Tracing Sherman’s March to the Sea: “Charred and Black as Yankee Hearts” Part One of a Four-Part Series
Sherman embarked upon his March to the Sea on November 15, 1864, taking with him on his southeastward journey two corps from the Army of the Cumberland (re-christened as the Army of Georgia) and two from the Army of the Tennessee. This force of some 60,000 men, little more than half the number participating in the Atlanta Campaign, advanced in two wings across the state before meeting at Savannah in December.
On a Sunday late in August, I followed the route taken by the Army of the Tennessee, Sherman’s Right Wing, commanded by Maj. Gen. O.O. Howard, from downtown Atlanta to the Oconee River, covering about half the distance to Sherman’s objective. Traveling on a course blazed by Georgia Civil War Heritage Trails (GCWHT), I halted every few miles to read the interpretive markers which tell the stories of Federal soldiers on the march, the civilians in their path, and the outnumbered Confederates laboring to hinder their advance.
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I began at the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception near the State Capitol and Atlanta City Hall. The structure now standing there is post-war, built in 1873, but it was the pastor of this church who is credited with saving his and other nearby churches from the flames that burnt much of Atlanta as Sherman departed. Whether the popular story is true, partly true, or largely legend is debatable, but it is a great story. My favorite part is the threat made by Father O’Reilly to excommunicate the Catholics in Sherman’s army if the sacred buildings were burned.
The Army of the Tennessee proceeded southward, toward what are now Atlanta’s suburbs and exurbs. Most of the XV Corps, under Maj. Gen. Peter Osterhaus, halted for the night near Stockbridge. In his report Osterhaus wrote that he met a force of 1,000 Confederates, under Brig. Gen. Joseph Lewis, which made “a very feeble resistance.” (Lewis commanded the Kentucky Orphan Brigade, which certainly numbered well below 1,000 at this stage of the war.)
According to GCWHT’s information, the Federals easily repaired a bridge over Little Cotton Indian Creek, which had been burned by Lewis’s unit,
and pressed on to McDonough. There the entire XV Corps camped on the night of the 16th. The interpretive marker at the courthouse square states that the town was not burned, but homes, businesses, churches, schools, the courthouse, and a seminary sustained damage while being looted by undisciplined soldiers. Osterhaus’s report was silent about any damage done during his corps’ brief stay.
Further on, the marker at Locust Grove describes the action in the area through which the XV Corps passed on the 17th. The marker quotes a Confederate officer, Lt. John Ash, who “described the hopelessness of stopping the Federal advance.”
According to Ash, his regiment, the 5th Georgia Cavalry, “could muster only 48 guns,” against the Federals’ “overwhelming numbers.” He wrote that “We were so completely run over that we were scattered in every direction, those of us who were not killed and captured.”
“The Federal soldiers marching through Locust Grove did not leave the area as they found it,” the marker tells us, and quotes a letter from a local woman to her soldier husband, telling him of “plantation after plantation destroyed.”
Ten miles or so beyond Locust Grove was Sylvan Grove Plantation, owned by Asa Buttrill. The interpretive marker here tells the tale of the Buttrill family’s unsuccessful effort to flee as news came of the Yankees’ approach from the north. On the 16th, Asa left with two wagons loaded with valuables, food, and other provisions; his daughter Mary, her aunt, two female slaves, and a disabled Confederate soldier followed in a carriage the next day, while Mrs. Buttrill remained at home. (Yes, this seems odd to me too.) Mary’s party encountered some Confederate soldiers along the way, one of whom was Mary’s brother, a lad of 17 years. As Federal cavalry appeared, the combatants fled, trusting, it seems, that the enemy
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unexpected, utterly unproductive of any good. The Battle of Griswoldville will be remembered as an unfortunate accident whose might have been avoided by the exercise of proper caution and circumspection.”
East of Gordon, a small community with a townscape dominated by a gigantic kaolin plant. Gordon is on a rail line which, in 1864, was the important Central of Georgia Railroad that Savannah and Macon. A branch line to the north connected Gordon to Milledgeville, the state capital. At Gordon, the local commander of the small Confederate force did exercise “proper caution and circumspection” and withdrew his men to the Oconee River unnecessary and
ran between before the Yankee cavalry arrived on the afternoon of the 21st.
Federal soldiers remained in Gordon for two days, ripping up rails, wrecking other facilities, and “foraging widely foodstuffs and animals.” Diarist Fanny Andrews passed through Gordon in December recorded this impression: “There was nothing left of the poor little village but ruins, charred and black as Yankee hearts.”
At the Oconee River the Confederates mounted a skillful defense at the railroad bridge and downstream at Ball’s Ferry. The 1,200 defenders managed to delay the Federals’ march for a couple of days, but against two Federal corps they could do only so much. The Federals secured a bridgehead, forced the
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Confederates to retreat, and then built two pontoon bridges. By nightfall on November 26 the entire Army of the Tennessee was across.
The XV and XVII Corps pressed on. They burned the railroad bridge and marched southeast. As the marker at Ball’s Ferry says, “With both the Ocmulgee and Oconee Rivers behind the Federal army, only the Ogeechee remained.”
Future columns will trace the remainder of the route taken by Gen. Howard’s army and the route taken by the Left Wing, the two corps under Maj. Gen. Henry Slocum.