The following is an account of the after, taken from the Vicksburg Whig of the 5th instant:

DESTRUCTION OF THE INDIANOLA.

We stated a day or two since that we would not then enlighten our readers in regard to a matter which was puzzling them very much. We allude to the loss of the Indianola, recently captured from the enemy. We were loth to acknowledge she had been blown up, but such is the case.

The Yankee barge sent down the river last week was reported to be an iron-clad gunboat. The authorities thinking that this monster would retake the Indianola, immediately issued an order to blow her up. The order was sent down by courier to the officer in charge of the boat.

A few hours afterward another order was sent down countermanding the first, it being ascertained that the monstrous craft was only a coal barge, but before it reached the Indianola she had been blown to atoms. Not even a gun was saved. Who is to blame for this piece of folly, this precipitancy? It would really seem we had no use for gunboats on the Mississippi, as a coal barge is magnified into a monster, and our authorities immediately order a boat that would have been worth a small army to be blown up.

DAVID D. PORTER.

LAKE PROVIDENCE, La., March 10, 1863.

Major-General GRANT,

Comdg. Department of the Tennessee:

GENERAL: Colonel Bissell came down last night and reported that he could now take boats in from the Mississippi River to Bayou Macon. I accordingly went up to see, and do not think the route practicable as yet, though there is no doubt that in five or six days, when the back country becomes filled with water, it can be done. The water is now rushing like a torrent through several of the crevasses he has made, and the back country is filling up so fast that a strong current sets from Bayou Baxter into Lake Providence.

In consequence of the water incommoding you so much opposite Vicksburg, do you want any of the boats sent by General Quinby from Moon Lake, and ordered to stop here to take up General Logan's DIVISION, sent down to you? None of them have arrived yet, though I shall expect some by day after to-morrow.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JAS. B. McPHERSON.

HELENA, ARK., March 10, 1863.

Brigadier General L. F. ROSS,

Comdg. DIVISION, Thirteenth Army Corps:

GENERAL: I have just had the pleasure of reading your dispatches to Major-General Prentiss, of the 7th and 8th instant, and congratulate you on the success of your expedition thus far, and hope it may prove an augury of still greater achievement for our cause.

I cannot refrain from repeating what I have said in a former communication-not yet sent, however, for want of an opportunity-that in view of the great importance of this expedition, we must meet with no reverse, and I therefore urge upon you to proceed with extreme caution.

Should you effect a landing at Greenwood, and find it to be a position that you can hold, you had better remain there until I can get re-enforcements to you. I shall probably be able to send forward at least one brigade on the 12th instant. The great difficulty we meet with is in procuring suitable transports. By to-morrow morning I shall have, perhaps, five that can be sent through the Pass.