The New York herald., 1864-11-28
Important from sherma n's l. expedition
The Release OF Twenty Thousand
Union Prisoners.

Union Prisoners.
According to the report brought by the
Herman Livingston, which arrived yesterday at
Annapolis, Sherman had stopped the exchange
of prisoners at Savannah by cutting tie rail
road between that city aud Millen, and was
within six hours march OF the stockades where
our soldiers were confined. 1t is, therefore,
fair to suppose that bis cavalry had succeeded
IN releasing from t,oenty to t,oenty.frc thousand
ofour gallant soldiers aoho sre held prisoners Of
,oar by the rebels. This is one of the great
triumphs Of Sherman's brilliant movement.
The latest intelligence vouchsafed us from
the rebels of Sherman's progress shows that his
course is steadily and resistlessy onward;
that from the very heart OF Georgia he has
been sweeping, almost without show OF oppo-
sition, war path sixty miles in width, and
through some Of the richest counties Of the
State, abounding in corn and swarming with
negroes. Considering that all our news of his
movements is from rebel sources, since, swing
ing loose from his moorings at Atlanta, he
turned to the eastward, and that the rebels
naturally put the best face upon their situation
that they can, the reports which thus far they
have given us Of the events Of his march are
all that could be desired They are not
clouded by any check to his progress, nor by
any appearances or prospect of serious resist
ance at any point. On the contrary, while the
rebel chiefs at Richmond are calling upon the
people Of Georgia to bring out their militia
reserves and to lay waste the country in
advance of the daring invader, the Georgians
are hotly denouncing Davis as having betrayed
them to their destruction.
Accustomed to rest their calculations OF our
army movements upon the necessity Of we'll
filed and fortified base of supplies, the rebel
chiefs were never so completely deceived as in
the present movement OF Sherman. They
were sure, month ago, that, as Sherman had
but forty days supplies at Atlanta, it would be
only necessary to move Hood around upon his
communications with Chattanooga, and thence
between Chattanooga and Nashville, to compel
"ths Yankees bag and baggage, TO fall back
into Tennessee to obtain provisions, and to
save their bacon. JEFF. Davis boastcd to the
people Of Georgia that he had come down
among them to put this effective scheme in
motion. To Davis, therefore, we owe our
thanks for the removal Of Hoods army on q
wild goose chase into Western Tennessee, SO
as to enable Thomas to hold him there. while
Sherman, with the main grand division Of his
forces, is marching for Augusta, Savannah and
Charleston, without any regular armed orga-
rizatlon to oppose him. Sherman had dis
covered from his foraging expeditions around
Atlanta that Central Georgia was filled with
supplies; that her endless cstton fields Of 1860
had become her inviting cornaelds Of 1864, for
the subsistence OF the rebel armies.
1t is in making those cornfelds his base Of
supplies that Sherman has completely turned
the tables upon JEFF. Davis. 1t is a regu-
lar Napoleonic movement, which would
have been impossible to a grea: army
in any Of the cotton States during
the first two years Of the war. II was not until
the main Western armies Of the enemy were
dislodged from Kentucky and Tennessee, and
cut of from the corn and cattle Of the west
side Of the Mississippi, that the intervening cot
ton States were devoted 70 the subsistence Of
"tbe confederacJ." But under this necessity,
Georgia in the spring of this year planted such
an ample breadth OF corn and sweet potatoes,
as to provide literally not only for her own
people and armies, and border State refugees,
negroes and all, but also for Lees army at
Richmond. Sberman's march covers an impor-
tant section OF the State from which these sup
plies are drawn, and cuts or all the rest. lie
will leave not a single line OF railway oom-
munication between Richmond and Georgia,
nor q single line between Lees army on the
Jam es river, and that OF Hood on the Ten
nessee.
Hence the panic and CONSERVATION which
prevail st Richmond d; hence the cries from
that doomed city to the people OF Georgia to
destroy their own subsistence in order to
starye ont sherman. This is their last chance;
but es i. involves their own destruction. no
fears need be entertained that they will adopt
IT, They may burn their cotton on hand Of
the old crops Of 1861 and 1862 on Sherman's
approach, but they will no, burn their corn