Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 36.djvu/208

192 draw on General Washburne. He wrote him and stated his inability to feed the prisoners, and suggested that inasmuch as he would not receive them in exchange, that the least he could do would be to send them something to eat that night. He added that he would remain at Hernando until he answered. At daylight the following morning the same officers reached the camp with two wagons loads of flour, hams, coffee, sugar, etc. Two days rations were issued to all men, prisoners and Confederates, and there was ample left for several days' rations. We then began the march to Panola. Persons in Memphis who heard the sharp call of the buglers and the crack of the rifles that Sunday morning said: "It was the most awful and ringing sound they ever heard. No one save Forrest and his men had any idea what it meant." One old man, in speaking of it, said: "I wondered if Gabriel was sounding the last call." The thunderous yells, the rush of the horses in the mud, the clanking of sabers and the rattle of spurs added horrors to the awful situation. The caravan which Forrest marched out of Memphis Sunday, August 21, 1864, was in deep distress. The men in underclothes, many of them in their night shirts, barefooted and without hats, besmattered with mud, as they struggled along up to their knees, were the most wretched-looking people I ever beheld. Officers who had been in the habit of parading the streets in Memphis with gay uniforms, some of them staff officers, ordinarily mounted on fine horses, with elegant saddles, were now in a sad and pitiable plight as they trudged along in the mud, their gowns wet and dragging, But that was part of war. The command reached Panola in safety, and after resting a few days moved to Water Valley, where several days were spent reorganizing. We will now return to Oxford and note how successfully and skillfully General Chalmers handled his command. His force was small, including not more than three thousand effective men, and yet he concealed from General Smith any idea of the move to Memphis. It was an important duty, one on which our success rested, but was accomplished in the most creditable manner. The day following General Forrest's departure, General Chalmers made vigorous attacks against all of General Smith's