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On February 21, 1864, Confederate and Union forces faced off over the banks of the Chuquatonchee Creek on Ellis Bridge in West Point, Mississippi. This three-hour battle pitted Nathan Bedford Forrest with his small but mighty cavalry against William Sooy Smith and his dogged Federal troops as they attempted to push through the prairie and destroy the railroad junction in Meridian. Smith's men did not succeed in their mission and suffered heavy casualties at the hands of Forrest in a precursor to the Battle of Okolona. Author John McBryde details the nuances of the battle that initiated Rebel opposition to the Meridian Campaign, including accounts from West Point locals of the time.
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In February 1864, over seven thousand Union cavalry troops led by Gen. William Sooy Smith started a raid into the Mississippi Prairie to bring destruction to one of the few breadbaskets remaining in the South. Both Smith and Gen. Sherman intended to burn everything in their path. But neither reckoned with Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest. Forrest's small Confederate cavalry forced defeated Smith in a running battle that stretched from West Point to Okolona and beyond. Forrest's victory prevented Smith from joining Sherman and saved the Prairie from total destruction.
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During the fateful winter and spring of 1865, thousands of civilians in South Carolina, young and old, black and white, felt the impact of what General William T. Sherman called "the hard hand of war.” This book tells their stories, many of which were corroborated by the testimony of Sherman’s own soldiers and officers, and other eyewitnesses. These historical narratives are taken from letters and diaries of the time, as well as newspaper accounts and memoirs.
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One of Savannah, Georgia's closest calls to total disaster happened with the arrival of Wm. T. Sherman and sixty-two thousand Union Troops. This fifty-three-day heart-pounding, nail-biting, hair-raising horror story of her onion-skin-thin bare survival centers on the central question: who REALLY saved Savannah?
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The ladies who wrote about their experiences wanted future generations to know about their trials and tribulations in the spring of 1865. Their stories have been almost forgotten, but they are printed in these pages for you to read and study, and to pass on to generations yet to come. For if one generation forgets, these stories will be lost for all eternity. Let’s not let this happen!