Chapter 12:
General Sherman, having seen the enemy he had been fighting throughout the Spring and Summer well on his way toward the North, marched down to the sea at Savannah, and moved against a new enemy there. Of the preparations, and the departure from Atlanta to the sea, General Sherman writes:
‘It was surely a strange event—two hostile armies marching in opposite directions, each in the full belief that it was achieving a final and conclusive result in a great war.’ * * * *And again:
‘Of course General Thomas saw that on him would likely fall the real blow, and was naturally anxious.’And the day of leaving Atlanta he thus records what he thought the general verdict would be:
‘There was a ‘devil-may-care’ feeling pervading officers and men that made me feel the full load of responsibility, for success would be accepted as a matter of course, whereas, should we fail, this “march” would be adjudged the wild adventure of a crazy fool.’It will be well in the outset to look at the situation. Sherman had marched off to the sea with over sixty-two thousand men. He had taken two of the strongest corps, the Fourteenth and the Twentieth, numbering over twenty-eight thousand men, from General Thomas' own army; had taken his efficient pontoon train, and dismounted General Wilson's
