The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1865-01-12

for drowning mules. and to protect the ex-
tended train from dashes of the rebel caval-
ry for horsemen It had it's peculiar difficult
ties where the road would barely admit q
wagon. with tremendous guIlies On each side
your horse walking gingerly on . path foot
wide, heavy wagon wheel grinding along
on one side gully ten feet deep. on the
other, dark as pitch at that. sometimes your
path converged to . point where there was
no backing out, thsna leap ID the dark
trusting in the Lord and the horses footing
to stop short Of the bottomiessspit, but mus
Gle prevailed over mud and frost, and on the
Gath we reached Gordon on the railroad
from Macon to Savannah. The weather and
the roads improving, the plan now was to
amuse the enemy in Macon where be bad
concentrated oil his force, while the army
got we'll on the road to Savannah. taking the
general direction Of the railroad and utterly
destroying it as we went. The LIST Division
18th corps and Fitzpatrick kept the rebs in
Macon till the main army got start of 90
miles meeting no opposition; in doing this
they had sharp fight, repu!sing the. enemy
with heavy loss We reached the Oconee
river on the Goth without opposition, on the
goth the character Of the scenery changed,
up to this time the country was full of forage.
pork, sweet potatoes, etc., but here we
struck low. rolling ground, full Of swamps,
and covered with heavy pine forest and a.
most uninhabited; this continued for forty
miles till we struck the Ogechee river. We
then marched down it's course Is miles and
on the 7th Of December effected crossing.
our Brigade, (tto lst) had the advance, the
pontoons were laid quietly IN the morning,
and at noon the Cd iowa crossed IY advance.
After crossing cau<ewsy . quarter II q
mile in length, with deep sw,mp' on either
side lei out to where men could wade with.
ont swamping. the I'd and tn were immedi.
a,ely deployed IN vat knee deep. and al :
vanced rapidly on the enemy posted behind
rail barricades; the sharp and rapid fire Of
the skirmishers rifles on the right announced
that the I'd were engaged. they closed in
with cheer and advancing at . run were
soon clambering oyer the barricades, the reb-
els retreating in the direction of the railroad
station /; by shutdown we had possession OF
the station 10 miles from Savannah. On the
9th our Division had another affair at cross
roads 10 miles from the city, capturing one
piece OF artillery, on the 10th We drove the
enemy from our present position, and seem
to be settling down into > regular siege, the
place being completely invested !; ve are
separated from the rebel works nv deep
creek and swamp in which the tide has a
rise and fall Of seven or eight feet. The
only thing that was crossed either way a.
yet are cannon balls and few half drowned
contrabands escaping at low tide to our lines,
The batteries of both sides keep pounding
away to the great Jeopardy of envious spec
tators who wants to see the "hits," some OF
Il EN- occasionally feel them which is not
quite 50 pleasant. We are living at present
on the recollection Of the prime porkers and
sweet potatoes enjoyed on the march. toseth-
er with very small quantity Of corn meal.
We have mush, facetinusly termed pudding
for breakfast, buckle up our belts acouple
Of holes for dinner, and lie down and dream
.s-o '.''a,.S,s r'.,~ ..t.s r---I-A--- ~. sup
per. Tfthey don't hurry up we shall have
scanty Christmas fare. SIN.