"An ardent secession lady," continues the correspondent, "discovered a vile Yankee surreptitiously purloining a pair of fat chickens. Terribly incensed at this wanton robbery and gross violation of the rights of personal property, she make a bold onslaught, but I regret to say that all her expostulations failed to convince the demoralized and hungry 'mudsill' that he was sinning, for he replied, 'Madam! this accursed rebellion must be crushed, if it takes every chicken in Mississippi.' The door was slammed to with violence, and the enraged woman retired, disgusted with 'Yankee' habits, to mourn over the loss of her plump pair of chickens.
"Our troops raised sad havoc with the Mobile and Ohio and the Southern railroad lines. The Southern road was torn up, rails twisted, and sleepers burnt from Jackson to twenty miles east of Meridian to Cuba Station. The Mobile and Ohio road was destroyed for fifty-six miles, extending from Quitman to Lauderdale Springs. Five costly bridges were totally destroyed; the one spanning the Chickasawhay River was 210 feet long with trestle-work which required four months' hard labor of hundreds of mechanics to construct it. It was a substantial, covered bridge. The bridges over Octchibacah, Alligator, Tallahassee, and Chunky Rivers were also burned. The Mobile and Ohio road, which was so thoroughly destroyed, was considered by engineers to be the finest built road in the United States, costing $50,000 per mile. It was built principally by English capitalists, and George Peabody, the London banker, owned several thousand shares."
After a week at Meridian, Sherman moved northward. On February 26th he encamped near Canton, and the great raid was practically ended. On March 3d, he was back in Vicksburg, exactly a month after he had left it. He left his army at Canton. It had marched about four hundred and fifty miles in less than a month, and had lived on the country it marched through. And it was now in better health and general condition than when it started.
Its losses had been slight: 21 killed, 68 wounded, and 81 missing. It brought in over 400 prisoners, 1,000 white refugees, 5,000 negroes, and vast trains of cattle and wagons; while the damage it had done to the Rebel cause was simply incalculable. In summing up the results of the expedition, and describing one of its most picturesque and impressive features, a _New York Tribune_ writer said: