CHRONOLOGY OF SHERMAN'S MERIDIAN CAMPAIGN -- FEBRUARY, 1864

General William T. Sherman gathers in Vicksburg a Federal army of 1,173 officers and 22,346 men, including 1,952 cavalry, 66 artillery pieces, and 1,000 wagons. Sherman has planned since the previous July to "go on eastward and destroy the remaining railroads of the state in and near Meridian." Sherman has also ordered a separate column of 6,604 Union cavalrymen to move down from Collierville, Tennessee and to rendezvous with him in Meridian. If everything goes according to plan, Sherman expects to have a battle-hardened force of over 30,000 Union veterans in and around Meridian by February 10.

February 2, 1864

Since the fall of Vicksburg in July, 1863, the most strategically important Confederate-held position in the entire state of Mississippi is the town of Meridian, where two long-line railroads intersect. If Meridian and its railroads can be destroyed, no sizable Rebel army may be provisioned and maintained in the state, and Union troops then can be relieved of garrison duty along the Mississippi River and thus freed up for service elsewhere. In February, 1864, approximately 20,000 Confederate soldiers are stationed around the state, under the overall command of General Leonidas Polk, who is headquartered at Meridian. Polk’s responsibilities include the protection of Mobile which (with its vital deep water port) is of even more strategic importance than is Meridian.

February 3, 1864

Sherman’s 23,000-man army, comprised mostly of farm boys from the mid-west, moves out from Vicksburg, heading east. Sherman’s two army corps (the 16th Corps under General Hurlbut, and the 17th Corps under General McPherson) cross the Big Black River on two separate roads, both heading toward their objective of Meridian. Sherman is geared for a rapid advance, and his army travels comparatively lightly –– no tents are taken –– with a meat and bread ration of only 10 days, and a salt, sugar and coffee ration of 30 days. Sherman’s force is well-equipped and compact, and he plans to strike rapidly enough that Confederates will find it difficult to consolidate their scattered forces in time to oppose him.

February 4, 1864

Confederate cavalry under General Stephen D. Lee skirmishes heavily with Sherman’s columns at Joe Davis’ plantation and at the Champion Hills, but do little to delay the progress of the blue infantry. Two Confederate infantry divisions are in the general vicinity, 5,375 at Canton under Loring, and 2,442 at Brandon under French, and the Rebels scramble desperately to consolidate these divisions at the Pearl River, where a reasonable defensive position possibly can be established. General Polk, the overall Confederate commander at Meridian, promises to send Loring 6,000 reinforcements from Mobile.

February 5, 1864

Sherman has moved too quickly for the Confederates to consolidate effectively, and the Union army crosses the Pearl River largely unmolested. The Yankees capture pontoon bridges at nightfall, and move smartly into Jackson the following day. Mississippi’s once-proud capital city is burned for a third time in nine months. An early proponent of what the 20^th Century later comes to know as "Total War," the Federal commander exhibits no remorse. "War is cruelty," Sherman has written. "There is no use trying to reform it. The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over."

February 6, 1864

The Confederates remain uncertain of Sherman’s objective –– does he intend to capture and destroy Meridian, or will his army veer southward toward Mobile? A squadron of Federal warships under Admiral Farragut has been anchored off Mobile Bay since late January, and the Confederate command cannot know that this is a mere feint planned by Sherman well in advance in order to obscure his real intentions. Sherman also has ordered a diversionary operation from the Union army outside Chattanooga, designed solely to discourage the Confederates from sending reinforcements to Mississippi from Georgia. Sherman has boldly seized the initiative, and Polk, his Rebel counterpart at Meridian, definitely is in the dark.

February 7, 1864

General William T. Sherman, who commands the sizable Federal army marching impudently across Mississippi, celebrates his 44^th birthday with the capture of Brandon. General Polk reports with fresh confidence that the Yankees "do not try to conceal that their destination is Meridian," and he positions his own men to stop them. Confederate forces have concentrated at Morton, and reinforcements have arrived from Mobile. There is every likelihood that a major battle will take place near Morton on February 8, where Sherman’s 23,000-man army will be forced to attack almost 21,000 Confederates holding a formidable defensive position, a crescent-shaped line of dug-in rifle pits, with good elevation and natural cover.

February 8, 1864

The Confederates blink. With almost 21,000 men at hand, the Rebels have one last good chance to stop Sherman before he can reach Meridian. But Confederate General Polk again becomes confused about Sherman’s ultimate intentions, and fears that Mobile may be the real target after all. A fateful council of war is held at Morton at 3 p.m., and the Confederates inexplicably decide to withdraw from what is a very good defensive position. Polk (who had remained at Meridian) then orders the recent reinforcements back to Mobile and irrevocably concedes the initiative to Sherman. Meridian’s fate is sealed, because Sherman’s army no longer can be stopped.

As the Confederates continue to retreat before the relentless Union advance upon Meridian, Sherman orders McPherson’s corps to break up the railroads at Morton, and Hurlbut’s corps, which had been following McPherson, now takes the lead. Some 230 miles north, Federal General Sooy Smith, whom Sherman had ordered to bring his nearly 7,000-man cavalry force to Meridian by February 10, had not yet left his base in Collierville, Tennessee, and would not even start out until the 11th. As the days pass, Sherman becomes increasingly concerned about Smith, and will send scouts as far north as Louisville and Kosciusko in a vain quest for the blue troopers. Sherman will not forgive Smith for the inexcusable delay, and later will write that Smith "never regained my confidence as a soldier."

General Leonidas Polk, the Confederate commander, continues to wonder whether Sherman intends to strike Mobile instead of Meridian, and these lingering doubts lead to fatal hesitation and indecision. Eventually deciding that he cannot afford to risk losing Mobile, the strategic jewel of his department, Polk reinforces Mobile and reluctantly exposes Meridian to the Yankee army. Sherman, who never intended to move on Mobile, drives steadily eastward, advancing through Hillsboro on February 10. Commanding one of Sherman’s cavalry regiments that day is Frederick Benteen, whom history better remembers as a 7^th Cavalry subordinate of General George Armstrong Custer some 12 years later during the disastrous Little Big Horn campaign in Montana.

Confederate cavalry General Stephen D. Lee sends a sharply worded note to his commander, General Polk, saying that headquarters has misconstrued Lee’s intelligence reports to suggest that Sherman intends to strike Mobile instead of Meridian. Lee makes it clear that he believes Meridian, and not Mobile, is Sherman’s target. Lee further asks where Polk intends to confront Sherman, apparently never considering the possibility that Polk would abandon Meridian without offering battle. Yet Polk is now badly outnumbered and outgunned, having sent his reinforcements back to Mobile. Polk orders the removal of sick and wounded from Meridian across the Tombigbee River, and instructs Major George Whitfield to keep as much government property as possible out of Federal hands.

In one of his closest personal brushes of the war, General William T. Sherman is nearly killed or captured at Decatur, Mississippi. As Sherman settles down for the evening at a Decatur farmhouse, his escort regiment prematurely considers itself relieved, and marches off to camp just as lurking Confederate cavalry sweep down upon the crossroads, intent upon capturing a lightly defended Federal wagon train. Sherman's post-war Memoirs describe a wild scene with the general and his orderlies preparing to defend themselves in a corn crib, as Rebel cavalrymen swirl around wholly oblivious to the great prize within their grasp. The red-faced escort regiment returns upon hearing the commotion, drives off the Rebels, and Sherman survives unscathed. It is sobering to reflect how the course of American history may have been altered if "the man who made Georgia howl" had met his fate in a Decatur, Mississippi corn crib many months before the decisive Atlanta Campaign and the legendary "March to the Sea."

Confederate Major George Whitfield personally supervises the successful removal of an estimated 12 million dollars’ worth of government property and railroad rolling stock from Meridian. The town, built up around the junction of two long-line railroads, has by 1864 become a strategic military base, with warehouses, arsenals, stores, hospitals, supply houses and government buildings of great value to the Rebel war effort. As the unfortunate townspeople will soon learn to their grief, however, their homes and other property cannot be secured as readily as railroad stock and government supplies, and all their possessions now are laid bare before a hostile and ravenous United States army. On the evening of the 13^th, Confederate General Polk orders Lee’s cavalry to cover the Rebel retreat from Meridian into Alabama. Meridian is to be given up to Sherman.

St. Valentine’s Day begins with skirmishing at Chunky Station. At 10:30 a.m., the Confederate commander, General Leonidas Polk, takes the last train from Meridian east to Demopolis. Although there is heavy skirmishing from Rebel cavalry covering Polk’s retreat, with one notable clash occurring on the ridge lying east of what later becomes Highland Park, the chance for any real resistance had ended when the gray infantry and artillery departed for Alabama. With a cold rain falling and a Yankee military band playing, the 21st Missouri regiment of Hurlbut’s 16^th Corps occupies the town at 4:00 p.m. Meridianites refuse for decades thereafter to celebrate with "hearts and flowers" on Valentine’s Day, because they recall that as the dark anniversary of Sherman’s conquest.

Occupied Meridian is not a pleasant place for civilian Meridianites. One local woman, writing about the Yankees’ seizure of the town, recounts that "after the skirmishing stopped, the mob ran around going into houses, breaking open doors, trunks, locks, etc., tearing up and destroying everything they could." This anonymous woman, presumed to be one of the Ball family, wrote to her mother in Mobile that "I do not believe you or anyone else would know the place. . . . No one need want to be with the Yankees even for a few days. They staid [sic] here from Sunday until Saturday morning, and it appeared like a month." She is, however, luckier than most, because her home is one of only four Meridian residences left standing when the Federal troops march back toward Vicksburg on February 20.

The Federal army occupies and devastates Meridian and the surrounding countryside for nearly a full week. General Sherman stations Hurlbut’s 16^th Corps to the north and east of the town, and McPherson’s 17^th Corps to the south and west. Sherman’s cavalry, under Winslow, scouts far to the east into Alabama, giving the false impression that the Union army is continuing its advance, perhaps toward Selma, where the Confederates operate an important foundry. Blue troops range along the length of the M & O Railroad, from beyond Marion to well below Enterprise; indeed, scouts range as far south as the long trestle bridge at Quitman. Sherman headquarters in a private residence located near the present-day site of Meridian’s First Baptist Church. The home is burned to the ground when Sherman departs on the 20^th.

Meridian, in the professional eyes of General Sherman, is a military objective that must be rendered useless to the Confederacy. Destruction of the railroads in and around Meridian is Sherman’s top priority, for if this job is done well, the entire state of Mississippi (and the Mississippi River) will be freed of any credible Rebel threats to continued Federal control. Union troops are detailed to rip up rails and to burn ties for miles around in all directions. Sherman’s men learn to build bonfires of the ties, upon which the rails are heated and then twisted -- not merely bent. A bent rail may be straightened and re-used, but a twisted rail is thoroughly ruined. Sherman later boasts of the success of his campaign, noting that his men "broke a full 100 miles of railroad at or around Meridian."

Headlines in the Mobile Register proclaim today that "Sherman is really moving on Mobile." It isn’t true, though Sherman cleverly has fooled the Confederate high command into believing it might be true. C.S.A. President Jefferson Davis, himself a Mississippian, has peremptorily ordered General Joseph Johnston in Georgia to send most of William J. Hardee's veteran corps to reinforce Polk’s Rebel army in Demopolis. Hardee’s troops include some 19,000 men of Cheatham’s, Cleburne’s and Walker’s divisions of the Army of Tennessee – some of the finest Confederate combat soldiers anywhere. But Hardee will not arrive in Demopolis until the 20^th – the very day Sherman strikes camp leaving Meridian a smoldering ruin behind him. How differently events may have transpired had Hardee appeared on the scene a week or so earlier, when Polk first began pleading urgently to Johnston for help?

General William T. Sherman’s week in occupied Meridian is one of deliberate waste and purposeful desolation. Meridian is a Confederate military target which Sherman fully intends to obliterate and, indeed, claims afterward to have done so. Writing later in his official report of the Meridian Campaign, Sherman brags: "For five days 10,000 men worked hard and with a will in that work of destruction, with axes, crowbars, sledges, clawbars, and with fire, and I have no hesitation in pronouncing the work as well done. Meridian, with its depots, store-houses, arsenal, hospitals, offices, hotels, and cantonments no longer exists."

Billowing smoke enshrouds Meridian as the Federal army departs at daybreak, ending the six-day occupation. Only four residences in the entire town remain unburned. Sherman’s return march to Vicksburg takes him on a more northerly route, through Marion to Union, and then on to Canton. Sherman continues to expect the arrival of General Sooy Smith’s cavalry column, which is more than a week overdue from Tennessee. About the time Sherman is leaving Meridian, Smith’s men skirmish with Reb cavalry far to the north at West Point. Although Smith’s 7,000 blue troopers ride superb mounts and carry breech-loading carbines, Smith assumes that he is in grave danger from the ill-equipped Southern force of no more than 2,500 men. Smith actually has good reason to worry, considering the identity of the Confederate leader confronting him. As Smith retreats northward to Okolona, General Nathan Bedford Forrest follows in hot pursuit.

Sherman enters Union this afternoon with Hurlbut’s Corps, and he spends the night there, most probably at Boler’s Inn. The town is not burned, leading grateful townspeople to muse whether their hamlet is spared because of its ironic (under the circumstances) name, a theory perhaps given some credence when Sherman uses quotation marks to refer to the town of "Union" in his post-war Memoirs -- certainly the general himself appreciates the irony. For whatever reason, Union, unlike Meridian, escapes Sherman’s torch. Meanwhile this day, more than 100 miles to the north, Forrest’s cavalry soundly defeats Sooy Smith’s numerically superior force at Okolona, and for two days Forrest’s 2,500 victorious Rebels chase 7,000 retreating Federals all the way to Pontotoc.

General Sherman rises early in Union, and at 4:00 a.m. he orders Colonel Winslow’s cavalry to ride north to look for Sooy Smith’s column. Winslow’s quest will prove fruitless, however, because Smith already is in ignominious retreat back to Tennessee, with Nathan Bedford Forrest hard on his heels. Sherman will learn nothing of Smith’s disgraceful performance against Forrest until after his return to Vicksburg. Hurlbut’s 16^th Corps, which Sherman accompanies, leaves Union at 6:30 in the morning and marches to a new camp 13 miles away on the Bogue Filliah Creek. McPherson’s 17^th Corps also is marching toward Canton, where the two halves of Sherman’s army will re-unite in a few days.

Confederate propaganda already is portraying Sherman’s Meridian campaign, incorrectly understood by many Southerners as an aborted move against Mobile, to be a dismal failure. Today’s edition of the Selma Evening Reporter taunts that Sherman has made a "precipitate retreat" from Meridian, and proclaims that "the profane braggarts" have only narrowly managed to "escape the trap set for them." In reality, there is no Rebel "trap" in the offing, and Sherman leaves Meridian only after spending six days obliterating the place, as has been his plan all along. When General Hardee today confirms that Sherman in fact is returning to Vicksburg, he asks and receives permission to leave for Georgia with the 19,000 gray soldiers previously sent with him to reinforce Polk in Demopolis.

Northern newspapers are no more credible than Southern journals in reporting breaking war news. Today’s issue of The New York Times runs a bold headline trumpeting "The Expected Attack on Mobile." Two days later, the same newspaper announces Sherman’s purported capture of Selma, and on the 28^th unequivocally informs readers that "The Occupation of Selma, Ala., by Gen. Sherman Confirmed." Wildly inaccurate reporting of Sherman’s movements is hardly surprising given that Sherman does not allow "embedded media" to accompany his army. Sherman himself personally detests newspapermen, believing most reporters to be little better than spies. For the Meridian campaign, Sherman makes a single exception, allowing New York Herald correspondent D. B. R. Keim to come along, ostensibly as an aide to General McPherson.

Although President Abraham Lincoln issued the The Emancipation Proclamation effective January 1, 1863, it is not until the Meridian Campaign in February, 1864 that central Mississippi’s blacks first experience their own freedom. As many as 8,000 self-emancipated slaves from all across central Mississippi follow Sherman’s army back to Vicksburg. Sherman, who has lived in the antebellum South and who certainly is no abolitionist, does everything possible to discourage the blacks from flocking to his army. Huge numbers of Negro "contraband," after all, pose significant logistical problems for his fast-marching combat columns. Nevertheless, African-Americans do not hesitate to seize freedom for themselves when the opportunity arises. The Union army does not free the slaves – the slaves free themselves by boldly taking advantage of the military situation at hand.

General Sherman arrives in Canton at dusk. With the Pearl River safely behind, the Meridian Campaign effectively is over. The campaign’s "butcher bill" of killed, wounded and captured totals 228 Federal soldiers, and 288 Confederates. Although organized pillaging and wanton destruction has been the order of the day in eastern Mississippi, Sherman prohibits this conduct once the Pearl is crossed, and Canton is spared. The Yankee commander has no doubt that the mission to Meridian has been a resounding success: "We accomplished all I undertook . . . we beat the enemy whenever he opposed or offered resistance. We drove him out of Mississippi, destroyed the only remaining railroads in the state, the only roads by which he could maintain any army in Mississippi threatening to our forces on the main river."

Although General Sherman reports to Washington that "we absolutely and effectively broke a full hundred miles of railroad at and around Meridian," the Confederate government is determined to quickly repair the damage. The same Major Whitfield who had earlier supervised the removal of government property from Meridian is placed in charge of railroad repair. Remarkably, by April 1, trains run over as much of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad as before Sherman’s campaign, and the Southern Railroad is repaired all the way from Meridian to Brandon by May 7. This Rebel success ultimately matters very little to the war’s outcome, however, because by the summer of 1864 all the serious fighting moves to Georgia. Meridian’s erstwhile defender, General Leonidas Polk, is killed fighting against Sherman in the Atlanta Campaign. Sherman’s principal Meridian Campaign subordinate, General James B. McPherson, also dies that summer in Georgia combat.

On this Sunday, a mere eight days after Sherman’s departure, a woman in Meridian writes her mother in Mobile a long letter about the "terrible raid." One notable thing she comments upon is how many black "servants" have deserted area families to go off with the Yankees. "I was lucky, so many negroes went from around here. All of Mr. McElmore’s, Semmes and Dr. Johnston’s – he had but two old ones – all are gone." Interestingly, this lady enlists the eager help of a Federal officer to persuade one of her own slaves to stay in bondage: "My groan [sic] girl, Violetta, got ready to go, but as good fortune would have it, I had heard an officer express himself of slavery, so I went to him, and got him to scare it out of her."

Southerners condemn Sherman for the utterly ruthless tactics he employs in the Meridian Campaign, and later in Georgia and the Carolinas. Sherman himself is unrepentant, placing the blame for his terrible work squarely upon the Confederates themselves: "Three years ago, by a little reflection and patience, they could have had a hundred years of peace and prosperity, but they preferred war; very well. Last year they could have saved their slaves, but now it is too late. All the powers of earth cannot return to them their slaves, any more than their dead grandfathers. Next year their lands will be taken; for in war we can take them, and rightfully, too, and in another year they may beg in vain for their lives." Such was the measure of the professional warrior who crushed Mississippi beneath his heel in February, 1864, and who chillingly boasted to Washington that "Meridian . . . no longer exists."

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