Today in History:

369 Series I Volume XLIX-I Serial 103 - Mobile Bay Campaign Part I

Page 369 WILSON'S RAID - ALABAMA AND GEORGIA.

Division to march to Atlanta for the purpose of carrying out the terms of the convention, as well as to make such a disposition of his forces covering the country northward from Forsyth to Marietta, so as to secure the arrest of Jefferson Davis and party. I directed General Croxton, commanding the First Division, to distribute it along the line of the Ocmulgee connecting with the Fourth Division and extending southward to this place. Colonel Minty, commanding the Second Division, was directed to extend his troops along ten line of the Ocmulgee and Altamaha Rivers as far as Jacksonville. General McCook with about 500 men of his division was sent to Tallahassee, Fla., with orders to receive the surrender of the rebels in that State and to watch the country to the north and eastward. In addition to this, troops from the First and Second Divisions were directed to watch the Flint River crossings, and small parties were stationed at the principal stations from Atlanta to Eufaula, as well as at Columbus, West Point, and Talladega. By these means I confidently expected to arrest all large bodies of fugitives and soldiers, and by a thorough system of scouts hoped to obtain timely information of the movements of important personages. The pursuit and capture of Jefferson Davis have already been reported.* A. H. Stephens, Vice-President, and Mr. Mallory, Secretary of the Navy to the rebel Government, and B. H. Hill, Senator from Georgia, were arrested by General Upton's command and sent forward in accordance with the instructions of the Secretary of War.

By reference to the reports herewith it will be seen that since leaving the Tennessee River the troops under my command have marched an average of 525 miles in twenty-eight days, captured 5 fortified cities, 23 stand of colors, 288 pieces of artillery, and 6,820 prisoners, including 5 generals; have captured and destroyed 2 gun-boats, 99,000 stand of small-arms, 7 iron-works, 7 foundries, 7 machine-shops, 2 rolling-mills, 5 collieries, 13 factories, 4 niter works, 1 military university, 3 C. S. arsenals and contents, 1 navy-yard and contents, 5 steam boats, 35 locomotives, 565 cars, 3 railroad bridges, and immense quantities of quartermaster's and commissary and ordnance stores, of which no account could be taken, and have paroled 59,878 prisoners, including 6,134 commissioned officers. Our total loss was 13 officers and 86 men killed, 39 officers and 559 men wounded, and 7 officers and 21 men missing. I cannot close this report without calling attention to the remarkable discipline, endurance, and enthusiasm displayed throughout the campaign. Men, officers, regiments, brigades, and divisions seemed to vie with each other in the promptitude and cheerfulness with which they obeyed every order. The march from Montgomery to this place, a distance of 215 miles, was made between the 14th and 20th of April, and, involving the passage of the Chattahoochee River at two important points, both strongly fortified and well defended, is especially worthy of notice. The destruction of iron-works, foundries, arsenals, supplies, ammunition, and provisions in Alabama and Georgia, as well as the means of transportating the same to both the armies under Taylor and Johnston, was an irreparable blow to the rebel cause. The railways converging at Atlanta, and particularly those by which the immense supplies of grain and meat were drawn from Southwestern Georgia and Central Alabama, were firmly under our control. The final collapse of the entire Southern Confederacy east of the Mississippi

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*See p.515.

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24 R R-VOL XLIX, PT I


Page 369 WILSON'S RAID - ALABAMA AND GEORGIA.