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[113]

General George W. Balloch, who had for a long time previous to this campaign been my chief commissary, was now occupying the same official position in the Twentieth Corps. He accompanied the corps at the time it was crossing the Savannah over into the swampy country of South Carolina. Lately he has sent me some of his recollections.

The Twentieth Corps (Balloch's own) had a rough time just before starting from Savannah until it struck dry ground at Robertsville. “Had we been web-footed,” he said, “it would have added to our comfort.”

Balloch adds:

A correspondent of the New York Herald published a letter in his paper and described the situation, which worried my wife not a little, for she knew that I had been quite ill before I left Savannah; in fact, the surgeon had ordered me to go home, but, stubborn as usual, I would not. The letter was in substance to this effect, that one night when hunting for the Headquarters of the Twentieth Corps, the correspondent had heard voices from the regions above calling out:

“Hello, old fellow, is that youth You had better come up and secure a roosting place.”

In looking up he discovered General A. S. Williams, the corps commander, and staff safely ensconced in the forks of the trees. They were enveloped in sheets and blankets that had been foraged from the country while marching through Georgia.

General Williams was smoking and looking as quiet and serene as if he had been in his tent on dry ground. This correspondent's picture gives one who was there a clear reminder of what we did go through.

At Zion's Church, near Columbia, we had to

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