CHAPTER XXII.
The March beyond the River—The Exciting Discovery by the Enemy—General Sherman’s Strategy—On to Savannah—The Rebel—Surprise—The Army approach the City—A bold Movement—The Scouts—The Signals—Fort McAllister stormed—Savannah invested.
ENERAL HOWARD’S column moved down the east side of the Oconee River, reaching Sandersville November 26, burning the depot and tearing up the railroad near that place. General Slocum’s battalions of the right wing marched northward toward Sparta, the cavalry scouring the country, getting all the forage they needed, horses and mules, and making havoc with the railroads, mills, and gin-houses. These horsemen galloped about as if quite at home; more like troops at a “general muster” than warriors at work, excepting the signals of ruin they left behind.
At this very time, November 25, the secessionists lurking among us at the North, matured a plot for burning the city of New York, by firing the principal hotels. Combustibles were placed in rooms which had been mysteriously engaged, the match applied, and then the doors locked. But while a dozen hotels or more were thus set on fire, a watchful Providence led to timely discovery. Indeed, he confused the conspirators, so that the plot was poorly executed; the very effort to conceal and give time for the flames to spread, by leaving the apartments closed, excluding the currents of air, defeated the fiendish design.
December 1st, the Fourteenth Corps threatened Augusta: “The rebels became greatly frightened. Up to that time many of them were consoled with the idea that, after all, Sherman was only on a great raid into the heart of the State, or would yet turn and move westward upon Columbus, Montgomery, and Mobile. But such hopes were dispelled when his cavalry were discovered in Washington and Hancock counties. At Augusta preparations for defence went on vigorously. Bragg was summoned from Wilmington, and came, the Augusta papers said, with ten thousand men. Troops came from Charleston, Hampton’s cavalry came from Virginia, and the entire population of the city was put under arms, and all the slaves in the surrounding country were impressed to work upon the fortifications. Then began, also, a vigorous system of rebel brag. Wheeler was put to his trumps, and required to whip Kilpatrick three times a day, and to invariably close the report of his victory with the announcement, ‘after this glorious success we fell back!’ All this Wheeler most valiantly did; but on one occasion, in a fight near Gibson, the county seat of Glascock County, being required to bring in Kilpatrick’s head as a trophy, he humbly apologized with his hat, observing, that in his haste to fall back, he had left Kilpatrick’s head on its shoulders.
“Until it was fully ascertained that Sherman had reached Millen, the rebels believed that he was passing down between the Ogeechee and Oconee Rivers, aiming to reach the coast at Darien or Brunswick. Very adroit strategy was necessary at this juncture to conceal the real direction of the march, for had the rebels known in time that Augusta was certainly to be avoided, the entire force there could have been sent down to Millen, and thus thrown in Sherman’s front, and resisted or delayed his march upon Savannah, and in the end would have proved a formidable addition to the garrison of that place. Kilpatrick, therefore, pressed Wheeler more vigorously than ever, and the latter fell back toward Augusta, which put him out of Sherman’s way most effectually, again leaving him in the rear of the very army whose advance he was endeavoring to resist. It was during these cavalry operations that the fight took place at Waynesboro’, December 3d, where Wheeler attacked Kilpatrick, and reported that he had ‘doubled him up on the main body.’ But Kilpatrick wouldn’t stay ‘doubled up.’ On the next day Wheeler was compelled to make his usual report that he had ‘signally repulsed Kilpatrick’ but was ‘obliged to fall back,’ the result of which was that he was driven back through Waynesboro’ and beyond Brier Creek, the railway bridge over which was destroyed, within twenty miles of Augusta, which was the nearest approach of our forces to that city. Kilpatrick then took up a position to guard Sherman’s rear, and while doing so, his force loaded their wagons with the forage and provisions of Burke County, for use in the less fertile counties in the region of the coast.”
If you have consulted the map, you have noticed four principal rivers on the line of march; the Ocmulgee, the most westerly, on whose banks is Macon; the Oconee, on which is situated Milledgeville; the Ogeechee, that passes Millen, and the Savannah. Augusta is on the latter. Besides these there were several small streams, and great swamps across the war-path of General Sherman. He called the country between Sparta and Warrenton “one universal bog.”
The 4th of December found the great army “swinging slowly round from its eastern course,” taking Millen as the pivot, and striking in six columns, along roads running in the same direction, between the Ogeechee and Savannah Rivers, for the city of Savannah. General Sherman at his leisure had secured forage in the rich counties of Washington, Burke, Glascock, Warren, and Hancock, to prepare for a formidable resistance at Savannah, which might delay the communication with Port Royal for supplies. The rebels said he stopped to “grind corn;” but, while this was unnecessary, because the horses could manage the ears, and the troops had better fare, he was grinding their hopes of disaster to him and of escape, to powder. They had sent forces from Charleston and Wilmington to Augusta and vicinity, sure of meeting him there, when lo! he was hurrying, like an avalanche, upon the more important city by the sea. Their feelings, when the bitter truth came fairly home to their comprehension, were announced in an Augusta paper: “Sherman has not for a moment hesitated, in our humble judgment, as to the point to be attacked or the road to it. When his forage and provision trains are full he will mass his entire force; throwing his cavalry to the rear, with his wagon-train between the two wings of his army, he will move in compact columns, steadily but cautiously, upon the city of Savannah, with no fear of an attack on either flank. The Ogeechee and a few crossings and terrible swamps on his right, and the Savannah River and its equally swampy banks on his left, both flanks will be most securely covered—a grand desideratum in army movements. And thus situated, he has a march of something over eighty miles to the city of Savannah.” When the Augusta people heard that their city was no longer threatened, they drew a long breath and congratulated themselves. “The frowns and sadness with which the countenances of our citizens have been bedecked,” said the Sentinel, “have given way to smiles and mirth.” That is, “smiles and mirth” because their neighbors in Savannah were to be the recipients of Sherman’s favors, and not they.
Generals Davis and Kilpatrick had hitherto concealed and guarded the army movements. The Fifteenth Corps, on the right bank of the river, instead of the left wing, now menaced the enemy’s rear. These flank manœuvres of the dashing Kilpatrick, joined to General Howard as he had been to General Davis, were indispensable; for our battalions could not clear the State of rebel troops, and must, therefore, avoid the delays which would attend the opposition of a much smaller force at the river-crossings, or any other spot where the difficulties of advance favored the enemy.
The army found the once magnificent cotton fields some of them having a thousand acres covered with corn, according to the order of Jeff Davis, while the fleecy crops of former harvests had been sent to a safer distance from the suspected course of General Sherman’s columns. At Ogeechee Church, on the river bearing that name, and the narrowest part of the peninsula between the streams, the army concentrated on the 5th and 6th of December. Meanwhile General Kilpatrick, when dashing toward Alexandria to burn the bridge over Brier Creek, encountered General Wheeler at Waynesboro’. The sabres gleam in the sunlight, and the bullets fly on their fatal mission, resulting at each conflict in the flight of the rebel general. The seventy-nine miles from Millen to Savannah steadily diminished, the splendid and triumphant army getting by the 8th within less than a score of miles from the goal of their martial and patriotic ambition.
The heroic General Howard, at this crisis of affairs, executed a bold and brilliant movement. The rebels, to hold the Gulf Railroad, which they were using in earnest, had pushed across the Ogeechee. General Corse, of “Allatoona memory,” who, before they were aware of it, was between the Little and Great Ogeechee, thirteen miles in advance of the main army, reached and bridged the canal connecting the river with Savannah, then crossing it, intrenched himself securely, almost in sight of the city. And now the approach was hotly disputed, and brave men fell in the ranks of General Blair’s columns. But some were killed by the most cowardly and shameful conduct of the enemy. Shells and torpedoes had been buried in the way of the march, and the tread of the heroes exploding them, a number were prostrated in a sudden and horrible death. The precaution then taken was a just though severe one. Prisoners of war were ordered forward to remove the murderous and unseen means of destruction. The prisoners were sent in advance as ordered. Crawling, begging, praying, as their trembling fingers descended to dig away the earth about the death-traps which they had, perhaps, helped to set, they were a piteous spectacle. Soon the path was cleared for the onward steps of the Union boys. General Howard’s next daring deed was to communicate immediately with our fleet below Fort McAllister, held by a strong garrison of the enemy. Here, on the gunboat Dandelion, Admiral Dahlgren was anxiously waiting for tidings from the great army somewhere between Atlanta and the sea.
On the evening of December 9th General Howard sent three of his trustiest scouts, Captain Duncan, and Sergeants Myron J. Emmick and George W. Quinly, in a small boat down the river. What a moment of thrilling interest to both the General and the brave daring fellows floating over the waters in that frail bark, right toward bristling McAllister! All was silent—the speck glided under the cover of darkness safely by, and hastened toward the Dandelion. Up went a white signal flag, and another from the little boat answered it. The scouts were soon on board the gunboat. Captain Duncan brought the following despatch from General Howard:
“Headquarters Army of the Tennessee, }
Near Savannah Canal, Dec. 9, 1864. }
“To the Commander of the United States Naval Forces in the vicinity of Savannah:
“Sir: We have met with perfect success thus far. The troops are in fine spirits and near by.
“Respectfully, O. O. Howard, Major-General,
Commanding Right Wing of the Army.”
This was the first intelligence direct from the army, and “completely dispelled all doubts and fears, as well as dissipated an immense amount of rebel bombast and boasting of the impediments and difficulties with which Sherman had met, to say nothing of the repeated total annihilation of Kilpatrick’s cavalry, which seems not to have been worthy of mention by General Howard or General Sherman. Wheeler, who at last accounts was ‘hacking away at Sherman’s rear,’ must have had a very dull sabre.”
The gallant Hazen was preparing, with his western boys, to storm Fort McAllister, according to General Sherman’s orders. On the Ogeechee, opposite the fort, stood the rice mill of Dr. Cheroe, from whose roof the view of the fortress was distinct. There you might have seen Generals Sherman and Howard, with staff and signal officers about them. He was waiting for General Hazen’s signals, and gazing away toward the sea for some sign of the fleet’s presence there. Suddenly a smile lights up the bronzed face of the eagle-eyed leader of the Union legions, and he exclaims:
“ ‘Look! Howard; there is the gunboat!’
“Time passed on, and the vessel now became visible, yet no signal from the fleet or Hazen. Half an hour passed, and the guns of the fort opened simultaneously with puffs of smoke that rose a few hundred yards from the fort, showing that Hazen’s skirmishers had opened. A moment after Hazen signalled:
“ ‘I have invested the fort, and will assault immediately.’ At this moment Bickley announces ‘A signal from the gunboat.’ All eyes are turned from the fort to the gunboat that is coming to our assistance with news from home. A few messages pass, which inform us that Foster and Dahlgren are within speaking distance. The gunboat now halts and asks—
“ ‘Can we run up? Is Fort McAllister ours?’
“ ‘No,’ is the reply, ‘Hazen is just ready to storm it. Can you assist?’
“ ‘Yes,’ is the reply. ‘What will you have us do?’
“But before Sherman can reply to Dahlgren the thunders of the fort are heard, and the low sound of small arms borne across three miles of marsh and river. Field glasses are opened, and sitting flat upon the roof the hero of Atlanta gazes away off to the fort. ‘There they go grandly; not a waver,’ he remarks.
“Twenty seconds pass, and again he exclaims:
“ ‘See that flag in the advance, Howard; how steadily it moves; not a man falters. * * There they go still; see the roll of musketry. Grand! grand!’
“Still he strained his eyes, and a moment after speaks without raising his eyes:
“ ‘That flag still goes forward; there is no flinching there.’
“A pause for a minute.
“ ‘Look!’ he exclaims, ‘it has halted. They waver; no! it’s the parapet! There they go again; now they scale it; some are over. Look! there’s a flag on the works! Another, another. It’s ours! The fort’s ours!’
“The glass dropped by his side; and in an instant the joy of the great leader at the possession of the river and the opening of the road to his new base burst forth in words:
“ ‘As the old darkie remarked, dis chile don’t sleep dis night!’ And turning to one of his aids, Captain Auderied, he remarked, ‘Have a boat for me at once; I must go there,’ pointing to the fort, from which half a dozen battle flags floated grandly in the sunset.
“And well might William Tecumseh Sherman rejoice; for here, as the setting sun went down upon Fort McAllister reduced, and kissed a fond good night to the Starry Banner, Sherman witnessed the culmination of all his plans and marches, that had involved such desperate resistance and risk, the opening up of a new and shorter route to his base. Here at sunset, on the memorable 13th of December, the dark waters of the great Ogeechee bore witness to the fulfilment of the covenant Sherman made with his iron heroes at Atlanta twenty-nine days before, to lead them victorious to a new base.
“Sherman’s account of his movement on Fort McAllister was characteristic. Said he, ‘I went down with Howard and took a look at it, and I said to my boys, “Boys, I don’t think there are over four hundred in that fort; but there it is, and I think we might as well have it.” ’ The word was scarcely spoken before the work was done. Fifteen minutes were all that was required.”
The object of this fortress was the protection of the coast from our war vessels. It was surrounded by obstructions made of rows of piles, through which was a small opening for a ship’s entrance.
General Sherman sent word to the fleet “that he would be down that night, and to look out for his boat. The tug immediately steamed down to Ossabaw Sound, to find General Foster or Admiral Dahlgren; but they not being there, despatches were sent to them at Warsaw announcing General Sherman’s intended visit, and the tug returned to its old position. While approaching the fort again a small boat was seen coming down. It was hailed with—
“ ‘What boat is that?’ and the welcome response came back ‘Sherman.’ It soon came alongside, and out of the little dugout, paddled by two men, stepped General Sherman and General Howard, and stood on the deck of the Dandelion. The great leader was received with cheer after cheer, and with every manifestation of delight and satisfaction by all. He was in splendid spirits, and expressed his gratification at reaching his base. He remained on board till about two o’clock in the morning. While on the boat he wrote his despatches to General Grant, General Halleck, General Foster, and Admiral Dahlgren.
“On the following day he came on board the Nemaha, and was received by General Foster. The Nemaha then proceeded to Warsaw Sound, when Admiral Dahlgren, accompanied by his staff, came on board and spent some time in conversation with the General. Colonel A. H. Markland, superintendent of mails for the armies, came on board with despatches for General Sherman, and delivered a verbal message from the President. Taking the General by the hand, the Colonel said:
“ ‘General Sherman, before leaving Washington I was directed by the President to take you by the hand, wherever I met you, and say for him, ‘God bless you and the army under your command;’ and he furthermore added, ‘Since cutting loose from Atlanta, my prayers, and those of the nation, have been for your success.’
“General Sherman seemed to be deeply affected, and after a moment’s silence could only say, ‘I thank the President. Say my army is all right.’ ”
Meanwhile Admiral Dahlgren sent a despatch to the Government, in which he said of the army’s success and the brave scouts:
“Captain Duncan states that our forces were in contact with the rebels a few miles outside of Savannah, and that Sherman’s army are not in want of any thing. Perhaps no event could give greater satisfaction to the country than that which I announced, and I beg leave to congratulate the United States Government on its occurrence. It may, perhaps, be exceeding my province, but I cannot refrain from expressing the hope that the department will commend Captain Duncan and his companions to the Hon. Secretary of War for some marks of approbation, for the success in establishing communications between General Sherman and the fleet. It was an enterprise that required both skill and courage.”
This was followed by a message from General Sherman:
“On Board ‘Dandelion,’ }
Ossabaw Sound, 11.50 p. m., Dec. 13. }
“To-day, at 5 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 the Ossabaw Sound, and I pulled 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 is on the Savannah River, three miles above the city, and the right is on the Ogeechee River, at King’s Bridge. The army is in splendid order and equal to any thing. The weather has been fine and supplies abundant. Our march was most agreeable, and we were not at all molested by guerillas. We reached Savannah three days ago, but owing to Fort McAllister we could not communicate; now we have McAllister, we go ahead.
“We have already captured two boats on the Savannah River, and have 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 in a large supply of mules, negroes, 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 railroad, and consumed stores and provisions that were essential to Lee’s and Hood’s armies.
“The quick work made with Fort McAllister, and the opening of communication with our fleet and consequent independence for supplies, dissipate all their boasted threats to head me off and starve the army. I regard Savannah as already gained. Yours truly,
“W. T. Sherman, Major-General.”
The fall of the fortress opened, as we have seen, the Ogeechee River to Ossabaw Sound at its mouth, into which our vessels sailed; it also gave General Sherman the opportunity of establishing a “water-base” anywhere on that stream between his army and the sea, just back of Savannah. It did more; the Savannah and the Albany and Gulf Railroads communicating with the southern part of the State, were taken from the enemy, cutting off large supplies. The next move was to stretch the army across the peninsula between the rivers, the left resting on the Savannah, three miles above the city, and the extreme right on the Ogeechee at King’s Bridge. All the railways were in our possession, the rebel gunboats which had gone up the Ogeechee to prevent General Sherman from crossing into South Carolina were shut in, and the commander-in-chief prepared to seize the beautiful town. Savannah, the largest city of Georgia, was founded by General Oglethorpe in 1731−’32.
The ocean side of the town was well guarded with fortifications—those grim and silent watchmen when unmolested, whose voice is thunder, and their words massive globes of iron, frowned along the river-banks. Forts Jackson and Pulaski were formidable defences; so much so that even the engineer, Beauregard, did not dream of an approach in the rear of the invested city. General Hardee commanded the forces keeping it.
The forces of General Sherman were so posted, that Hardee had to divide and weaken his force to be ready for any attack, while the rice-fields were flooded from the canals, and every advantage taken by the enemy to ward off the impending blow. This is the general view of the situation, December 13th, 1864. Such was the derided retreat of General Sherman, after General Hood swept backward from burning Atlanta into Tennessee! I need not record here what the noble Thomas, with tried veterans, did with the rebel general at Nashville, sending his battalions “whirling” toward his invaded Secessia, just as the comprehensive genius of the pursuer had planned, and confidently expected he would. For, the glory of this marvellous campaign, under God, belongs to that sagacious, resolute, and modest chieftain.