The story of the Great March, from the diary of a staff officer

Preface

My service as aid-de-camp on the staff of Major General Sherman began with the fall of Atlanta. The remarkable features and events of the campaigns of Georgia and the Carolinas, visible to me during the whole of the Grand March, were noted daily in my journal. From that diary this Story of the March is compiled.

Sherman's army rests upon the laurels it has bravely won. Its heroes are now in other fields of duty, and a grateful Nation thanks them for their gallant deeds. I have told their story simply, and, I hope, honestly.

G.W. K

The End 317

Going Home 322

Appendix

I. General Sherman's Report of the Georgia Campaign 323

II. Report of the Campaign of the Carolinas 336

III. General Sherman's Testimony before the Committee on the

War 350

IV. General Sherman's Report of Operations in North Carolina, and

Surrender of Johnston's Army , 354

V. Testimony before the Committee on the War — Continued.... 367 VI. Major General Barry's Report of the Campaign of the Carolinas 382

VII. Report of Engineer's Department • 385

VIII. Extracts from Colonel Poe's Report of Operations in the Campaign

of the Carolinas 386

IX. Quartermaster Reports 388

X. Commissary Stores furnished the Army 392

XI. Staff of General Sherman 394

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

The Story of the March, with the Badge of General Sherman's Headquarters, which is a combination of the Six Corps serving in the Atlanta and subsequent Campaigns. The Arrow is the Badge of the 17th Corps; the Triangle, of the 4th ; the Shield, of the 23d; the Star, of the 20th ; the Cartridge-box, of the 15th ; the Acorn, of the 14th

Corps Title-page.

Sherman and his Generals Frontispiece.

Allatoona Pass Page 31

Atlanta in Kuins 39

Sports of the Army (Vignette) 77

Eice-mill on the Ogeechee 88

Fort McAllister 93

Treasure Seekers 113

Destruction of Columbia 168

Corduroying at Lynch's Creek 190

Army Mule 205

Refugee Train 211

Headquarters Camp of General Sherman 219

The Heroes that are not Gazetted = 231

A "Bummer" 245

Battle of Bentonville .... 270

The Conference between General Sherman and General Johnston.... 313

The Graves of our dead Comrades 321

The End 322

THE

STORY OF THE GREAT MARCH.

Chapter I. The Opening Campaign

It was a proud day for the soldiers of Sherman's army when they encamped in and around the city of Atlanta. Their previous campaign had extended through the hot summer months, and after their protracted manoeuvring, marching, and fighting, they were glad enough to rest on the glorious triumphs they had so long anticipated and so nobly won.

In future years the thoughtful traveler in our Southern States may seek to trace the pathway of what is known as the "Atlanta Campaign;" and in surveying the field of operations, which extends from Chattanooga to Atlanta, must feel and acknowledge the military skill and tenacity which, step by step, contested the advance of a conquering foe, fought many a bloody battle, but ever retired in good order, never in demoralized flight. And if he be a friend of the restored Republic, his heart will thrill with admiration and pride for the gallant heroes who pushed forward day by day, bearing grandly at the head of their resistless columns ihe Stars and Stripes, until over hill and plain, and emerging firm amid the smoke of victorious battles, the national standard waved in triumph over the Gate City itself— over the long-vaunted " impregnable" Atlanta.

Emerging from the mountain district of Tennessee, where Chattanooga lies cosily sheltered in a valley by the river-side, the explorer who visits this region in peaceful times will descend among the lesser hills of Upper Georgia. On each side of his way, and still more frequently directly across it, he will see and meet long lines of fortifications. The soil which formerly was devoted to the peaceful labors of the agriculturist has leaped up, as it were, into frowning parapets, supported and surmounted by logs, and guarded in front by tangled abattis, palisades, and chevaux defrise. By some river's bank he will find evidences of defense still more carefully constructed. Forts and redoubts will be reflected in quiet, rippling streams ; tetes du pont still remain to guard the approaches to the water; and, as he passes on, the upturmngs of the earth will become more and more frequent, till it would seem as if some giant plowshare had passed through the land, marring with gigantic and unsightly furrows the rolling plains, laying waste the fields and gardens, and, passing on to the abodes of men, upturning their very hearths, and razing even towns and cities. The hills of Allatoona frown upon him, with their forts and curtains peering above the rocky elevations. Before him rises the solemn Kenesaw, with its grandeur of " everlasting hill" intensified by the mute records of human warfare — with its impregnable front furrowed and crowned with the marks of war.

To General Sherman and the Army of the Union, the Atlanta Campaign, speaking in military technology, was " offensive." To Johnston and the Rebels it was " defensiveoffensive." With both, it was a magnificent exhibition of 4he grand tactics of the art of war.

In the great strategic combinations which had ah-eady taken shape in the far-seeing mind of General Sherman, this campaign was but an incident in the scheme. To Johnston, driven to the defensive, the series of operations embraced in his retreat from Chattanooga to Atlanta were tactical, and not strategical. It may be said, then, that in itself the Atlanta Campaign belongs to the art of Grand . Tactics. It is essential to make this definition clear at the outset, because the subsequent operations of Sherman, including the pursuit of Hood's army and the campaigns of Georgia and the Carolinas, belong to the higher art in the conduct of war — that of Grand Strategy.

The months of August and September, 1864, passed in quiet, while the army rested at Atlanta, varied only by drills, dress parades, reviews, and the usual phases of camp life and duties. With the exception of temporary interruptions, the line of communication with Chattanooga was sustained, and the military world was astonished by some of the most remarkable quartermaster and commissariat feats ever known in the history of war. Here was a vast and hungry army of more than seventy thousand men, supplied not only for their daily wants, but with a surplus sufficient to provide rich and valuable stores of provisions at secondary bases. These supplies were forwarded over a line of railroad passing for four hundred miles through an enemy's country. This prodigious efibrt, which military men will appreciate better than others, will be a proud record for those to whom its inception and success are due — General Meigs, General Easton, Colonel Beckwith, and the various officers engaged under their command. The importance of the prudent foresight of General Sherman in establishing these secondary bases will be better understood at a later period of this narrative.

While affairs were thus satisfactory, and even enjoyable, in the Union lines, and the Federal soldiers, far away from their starting-point, and in the centre of a hostile country, were provided with every necessity of life and many luxuries, discouragement and discontent prevailed in the Rebel camp and councils. With singular fatuity, the Rebel leader who had usurped the title of President displaced General Johnston, who had the confidence of the Southern army and the people, appointing to his command a headstrong and impetuous ofiicer, who was at once obnoxious and imprudent. With equally inexplicable willfulness, Jefferson Davis continued his support of Hood even when fully informed of the distrust with which he was viewed. Moreover, Davis made a personal visit to Georgia, and at Savannah, Macon, and Augusta made foolish speeches, in which he prayed a little, threatened much, and promised more.

Taking up the order of events in the grand campaigns, I shall draw liberally upon the notes entered in my diary. These memoranda were written during the midday rest of the army, on fences and stumps by the wayside, by the light of the camp-fires in the night bivouac, in cities or towns at which we halted, wherever or whenever a moment's release from pressing official duties afforded leisure to jot down the fleeting impressions of our long and wonderful march.

Atlanta^ September \Uh. To-day our master of transportation sent the following dispatch to Colonel Warner, of General Sherman's staff, in reply to an inquiry :

"We have made the arrangements to send a train to Rough and Ready to-morrow at 11 o'clock, which will transport several hundred of the citizens going south, but we will send you down on a locomotive at once if it is your order."

A flag of truce was pending between the opposing armies, and Colonel Warner was in charge of it on our side. An important question relative to the exchange of prisoners needed to be settled at once; so the order was given, and a few moments saw us mounted upon the engine, and rattling away over the shaky road which runs from Atlanta on the way to Macon. Our engineer was a young man, who pleasantly informed me that it was not the best policy to jump from the engine in the event of an upset. "Always stick to the machine," he said: "I have been overturned three times in the course of my experience, and never was injured beyond a light scratch on the nose. Always stick to the machine." With all respect to your opinion, I thought to myself, I shall jump at the first indications of danger ; and I proceeded to impress upon the mind of Colonel Warner the fact of the superior management of railroads in England and on the Continent, where the engine-drivers are held to a strict accountability. Meanwhile our engineer, with a fixed, earnest gaze out of the side window, was holding firmly with one hand the handle of the throttle-valve, and with the other the "shut-ofi"." I was busily engaged in digging the cinders out of my eyes, when we turned a sharp curve in the woods, and beheld a man by the embankment frantically waving a red flag, while a party of men not ten rods distant, who had just taken up a rail from the track, were waving their hats and shouting for us to stop. Our engine-driver — ^keen-eyed, alert, and clear-headed — at once saw the danger, reversed the machinery, put the tender-brake in operation, and the huge monster in an instant was quiet as a sleeping child. "A close rub, sir!" said my friend the engineer. " Six feet more, and we should have pitched into the ravine there ; that flag should have been a quarter of a mile farther back." In justice to myself, I should say that I " stuck to the machine," and in justice to our engineer, it should be added that no farther remark was made upon that trip derogatory to American railroad management.

Twenty minutes of travel carried us over the ten miles which intervened between Atlanta and the neutral ground, where the banished citizens are handed over to the Rebel officers, and the exchange of prisoners takes place. Rough and Ready as completely answers to the first part of its name as one could imagine, and perhaps to the latter half; for it appears to have been getting ready to be a town since its foundation, and is likely to remain in that condition for an indefinite length of time. Two miserable shanties, the respective quarters of the Federal and Rebel guards, separated for a distance of about two hundred yards, constitute the burgh of Rough and Ready.

Dismounting from our engine, we approached the hut nearest the Confederate lines. It was a characteristic specimen of the habitations of the poor class of whites at the South. A few refuse boards fastened upon an irregular frame ; a disjointed window in a shattered sill ; a battered door swinging upon a single hinge, formed its striking features; while several swords and pistols, hanging upon the side of the house, indicated the presence of soldiers. The single room was half filled with smoke, puffing lazily from a fireplace around which were scattered sundry dilapidated pots and pans ; but we had little time, and it was not our business to take an inventory of the goods and chattels in the establishment. A pale, sickly woman, seated in the rickety porch, answered our question as to the whereabouts of Major Clare, a staff officer of General Hood, who represents the Rebel party in the truce.

^' He's h'yar somewhar ; round the corner of the yard, I reckon. Say, Betsy ! whar's Major Clare ?"

We made the circuit of the corner and found the major; a handsome, polite gentleman, by the way, who was seated near some ladies, in the midst of a collection of baskets and household goods. We were presented to the ladies, when the two officers stepped aside for the discussion of the business which brought them together, leaving me to attempt the somewhat difficult task of entertaining persons who had evidently just been ejected from their homes in Atlanta.

Of course the conversation turned upon the war and the order of removal issued by General Sherman. The youngest, a lady of refinement, remarked :

" It is very hard to be obliged to leave our home. We have no"t felt the war before, except in the cost of the luxuries of Hfe. We did not believe your army would ever penetrate so far south; but I suppose our removal is one of the necessities of the situation, and we would much rather give up our homes than live near the Yankees. We will get far enough away this time."

A sentiment of commiseration filled my heart, and I ventured the remark :

" May I ask where you intend to go ?"

" To Augusta, where your army can't come," was the reply-

" I would not be sure of that," I replied. " It is a long way from Nashville to Atlanta, and we are here."

" Oh yes," she rejoined, with ineflfable scorn ; " you will '•flanJc' us, I suppose ?"

" Possibly, madam."

" Look here, sir ; there are not two nations on the face of this earth whose language, customs, and histories are different, and who are geographically separated as widely as the poles, but what are nearer to each other than the North and South. There are no two peoples in the world who hate each other more."

" I hardly think there is the difference you describe," I answered. "It seems to me just as if you and I were Americans, with no vital points of difference between us which may not be settled some day. And then I protest against the idea that we 'hate you.' I understand public feeling at the North pretty well, and such a feeling does not exist there generally."

"Well, sir, we hate you ; we will never live with you again. If you whip ns, and any of these mean politicians in the South (and there are thousands of them who will be only too glad to do it) offer terms of reconstruction, we will throw ourselves into the arms of France, which only waits the chance to embrace us.''

" Reconstruction will undoubtedly come about in time," I said ; " but we shall not permit France or any other foreign power to interfere. France would embrace you without doubt, if she gets a chance ; but it will be the hug of an anaconda that will swallow you whole, without mastication."

"Any thing rather than become subject to the North. We will not submit to that degradation."

" If you are defeated you will ; and then you will have thoroughly learned what your people have never, before the war, in the slightest degree understood — how to respect us. I assure you friendship follows very close upon the heel of mutual respect."

" There is much truth in that, sir, and we are willing to confess that we never even believed the North would fight ; and while there is a certain feeling of respect which has been forced upon us, we hate you all the more now, because we despised you before."

During this conversation, which I have written out because it is a fair picture of the opinions of the Georgians, frequently expressed to me, a long train of wagons and ambulances from Atlanta, provided by General Sherman, had driven into the space between the outposts, and deposited their freight of women and children, with their household furniture. These people seemed to be almost entirely of the lower class. The wealthier citizens removed from Atlanta when the firing began ; those only remaining who were willing to take the risk of shot and shell, and the possibility of Federal occupation.

The dust from our wagons had hardly subsided when the sharp crack of the whip and the loud cries of train-master and mule-drivers announced the arrival of the Rebel convoy to remove the people whom General Sherman had refused to permit Hood to throw npon him as a burden. Bidding adieu to the ladies, and with a kindly grasp of the hand from Major Clare, we departed from Rough and Ready. For several miles from Atlanta our course lay through the encampment of troops comprising the armies of the Tennessee and Cumberland. To the right and left stretched long lines of splendidly-constructed rifle-pits ; here and there, upon commanding points, heavily bastioned forts overlooked the country. The afternoon was slowly waning into evening. Groups of soldiers were scattered in the openings of the forests — some engaged in preparing supper, others watching the play of their fellows, and all enjoying a much-needed rest from the toils of a long and arduous campaign.

Atlanta^ September 21th. The armed foot has pressed heavily upon this people, and they feel the unrelenting iron hand of Sherman grasping and holding their very life ; and I am sure that, with a vivid consciousness of the terrors of the past, and a dread foreboding of the future, they are ready for peace on almost any terms. Neither the newspapers nor the leaders say this, but there are strong indications in that direction. One of their newspapers proceeds deliberately to discuss the propriety of Governor Brown's acceptance of Sherman's invitation to come to Atlanta. A current report of such an invitation having been extended has thus much of truth — that while a prominent citizen of Georgia was dining with General Sherman one day, the former remarked, " I wish, general, that Governor Brown could see and talk with you." " Let him come," replied the general ; " I have no objection to his coming within my lines. He shall pass safely in and out ; there are valuable records here which he would no doubt like to get and preserve. Let him come ; I would like to see him." I presume the invitation was duly delivered to the governor, but it is a question if he is prepared just at this moment to accept it. Perhaps we shall have the pleasure of finding him at Macon or Augusta.

The military situation is unchanged here, so far as our army is concerned. The soldiers are resting and enjoying themselves thoroughly ; they glory in the past, and are as confident of the future as if it were their own. Their faith in Sherman is beyond all description. " He can't make a mistake," they say. " Wherever he puts us, we are going in, and we're just dead sure to whip the Rebs every time — swre." In view of the campaign from Chattanooga to the Chattahoochee, and after an inspection of the strong defenses of Atlanta, it is not surprising that our men have such faith in their leader. Had Atlanta been captured by direct approaches and attack, it would have taken months or years to reduce these fortifications, prepared with so much labor and skill. On the southern side of the city, heavy bastioned forts, mounting ponderous sixty-four-pounders, were erected upon the hills, which are separated some two and three hundred yards from each other; they are connected, however, by carefiflly-constructed curtains, with occasional redoubts mounting field artillery. In order to get full sweep for these terrible missiles, the country for several hundred rods was cleared of heavy timber.

Approaching these defenses, if the brave assaulting columns, in struggling through the tangled brushwood and fallen trees, had not been torn in pieces by the fire of a hundred guns covering every point of advance, they would have met, some twenty yards from the fortifications, a carefullyconstructed abattis, composed of the tops of small pine and cedar trees, placed one upon another, pointing outward ; a few yards farther in there was a stockade of five or six rows of stakes driven firmly into the ground, their sharpened points viciously inclined outward ; a few steps more, if able to break these or tear them from their places, our men would have found a chevaiix de frise, over which a very meagre man or a small boy might crawl, but not one of our well-fed soldiers, with a musket in his hand.

But we will suppose all this surmounted ; there is still a palisade of logs from eight to ten feet high, set firmly into the ground, pierced for musketry fire, with openings for the play of artillery. Now if, by some process — under the somewhat embarrassing circumstances a soldier at this point would probably find himself in — these pahsades could be scaled or torn down, the assailants have yet to descend into a ditch, and surmount the scarp and parapet of the work in the face of the concealed and enfilading fire of a vigilant foe. The lines of works which I have here attempted to describe are the principal, but by no means the only fortifications. Exterior to them there are lines of rifle-pits,

B

26 STOEY OF THE GEEAT MAECH.

with redoubts, surrounding the city, and interior lines of almost equal strength to the main line surrounding the whole. Meanwhile, under Sherman's orders, the removal of the citizens of Atlanta outside of our lines was continued. The order was kindly but firmly executed, and the inhabitants, unfortunate, it is true, in being thus in the track of war, were allowed to choose which way they would go. If they wished to go North, they were freely provided with transportation ; if they preferred to penetrate farther into rebeldom, they were conveyed in wagons, with their furniture and personal effects, to the lines of Hood's army at Rough and Ready Station. The Rebels howled forth threats and objurgations at what they termed a fiendish act of cruelty, but General Sherman little heeded their ravings. He had taken this step only after due premeditation. Atlanta was a captured city. He was at a great distance from his base of supplies, with a precarious line of communication, which was frequently interrupted by the Rebel guerrilla raids. It would have been an absurd incongruity daily to fill the mouths of the wives and children of men in arms against the government. The safety of his command was at stake ; 80 he sent these people away, and the sober judgment of the Christian world has since justified him in the act.

PURSUIT OF HOOD, ETC. 27

Chapter II. Puesuit Of Hood The Defense Of Allatoona

DuEiNG the rest at Atlanta the army was not idle. All the time preparations were making for the coming campaign. The leading generals of the army had already discussed their future plans, and the soldiers — to whom a stationary camp, even were it pitched in a paradise, would soon become tediously monotonous — were inquiring of each other what was next to come, and anxiously looking forward to a farther march. But, though the plans had assumed shape, certain events were waited for before a fresh start could be made.

It is said that a mysterious power of divination is the gift of genius ; that, if it can not lift the veil of futurity, it can at least see the shadows which coming events cast before them. What prophetic intuitions filled the mind of General Sherman as he paced the piazza of that house in Atlanta, utterly abstracted in thought, his head cast a little to one side, one hand buried in his side pocket, the other fitfully snapping the ashes from his cigar, are known only to himself; but certain it is that one bright morning we were awakened with orders to move. Hood had already crossed the* Chattahoochee, and was forty-eight hours in advance. His objective point was then a mooted question, nor has the military problem yet been fully answered : perhaps he did not know it himself. There can be little doubt, however, that the leading purpose of Hood's march was to draw Sherman away from Atlanta by a bold movement in our rear, threatening not only our line of communications, but our base of supplies. He thought that he could retort upon Sherman his own tactics, and force him, for want of supplies, to give up the bravely-won victories of the summer's campaign, and force us back upon Chattanooga.

Hood is said to be a rash man, with more zeal than prudence, and his vivid imagination may have pictured to him the advantages of retaliating upon Nashville the fate of Atlanta. He saw in his mind's eye the Tennessee capital, with its parlors and saloons brilliant with fashionable society, its vast stores of clothing, its millions of rations, its store of provision, its ammunition, cannon, and other trophies of war — in fact, every thing which he and his army could desire. And in the background of this picture were the green pastures of Kentucky, rich in cattle ; and, still farther in the dim and hazy distance, the steeples and domes which marked the populous and wealthy cities of Ohio, teeming with treasures, and defenseless before the wild incursion of the desperate Confederate invader. It was with these suddenlyinspired hopes, this scheme of invasion and retaliation not wholly impracticable, that Hood started off on the errand of his master, Jefferson Davis.

Meanwhile it should be stated that, from the initiatory steps of Hood's movements, Sherman was accurately informed of all his proceedings. In the first instance. General Thomas was sent back to Chattanooga and Nashville to reorganize various scattered detachments of troops, to be used as coming events might require. General Slocum, with the 20th Corps, was left in Atlanta, while the 4th, 23d, 14th, loth, and 17th Corps moved leisurely across the Chattahoochee up the line of railroad. Hood was known to be in the direction of Dallas, looking out for our approach.

All this time Sherman was watching, ready to take ad-

THE PUESUIT OF HOOD, ETC. 29

vantage of the slightest false movement of his enemy ; and knowing the danger of the latter, he " gave him rope," pushing his own column by the left well up to Kenesaw. It was on the morning of the 5th of October that he saw the head of column of his right centre pushing out toward Pine Knob, which stands intermediate between Kenesaw and Lost Mountain. Behind the latter Hood was supposed to be lying.

Upon this day was fought the battle of AUatoona. It was a contest of vast importance, though it has not been as prominently before the public as other battles of smaller consequence. The post which it secured was a vital link in our communications. Here were stored a million and a half of rations, and here was a pass of the AUatoona range of hills, through which ran our railroad and our line of communications. Here, at the head of only fifteen hundred men. General Corse fought, from early dawn till noon, a force of no less than six thousand Rebels. A hard, obstinate fight was this battle of AUatoona — where men contested their ground foot by foot — where our soldiers were driven by the desperate assaults of overwhelming numbers from intrenchments to the hill, and from the hill to the fort — where, with half their number killed and wounded, with their chief bleeding and at times insensible, they yet fought on, inspired by his indomitable courage, until the Rebels, repulsed with fearful loss, gave up the struggle and fled from the field, leaving their killed and wounded in the hands of the brave defenders.

Standing on the top of Kenesaw, General Sherman saw the white pufis of smoke which told of the contest raging at AUatoona. He felt confident of the result ; for, anticipating the possibility of this rash attempt of the Rebels, he had ordered Corse down from Rome to hold AUatoona until his columns could come up. He knew Corse to be quick of comprehension, determined in execution, and brave as the bravest.

The Hero of Allatoona Pass need have no nobler epitaph than the words of Sherman upon that morning of doubt and misgiving : " I know Corse ; so long as he lives, the Allatoona Pass is safe."

It may be truly said that Corse is the embodiment of the defense of Allatoona. His quick comprehension is only equaled by the celerity of execution which has distinguished him upon many a battle-field. He is brave almost to rashness, and with that quality combines indomitable energy and perseverance. Corse is one of a large number of officers in the Western Army of whom it is sometimes said, when the firing comes sharp and frequent from an indicated direction, " Oh, Corse is in there, is he ? He'll take care of that front, sure ; he will wake them np," etc.