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Updated: May 19, 2025
"You may be sure the captain will not come out of his stateroom until we let him out," added the engineer; and Christy proceeded to explain what had passed between the schooner and the steamer. "The Tallahatchie has one of the ablest commanders that sail the ocean, for I have seen and know him," continued the lieutenant. "It is Captain Rombold, now or formerly, of the British Navy.
There were three converging forces: Grant's from Grand Junction, Sherman's from Memphis, and a smaller one from Helena in Arkansas. But the Confederate General, J.C. Pemberton, who had replaced Van Dorn, escaped the trap they tried to set for him. He was strongly entrenched on the south side of the Tallahatchie, north of Oxford, on the Mississippi Central rails.
Formerly there was a route by way of an inlet from the Mississippi River into Moon Lake, a mile east of the river, thence east through Yazoo Pass to Coldwater, along the latter to the Tallahatchie, which joins the Yallabusha about two hundred and fifty miles below Moon Lake and forms the Yazoo River.
Graines had done so for him; and it was found that the gun carriage had been knocked into a shapeless mass so that it could not be put in condition for use. The machinists from the engine room of both vessels, for those of the Tallahatchie had no feeling on the subject, were restoring the steering apparatus, and were likely to have the work completed the next day.
He explained to me that he proposed to move against Pemberton, then intrenched on a line behind the Tallahatchie River below Holly Springs; that he would move on Holly Springs and Abberville, from Grand Junction; that McPherson, with the troops at Corinth, would aim to make junction with him at Holly Springs; and that he wanted me to leave in Memphis a proper garrison, and to aim for the Tallahatchie, so as to come up on his right by a certain date.
"Only the Bellevite and Holyoke remained off the entrance to Mobile Bay," added Christy. "We have had a very quiet time of it since I joined the Bellevite, and the action with the Tallahatchie was really the only event of any great importance in which I have been engaged."
"The Tallahatchie, sir?" queried the midshipman. "Formerly the Trafalgar," added the commander. The young officer touched his cap and retired. "This Captain Sullendine is still secured in his stateroom on board of the West Wind, is he?" asked the captain, rising from his arm-chair. "He was when I left the schooner, sir," replied Christy.
The surrender of Holly Springs was most reprehensible and showed either the disloyalty of Colonel Murphy to the cause which he professed to serve, or gross cowardice. After the war was over I read from the diary of a lady who accompanied General Pemberton in his retreat from the Tallahatchie, that the retreat was almost a panic.
That as much of the Yazoo Pass, Coldwater, and Tallahatchie Rivers, as can be gained and fortified, be held, and the main army be transported thither by land and water; that the road back to Memphis be secured and reopened, and, as soon as the waters subside, Grenada be attacked, and the swamp-road across to Helena be patrolled by cavalry. Fourth. The capture of Vicksburg would result. Fifth.
"We have one hundred and twenty men, with six absent on other duty," continued the lieutenant. "Judging by what I learned from Bokes, I believe the Tallahatchie has less than a hundred, for he said she expected to recruit twenty or thirty men at Nassau. She has lost more men so far than we have, sir." "Grant all that you say, and where does the flanking come in?"
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