The expedition up the Yazoo.
The following extracts are from a letter of an officer dated Haines's Bluff, Miss., June 1, 1863, and which to-day was received in this city:We reached here yesterday, after a week's march up between the Black and Yazoo Rivers. The object of the expedition was to destroy the resources of the country, to prevent the enemy from subsisting their armies, and to drive out any force he might have in that region, and if possible to ascertain if the enemy was concentrating in any considerable force for the purpose of raising the siege of Vicksburgh. We had six brigades, numbering something over ten thousand men.
We have marched over one hundred miles in a week, during the hottest kind of weather. We destroyed all the forage, and supplies, and cotton, and drove off all the cattle, horses, and mules between the two lines for a distance of fifty miles. We met no considerable body of the enemy, and had only one or two slight skirmishes, but we ascertained where the enemy were concentrating, and gained much valuable information, which may be of use hereafter.
The Commanding General having reported to Gen. eral Grant, the latter came this morning to Haines's Bluff, and seemed well satisfied with our operations. It was made our painful but imperative duty to destroy every thing, corn, cotton, meat, mills, and cotton-gins, that we could find, sparing only dwellings, and a small supply of provisions for each family.
This is bringing the war home to their people, and making them realize their own crime in bringing its calamities upon the country. The command will rest here for a day or so, and then return to Vicksburgh, which cannot hold out very long against our forces. They can raise no force to make us give up the siege.
