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About
7 a.m. of November 16th we rode out of Atlanta by the Decatur road,
filled by the marching troops and wagons of the Fourteenth Corps;
and reaching the hill, just outside of the old rebel works, we
naturally paused to look back upon the scenes of our past battles.
We stood upon the very ground whereon was fought the bloody
battle of July 22d, and could see the copse of wood where McPherson
fell. Behind us lay Atlanta,
smouldering and in ruins, the
black smoke rising high in air, and hanging like a pall over the
ruined city. Away off in the
distance, on the McDonough road, was
the rear of Howard's column, the gun-barrels glistening in the sun,
the white-topped wagons stretching away to the south; and right
before us the Fourteenth Corps, marching steadily and rapidly,
with a cheery look and swinging pace, that made light of the
thousand miles that lay between us and Richmond. Some band, by accident,
struck up the anthem of "John Brown's soul goes marching on;"
the men caught up the strain, and never before or since have I heard
the chorus of "Glory, glory, hallelujah!" done with more spirit,
or in better harmony of time and place. Then
we turned our horses' heads to the east; Atlanta was soon lost behind
the screen of trees, and became a thing of the past. Around it
clings many a thought of desperate battle, of hope and fear, that
now seem like the memory of a dream; and I have never seen the place
since. The day was extremely
beautiful, clear sunlight, with bracing
air, and an unusual feeling of exhilaration seemed to pervade
all minds--a feeling of something to come, vague and undefined,
still full of venture and intense interest. Even the common
soldiers caught the inspiration, and many a group called out to
me as I worked my way past them, "Uncle Billy, I guess Grant is waiting
for us at Richmond!" Indeed,
the general sentiment was that
we were marching for Richmond, and that there we should end the
war, but how and when they seemed to care not; nor did they measure
the distance, or count the cost in life, or bother their brains
about the great rivers to be crossed, and the food required for
man and beast, that had to be gathered by the way.
There was a "devil-may-care"
feeling pervading officers and men, that made me feel
the full load of responsibility, for success would be accepted as
a matter of course, whereas, should we fail, this "march" would be
adjudged the wild adventure of a crazy fool.
I had no purpose to
march direct for Richmond by way of Augusta and Charlotte, but always
designed to reach the sea-coast first at Savannah or Port Royal,
South Carolina, and even kept in mind the alternative of Pensacola. *** there
was a doubt in
her mind whether the terrible Sherman who was devastating the land
were W. T. Sherman or T. W. Sherman, both known to be generals in
the Northern army; but, on the supposition that he was her old acquaintance,
when Wade Hampton's cavalry drew out of the city, calling
out that the Yankees were coming, she armed herself with this
book, and awaited the crisis. Soon
the shouts about the markethouse
announced that the Yankees had come; very soon men were seen
running up and down the streets; a parcel of them poured over the
fence, began to chase the chickens and ducks, and to enter her house.
She observed one large man, with full beard, who exercised some
authority, and to him she appealed in the name of "his general."
"What do you know of Uncle Billy?"
"Why," she said, "when
he was a young man he used to be our friend in Charleston, and
here is a book he gave me." The
officer or soldier took the book,
looked at the inscription, and, turning to his fellows, said: "Boys,
that's so; that's Uncle Billy's writing, for I have seen it often
before." He at once commanded
the party to stop pillaging, and
left a man in charge of the house, to protect her until the regular
provost-guard should be established. I
then asked her if the
regular guard or sentinel had been as good to her. She assured me
that he was a very nice young man; that he had been telling her all
about his family in Iowa; and that at that very instant of time he
was in another room minding her baby. Now,
this lady had good sense
and tact, and had thus turned aside a party who, in five minutes
more, would have rifled her premises of all that was good to
eat or wear. I made her a long
social visit, and, before leaving
Columbia, gave her a half-tierce of rice and about one hundred
pounds of ham from our own mess-stores. *** The morning sun of February 18th rose bright and clear over a ruined city (Columbia South Carolina). About half of it was in ashes and in smouldering heaps. Many of the people were houseless, and gathered in groups in the suburbs, or in the open parks and spaces, around their scanty piles of furniture. *** Seeing
a negro standing by troops passing, I inquired of him what "Him lead to Cheraw,
master!" "Is it a good
road, and how far?" "A very good road, and eight or ten miles." "Any "Oh!
no, master, dey is gone two days ago; you could have played cards
on der coat-tails, dey was in sich a hurry!" I was on my Lexington
horse, who was very handsome and restive, so I made signal
to my staff to follow, as I proposed to go without escort. I
turned my horse down the road, and the rest of the staff followed.
General Barry took up the questions about the road, and asked
the same negro what he was doing there. He
answered, "Dey say
Massa Sherman will be along soon!" "Why,"
said General Barry, "that
was General Sherman you were talking to."
The poor negro, almost
in the attitude of prayer, exclaimed: "De great God! just look
at his horse!" He ran up and
trotted by my side for a mile or so,
and gave me all the information he possessed, but he seemed tc admire
the horse more than the rider. *** We have captured immense stores, and destroyed machinery, guns, ammunition, and property, of inestimable value to our enemy. At all points he has fled from us, "standing not on the order of his going."
I want you to send me all the shoes, stockings, drawers, suger, coffee, and flour, you can spare; finish the loads with oats or corn: Have the boats escorted, and let them run at night at any risk. *** We had in mid-winter accomplished the whole journey of four hundred and twenty-five miles in fifty days, averaging ten miles per day, allowing ten lay-days, and had reached Goldsboro' with the army in superb order, and the trains almost as fresh as when we had started from Atlanta. *** He (Lincoln) was full of curiosity about the many incidents of our great march, which had reached him officially and through the newspapers, and seemed to enjoy very much the more ludicrous parts-about the "bummers," and their devices to collect food and forage when the outside world supposed us to be starving *** I
only regarded the march
from Atlanta to Savannah as a "shift of base," as the transfer
of a strong army, which had no opponent, and had finished its
then work, from the interior to a point on the sea-coast, from which
it could achieve other important results. I
considered this march
as a means to an end, and not as an essential act of war. Still,
then, as now, the march to the sea was generally regarded as something
extraordinary, something anomalous, something out of the usual
order of events; whereas, in fact, I simply moved from Atlanta
to Savannah, as one step in the direction of Richmond, a movement
that had to be met and defeated, or the war was necessarily
at an end. Were
I to express my measure of the relative importance of the march
to the sea, and of that from Savannah northward, I would place
the former at one, and the latter at ten, or the maximum. |
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