| Hdqrs. Cav. Dept. of West Tenn. and North Miss. |
| Jackson
|
| March 21, 1864
|
| |
| Lieut. Col. T. M. Jack |
| Assistant Adjutant-General |
| |
| Colonel, |
| I have the honor to report the arrival
of my advance at this place on yesterday morning at 11 o'clock, and
deem it proper to give the lieutenant-general commanding a report of
the condition of the country through which I have passed, also the
state of affairs as they exist, with such suggestions as would
naturally arise from observations made and a personal knowledge of
facts as they exist. From
Tupelo
to Purdy the country has been laid waste, and unless some effort is
made either by the Mobile
& Ohio Railroad Company or the Government the people are bound
to suffer for food. They have been by the enemy and by roving bands
of deserters and tories stripped of everything; have neither negroes
nor stock with which to raise a crop or make a support. What
provisions they had have been consumed or taken from them, and the
majority of families are bound to suffer. They are now hauling corn
in ox wagons and by hand-cars from Okolona and below to Corinth, and
as far north as Purdy, also east and west of Corinth, on the Memphis
& Charleston Railroad, but their limited means of transportation
will not enable them to subsist their families, and my opinion is
that the railroad can be easily and speedily repaired, and that any
deficiency in iron from Meridian north can be supplied from the
Memphis & Charleston Railroad, and that a brigade of cavalry
with a regiment or two of infantry placed at Corinth would afford
protection to that section, and would be the means of driving out of
the country or placing in our army the deserters and tories
infesting that region, whose lawless appropriation of provisions,
horses, and other property is starving out the defenseless and
unprotected citizens of a large scope of country. Repairing and
running the railroad would enable the inhabitants to procure
provisions from the prairies and would prove an invaluable
acquisition in the transportation of supplies and troops from this
section. |
| ***** |
| I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient
servant, |
| N. B. Forrest |
| Major-General |
|