An armistice of ten days was agreed upon by Gens. Sherman and Hood for
the purpose of carrying out this order. All who desired to go south were
furnished transportation to Rough and Ready Station by Gen. Sherman,
where they were received by the rebel forces. All those preferring to go
north were also furnished by him with transportation. This being
completed, Gen. Sherman began the reorganization of the army, with a
view to future movements. We were re-clothed and equipped, and the
stains and marks of our long and arduous campaign passed away.
On the 23rd day of September the division of which the 3rd brigade was a
part, under command of Gen. J. D. Morgan, began a forced march to north
Alabama _via_ Chattanooga in pursuit of Gen. Forest's cavalry, then as
far to our rear as middle and west Tennessee, and whose presence daily
jeopardized our "cracker line." The command returned on the 15th of
November, having been gone 48 days, and completed, as is claimed by
those who made it, one of the most difficult and laborious marches of
the war. It was not the good fortune of the writer to be with the troops
on this trip, and he is obliged to refer the readers to the subjoined
reports for such detailed information as they contain, assuring you,
however, that the 125th bore itself as grandly as on all other
occasions. In the meantime we will try to tell you what the army
encamped in and about Atlanta was doing, as to this we were attached
during the campaign first mentioned. As an army we rested here in our
camp taking our ease, eating our rations, and wondering when the bugle
would again sound the "forward." On the 28th of September, Sherman
became convinced that the enemy intended to assume the offensive. He
sent Thomas to Nashville to organize the new troops who were arriving
there, and a new line of works around Atlanta were completed, which
would only require a small garrison to hold. And now we come to the
relation of the grandest campaign that has ever been made in modern
times. Like the Roman general who burned his ship, on landing on the
enemy's shores, so that his army could have no avenue of retreat, so
Sherman, when his orders had been carried out and everything was in
readiness, on the 12th day of November, 1864, severed his communications
with the north. On that day the last train of cars whirled rapidly past
us, speeding over bridges and into the woods as if afraid of being left
helpless and alone in the deserted land. At Cartersville the last
communication by telegraph with the north was severed. It bore the
message to Gen. Thomas at Nashville, "all is well." The army with which
Sherman made the "march to the sea," was composed of the fifteenth and
seventeenth corps, forming the right wing, under Maj. Gen. O. O. Howard,
the fourteenth (our corps) and the twentieth corps forming the left
wing, under the command of Maj. Gen. H. W. Slocum, making an aggregate
strength of 60,000 infantry; one cavalry division, to aggregate 5,500
men, under Brig. Gen. Judson Kilpatrick, and the artillery reduced to
the minimum, one gun for 1000 men. On the 16th we left Atlanta with Gen.
Sherman in person, and moved by Lithonia, Covington and Shady Dale
directly on Milledgville, the capitol of the state. All the troops were
provided with good wagon trains loaded with ammunition and supplies,
approximating twenty days bread, forty days sugar and coffee, a double
allowance of salt for forty days, and beef cattle equal to forty days'
supplies. The wagons also were supplied with about three days forage in
grain. All were instructed, by a judicious system of foraging, to
maintain this order of things as long as possible, living chiefly, if
not solely, upon the country, which was known to abound in corn, sweet
potatoes and meats. But on the night of the 15th, before leaving
Atlanta, a grand and awful sight was witnessed by many beholders. By
order, the chief engineer destroyed by powder and fire all the store
houses, depot buildings and machine shops. The heaven was one expanse of
lurid fire: the air was filled with flying, burning cinders. Buildings
covering over two hundred acres of ground were in ruins or in flames.
Every instant there was the sharp report, or the smothered burning sound
of exploding shells and powder concealed in the building, and then the
sparks and flames shooting away up in the black and red roof, scattering
the cinders far and wide. These were the machine shops where had been
forged and cast, cannon, shot and shell that had carried death to many a
brave boy. These warehouses had been the receptacle of munitions of war,
stored to be used in slaughtering the men who were now witnessing their
destruction. The city which, next to Richmond, had furnished more
material for prosecuting the war than any other in the south, existed no
more as a means of aid for enemies of the union. Nothing remained but
its dwelling houses and churches. On the 8th day after leaving Atlanta,
that is the 23rd, we marched through and occupied Milledgville, the
capitol of the state. The legislature had been in session, but on
hearing of our approach it broke up and fled. The alarm of its members
was communicated to the people, and the place was practically
depopulated, no one remaining but a few old ladies and gentlemen and the
negroes, the latter welcoming with glad shouts the arrival of the union
army, filling the air with such exclamations as: "Bress de Lord! Tanks
be to Almighty God, the yank is come. De day ob jubilee hab aribed." And
then they would grab any fellow who happened to be near them, and hug
him liberally. But we were not to remain here; 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 store houses,
large amounts of government property, and some 1700 bales of cotton were
burned. Private houses, however, were respected everywhere, even those
known to be the property of rebels then in the field. One or two
citizens, who were known to have been in the rebel army, were made
prisoners of war, but the surgeons at the hospitals, the principal of
the insane asylum and others expressed their thanks that such good order
was preserved in the city. From here our corps marched to Sandersville,
which we reached the next day, skirmishing most of the way with
Wheeler's cavalry.
On the 3rd of December we were in the neighborhood of Lumpkin's station
on the Augusta rail road; all were ordered to march in the direction of
Savannah; our corps following the Savannah river road. There was no
fighting, save once in a while a little skirmish with rebel cavalry. The
only battle, if so it may be termed, was fought by General Kilpatrick's
cavalry, supported by General Baird's division of our corps, with
Wheeler's cavalry in the neighborhood of Thomas' station, whom
Kilpatrick whipped handsomely. We were drawing near Savannah, and the
country became more marshy and difficult, and more obstacles were met in
the shape of felled trees, wherever the road crossed creeks, swamps, or
narrow causeways; but the negroes who had flocked to us were utilized,
and armed with axes and shovels, formed into pioneer companies, and with
incredible swiftness they would remove the obstructions. No opposition
from the enemy worth speaking of, was encountered, until we were within
about fifteen miles of Savannah, where all the roads were obstructed
with felled timber, earth works and artillery. The roads were sandy, and
straight almost as an arrow. One afternoon as we were marching along, we
were surprised by the whizzing of a shell, which came flying down the
road over our heads, and then another and another. The brigade was
quickly moved off the road by the right flank and formed in line of
battle. Lieutenant Coe, in command of our battery, with his usual
rashness, went tearing up the road on his horse to find position for his
guns. He saw the rebel works stationed in the center of the road ahead
of him. Sitting there on his horse, fearless of danger, looking for a
good position for the battery, a solid shot came whirling along and tore
his right shoulder off, killing him instantly. The sergeant took
command, and soon our battery was giving them as good as they sent. We
want to record it here, that we thought our battery, "I" company, of the
2nd Ills. artillery, was the best in the service. It had been under good
discipline, and was as an effective body of men as we ever saw while in
the army. We had been together ever since we left Louisville, and some
of our boys had been detailed for duty in the battery, so we had come to
regard them as part of ourselves.
Our line of battle with skirmishers thrown out, had now advanced, but
owing to a large, deep swamp in our front, and the lateness of the
afternoon, as it was nearly dark, we halted for the night. In the
morning, the skirmishers advancing, found the works deserted. We were
now getting very close to the city, and on the 17th, General Sherman
dispatched to Savannah, by flag of truce, a formal demand for the
surrender of the place, and on the following day received a refusal from
General Hardee, who was in command. We received orders to closely invest
the city, and to reconnoiter well the ground in our front, and make all
preparations for assaulting the place. But Hardee recognized the utter
impossibility of holding the town with all his supply sources cut off,
and an enemy in front of him who had successfully marched through the
heart of the Confederacy, evacuated the city on the night of the 20th,
first blowing up and burning the rebel iron clads and three transports.
On the 13th of December, communication with the fleet in Tybee, Warsaw
and Ossabaw Sounds, that had been watching and waiting for us, was
opened up, and on the same day Brigadier General Hazen with the second
division of the fifteenth corps, carried by assault Fort McAllister,
manned by two companies of artillery, and three of infantry, in all
about two hundred men, and mounting twenty three guns and one mortar.
Savannah lay at the feet of its conquerors. The fruits of this almost
bloodless campaign, a campaign that would have been creditable to the
genius of a Napoleon, or a Wellington, were Savannah, a city of twenty
thousand inhabitants, and of great importance to us as a harbor; more
than 1000 prisoners, 150 guns, 13 locomotives in good order, 190 cars, a
very large quantity of ammunition and material of war, 3 steamers, and
3,200 bales of cotton. All this General Sherman offered to President
Lincoln as a Christmas gift. There were also more than 15,000 slaves
gathered into our lines, some of whom proved of great use to the army.
Such were the great results of the capture of Savannah, but the greatest
were those made possible only, by this success.