Southern Storm: Sherman's March to the Sea
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* There is no report of any Federal casualties for the day’s engagement at the bridge, while there is an estimate of “10 or 12 killed and wounded” at the ferry crossing.
* Most contemporary accounts spell it “Gum.”
* Other sources identify the victim as Mrs. Kate Nichols, said to have been raped by two Federal soldiers. One or two other such accusations are so vague as to be unverifiable.
* Brevet Major General Davis had a bad habit of staging his pontoon trains well back in his columns. While this enabled his forward elements to make good time, it also took longer to bring the pontoons forward when needed.
* Howard did make one defensive move in response to unconfirmed reports of Rebel cavalry south of him. He had a detachment sent off to burn a key bridge over Big Sandy Creek to forestall any surprises from that direction.
* Casualties for this action were not comprehensively reported. Federal losses can be pegged at two killed and a half dozen wounded, while Wheeler’s Confederates suffered at least three dead and an unknown number injured.
* Actually, it was Sherman’s wife, Ellen, who was a Catholic. The General himself, raised an Episcopalian, lived by a personal code that was secular and deist.
* Misspelling of Waynesboro in original.
* Cavalrymen were notoriously poor railroad wreckers. The telegraphic communication between Waynesboro and Augusta was restored in less than twenty-four hours, and a traveler passing between the two towns on November 29 reported the railroad operational.
* Also, animals deemed too broken down to continue were killed. One soldier estimated that 400 were destroyed at this place.
* This officer estimated the number of animals put down at 200–300, though some sources suggest a total as high as 500.
* Fifty-five years after the war, Mrs. “L.F.J.” used the columns of the National Tribune (a newspaper for veterans) to locate her benefactor. She had by then remarried and was living in nearby Madison as Mrs. L. F. Harris. Her appeal resulted in what the paper’s editors termed “many letters from different men…and every day or so more…are coming in.” Based on details known only to the participants, Mrs. Harris identified her compassionate sentry, but the newspaper account garbled the name as M. C. Canney. Given the facts as known, Private Michael Carney of the 61st Ohio seems the likely angel.
* The rearmost units would not arrive until nearly midnight.
* Sebastopol.
* Modern Bartow.
*The junction took place near modern Kite.
* This was likely the “Johnson’s” sought in vain by the Fifteenth Corps.
* In the area of modern Perkins.
* It was a war-ending wound for the sturdy officer, who died on April 20, 1928, making him the last surviving general officer of the Confederacy.
* Many Federals believed they were being attacked by three or four times that number.
* Modern Midville.
* Modern Wadley.
* I.e., stripped of their rank.
* This was the operation that resulted in the Battle of Honey Hill.
* These accounts became the basis for a successful memoir of Sherman’s March, published in 1865.
* At least, that is how Sherman read the incident. The fact that it was an accidental collision between his rear guard and Georgia militiamen trying to get around him was not known until much later.
* A military column without supply wagons or other impedimenta to allow for the maximum possible speed.
* Baird’s decision to close with his support allowed General Wheeler’s advocates to proclaim that his defense of the Rocky Creek line compelled the Yankees “to turn their course” away from Waynesboro.
* Toombs had been a brigadier general while in Confederate service, but upon his return to Georgia had entered the state military as a colonel.
* The reference is to grape shot, an antipersonnel cannon munition containing golf-ball-size lead balls that spread out on discharge like a shotgun blast.
* Actually, Colonel Morton C. Hunter.
* Not to be confused with the railroad station town of the same name. When enough Georgians became confused, the name of this Eden was changed to Clyde.
* A postwar account credits a sketch map contained in a letter from a member of the fort’s garrison, which was confiscated while the Federals were near Macon. The account does not cite its source for the story.
† In recollecting his visit some two months later for his official report, Sherman made a mental slip that has been perpetuated in several histories of the campaign. Perhaps because of his extended association with the unit during the period of the march he spent with the Left Wing, the General identified the engineer regiment working on the bridge as the “Fifty-eighth Indiana.” The Hoosiers were, in fact, resting in camp with the Left Wing at the time. The bridge builders, correctly noted by Captain Poe in his report, were from the 1st Missouri Engineers.
* A two-gun section from Battery H, 1st Illinois Light Artillery, Captain Francis DeGress commanding, operated throughout the day, joined for a period by a section from Battery H, 1st Missouri Light Artillery, Lieutenant John F. Brunner in charge.
* In addition to the 150 men who were assigned to the garrison, Anderson likely had some extra hands on board from some of the local militia units.
* Major Anderson reported that his men were suffering from rifle fire as early at 8:00 A.M. If the time is correct, it is improbable that the shooters were Hazen’s men; more likely, they belonged to Kilpatrick.
* Mary Jones had married her cousin, hence the “Jones Jones.”
* Muzzle-loading cannon ignited gunpowder through a small touch hole drilled into the barrel. Driving a pointed “spike” into the vent jammed it, or sometimes widened it, rendering the weapon useless.
* It was Sherman’s way not to drink too deeply of these popular accolades. “A single mistake or accident, my pile, though well founded, would tumble,” he wrote to his wife.
* Writing afterward to his wife about these incidents, the General made it clear that any self-examination was not on his agenda. Said Sherman: “I am right and won’t change.”
Table of Contents
PART ONE
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
PART TWO
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
PART THREE
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
PART FOUR
CHAPTER 19
PART FIVE
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
PART SIX
CHAPTER 23
Chapter Notes