previous next
[692] sent from the left wing to his aid. The need of assistance, however, was now over. Kilpatrick now joined the left wing, and covered its flank when it again advanced.

Sherman, still with Blair, crossed1 the Ogeechee near Barton, advancing to Millen;2 Howard, with Wood's and Corse's divisions of the 15th corps, still moving south of the Ogeechee on the old dirt road to Savannah; while Hazen's and John E. Smith's divisions, keeping farther to the right, reached Statesboroa.3 Hazen had a skirmish here with a regiment of cavalry, which was easily driven; but the roadless swamps were vanquished with more difficulty. Wood threw4 over the Ogeechee, by a foot-bridge, Williamson's brigade, which moved down the left bank; while Corse crossed his division on pontoons at Jenks's bridge, some distance below; Rice's brigade, in advance, having a smart skirmish with a Rebel battalion which disputed the passage; losing 5 men and taking 17 prisoners. The right wing now moved down both banks of the river; Osterhaus crossing Cannouchee creek; while Blair encountered5 a Rebel force holding an intrenched line, with guns in position and riflepits in front, in a dense swamp, where his men had to wade kneedeep to form line of battle. The enemy were not in great force, however, and were easily driven: two brigades pushing on to the Savannah and Gulf railroad and breaking it; while J. E. Smith's division closed up on Corse's, and Corse pressed on toward Savannah. He was opposed by 600 infantry and 2 guns; but his advance brigade quickly ran them off, taking a gun and some prisoners. He followed the fugitives across the Little Ogeechee to within 8 miles of the city, where he halted, and resumed breaking up the Gulf railroad; King's bridge having been burned by the enemy. No force remained in our front here save the garrison of Fort McAllister. And now Blair's pontoons were laid across the Ogeechee, near Fort Argyle, and the two wings thus substantially united before Savannah.

Slocum had set forward from Louisville6--the 20th corps in advance — and had moved down between the Savannah and the Ogeechee; finding the roads mainly of quicksand, coated by a thin crust of firmer sand, which was soon cut through by our trains, rendering their movement barely possible, and requiring miles of “corduroy.” At intervals, the Rebels had fallen trees across the roads, but not exactly where they were wanted. The 14th corps had advanced farther to the left, with Kilpatrick still farther east; Sherman's object being still to threaten Augusta and bewilder the enemy as to his purpose. Thus Kilpatrick, supported by Baird, was thrown out again to Waynesboroa; fighting7 Wheeler and driving him 8 miles across Briar creek; while Baird destroyed the Augusta railroad; when the 14th was concentrated on Jacksonboroa, and all moved rapidly down Briar creek toward the Savannah; Baird and Kilpatrick in the rear, which was now pressed by Wheeler, with sharp skirmishing, but with little loss on either side. Gen. Morgan, in Davis's van, was halted, near Ebenezer church, a strong fieldwork in his front,8 which seemed to

1 Nov. 30.

2 Dec. 2.

3 Dec. 4.

4 Dec. 6-7.

5 Dec. 9.

6 Dec. 1.

7 Dec. 4.

8 Dec. 9.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

hide People (automatically extracted)
hide Dates (automatically extracted)
Sort dates alphabetically, as they appear on the page, by frequency
Click on a date to search for it in this document.
December 9th (2)
December 4th (2)
December 7th (1)
December 6th (1)
December 2nd (1)
December 1st (1)
November 30th (1)
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: