previous next


The situation in Mississippi--Grant gone back to Vicksburg.

A correspondent of the Atlanta Appeal, writing from Meridian, on the 19th, says:

‘ From Jackson we have interesting news. Two lads, just from there, bring the intelligence that the whole of Grant's army, excepting one brigade, had left Jackson, going toward Vicksburg. There were no Yankee pickets this side of Pearl river, and our pickets had reached them stream. Six prisoners, taken not for from Pearl river, having been taken in the usual Yankee occupation of thieving, were brought in this morning. Nothing intelligible could be got out of them. In Jackson nearly all of Main street, the Governor's mansion, and many other houses, were burned to the ground. The railroad from Brandon to Jackson was effectually destroyed, not a rail reported to have been left in its place, and that portion of the road from the river to the site of the Confederate house, which we had rebuilt, was torn up. The rails, in many places, were carried to the river and thrown in.

When the citizens of Jackson sent Grant a flag of truce, formally surrendering the city, after the evacuation by our forces, he promised that private property would be respected. It was a Yankee promise, for his soldiers pillaged every house, and stole whatever they could lay their hands on.

On the line of their march from Jackson to Brandon, on the 18th, 19th, and 20th instant, they, in addition to the destruction of the railroad, laid waste the whole country. In Brandon they burned the whole of the south side of the public square, two large blocks of buildings, the railroad depot, and pillaged every house in town, stealing from, and robbing in open day, even the poor negroes of the town. A well known negro barber shop of that town was robbed of every article it contained by these representatives of "the best Government the world ever saw," and no article of domestic use was too insignificant for the petulant proclivities of low, mean, vulgar Yankees. If the harvest of their plunder were diamonds of the first water, solid gold and pearls, instead of what they are, it would be but a poor compensation for the weight of infamy which they are laying up, for their character on the impartial page of history.

The railroad from Jackson to Canton is destroyed. They also burned a train of forty cars and two engines between Canton and Jackson. We will loss heavily in rolling stock by their depredations north of Jackson. There are from ninety to one hundred locomotives belonging to the New Orleans and Jackson Railroad and the Mississippi Central Railroad, which the destruction of Pearl river bridge prevented us from bringing off, which will fall into their bands, and of course nearly all the rolling stock will share the same late.--From everything we can learn the enemy don't intend occupying Jackson, nor does he intend leaving it in a position to be of any use to us. He never would have destroyed the railroads if he contemplated permanent occupation. Jackson, he knows as well as Gen. Johnston knew, is no point of strategic importance, and he will simply make it impossible for its being of any service to us.

Mobile is now doubtless the next prize claiming his attention, and his movements would indicate an early approach to that city by way of Madisonville, La., on the lake landing at Biloxi, Ocean Springs, or Pascagoula, thence marching overland and combining with a gunboat attack on the city with the iron clads, relieved by the fall of Port Hudson and Vicksburg. He is too cunning an old fox to follow this army up among the sterile hills of Scott, when he would be at the mercy of the climate, the drought, and the cavalry; his communication constantly in danger of being out off, and his supplies destroyed. But we must wait and see.

Gen. Banks is said to have gone after Gen. Taylor, who is reported at Donalsonville, La., with six siege guns and a gallant little army, preparing to fight it out. Magruder is reported marching to Taylor's assistance.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

hide People (automatically extracted)
Sort people alphabetically, as they appear on the page, by frequency
Click on a person to search for him/her in this document.
Jackson (5)
Grant (3)
Gen Taylor (2)
Scott (1)
Magruder (1)
Johnston (1)
Brandon (1)
Banks (1)
hide Dates (automatically extracted)
Sort dates alphabetically, as they appear on the page, by frequency
Click on a date to search for it in this document.
20th (1)
19th (1)
18th (1)
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: