Yours, etc., W.T.SHERMAN, Brigadier-General commanding.
HEADQUARTERS SHERMAN'S DIVISION Camp Shiloh, near Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee, April 2, 1862 Captain J.A.RAWLINS, Assistant Adjutant-General to General GRANT.
SIR: In obedience to General Grant's instructions of March 31st, with one section of Captain Muench's Minnesota Battery, two twelve-pound howitzers, a detachment of Fifth Ohio Cavalry of one hundred and fifty men, under Major Ricker, and two battalions of infantry from the Fifty-seventh and Seventy-seventh Ohio, under the command of Colonels Hildebrand and Mungen, I marched to the river, and embarked on the steamers Empress and Tecumseh.

The gunboat Cairo did not arrive at Pittsburg, until after midnight, and at 6 p.m.

Captain Bryant, commanding the gunboat, notified me that he was ready to proceed up the river.

I followed, keeping the transports within about three hundred yards of the gunboat.

About 1 p.m., the Cairo commenced shelling the battery above the mouth of Indian Creek, but elicited no reply.