St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-01-24

whole command and then destroyed all the
residue of supplies. except what was Sc
cured by the residents of Holly Springs.
The
SOLDIERS WERE ALL PARoLED,
l. 500 of them. and Gen. Grant stated that
the only excuse for their giving such paroles
was their inexperience. Certainly it would
have been little difficult TO know what to
do with them had they refused. so that we
came out remarkably well in that respect.
The moment we gained control OF the
town We sent men to occupy the telegraph
Office, and we secured the dispatches. We
learned that Forrest was raiding north Of
us. Gen. Grant says. as previously quoted
in his book, Forrest got our line of rail-
road between Jackson, Tenn, and Colum-
bus. KY, doing much damage to it." We
went north. hoping to join him; and, had
The commands been united, we should have
done much more execution than was done
by the TWO separately. Wewent by SOmer-
vile, Tenn. toward Bolivar. In Western
tennessee we found that Forrest had gone
to Join Gen. Bragg's army in the middle of
that state. Then we moved southwark
again, being near Ripley, Miss. On Christ
mas daY; aud on this course. as on our
nothward one, we passed in the rear Of
the Federal cavalry column; when near
Grand Junction we heard their drums.
When we arrived at Grenada. Cen Penn
berton had gone. But for our raid he
would undoubtedly have started sooner
than he did, for he was all ready, when we
left him. to retire on Canton; and, indeed,
had sent one division to the rear.
Gen. Grant returned 10 La Grange and
Grand junction. He states that had he
known the demoralized condition of the
enemy, or the fact that Central Mississippi
sbounded so in all army supplies" ne
would have
BEEN N PURSUIT
of Pemberton while the cavalry was de-
strOying the roads, I'm his rear. Fortu-
nately for us he did not know these two
things; and we had but little fighting 10
speak of with the column sent by him TO
pursue us.
He took very philosophical view of our
raid, as appears from the following SEN
tence in his book (page 4S5l:
Our loss of supplies was great at Holly
Springs. but it was more than compensated
for by those taken from the country and by
the lesson taught" Ny view Of the matter
differs from this He moved his headquar-
tiers back to Holly Springs on Dec. %, and.
drawing back his troops gradually, re-
manned there until the road thence to
OIduu JUNCTION. anu from Ofanu JuuCliOh
to Memphis, was entirely repaired. which
was not until Jan. 10. 1888. Then he made
a further retrograde movement to Memphis,
from which place he departed i'm the last
days of that month to begin his campaign
against Vicksturg, which occupied just
about six months, and was finally won by
him at a tremendous cost in life and money.
Only on July did that Confederate strong
hold capitulate, after many battles and a
prolonged seige. On the other hand. sup
pose Grant had suffered no loss of supplies,
and pushed to the southwark as he orig
nally intended. He would have been close
on PembertOn's heels and the latter could
never have entered Vicksburg. Beyond a
doubt it would have been In Federal hands
in January instead of July, and the history
of the war would read far differently from
what it does. Thus the lesson that we
should never ''despise the day of small
things" has a striking illustration in the
momentOus results of the capture Of Holly
Springs. A CONFEDERATE OFFICER
December, 1885.