The hay and grain would be wanted below, and could not be transported in sufficient quantity by the muddy roads over which we expected to march.
Before this I had been collecting, from St.Louis and Chicago, yawls and barges to be used as ferries when we got below.

By the 16th of April Porter was ready to start on his perilous trip.

The advance, flagship Benton, Porter commanding, started at ten o'clock at night, followed at intervals of a few minutes by the Lafayette with a captured steamer, the Price, lashed to her side, the Louisville, Mound City, Pittsburgh and Carondelet--all of these being naval vessels.

Next came the transports -- Forest Queen, Silver Wave and Henry Clay, each towing barges loaded with coal to be used as fuel by the naval and transport steamers when below the batteries.

The gunboat Tuscumbia brought up the rear.