The Mobile Advertiser, of the 15th instant, contains some intelligence about the reported movements of the enemy. It gets the following report from a gentleman who has arrived there:
‘ He left Oxford on Tuesday morning last, at which time Gen. Forrest was preparing to encounter two divisions of the enemy which had come out from Memphis. One of these columns is reported by his scouts to consist of 6,000 infantry and artillery, moving down the Mississippi and Tennessee road through Hernando, towards Panola. The second column from Memphis consists of twelve regiments of cavalry, which went out on the Memphis and Charleston Railroad to Collierville, and then turned south to concentrate with the column marching on Panola.
’ Gen. Forrest had received reports from below that Sherman's column from Vicksburg consisted of 32,000 men — infantry, artillery, and cavalry. It marches in close order, not a man leaving ranks, even to steal a chicken. Gen. Lee's cavalry hover round them, picking up a few men occasionally, who report that they left the Big Black with twenty days cooked rations.
A private dispatch from Enterprise dated last evening states that our forces evacuated Meridian yesterday (Sunday) morning. The government property was all saved, and nearly all if not all the machinery of the railroad company. Our troops retired in good order in the direction of the Bigbee river. The last train above on the Mobile and Ohio Railroad passed Meridian at 1 P. M., yesterday, and reported the enemy in full view, just entering the town. The train was not fired on, and no effort was made to stop or delay it.
A dispatch from Enterprise, at 6 o'clock this morning, reports no movement of the enemy in that direction. The general opinion among well informed persons from the vicinity of the Yankees seems to be that their purpose is to continue their march centrally towards Selma, where they expect to meet another column, and thence move forward to the rear of Gen. Johnston.
It remains to be seen whether so audacious and hazardous an enterprise can be successfully prosecuted. The Yankees have thus far shown a mortifying contempt for our military energy and resources — it is to be hoped that before they return — if, indeed, they are ever permitted to return--to Yankeedom, they may be taught a better appreciation of both.
We omitted to state above that the telegraph office was closed at Meridian at 12 o'clock noon Sunday--the operator bearing off his instruments and the valuable property of his office.
The following official communications to the people of Mobile, are published in the papers of that city:
Your city is about to be attacked by the enemy. Mobile must be defended at every hazard and to the last extremity. To do this effectively, all who cannot fight must leave the city. The brave defenders of the city can fight with more energy and enthusiasm when they feel assured that the noble women and children are out of danger.
I appeal to the patriotic non combatants to leave for the interior. The people of the interior towns and the planters in the country will receive and provide support for all who go. The patriotic of this city will see the importance and necessity of heeding this call.
Those who love this city and the glorious cause in which we fight, will not hesitate to obey the calls which patriotism makes.
Proclamation.
I have the honor to lay before you the following communication addressed to me by our commanding General, requesting that I use every means in my power to induce the non-combatants to leave the city without delay. Fellow-citizens, our city in all probability will be attacked in a very short time by the enemy. You cannot doubt the propriety and pure motives of the General in urging all non-combatants to leave immediately. The city may, and likely will be, besieged. Enough is known at least to make it prudent to prepare for the worst. You must know that if besieged the soldiery and citizens can be provided for only for a certain length of time, and every one who leaves it furnishes so much more food for the soldier. Our Governor also requests that you leave, and declares that he will use his large influence in the interior for your comfort and protection. Do not hesitate any longer, but go immediately. Transportation will be furnished you for the purpose.I feel confident that it is the impression of our rulers that if our lovely city falls into the hands of our enemy, it will be the result of starvation. Will you be instrumental in this catastrophe by standing in the way of protecting and defending it? I believe not. I feel confident that if you take the advice of the General and Governor, Mobile will be successfully defended, and that ere long you may return in safety to your homes.
I observe little disposition on the part of non-combatants to leave Mobile. Please use every means in your power to induce them to do so without delay.
The Governor of Alabama assures me that he will take measures to secure to the people an asylum in the upper region of country bordering the rivers above here. I cannot believe that the kind and hospitable people of Mobile, who have for years been opening their houses to the homeless refugees from other parts of the Confederacy, will fail to receive a ready welcome and kind protection during the attack on their homes.
Patriotism demands that they leave the city for a while to those who can defend it. Prudence urges that they make no unnecessary delay in going.
I will assist you here with transportation. The Governor says he will make proper arrangements for their reception and entertainment above.
The Mobile Register of the 18th, says that the latest information received leaves little doubt that Sherman's whole force is moving on that city. In its situation article the same paper remarks:
‘ From the information received up to this hour, it looks as if the first judgment of Gen. Polk, about the destination of the enemy, was correct, and that he is really moving on Mobile. He was certainly at Enterprise on Monday evening, and we have just heard that he has made his appearance at Quitman, ten miles further South. It is, however, the opinion of the last officers and others who left Meridian and Enterprise, that Sherman's principal force is pushing after Gen. Polk's retiring forces, towards Demopolis. If the Yankee soldiers are not like chameleons, and live on air, it is difficult to see how they can march 80,000 men, and the horses for their transportation and artillery through so barren a country, and for such a distance. The twenty days rations which they are said to have started with are exhausted — at least the twenty days are gone. There is nothing on the way down upon which to subsist man or beast. They are said to have had only 500 wagons, and Lee has destroyed some of these. But if they cannot come on for lack of food, neither can they go back, unless trains come out from Jackson to meet them. If Sherman pushes on to the Bigbee river, or up the country towards Okolona or Columbus, there is corn enough to feed any force, but how he is to live coming this way, passes our comprehension. Still, the fact is that some of his troops are coming this way. A day or two must solve the mystery of his purpose.
’ Later and fuller information from above relative to the late movement, induces us to believe that Gen. Polk has acted with prudence and energy, with the means at his command. The enemy certainly got the start of him, and was in full march before his scattered forces were got in hand. The consequence was very rapid movements and heavy work for our soldiers, causing the usual loss of strength and spirit. But in saving the public stores and other property, and in getting all the railway transportation out of the enemy's reach, there has been displayed extraordinary energy, resulting in complete success. Everything was saved at Meridian, including 2,000 bales of Government cotton, several hundred hogsheads of sugar, immense supplies of commissary, quartermaster, and ordnance stores. In this the General was seconded by the energy and experience of Col. Fleming, the Superintendent of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, who further succeeded in removing all the movable property of the road, even to the machine shop at Enterprise.
The Selma Reporter, of the same date, says:
‘ The last and most reliable rumor from the West says that the Yankee army is still at Meridian, and that ours is at Demopolis. Considerable excitement prevails in this city, and the citizens, we believe, are preparing to defend their homes and firesides whenever the emergency arrives.
’ A gentleman who left New Orleans some two weeks since, and made his way into our lines via Pensacola, furnishes the Mobile Advertiser with the following news concerning the movements of the
Federals in New Orleans, Pensacola, and Madisonville:
‘ The steamer Tuscarora was to leave Pensacola, February 14, for Mobile. Eight mortar boats were to leave February 15. Com. Farragut arrived in Pensacola a few days ago with three steamers, which are now undergoing preparations of cutting down, provisioning, providing crews, etc., for action.
’ He also says that from the preparations being made there, it is thought that an attack will be made on Mobile very shortly.
The number of troops in New Orleans, just before he left, was about 17,000, mostly of the Texas expedition. Seven thousand of the cavalry had been sent to Madisonville.
The negroes connected with the expedition — amounting to about 5,000 in number — had mutinied, their guns been taken from them, and all of them put under arrest and placed in a cotton press. The cause of the disturbance was that they had objected to the treatment they had received from their Yankee liberators. They stated that they did not join the Federal army to dig entrenchments and do such labor. They were soldiers, and exhibited a desire to go back to their Southern masters rather than work for the Yankees.
The Federals carefully keep the movement of troops and every other item of military interest a profound secret, and it is almost a matter of impossibility to get anything from the newspapers or the army of what is actually going on in and about New Orleans.
