...n left in command at Vicksburg: I shall start a cavalry force through Mississippi, in about two weeks, to clean out the state entirely of all rebels. This was the germ of what has been known as the Meridian raid. On the 23d, he said to Halleck: I am now collecting as large a cavalry force as can be spared, at Savannah, Tennessee, to cross the Tennessee river, and cooperate with the cavalry from Hurlbu...