Sherman Captures Savannah

Today’s installment concludes Sherman’s March Across Georgia,
our selection from History of the War of Secession by Rossiter Johnson published in 1868.

If you have read the other installment of this series, then after this one you will have completed a selection from the great works of two thousand words. Congratulations! For works benefiting from the latest research see the “More information” section at the bottom of these pages.

Previously in Sherman’s March Across Georgia.

Time: 1864
Place: Between Atlanta and Savannah

swath, from forty to sixty miles wide, through the very heart of the Confederacy. The columns passed through Rough and Ready, Jonesboro, Covington, McDonough, Macon, Milledgeville, Gibson, Louisville, Millen, Springfield, and many smaller places.

The wealthier inhabitants fled at the approach of the troops. The negroes in great numbers swarmed after the army, believing the long-promised day of jubilee had come. Some of them appeared to have an intelligent idea that the success of the National forces meant destruction of slavery, while most of them had but the vaguest notions as to the whole movement. One woman, with a child in her arms, walking along among the cattle and horses, was accosted by an officer, who asked her, “Where are you going, aunty?” “I’s gwine what you’s gwine, massa.” One party of black men, who had fallen into line, called out to another who seemed to be asking too many questions, “Stick in dar! It’s all right. We’s gwine along; we’s free.” Major George Ward Nichols describes an aged couple whom he saw in a hut near Milledgeville. The old negress, pointing her long finger at the old man, who was in the corner of the fireplace, hissed out: “What fer you sit dar? You s’pose I wait sixty years for nutten? Don’t yer see de door open? I’s follow my child, I not stay, I walks till I drop in my tracks.”

The army destroyed nearly the whole of the Georgia Central Railroad, burning the ties and heating and twisting the rails. As they had learned that a rail merely bent could be straightened and used again, a special tool was invented with which a red-hot rail could be quickly twisted like an auger, and rendered forever useless. They also had special appliances for tearing up the track methodically and rapidly. All the depot buildings were in flames as soon as the column reached them. As the bloodhounds had been used to track escaped prisoners, the men killed all that they could find.

The foraging parties -— or “bummers,” as they were popularly called -— went out for miles on each side, starting in advance of the organizations to which they belonged, gathered immense quantities of provisions, and brought them to the line of march, where each stood guard over his pile till his own brigade came along. The progress of the column was not allowed to be interrupted for the reception of the forage, everything being loaded upon the wagons as they moved. The “flankers” were thrown out on either side, passing in thin lines through the woods to prevent any surprise by the enemy, while the mounted officers went through the fields to give the road to the troops and trains.

The only serious opposition came from Wheeler’s Confederate cavalry, which hung on the flanks of the army and burned some bridges, but was well taken care of by Kilpatrick’s, who usually defeated it when brought to an encounter. There was great hope that Kilpatrick would be able to release the prisoners of war confined in Millen but when he arrived there he found that they had been removed to some other part of the Confederacy. When the advance-guard was within a few miles of Savannah, there was some fighting with infantry, and a pause before the defenses of the city.

Fort McAllister, which stood in the way of communication with the blockading fleet, was elaborately protected with ditches, palisades, and chevaux-de-frise; but General William B. Hazen’s division made short work with it, going straight over everything and capturing the fort on December 13th, losing ninety-two men in the assault, and killing or wounding about fifty of the garrison. That night General Sherman, with a few officers, pulled down the river in a yawl and visited the fleet in Ossabaw Sound.

Four days later, having established full communication, Sherman demanded the surrender of the city of Savannah, which General William J. Hardee, who was in command there with a considerable force, refused. Sherman then took measures to make its investment complete; but on the morning of the 21st it was found to be evacuated by Hardee’s forces, and General John W. Geary’s division of the Twentieth Corps marched in.

The next day Sherman wrote to the President: “I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah, with one hundred fifty heavy guns and plenty of ammunition, also about twenty five thousand bales of cotton.” Sherman’s entire loss in the march had been seven hundred sixty-four men.

That phase of war which reaches behind the armies in the field and strikes directly at the sources of supply, bringing home its burdens and its hardships to men who are urging on the conflict without participating in it, was never exhibited on a grander scale or conducted with more complete success. This in fact is the most humane kind of war, since it accomplishes the purpose with the least destruction of life and limb. Sherman’s movement across Georgia naturally brings to mind another famous march to the sea; but that was a retreat of ten thousand, while this was a victorious advance of sixty thousand, and it was only in their shout of welcome, Thalatta! thalatta! (“The sea! the sea!”) that the weary and disheartened Greeks resembled Sherman’s triumphant legions.

This ends our series of passages on Sherman’s March Across Georgia by Rossiter Johnson from his book History of the War of Secession published in 1868. This blog features short and lengthy pieces on all aspects of our shared past. Here are selections from the great historians who may be forgotten (and whose work have fallen into public domain) as well as links to the most up-to-date developments in the field of history and of course, original material from yours truly, Jack Le Moine. – A little bit of everything historical is here.

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