[
57]
II.
plantation life (January 1-April 3, 1865）
explanatory note.-During the period embraced in this chapter the great black tide of destruction that had swept over
Georgia turned its course northward from
Savannah to break a few weeks later (Feb. 17) in a cataract of blood and fire on the city of
Columbia.
At the same time the great tragedy of
Andersonville was going on under our eyes; and farther off, in Old Virginia,
Lee and his immortals were struggling in the toils of the net that was drawing them on to the tragedy of
Appomattox.
To put forward a trivial narrative of everyday life at a time when mighty events like these were taking place would seem little less than an impertinence, did we not know that it is the ripple mark left on the sand that shows where the tide came in, and the simple undergrowth of the forest gives a character to the landscape without which the most carefully-drawn picture would be incomplete.
On the other hand, the mighty drama that was being enacted around us reflected itself in the minutest details of life, even our sports and amusements being colored by it, as the record of the diary will show.
The present chapter opens with allusions to an expedition sent out by
Sherman from
Savannah under
Gen. Kilpatrick, having for its object the destruction of the Stockade
