Dick Taylor
Not exactly good news for the rebel cause
From a Seneca County, New York newspaper in 1865:
The War in the Southwest.
CAIRO, Feb. 21. – The Memphis Bulletin learns from gentlemen who left Selma, Ala., on the 14th ult., and came through Meridian and Jackson, Miss., that Dick Taylor, has a considerable force at Selma and also at Meridian. At Selma the Rebels were manufacturing and turning out large quantities of munitions of war. Fortifications extend all around the place, but they are not very formidable. Most of Hood’s army had been sent to operate against Sherman. They were nearly naked and wholly dispirited, and had lost all hope of successful resistance to the Federal troops. Large numbers were barefooted, and it is stated that ten thousand of Hood’s men had their feet frost-bitten during their retreat from Nashville, in which they suffered more than during the previous three years of the war. The slaveholders were greatly dissatisfied with the conscription of slaves and free negroes for service in the army; but the work was actively going on. Gen Forrest was collecting a force at Jackson, Miss., for operations, it was said, against Vicksburg. The Mississippi Legislature was to meet at Columbus on the 20th, and relieve the destitute people.
