On the night of January 4th Sherman and McClernand went into Porter's cabin on the Black Hawk, and discussed the expedition, asking Porter for his co-operation. Porter sat up in his bed and told them that he was short of coal and could not use wood for fuel. He addressed McClernand with a curtness amounting almost to discourtesy and Sherman watched his opportunity to get him to go into another room, and there asked him what he meant by it. Porter replied that he did not like McClernand, that he had long had a strong prejudice against him. Thereupon Sherman begged him, for the sake of the Union cause, to sink all personal feeling and do his best to work in harmony with McClernand. Porter promised to do so, and the discussion with McClernand was resumed. It was finally agreed that both McClernand and Porter were to go along with the expedition.
They proceeded up the White River and through the cut-off to the Arkansas, and thus reached Notrib's farm, three miles from Fort Hindman. There, on the evening of January 9th, they disembarked, and on the next day moved forward to invest the fort. Sherman's men took the advance and Sherman himself during the night crept forward to behind a stump so close to the Rebel lines that he could hear them at work, preparing for defence. He was thus listening to them, when, early in the morning, a Rebel bugler sounded "as pretty a reveille as I ever heard." Early on January 11th Sherman got his forces into position for attack, and told McClernand that he was ready for the assault as soon as the gunboats would open fire. At one P. M. the gunboats began and so did the field batteries. The enemy did not reply, and in about fifteen minutes Sherman ordered his columns forward. The infantry rushed forward with a cheer, dashed across a hundred yards of open ground, and then reached a strip about three hundred yards wide, covered with timber, underbrush and logs, and much cut up with gulleys. Here they encountered a fierce fire from the enemy, and their advance was checked. But by three o'clock they were within a hundred yards of the enemy's intrenchment, and could now see Porter's gunboats close to the fort.
For an hour the fight raged furiously, and then, at four o'clock, the enemy raised white flags all along his line. Sherman instantly ordered his men to stop firing, and at the same time sent General Steele with a brigade down the bayou at the right to prevent the enemy from retreating in that direction. He then sent an officer forward to the enemy's lines and followed in person with his staff. He found that the fire of his troops had destroyed the enemy's intrenchments and that they could resist no longer. Meeting Colonel Garland, Sherman asked him who commanded the fort. Garland replied that General Churchill did. "Where is he?" asked Sherman. "Inside the fort," said Garland. So Sherman rode into the fort, which, he observed, was well built and capable of much further defence. He found it, however, full of soldiers and sailors from Porter's gunboats, and the boats themselves were anchored at the river bank close by.