SHERMAN’S MARCH FROM SAVANNAH TO GOLDSBORO’, N. C.
January to March, 1865.
The city of Savannah, and the forts around it, were, on the 18th of January, 1865, transferred to General Foster, who commanded the Department of the South, and General Sherman once more pushed forward—this time to reach Goldsboro’, in North Carolina, and open communication with cooperating forces from that point. The capture of Charleston was incidental to this campaign; but was left to General Foster’s command. The order to march was given on the 19th of January. Savannah was garrisoned by a division of the 19th Army corps, under General Grover, while General Schofield’s corps, the Twenty-third, was sent to reinforce Generals Terry and Palmer, who were operating on the coast of North Carolina.
Sherman’s march lasted about two months, and was attended by skirmishes and small battles, but was never checked; and, in the end, was thoroughly successful in accomplishing its intended purpose. The condition of the rivers, swollen by thaws and rains, at first caused the army some trouble. But all obstacles were speedily overcome.
An engagement at Rivers’ Bridge, on the 3d of February, was the earliest fighting of moment. The point was carried with the loss of one officer and seventeen men. The troops engaged were a division of the Seventeenth corps, under Generals Thomas and Smith. Heavy skirmishing took place, at Blackville, Williston and Aiken, between General Kilpatrick’s cavalry, and the rebel cavalry of Wheeler.
On the 12th of February, General Sherman was at Orangeburg, where there was some fighting. By this time he had isolated Branchville and Charleston, so that the rebels would probably be obliged to evacuate those places. His next blow was aimed at Columbia. This beautiful city is one hundred and twenty-eight miles from Charleston. The rebels, under Hampton, abandoned it on the 16th, having first fired a large quantity of cotton which was there accumulated. On the 17th it was surrendered to General Sherman, who, in anticipation of the occupation of the city, had issued to General Howard orders concerning the conduct of the troops. These were to destroy absolutely all arsenals and public property not needed for his own use, as well as all railroads, depots, and machinery useful in war to an enemy, but to spare all dwellings, colleges, schools, asylums, and harmless private property. But, as it turned out, before one single public building had been fired by order, the smoldering fires, set by Hampton’s orders, were kindled by the wind, and communicated to the buildings around. About dark they began to spread, and got beyond the control of the troops, and raged until about four A. M., when the wind subsiding, the flames wore subdued. “I was up nearly all night,” says General Sherman, “and saw Generals Howard, Logan, Woods, and others, laboring to save houses and protect families thus suddenly deprived of shelter, and of bedding and wearing apparel. I disclaim on the part of my army any agency in this fire, but on the contrary claim that we saved what of Columbia remains unconsumed. And without hesitation I charge General Wade Hampton with having burned his own city of Columbia, not with a malicious intent, but from folly and want of sense in filling it with lint, cotton, and tinder.” During the 18th and 19th, the arsenal, railroad depots, machine shops, foundries, and other buildings were destroyed by detailed working parties, and the railroad track torn up down to Kingsville and the Wateree bridge, and up in the direction of Winnsboro’.
The next principal point was Cheraw, which was entered, after a toilsome march, on the 3d of March. Charleston had, meanwhile, been evacuated by General Hardee, on the 18th of February, and many guns and much ammunition had been conveyed thence to Cheraw. These were now captured by General Sherman, who also broke up the railroad as far as Darlington, and the branch road from Florence to Cheraw. He then pushed on to Fayetteville, which he occupied on the 11th of March. The enemy, broken into small detachments, were all the while retiring before Sherman’s advance, but at the same time were harassing him by occasional dashes. One of these, made by Hampton, on the 9th, led to a brisk engagement between his forces and Kilpatrick’s cavalry, in which the latter were victorious. But the rebels, fearing for Raleigh, now endeavored to concentrate in Sherman’s front. Beauregard’s troops, from Columbia, Cheatham’s from the West, the garrison of Augusta, and Hardee’s from Charleston, were to be speedily massed together, under the command of General J. E. Johnston. General Sherman’s plan was to feign an attack on Raleigh, but really to push on to Goldsboro’. One obstacle in his path was Hardee, who, with twenty thousand men, had made a stand between Cape Fear river and South river. General Williams, with the Twentieth corps, was thereupon ordered to dislodge Hardee and capture the position. The result was the