Meridian
Civil War Mississippi

American Civil War
February 14-20, 1864

From Vicksburg, Mississippi, General Sherman launched a campaign to take the important railroad center at Meridian and, if the situation was favorable, push on to Selma, Alabama, and threaten Mobile. Sherman ordered Brig. General William Sooy Smith to lead a cavalry force of 7,000 men from Memphis, Tennessee, on February 1, 1864, south through Okolona, along the Mobile & Ohio Railroad, and meet the rest of the Union force at Meridian.

With the main force of 20,000 men, Sherman set out on the 3rd for Meridian, but made feints toward various other locations. To counter the threat, Confederate President Jefferson Davis ordered troops to the area from other localities. The Confederate commander in the area, Lieutenant General Leonidas Polk, consolidated a number of commands in and around Mortona, but lost his nerve and retreated rapidly eastward.

Cavalry units commanded by Major General Stephen D. Lee periodically skirmished with Sherman's force. As Sherman approached Meridian, he met stiffer resistance from combined forces but steadily moved on. Polk finally realized that he could not stop Sherman and evacuated Meridian on the 14th, removing some railroad rolling stock to McDowell's Bluff. Sherman's troops entered Meridian the same day and began destroying railroad track, continuing their work until the 19th. Smith never arrived at Meridian.

Sherman left Meridian on the 20th, headed west by way of Canton, looking for Smith and his force. He did not discover what happened to Smith until he arrived back at Vicksburg (see Okolona). Sherman had destroyed some important Confederate transportation facilities but had to forget his aspirations for continuing into Alabama.

Result(s): Union victory

Location: Lauderdale County

Campaign: Meridian and Yazoo River Expeditions (1864)

Date(s): February 14-20, 1864

Principal Commanders: Major General William T. Sherman [US]; Lieutenant General Leonidas Polk [CS]

Forces Engaged: Department of the Tennessee [US]; Department of Alabama, Mississippi and East Louisiana [CS]

Estimated Casualties: Unknown


Sherman's Mississippi Campaign
Sherman set out from Vicksburg on February 3, 1864, with an army of some 25,000 infantry and a battalion of cavalry. An opportunity to observe how this large-scale raid presaged Shermans Atlanta and Carolina campaigns, revealing the transformation of Shermans strategic thinking

Unconditional Surrender: U. S. Grant and the Civil War
This is the best juvenile biography on Ulysses S. Grant by a wide margin. Marrin has done an excellent job in introducing Grant to a young audience. I highly recommend it.

Vicksburg Mississippi Campaign
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Grant Takes Command: 1863 - 1865
The enigmatic commander in chief of the Union forces through the last year and a half of the Civil War. It is both a revelatory portrait of Ulysses S. Grant and the dramatic story of how the war was won.
American Civil War Book Titles

Vicksburg: The Campaign That Opened the Mississippi
Confederate troops surrendered Vicksburg on July 4, 1863 a crucial port and rail depot for the South was lost
Champion Hill: Decisive Battle for Vicksburg
The Battle of Champion Hill was the decisive land engagement of the Vicksburg Campaign. The May 16, 1863, fighting took place just 20 miles east of the river city, where the advance of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's Federal army attacked Gen. John C. Pemberton's hastily gathered Confederates
Vicksburg: 47 Days of Siege
First-hand accounts of life during the 47 days Vicksburg was under siege. Ranging from housewives to soliders on both sides, a good idea of what life was like, from ways to pass the time to what to eat, in and around Vicksburg. A large photo album and a glossary
The Darkest Days of the War: The Battles of Iuka and Corinth
The strategic implications of the battles of Iuka and Corinth, exploring their impact on the fate of the Northern Mississippi Campaign, the fall of Vicksburg and by extension, the fate of the Confederacy.

Guide to the Vicksburg Campaign U.S. Army War College Guides to Civil War Battles
Army War College Examines an entire campaign, looking at many interlinked battles and joint Army-Navy operations as they played out over seven months and thousands of square miles


Ninety-Eight Days: A Geographer's View of the Vicksburg Campaign
The geology of the Mississippi river, and how the landcape along the river determined the course of events and logistical realities that the armies had to contend with, such as the pounds per square inch of a cassion wheel as it contacts the earth


Vicksburg Expedition Guide
Annimated movie that details Grants Mississippi campaign which concluded with the seige of Vicksburg. A great background on the importance of this site in the entire war, as well as battles leading up to the Vicksburgh seige.
Mississippi's Civil War: A Narrative History
A great treatment of wartime Mississippi that includes a lot of social and political material in addition to information on battles. It also includes a lot of great stories, from the dramatic resignation of Jefferson Davis from the U.S. Senate in 1861 to Ulysses S. Grant's drinking habits during the siege of Vicksburg

The Free State of Jones: Mississippi's Longest Civil War
The southeastern Mississippi county that was home to a Unionist stronghold during the Civil War and home to a large and complex mixed-race community in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries

Campaign for Corinth: Blood in Mississippi
In 1862 Corinth, was transformed into one of the South's most strategic strongholds. At Corinth, the Mobile and Ohio Railroad crossed the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, creating a crucial nexus for the transport of supplies, material, and men throughout the western Confederacy
The 16th Mississippi Infantry: Civil War Letters and Reminiscences
Who better to tell an infrantry man's story then themselves. The hardships of Marches, Poor food and bitter fighting.
A Hard Trip: A History of the 15th Mississippi Infantry, CSA
The reality of the moment in 1860-61 Mississippi. The thoughts of the men who formed the 15th Mississippi are front and center with good background about the communities the men came from and the reasons they joined the army.

Civil War History Documentary DVD Movie Titles

Civil War Combat: America's Bloodiest Battles
The violent mayhem of the hornet's nest at Shiloh, the valiant charge on the sunken road at Antietam, the carnage in the wheat field at Gettysburg, and the brutal fighting at Cold Harbor
Civil War Journal - The Conflict Begins
These four programs from the History Channel series Civil War Journal cover critical aspects of the early days of the war.
Civil War Journal
Collector's Edition 4-DVD Set
Made exclusively for Books Are Fun. Discs include: · Stonewall Jackson · Sherman and the March to the Sea · West Point Classmates-Civil War Enemies · Robert E. Lee · Battle of 1st Bull Run · The 54th Massachusetts · John Brown s War · Destiny at Fort Sumter
Gettysburg / Gods and Generals
The tide of the war changes during three fierce days of combat at Gettysburg [Disc 1] the gripping saga of the tactics command errors and sacrifices behind the bloodiest battle ever fought on U.S. soil. Gods and Generals [Disc 2] reveals the spirited allegiances and fierce combat of earlier Civil War struggles

History Channel Presents The Civil War
From Harper's Ferry, Fort Sumter, and First Bull Run to Shiloh, Antietam, and Gettysburg. The most legendary Civil War battles in brilliant detail. A selection of the soldiers and legendary leaders.
The Civil War - A Film by Ken Burns
Here is the saga of celebrated generals and ordinary soldiers, a heroic and transcendent president and a country that had to divide itself in two in order to become one
The Blue and the Gray
The Complete Miniseries
The Civil War proved a backdrop for this 1982 miniseries. Complete and uncut three disc set. Two families divided by the War Between the States. A Southerner caught when he becomes a war correspondent for the Northern newspaper. He finds himself  where history's in the making from the Battle of Bull Run to Abraham Lincoln's assassination
Blue Vs. Gray - Killing Fields
Relive the most vicious fighting of the Civil War, in which General Ulysses S. Grant forcibly reversed the tide of the conflict by paying with the blood of thousands. It was a desperate time for the Union

Sources:
U.S. National Park Service
U.S. Library of Congress.

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