CAMP ON HERNANDO ROAD,
NEAR MEMPHIS,
Sept. 14, 1862.
I mentioned that I had just returned from an expedition into
Mississippi in my letter of yesterday. The rebels had become troublesome south
of this city, on the route of the Tennessee and Mississippi Railroad, and our
brigade marched in that direction to check their depredations and to seek an
engagement. We marched about two thousand strong — one thousand three hundred and
fifty infantry, four hundred cavalry, and a battery of artillery. Our cavalry
in advance came up with the enemy on Monday and had a sharp skirmish, driving
them back some two and a half miles. I have ascertained since my letter of
yesterday, in which I make a somewhat different statement, that forty-one of
the enemy were killed and between seventy and eighty wounded; a number of
prisoners and horses were taken. We had one man killed and four wounded. The
cavalry afterwards entered Senatobia, an important point on the railroad, and
burned the depot and cars that were there, scattering various guerilla bands
they met on the road there and back. Meanwhile, our main body destroyed the
railroad bridge over Coldwater, an important and expensive structure, tore up
the railroad track and destroyed all communication with the enemy and Hernando.
General Sherman pronounces the expedition one of the most successful and best
conducted that has been made during the campaign and best calculated to check
the operations of the enemy.
SOURCE: Walter George Smith, Life and letters of
Thomas Kilby Smith, p. 238-9
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