porter's Mississippi River Squadron, conducted as a part of the Vicksburg Campaign of the American Civil War. Its aim was to move Union forces from the Mississippi River to a point on the Yazoo River upstream of Confederate Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton's defenses of Vicksburg. To avoid enemy artillery in place on the bluffs to the east of the city,〔The Confederate forces on the Yazoo had inflicted severe losses on the Union Army at the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou in late December 1863.〕 the expedition would leave the Yazoo and proceed indirectly on a route through a series of waterways in the flood plain to the east of the Mississippi. The army and navy contingents of the expedition moved separately, although their movements were coordinated. The naval flotilla moved into Steele's Bayou on March 14, 1863. Two army transports followed them on the opening leg; others were to come later if the route were to prove satisfactory. Traversing Steele's Bayou was not particularly difficult, but the second leg, along Deer Creek, proved impossible. The waterway, narrow and with frequent turns, forced the vessels to move at snail's pace. Exploiting this, the Rebels further impeded progress by felling trees across the stream, and brought the Union force to a halt within of the Rolling Fork. The flotilla would have retreated, but Confederate troops got in their rear on Deer Creek and began felling trees there also. With his vessels effectively trapped, Porter sent an urgent appeal for help to the Army, and then issued orders to his captains to prepare to destroy their ships rather than let them fall into enemy hands. The soldiers, with the personal prodding of Major General William T. Sherman, made a forced march that got to the flotilla on March 22. They easily drove off the Confederate patrols that were blocking the retreat, so Porter and his vessels were able to move back into Steele's Bayou. By March 27, the entire expedition was back on the Mississippi, having accomplished nothing. The Steele's Bayou Expedition was Grant's last attempt to attack Pemberton's right flank. Following its failure, he turned his attention to the enemy left flank, and soon began the movement that led to the capture of Vicksburg. ==Background== The campaign to capture the Confederate stronghold at Vicksburg, Mississippi, the last major obstacle to Union control of the Mississippi River, had bogged down in the winter of 1862–1863. The Union's Major General Ulysses S. Grant had put into motion several operations aiming at flanking Confederate Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton's fixed defenses. Grant wanted to keep his troops busy until he could begin active campaigning later in the spring, so he ordered them to undertake several moves that would give the appearance of activity but would not bring on a major battle. Writing in his memoirs long after the event, he stated that he did not have great confidence that any of them would prove successful, although he was prepared to take advantage of them if they did.〔Grant, ''Memoirs,'' p. 297. Historians remain undecided whether to accept his statement at face value.〕 Not only had the operations failed to produce any good results, but the last, the joint Army–Navy operation known as the Yazoo Pass Expedition, was in danger of being captured or destroyed before it could extricate itself from enemy territory. Grant and Acting Rear Admiral David D. Porter therefore set one more operation in motion. Like the others, it was an effort to get on the enemy flank; it had the additional purpose of relieving some of the pressure on the earlier expedition. To avoid the lethargy in command that had hampered the Yazoo Pass operation, Porter himself went with the gunboats, and the Army was under the personal direction of Major General William T. Sherman.〔Hearn, ''Admiral Porter,'' pp. 185–186.〕 Grant's orders to Sherman lay out the course of the expedition. They also show that he was not completely sure of its success. "You will proceed as early as practicable up Steele's Bayou and through Black Bayou to Deer Creek, and thence with the gunboats now there, by any route they may take, to get into the Yazoo River for the purpose of determining the feasibility of getting an army through that route to the east bank of that river, and at a point at which they can act advantageously against Vicksburg."〔ORA ser. I, vol. 24, p. 481.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Steele's Bayou Expedition」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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