From Western Deserts to Carolina Swamps: A Civil War Soldier's Journals and Letters Home

9: Up Through the Carolinas, January 27–March 27, 1865

168 CHAPTER NINE Up Through the Carolinas, January 27–March 27, 1865 L ate in 1863 the Union and Confederate western armies settled into “winter quarters” to reorganize and reequip for a new round of fighting in the spring. One year later President Lincoln pushed his generals to keep the war going without a break. Army chief-of-staff Maj. Gen. H. W. Halleck put it this way in his letter of January 1, 1865, to Sherman. It is useless talking about putting any of our armies into winter quarters. It is not necessary, and the financial condition of the country will not permit it. Those troops not required for defense must move into the enemy’s country and live on it. There is no alternative; it must be done.1 ShermanhadscarcelyarrivedinSavannahwhenhestartedplanning his next campaign. This he outlined in letters to generals Halleck and Grant. His army would strike north to Columbia and Camden, South Carolina, breaking up the railroad system while ignoring Charleston, South Carolina, and Augusta, Georgia. Continuing beyond, he would reestablish contact with the fleet at Wilmington, North Carolina, then move on to Raleigh. This would force Robert E. Lee to react. It was a perfectly elegant strategy and one that gained immediate acceptance. He optimistically told Grant in his letter of December 24 that “I expect to be ready to sally forth again” in about ten days. He soon moved the date back to January 15.2 General Sherman still had four army corps. Maj. Gen. O. O. Howard retained command of the 15th and 17th Army Corps—the Army of the Tennessee and the Right Wing. As of January 8, Maj. Gen. John A. Up Through the Carolinas 169 Logan assumed command of the 15th Corps. The Left Wing, or Army of Georgia, consisted of the 14th and 20th Corps, all under the same commanders who had taken them to Savannah. Bvt. Maj. Gen. Judson Kilpatrick had just fewer than 4,500 cavalrymen present for duty. In all, almost 64,000 experienced campaigners awaited their trek up through the Carolinas.3 January 15 came and went; getting troops in place and marshaling supplies took time. The men began to move during the second week of January. The Right Wing—the 17th and most of the 15th Army Corps (some 24,600 men without Bvt. Maj. Gen. John Corse’s 4th Division)— went about fifty miles by sea from Savannah and disembarked at Port Royal Island on the coast of South Carolina, then marched inland to a place called Pocotaligo. Sherman had transferred his headquarters on January 9 to Beaufort on Port Royal Island and later moved to Pocotaligo. The navy had to move the means of transport as well— wagons, ambulances, and pontoon trains—and as many as 20,000 animals. Storms at sea delayed the arrival of materials, virtually all of which had to come by ship. Sherman said his supplies sometimes came by daily driblets. The army would move out when the wagons were loaded. While the wagons would carry foodstuffs to meet immediate needs, the assistant adjutant general for Lewis Roe’s division issued a masterfully worded field order that said in effect—waste not, want not, and don’t neglect to forage.4 By January 28, the two corps positioned between the Salkehatchie and Coosawhatchie rivers were ready to march northward along parallel roads, and Sherman expected to start on Tuesday, January 31. He had been waiting to hear from his Left Wing, the 14th and 20th Corps, with about 29,300 troops under Maj. Gen. Henry Slocum, who had departed Savannah on January 20. The 1st and 3rd Divisions of the 20th proceeded up the east side of the Savannah River. Very heavy rains prevented Roe’s own 4th Division of the 15th Army Corps from crossing at Savannah, and they took the west side of the river instead. Everyone met about thirty miles upstream at a place known as Sister’s Ferry. On February 4, the troops on the western side of the river finally crossed the mile-wide stream to unite the Left Wing.5 Sherman started anyway on February 1 and a courier from the 20th Corps caught up with him at Hickory Hill, a planter’s house on the Coosawhatchie River, eighteen miles along the way. His aide, 170 Chapter nine Maj. Henry Hitchcock, wrote that only Sherman and very few others knew even...