550 



MISSISSIPPI. 



employed by some responsible white person in 

 some legitimate business. A limited number 

 only were allowed to occupy a house. They 

 were also forbidden to rent houses and live to 

 themselves, but required to seek shelter from 

 their employers at the contraband camps. 



The corn crop of the year was comparatively 

 a failure in the northern counties of the State, 

 and foreshadowed great destitution during the 

 ensuing winter. 



There is a class of persons who have proba- 

 bly been the severest sufferers by the war, of 

 whom comparatively little has been said. These 

 are the white refugees. Their condition in 

 Mississippi was even more deplorable than that 

 of the negroes, for equally with them they have 

 borne the evils of slavery without acquiring the 

 habits of industry which the latter obtained. 

 Many of them were natives of the North, who 

 had become citizens of the Southern States be- 

 fore the war in order to improve their fortunes, 

 and who seized the first opportunity to escape 

 with their lives, leaving every thing else be- 

 hind. Hundreds of others were deserters from 

 the Confederate army. The greatest sufferers, 

 however, were the more ignorant of these men 

 and women and children. The refugees that 

 returned with Gen. Sherman to Vicksburg, 

 were long compelled to lie in the streets or 

 open squares. The condition of these people 

 is thus described : 



Banks' unfortunate expedition brought ruin upon 

 thousands; for the people, feeling confident of his 

 success, openly avowed their attachment to the 

 Union, and after his defeat they were left wholly un- 

 protected. Their houses were burned over their 

 heads, and they themselves were compelled to flee 

 for their lives. 



On both sides of the river they are crowded together 

 in miserable buildings, and when those fail they lie 

 often with no bed but the damp ground and no cover- 

 ing but (he open sky. No wonder that death makes 

 such awful havoc among them. In an old warehouse 

 we found forty-seven in one room. Of this number 

 only twelve were able to stand they were so sick and 

 weak from exposure and want of food. A sick woman 

 lay on the floor with a babe a week old by her side ; 

 at her feet lay a little child two years old, wasted to 

 a skeleton by want and disease, while her four other 

 children lay near her, all too sick to bring even a drink 

 of water. Her husband is a soldier in our army. On 

 a blanket in the corner, with a few old clothes rolled 

 up to supply the place of a pillow, lay three little 

 children, all very sick. Their mother, a worn, feeble- 

 looking woman, sat beside them on the floor, and as I 

 stooped to examine the little ones and inquire into 

 their wants, she burst into tears and exclaimed : "I 

 am afraid my children will all die ! I have no medi- 

 cines and nothing that they can eat God knows 

 what is to become of us." Her look of bitter despair, 

 as she said this, haunted me for days afterwards. I 

 found her husband and son had entered our army 

 more than a year ago, but she had lost all track of 

 them and they knew nothing of her whereabouts. A 

 short distance from the building I have described, in 

 a wretched shed where hogs had always been quar- 

 tered I found three families in a condition which it is 

 impossible to describe. The building had no floor, 

 and the stagnant water stood upon the ground in 

 many places, while the air within was so intolerable, 

 that while dealing out the food and medicines I was 

 several times obliged to go out into the open air. 

 Upon the ground lay a mother, a grown daughter, and 



four other sick children. Close beside them was a 

 woman too far gone to speak or notice us. But I 

 need not dwell longer upon these heart-rending 

 scenes ; enough has been said to awaken sympathy 

 in every heart that contains one spark of feeling 01 

 humanity. I know that many have but little sympa- 

 thy for these refugees, denouncing them all as Seces- 

 sionists and not worthy our charity. I can only say 

 that such persons either lack heart or they have been 

 superficial in their investigations. My own expe- 

 rience with them has been quite the contrary. 



A number of small military expeditions were 

 made from the posts held by the Federal forces 

 during the year. On May 6th a troublesome 

 band of guerrillas, which had plundered and 

 burned almost to the outskirts of Vidalia, re- 

 tired for shelter to a swamp. Major Smith, of 

 the Sixth U. S. colored artillery, who com- 

 manded the post, sent out a force under Col. 

 Farrar. The enemy were overtaken, and a brief 

 contest, without quarter, ensued. The uncer- 

 tainty of the number of the assailants caused 

 the enemy to flee with a small loss. 



On June 10th an engagement took place at 

 Guntown, in which the enemy obtained con- 

 siderable success. The Federal force consisted 

 of two brigades of cavalry, under Col. Grierson, 

 two brigades of infantry in company with the 

 First Illinois light artillery and two regiments 

 of colored infantry, all under Gen. Sturgis. 

 The enemy were commanded by Gen. Forrest, 

 and consisted of Bell's, Lyon's, Kucker's, and 

 Johnston's brigades, and Bice's and Morton's 

 batteries. Gen. Sturgis advanced from Mem- 

 phis until he encountered the enemy in strong 

 force near Guntown, and after a sharp contest 

 was routed. The enemy pursued Sturgis to 

 Colliersville, and his loss was three thousand 

 men, eight hundred mules, five hundred horses, 

 two hundred wagons, twenty ambulances, one 

 hundred and fifty thousand rations, six hundred 

 thousand rounds of ammunition, and fourteen 

 pieces of artillery all spiked and the wheels cut 

 down. The defeat is ascribed to the exhausted 

 condition in which the Federal infantry were 

 brought into action and the overwhelming force 

 of the enemy. 



On Oct. 5th Gen. Albert L. Lee moved from 

 Baton Eouge, in Louisiana, marching through 

 Eocky Hill cross-roads, Osyea, and Greenburg, 

 destroying much property and taking a number 

 of prisoners. ' He returned to Baton Eouge on 

 the 9th. 



On Nov. 14th Col. Fonda left Baton Eouge 

 and marched to Williams' Bridge, Liberty, and 

 Brookhaven, Mississippi, capturing a number 

 of prisoners and destroying a bridge, and then 

 returned. 



In consequence of the following order, the 

 Catholic Bishop of Natchez was arrested and 

 transported to Vidalia : 



NA 



HEADQUARTERS U. S. FOECKS, ) 

 rciiEz, Miss., Aug. 12, 1864 ( 



Military authority haying been, for the time, vindi- 

 cated, so much of Special Order No. 11 as requires 

 Rev. William Henry "Elder, Bishop of Natchez, to re- 

 main within the military lines of the Post of Vidalia, 

 La., is suspended, and he may return to h'.s home and 



