stroy it and the telegraph. If the road is opened, I will ride over to see you this evening, but I cannot do so until I know McClernand is secure in his position.

U. S. GRANT.

DILLON'S PLANTATION, MISS., May 12, 1863-9. 15 p. m.

Major General J. B. McPHERSON, Comdg. SEVENTEENTH Army Corps:

Move on to Clinton and Jackson at daylight in the morning. Sherman will leave here at 4 a. m. to follow and support you. McClernand will also follow from his position, which is about 4 miles northwest from here.

U. S. GRANT.

RAYMOND, May 12, 1863-11 p. m.

Major General U. S. GRANT, Commanding, &c.:

GENERAL: It is rumored, but with how much truth I have not been able to ascertain, that heavy re-enforcements are coming to the enemy from Jackson to-night, and that we may expect a battle here in the morning. I shall try and be prepared for them if they come.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JAS. B. McPHERSON.

HDQRS. SEVENTEENTH ARMY CORPS, May 12, 1863-9. 50 a. m.

Brigadier General M. M. CROCKER, Comdg. Seventh DIVISION:

GENERAL: I am directed by the major-general commanding to request you to have your DIVISION turn out under arms at 3. 30 a. m. to-morrow, to give particular attention to your pickets, grand guards, and outposts, instructing your officer of the day to make a thorough inspection of all the guards after 12 o'clock to-night, cautioning the men to be on the alert against any surprise.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
[WM. T. CLARK,]

Assistant Adjutant-General.

POST OF PROVIDENCE, May 12, 1863.,

Major-General GRANT:

An unnaturalized Englishman arrived here this morning from Yazoo City, which place, he says, he left on the 1st day of May, and arrived on the Mississippi River, opposite this place, on Saturday last, having traveled, as he says, some hundred miles by water in a dug-out. His name is John Locke, a ship-carpenter by trade. His family reside in Memphis, to which place I have furnished him transportation. He says he went to Yazoo City some FIFTEEN months since; was watchman on the steamer John Walsh, which lies above the raft, near Greenwood, and was used by the rebels to carry troops from Yazoo City to Greenwood; has carried as many as 1,500 at a time on here when fighting was going on at Fort Pemberton. Other boats, named as follows, are in the Yazoo above the raft, at Yazoo City, being repaired: The Magenta, a large boat; Golden Age, a large boat; the Arcadia, not a large boat; Mag-