CAMPAIGNING WITH MAX. 105 



Sherman was about to advance eastward from 

 Vicksburg, destroy the lines of railroad by which 

 Forrest received supplies from the fertile prairie 

 region of Northern Mississippi, and strike the Re- 

 bellion in the pit of its stomach. A. J. was to 

 take all my infantry down the river, and the 

 cavalry was to move to Colliersville, on the line 

 of the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, and 

 join a considerable cavalry force gathering there 

 under Sooy Smith and Grierson ; thence we were 

 to move southeasterly through Mississippi, to en- 

 gage Forrest's forces and to meet Sherman's army 

 at the crossing of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad at 

 Meridian. 



We lay in camp more than a week, ready to 

 move, but awaiting orders. The country (a very 

 wet one) was frozen hard and covered with snow. 

 Our order to march and the thaw came together, 

 on the 2 2d of January. We were to cross the 

 Obion River (and bottom) at Sharp's Ferry, twenty- 

 three miles southwest of our camp. " The com- 

 mand consisted of the Fourth Missouri (with a 

 battery), Second New Jersey, Seventh Indiana, 

 5* 



