"MARCHING THROUGH GEORGIA."
THE "LOST ARMY"--SPECULATIONS, NORTH AND SOUTH, AS TO ITS DOINGS--
DIARY OF AN OFFICER--KEEPING THANKSGIVING DAY--HOWELL COBB'S
PLANTATION--THE NEGROES--A QUAINT PHILOSOPHER--STRATEGY OF THE
MARCH--HOWARD'S BRILLIANT ADVANCE--INVESTMENT OF SAVANNAH--
CAPTURE OF FORT McALLISTER--FALL OF SAVANNAH.
Volumes might be written about the march from Atlanta to the sea. It
abounded in picturesque and dramatic incidents, and in pathetic scenes
as well. Of real fighting there was scarcely any. There were no Rebel
armies left to oppose Sherman's progress. The negroes welcomed the
Union Army with fervent exultation, and the few loyal whites hailed its
advent as a time of deliverance. The soldiers fared reasonably well. It
was harvest time in the richest State of the South, and provisions were
abundant on Sherman's line. There was no wanton pillaging, but foraging
for the actual needs of the army was conducted on a generous scale.
Grain, vegetables, bacon, fresh meat, poultry and all other supplies
were taken from barns and houses. There were few conflicts between the
army and the people. Now and then resistance would be offered to a
foraging party, but with no serious effect. Occasionally, some soldiers
would become disorderly and commit acts of violence and pillage, but
such breaches of order were sternly repressed and punished whenever
knowledge of them came to the ears of the higher officers.
So they marched on through the glorious Indian summer, more as if on
a holiday picnic than on an errand of actual war. Meantime the North
was wondering where they were. The only information of their movements
came through Rebel sources, which were generally either ill-informed
or untruthful. The Rebel authorities, indeed, were much mystified as
to Sherman's real purpose. Their uncertainty is shown by the following
extract from the columns of _The Richmond Dispatch_ of November 18th,
only a few days after the start:
"The only official information received by the press yesterday was
that Sherman had destroyed the Northwestern and Atlantic railroad
from Atlanta to Allatoona, the Chattahoochee bridge included. This
movement is difficult to understand, except as explained by unofficial
reports that were in circulation during yesterday. If they be true, the
destruction of the railroad can be understood, though it will still
appear a superfluous labor. The reports had it that Sherman, having
burned Atlanta on the 15th, last Tuesday, had set out for Macon with
three corps, amounting together to thirty-five thousand men, and that
he had, on yesterday, reached Jonesborough, twenty-two miles south of
Atlanta. If there is truth in these accounts, as we believe there is,
Wheeler has much to answer for. It devolved upon him to watch Sherman
and keep posted as to his movements. Only four days ago he reported
him 'moving toward Bridgeport.' Now it is said, he reports him moving
toward Macon, as above stated. We regret to say this latter report is
corroborated by other evidence.
"Sherman will, we think, meet with opposition he does not calculate
upon before he reaches the fortifications of Macon. These works,
should he ever reach them, he will find of the most formidable
character, and with the troops that before that time will be collected
in them, they must give him a vast deal more trouble than he evidently
counts upon. If the Georgians will battle for their trenches as the
Petersburg Militia did last June for theirs, or the Richmond Militia
did at Staunton River bridge later in the summer, Macon will be saved.
"In undertaking this expedition, Sherman is too prudent a man to rely
upon subsisting his army on the country. It becomes interesting and
important to consider what point he calculates upon making his base of
supplies. His destruction of the railroad northwest of Atlanta proves
that he has cut loose from the Chattanooga base. He must, then, be
looking to some point on the Atlantic or the Gulf. We are disposed, for
several reasons, to believe that Pensacola is the selected point; this,
not because of its greater proximity than any other post to his present
field of operations, but because it is ascertained that for more than
a month very large supplies have been accumulated there. If he fail
to take Macon at the first dash, he will probably run for Pensacola,
and make it a new base of operations. It is not to be presumed that
he carries with him supplies sufficient to enable him to enter upon a
siege which shall occupy any considerable length of time.
"We have ventured the opinion that Sherman had Pensacola in view as a
new base of supplies; but it is proper to say there are reasons why
he might select some point on the Atlantic as being nearer at hand.
Savannah, for instance, offers advantages, did its approach not involve
the certainty of a great deal of heavy fighting.
"We look with intense interest to full and authentic news from Georgia."
The following appeared in _The Richmond Whig_ of the same date:
"It was officially reported at the War Department last night that
Sherman has torn up the railroad track between Atlanta and Allatoona,
and has burnt the bridge over the Chattahoochee. We also have
unofficial information that a part of Sherman's army, at last accounts,
had reached Jonesborough, thirty miles south of Atlanta. A more
extravagant and even more untrustworthy rumor advanced him to Selma.
Another rumor, which we chronicle as the 'latest,' was, that he was
advancing on Macon. While he can't possibly go to both places at the
same time, we have a strong hope that, in a fit of desperation, he will
essay a movement southward. The sequel will but develop that the evil
one does not always protect his own."
The right wing, the Army of the Tennessee, did march on Macon, then
turned to the left to fight the battle of Griswoldville.
The outlook entertained at the North was expressed by a wise editorial
in _The Cincinnati Gazette_, as follows:
"From private advices, both by letter and telegraph, we learn that
Sherman is advancing from Atlanta toward Savannah River in two columns.
The first set out, one account says, the 7th, another the 9th inst.
(probably the last date), on the road to Macon. On the 13th or 14th
inst., it was seventy miles in advance, driving everything before
it, and destroying everything behind that could aid the enemy, and
intending to pursue this policy to the end. The other column, we
understand, set out three or four days later, and undoubtedly intended
to unite with the other at a suitable point. The army is stated in some
accounts at 45,000, and in others at 55,000, a large portion being
cavalry under Kilpatrick. The largest estimate is probable, the army
being composed of four corps, and largely reinforced.
"Sherman took with him rations for many days, but expected to find
ample provisions on the route. Corn and sweet potatoes he will find in
abundance and probably hogs.
"Such is our information from several sources; but at the same time it
should be recollected that a general, at the head of a movable army in
the field, must act according to circumstances, and he may have turned
from the course we suppose him to have taken by contingent events, of
which we have now no knowledge. We understand him to be on his march
through Georgia, to make the South Atlantic Squadron, at Beaufort,
his new base of supplies, if he needs one, but if the country, as we
suppose, is sufficient to maintain his army, there is no absolute need
of any new base.
"Here it will be inquired, What opposition will he encounter, and what
is his object? There will be no army in front of him and the Georgia
militia will be utterly inefficient in obstructing his progress. Hood
is powerless; Lee has no men to spare, and if he had, it would take a
large army to encounter Sherman. The field is, therefore, open before
him, and the main question is, what can he accomplish? In our opinion,
he can accomplish the most important results reached in the war.
When a column reaches Macon, it can destroy, effectually, the only
remaining railroad communication between the eastern and western parts
of the Confederacy. When a column shall reach Augusta, it destroys the
largest manufactories and depot of military munitions in the South.
The greatest and almost only powder manufactory is there. When the
railroad to Augusta, and from Savannah to Charleston are destroyed,
there is no further practicable military communication between the
country east of the Savannah and west of it. We shall have severed the
Confederacy by another impassable line.
"But this is only the beginning. If Sherman can reach Beaufort,
after a week's rest, he can move right on through North Carolina to
Danville, thus making Eastern Virginia a prison and a grave for Lee's
army and the Rebel Government. This, we say, is perfectly practicable
with an average share of luck. We do not know that General Sherman
has all this in his plan; but why not? Why should he not aim at the
greatest results? What is to prevent these results? He has a large,
well equipped disciplined army. What is there from the Roanoke to the
Tennessee to oppose him? Nothing that can oppose any serious resistance
to a disciplined army.
"But what of Hood? Hood has no larger army than Thomas has, besides all
the garrisons, gunboats and militia in the rear. It will be less safe
for him to advance than to retreat. Such is the outline of the military
operations we suppose to be on foot. We wait further information
with solicitude, but with hope that the final will be brilliant and
decisive."
A private letter from one of Sherman's officers, just before the start
from Atlanta, gave this view of the case:
"We are under orders to prepare for a _sixty days' campaign_; so you
see that does not look much like spending the winter in Atlanta,
as many have hoped to do. It is not supposed that any below a
Major-General knows what is to be the programme--nor do they; but
it is generally conjectured that a large force is soon to start for
Savannah, via Augusta and Milledgeville. General Thomas will have
force, with what will be left him by Sherman, to 'do the agreeable'
to Hood. You may expect that 'something may turn up' before this army
settles down for the winter."
Among the many accounts of the march to the sea, one of the most
graphic and accurate was furnished by an army officer to the New York
_Evening Post_. Writing from Atlanta on November 14th, he said:
"On the 12th instant the last train of cars whirled rapidly past the
troops moving south, speeding over bridges and into the woods as if
they feared they might be left helpless in the deserted land. At
Curtisville the last communications with the North were served with the
telegraph wire. It bore the message to General Thomas, 'All is well.'
And so we have cut adrift from our base of operations, from our line
of communications, launching out into uncertainty at the best; on a
journey whose projected end only the general in command knows.
"As for the army, they do not stop to ask questions.
"Sherman says 'Come,' and that is the entire vocabulary to them. A
most cheerful feature of the situation is the fact that the men are
healthful and jolly as men can be, hoping for the best, willing to dare
the worst.
"Behind us we leave a track of smoke and flame. Half of Marietta was
burned up, not by orders, however; for the command is that proper
details shall be made to destroy all property which can ever be of
use to the Rebel armies. Stragglers will get into these places, and
dwelling houses are leveled to the ground. In nearly all cases these
are the deserted habitations formerly owned by Rebels, who are now
refugees.
"From Kingston to Atlanta the rails have been taken up on the road,
fires built about them, and the iron twisted in all sorts of curves;
thus they are left, never to be straightened again. The Secesh
inhabitants are in agony of wonder at all this queer manoeuvring. It
appears as if we intended evacuating Atlanta, but our troops are taking
the wrong direction for the hopes and purposes of these people.
"Atlanta is entirely deserted of human beings, excepting a few soldiers
here and there. The houses are vacant; there is no trade or traffic of
any kind; the streets are empty. Beautiful roses bloom in the gardens
of fine houses, but a terrible stillness and solitude covers it all,
depressing the hearts even of those who are glad to destroy it. In your
peaceful homes at the North you cannot conceive how these people have
suffered for their crimes."
The next night he wrote of the burning of Atlanta:
"A grand and awful spectacle is presented to the beholder in this
beautiful city, now in flames. By order, the Chief Engineer has
destroyed by powder and fire all the store-houses, depot buildings
and machine shops. The heaven is one expanse of lurid fire: the air
is filled with flying, burning cinders; buildings covering over two
hundred acres are in ruins or in flames; every instant there is the
sharp detonation or the smothered burning sound of exploding shells
and powder concealed in the buildings, and then the sparks and flame
shooting away up into the black and red roof, scattering the cinders
far and wide.
"These are the machine shops where have been forged and cast Rebel
cannon, shot and shell, that have carried death to many a brave
defender of our nation's honor. These warehouses have been the
receptacle of munitions of war, stored, to be used for our destruction.
The city, which next to Richmond, has furnished more material for
prosecuting the war than any other in the South, exists no more as a
means for the enemies of the Union."
November 24th found the army of Georgia, Slocum commanding, at the
State capital, Milledgeville, which they captured without firing a
gun. The Legislature fled at their approach without waiting for the
formality of adjournment; and this panic, says the correspondent
quoted, "spread among the citizens to such an extent as to depopulate
the place, except of a few old gentlemen and ladies, and the negroes;
the latter welcoming our approach with ecstatic exclamations of joy:
'Bless de Lord! the Yanks is come; de day ob jubilee hab arribed'; and
then accompanied their words with rather embarrassing hugs.
"General Slocum, with the Twentieth Corps, first entered the city,
arriving by way of Madison, having accomplished his mission of
destroying the railroads and valuable bridges at Madison. The fright
of the legislators, as described by witnesses, must have been comical
in the extreme. They little imagined the movement of our left wing,
hearing first of the advance of Kilpatrick on the extreme right toward
Macon, and supposed that to be another raid. What their opinion was
when Howard's army appeared at McDonough it could be difficult to say;
and their astonishment must have approached insanity when the other
two columns were heard from--one directed toward Augusta and the other
swiftly marching straight upon their devoted city.
"It seemed as if they were surrounded upon all sides except toward the
east, and that their doom was sealed. With the certain punishment for
their crimes looming up before them, they sought every possible means
of escape. Private effects, household furniture, books, pictures,
everything was conveyed to the depot and loaded into the cars until
they were filled and heaped, and the flying people could not find
standing room.
"Any and every price was obtained for a vehicle. A thousand dollars was
cheap for a common buggy, and men rushed about the streets in agony of
fear lest they should 'fall victims to the ferocity of the Yankees.'
"Several days of perfect quiet passed after this exodus, when, on a
bright, sunshiny morning a regiment entered the city, with the band
playing national airs, which music had many a day since been hushed in
the capital of Georgia.
"But few of the troops were marched through the city. Some two or three
regiments were detailed, under the orders of the engineers, to destroy
certain property designated by the general commanding. The magazines,
arsenals, depot buildings, factories of one kind and another, with
storehouses containing large amounts of government property, and some
1,700 bales of cotton burned. Private houses were respected everywhere,
even those of noted Rebels, and I heard of no instance of pillage or
insult to the inhabitants. One or two of the latter, known as having
been in the Rebel army, were prisoners of war, but the surgeons at the
hospitals, the principal of the insane asylum, and others, expressed
their gratitude that such perfect order was maintained throughout the
city.
"General Sherman is at the Executive Mansion, its former occupant
having with extremely bad grace fled from his distinguished visitor,
taking with him the entire furniture of the building. As General
Sherman travels with a _menage_ (a roll of blankets and haversack full
of hard-tack), which is as complete for a life out in the open air
as in a palace, this discourtesy of Governor Brown was not a serious
inconvenience.
"General Sherman's opening move in the present campaign has been
successful in the highest degree. At first moving his Army in three
columns, with a column of Cavalry on his extreme right, with eccentric
lines, he diverted the attention of the enemy, so that he concentrated
his forces at extreme points, Macon and Augusta, leaving unimpeded the
progress of the main body. In this campaign--the end of which does not
yet appear--it is not the purpose of the General to spend his time
before fortified cities, nor yet to incumber his wagons with wounded
men. His instructions to Kilpatrick were to report to Howard and so
demonstrate against Macon.
"Slocum, with the Twentieth Corps, arrived at Milledgeville on the 22d
instant, preceding Davis, with the Fourteenth Corps, one day. On the
same day Kilpatrick struck the Macon and Western Road, destroying the
bridge at Walnut Creek. The day following Howard, with the Fifteenth
and Seventeenth Corps, after a battle, arrived at Gordon, and began the
destruction of the Georgia Central Railroad.
"It was back of this that the most serious fight of the campaign
occurred to this date, supported by General Chas. R. Wood's entire
division. General Wolcot in command of a detachment of cavalry and
a brigade of infantry, was thrown forward to Griswoldville, toward
Macon, for demonstrative purposes merely. The enemy, some five
thousand strong, advanced upon our troops, who had thrown up temporary
breastworks, with a section of a battery in position. The cavalry fell
slowly back on either flank of brigade, protecting them from attack in
flank and rear. The Rebels are composed of militia chiefly, although a
portion of Hardee's old corps was present, having been brought up from
Savannah.
"With that ignorance of danger common to new troops, the Rebels rushed
upon our veterans with the greatest fury. The rebels made the attack,
but with most fatal results and were soon in full flight, leaving more
than three hundred dead on the field. Our loss was some forty killed
and wounded, while their killed, wounded and prisoners are estimated to
exceed two thousand. A pretty severe lesson they have received."
The whole army moved on, and three days later reached Tennille
Station, on the Georgia Central Railroad. Continuing his story, the
correspondent wrote on November 27: "General Sherman was with Slocum
at Milledgeville. The rebels seem to have understood, but too late,
that it was not Howard's intention to make a serious attack upon Macon.
They have, however, succeeded in getting Wheeler across the Oconee
at a point below the railroad bridge. We first became aware of their
presence in our front by the destruction of several small bridges
across Buffalo Creek, on the two roads leading to Sandersville, over
which were advancing the 20th and 14th Corps.
"We were delayed but a few hours. The passage was also contested by the
rebel cavalry under Wheeler, and they fought our front all the way,
and into the streets of Sandersville. The 20th Corps had the advance,
deploying a regiment as skirmishers, forming the remainder of a brigade
in line of battle on either side of the road. The movement was executed
in the handsomest manner, and was so effectual as not to impede the
march of the column in the slightest degree, although the roll of
musketry was unceasing. Our loss was not serious, twenty odd killed and
wounded.
"As the 20th Corps entered the town they were met by the 14th, whose
head of column arrived at the same moment. While these two corps had
met with the obstructions above mentioned, the army under General
Howard were attempting to throw a pontoon across the Oconee at the
Georgia Central Railroad bridge. Here they met a force under the
command of General Wayne, which was composed of a portion of Wheeler's
cavalry, militia, and a band of convicts who had been liberated from
the penitentiary upon the condition that they would join the army.
"The most of these desperados have been taken prisoners, dressed in
their State prison clothing. General Sherman has turned them loose,
believing that Governor Brown had not got the full benefits of his
liberality. The rebels did not make a remarkably stern defense of the
bridge, for Howard was able to cross his army yesterday, and commenced
breaking railroad again to-day. In fact, all of the army, except one
corps, are engaged in this same work. Morgan, with his army, was hardly
able to reach this point when he met General Hardee, who has managed
to get around here from Macon. Our troops struck the railroad at this
station a few hours after the frightened band escaped.
"We had been told that the country was very poor east of the Oconee,
but our experience has been a delightful gastronomic contradiction of
the statement. The cattle trains are getting so large that we find
difficulty in driving them along. Thanksgiving Day was very generally
observed in the army, the troops scorning chickens in the plentitude of
turkeys with which they have supplied themselves.
"Vegetables of all kinds, and in unlimited quantities, were at hand,
and the soldiers gave thanks as soldiers may and were merry as only
soldiers can be. In truth, so far as the gratification of the stomach
goes, the troops are pursuing a continuous thanksgiving.
"In addition to fowls, vegetables, and meats, many obtain a delicious
syrup made from sorghum, which is cultivated on all the plantations,
and stored away in large troughs and hogsheads. The mills here and
there furnish fresh supplies of flour and meal, and we hear little
or nothing of 'hard tack'--that terror to weak mastication. Over the
sections of country lately traversed I find very little cultivation
of cotton. The commands of Davis appear to have been obeyed; and our
large droves of cattle are turned nightly into the immense fields of
ungathered corn to eat their fill, while the granaries are crowded to
overflowing with both oats and corn.
"We have also reached the sand regions, so that the fall of rain has
no terrors, the roads are excellent, and would become firmer from a
liberal wetting. The rise of the rivers will not bother us much, for
every army corps has its pontoon, and the launching of its boats is a
matter of an hour.
"Just before his entrance into Milledgeville, General Sherman camped
on one of the plantations of Howell Cobb. It was a coincidence that
a Macon paper, containing Cobb's address to the Georgians as general
commanding, was received the same day. This plantation was the property
of Cobb's wife, who was a Demar.
"We found his granaries well filled with corn and wheat, part of which
was distributed and eaten by our animals and men. A large supply of
syrup made from sorghum (which we have found at nearly every plantation
on our march), was stored in an out-house. This was also disposed
of to the soldiers and to the poor, decrepit negroes, which this
humane, liberty-loving Major-General left to die in this place a few
days ago. Becoming alarmed, Cobb sent to that place and removed all
the able-bodied mules, horses, cows, and slaves. He left here some
fifty old men--cripples, and women and children--with clothing scarce
covering their nakedness, with little or no food, and without means
of procuring any. We found them cowering over the fireplaces of their
miserable huts, where the wind whirled through the crevices between the
logs, frightened at the approach of the Yankees, who they had been told
would kill them. A more forlorn, neglected set of human beings I never
saw.
"General Sherman distributed to the negroes with his own hands the
provisions left here, and assured them that we were their friends, and
they need not be afraid. One old man answered him: 'I spose dat you's
true: but, massa, you'll go 'way to-morrow, and anudder white man will
come.'
"This terrorism, which forms so striking a feature of slavery, has had
marked illustrations ever since we left Atlanta. Many negroes were told
that as soon as we got them into our clutches they were put into the
front of the battle, and we killed them if they did not fight; that
we threw the women and children into the Chattahoochee, and when the
buildings were burned in Atlanta, we filled them with negroes to be
devoured by the flames. These stories, which appear so absurd to us,
are not too extravagant for the simple, untutored minds of the negroes.
They are easily frightened, and full of superstition. In most any other
instance, such bloody tales would have frightened them entirely out
of our sight to the woods and other hiding places; but they assert,
with much earnestness and glee that 'massa can't come dat over we; we
knowed a heap better. What for de Yankees want to hurt black men. Massa
hates de Yankees, and he's no fren' ter we; so we am de Yankee's bi's
fren's.' Very simple logic, that; but it is sufficient for the negroes.
[Illustration: A BIVOUAC AMONG THE GEORGIA PINES.]
"Near Covington, one Judge Harris has a large plantation; before
we arrived it was well stocked; I can't answer for its condition
afterward. A jollier set of negroes I never saw than his were when the
blue coats came along. Stories of their cruelty to the negroes were
also told by their masters to frighten them, but the negroes never put
faith in them. I asked Judge Harris's head man: 'Well, how do you like
the Yankees?' 'Like him! bully, bully, bully. I'se wanted to see 'em
long time; heard a heap 'bout 'em. Say, Sally, dese here be gentlemen
dat's passing.' A compliment to our soldiers, which they no doubt would
have appreciated could they have heard Mr. Lewis.
"'Yass, sar; I'se hope de Lord will prosper dem and Mr. Sherman.'
"'Why do you hope that the Lord will help the Yankee?'
"'Because I t'inks, and so we all t'inks, dot you'se down here in our
interests.'
"'You're about right there. Did you ever hear that President Lincoln
freed all the slaves?' 'No, sar; I never heard such a t'ing. De white
folks nebber talk 'fore black men; dey mighty free from dat.' In other
parts of the South the negroes I have seen seem to understand there is
a man named Lincoln, who had the power to free them and had exercised
it. We have reached here a stratum of ignorance upon that subject. All
knowledge of that nature has not only been kept from the blacks, but
only a few of the whites are well-informed.
"General Sherman allows all able-bodied negroes (others could not make
the march) to join the column, and he takes especial pleasure when they
join the procession, on some occasions telling them they are free;
that Massa Lincoln has given them their liberty, and that they can go
where they please; that if they earn their freedom they should have
it--but that Massa Lincoln had given it to them anyhow. They all seem
to understand that the proclamation of freedom had made them free, and
I have met but few instances where they did not say they expected the
Yankees were coming down sometime or other, and very generally they are
possessed with the idea that we are fighting for them and that their
freedom is the object of the war.
"'Stick in dar,' was the angry exclamation of one of a party of negroes
to another, who was asking too many questions of the officer who had
given them permission to join the column. 'Stick in dar, it's all
right; we'se gwine along, we'se free.'
"Another replied to a question, 'Oh, yass, massa, de people hereabouts
were heap frightened when dey heard you'se coming; dey dusted out yer
sudden.'
"Pointing to the Atlanta & Augusta Railroad, which had been destroyed,
the question was asked, 'It took a longer time to build this railroad
than it does to destroy it?'
"'I would think it did, massa; in dat ar woods over dar is buried ever
so many black men who were killed a working on dat road.'
"'Does the man live here who worked them?'
"'Oh no, sar; he's dun gone long time.'
"By the way, the destruction of railroads in this campaign has been
most thorough. The ordinary method of destruction was to place the
rails across a pile of burning sleepers, their own weight bending them.
"But this does not injure the rail so much but that it may be heated
and straightened again. Instruments have been made; one is a clasp,
which locks under the rail. It has a ring in the top into which is
inserted a long lever, and the rail is thus ripped from the sleepers.
When the rail has become heated a wrench is applied, which fits close
over the ends of the rail; by turning them in opposite directions the
rail is so twisted that even a rolling machine could not bring it
back into shape. In this manner have been destroyed some thirty miles
of rails which lay in the city of Atlanta, and also all the rails on
the Augusta & Atlanta road from the last named place to Madison; and
thus far the Georgia Central road, from a few miles east of Macon to
Terryville Station, where I am now writing."
The army reached Johnson's, on the south side of the railroad, on
November 29, when the writer continued:
"General Sherman's second step in this campaign will have been equally
successful with the first, if he is able to cross the Ogeechee
to-morrow without much opposition. Davis and Kilpatrick's movement has
been a blind in order to facilitate the passage over the Ogeechee of
the main body of the army, which for two days past has been marching on
parallel roads south of the railroad.
"Thus far, we have reason to believe that the rebels are ignorant of
our principal movement, and are trembling with fear that Augusta is our
objective.
"Kilpatrick is doing the same work which he accomplished with such high
honor when covering our right flank in the early days of the campaign.
His column now acts as a curtain upon the extreme left, through which
the enemy may in vain attempt to penetrate.
"The most pathetic scenes occur upon our line of march daily and
hourly. Thousands of negro women join the column, some carrying
household truck; others, and many of them there are, who bear the heavy
burden of children in their arms, while older boys and girls plod by
their sides. These women and children are, by some commanders, ordered
back, heartrending though it may be to refuse them liberty. One begs
that she may go to see her husband and children at Savannah. Long years
ago she was forced from them and sold. Another has heard that her boy
was in Macon, and she is 'done gone with grief goin' on four years.'
"But the majority accept the advent of the Yankees as the fulfillment
of the millennial prophecies. The 'day of jubilee,' the hope and prayer
of a lifetime, has come. They cannot be made to understand that they
must remain behind, and they are satisfied only when General Sherman
sometimes tells them that we shall come back for them some time, and
that they must be patient until the proper hour of deliverance comes
(this because they so swarmed).
"The other day a woman with a child in her arms was working her way
along amongst the teams and crowds of cattle and horsemen. An officer
called to her kindly: 'Where are you going, aunty?'
"She looked up into his face with a hopeful, beseeching look, and
replied:
"'I'se gwine whar you'se gwine, massa.'
"At a house a few miles from Milledgeville we halted for an hour.
In an old hut I found a negro and his wife, both of them over sixty
years old. In the talk which ensued nothing was said which led me to
suppose that either of them was anxious to leave their mistress, who,
by the way, was a sullen, cruel-looking woman, when all at once the old
negress straightened herself up, and her face, which a moment before
was almost stupid in its expression, assumed a fierce, almost devilish
aspect.
"Pointing her shining black finger at the old man crouched in the
corner of the fireplace, she hissed out:
"'What for you sit dar; you 'spose I wait sixty years for nutten?
Don't yer see de door open. I'se follow my child; I not stay. Yes,
nodder day I goes 'long wid dese people; yes, sar, I walks till I drop
in my tracks.' A more terrible sight I never beheld. I can think of
nothing to compare with it, except Charlotte Cushman's 'Meg Merrilies.'
Rembrandt only could have painted the scene, with its dramatic
surroundings.
"It was near this place that several factories were burned. It was odd
enough to see the delight of the negroes at the destruction of places
known only to them as task-houses."
Sherman did cross the Ogeechee River without having to fight. The 20th
Corps moved down the railroad, destroying it to the bridge. The 17th
Corps covered the river at this point, where a light bridge was only
partially destroyed. It was easily repaired, so that the infantry and
cavalry could pass over it, while the wagons and artillery used the
pontoons. The Ogeechee is about sixty yards in width at this point.
It is approached on the northern or western side through swamps,
which would be impassable were it not for the sandy soil, which packs
solid when the water covers the roads, although in places there are
treacherous quicksands which the army had to span with corduroy roads.
Here they met a quaint old man who had been station agent before the
railroad was destroyed. The correspondent had a long chat with him
about the war, and about Sherman's march, and the old man said:
"'They say you are retreating, but it is the strangest sort of a
retreat I ever saw. Why, dog bite them, the newspapers have been lying
in this way all along. They allers are whipping the Federal armies, and
they allers fall back after the battle is over. It was that ar' idee
that first opened my eyes. Our army was allers whipping the Feds, and
we allers fell back. I allers told 'em it was a humbug, and now I know
it, for here you are, right on old John Wells's place; hogs, potatoes,
corn, and fences all gone. I don't find any fault. I expected it all.'
"'Jeff. Davis and the rest,' he continued, 'talk about splitting the
Union. Why, if South Carolina had gone out by herself, she would have
been split in four pieces by this time. Splitting the Union! Why, the
State of Georgia is being split right through from end to end. It is
these rich fellows who are making this war, and keeping their precious
bodies out of harm's way. There's John Franklin went through here the
other day, running away from your army. I could have played dominoes on
his coat-tails. There's my poor brother, sick with smallpox at Macon,
working for $11 a month, and hasn't got a cent of the stuff for a year.
'Leven dollars a month and 11,000 bullets a minute. I don't believe in
it, sir.'
"'My wife came from Canada, and I kind o' thought I would sometime go
there to live, but was allers afraid of the ice and cold; but I can
tell you this country is getting too cussed hot for me. Look at my
fence-rails a-burning there. I think I can stand the cold better.'
"'I heard as how they cut down the trees across your road up country
and burn the bridges; why (dog bite their hides), one of you Yankees
can take up a tree and carry it off, tops and all; and there's that
bridge you put across the river in less than two hours--they might as
well try to stop the Ogeechee as you Yankees.
"'The blasted rascals who built this yere bridge thought they did a big
thing.
"'To bring back the good old times,' he said, 'it'll take the help of
Divine Providence, a heap of rain, and a deal of elbow grease, to fix
things up again.'"
The steady progress of the army was recorded at Scarborough on December
3, thus:
"Pivoted upon Millen, the army has swung slowly round from its
eastern course, and is now moving in six columns upon parallel roads
southward. Until yesterday it was impossible for the rebels to decide
whether or not it was General Sherman's intention to march upon
Augusta. Kilpatrick had destroyed the bridge above Wainesborough, and
falling back had again advanced, supported by the 14th Army Corps,
under General Davis. South of this column, moving eastward through
Birdsville, was the 20th Corps, commanded by General Slocum. Yet
further south, the 17th Corps, General Blair in command, followed the
railroad, destroying it as he advanced. West and south of the Ogeechee,
the 15th Corps, General Osterhaus in immediate command, but under the
eye of General Howard, has moved in two columns.
"Until now Davis and Kilpatrick have been a cover and shield to the
real movements. At no time has it been possible for Hardee to interpose
any serious obstacle to the advance of the main body of our army, for
our left wing has always been a strong arm thrust out in advance, ready
to put in chancery any force which might attempt to get within its
guard.
"The rebel councils of war appear to have been completely deceived,
for we hear it reported that Bragg and Longstreet are at Augusta with
ten thousand men, made up of militia, two or three South Carolina
regiments, and a portion of Hampton's Legion, sent there for one month.
It is possible, now that the curtain has been withdrawn, and as it may
appear that we are marching straight for Savannah, their generals may
attempt to harass our rear.
[Illustration: ATLANTA TO SAVANNAH]
"The work so admirably performed by our left wing, so far as it obliged
the rebels in our front constantly to retreat, by threatening their
rear, now becomes the office of the Fifteenth Corps, our right
wing, on the right bank of the river. Its two columns are moving one
day's march in advance of the main body of the army, marching down
the peninsula between the Savannah and Ogeechee rivers. The necessity
and value of these flank movements first of the right wing with
Kilpatrick's cavalry, then of Davis and Kilpatrick on the left, and
now of Howard on our right, is because we cannot run over and demolish
any and all the Rebel force in Georgia. They could not for a moment
stand before this army upon any ordinary battle-ground, but a very
small force of infantry or cavalry at a river could delay a column
half a day, and perhaps longer, and as our soldiers have got tired of
chickens, sweet potatoes, sorghum, etc., and have been promised oysters
on the half shell, oysters roasted, stewed, etc., in short, oysters;
they don't care to be delayed."
The right, Blair and Logan, found a sparse population and rather meagre
supplies. The lessoning do not apply to them, the breadth swept by
their columns varied from 40 to 60 miles.
That Sherman was marching on Savannah was at last clear to the Rebels;
and it was equally clear to them that they would not be able soon to
stop him. By December 6th the army was at Ogeechee Church, Logan's
Corps still on the west side of the river. Kilpatrick's Cavalry engaged
the enemy under Wheeler several times near Waynesborough, with success.
General Howard made a bold and brilliant movement between the Little
Ogeechee and the Great Ogeechee. He pushed ahead of the rest of the
army thirteen miles, to the canal connecting the Ogeechee and Savannah
Rivers, bridged the canal, crossed it and took up a strong position
beyond. This forced the enemy to abandon their line of works between
the rivers and fall back to the fortifications of Savannah.
Sherman now moved forward more cautiously. The country was swampy and
the roads narrow causeways, and the enemy had great advantages in
defending the city. There was a Union fleet off the coast, and Sherman
sought to open communications with it. By December 12th his investment
of the city was complete, and only Fort McAllister barred his way to
the shore. General Howard had sent three scouts down the river in a
canoe past the fort and they had almost reached Admiral Dahlgren,
commander of the fleet; but did not venture to return. Next day Howard,
having consulted with Sherman, directed General Hazen's Division to
cross the Ogeechee by King's Bridge and move down toward the fort. Then
he went with Sherman to a signal station which he had established on
the roof of Cheves's rice-mill, and watched the operations.
Hazen's advance, under Colonel W. S. Jones, reached a point only half
a mile from the fort early in the afternoon, but it was five o'clock
before a sufficient force could be brought up and made ready for the
assault. Sherman and Howard watched the scene, anxious, and impatient
to have the fort taken before dark. A boat from the fleet approached
and signalled the question: "Have you taken the fort?" Sherman
signalled back, "No; but we shall in a minute;" for Hazen was just
ordering the charge. A sharp struggle followed. The works were strong
and torpedoes did much damage. But in fifteen minutes all was over.
The garrison was captured, and the Stars and Stripes floated over Fort
McAllister.
The army and the fleet now joined forces. Howard pressed the work
of building roads across the swamps and draining the rice fields.
On December 17th, Sherman summoned Hardee, the Rebel commander, to
surrender, but Hardee refused. Howard and Slocum brought up their
batteries and pressed the army forward, however, and Hardee, after a
detachment of Sherman had crossed the Savannah, saw the situation was
hopeless; so before his last road was taken he took to flight with his
troops and light artillery, leaving his heavy guns and stores behind.
At daybreak of December 21st the Union troops occupied the city, and
Sherman's official dispatch announcing the event reached Lincoln at
Washington on Christmas Day. "I beg to present you," he said, "as a
Christmas gift, the city of Savannah, with 150 heavy guns and plenty of
ammunition, and also about 25,000 bales of cotton."
Before this, however, the Nation had been informed of the whereabouts
of the "lost army" by means of this dispatch, which was received at the
War Department, Washington, on December 14th:
"HILTON HEAD, S. C, Monday, Dec. 12th, 1864,
"via FORT MONROE, Dec. 14th.
"_To Major-General Halleck, Chief of Staff._
"GENERAL:--Captain Duncan, of General Howard's scouts, has just
come in from General Howard, having descended the Ogeechee
River in a small boat. They left the army on the evening of the
9th. General Sherman's whole army was then within ten miles of
Savannah, advancing to attack it. The enemy's works, five miles
from the city, were probably attacked yesterday, as heavy firing
was heard in that direction.
"Captain Duncan represents the army to be in the best spirits
possible, and the most excellent condition. Very little
opposition had been met with on the march, as the enemy could not
tell what routes were to be taken. The army has lived off the
country, and has accumulated a considerable number of horses and
cattle. It was also well supplied.
"The following is a copy of the dispatch brought by Captain
Duncan:
"'HDQRS. ARMY OF THE TENNESSEE, NEAR SAVANNAH
CANAL, December 9th, 1864.
"'_To the Commander of the United States Naval Forces in the
vicinity of Savannah, Ga._
"'SIR:--We have met with perfect success thus far. The troops are
in fine spirits and General Sherman near by.
"'Respectfully, O. O. HOWARD, Major-General,
"'Commanding Right Wing of the Army.'
"Another dispatch brought by Captain Duncan, directed to the Signal
Officer of the fleet, from General Howard's Chief Signal Officer,
requests a good lookout to be kept for signals.
"I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
J. G. FOSTER,
"Major-General Commanding."
Sherman afterward wrote of this great march and its results as follows:
"I was left with a well-appointed army to sever the enemy's only
remaining railroad communications eastward and westward, for over one
hundred miles, namely, the Georgia State railroad, which is broken
up from Fairborn Station to Madison and the Oconee and the Central
railroad from Gordon clear to Savannah, with numerous breaks on the
latter road from Gordon to Eatonville, and from Millen to Augusta, and
the Savannah and Gulf railroad. We have consumed the corn and fodder in
a region of country thirty miles on each side of a line from Atlanta
to Savannah, as also the sweet potatoes, cattle, hogs, sheep, and
poultry. We have carried away more than ten thousand horses and mules,
as well as a countless number of slaves. I estimate the damage done to
the State of Georgia at a hundred millions of dollars, at least twenty
millions of which has inured to our advantage, and the remainder is
simply waste and destruction. This may seem a hard species of warfare,
but it brings the sad realities of war home to those who have been
directly or indirectly instrumental in involving us in its attendant
calamities.
"The behavior of our troops in Savannah has been so manly, so quiet,
so perfect, that I take it as the best evidence of discipline and
true courage. Never was a hostile city filled with women and children
occupied by a large army with less disorder, or more system, order, and
good government."