That a minor force be left in this vicinity, not to exceed ten thousand men, with only enough steamboats to float and transport them to any desired point; this force to be held always near enough to act with the gunboats when the main army is known to be near Vicksburg--Haines's Bluff or Yazoo City.
Sixth.

I do doubt the capacity of Willow Bayou (which I estimate to be fifty miles long and very tortuous) as a military channel, to supply an army large enough to operate against Jackson, Mississippi, or the Black River Bridge; and such a channel will be very vulnerable to a force coming from the west, which we must expect.

Yet this canal will be most useful as the way to convey coals and supplies to a fleet that should navigate the lower reach of the Mississippi between Vicksburg and the Red River.
Seventh.

The chief reason for operating solely by water was the season of the year and high water in the Tallahatchie and Yalabusha Rivers.

The spring is now here, and soon these streams will be no serious obstacle, save in the ambuscades of the forest, and whatever works the enemy may have erected at or near Grenada.
North Mississippi is too valuable for us to allow the enemy to hold it and make crops this year.
I make these suggestions, with the request that General Grant will read them and give them, as I know he will, a share of his thoughts.