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Castafiore Emerald

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.
column, and conduct them rapidly to their forage, load up and
regain their place in column without losing distance. On one
occasion I remember to have seen ten or a dozen wagons thus
loaded with corn from two or three full cribs, almost without halting.
These cribs were built of logs, and roofed. The train-guard, by a
lever, had raised the whole side of the crib a foot or two; the wagons
drove close alongside, and the men in the cribs, lying on their backs,
kicked out a wagon-load of corn in the time I have taken to describe
it.
In a well-ordered and well-disciplined army, these things might be
deemed irregular, but I am convinced that the ingenuity of these
younger officers accomplished many things far better than I could
have ordered, and the marches were thus made, and the distances
were accomplished, in the most admirable way. Habitually we
started from camp at the earliest break of dawn, and usually
reached camp soon after noon. The marches varied from ten to
fifteen miles a day, though sometimes on extreme flanks it was
necessary to make as much as twenty, but the rate of travel was
regulated by the wagons; and, considering the nature of the roads,
fifteen miles per day was deemed the limit.
The pontoon-trains were in like manner distributed in about equal
proportions to the four corps, giving each a section of about nine
hundred feet. The pontoons were of the skeleton pattern, with
cotton-canvas covers, each boat, with its proportion of balks and
cheeses, constituting a load for one wagon. By uniting two such
sections together, we could make a bridge of eighteen hundred feet,
enough for any river we had to traverse; but habitually the leading
brigade would, out of the abundant timber, improvise a bridge
before the pontoon-train could come up, unless in the cases of rivers
of considerable magnitude, such as the Ocmulgee, Oconee,
Ogeechee, Savannah, etc.
On the 20th of November I was still with the Fourteenth Corps,
near Eatonton Factory, waiting to hear of the Twentieth Corps; and
on the 21st we camped near the house of a man named Mann; the
next day, about 4 p.m., General Davis had halted his head of column
on a wooded ridge, overlooking an extensive slope of cultivated
country, about ten miles short of Milledgeville, and was deploying his
troops for camp when I got up. There was a high, raw wind blowing,
and I asked him why he had chosen so cold and bleak a position. He
explained that he had accomplished his full distance for the day, and
had there an abundance of wood and water. He explained further
that his advance-guard was a mile or so ahead; so I rode on, asking
him to let his rear division, as it came up, move some distance
ahead into the depression or valley beyond. Riding on some distance
to the border of a plantation, I turned out of the main road into a
cluster of wild-plum bushes, that broke the force of the cold
November wind, dismounted, and instructed the staff to pick out the
place for our camp.
The afternoon was unusually raw and cold. My orderly was at
hand with his invariable saddle-bags, which contained a change of
under-clothing, my maps, a flask of whiskey, and bunch of cigars.
Taking a drink and lighting a cigar, I walked to a row of negro-huts
close by, entered one and found a soldier or two warming
themselves by a wood-fire. I took their place by the fire, intending to
wait there till our wagons had got up, and a camp made for the
night. I was talking to the old negro woman, when some one came
and explained to me that, if I would come farther down the road, I
could find a better place. So I started on foot, and found on the
main road a good double-hewed-log house, in one room of which
Colonel Poe, Dr. Moore, and others, had started a fire. I sent back
orders to the "plum-bushes" to bring our horses and saddles up to
this house, and an orderly to conduct our headquarter wagons to
the same place. In looking around the room, I saw a small box, like
a candle-box, marked "Howell Cobb," and, on inquiring of a negro,
found that we were at the plantation of General Howell Cobb, of
Georgia, one of the leading rebels of the South, then a general in
the Southern army, and who had been Secretary of the United
States Treasury in Mr. Buchanan's time. Of course, we confiscated
his property, and found it rich in corn, beans, pea-nuts, and
sorghum-molasses. Extensive fields were all round the house; I sent
word back to General David to explain whose plantation it was, and
instructed him to spare nothing. That night huge bonfires consumed
the fence-rails, kept our soldiers warm, and the teamsters and men,
as well as the slaves, carried off an immense quantity of corn and
provisions of all sorts.
In due season the headquarter wagons came up, and we got
supper. After supper I sat on a chair astride, with my back to a good
fire, musing, and became conscious that an old negro, with a tallow-
candle in his hand, was scanning my face closely. I inquired, "What
do you want, old man!" He answered, "Dey say you is Massa
Sherman." I answered that such was the case, and inquired what he
wanted. He only wanted to look at me, and kept muttering, "Dis
nigger can't sleep dis night." I asked him why he trembled so, and
he said that he wanted to be sure that we were in fact "Yankees,"
for on a former occasion some rebel cavalry had put on light-blue
overcoats, personating Yankee troops, and many of the negroes
were deceived thereby, himself among the number had shown them
sympathy, and had in consequence been unmercifully beaten
therefor. This time he wanted to be certain before committing
himself; so I told him to go out on the porch, from which he could
see the whole horizon lit up with camp-fires, and he could then
judge whether he had ever seen any thing like it before. The old
man became convinced that the "Yankees" had come at last, about
whom he had been dreaming all his life; and some of the staff
officers gave him a strong drink of whiskey, which set his tongue
going. Lieutenant Spelling, who commanded my escort, was a
Georgian, and recognized in this old negro a favorite slave of his
uncle, who resided about six miles off; but the old slave did not at
first recognize his young master in our uniform. One of my staff-
officers asked him what had become of his young master, George.
He did not know, only that he had gone off to the war, and he
supposed him killed, as a matter of course. His attention was then
drawn to Spelling's face, when he fell on his knees and thanked God
that he had found his young master alive and along with the
Yankees. Spelling inquired all about his uncle and the family, asked
my permission to go and pay his uncle a visit, which I granted, of
course, and the next morning he described to me his visit. The uncle
was not cordial, by any means, to find his nephew in the ranks of
the host that was desolating the land, and Spelling came back,
having exchanged his tired horse for a fresher one out of his uncle's
stables, explaining that surely some of the "bummers" would have
got the horse had he not.
The next morning, November 23d, we rode into Milledgeville, the
capital of the State, whither the Twentieth Corps had preceded us;
and during that day the left wing was all united, in and around
Milledgeville. From the inhabitants we learned that some of
Kilpatrick's cavalry had preceded us by a couple of days, and that all
of the right wing was at and near Gordon, twelve miles off, viz., the
place where the branch railroad came to Milledgeville from the
Mason & Savannah road. The first stage of the journey was,
therefore, complete, and absolutely successful.
General Howard soon reported by letter the operations of his right
wing, which, on leaving Atlanta, had substantially followed the two
roads toward Mason, by Jonesboro' and McDonough, and reached
the Ocmulgee at Planters' Factory, which they crossed, by the aid of
the pontoon-train, during the 18th and 19th of November. Thence,
with the Seventeenth Corps (General Blair's) he (General Howard)
had marched via Monticello toward Gordon, having dispatched
Kilpatrick's cavalry, supported by the Fifteenth Corps (Osterhaus's),
to feign on Mason. Kilpatrick met the enemy's cavalry about four
miles out of Mason, and drove them rapidly back into the bridge-
defenses held by infantry. Kilpatrick charged these, got inside the
parapet, but could not hold it, and retired to his infantry supports,
near Griswold Station. The Fifteenth Corps tore up the railroad-track
eastward from Griswold, leaving Charles R. Wood's division behind
as a rear-guard-one brigade of which was intrenched across the
road, with some of Kilpatrick's cavalry on the flanks. On the 22d of
November General G. W. Smith, with a division of troops, came out
of Mason, attacked this brigade (Walcutt's) in position, and was
handsomely repulsed and driven back into Mason. This brigade was
in part armed with Spencer repeating-rifles, and its fire was so rapid
that General Smith insists to this day that he encountered a whole
division; but he is mistaken; he was beaten by one brigade
(Walcutt's), and made no further effort to molest our operations
from that direction. General Walcutt was wounded in the leg, and
had to ride the rest of the distance to Savannah in a carriage.
Therefore, by the 23d, I was in Milledgeville with the left wing,
and was in full communication with the right wing at Gordon. The
people of Milledgeville remained at home, except the Governor
(Brown), the State officers, and Legislature, who had ignominiously
fled, in the utmost disorder and confusion; standing not on the order
of their going, but going at once--some by rail, some by carriages,
and many on foot. Some of the citizens who remained behind
described this flight of the "brave and patriotic" Governor Brown. He
had occupied a public building known as the "Governor's Mansion,"
and had hastily stripped it of carpets, curtains, and furniture of all
sorts, which were removed to a train of freight-cars, which carried
away these things--even the cabbages and vegetables from his
kitchen and cellar--leaving behind muskets, ammunition, and the
public archives. On arrival at Milledgeville I occupied the same public
mansion, and was soon overwhelmed with appeals for protection.
General Slocum had previously arrived with the Twentieth Corps, had
taken up his quarters at the Milledgeville Hotel, established a good
provost-guard, and excellent order was maintained. The most frantic
appeals had been made by the Governor and Legislature for help
from every quarter, and the people of the State had been called out
en masse to resist and destroy the invaders of their homes and
firesides. Even the prisoners and convicts of the penitentiary were
released on condition of serving as soldiers, and the cadets were
taken from their military college for the same purpose. These
constituted a small battalion, under General Harry Wayne, a former
officer of the United States Army, and son of the then Justice Wayne
of the Supreme Court. But these hastily retreated east across the
Oconee River, leaving us a good bridge, which we promptly secured.
 At Milledgeville we found newspapers from all the South, and
learned the consternation which had filled the Southern mind at our
temerity; many charging that we were actually fleeing for our lives
and seeking safety at the hands of our fleet on the sea-coast. All
demanded that we should be assailed, "front, flank, and rear;" that
provisions should be destroyed in advance, so that we would starve;
that bridges should be burned, roads obstructed, and no mercy
shown us. Judging from the tone of the Southern press of that day,
the outside world must have supposed us ruined and lost. I give a
few of these appeals as samples, which to-day must sound strange
to the parties who made them:

Corinth, Mississippi, November 18, 1884.

To the People of Georgia:

Arise for the defense of your native soil! Rally around

your patriotic Governor and gallant soldiers! Obstruct
and destroy all the roads in Sherman's front, flank, and
rear, and his army will soon starve in your midst. Be
confident. Be resolute. Trust in an overruling
Providence, and success will soon crown your efforts. I
hasten to join you in the defense of your homes and
firesides.

G. T. BEAUREGARD.

RICHMOND, November 18, 1884.

To the People of Georgia:

You have now the best opportunity ever yet presented
to destroy the enemy. Put every thing at the disposal
of our generals; remove all provisions from the path of
the, invader, and put all obstructions in his path.

Every citizen with his gun, and every negro with his
spade and axe, can do the work of a soldier. You can
destroy the enemy by retarding his march.

Georgians, be firm! Act promptly, and fear not!

B. H. Hill, Senator.

I most cordially approve the above.

James A. SEDDON, Secretary of War.

Richmond, November 19,1864.

To the People of Georgia:

We have had a special conference with President Davis

and the Secretary of War, and are able to assure you
that they have done and are still doing all that can be
done to meet the emergency that presses upon you.
Let every man fly to arms! Remove your negroes,
horses, cattle, and provisions from Sherman's army,
and burn what you cannot carry. Burn all bridges, and
block up the roads in his route. Assail the invader in
front, flank, and rear, by night and by day. Let him
have no rest.

JULIAN HARTRIDGE
MARK BLANDFORD,
J. H. ECHOLS
 GEO. N. LESTER
JOHN T. SHUEMAKER
JAS. M. SMITH,

Members of Congress.

Of course, we were rather amused than alarmed at these threats,

and made light of the feeble opposition offered to our progress.
Some of the officers (in the spirit of mischief) gathered together in
the vacant hall of Representatives, elected a Speaker, and
constituted themselves the Legislature of the State of Georgia! A
proposition was made to repeal the ordinance of secession, which
was well debated, and resulted in its repeal by a fair vote! I was not
present at these frolics, but heard of them at the time, and enjoyed
the joke.
Meantime orders were made for the total destruction of the
arsenal and its contents, and of such public buildings as could be
easily converted to hostile uses. But little or no damage was done to
private property, and General Slocum, with my approval, spared
several mills, and many thousands of bales of cotton, taking what he
knew to be worthless bonds, that the cotton should not be used for
the Confederacy. Meantime the right wing continued its movement
along the railroad toward Savannah, tearing up the track and
destroying its iron. At the Oconee was met a feeble resistance from
Harry Wayne's troops, but soon the pontoon-bridge was laid, and
that wing crossed over. Gilpatrick's cavalry was brought into
Milledgeville, and crossed the Oconee by the bridge near the town;
and on the 23d I made the general orders for the next stage of the
march as far as Millen. These were, substantially, for the right wing
to follow the Savannah Railroad, by roads on its south; the left wing
was to move to Sandersville, by Davisboro' and Louisville, while the
cavalry was ordered by a circuit to the north, and to march rapidly
for Millen, to rescue our prisoners of war confined there. The
distance was about a hundred miles.
General Wheeler, with his division of rebel cavalry, had succeeded
in getting ahead of us between Milledgeville and Augusta, and
General P. J. Hardee had been dispatched by General Beauregard
from Hood's army to oppose our progress directly in front. He had,
however, brought with him no troops, but relied on his influence with
the Georgians (of whose State he was a native) to arouse the
people, and with them to annihilate Sherman's army!
On the 24th we renewed the march, and I accompanied the
Twentieth Corps, which took the direct road to Sandersville, which
we reached simultaneously with the Fourteenth Corps, on the 26th.
A brigade of rebel cavalry was deployed before the town, and was
driven in and through it by our skirmish-line. I myself saw the rebel
cavalry apply fire to stacks of fodder standing in the fields at
Sandersville, and gave orders to burn some unoccupied dwellings
close by. On entering the town, I told certain citizens (who would be
sure to spread the report) that, if the enemy attempted to carry out
their threat to burn their food, corn, and fodder, in our route, I
would most undoubtedly execute to the letter the general orders of
devastation made at the outset of the campaign. With this
exception, and one or two minor cases near Savannah, the people
did not destroy food, for they saw clearly that it would be ruin to
themselves.
At Sandersville I halted the left wing until I heard that the right
wing was abreast of us on the railroad. During the evening a negro
was brought to me, who had that day been to the station (Tenille),
about six miles south of the town. I inquired of him if there were any
Yankees there, and he answered, "Yes." He described in his own way
what he had seen.
"First, there come along some cavalry-men, and they burned the
depot; then come along some infantry-men, and they tore up the
track, and burned it;" and just before he left they had "sot fire to the
well."
 The next morning, viz., the 27th, I rode down to the station, and
found General Corse's division (of the Fifteenth Corps) engaged in
destroying the railroad, and saw the well which my negro informant
had seen "burnt." It was a square pit about twenty-five feet deep,
boarded up, with wooden steps leading to the bottom, wherein was
a fine copper pump, to lift the water to a tank above. The soldiers
had broken up the pump, heaved in the steps and lining, and set fire
to the mass of lumber in the bottom of the well, which corroborated
the negro's description.
From this point Blair's corps, the Seventeenth, took up the work of
destroying the railroad, the Fifteenth Corps following another road
leading eastward, farther to the south of the railroad. While the left
wing was marching toward Louisville, north of the railroad, General
Kilpatrick had, with his cavalry division, moved rapidly toward
Waynesboro', on the branch railroad leading from Millen to Augusta.
He found Wheeler's division of rebel cavalry there, and had
considerable skirmishing with it; but, learning that our prisoners had
been removed two days before from Millen, he returned to Louisville
on the 29th, where he found the left wing. Here he remained a
couple of days to rest his horses, and, receiving orders from me to
engage Wheeler and give him all the fighting he wanted, he
procured from General Slocum the assistance of the infantry division
of General Baird, and moved back for Waynesboro' on the 2d of
December, the remainder of the left wing continuing its march on
toward Millers. Near Waynesboro' Wheeler was again encountered,
and driven through the town and beyond Brier Creek, toward
Augusta, thus keeping up the delusion that the main army was
moving toward Augusta. General Kilpatrick's fighting and movements
about Waynesboro' and Brier Creek were spirited, and produced a
good effect by relieving the infantry column and the wagon-trains of
all molestation during their march on Millen. Having thus covered
that flank, he turned south and followed the movement of the
Fourteenth Corps to Buckhead Church, north of Millen and near it.
On the 3d of December I entered Millen with the Seventeenth
Corps (General Frank P. Blair), and there paused one day, to
communicate with all parts of the army. General Howard was south
of the Ogeechee River, with the Fifteenth Corps, opposite Scarboro'.
General Slocum was at Buckhead Church, four miles north of Millen,
with the Twentieth Corps. The Fourteenth (General Davis) was at
Lumpkin's Station, on the Augusta road, about ten miles north of
Millen, and the cavalry division was within easy support of this wing.
Thus the whole army was in good position and in good condition.
We had largely subsisted on the country; our wagons were full of
forage and provisions; but, as we approached the sea-coast, the
country became more sandy and barren, and food became more
scarce; still, with little or no loss, we had traveled two-thirds of our
distance, and I concluded to push on for Savannah. At Millen I
learned that General Bragg was in Augusta, and that General Wade
Hampton had been ordered there from Richmond, to organize a
large cavalry force with which to resist our progress.
General Hardee was ahead, between us and Savannah, with
McLaw's division, and other irregular troops, that could not, I felt
assured, exceed ten thousand men. I caused the fine depot at Millen
to be destroyed, and other damage done, and then resumed the
march directly on Savannah, by the four main roads. The
Seventeenth Corps (General Blair) followed substantially the railroad,
and, along with it, on the 5th of December, I reached Ogeechee
Church, about fifty miles from Savannah, and found there fresh
earthworks, which had been thrown up by McLaw's division; but he
must have seen that both his flanks were being turned, and
prudently retreated to Savannah without a fight. All the columns
then pursued leisurely their march toward Savannah, corn and
forage becoming more and more scarce, but rice-fields beginning to
occur along the Savannah and Ogeechee Rivers, which proved a
good substitute, both as food and forage. The weather was fine, the
roads good, and every thing seemed to favor us. Never do I recall a
more agreeable sensation than the sight of our camps by night, lit
up by the fires of fragrant pine-knots. The trains were all in good
order, and the men seemed to march their fifteen miles a day as
though it were nothing. No enemy opposed us, and we could only
occasionally hear the faint reverberation of a gun to our left rear,
where we knew that General Kilpatrick was skirmishing with
Wheeler's cavalry, which persistently followed him. But the infantry
columns had met with no opposition whatsoever. McLaw's division
was falling back before us, and we occasionally picked up a few of
his men as prisoners, who insisted that we would meet with strong
opposition at Savannah.
On the 8th, as I rode along, I found the column turned out of the
main road, marching through the fields. Close by, in the corner of a
fence, was a group of men standing around a handsome young
officer, whose foot had been blown to pieces by a torpedo planted in
the road. He was waiting for a surgeon to amputate his leg, and told
me that he was riding along with the rest of his brigade-staff of the
Seventeenth Corps, when a torpedo trodden on by his horse had
exploded, killing the horse and literally blowing off all the flesh from
one of his legs. I saw the terrible wound, and made full inquiry into
the facts. There had been no resistance at that point, nothing to
give warning of danger, and the rebels had planted eight-inch shells
in the road, with friction-matches to explode them by being trodden
on. This was not war, but murder, and it made me very angry. I
immediately ordered a lot of rebel prisoners to be brought from the
provost-guard, armed with picks and spades, and made them march
in close order along the road, so as to explode their own torpedoes,
or to discover and dig them up. They begged hard, but I reiterated
the order, and could hardly help laughing at their stepping so
gingerly along the road, where it was supposed sunken torpedoes
might explode at each step, but they found no other torpedoes till
near Fort McAllister. That night we reached Pooler's Station, eight
miles from Savannah, and during the next two days, December 9th
and 10th, the several corps reached the defenses of Savannah--the
Fourteenth Corps on the left, touching the river; the Twentieth Corps
next; then the Seventeenth; and the Fifteenth on the extreme right;
thus completely investing the city. Wishing to reconnoitre the place
in person, I rode forward by the Louisville road, into a dense wood
of oak, pine, and cypress, left the horses, and walked down to the
railroad-track, at a place where there was a side-track, and a cut
about four feet deep. From that point the railroad was straight,
leading into Savannah, and about eight hundred yards off were a
rebel parapet and battery. I could see the cannoneers preparing to
fire, and cautioned the officers near me to scatter, as we would likely
attract a shot. Very soon I saw the white puff of smoke, and,
watching close, caught sight of the ball as it rose in its flight, and,
finding it coming pretty straight, I stepped a short distance to one
side, but noticed a negro very near me in the act of crossing the
track at right angles. Some one called to him to look out; but, before
the poor fellow understood his danger, the ball (a thirty-two-pound
round shot) struck the ground, and rose in its first ricochet, caught
the negro under the right jaw, and literally carried away his head,
scattering blood and brains about. A soldier close by spread an
overcoat over the body, and we all concluded to get out of that
railroad-cut. Meantime, General Mower's division of the Seventeenth
Corps had crossed the canal to the right of the Louisville road, and
had found the line of parapet continuous; so at Savannah we had
again run up against the old familiar parapet, with its deep ditches,
canals, and bayous, full of water; and it looked as though another
siege was inevitable. I accordingly made a camp or bivouac near the
Louisville road, about five miles from Savannah, and proceeded to
invest the place closely, pushing forward reconnoissances at every
available point.
As soon as it was demonstrated that Savannah was well fortified,
with a good garrison, commanded by General William J. Hardee, a
competent soldier, I saw that the first step was to open
communication with our fleet, supposed to be waiting for us with
supplies and clothing in Ossabaw Sound.
General Howard had, some nights previously, sent one of his best
scouts, Captain Duncan, with two men, in a canoe, to drift past Fort
McAllister, and to convey to the fleet a knowledge of our approach.
General Kilpatrick's cavalry had also been transferred to the south
bank of the Ogeechee, with orders to open communication with the
fleet. Leaving orders with General Slocum to press the siege, I
instructed General Howard to send a division with all his engineers
to Grog's Bridge, fourteen and a half miles southwest from
Savannah, to rebuild it. On the evening of the 12th I rode over
myself, and spent the night at Mr. King's house, where I found
General Howard, with General Hazen's division of the Fifteenth
Corps. His engineers were hard at work on the bridge, which they
finished that night, and at sunrise Hazen's division passed over. I
gave General Hazen, in person, his orders to march rapidly down the
right bank of the Ogeechee, and without hesitation to assault and
carry Fort McAllister by storm. I knew it to be strong in heavy
artillery, as against an approach from the sea, but believed it open
and weak to the rear. I explained to General Hazen, fully, that on his
action depended the safety of the whole army, and the success of
the campaign. Kilpatrick had already felt the fort, and had gone
farther down the coast to Kilkenny Bluff, or St. Catharine's Sound,
where, on the same day, he had communication with a vessel
belonging to the blockading fleet; but, at the time, I was not aware
of this fact, and trusted entirely to General Hazen and his division of
infantry, the Second of the Fifteenth Corps, the same old division
which I had commanded at Shiloh and Vicksburg, in which I felt a
special pride and confidence.
Having seen General Hazen fairly off, accompanied by General
Howard, I rode with my staff down the left bank of the Ogeechee,
ten miles to the rice-plantation of a Mr. Cheevea, where General
Howard had established a signal-station to overlook the lower river,
and to watch for any vessel of the blockading squadron, which the
negroes reported to be expecting us, because they nightly sent up
rockets, and daily dispatched a steamboat up the Ogeechee as near
to Fort McAllister as it was safe.
On reaching the rice-mill at Cheevea's, I found a guard and a
couple of twenty-pound Parrott gone, of De Gres's battery, which
fired an occasional shot toward Fort McAllister, plainly seen over the
salt-marsh, about three miles distant. Fort McAllister had the rebel
flag flying, and occasionally sent a heavy shot back across the marsh
to where we were, but otherwise every thing about the place looked
as peaceable and quiet as on the Sabbath.
The signal-officer had built a platform on the ridge-pole of the
rice-mill. Leaving our horses behind the stacks of rice-straw, we all
got on the roof of a shed attached to the mill, wherefrom I could
communicate with the signal-officer above, and at the same time
look out toward Ossabaw Sound, and across the Ogeechee River at
Fort McAllister. About 2 p.m. we observed signs of commotion in the
fort, and noticed one or two guns fired inland, and some musket-
skirmishing in the woods close by.
This betokened the approach of Hazen's division, which had been
anxiously expected, and soon thereafter the signal-officer discovered
about three miles above the fort a signal-flag, with which he
conversed, and found it to belong to General Hazen, who was
preparing to assault the fort, and wanted to know if I were there. On
being assured of this fact, and that I expected the fort to be carried
before night, I received by signal the assurance of General Hazen
that he was making his preparations, and would soon attempt the
assault. The sun was rapidly declining, and I was dreadfully
impatient. At that very moment some one discovered a faint cloud of
smoke, and an object gliding, as it were, along the horizon above
the tops of the sedge toward the sea, which little by little grew till it
was pronounced to be the smoke-stack of a steamer coming up the
river. "It must be one of our squadron!" Soon the flag of the United
States was plainly visible, and our attention was divided between
this approaching steamer and the expected assault. When the sun
was about an hour high, another signal-message came from General
Hazen that he was all ready, and I replied to go ahead, as a friendly
steamer was approaching from below. Soon we made out a group of
officers on the deck of this vessel, signaling with a flag, "Who are
you!" The answer went back promptly, "General Sherman." Then
followed the question, "Is Fort McAllister taken?" "Not yet, but it will
be in a minute!" Almost at that instant of time, we saw Hazen's
troops come out of the dark fringe of woods that encompassed the
fort, the lines dressed as on parade, with colors flying, and moving
forward with a quick, steady pace. Fort McAllister was then all alive,
its big guns belching forth dense clouds of smoke, which soon
enveloped our assaulting lines. One color went down, but was up in
a moment. On the lines advanced, faintly seen in the white,
sulphurous smoke; there was a pause, a cessation of fire; the smoke
cleared away, and the parapets were blue with our men, who fired
their muskets in the air, and shouted so that we actually heard them,
or felt that we did. Fort McAllister was taken, and the good news
was instantly sent by the signal-officer to our navy friends on the
approaching gunboat, for a point of timber had shut out Fort
McAllister from their view, and they had not seen the action at all,
but must have heard the cannonading.
During the progress of the assault, our little group on Cheeves's
mill hardly breathed; but no sooner did we see our flags on the
parapet than I exclaimed, in the language of the poor negro at
Cobb's plantation, "This nigger will have no sleep this night!"
I was resolved to communicate with our fleet that night, which
happened to be a beautiful moonlight one. At the wharf belonging to
Cheeves's mill was a small skiff, that had been used by our men in
fishing or in gathering oysters. I was there in a minute, called for a
volunteer crew, when several young officers, Nichols and Merritt
among the number; said they were good oarsmen, and volunteered
to pull the boat down to Fort McAllister. General Howard asked to
accompany me; so we took seats in the stern of the boat, and our
crew of officers pulled out with a will. The tide was setting in strong,
and they had a hard pull, for, though the distance was but three
miles in an air-line, the river was so crooked that the actual distance
was fully six miles. On the way down we passed the wreck of a
steamer which had been sunk some years before, during a naval
attack on Fort McAllister.
Night had fairly set in when we discovered a soldier on the beach.
I hailed him, and inquired if he knew where General Hazen was. He
answered that the general was at the house of the overseer of the
plantation (McAllister's), and that he could guide me to it. We
accordingly landed, tied our boat to a driftlog, and followed our
guide through bushes to a frame-house, standing in a grove of live-
oaks, near a row of negro quarters.
General Hazen was there with his staff, in the act of getting
supper; he invited us to join them, which we accepted promptly, for
we were really very hungry. Of course, I congratulated Hazen most
heartily on his brilliant success, and praised its execution very highly,
as it deserved, and he explained to me more in detail the exact
results. The fort was an inclosed work, and its land-front was in the
nature of a bastion and curtains, with good parapet, ditch, fraise,
and chevaux-de-frise, made out of the large branches of live-oaks.
Luckily, the rebels had left the larger and unwieldy trunks on the
ground, which served as a good cover for the skirmish-line, which
crept behind these logs, and from them kept the artillerists from
loading and firing their guns accurately.
The assault had been made by three parties in line, one from
below, one from above the fort, and the third directly in rear, along
the capital. All were simultaneous, and had to pass a good abatis
and line of torpedoes, which actually killed more of the assailants
than the heavy guns of the fort, which generally overshot the mark.
Hazen's entire loss was reported, killed and wounded, ninety-two.
Each party reached the parapet about the same time, and the
garrison inside, of about two hundred and fifty men (about fifty of
them killed or wounded), were in his power. The commanding
officer, Major Anderson, was at that moment a prisoner, and General
Hazen invited him in to take supper with us, which he did.
Up to this time General Hazen did not know that a gunboat was in
the river below the fort; for it was shut off from sight by a point of
timber, and I was determined to board her that night, at whatever
risk or cost, as I wanted some news of what was going on in the
outer world. Accordingly, after supper, we all walked down to the
fort, nearly a mile from the house where we had been, entered Fort
McAllister, held by a regiment of Hazen's troops, and the sentinel
cautioned us to be very careful, as the ground outside the fort was
full of torpedoes. Indeed, while we were there, a torpedo exploded,
tearing to pieces a poor fellow who was hunting for a dead comrade.
Inside the fort lay the dead as they had fallen, and they could hardly
be distinguished from their living comrades, sleeping soundly side by
side in the pale moonlight. In the river, close by the fort, was a good
yawl tied to a stake, but the tide was high, and it required some
time to get it in to the bank; the commanding officer, whose name I
cannot recall, manned the boat with a good crew of his men, and,
with General Howard, I entered, and pulled down-stream, regardless
of the warnings all about the torpedoes.
The night was unusually bright, and we expected to find the
gunboat within a mile or so; but, after pulling down the river fully
three miles, and not seeing the gunboat, I began to think she had
turned and gone back to the sound; but we kept on, following the
bends of the river, and about six miles below McAllister we saw her
light, and soon were hailed by the vessel at anchor. Pulling
alongside, we announced ourselves, and were received with great
warmth and enthusiasm on deck by half a dozen naval officers,
among them Captain Williamson, United States Navy. She proved to
be the Dandelion, a tender of the regular gunboat Flag, posted at
the mouth of the Ogeechee. All sorts of questions were made and
answered, and we learned that Captain Duncan had safely reached
the squadron, had communicated the good news of our approach,
and they had been expecting us for some days. They explained that
Admiral Dahlgren commanded the South-Atlantic Squadron, which
was then engaged in blockading the coast from Charleston south,
and was on his flag-ship, the Harvest Moon, lying in Wassaw Sound;
that General J. G. Foster was in command of the Department of the
South, with his headquarters at Hilton Head; and that several ships
loaded with stores for the army were lying in Tybee Roads and in
Port Royal Sound. From these officers I also learned that General
Grant was still besieging Petersburg and Richmond, and that matters
and things generally remained pretty much the same as when we
had left Atlanta. All thoughts seemed to have been turned to us in
Georgia, cut off from all communication with our friends; and the
rebel papers had reported us to be harassed, defeated, starving, and
fleeing for safety to the coast. I then asked for pen and paper, and
wrote several hasty notes to General Foster, Admiral Dahlgren,
General Grant, and the Secretary of War, giving in general terms the
actual state of affairs, the fact of the capture of Fort McAllister, and
of my desire that means should be taken to establish a line of supply
from the vessels in port up the Ogeechee to the rear of the army. As
a sample, I give one of these notes, addressed to the Secretary of
War, intended for publication to relieve the anxiety of our friends at
the North generally:

ON BOARD DANDELION, OSSABAW SOUND, December

13, 1864--11.50 p.m.

To Hon. E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War,

Washington, D. C.:

To-day, at 6 p. m., General Hazen's division of the

Fifteenth Corps carried Fort McAllister by assault,
capturing its entire garrison and stores. This opened to
us Ossabaw Sound, and I pushed down to this
gunboat to communicate with the fleet. Before
opening communication we had completely destroyed
all the railroads leading into Savannah, and invested
the city. The left of the army is on the Savannah River
three miles above the city, and the right on the
Ogeechee, at King's Bridge. The army is in splendid
order, and equal to any thing. The weather has been
fine, and supplies were abundant. Our march was
most agreeable, and we were not at all molested by
guerrillas.

We reached Savannah three days ago, but, owing to

Fort McAllister, could not communicate; but, now that
we have McAllister, we can go ahead.
 We have already captured two boats on the Savannah
river and prevented their gunboats from coming down.

I estimate the population of Savannah at twenty-five

thousand, and the garrison at fifteen thousand.
General Hardee commands.

We have not lost a wagon on the trip; but have

gathered a large supply of negroes, mules, horses,
etc., and our teams are in far better condition than
when we started.

My first duty will be to clear the army of surplus

negroes, mules, and horses. We have utterly destroyed
over two hundred miles of rails, and consumed stores
and provisions that were essential to Lee's and Hood's
armies.

The quick work made with McAllister, the opening of

communication with our fleet, and our consequent
independence as to supplies, dissipate all their boasted
threats to head us off and starve the army.

I regard Savannah as already gained.

Yours truly,

W. T. SHERMAN, Major-General.

By this time the night was well advanced, and the tide was
running ebb-strong; so I asked. Captain Williamson to tow us up as
near Fort McAllister as he would venture for the torpedoes, of which
the navy-officers had a wholesome dread. The Dandelion steamed
up some three or four miles, till the lights of Fort McAllister could be
seen, when she anchored, and we pulled to the fort in our own boat.
General Howard and I then walked up to the McAllister House,
where we found General Hazen and his officers asleep on the floor
of one of the rooms. Lying down on the floor, I was soon fast asleep,
but shortly became conscious that some one in the room was
inquiring for me among the sleepers. Calling out, I was told that an
officer of General Fosters staff had just arrived from a steamboat
anchored below McAllister; that the general was extremely anxious
to see me on important business, but that he was lame from an old
Mexican-War wound, and could not possibly come to me. I was
extremely weary from the incessant labor of the day and night
before, but got up, and again walked down the sandy road to
McAllister, where I found a boat awaiting us, which carried us some
three miles down the river, to the steamer W. W. Coit (I think), on
board of which we found General Foster. He had just come from Port
Royal, expecting to find Admiral Dahlgren in Ossabaw Sound, and,
hearing of the capture of Fort McAllister, he had come up to see me.
He described fully the condition of affairs with his own command in
South Carolina. He had made several serious efforts to effect a
lodgment on the railroad which connects Savannah with Charleston
near Pocotaligo, but had not succeeded in reaching the railroad
itself, though he had a full division of troops, strongly intrenched,
near Broad River, within cannon-range of the railroad. He explained,
moreover, that there were at Port Royal abundant supplies of bread
and provisions, as well as of clothing, designed for our use. We still
had in our wagons and in camp abundance of meat, but we needed
bread, sugar, and coffee, and it was all-important that a route of
supply should at once be opened, for which purpose the assistance
of the navy were indispensable. We accordingly steamed down the
Ogeechee River to Ossabaw Sound, in hopes to meet Admiral
Dahlgren, but he was not there, and we continued on by the inland
channel to Warsaw Sound, where we found the Harvest Moon, and
Admiral Dahlgren. I was not personally acquainted with him at the
time, but he was so extremely kind and courteous that I was at once
attracted to him. There was nothing in his power, he said, which he
would not do to assist us, to make our campaign absolutely
successful. He undertook at once to find vessels of light draught to
carry our supplies from Port Royal to Cheeves's Mill, or to Grog's
Bridge above, whence they could be hauled by wagons to our
several camps; he offered to return with me to Fort McAllister, to
superintend the removal of the torpedoes, and to relieve me of all
the details of this most difficult work. General Foster then concluded
to go on to Port Royal, to send back to us six hundred thousand
rations, and all the rifled guns of heavy calibre, and ammunition on
hand, with which I thought we could reach the city of Savannah,
from the positions already secured. Admiral Dahlgren then returned
with me in the Harvest Moon to Fort McAllister. This consumed all of
the 14th of December; and by the 15th I had again reached
Cheeves's Mill, where my horse awaited me, and rode on to General
Howard's headquarters at Anderson's plantation, on the plank-road,
about eight miles back of Savannah. I reached this place about
noon, and immediately sent orders to my own head-quarters, on the
Louisville road, to have them brought over to the plank-road, as a
place more central and convenient; gave written notice to Generals
Slocum and Howard of all the steps taken, and ordered them to get
ready to receive the siege-guns, to put them in position to bombard
Savannah, and to prepare for the general assault. The country back
of Savannah is very low, and intersected with innumerable saltwater
creeks, swamps, and rice-fields. Fortunately the weather was good
and the roads were passable, but, should the winter rains set in, I
knew that we would be much embarrassed. Therefore, heavy details
of men were at once put to work to prepare a wharf and depot at
Grog's Bridge, and the roads leading thereto were corduroyed in
advance. The Ogeechee Canal was also cleared out for use; and
boats, such as were common on the river plantations, were
collected, in which to float stores from our proposed base on the
Ogeechee to the points most convenient to the several camps.
Slocum's wing extended from the Savannah River to the canal,
and Howard's wing from the canal to the extreme right, along down
the Little Ogeechee. The enemy occupied not only the city itself,
with its long line of outer works, but the many forts which had been
built to guard the approaches from the sea-such as at Beaulieu,
Rosedew, White Bluff, Bonaventura, Thunderbolt, Cansten's Bluff,
Forts Tatnall, Boggs, etc., etc. I knew that General Hardee could not
have a garrison strong enough for all these purposes, and I was
therefore anxious to break his lines before he could receive
reenforcements from Virginia or Augusta. General Slocum had
already captured a couple of steamboats trying to pass down the
Savannah River from Augusta, and had established some of his men
on Argyle and Hutchinson Islands above the city, and wanted to
transfer a whole corps to the South Carolina bank; but, as the
enemy had iron-clad gunboats in the river, I did not deem it prudent,
because the same result could be better accomplished from General
Fosters position at Broad River.
Fort McAllister was captured as described, late in the evening of
December 13th, and by the 16th many steamboats had passed up as
high as King's Bridge; among them one which General Grant had
dispatched with the mails for the army, which had accumulated since
our departure from Atlanta, under charge of Colonel A. H. Markland.
These mails were most welcome to all the officers and soldiers of
the army, which had been cut off from friends and the world for two
months, and this prompt receipt of letters from home had an
excellent effect, making us feel that home was near. By this vessel
also came Lieutenant Dune, aide-de-camp, with the following letter
of December 3d, from General Grant, and on the next day Colonel
Babcock, United States Engineers, arrived with the letter of
December 6th, both of which are in General Grant's own
handwriting, and are given entire:

HEADQUARTERS ARMIES OF THE UNITED STATES

CITY POINT, VIRGINIA, December 3, 1864.