Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1864-03-03
Return Of Smiths Cavalry Ex-
pediti0n TO Memphis.

Immense Quantities Of Rebel Corn Destroy.
ed-AH The 1restLe Work on the M & 0.
Railroad Destroyed on its Line of March
-Continned ,Skirmishino pith Large
Rebel Forces. -,i sHI u. -
MEMPHIS, Feb. 26.-The reports of
stragglers that Gen. Smiths expedition is
cut up, prove false. That General arrived
here ut three o'clock last night. From an
officers diary, kept during the progress OF
the expedition, | condense the following
particulars, III addition to some already re-
ceived On the 18th the expedition reach
ed Okolona, on the Mobile & Ohio Railroad,
IS miles South Of Corinth, and 1870 miles
Southeast OF Memphis.
Here they heard that Sherman had cap
tured Meridian, and was advancing East
On the 10Th they marched to Egypt Station,
on the NJ. Il D. r. R., where they captured
and destroyed vast quantity of Confeder-
ate corn. One column went through Aber-
concentrating at Prairie Station The Aber.
deem column, under Gen. Grierson, had
considerable skirmishing near that place,
and destroyed over 100, 900 bushels Of Con
federate corn; at Prairie Station, also,
burned a lot oi Confederate cotton.
On the 20th they broke camp at $50 A.
NJ Forrest was reported in force at West
Point. AT IL A. NJ. the advance skirmished
heavily with the enemy. At 3P. II. they
halted within mile OF West Point. They
lost one Lieutenant killed and five men
wounded in the skirmish one rebel
Capta and captured wounded rebel Ma
jor and one private.
On the 2lst they moved West, and found
that Forrest, Lee, Chalmers and Roddy
were combined against us.
They tried TO cut our column in two, but
without success. Very heavy fighting oc
CURED both in the rear and advance. The
; I'd Iowa had number of killed and woun
; ded in gullant charge on 1000 or 3.00(
rebels OIL each flank, all in heavy force. :
Our rear was constantly charging. We have
; lost three pieces of four FOUNDER steel guns
ed all their ammunition was saved.
> Gen. Smith now fell back slowly, oul
troops amhushing the rebels as they ad
g vanccd The rebel loss was quite heavy. -
T Smith burned every tIestle on the Mobile
. Ohio road destroyed miles Of the track hnt
e u very large amount Of corn as he fell back
r On the I'D broke camp ut Ia. NJ. aitel
c resting only two hours. Severe fightin,
with the rear continued all day The rebel
8 lost heavily, being ambushed ut every avail
G able point. Volley after volley was poure'
d into them nt short range as they advanced
n but having 80 much the largest force, the
]. continued to press our rear heavily, rebe
column moving on each flank with the ev
dent design of reaching the Tallahatchie i
the absence of our force and forming juno
. tion TO prevent our crossing, and capture th
Is whole command but by forced marching
Smith passed both hanking columns an
q marching oil night, crossed safely at Ne,
IL Albany on the noon of the 23d, the rea
l. guard skirmishing all the way. On the 24t
skirmishing continued. On the 18th, march
!; ed 50 miles. arriving at Memphis a, II p Nj
q Most Of the expedition, however, stoppe
y ut Coiervic
,, The following is an estimate of the result
. of tho expedition: Destroyed over one mi
l. lion bushels of corn tore up aud destroye
many miles Of track on the Mobile & Obi
T. Railroad burned many bridges and tire.
u ties captured and brought in, over l,50
J. mules and horses; about ., 900 negroes, an
3 over three hundred rebel prisoners, who al
y now in Irving Prison, No' .'''"It
~ u II is impossible to give our less, but it
y much less than the enemy's The exped
u don was successful at every point and ]
q every particular, except the important on
y Of making a Junction with Sherman, uhic
- is attributed mainly to the slow mgyemen,
= ofthe New Jersey and Pennsylvania cavalr
% regiments causing delay Of one week
= the starting Of the expedition. The retres
:, :, was NOT at any time q rout, although ther
!" was some struggling. ., 60 ;ucH n.'
:; The Presidents Amnesty Proclamatio
and Gen, Grants Order were extensivel
IL L A. l.