Today in History:

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

Page 336 OPERATIONS IN N. C., S. C., S. GA., AND E. FLA. Chapter LIX.

to the Twelve-Mile Post and burned all of the road to the Fifteen-Mile Post; also sent a party to Cedar Creek, and destroyed the railroad bridge over that stream.

The total amount of destruction in those two days may be summed up as follows: 600 bales of cotton, 32 stacks of fodder, 1 saw-mill, 8 barracks, nine miles of railroad, 200 U-rails at Hopkins' Turnout, 2 tanks, 1 depot, 17 box-cars, 5 platform-cars, 2 railroad bridges, and 9 culverts, and captured about 65 head of mules, 8 horses, 2,000 pounds of meal and flour, and a large quantity of sale meat, cattle, sheep, &c.

On the 20th instant the command, in compliance with orders from corps headquarters, moved, via Hopkins' plantation, Traveler's Rest, and Muddy Springs, to camp on Cane Creek, where we joined the corps after an arduous march of twenty-one miles.

The following (or inclosed) is a list of the prisoners and deserters from the Confederate army picked up during the march. *

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOHN. M. CORSE,

Brevet Major-General.

Major MAX WOODHULL,

Assistant Adjutant-General, Fifteenth Army Corps.

HDQRS. FOURTH DIVISION, FIFTEENTH ARMY CORPS, Near Goldsborough, N. C., March 30, 1865.

COLONEL: In compliance with instructions I have the honor to submit the following report of the movements and operations of my command during the campaign just closed, beginning on the 28th of January and ending on the 24th of March, 1865:

In order of connect and complete the military history of the operations of this division from its occupation of Savannah, Ga., on the 21st day of December, 1864, to the present time, I would briefly state that from the day my command entered Savannah up to the 20th day of January it was engaged by heavy details, furnished daily, for fatigue duty in the city, besides one entire regiment for special duty, reporting to the chief quartermaster of the army. On the 20th of January, pursuant to orders from corps headquarters, I broke camp at an early hour, and moving through the city commenced crossing my troops on pontoons to an island in the Savannah River, preparatory to a movement across the main channel, and thence into South Carolina in the direction of Pocotaligo, but had succeeded in crossing only a portion of my command when the head of column came upon the rear of General Smith's division of this corps, whose trains and one brigade of infantry were still upon the island and unable to make the pontoons over the left channel of the river on account of the condition of the roads. At 5 p. m. General Smith's troops, still being unable to make the crossing, and a violent rain-storm having set in about midday and continued up to this hour without abatement, in compliance with instructions from the major-general commanding, I countermarched my division through the city and reoccupied the camps vacated in the morning, where I remained until the 27th instant, the heavy rains making the roads almost impracticable for the movement of army trains. During this interval I received instructions from you, in substance as follows: To move my command as soon as possible to Sister's Ferry, on the Savannah River, uniting there temporarily with the Left

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*Nominal list (omitted) shows 1 officer and 5 enlisted men.

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Page 336 OPERATIONS IN N. C., S. C., S. GA., AND E. FLA. Chapter LIX.