THE OLD DRAKE’S TERRITORY
[J. L. Underwood.]
When Sherman’s army was making its celebrated “march to the sea,” it cut a swath of fire and desolation from Atlanta to Savannah and on through the Carolinas. What food was not seized for the army was consumed by fire. Mills and barns and hundreds of dwellings were consigned to the flames. Most of the people fled from the approach of the Federals and especially were the old men, who might be thought by negroes and bummers to have money concealed on their persons or premises, afraid to fall into their hands. Somewhere not far from Milledgeville, a well-to-do farmer lay hid in the woods where he saw the Federals enter his premises and carry off everything of any use or value. Not a strip of bedding, not an ear of corn, a hough of a cow nor the tail of a pig did they leave him. Before the Yankee brigade got entirely out of sight the old farmer came into his desolate home. One glance at the wreck and away he went in pursuit of the Federals. “Oh, General, General, stop your command,” was the cry. On they marched without hearing him. On he rushed and cried as he ran, “Oh, General, oh, General, stop your command.” Finally when he was nearly out of breath the cry was heard and the brigade halted.
“What’s the matter, man?” said the soldiers, as he passed on by them, his face all flushed with excitement.
“Where’s the General?”
“Yonder he is, sitting on that black horse.”
Everybody stood still to hear the breathless message.
“Oh, General!”
“Well, what’s the trouble, sir?”
“General, your men have been yonder to my house and literally ruined me. They have taken everything I have 153 on God’s earth; they have left me nothing but one old drake, and he says he is very lonesome, and he wishes you would come back and get him.”
This was too much for the soldiers. Up went a shout of laughter and a yell all up and down the lines. The general was completely unhorsed by the desperate drollery of the old farmer, and rolled on the ground. Calling the man to him, he heard more of his story and finally had a list made of all the property which had been taken from him and had it all sent back to him, and the old rebel and the old drake felt better.
I saw much of that old drake’s territory. It was the only drake or fowl of any kind I ever heard of being left by Sherman’s bummers. I was with a cavalry company on Sherman’s flanks or front all the way to Savannah. Miles and miles of smoke from burning houses, barns, and mills could be seen every day and the red line shone by night. He did not burn all the dwellings, but for months and years there stood the lone chimneys of hundreds of once happy homes. These chimneys were called “Sherman’s sentinels.” As he said, “War is hell.” It is hell when conducted on the devil’s plan instead of the principles of civilized warfare. For all time to come the march of Sherman and the burning of the Shenandoah Valley by Sheridan will cause the American patriot, North and South, to hang his head in shame.
The women and children in the burned district were, in many localities, reduced almost to starvation. There is a lady living now near Blakely, Ga., who, as a little girl fourteen years old, walked fifteen miles to bring a half bushel of meal for her mother’s family. Some of the old men were murdered. The body of old Mr. Brewer, of Effingham county, father of Judge Harlan Brewer of Waycross, was never seen by his family after he was made prisoner. The charred remains of a man were found in a burned mill not far away. Sherman was the right man in the right place. He had lived in the South as a teacher and knew her people; and knew that in fair and honorable warfare the South never could be subdued. He knew, too, the devotion of Southern men to 154 home and family, and he knew that the quickest way to thin the lines of Lee and Johnston was to fire the homes and beggar the families of the Confederate soldiers. As soon as I saw the lines of his fire I said confidentially to my captain, “Our men in Virginia can’t stand this. Sherman has whipped us with fire. He drives the women and children out of Atlanta and then burns the country ahead of them. Our cause is lost.” And it was.
“But the whole world was against us;
We fought our fight alone;
To the Conquerors Want and Famine,
We laid our standard down.”