Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1914-02-27

Finegan's whole line. would have
been disastrous to Seymour but for the
heroism of Barton's men. The New
Workers. stood fast and gave their conf
rades time to withdraw from the bullet
swept front. The colonies of the three
regiments in the brigade fell, and over
800 of the rank and file were killed
and wounded.
The fight was a plucky n on both
sides and the bloodiest for the FEEDER
ais. who lost one-third of the men ne
tually engaged, while their foe lost
one-sixth. The battle lasted three
hours, and nearly 5000 men fell. Dark
ness came on soon after the final Con-
federate advance. General Finegan
sent forward a body of GOO cavalry to
make a vigorous pursuit of the retreat
ing enemy.
Cavalry Combats In the Woods.
On Feb. 81 and %. 1864, General N.
B. Forests Confederate cavalry effec-
tually defeated the march of an oppos-
ing column of mounted Federals in
east central Mississippi. With a force
of 1000 troopers General w. Sooy
Smith was riding across country from
Memphis to unite his command with
that of General w. t. Sherman at
Meridian, Miss. Incidentally Smith
was to dispense and drive from. the
region Forests command as he march
ed toward the goal. Forrest In per-
son led the right wing of his corps
and General w. r. Chalmers the left
wing. A wide interval between the
wings was covered by the brigade of
Colonel Jeffrey Forrest, brother of the
general.
Smith entered Mississippi Feb. IL
and at the end of a week was drawing
near West Point, in the angle lying
between the Tombigbee on the east of
the route and the Oka-tibby-ha, which
flows southeast into the Tombigbee
below West Point. This angle grew
narrower each hour of the southwark
march and the streams on each side
grew deeper. swollen as they were
with recent rains.
AS the column drew near West Point
Colonel Jeffrey Forrest played along
the front. receding slowly and refus-
ing pitched battles. The Federals
were massed in a force too strong for
Forrest had he chosen to fight without
re-enforcements. Reluctantly he mass
ed his own corps behind a creek four
miles back of West Point and allowed
his brothers brigade to be driven from
the town with a flourish of trumpets
by the Federals. General Smith looked
the ground over where For est was in
position and decided to make a feint
along the front. then take the back
track for Memphis. One bridge was
standing on the Oka-tibby-ha south of
the town, and this Forrest guarded
against persistent attacks. After a
desperate squirt at the bridge about
noon the 21st of February. the Fed
erals hurried away northward. For
rest pushed his whole force after them
on the road to Okolona.
Forrest Avoids Battle.
Again Forrest avoided battle, but
Sent his brigadiers around the tanks of
of the pursuing column to harass the
Federal march and if possible III off
their retreat. At Okolona battle seem
ed imminent for a time. for General
G. X. Barteau's brigade had landed
squarely in the new Federal front, and
Forrest, with two brigades. came thun-
dering on in the rear. There were two
roads northward from Okolona, one of
them held by Barteau. and Colonel
Forrest attempted to reach the other.
leading Il Pototoc. Colonel Forrest
failed to get the pototoc road. Nettled
by this failure, he deployed his men
and led them in a terrific onset. which
carried the first Federal line of cover
in the face of a whitening fire.
The Federal brigade of Colonel
George e. Waring received the attack
of Colonel Forrest. The troopers car
ried breechloaders. and Colonel For
rests dash for the second line was