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inadequate to feed his army and the people of Savannah, and General Foster assures me that he has his force on that very road, near the head of Broad River, so that cars no longer run between Charleston and Savannah.’
And yet, with this letter spread at length on the pages of his book,
General Sherman goes on to say, following the last quotation preceding this letter to
Grant:
‘On examining my maps, I thought that the division of John P. Hatch, belonging to General Foster's command, might be moved from its then position at Broad River, by water, down to Bluffton, from which it could reach this plank road, fortify, and hold it-at some risk, of course, because Hardee could avail himself of his central position to fall on this detachment with his whole army.’
That is to say, while writing to
General Grant, after receiving
Hardee's letter and before any further word from
Foster, that the latter held this plank road, he thought, by looking at his maps, that one of
Foster's divisions might be moved down to a point from which it could reach this road; but there would be risk, since
Hardee with fifteeen thousand men could leave
Savannah in the face of
Sherman's sixty thousand men, cross the river on pontoons, march ten miles inland over this one road leading through swamps or overflowed rice lands, and ‘fall on this detachment with his whole army.’
General Sherman then continues (page 216, Vol.
II):
* * * * ‘So, taking one or two of my personal staff, I rode back to King's Bridge, leaving with Generals Howard and Slocum orders to make all possible preparations, but not to attack, during my two or three days absence; and there I took a boat for Warsaw Sound, whence Admiral Dahlgren conveyed me in his own boat (the Harvest Moon) to Hilton Head, where I represented the matter to General Foster, and he promptly agreed to give his personal attention to it. During the night of the 20th we started back, the wind blowing strong.
Admiral Dahlgren ordered the pilot of the Harvest Moon to run into Tybee, and to work his way through to Warsaw Sound and the Ogeechee River by the Romney marshes.
We were caught by a low tide and stuck in the mud. After laboring some time, the Admiral ordered out his barge.
In it we pulled through this intricate and shallow channel, and toward evening of December 21 we discovered coming toward us a tug, called the Red Legs, belonging to the quartermaster's department, ’
