All these failures would have been very discouraging if I had expected much from the efforts; but I had not.

From the first the most I hoped to accomplish was the passage of transports, to be used below Vicksburg, without exposure to the long line of batteries defending that city.
This long, dreary and, for heavy and continuous rains and high water, unprecedented winter was one of great hardship to all engaged about Vicksburg.

The river was higher than its natural banks from December, 1862, to the following April.

The war had suspended peaceful pursuits in the South, further than the production of army supplies, and in consequence the levees were neglected and broken in many places and the whole country was covered with water.

Troops could scarcely find dry ground on which to pitch their tents.