The next day we pushed on, and on the 14th entered Meridian, the enemy retreating before us toward Demopolis, Alabama.  We at once set to work to destroy an arsenal, immense storehouses, and the railroad in every direction.  We staid in Meridian five days, expecting every hour to hear of General Sooy Smith, but could get no tidings of him whatever.  A large force of infantry was kept at work all the time in breaking up the Mobile & Ohio Railroad south and north; also the Jackson & Selma Railroad, east and west.  I was determined to damage these roads so that they could not be used again for hostile purposes during the rest of the war.  I never had the remotest idea of going to Mobile, but had purposely given out that idea to the people of the country, so as to deceive the enemy and to divert their attention.  Many persons still insist that, because we did not go to Mobile on this occasion, I had failed; but in the following letter to General Banks, of January 31st, written from Vicksburg before starting for Meridian, it will be seen clearly that I indicated my intention to keep up the delusion of an attack on Mobile by land, whereas I promised him to be back to Vicksburg by the 1st of March, so as to cooperate with him in his contemplated attack on Shreveport: 

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE TENNESSEE VICKSBURG, January 31, 1864

Major-General N. P. Banks, commanding Department of the Gulf, New Orleans.

General:  I received yesterday, at the hands of Captain Durham, aide-de-camp, your letter of the 25th inst., and hasten to reply.  Captain Durham has gone to the mouth of White River, en route for Little Rock, and the other officers who accompanied him have gone up to Cairo, as I understand, to charter twenty-five steamboats for the Red River trip.  The Mississippi River, though low for the season, is free of ice and in good boating order; but I understand that Red River is still low.  I had a man in from Alexandria yesterday, who reported the falls or rapids at that place impassable save by the smallest boats.  My inland expedition is now moving, and I will be off for Jackson and Meridian to-morrow.  The only fear I have is in the weather.  All the other combinations are good.  I want to keep up the delusion of an attack on Mobile and the Alabama River, and therefore would be obliged if you would keep up an irritating foraging or other expedition in that direction.

My orders from General Grant will not, as yet, justify me in embarking for Red River, though I am very anxious to move in that direction.  The moment I learned that you were preparing for it, I sent a communication to Admiral Porter, and dispatched to General Grant at Chattanooga, asking if he wanted me and Steele to cooperate with you against Shreveport; and I will have his answer in time, for you cannot do any thing till Red River has twelve feet of water on the rapids at