As soon as I got through with the destruction of the magazines and other works, I started Lieutenant-Commander Walker up the Yazoo river with sufficient force to destroy all the enemy’s property in that direction, with orders to return with all dispatch, and only to proceed as far as Yazoo City, where the rebels have a navy yard and storehouses. In the mean time General Grant has closely invested Vicksburg, and has possession of the best commanding points. In a very short time a general assault will take place, when I hope to announce that Vicksburg has fallen, after a series of the most brilliant successes that ever attended an army. There never has been a case during the war where the rebels have been so successfully beaten at all points, and the patience and endurance shown by our army and navy for so many months is about being rewarded. It is a mere question of a few hours, and then, with the exception of Port Hudson, which will follow Vicksburg, the Mississippi will be open its entire length. [Signed] D. D. PORTER, Commanding Mississippi Squadron. * * * * * U. S. STEAMER BARON DEKALB, } MOUTH YAZOO RIVER, May 23d. } SIR: I have the honor to report that in obedience to your order, I started from Snyder’s Bluff on the 20th, with the DeKalb, Choctaw, Forest Rose, Linden, and Petrel, on an expedition to Yazoo City. Arriving at Haines’s Bluff, I landed a force and spiked an 8-inch gun on the fort there, and burned the carriage. I also burned some forty tents left standing, and a steam sawmill. Arriving at Yazoo City at one P. M., 20th, I was met by a committee of citizens, who informed me that the place had been evacuated by the military authorities, and asking protection. The navy yard and vessels had been fired by the enemy. I sent a working party to insure the destruction of everything valuable to the rebels. The vessels burned were the Mobile, a screw vessel, ready for plating; the Republic, which was being fitted out for a ram; and a vessel on the stocks—a monster, three hundred and ten feet long, seventy-five feet beam. The navy yard contained five saw and planing mills, an extensive machine shop, carpenter and blacksmith shops, and all necessary fixtures for a large building and repairing yard, which, with a very large quantity of lumber, were burned. I also burned a large sawmill above the town. Most of the public stores had been removed; such as I found in town were taken on board the vessels or destroyed. Enclosed I send a list of articles removed or destroyed by Acting Volunteer Lieutenant Brown, the officer detailed for that purpose. In the hospital I found and paroled one thousand five hundred prisoners, a list of whom I enclose.