Today in History:

254 Series I Volume XLIV- Serial 92 - Savannah

Page 254 OPERATIONS IN S. C., GA., AND FLA. Chapter LVI.

a slight demonstration. It was driven off precipitately by the Sixty-first Ohio Veteran Volunteers, which constituted my rear guard. At 4 p. m. my command marched through the village of Eatonton. At 9 p. m., the column having been tediously delayed, I discovered, upon investigation, that about sixty wagons had become almost hopelessly stalled in a sort of quagmire. My troops were at once put to work lightening out these wagons and were thus employed for about two hours, when the march was resumed. My brigade encamped six miles from Eatonton at midnight, having marched ten miles and a half. At 7. 15 a. m. on the 22nd my march was continued. My command moved in the rear of the division and was charged with the protection of about 400 wagons. The Weather had now cleared up, but the column still moved slowly. My brigade did not cross Little River until 12. 30 p. m. From that point the march was resumed again at 3 p. m. on the direct road to Milledgeville. My brigade marched into Milledgeville at 7. 30 p. m. Passing through the town, and crossing the Oconee River on a wooden bridge, it encamped on the left bank at 9 p. m., having marched seventeen miles. On the 23rd my brigade remained in camp near the Oconee bridge. This day's rest enabled the foraging parties to collect a considerable quantity of provisions and a number of horses and mules.

At 6 a. m. on the 24th my brigade resumed its march, leading the division and corps. Being charged with the duty of advance guard it was unencumbered by the trains. Our line of march pursued the Oconee through a sparsely settled, broken, piney country. My column crossed Beaver Dam at 11 a. m., and at 12. 15 p. m. crossed Town Creek. At 3 p. m. my brigade crossed Gum Creek and at 4. 30 p. m. encamped on the ridge beyond. The distance marched on this day was about fifteen miles. On the 25th, at 6 a. m., my brigade continued its march, again being the vanguard of the division and corps. Bluff Creek was passed at 7, and the column reached Hebron Post-Office at 8 and Buffalo Creek at 9 a. m. Over Buffalo Creek, a wide, swampy stream, was a series of bridges, nine in number, all of which had been destroyed by the enemy. According to directions, I detailed a regiment, the One hundred and first Illinois Volunteers, to assist in their reconstruction. While this work was going on, the rebel cavalry made a demonstration on the pickets on the left bank of the stream. At the instance of the general commanding division, I at once dispatched five companies of the One hundred and first Illinois Volunteers to re-enforce the picket-line. The enemy at once withdrew, and the bridges were completed without further annoyance. The remainder of my brigade crossed Buffalo Creek at 3. 30 p. m., and the entire command, excepting the five companies of the One hundred and first Illinois Volunteers left to cover a side road, pursued its march toward Sandersville. Having ascended a plateau three miles from he creek lively skirmishing was overheard toward the front, which proved to be the cavalry advance engaging the rebel forces under Wheeler. As the enemy appeared to be charging down the road I was directed by the general commanding division to throw my command immediately forward into line, extending across and covering the road. My troops came up promptly on the double-quick, and were in a very short space of time advancing in a steady line of battle. Contemporaneously with this movement a line of skirmishers, consisting of two companies from the Thirty-first Wisconsin Volunteers, and two from the Eighty-second Ohio Veteran Volunteers, had been thrown forward, covering the front of the brigade. My line of battle had not advanced but a short distance when, it not being deemed necessary to push it any farther, it was, by direction of the


Page 254 OPERATIONS IN S. C., GA., AND FLA. Chapter LVI.