The surrender of Holly Springs was a severe blow to General Grant, and the officers in command were severely censured by him. Colonel Murphy, the commander, allowed himself to be taken by surprise, and surrendered all of his command, and an immense quantity of supplies, which had been gathered there for the use of the advancing army. While General Grant was moving his columns toward the objective point, the enemy were by no means idle. On the same day on which Colonel Murphy surrendered Holly Springs, an attack was made on Davis’s Mills, a post a little farther north, which was bravely repulsed. On the next day, Humboldt was captured, and an attack made on Trenton, while several important stations on the railroad were, in turn, visited by the Confederate raiders, who demolished the equipments of the roads, cut the telegraph lines, and inflicted serious injury, by destroying the communications of General Grant’s army, which compelled him to make a retrograde movement, or fall back on Holly Springs. This left General Pemberton at liberty to concentrate his forces at Vicksburgh against General Sherman, who was then advancing on that place in accordance with General Grant’s plan, while the cooperating forces were removed so far from the scene of action, that there was no hope of their being able to afford any assistance, either by participation or by the diversion of any portion of the enemy’s forces. Meanwhile General W. T. Sherman, who had been stationed at Memphis, embarked with one division on the 20th of December, and dropped down to Friar’s Point, the place of rendezvous, where he was joined by Admiral Porter with his flagship and two consorts. The arrangements were completed by the military and naval commanders during the next forenoon, the 22d, and the fleet got under way, and moved down just below the mouth of White river, where it came to, at sunset. On the next day it descended to Gaines’s Landing, and at two P. M. came to anchor, to await the arrival of the transports in the rear, and also a division of troops from Memphis. Half of the town of Gaines’s Landing was destroyed by fire while the army was there. Similar destruction had also been made at Friar’s Point. These acts led to stringent measures on the part of General Sherman. On the morning of the 25th, the fleet arrived at the mouth of the Yazoo river. The fleet consisted of more than sixty transports, with a number of iron-clad and other gunboats, and several mortar boats. The Yazoo is a deep, narrow, and sluggish stream, formed by the Tallahatchie and Yallobusha rivers, which unite in Carroll county, Mississippi. It runs through an alluvial plain of extreme fertility, about two hundred and ninety miles, and empties into the Mississippi river twelve miles above Vicksburg.