Edward Alfred Pollard, The lost cause; a new Southern history of the War of the Confederates ... Drawn from official sources and approved by the most distinguished Confederate leaders.

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[611] within the limits of the Southern Confederacy. There were, indeed, many parts of the Confederacy which the difficulties of transportation had gorged with supplies, and none more so, perhaps, than that part of Georgia now traversed by Sherman's troops. There were pits of sweet potatoes, yards of poultry and hogs, and cellars of bacon and flour, offering abundance on every hand, and gratifying the soldiers with a change of diet. It is said “hard tack” was scarcely heard of in Sherman's army on its march through Georgia. The cattle trains soon became so large that it was difficult to drive them along; and they were turned nightly into the immense fields of ungathered corn to eat their fill, while the granaries were crowded to overflowing with both oats and corn.

Slocum continued to move out on the Augusta line, destroying the railroad as he advanced, until he reached Madison. This, a pretty town of two thousand inhabitants, was pillaged, the stores gutted, and the streets filled with furniture and household goods, broken and wrecked in mere wantonness. From Madison Slocum turned suddenly south towards Milledgeville, and on the 21st November entered the capital of Georgia. Meanwhile Howard, covered by a cloud of Kilpatrick's cavalry, had demonstrated on Macon, and crossing the Ocmulgee, had pressed on towards Milledgeville; Sherman's forces being thus rapidly concentrated at the capital of Georgia, after having threatened both Augusta and Macon, thus confounding the Confederates as to his intentions.

A part of Howard's command had been left at Griswoldsville, ten miles cast of Macon, for demonstrative purposes merely. It was attacked by a force of Confederate militia, which marched out from Macon, and were severely repulsed by the enemy's artillery. This affair, small as it was, was the most serious fight of Sherman's campaign from Atlanta to the sea.

Having sufficiently rested at Milledgeville, Sherman resumed his march eastward; while Kilpatrick's cavalry continued to operate towards Augusta, advancing as far as Waynesboroa, to create the impression of a heavy movement upon Augusta. There had been concentrated at this city some Confederate militia, two or three South Carolina regiments, and a portion of Hampton's command, sent there to remount. Even if the real movement of Sherman's army had been known, this force could not have interposed any serious obstacle to the advance of his main body, as long as his left wing was used as a strong arm thrust out in advance, ready to encounter any force which might attempt to bar the way. While Kilpatrick demonstrated savagely upon Augusta, Sherman marched rapidly on Millen, reaching it on the 2d December.

He had already penetrated and devastated the richest portion of Georgia, and was now on the line of the pine forests that sloped to the sea. For a hundred miles he had left behind him a wreck of railroads and a desolated country; he had consumed the fat of the land, and he had strewn