Doyle: It looks like your inquiry into the struggle for control of eastern Arkansas is churning up some interesting questions, questions that I don't think anyone has bothered to ask before.

I don't have any answers, but will close with the observation that because the "blockade" of the Arkansas and White Rivers took place during the height of the Mississippi Squadron's activities above and below Vicksburg, it seems reasonable to assume that Porter would have allocated his assets and made operational decisions based on a host of factors (including, for example, the precise hydrographic conditions at the confluence of the Arkansas and White, conditions which we may never fully comprehend).

What is needed here as a handy reference source is a first-class, fully comprehensive, highly detailed study of the evolution of U.S. Navy riverine operations in the ACW, but as far as I know there isn't one.

Signing off.