146 



ARMY OPERATIONS. 



Every citizen with his gun and every negro with 

 his spade and axe can do the work of a soldier. You 

 can destroy the enemy by retarding his march. 

 Georgians be firm, act promptly, and fear not. 



(Signed) B. H. HILL. 



I most cordially approve the above. 



JAMES A. SEDDON, Sec'y of War. 



And this also from the Georgia delegation in 

 the lower house of Congress : 



RICHMOND, Nov. 19, 1SG4. 

 To the People of Georgia : 



We have had a special conference with President 

 Davis and the Secretary of War, and are able to as- 

 sure you that they have done, and are still doing, all 

 that can be done to meet the emergency that presses 

 upon you. Let every man fly to arms. Kemove 

 your negroes, horses, cattle, and provisions from 

 Shermair s army, and burn what you cannot carry. 

 Burn all bridges, and block up the roads in his route. 

 Assail the invader in front, flank, and rear, by night 

 and by day. Let him have no rest. 



JULIAN HARTRIDGE, MARK BLAUFORD, 

 J. H. REYNOLDS, Gen. N. LESTER, 



JNO. T. SHEWMAKER,- JOS. M. SMITH. 



One of the last acts of Gov. Brown, before 

 his hurried flight from Milledgeville, was to 

 issue a proclamation ordering a levy en masse 

 of the whole free white population of the 

 State between the ages of sixteen and forty-five 

 years, except the legislature and judiciary, or- 

 dained ministers of the gospel, railroad em- 

 ployes and telegraph operators, and all persona 

 physically unable to bear arms. They were 

 required to undergo military service for forty 

 days, and failure to report at the designated 

 places was to be considered equivalent to de- 

 sertion. Should the directors or superintend- 

 ents of railroad companies refuse to afford 

 proper cooperation with the military authori- 

 ties they were to be sent immediately to the 

 front. Pursuant to a resolution of the Legis- 

 lature the Governor also offered pardon to the 

 prisoners in the penitentiary at Milledgeville if 

 they would volunteer and prove themselves 

 good soldiers. About a hundred accepted tho 

 offer. These preparations came manifestly too 

 late to offer any other than a feeble resistance 

 to the advance of Gen. Sherman's well-ap- 

 pointed army; and whatever opposition the 

 latter did encounter during the remainder of 

 the campaign was due to the efforts of such 

 fragmentary bodies of Confederate troops or 

 organized State militia as could be hastily con- 

 centrated. 



But few of the troops that reached the 

 neighborhood of Milledgeville entered the town, 

 two or three regiments only being detailed to 

 do provost guard duty and destroy public 

 property. The magazines, penitentiary, arsen- 

 als, depot buildings, factories, and storehouses, 

 with seventeen hundred bales of cotton, were 

 burned ; but the Capitol and the private resi- 

 dences received no injury, and, as far as pos- 

 sible, pillage was prevented. The principal 

 of the State Asylum, and other persons, 

 expressed their gratitude to Gen. Sherman 

 that order was so fully maintained. Some 

 stores and about twenty-five hundred small 

 arms fell into the possession of the Federal 



troops, and in the penitentiary were found 

 some Federal prisoners of war. A number of 

 sick rebels were also captured in the hospital. 



While the left wing was enjoying a temporary 

 rest at Milledgeville, the right advanced steadily 

 along the Georgia Central Railroad to the 

 Oconee, destroying every mile of track in its 

 march. The rebels became aware at last that 

 Macon was not to be seriously attacked, and 

 by extraordinary exertions succeeded in getting 

 Gen. Wheeler across the Oconee, in the neigh- 

 borhood of the railroad bridge, where, aided 

 by a body of militia under Gen. Wayne, he was 

 prepared to dispute the passage. TJpon reach- 

 ing the bridge on the 23d,' Gen. Howard found 

 it ^too well guarded to effect a crossing except 

 with considerable loss. A day or two was oc- 

 cupied with skirmishing across the river banks 

 to occupy the enemy's attention, while the 15th 

 corps was pushed down to a ford eight miles 

 below the railroad, where a pontoon was laid 

 without much difficulty. The rebel forces then 

 made a precipitate retreat, and by the 26th the 

 whole right wing was across the river and mov- 

 ing eastward along the railroad, which was 

 destroyed as the column advanced. The left 

 wing crossed the Oconee near Milledgeville 

 without opposition on the 24th, and moved in 

 a southeasterly direction toward Sandersville, 

 a town lying a little north of the Georgia 

 Central Railroad, and about 15 miles east of 

 the river. This movement hastened the re- 

 treat of Gen. Wayne. The 14th corps now 

 took post on the left flank of this column, 

 which position it held during the remainder of 

 the campaign. On the 26th, the 14th and 20th 

 corps, marching on parallel roads, entered 

 Sandersville simultaneously, driving out a body 

 of rebel cavalry which essayed to impede their 

 advance ; and on the 27th and 28th both wings 

 were temporarily encamped between Sanders- 

 ville and Irwin's Cross Roads, a few miles 

 south of the railroad. About this time Gen. 

 Sherman transferred his quarters from the left 

 wing to the 17th corps, then at Tennille, a 

 railroad station near Sandersville. 



After the demonstration toward Macon, end- 

 ing with the action at Griswoldville, Gen. 

 Kilpatrick .shifted his cavalry force to the left 

 wing. Remaining a day or two at Milledge- 

 ville to recruit, he started thence on the 25th 

 in the direction of Waynesboro, a station on 

 the Augusta and Millen Railroad, 75 miles due 

 east, for the purpose partly of covering the 

 passage of the main body of the army across 

 the Ogeechee, the next great river on the route 

 east of the Oconee, and partly of conducting a 

 feint toward Augusta. On the 27th, a few 

 hundred of his cavalry, under Captains Hays 

 and Estes, dashed into Waynesboro, burned the 

 railroad bridge over Briar Creek in the neigh- 

 borhood, and after inflicting other damage, fell 

 back on the succeeding day to the main cavalry 

 body which lay east of the Ogeechee, in the 

 neighborhood of Louisville. One of the primo 

 objects of the advance was to surprise Milleo 



