The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1865-04-22
saERMAN's GRAND MARCH.

EDITOR dAWK-EYE:-d0vl0X closed
another eventful march In the good Provi-
|dence OF God, perhaps . few of the promi-
Inent incidents may not be uninterestinx to
the readers of the Hdrk-Ege.
FROM SAVANNAH TO poCorAL1ao, 3. G.
Our command (3i Div, 18th A. C.) LEFT
Savannah on the morning Of the 18th Jam
Iuary. The l7:h Corps, and tine lat Division
Iof the 18th had gone by transports to Beau
fort, s. G.. before. The delightful weather
we bad been having while 1t Savannah,
Icame tO II sudden termination the morning
We left there. We crossed the Savannah
river opposite the city on ponloons. We
had three OF these to cross before we reach.
led the main land-the ''sacred," or rather,
saturated soil Of South Carolina. The river
Opposite the city Is divided by very large
Iis!And, (Hutchin's) the farther channel be.
ling called the ''Back River"
FOr about six miles after crossing the
|river, the road runs through low bottom
Iof marshy land, laid Off in large rice plan
[tations, projected from the tides by levees,
land flooded when necessary, ilom the
river, by means OF dykes. These leveee
answer the purposes Of roads to the interior
lcountry. And ( may aid. that these are
1.-The only roads. While these answer ali
the purposes Of travel, and the little COM
merce>had with the interior, you can read
lily imagine that, ii once flooded from the
5flveIs ny SN0 OkcuAU8 Va Au0 61soOS q
large army train would find it - hard
road to traver'-so at lexst thought the Let
Brigade Of our Division. We (the 2d) wore
fortunate enough to steal . march on the
|rebels, and get beyond the rice fields to
THE wooded country before they bethought
Them to open the dood.gates of their river
las we'll as their wrath upon us.
But the LIST Brigade was less fortunate.
When midway the passage. the rebs lei
Sa,kA non
1.-The earth like that big 'sfresh' they once
had in Noah's time, and ere they could
reach terra 1rNsa they WGso floundering In
|tnud aud water, very m,scn iss- the Cond1.
lion Of the fellow who sad .'Well, would
swear, only / feel that l couldn't do the
|thing Justice" Well, ito make . long
|story short, !" the LIST were compelled to re-
turn to Savannah, and come by transports
|t<, Beaufort, leaving our Brigade the only
|ono on that road. Fortunately. however,
!,he rebs were not In condition to molest
Jus, and we passed through without "'' en-
At New River, which Is only some. eight
|or ten niles from Savannah. We halted =
Idav. waiting the construction nf Cr'dge.
which the rebs had destroyed believe the
day before.
Ar have intimated. the weather was
sfoul-rain every day. The surface OF the
ground il SO little s.covo tue OCEAN Ieve,,
|that. although the soi' Is almost pure sand,
Il he falling rain does Mt slnk away W one
would ut tirst sigh. suppose. ua one oc-
!!casion We casnped for me night on a plsos
lof ground 80 Fat that we could not drs;n
,u- tents. anu it rsined hard si' the after. at..r-
inopn aud the greater portion cf the nlsns
We had here pew experiment III .ne isOn-
|,oon line. Two of our officers bad large
rubber blanket, very thick and impervi
|ous. which they spread upon the gsonnd,
raising tho four sides about four 1ncnes M
edges. In this per or pontoon boat they
|n, ade their neat and slept dehantty, a..
though the impotert food poured arouoo
II nd through their tent. .
At New River We struck the, "arees
swamp" vnioh. thsucefortA, We scarcely
ever lost sight Of during the rensisdse Of
|the campaign. Our men sometimes march
led thEc19h these swamps knee deep -
|wasss, a6ousiag. laughing and tsknGs -