The Washington herald., 1915-01-24

the North in reasonably short time, but
the storms had held the shipping in the
harbors. However. on the whole. fair
| progress toward the desired end had
been made The Seventeenth Corps,
under Gen. Frank P. Blair, jr., had been
sent from Savannah to Beaufort by ship,
and thence had advanced inland to POGO
taligo. on the Charleston and Savannah
| Railroad, only fifty miles from the for
| mer city.
The Fifteenth Corps, under Gen. John
A. Logan, who had been in the North on
sick leave during the march to the sea,
| but who had rejoined his corps at Sa-
vannah. was moving to Pocotaligo by
| land. When those two corps should be
concentrated the entire right wing OF
Sherman's army. commanded by Gen.
Oliver o. Howard, would be on South
| Carolina soil.
| With the left wing. comprising the
Twentieth Corps, under Gen. A. s. Will
| Jams. and the Fourteenth under Gen. Jefr
C. Davis, across the river at Sisters
| Ferry, sherman would be in position to
move upon either Charleston or Augusta,
Ga. as he pleased. BY thus dividing his
| forces he managed to keep the Confed-
| crates mystifod as to his intended OBJ
| jective.
As a matter of fact. he had no inten-
tion of moving against either Augusta
or Charleston. Instead. he planned to
| march upon Columbia. the capital of
South Carolina. thence to Raleigh, y. c.,
and from there to some point on the sea-
| board or possibly directly across country
| to the rear of Petersburg. Va.
II was his design to cut through the
Carolinas a swath Of desolation and ruin
such as had taken the very heart out
Of Georgia.
Sherman's Act of VandaIIsm.
On January 70 the city of Savannah had
| been turned over by Gen. Sherman TO
i Gen. John 6. Foster. commanding the
Department Of the South. with headqusr-
| ters at Hilton Head, S. c. Gen. Cuvier
Growers division Of the Nineteenth
Corps. recently arrived from the James
River. was assigned to garrison the city,
and the troops OF Sherman's army re-
naming in the city prepared to move
either to PocOtaligO or to Sisters Ferry,
to join their proper organizations.
Two days later having finished up all
the work that was to be done. Sherman,
with his entire headquarters, officers,
clerks, orderlies. wagons and horses. en-
barked on a steamer for Beaufort On
the way up he touched at Hilton Head
| for short conference with Gen. Foster,
and then had proceeded on his way, land
ing at Beaufort fifty years ago today.
''On January "a" wrote Gen. Sherman
in his memoirs, Il started from Beaufort
with part of my stan. leaving the rest
to follow at leisure. rode across the pom
tOon bridge that spanned the channel be-
tween ii and the mainland, and thence
rode by Gardens Corners to a plantation
not far from ocotaligo, occupied by Gen.
Blair
There We found a house, with a ma
jestic avenue of live oaks, whose limbs
had been cut away by the troops for fire
wood, and desolation marked one OF
those splendid South Carolina estates
where the proprietors formerly had dis
pensed hospitality that distinguished the
old regime of that proud State.
Il slept on the floor Of the house but
the night was so bitter that | got up
by the fire several times. and when it
burned low l rckindled it with an old
mantel clock and the wreck OF a bed
stead which stood in the corner Of the
roof-the only act Of vandalism that
can recall done by myself personally dur
ing the war"
The following morning sherman rode to
POcotaligO, and there received reports
from Gen. SloCum telling of the unavoid-
able delays at Sisters Ferry. He found
that Gen. Howards wing was practical
" in readiness to move. The bulk OF
the Fifteenth Corps had come up from
Savannah by land, via the Union Cause
way. The men had experienced great
difficulty in marching, for the whole
country was flooded. and parts Of the
causeway were many feet under water.
Furthermore. the pontoon bridge across
the river at Savannah had broken away,
and one of the divisions that of Gen.
John NJ. Corse. had been marooned in
the city. 1t had abandoned attempts to
rejoin its corps at PoCotaligo and had
started up the Savannah River to cross
with the left wing and the cavalry at
Sisters Ferry.
1t was to be February l before the
things shaped themselves so that Sher-
man could give the final word that would
launch his forces into the heart of the
CaroInas.