Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 10.
Reverend J. William Jones, Ed.

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[465] Major Bridges' retreat. In times of high water there was another means of approach from the north by way of the Cold Water, and down the Tallahatchie river. To close that route to the enemy's gunboats, the Star of the West was found to have been sunk in the last named stream, near Fort Pemberton. It will be remembered that it was the Star of the West that opened the war, by getting itself fired into, while bringing reinforcements to Major Anderson at Fort Sumpter, in 1861.

To one who knows the nature of the country, this march of seventy miles, from Greenville to Greenwood, will seem almost incredible. Fully forty miles lay through a swamp covered with canebrakes, shrubbery and grape vines, interlaced with the greenbrier. The ground was boggy and difficult, so that when the pioneer corps had cut a road through the jungle, it had to be corduroyed in many places to make it passable. The progress of the battery through this region, surprised none more than the people who lived in it. During the rainy season the whole country is flooded, and the inhabitants place their horses, cattle, hogs, farming implements and household furniture aboard a large raft, and tying this to the tops of trees, abandon their houses for this aquatic residence. Here the whole family live in seeming content until the waters subside, and they again set on foot terr afirma.

The cavalry had reached the Yazoo several days before the artillery; and, learning that the enemy's gunboats were coming up the stream, had sunk several transports twelve miles below Greenwood to prevent their passage. Before they succeeded in removing these obstructions, Major Bridges's artillery, as stated above, came up and crossed.

That evening a company of sharpshooters, under Captain Morgan, of Texas, was sent to attack the ironclads engaged in removing the obstructions. They were found moored to the bank with cables, and busy at work. During the night Morgan's men surrounded the boats, and when at daylight the Federals came out to prosecute their work, a large number of them were shot down at the first fire. It was an embarrassing position for them, for their boats were fastened to the bank, and they could not come out to loose them. If they opened their port-holes, the Texans fired into them; and their guns could not be elevated sufficiently to reach the Confederates, they being near at hand and the banks high. So, closing their port-holes and cutting their cables, the ironclads backed rapidly down the stream, followed for several miles by the Texans.

From Greenwood the battery was ordered to Yazoo city, where it arrived on the 1st of June. After one more engagement with the Federal