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220 Series I Volume XLVII-I Serial 98 - Columbia Part I

Page 220 OPERATIONS IN N. C., S. C., S. GA., AND E. FLA. Chapter LIX.


Numbers 11. Report of Major General John A. Logan, U. S. Army, commanding Fifteenth Army Corps, of operations January 7 - March 31.


HEADQUARTERS FIFTEENTH ARMY CORPS,
Goldsborough, N. C., March 31, 1864.

CAPTAIN: I have the honor to submit the following report of the operations of this command during the past campaign:

In accordance with instructions contained in paragraph 2, Special Field Orders, Numbers 7, current series, headquarters Department and Army of the Tennessee, dated Savannah, Ga., January 7, 1865, preliminary orders were issued directing that the corps should be held in readiness to move from Savannah to Beaufort by transports, and that the First Division should be moved to Fort Thunderbolt preparatory to embarkation. During this period the defenses of Savannah were being constructed, and as the Seventeenth Army Corps had moved from the city heavy details for working parties to push the work to completion were made upon this corps, and beside the whole strength of my pioneer force I had 3,000 men at work on the fortifications, besides 1,000 men on duty with the chief quartermaster of the military division.

On the 9th ultimo the First Division, Brevet Major-General Woods commanding, moved to Fort Thunderbolt, and commenced embarking on the morning of the 10th. Knowing the anxiety of the general commanding to have my command concentrated at Beaufort as soon as possible, I had ordered General Woods to seize every opportunity to transport his troops, and that general had commenced embarking even before the whole of the transportation of the Seventeenth Corps had been shipped. The character of the vessels used for transporting the troops and trains of the corps greatly impeded the movement, for although of sufficient capacity to accommodate large numbers of men it was necessary to sling our animals and dismount and take to pieces our wagons before they could be loaded; but by building long wharves out into the stream the embarkation was greatly facilitated. Things had sufficiently progressed, however, with the embarkation of the First Division to move the Second Division to Fort Hunderbolt on the morning of the 14th ultimo, and General Hazen was instructed to follow General Woods as rapidly as possible. On the 16th I received a dispatch from the commanding general of the army, dated Beaufort, January 15, 1865, informing me that the movement on Pocataligo had been perfectly successful, resulting in the discomfiture of the enemy and in his retreat, and that General Blair from that position had been ordered to reconnoiter back toward Savannah, and further directing me to co-operate with him with all the mounted force I could raise, pushing out from the city along the Union Causeway in the direction of Grahamville and Coosawhatchie. The reconnaissance was designed to ascertain the practicability of that route for troops and wagons. On the same day my mounted force, consisting of the Twenty-ninth Missouri Mounted Infantry and a detachment from the Seventh Illinois Mounted Infantry, crossed the Savannah and pushed out to join General Blair's forces. Colonel Gage, in his report of the reconnaissance, confirmed the impression previously formed as to the availability of that route to Pocotaligo, and in accordance with instructions received from the commanding general in a communication from Lieutenant-Colonel Strong, chief of staff, bearing date Savannah, Ga., January 17, 1865, the further embarkation of my command for Beaufort was sus-


Page 220 OPERATIONS IN N. C., S. C., S. GA., AND E. FLA. Chapter LIX.