a feast, their meal was interrupted by the
arrival of several escaped prisoners from
the Confederate prison camp at Ander-
sonville, which lay 80 miles to the south-
west. The sight of the walking skeletons
aroused rage and bitterness in Sherman’s
men, who were furious that their com-
rades had been allowed to slowly die
from starvation in the midst of what was
clearly rich farmland. The sight hardened
the Federals’ hearts and made their
destructive work that much easier to
commit. Once again, Sherman commit-
ted his wishes to paper, issuing standard
orders for his bummers “to forage liber-
ally on the country. To this end, each
brigade commander will organize a good
and sufficient foraging party, under the
command of one or more discreet offi-
cers, who will gather, near the route trav-
eled, corn or forage of any kind, meat of
any kind, vegetables, corn-meal, or what-
ever is needed by the command, aiming at
all times to keep in the wagons at least
ten days’ provisions for his command,
and three days’ forage.”
Both the left and right wings tackednearly due east, Slocum’s left aiming for
Millen, Howard’s right for Louisville. By
this maneuver Sherman once again used
Augusta as a foil to fool the Confederates.
East of Louisville lay Waynesboro, with a
direct rail link to Augusta. While the
march maintained its standard 15 miles
per day, Sherman this time faced organized
resistance in the form of Joseph Wheeler
and his 3,000 cavalry. To counter Wheeler,
Sherman transferred Kilpatrick’s cavalry
from the right to the left wing. Wheeler
daily harassed Howard’s wing, skirmish-
ing constantly with Kilpatrick’s cavalry.
Kilpatrick gradually pushed Wheeler back
through Waynesboro by December 2. The
next day Sherman marched into Millen
with XVII Corps. Slocum and XX Corps
were four miles north and XIV Corps was
a further 10 miles north demonstrating
against Augusta. This completed the sec-
ond leg of Sherman’s journey. He was two-
thirds of the way to Savannah.
Sherman now pivoted left, heading
straight for the Georgia coast. There could
be little doubt now that Savannah was his
ultimate target. Within the city GeneralHardee, whom Sherman called “a compe-
tent soldier,” rallied the populace and dug
an intricate series of earthworks to defend
against attack. The corps converged on
Savannah, arriving at its outskirts on
December 9 and 10. Having avoided a
frontal assault on Atlanta, Sherman had
no intention of launching one on Savan-
nah. He did detach one division to take
Fort McAllister, on Ossabaw Sound,
which was preventing him from linking up
with naval vessels lying offshore with new
supplies for the Federal troops. The fort
was taken by direct assault, under Sher-
man’s eye, by Sherman’s old 2nd Division,
which he had commanded at Shiloh.
Watching alongside Howard from the roof
a nearby rice mill, Sherman exulted,
“They’re on the parapet! They took it,
Howard. I’ve got Savannah!”
Sherman made contact with the fleet,
boarded the steamer Dandelion,and sent
a brief message to Secretary of War Edwin
Stanton, the first anyone in the North had
heard from Sherman in a month. Sherman
still had the ultimate capture of Savannah
to think about. On December 17 he sent aCWQ-Sum16 Sherman's March_Layout 1 4/20/16 4:40 PM Page 72