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Battle of Ocean pond.
The operations against
Charleston having been virtually abandoned, it was decided at
Washington to use the surplus troops in an attempt upon
Florida.
A command of six or seven thousand men, including two regiments of negroes, was organized under
Gen. Seymour, left Charleston Harbour in eighteen transports, and in the month of February ascended the
St. Mary's River.
The enemy was allowed to land, as the small Confederate force under
Gen. Finnegan was unequal for anything like a battle, and was awaiting reinforcements despatched by
Gen. Beauregard, in whose military department the
State of Florida was included.
Colquitt's brigade arrived in time to unite with
Finnegan and hold the position at Oulustre not far from
Ocean Pond, an inland lake, where it was proposed to cover the capital of the
State and defend the road from
Lake City to
Tallahassee.
The joint Confederate force did not number more than five thousand men.
On the 20th February, this little force was advanced several miles to meet the enemy.
A severe battle opened in the afternoon; for two hours the enemy was steadily pushed back; until at last about sunset, a simultaneous attack of the Twenty-Seventh and Sixth Georgia Regiments on the enemy's centre and flank broke his whole line into confusion.
Five pieces of artillery were taken, two thousand small arms, and five hundred prisoners. The enemy left upon the field three hundred and fifty dead, and abandoned all of his severely wounded.
The action was decisive, as it resulted in the expulsion of the enemy from
Florida, and the preservation of this State to the
Confederacy.
Sherman's expedition in the Southwest.
Another notable event about this time was
Sherman's expedition into
Central Mississippi, in which, with an army of about thirty thousand men, he proposed to sever his communications behind him, and to strike off into the heart of the country.
It was his first experiment of “the movable column,” but unlike that in the later months of 1864, it had opposing military forces to encounter, and came to the most wretched grief.
The conceit of the
Federal commander was to operate upon what was called a “strategic triangle” --to move from
Vicksburg to
Mobile, by the way of
Selma; a heavy column of cavalry to start from
Memphis, move rapidly across
Mississippi and
Alabama, come upon the flank of
Gen. Polk's army, and harass his retreat while
Sherman rushed upon him in front; and thus by the possession of
Mobile and
Selma to obtain two important water-bases — the one on the
Mississippi at
Vicksburg, the other at
