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
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American Civil War Book Titles

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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

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Who better to tell an infrantry man's story then themselves. The hardships of Marches, Poor food and bitter fighting.

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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

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

Jackson Mississippi City History Current Weather and area lodging

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