The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1891-04-22

found them better than the muddy trenches
at Petersburg. Our rations though did not
improve in any way, or increase IN quaint.
". It vas tie same old starvation business
here as it was in the trenches.
slEEMANs VANDALISM
About this time Gen William Tccumsch
Sherman was far on the way Of Sherman 5
memorable march to the sea, memorable for
piuuder, arson, and murder. This valiant
God save the mark American general with
all the instincts of Il brutal savage had now
been for sometime gratifying his cowardly
and savage feloci:y in destroying all his
cowardly and vandal horde could notappro-
pirate to their own use. l have recently
read that sherman S father had touud some
thing great IN the nature and character OF
the savage TecumSeh. whose name is promi-
nent in American history for deeds OF bar
barity and cruelty, and named his son for
him, and il appears in his being named af-
ter this hated savage it transmitted to Shcr-
man IN good measure great deal OF the
instincts and characteristics oi that brutal
and bloodthirsty savage, for on his march
through Georgia and South Carolina he
showed all these IN many ways. lie told
the defenseless people through these States,
so 1t has been asserted on good authority,
that he would net only destroy their prop
erty then, but if the war continued 4 year
longer he would return and take their lives.
Would the savage Tecumseh have sad
more?
STARVED AND oUTNUMGEHED, NOT DEFEATED.
The Confederates around Richmond and
Petersburg We're aware of all this great Yam
kee generals brutal and inhpman warfare,
and this, coupled with the hardships they
had to suffer, made the matter indeed hard
to bear. Yes, and to be conscious of the
fact that they had not the power to mvenge
these wrongs Lees army Of not over forty
thousand starved and ragged soldiers was
confronted by a Yankee host outnulnberinS &
them five or six to one. for 1t was c!a.med
bv some of the Federals that Grant had an
army of two hundred and twenty-seven
thousand troops around Petersburg and
Richmond, and this number had been well
fed and we'll clothed all that hard and cold
winter that the ConfederateS had su!tcre |
so much through. 1t will always be remem-
bered that when Gen. Grant in his expert
ence in several hard battles a while after the
opening of the campaign Of 1864 saw that
he could not carry Lees position by assault
he fell to intrenching his vast hosts, and
notified his authorities at Washington that
he proposed tc fight it OFT on that line If 1t
took all the summer. Ii when writing this
part of his plan to his government be had
used the word starve instead OF light hs
would certainly have been entitled to be
called a great general. Had the Contedcr-
ates had the men and the chance generally
they had two years before, Grant and his
troops never would have been allowed to
stav in these trenches all summer, for the
Contederates would have pat the last Iank
out of the last ditch, and that in short or
der. As it was they We're not strong enough
to carry on offensive operations, bnt had Ia
act 90 the defensive. Under ali these try
ing Disadvantages the Confeaerates still
hoDel for the final success OF their arms,
and the cause they so CALAMITY had upheld
for now nearly four years.
GRAND REVIEW OF JouSsoNs DIVISION.
The few days the 23rl had been out OF
the trenches so passed, and the 24th OF
March had now been ushered in. On that
dav was ordered 4 review OF Gen. Bushrod
Johnsons division. Johson division was
composed of the brisadeS Of Oracle, Wise,
and Wallace, Alabama, Virginia, and SontlI
Carolina troops At the appointed hour the
23rd was in line, and Was soon on the field
of review with the other troops OF the di-
vision. The day was cloudy, and the wind
cold and cutting. The review lasted at least
four hours, and after all the man9uvres
pertaining to q busincss Of this kind were
over the troops marched to their respective
encampments quite late in the evening.
We wen. on the review hungry, and after
this maneuvering for four hoars We left for
our camp still hungrier We had had moth:
ing to eat since the evening before, and
very little then. About sunset we managed
to receive cur scant ratlons, consisting OF a
pint of yellow corn meal and uothing else,
not even little salt to put in the pint OF
meal. BY the time we had got this ration
and before we had time to cook 1t we We're
t,t I-e,
burg at moments notice.
That moments notice was not long in
reaching Us.