NEWS OF 150 YEARS AGO
March and April 1864
From The Missouri Democrat, Monday, March 14, 1864.
THE SHERMAN EXPEDITION.
What it Accomplished – Five Thousand Recruits.
(From the Cairo Democrat, March 10th)
We had a short conversation with a gentleman yesterday evening who had just arrived from Vicksburg. He informed us that part of Sherman’s expedition had returned to Vicksburg and that, ere this, the whole force was on this side of the Big Black, having fully accomplished the object of the movement.
This is regarded as one of the greatest movements of the present war, and adds fresh lustre to the brilliant name that General Sherman has already achieved as one of the greatest military men of the age. One great feature of the expedition was its great secrecy, the rebels not knowing anything of it, their papers giving evidence that they were expecting him to advance on several points, and while they were in doubt, Sherman accomplished all he desired, and returned unmolested. He penetrated almost to the very heart of the Confederacy, part of his forces having been some thirty-five miles beyond Meridian, destroyed all the railroads in that section of the country, thus rendering its occupation by a large force of rebels almost an impossibility; captured and destroyed thirty locomotives and a large number of cars, etc. The amount of Confederate Government property destroyed was very large, and the injury sustained by the loss of the machinery is irreparable.
About five thousand negro recruits follow the army on their return, the women and children were not allowed to accompany them. About one thousand prisoners were brought in. Very little fighting was done, most skirmishing, not more than a thousand rebels being seen at any one point. The total Union loss in killed, wounded and prisoners did not amount to one hundred.