Ozaukee County's
War History
by Daniel E. McGinley

as extracted from THE PORT WASHINGTON STAR
November 14, 1896



The Ozaukee Rifles
Chapter 20

In the meantime, on the 19th our corps resumed the march and that afternoon passed through Monticello, one of the neatest little towns that we visited in the South. Nearly every dwelling had a lawn or front yard neatly laid out and decorated with flower beds, shrubbery and evergreens. The flowers were in full bloom and the general appearance of the place suggested spring rather than ripe autumn. Here the darkies were again out in force, eager and willing to assist the Yanks in every possible way, and many a blue-clad soldier became their debtor for cool drinks, sweet hoe-cakes hot from the ashes, plump chickens, hams, eggs, sweet potatoes, milk, fruit and many other things which they helped us to at the risk of a terrible flogging and perhaps death.

ìHow the darkies shouted when they heard the joyful sound!
How the turkeys gobbled which our commissary found!
How the sweet potatoes even started from the ground,
While we were marching through Georgia.î

On the 20th we passed through Hillsboro, a small village in the midst of a fertile region. But the rainy weather continued, and being accompanied by cold winds, made life rather miserable in the bivouacs at night. All that night we trudged on slowly, lifting the wagons out of the ruts and swearing at the jaded mules, who like ourselves were ìout of sortsî. Taking a very short rest on the morning of the 21st, we crawled out of the steaming blankets in response to the ìassemblyî and started again through the mud and rain. Nature never looked more gloomy than it appeared upon that particular morning, and the boys were feeling very blue when an incident occurred that sent shouts of laughter rolling along the column. Some ingenious soldiers had captured a pair of wild steers and loaded them like pack mules with their knapsacks and other traps, but when they wanted the steers to follow their regiment with their loads, the steers vigorously protested. When their captors tried to force them to move on, the fun began in earnest. The steers humped their backs, bellowed, broke away from their drivers and dashed madly around the fields (with the soldiers in hot pursuit) kicking and plunging until they had scattered their loads broadcast, when they galloped away holding their heads up in triumph. The performance was greeted by the passing troops with cheers, yells and roars of laughter, and as the rebellion became contagious and spread to the pack mules of our company cooks, the uproar increased until the blues had fled from every soldier in sight.

Towards evening the rain ceased and a cold cutting wind blew down from the north which proved to our satisfaction that one thin shirt and light blouse was not clothing enough to protect our bodies from a winter blast. As soon as we halted for the night, we built rousing fires around which the boys clustered to dry their clothing and get some warmth. That was one of the most disagreeable nights of the whole campaign. We finally wrapped our blankets about us and laid down to fall asleep and dream of being in the regions of perpetual ice, and awakened in the morning to find our blankets frozen to the ground, which was frozen to the depth of an inch and a half.

On the 22nd we began the descent of the eastern slope of the watershed which divides the waters of the Ocmulgee on the west from those of the Oconee on the east, and marching rapidly reached Gordon, a railroad junction about half way between Milledgeville and Macon. Nov. 23rd was spent by our troops in destroying the depot at Gordon and the railroads which led into the place. On the 22nd, Wallcutt's brigade of Wood's division of the 15th corps, had a sharp battle with the Georgia militia, which marched out of Macon 3000 strong and attached Walcutt at Griswoldville, on the right of our line. Wallcutt's men were armed with ìsixteen shooters,î and defeated the rebs with a loss of 600 killed and wounded. Wheeler's rebel cavalry crossed our front to harass our left wing, but Kilpatrick followed him and gave him all the fighting he wanted.

Nov. 24th march was resumed, our corps following the Savannah railroad and destroying it as we went, and on the 25th we reached Tonnsboro, in a level swampy region three miles west of the Oconee river. On the 26th, we forced a passage of the Oconee at Ball's Ferry, where the rebels disputed the crossing in considerable force, and continued our march and the destruction of the railroad. The 27th found us at Tenville Station, where Gen. Sherman joined our wing. It was at Tenville that, according to a darkey witness, we burned the railroad well. It was a large, square well, curbed with plank, and our men piling timber and boards into it, set the pile on fire thus burning the curbing and letting the walls of the well cave in. The 28th was spent on the railroad, and on the 29th we crossed the swampy region at the head-waters of the Canauchee river, at Codwick Station. These swamps were flooded by the winter rains and our troops were forced to wade through them waist deep in ice cold water.

As we neared the coast forage of all kinds became scarcer, and to be prepared as well as possible, we loaded all of our empty wagons with corn before we entered the low swampy region. The cobcorn was usually stored in large log barns, and it was an interesting sight to see the boys loading the army wagons from these cribs. A row of empty wagons were driven up close to one side of the crib, a long pole was inserted at one corner between the logs as a lever, the upper part of the building was lifted and a log taken out of the side next to the wagons and just above their beds or boxes. The corn would at first run into the wagons of its own accord, and when it stopped running several of the soldiers would crawl in and lying on their backs on the pile, proceed to kick the corn into the wagons. In this way twenty or thirty wagons would be loaded in a short time.

The shoes and clothing of many of the boys were now giving out, and it was estimated that when the army reached Savannah over 10,000 of the troops were barefooted. But they marched on without a murmur, and Sherman issuing orders that all barefooted men should be allowed to ride if they could pick up a horse or a mule to carry them, they got along very well. All bridges, mills, factories, foundaries and other workshops were destroyed by the army as it marched along, and no mules or horses were left behind, those that were unfit for immediate use being shot. Nothing was left behind that would be of use to the rebel army, not even the bloodhounds, which were shot at sight.

Nov. 30th we cross the Ogeechee, and bivouacked that night at Sebastapol Station. Dec. 1st the march and the destruction of the railroad was continued, and we could hear the ìboom,î ìboomî of Kilpatrick's cannon far away to the left where he was giving Wheeler's cavalry a sound thrashing. The whole army moved and worked like clock work, and on the 2nd our corps entered Millen, a little village that could not boast even of a decent hotel, but which had become widely known on account of the prison pen which had been built near that place to hold and starve hundreds of boys in blue who had been unfortunate enough to be captured by the rebs. The Savannah and Augusta, and the Savannah and Macon railroads formed a junction at Millen, and the left wing and our corps soon destroyed these roads for many miles, the 15th corps marching down the west side of the Ogeechee. But the poor boys who had been imprisoned at Millen had been sent away to other prisons when the rebs learned that we were coming, and we did not have the satisfaction of liberating any of them at that time.

During the 3rd and 4th, the march and the destruction of the railroad continued, and on the 4th our corps reached Cameron Station. On the 5th, cannonading was heard at the front, and a part of the troops were hurried ahead to assist the foragers and cavalry who had run on to a line of works at Ogeechee church, and the road was soon cleared.

ìTreason fled before us, for resistance was in vain
While we were marching through Georgia.î

The 6th was spent in destroying the railroad and the rainy weather again set in. Resuming its march on the 7th Shermanís army pressed forward amid torrents of rain, and to make matters worse the roads led through swamps flooded waist deep with dirty, icy water. During the 8th we again marched on through rain and flood, driving a fast accumulating force of rebels before us. On the 9th the rain ceased, and the roads being better we moved more rapidly. Shortly after starting, a loud report was heard but a short distance ahead, and hurrying on we soon learned the cause. The rebels had planted large shells in the road, with wires reaching from the cap of the shell to the surface and arranged in such a way that when the wire should be pressed by the foot of man or beast, the shell would explode. An officer's horse had trodden upon one of these wires and the shell exploding had killed the horse and shattered one of the officer's legs. Gen. Sherman happened to reach the spot in a few minutes after the explosion. He was very angry, declaring that ìsuch work was not war but murder,î and immediately ordered a number of rebel prisoners to take picks and shovels, and marching along the road find the remaining torpedoes and dig them up or explode them. The prisoners begged hard to be excused from such a dangerous task, but our grim old chieftain was inexorable, and they had to obey. Happily no more torpedoes or shells were found until Fort McAllister was reached.

That night our corps reached Pooler Station, and on the 10th continued the march until we ran up against the enemy's line of defenses a few miles from Savannah. The whole army closed in and deployed in front of the rebel line, the 14th corps forming the left of the Union line, its left resting on the Savannah river, the 20th corps came next, then the 17th corps and the 15th corps formed the right of the line, its right resting on the Ogeechee river. A noisy time it was while the troops were deploying, the booming of the cannon and the chopping fire of the skirmish lines making the pine forests and cyprus swamps, which covered the country thereabouts, resound with explosions and echoes.

The weather was very cold for the next few days, thick ice forming once or twice, but the troops had plenty of fuel and kept warm by their fires. On the 13th, Fort McAlister, a fortress on the west bank of the Ogeechee river, was stormed and captured by Gen. Hazen's division of the 15th corps. The assault was a most gallant one, and although nearly as many of our men were killed by the torpedoes which had been planted outside the fort as by the fire of the garrison, the storming columns never halted or wavered until they were in possession of the fort. The capture of this fort opened the Ogechee river for the passage of light draft vessels of our fleet, which ran up to the right of our line with mail and supplies. This mail was the first we had had since Nov. 12th and was received with shouts of joy by the troops. But the roads were so very bad that we were unable to get the supplies over them fast enough to meet the needs of the troops, most of whom were now living on rice which was found in the bundle on the great rice plantations along the Ogeechee river. A little cobcorn was on hand and the quartermasters tried to save it for the horses and mules which had little else to eat, but the hungry soldiers would often steal it from the mules and eat it themselves. Each day brought a greater scarcity of provisions and more hunger, and our army was busily engaged in making preparations to storm the enemy's fortifications, when on the morning of the 21st, it was discovered that the town had been evacuated, the rebel garrison having escaped across the river into South Carolina during the night. We immediately marched inside the fortifications and encamped around the city, which Sherman tendered to President Lincoln as a Christmas present and the famous march to the sea was ended.

A large fleet of vessels was lying at the mouth of the Savannah loaded with supplies for our army, but the river was full of torpedoes, placed there by the enemy to prevent our war vessels from running up to the city, and they had to be fished out before our vessels could bring us food. Although a large force was put to work to clear the river, the work was necessarily slow, and we did not get any supplies until the day after Christmas. That was a very hungry Christmas for a large majority of our troops, they being entirely without food; and it is greatly to their credit that they suffered patiently and did not attempt to take a mouthful from the citizens, many of whom were also in want of food.