Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1864-12-30
sHRRMAN's MARCH.

/
the Invading Army OF the Union
Scenes and Incidents In Camp and
on the Marcb-The Seng OF the
EEBIue Juniata."
From a letter to the New York World
dated at Savannah on the 2eth, from some
one who accompanied sherman's army on
its grand march through Georgia, we take
the following interesting extracts:
Considered as spectacle. the march Of
General Sherman's army surpassed, in
some respects, all marches in history. The
flames Of city lighted its beginning;
desolatiOu, which in one sense is sublime,
marked all its progress to the sea. Its end
is a beautiful possession-a city spared
from doom.
Underneath smiling skies, cooled by airs
balmy as the breath of northern summer,
the Army of the West, slowly transform
ing itself into an Army of the East, NOV
ed from sunset TO sunrise through terri
tory rich in all things wherein the theories
of staticians had deciaredIt poor Food
in gardens, food in cellars, stock in field,
stock in barns, poultry everywhere, ap.
peared in the distance, disappeared in the
presence, aud WAS borne away upon the
knapsscks and bayonets of thousands of
soldiers.
a new 81 Dorado, too, was this heart of
the South. Aoney-bright gold, shining
silVer-plucked from closets, and stock
iugs, and burial-pIaces by the wsyside, en-
riched the invaders.
The soldier has his Whims-the tall
feathers of peac0cks dropped and scintil-
lated along the moving columns from the
crest of infautrymen and troopers.
Jokes and laughter, and songs, and the
&c he 80 4
ghum, relieved the weary trRmping, tramp.
ing, over fields, and roads, and bridges,
through a month of days.
The cavalry swept the pathway of guer-
rillas; the clang of their hoofs and sabres
resoundsd through the glens to right, to
left, and in the front, Swift and terrible,
and not always just, were the strokes of
their arms, the work of their hands. Pr
oueers along a march of desolation forty
miles in width, and three hundred miles in
length, their labor was too swift to be
discriminating.
The great army-over the lands and into
the dwellings of the rich and poor alike,
through towns and cities-like q rowing
wave, swept, and paused, reveled, and sur
ged on. In the day time, the splendor, the
night. time, tho brilliance, the gloom, the
music, the joy and the slumber of the
camp.
Memorable the music that knocked the
moon" of November of the soil of Geor-
gia; sometimes triumphant march, some
times a glorious waltz. again an old air
stirring the heart alike to recollection and
to hope. Floating out from throats of
brass to the ears of soldiers in their blan-
kets and generals within their tents, these
tunes hRlloWed thieves to all who listened.
Sitting before his tent in the glow of
camp FIRE one evening, General Sherman
let his cigar go ont to listen TO an air that
q distant band was playing. The musi-
to one of his officers:
"Send an orderly to ask that band to
play that tune again"
A little while, and the band received the
word. The tune was 1.-THE Blue Juniata,"
with exquisite variations. Theb played
it again, even more beautifully than before.
Again it ceased, and then, off to the right,
nearly quarter of a mile away, the voices
of some soldiers took it up with words
The band, and still another band played
low accompaniment camp after camp be-
gan singing; the music of ''The Blue Ju-
niata" became, for few minutes, the ora
torio of half an army.
Back, along the whole wide pathway of
eye catches glimpses of scenes whose saw
age and poetic images an American, five
years ago, would have thought never could
have been revived from the romantic past.
Pictures swarm in fields and gleus, and by
the banks of rivers.
A halt ut high noon beside village
besieging of houses by the troops-soldiers
emerging from the door. ways and back.
yards, bearing coverlids. plate, poultry, and
pigs-bee-hiVes attacked, honey in the
hands and smearipg the faces of the boys
hundreds of soldiers poking hundreds of
bAyonets in the corners of yards and gar
dens after concealed treasure-here and
there shining, tinkling prize, aud shout
ing and scrambling, and merry division
of the spoils.' In the background, women
with praying hands aud beseeching lips,
UNDECIDED.
Night near railroad depot-a roar of
ires-a shouting of voices-thousands of
men ripping up ties and rails, heating
them, twisting them, casting them down
axes at work-the depot and buildings
and wood piles ablaze-a picturesque aRd
tamnltuous scenery of savage faces, lit by
a lurid CLEAN.
The march by dsy-winding columns,
glittering musket- barrels, glowing flags,
generals csvalcades-wagOn trains, strag'
glers, aud thousands of negroes in the rear,
stretching over miles-a country of level
fields, crossed by streams, broken occasions
ally by swamps and patches of forest-the
distant smoke of fires, ragged villages and
ragged novels by the way-at intervals a
woman's face peering out from door or
window, quickly closed-at times negro
family, yoluble with questions, thanking
God for the advent, and joining the march
with their kind in the rear.
The camp by nisht-a faint glow of
camp fires through miles of darkness, the
cooking of suppers OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES,
aud talk, card playing, smoking, music,
and the sound OF horses hoots near and
fairness tents, q murmur with good
- all rrlavv nj