Headquarters Military Division of the
Mississippi,
in the Field, Kingston, Georgia, November 8, 1864.
The general commanding deems it proper at this time to inform
the officers and men of the Fourteenth, Fifteenth, Seventeenth, and Twentieth Corps, that
he has organized them into an army for a special purpose, well known to the War Department
from our present base, and a long and difficult march to a new one. All the chances of war
have been considered and provided for, as far as human sagacity can. All he asks of you is
to maintain that discipline, patience, and courage, which have characterized you in the
past; and he hopes, through you, to strike a blow at our enemy that will have a material
effect in producing what we all so much desire, his complete overthrow. Of all things, the
most important is, that the men, during marches and in camp, keep their places and do not
scatter about as stragglers or foragers, to be picked up by a hostile people in detail. It
is also of the utmost importance that our wagons should not be loaded with any thing but
provisions and ammunition. All surplus servants, non-combatants, and refugees, should now
go to the rear, and none should be encouraged to encumber us on the march. At some future
time we will be able to provide for the poor whites and blacks who seek to escape the
bondage under which they are now suffering. With these few simple cautions, he hopes to
lead you to achievements equal in importance to those of the past.
By order of Major-General W.T. Sherman,
Headquarters Military Division of the
Mississippi,
in the Field, Kingston, Georgia, November 9, 1864.
1. For the purpose of military operations, this army is
divided into two wings, viz.:
The right wing, Major-General O.O. Howard, commanding, composed of the Fifteenth
and Seventeenth Corps; the left wing, major-General H.W. Slocum commanding, composed of
the Fourteenth and Twentieth Corps.
2. The habitual order of march will be, wherever practicable,
by four roads, as nearly parallel as possible, and converging at points hereafter to be
indicated in orders. The cavalry, Brigadier-General Kilpatrick commanding, will receive
special orders from the commander-in-chief.
3. There will be no general train of supplies, but each corps
will have its ammunition-train and provision-train, distributed habitually as follows:
Behind each regiment should follow one wagon and one ambulance; behind each brigade should
follow a due proportion of ammunition-wagons, provision-wagons, and ambulances. In case of
danger, each corps commander should change this order of march, by having his advance and
rear brigades unencumbered by wheels. The separate columns will start habitually at 7
a.m., and make about fifteen miles per day, unless otherwise fixed in orders.
4. The army will forage liberally on the country during the
march. To this end, each brigade commander will organize a good and sufficient foraging
party, under the command of one or more discreet officers, who will gather, near the route
traveled, corn or forage of any kind, meat of any kind, vegetables, corn-meal, or whatever
is needed by the command, aiming at all times to keep in the wagons at least ten days'
provisions for his command, and three days' forage. Soldiers must not enter the dwellings
of the inhabitants, or commit any trespass; but, during a halt or camp, they may be
permitted to gather turnips, potatoes, and other vegetables, and to drive in stock in
sight of their camp. To regular foraging-parties must be intrusted the gathering of
provisions and forage, at any distance from the road traveled.
5. To corps commanders alone is intrusted the power to
destroy mills, houses, cotton-gins, etc.; and for them this general principle is laid
down: In districts and neighborhoods where the army is unmolested, no destruction of such
property should be permitted; but should guerrillas or bushwhackers molest our march, or
should the inhabitants burn bridges, obstruct roads, or otherwise manifest local
hostility, then army commanders should order and enforce a devastation more or less
relentless, according to the measure of such hostility.
6. As for horses, mules, wagons, etc., belonging to the
inhabitants, the cavalry and artillery may appropriate freely and without limit;
discriminating, however, between the rich, who are usually hostile, and the poor and
industrious, usually neutral or friendly. Foraging-parties may also take mules or horses,
to replace the jaded animals of their trains, or to serve as pack-mules for the regiments
of brigades. In all foraging, of whatever kind, the parties engaged will refrain abusive
or threatening language, and may, where the officer in command thinks proper, given
written certificates of the facts, but no receipts; and they will endeavor to leave with
each family a reasonable portion for their maintenance.
7. Negroes who are able-bodied and can be of service to the
several columns may be taken along; but but each army commander will bear in mind that the
question of supplies is a very important one, and this his first duty is to see to those
who bear arms.
8. The organization, at once, of a good pioneer battalion for
each army corps, composed if possible of Negroes, should be attended to. This battalion
should follow the advance-guard, repair roads and double them if possible, so that the
columns will not be delayed after reaching bad places. Also, army commanders should
practise the habit of giving the artillery and wagons the road, marching their troops on
one side, and instruct their troops to assist wagons at steep hills or bad crossings of
streams.
9. Captain O.M. Poe, chief-engineer, will assign to each wing
of the army a pontoon-train, fully equipped and organized; and the commanders thereof will
see to their being properly protected at all times.
By order of Major-General W.T. Sherman
Headquarters Military Division of the
Mississippi
in the Field, Savannah, Georgia, December 23, 1864.
Savannah, being now is our possession, the river
partially cleared out, and measures have been taken to remove all obstructions will at
once be made a grand depot for future operations;
1. The chief-quartermaster, General Easton, will, after
giving the necessary orders touching the transports in Ogeechee River and Ossabaw Sound,
come in person to Savannah, and take possession of all public buildings, vacant
storerooms, warehouses, etc., that may be now or hereafter needed for any department of
the army. No rents will be paid by the Government of the United States during the war, and
all buildings must be distributed according to the accustomed rules of the Quartermaster's
Department, as though they were public property.
2. The chief commissary of subsistence, Colonel A. Beckwith,
will transfer the grand depot of the army to the city of Savannah, secure possession of
the needful buildings and offices, and give the necessary orders, to the end that the army
may be supplied abundantly and well.
3. The chief-engineer, Captain Poe, will at once direct which
of the enemy's forts are to be retained for our use, and which dismantled and destroyed.
The chief ordnance-officer, Captain Baylor, will in like manner take possession of all
property pertaining to his department captured from the enemy, and cause the same to be
collected and conveyed to points of security; all the heavy coast-guns will be dismounted
and carried to Fort Pulaski.
4. The troops, for the present, will be grouped about the
city of Savannah, looking to convenience of camps; General Slocum taking from the Savannah
River around to the seven-mile post on the canal, and General Howard thence to the sea;
General Kilpatrick will hold King's Bridge until Fort McAllister is dismantled, and the
troops withdrawn from the south side of the Ogeechee, when he will take post about
Anderson's plantation, on the plank-road, and picket all the roads leading from the north
and west.
5. General Howard will keep a small guard at Forts Rosedale,
Beaulieu, Wimberly, Thunderbolt, and Bonaventura, and he will cause that shore and
Skidaway Island to be examined very closely, with a view to finding many and convenient
points for the embarkation of troops and wagons on sea-going vessels.
By order of Major-General W.T.Sherman,
Headquarters Military Division of the
Mississippi,
in the Field, Savannah,Georgia, December 26, 1864.
The city of Savannah and surrounding country will be held as a military post, and
adapted to future military uses, but, as it contains a population of some twenty thousand
people, who must be provided for, and as other citizens may come, it is proper to lay down
certain general principles, that all within its military jurisdiction may understand their
relative duties and obligations.
1. During war, the military is superior to civil authority,
and, where interests clash, the civil must give way; yet, where there is no conflict,
every encouragement should be given to well-disposed and peaceful inhabitants to resume
their usual pursuits. Families should be disturbed as little as possible in their
residences, and tradesman allowed the free use of their shops, tools, etc.; churches,
schools, and all places of amusement and recreation, should be encouraged, and streets and
roads made perfectly safe to persons in their pursuits. Passes should not be exacted
within the line of outer pickets, but if any person shall abuse these privileges by
communicating with the enemy, or doing any act of hostility to the Government of the
United States, he or she will be punished with the utmost vigor of the law. Commerce with
the outer world will be resumed to an extent commensurate with the wants of the citizens,
governed by the restrictions and rules of the Treasury Department.
2. The chief quartermaster and commissary of the army may
give suitable employment to the people, white and black, or transport them to such points
as they may choose where employment can be had; and may extend temporary relief in the way
of provisions and vacant houses to the worthy and needy, until such time as they can help
themselves. They will select first the buildings for the necessary uses of the army; next,
a sufficient number of stores, to be turned over to the Treasury agent for trade-stores.
All vacant storehouses or dwellings, and all buildings belonging to absent rebels, will be
construed and used as belonging to the United States, until such time as their titles can
be settled by the courts of the United States.
3. The Mayor and City Council of Savannah will continue to
exercise their functions, and will, in concert with the commanding officer of the post and
the chief-quartermaster, see that the fire-companies are kept in organization, the streets
cleaned and lighted, and keep up a good understanding between the citizens and soldiers.
They will ascertain and report to the chief commissary of subsistence, as soon as
possible, the names and number of worthy families that need assistance and support. They
mayor will forthwith give public notice that the time has come when all must choose their
course, viz. remain within our lines, and conduct themselves as good citizens, or depart
in peace. He will ascertain the names of all who choose to leave Savannah, and report
their names and residence to the chief-quartermaster, that measures may be taken to
transport them beyond our lines.
4. Not more than two newspapers will be published in
Savannah; their editors and proprietors will be held to the strictest accountability, and
will be punished severely, in person and property, for any libelous publication,
mischievous matter, premature news, exaggerated statements, or any comments whatever upon
the acts of the constituted authorities; they will be held accountable for such articles,
even though copies from other papers.
By order of Major-General W.T. Sherman,
Headquarters Military Division of the Mississippi,
- in the Field, near Savannah, December 16, 1864.
Lieutenant-General U.S. Grant, Commander-in-Chief, City
Point, Virginia.
GENERAL: I received, day before yesterday, at the hands of
Lieutenant Dunn, your letter of December 3, and last night, at the hands of Colonel
Babcock, that of December 6. I had previously made you a hasty scrawl from the tug-boat
Dandelion, in Ogeechee River, advising you that the army had reached the sea-coast,
destroying all railroads across the State of Georgia and investing closely the city of
Savannah, and had made connection with the fleet. Since writing that note I have in person
met and conferred with General Foster and Admiral Dahlgren, and made all the arrangements
which I deemed essential to reducing the city of Savannah to our possession. But since the
receipt of yours of the 6th I have initiated measures looking principally to coming to you
with 50,000 or 60,000 infantry, and, incidentally, to take Savannah, if time will allow.
At the time we carried Fort McAllister by assault so handsomely, with its 22 guns and
entire garrison, I was hardly aware of its importance; but since passing down the river
with General Foster and up with Admiral Dahlgren I realize how admirably adapted are
Ossabaw Sound and Ogeechee River to supply an army operating against Savannah. Sea-going
vessels can easily come to King's Bridge, a point on Ogeechee River, fourteen and a half
miles due west of Savannah, from which point we have roads leading to all our camps. The
country is low and sandy, and cut up with marshes, which, in wet weather, will be very
bad; but we have been so favored with weather that they are all now comparatively good,
and heavy details are constantly employed in double corduroying the marshes, so that I
have no fears even of bad weather. Fortunately, also, by liberal and judicious foraging,
we reached the sea-coast abundantly supplied with forage and provisions, needing nothing
on arrival except bread; of this we started from Atlanta provided with from eight to
twenty days' supply per corps, and some of the troops only had one days' issue of bread
during the trip of thirty days; and yet they did not want, for sweet potatoes were very
abundant, as well as corn meal, and our soldiers took to them naturally.
We started with about 5,000 head of cattle, and arrived with
over 10,000; of course, consuming mostly turkeys, chickens, sheep, hogs, and the cattle of
the country. As to our mules and horses, we left Atlanta with about 2,500 wagons, many of
which were drawn by mules which had not recovered from the Chattanooga starvation, all of
which were replaced, the poor mules shot, and our transportation is now in superb
condition. I have no doubt the State of Georgia has lost by our operation, 15,000
first-rate mules. As to horses, Kilpatrick collected all his remounts, and it looks to me,
in riding along our columns, as though every officer had three or four led horses, and
each regiment seems to be followed by at least fifty negroes and foot-sore soldiers riding
on horses and mules. The custom was for each brigade to send out daily a foraging-party of
about fifty men, on foot, who invariably returned mounted, with several wagons loaded with
poultry, potatoes, &c.; and as the army is composed of about forty brigades you can
estimate approximately the number of horses collected. Great numbers of these were shot by
my order, because of the disorganizing effect on our infantry of having too many idlers
mounted. General Easton is now engaged in collecting statistics in this line; but I know
the Government will never receive full accounts of our captures, although the result aimed
at was fully attained, viz., to deprive our enemy of them. All these animals I will have
sent to Port Royal, or collected behind Fort McAllister, to be used by General Saxton in
his farming operations, or by the quartermaster's department, after they are
systematically accounted for. While General Easton is collecting transportation for my
troops to James River I will throw to Port Royal Island all our means of transportation I
can, and collect the balance near Fort McAllister, covered by the Ogeechee River and
intrenchments [sic] to be erected, and for which Captain Poe, my chief engineer, is now
reconnoitering the ground; but in the meantime will act as I have begun, as though
Savannah City was my objective, namely: the troops will continue to invest Savannah
closely, making attacks and feints wherever we have fair ground to stand upon; and I will
place some 30-pound Parrotts, which I have got from General Foster, in position near
enough to reach the center of the city, and then will demand its surrender. If General
Hardee is alarmed or fears starvation he may surrender; otherwise, I will bombard the
city, but not risk the lives of our men by assaults across the narrow causeways by which
alone I can now reach it. If I had time, Savannah, with all its dependent fortifications,
is already in our possession, for we hold all its avenues of supply. The enemy has made
two desperate efforts to get boats from above to the city, in both of which he has been
foiled--General Slocum, whose left flank rests on the river, capturing and burning the
first boat, and in the second instance driving back two gun-boats and capturing the
steamer Resolute, with seven naval officers and a crew of twenty-five seamen.
General Slocum occupies Argyle Island and the upper end of
Hutchinson's Island, and has a brigade on the South Carolina shore opposite, and he is
very urgent to pass one of his corps over to that shore; but, in view of the change of
plan made necessary by your order of the 6th, I will maintain things in statu quo till I
have got all my transportation to the rear and out of the way, and until I have sea
transportation for the troops you require at James River, which I will accompany and
command in person. Of course I will leave Kilpatrick, with his cavalry, say 5,300, and it
may be a division of the Fifteenth Corps; but before determining this I must see General
Foster, and may arrange to shift his force (now over above the Charleston railroad, at the
head of Broad River) to the Ogeechee, where, in co-operation with Kilpatrick's cavalry, he
can better threaten the State of Georgia than from the direction of Port Royal. Besides, I
would much prefer not to detach from my regular corps any of its veteran divisions, and
would even prefer that other less valuable troops should be sent to reenforce Foster from
some other quarter. My four corps, full of experience and full of ardor, coming to you en
masse, equal to 60,000 fighting-men, will be a re-enforcement that Lee cannot disregard.
Indeed, with my present command, I had expected upon reducing Savannah instantly to march
to Columbia, S.C., thence to Raleigh, and thence to report to you; but this would consume,
it may be, six weeks time after the fall of Savannah, whereas by sea I can probably reach
you with my men and arms before the middle of January.
I myself am somewhat astonished at the attitude of things in
Tennessee. I purposely delayed at Kingston until General Thomas assured me that he was
"all ready," and my last dispatch from him, of the 12th of November, was full of
confidence, in which he promised me that he would "ruin Hood" if he dared to
advance from Florence, urging me to go ahead and give myself no concern about Hood's army
in Tennessee. Why he did not turn on Hood at Franklin, after checking and discomfiting
him, surpasses my understanding. Indeed, I do not approve of his evacuating Decatur, but
think he should have assumed the offensive against Hood from Pulaski in the direction of
Waynesburg [Waynesboro]. I know full well that General Thomas is slow in mind and in
action, but he is judicious and brave, and the troops feel great confidence in him. I
still hope he will out-maneuver and destroy Hood.
As to matters in the Southeast, I think Hardee, in Savannah,
has good artillerists, some 5,000 or 6,000 infantry, and it may be a mongrel mass of 8,000
to 10,000 militia. In all our marching through Georgia he has not forced us to use
anything but a skirmish line, though at several points he had erected fortifications and
tried to alarm us by bombastic threats. In Savannah he has taken refuge in a line
constructed behind swamps and overflowed rice fields, extending from a point on the
Savannah River about three miles above the city around by a branch of the Little Ogeechee,
which stream is impassable from its salt marshes and boggy swamps, crossed only by narrow
causeways or common corduroy roads. There must be 25,000 citizens -- men, women, and
children -- in Savannah that must also be fed, and how he is to feed them beyond a few
days I cannot imagine, as I know that his requisitions for corn on the interior counties
were not filled, and we are in possession of the rice fields and mills which could alone
be of service to him in this neighborhood. He can draw nothing from South Carolina, save
from a small corner down in the southeast, and that by a disused wagon road. I could
easily get possession of this, but hardly deem it worth the risk of making a detachment,
which would be in danger by its isolation from the main army.
Our whole army is in fine condition as to health, and the
weather is splendid; for that reason alone, I feel a personal dislike to turning
northward. I will keep Lieutenant Dunn here until I know the result of my demand for the
surrender of Savannah; but, whether successful or not, shall not delay my execution of
your order of the 6th, which will depend alone upon the time it will require to obtain
transportation by sea.
I am, with respect, &c., your obedient servant,
W.T. Sherman, Major-General, U.S. Army |
