It then could hardly be expected that it would take twenty-four hours to effect a surrender.

He knew that Johnston was in our rear for the purpose of raising the siege, and he naturally would want to hold out as long as he could.

He knew his men would not resist an assault, and one was expected on the fourth.

In our interview he told me he had rations enough to hold out for some time--my recollection is two weeks.

It was this statement that induced me to insert in the terms that he was to draw rations for his men from his own supplies.
On the 4th of July General Holmes, with an army of eight or nine thousand men belonging to the trans-Mississippi department, made an attack upon Helena, Arkansas.