The National tribune., 1900-08-30

saw. Big and little, old and young,
trudsed along with us, with the hope of
seeing Massa Linkum. This was sample
way we served every plantation we came
across where we knew the owner thereof
was in any way connected with the Con-
federacy.
At NIillen, q station some 30 or 60 miles
from Savannah, the road branches off to
Augusta, and Sherman stopped there long
enough to make the Augustians think he
was "after them" Since the war the
question why Gen. Sherman did not go to
Augusta instead of Savannah when he
made his grand march through Georgia
has been SO often asked and commented
upon that T. A. Stovall, editor of the
Augusta Chronicle, wrote Gen. Sherman on
the subject, and / have copy of the Gen
erals reply before me, which think will
interest the readers of THE NATIONAL
TRIBUNE. 1t is as follows:
sHERMAN's EXPLANATION.
"My Dear Sir: am just back from g
visit to my daughter, who resides at Rose
mont, near Philadelphia, and find your
letter Of the 18th The march to the sea
from Atlanta was resolved on after Hood
had got we'll on his way to Nashville. L
then detached Gen. Thomas-with force
cember, 1864, very handsomely and con-
clusivcly did. Still l had left very re-
spectacle army, and resolved to JON
Grant at Richmond. The distance was
/ 600 miles, and prudence dictated base
at Savannah or Port Royal. Our enemy
had garrisons at Macon and Augusta. L
figured on both and passed between TO Sa-
vannah. Then starting northward the
same problem presented itself in Augusta
and Charleston. l figured on both, but
| passed between. / did not want to drive
out their garrisons ahead Of me at the
crossings of the Santee, Catawba, Pedee,
| Cape Fear, etc. The moment / passed
Columbia the factories, powder mills and
the old stuff accumulated at Augusta were
| lost to the only two Confederate armies
| left-Lee's and HOOd's-so if you have n
military mind you will see ] made better
/ use of Augusta than if | had captured it
with all its stores, for which had no use.
| used Augusta as a buffer Its garrison
was where it helped me. If the people Of
Augusta think sighted them in the Win
ter of '64'G5 by reason of personal friend
shin formed in 1914 they are mistaken, or
if they think / made Il mistake in strategy
let them say so, and with the President IS
consent j think / can send a detachment
of 100000 or so of Sherman's Runners
and their descendants, who will finish up
the job without charging Uncle Sam a
cent. The truth is, these incidents come
back to me in a humorous vein. or course
the civil war should have ended with
Vicksburg and Gettysburg. Every sensi.
BILE man on earth must have seen there
could be but one result. The leaders OF
the South took good care not to die in the
last ditch, and left brave men like Walker
Adams and Pat Cleburne to do that
Yours truly, w. I. SHERMAN"
APPROACHING SAVANNAH.
. So you see that while they were pre-
, pairing to resist him at Augusta he wa.
marching his main army on Savannah
; and there we arrived on Dec. II, 1864.
We had hard work before us digging
approaches toward the enemy's works
ZGzags and rifle pits were erected at nigh
and in q few days we were very close t
their main line.
On bitter-cold night our entire brigad
was noiselessly hustled out of our warn
couches Ii. e. holes filed with leaves) an,
drawn up in mass TO charge fort in ou
front. The only approach to II was ,
; narrow causeway. Some scouting wa
] done by the officers in charge, and the
came to the conclusion that ''the game wa
: not worth the candle" but for over al
hour we stood shivering with the cold, an
e you could hear the teeth chattering on al
t sides. We were glad to retire TO our riff
S pits, bit were admonished to be ready a
9 moments notice to turn out. There wa
h very little sleep for us, and while we wer
G very anxious to get into Savannah we di
d not care to go by the route that was Pre-
e posed that night
Our rations at this time consisted most
e ly of boiled rice, and as we were close (
b the river we very frequently made excuI
I sions across to the Carolina shore for fol-
d age, but came back with very little bu
J.. rice.
l There was great deal of grumblin
b about food among the men, and one da
when Gen. Geary passed along the lin
: the boys yelled, "Hardtack, hardtack.
in for thn h.
e dered him to call the men into line, an