to transport Confederate soldiers and some civilians from Meridian to aid in the coming Battle of Vicksburg. After the train wrecked near Chunky, Mississippi, the 1st Choctaw Battalion, which had been organized days/weeks earlier at a camp near Newton Station, led rescue and recovery efforts. After the 1863 Vicksburg campaign, Union forces under General William Tecumseh Sherman turned eastward toward the city to begin what would later be called the Battle of Meridian. Because of several feints and other confusing maneuvers performed by Sherman, Lieutenant General Leonidas Polk, leader of Confederate troops in the city, was convinced Sherman was headed not for Meridian but for Mobile, Alabama, so he decided to fall back to Demopolis, Alabama, and prepare for a rear attack, leaving the city and its surrounding territory to the mercy of the enemy. Sherman reached Meridian on February 14, 1864. He and his army waited in the city for Brigadier General William Sooy Smith, whom Sherman had ordered to lead a small cavalry from Tennessee to rendezvous in the city and continue into Alabama. He gave up after a week and returned to Vicksburg on February 20. While he and his army were waiting, Sherman ordered his troops "to wipe the appointed meeting place off the map" by erasing the railroads on the map and burning much of the map. Among the damage was the destruction of an arsenal, immense storehouses, and the railroad in every direction. After the destruction of the city, Sherman is reported to have said, "Meridian with its depots, store-houses, arsenal, hospitals, offices, hotels, and cantonments no longer exists." Despite the destruction, the railroad lines in the city were rapidly repaired and operating again only 26 working days after the battle. Reconstruction Shortly after the Civil War a central business district grew in the downtown area, leading to a population increase. By 1870 the population had grown to 2,709, and the city was named the county seat of Lauderdale County. This short-term growth led to the establishment of several educational facilities, including the Meridian Female College, founded in 1865, as well as diverse religious institutions, including Presbyterian, Catholic, Jewish, and Episcopal. Before the war, most churches were either Baptist or Methodist. The growth during Reconstruction was set back when downtown was destroyed in a fire in 1871 during the Meridian race riot, related to freedmen's efforts to resist the Ku Klux Klan. Up to