Comte de Paris, History of the Civil War in America. Vol. 4.
Henry Coppee , LL.D., Ed.

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[448] allowing the Federals to advance in the cul-de-sac, did not wish to be entrapped in it himself and engage in earnest fight, having in his rear rivers difficult to cross. The Okatybbeeka, swelled by recent rains, was inaccessible and impassable. There was between its confluence with the Sookatonka and Tombigbee but one bridge, that of the railroad. The Sookatonka offered also a formidable obstacle. It could be crossed but on two bridges—one very near the confluence, which Forrest had captured on his coming from Starkville, and beyond which the road crossed a large swamp, forming thus a long and narrow defile; the other, more accessible, was situated about four miles up the river, near the village of Siloam. Forrest recrossed first with his three brigades, and went himself with a part of Richardson's brigade to take possession of the second one, from which he dislodged a hostile detachment. He occupied, therefore, on the west the only bridges by which Sooy Smith, if he wished to turn back, could retrace his steps out of the cul-de-sac into which he had penetrated.

The latter, after having ascertained in the evening that these points were strongly held by the enemy, appears to have immediately decided upon retreating. Whether he considered the object of his expedition as being reached or not, he had quickly understood the dangers of the position in which he had placed himself. His numerical superiority, though trifling, however, over Forrest, enabled him to encounter him advantageously on open ground, but he could not undertake to force, in spite of him, the passage of rivers so difficult of access as the Okatybbeeka and Sookatonka. If he had only thought of rejoining Sherman, if he had been certain not to find any other adversary than Forrest in penetrating southwardly, he might have turned the Sookatonka to reach Houston, and from there Louisville, the town where, two days later, Winslow was going in search of him. But he must have thought Sherman already far from Meridian, and he might apprehend that Lee would come with his division to join Forrest, as the latter requested him. He was therefore right to retrace his steps, and by promptly deciding upon this he probably avoided an irreparable disaster. But it was nevertheless a sad extremity, the result of several delays that had marked first his departure, then his march