to set a an example for the other officers.
Sherman described vividly the initial acts of
destruction on the march. “The whole hori-
zon was lurid with the bonfires of rail-ties,”
he wrote, “and groups of men all night were
carrying the heated rails to the nearest trees,
and bending them around the trunks.”
Sherman thought the destruction of the rail-
way particularly important and liked to per-
sonally oversee the effort. XIV Corps
camped at Covington the second day out
with Union troops marching to band music
with colors unfurled. Recalled Sherman,
“The white people came out of their houses
to behold the sight, in spite of their deep
hatred of the invaders.” The slaves, biding
their time, kept mostly to themselves.
On the left, XX Corps entered Madison,
which lay on the rail line linking Augusta
with Atlanta. This movement by Slocum’s
wing conveyed the false impression that
Sherman’s next target was Augusta, indi-cating that Sherman was marching to link
up with Grant in Virginia. On the right,
Howard’s wing was moving more or less in
a straight line toward Macon. After tak-
ing Macon he could pivot left toward
Milledgeville to cover the move to
Augusta. But rather than move on
Augusta, XIV Corps pivoted right toward
Milledgeville, then the capital of Georgia.
For the next week the army marched
without incident, encountering no orga-
nized resistance whatsoever. Slocum’s left
wing converged on Milledgeville, entering
the state capital on November 23—exactly
one year after Sherman’s less than stellar
performance at Missionary Ridge over-
looking Chattanooga. Southern civilians
were easier to overawe than Maj. Gen.
Patrick Cleburne’s veterans had been at
Missionary Ridge. ‘The first stage of our
journey was, therefore, complete, and
absolutely successful,” said Sherman.
After destroying all military facilities and
convening at the capital, a mock assembly
was held to repeal Georgia’s orders of
secession and rejoin the Union. The leftwing marched out of Milledgeville on
November 24. “I was not present at these
frolics,” Sherman wrote “but heard of
them at the time and enjoyed the joke.”
While Sherman was at Milledgeville,
Confederate Lt. Gen. William Hardee, one
of the Georgia governor’s advisers, scraped
together 3,000 poorly trained state militia
and attacked Howard’s rear guard at Gris-
woldville, on the Central Georgia Railroad
nine miles north of Macon. Howard’s vet-
erans were well positioned on a hill with
their flanks protected by swampland and
a clear line of fire over breastworks to the
front. The Georgia militia made three
charges, each one easily devastated by the
skilled Union infantry, before retreating to
Macon and leaving 600 casualties on the
field. Union losses were one-tenth that
number. Upon examining their victims, the
Federal troops saw with a mixture of sor-
row and regret that the attackers had con-
sisted almost entirely of old men and boys.
At Milledgeville, an even more horrible
sight confronted the Federals. While they
were celebrating Thanksgiving Day withUnion cavalry under Brig. Gen. Judson Kilpatrick
drive away Maj. Gen. Joseph Wheeler’s harassing
Confederates at Waynesville, Georgia, on Decem-
ber 2, 1864.CWQ-Sum16 Sherman's March_Layout 1 4/20/16 4:40 PM Page 71