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This Week in Georgia Civil War History
This Week in Georgia Civil War History
Jan. 8, 1865: A Georgia soldier who had lost his left arm in the war, but could not get what was due him from the government, wrote to Georgia Governor Joseph E. Brown, asking for help.
"I embrace this opportunity of writing a few lines to you as I [explain the] misery in my present condition. On the 4th day of March 1862, you called on Georgia for volunteers to go to the field of battle, and, as I thought my services was needed in the field and every other man's that was able to bear arms, I volunteered and soon was sent to Virginia. [I] went through all of the battles with the 45th Georgia without ever receiving a furlough until the 5th day of May, 1864. I was wounded in the left arm, caused me to lose the use of it entirely. On the 6th day of June, I received a furlough at the hospital in Richmond and came to Georgia. Being without family or parents, I was compelled to pay board. On the 1st of October I went back to Virginia. [I] had paid out all the money I had and left me $100 in debt to pay when I could. On the 2nd day of November, I was retired and made my way back to Georgia.
". . . Last week, the 1st of January, I went to Macon to draw my pay and some clothing but clothing was refuse[d] to let me have. They was due me for clothing last year $49. They refuse[d] to pay that and also my computations for rations. They paid me $36 wages and this I was compelled to pay out for a pair of shoes, for I was barefooted and clothes I am without and have not the means to buy with. When I cannot get the money that is due me from the government and if I had it all it would not buy clothing at the present prices.
"I wish to ask you what is to become of such men as I that is disabled and cannot get what is due them from the government. I cannot work for a living with one hand. Times is so no one won't hire a overseer. And I wish to know what I am to do, if I can look to Georgia for help or have I got to turn out in the world. These times are [hard], after fighting in this cruel war until I was ruined for life, when I had nothing in the world to fight for but myself, without parents or relation or property of any kind, though I considered it my duty to fight for the country, and I did so until I was disabled. Since that time it looks like the world has forsaken me and cares not for a man no longer than he is able for the battlefield. . . .I hope you will adopt some plan that I may draw [w]hat is due me or some plan that I may get some clothing without turning out in the world a beggar or being sent to the poor house. I will close, hoping that you will consider my condition and let me hear from you soon."
Source: Mills Lane, Georgia: History written by Those who lived It (Savannah: Beehive Press, 1995), pp. 179-180.
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A Georgia soldier in Virginia wrote home to his wife, describing his meager New Year's meal, and asking her to not send him any more clothing, but to save it for herself and their son. Soon after he wrote this letter he would get a furlough to come home for a visit.
"...I forgot to tell you about our New Years dinner. We got it on the 4th inst. I believe. It was nearly a failure. I got a little piece of turkey and two small pieces of meat and about four good mouthfuls of lightbread. It was too large an undertaking to try to give the whole army such a dinner. ...
I am sorry you are making me a coat and heartily wish you had used the cloth for Henry and yourself. Do not make me anymore. I want you to have it for I can draw here and you have a hard task to cloth yourself and family without me. I am so sorry..."
Source: Jeffrey C. Lowe and Sam Hodges (eds.), Letters to Amanda: The Civil War Letters of Marion Hill Fitzpatrick, Army of Northern Virginia (Macon: Mercer University Press, 1998), p. 197.
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A young Georgia woman wrote to her fiance in Virginia, hoping he would get the letter with communication lines and railroads so uncertain; she told him of Sherman reaching the coast and of her desire for the war to end soon.
"...Sure enough Sherman has reached the coast. I believe he can go any where he pleases. Some predict that he will take Augusta next. I hope this letter will go through first. I'm about to despair of our ever gaining our independence. We have had so many reverses of late. I still think this spring, the struggle will be decided. Let our fate be what it may, I want to see it. I wish the suspense to be done away with. ..."
Source: Clyde G. Wiggins III (ed.), My Dear Friend: The Civil War Letters of Alva Benjamin Spencer, 3rd Georgia Regiment, Company C (Macon, Mercer University Press, 2007), p. 178.
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A Georgia soldier who was wounded and captured in the Gettysburg campaign wrote home to his wife, hoping to hear from her as well, and assuring her that he was alright.
"...It seems that communication with the South by Flags of Truce has been resumed. We are anxiously awaiting the first mail after a deprivation for months. May I not hope that your dear handwriting will greet my eye?
More than half a year has elapsed since I have heard directly from you. ...
Do not be uneasy about mt health and comfort. Providence has dealt kindly by me. I will not suffer more than I can cheerfully and patiently endure. I have been quite uneasy about you and yours. May God bless and preserve you! ..."
Source: Anita B. Sams (ed.), With Unabated Trust: Major Henry McDaniel's Love Letters from Confederate Battlefields as Treasured in Hester McDaniel's Bonnet Box (The Historical Society of Walton County, Inc., 1977), pp. 213-214.
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Jan. 9, 1865: The Richmond Times Dispatch printed an editorial very critical of Union General William T. Sherman and the mayor of Savannah, but very appreciative of the people of Georgia on the whole.
We publish at full length to-day the orders of Sherman on taking possession of Savannah. They are remarkable in one respect. They are all mildness and conciliation, evincing, on the part of Lincoln, either a change of policy with regard to what he considers a conquered city, or a determination to profess a desire to conciliate, in order to justify himself in the eyes of the world for the employment of harsh measures hereafter. His policy may be even more profound than that. Having tried severity, having tried cruelty, having tried oppression everywhere else, and having found that it has nowhere succeeded, he may wish to blind the eyes of the rest of the Confederation by the appearance of lenity, in order that they may be the more easily induced to submit to his mercy. Be the design what it may - and that some design, and a very deep one, is concealed under these orders, does not admit of a doubt - Sherman seems to have changed his character as completely as the serpent changes his skin with the approach of spring. Formerly he laid it down as an axiom not to be disputed than a rebel had no right - that the very air he breathed was his, not by right, but by permission - that his life was forfeited, and that its prolongation depended entirely upon the will of the conqueror. The cruel answer which he gave at Vicksburg when the starving inhabitants applied to him for some relief will long be remembered by them, and will form a damning record of atrocity against him and the Government that employed him in the pages of the future historian. The cruelty which he exercised at Atlanta, and the ferocity with which he desolated Georgia along a path measuring sixty miles in width, have no parallel in European history, and more closely resembles the career of Hyder Ali when he invaded the Carnatic than any other occurrence of modern times. But all this is changed. Sherman, without opposition, has come into possession of a large and rich city. There is no circumstance to irritate him. His march was unopposed, his entry triumphal, his reception flattering, and everything conspiring to put him in a high, good humor with himself and with those over whom he now extends his sceptre. His repose, however, is the repose of the tiger. Let him once taste blood - let him once meet with opposition - let the planters of Georgia once fail to send in their cotton - or the people at large decline to trade with the enemy in possession of their capital - and they will soon find that his heart is not softened or his savage instincts changed.
Apparently, Mayor Arnold is of this last opinion. The name of Arnold, highly respectable as it is in Europe, where it has been borne by more than one person of distinction in arms, in literature, and in science, seems, on this continent, destined to be linked with perpetual infamy. An Arnold was the solitary traitor of the old revolution. An Arnold is the first person in office of this who has basely gone over to the enemy. We publish this man's address to-day.
We believe that the people of Georgia are as brave and as high-spirited as any people whatever. No troops have fought better in this war than her's, and none have shown higher and greater qualities. The names of her officers are household words in Virginia. Hardee and Gordon, and a hundred others - where are there prouder names? The heart of the people is right, and they will spurn, we are persuaded, the recommendation of the Mayor of Savannah. As for the meeting, it has been said to have consisted of seventeen men - Englishmen, Yankees, owners of cotton, and speculators generally. If it consisted of ten times as many, it would be no argument to prove a disloyal disposition in Georgia. It was the very thing that it was to be presumed the enemy would do. Having full possession, what was easier for him than to get up a meeting, and to put precisely such sentiments in the months of its members as he wished? And what could help his cause so much as to make the Confederacy believe that they had been deserted by so large a population? This meeting, then, proves nothing, except what all knew before; that there are traitorous and weak kneed people in Savannah, as there are here, and in every other Confederate city. We shall not believe that Georgia means to slink out of the Confederacy in this shameful way. We shall not believe it for the sake of her brave soldiers and the noble officers that lead them. Sherman has made the Mayor of Savannah slander the people of the State. That is all.
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Jan. 10, 1865: Despite the dire military and economic situations, The Confederate Union of Milledgeville still remained defiant, boldly claiming the South was not "whipped."
The Southern Recorder of Milledgeville expressed similar sentiments, harkening back to the tribulations suffered by patriots during the Revolutionary War.
The Richmond Times Dispatch printed a brief report on the condition of some of the people who had left Georgia, supposedly under Union protection.
Dreadful.
--A prisoner from Chattanooga describes the condition of these families that left Georgia and sought Yankee protection as terrible. Many women and children have died from cold--four or five thousand of them being huddled together in Chattanooga, with no wood and little to eat. There is nothing but lamentations and vain regrets from morning till night. |
Jan. 11, 1865: United States Secretary of War Edwin Stanton arrived in Savannah to meet with Union General William T. Sherman - not over military strategy but rather in response to concerns over Sherman's treatment of freed blacks. Word had reached the North that during the March to the Sea, a Union general had caused the death of hundreds of freed slaves at Ebenezer Creek, when he ordered the pontoon bridge removed before the former slaves following his army could cross the creek. Few could swim, but rather than be left behind, many jumped in the water and drowned while trying to make to the other side. Also, it was rumored that many of those left behind had been killed by Confederate cavalry. Plus there were other charges. A friend of Sherman's had written him to warn:
"They say you have manifested an almost 'criminal' dislike of the Negro, and that you are not willing to carry out the wishes of the Government in regard to him, but repulse him with contempt. They say you might have brought with you to Savannah more than 50,000, thus stripping Georgia of that number of laborers, and opening a road by which as many more could have escaped from their masters; but that, instead of this, you drove them from your ranks." |
Stanton, a staunch abolitionist, had decided to come personally to investigate. He first held a meeting with Sherman and a group of twenty black ministers. Stanton asked about enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation. Then, he asked Sherman to step out of the room. Stanton asked the ministers about Sherman's actions toward blacks. They cleared Sherman, describing him as "a friend and a gentleman" in his treatment of blacks. Stanton recalled Sherman to ask about the Ebenezer Creek tragedy. Sherman excused the incident as blown out of proportion. No blacks had been turned back, and the general in command had removed the bridge simply because he needed to carry it with him. Also, as far as Sherman knew, no freed slaves had been killed by the Confederates. Whether Stanton was convinced is not known, but this ended his investigation.
U.S. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton |
Union General William T. Sherman |
Jan. 12, 1865: Eliza Frances Andrews forcefully expressed her contempt for Yankees to her diary.
". . . I have a letter from Tolie; she is living in Montgomery, supremely happy, of course, as a bride should be. She was sadly disappointed at my absence from the wedding. The city is very gay, she says, and everybody inquiring about me and wanting me to come. If I wasn't afraid the Yankees might cut me off from home and sister, too, I would pick up and go now. Yankee, Yankee, is the one detestable word always ringing in Southern ears. If all the words of hatred in every language under heaven were lumped together into one huge epithet of detestation, they could not tell how I hate Yankees. They thwart all my plans, murder my friends, and make my life miserable."
Source: Eliza Frances Andrews, The War-Time Journal of a Georgia Girl, 1864-1865 (New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1908), p. 67.
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The Richmond Times Dispatch reprinted the synopsis of a speech given by Georgia Governor Joseph E. Brown to a group of Georgia state militia.
The Georgia militia.
--Governor Brown has furloughed the new regiment recently organized at Macon. A correspondent of the Enquirer, writing on the 19th ultimo, says:
"The Governor reviewed our regiment at half-past 11 o'clock, and afterwards made us a short, but pointed, speech. I will not attempt to give a synopsis of his remarks for want of space. He sends all of us home on and after to-morrow. There was not a wet eye visible in the entire regiment. The Governor, it is thought, made many a vote by that little speech. He said we could go home now, but would remain subject to another call when the State required our services in the field. He hoped it would not be soon, however. All delinquents are to be tried by a military court-martial, to sit in Macon; and, if found guilty, the pains and penalties of desertion will be visited upon them. He complimented the Georgia militia, and said he had been assured by a distinguished Confederate general that they fought and won the bloody battle of Honey Hill, South Carolina; that the enemy's loss there was fully one thousand; that he counted on the field one hundred dead negroes and whites. We are to keep our organization intact, our powder dry, and to respond promptly whenever a call is made."
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Jan. 13, 1865: The Richmond Times Dispatch reported on a resolution proposed by Georgia Confederate Senator Benjamin Hill. Hill, obviously responding to the March to the Sea, proposed tax relief for those in areas decimated by Union troops.
Mr. Hill, of Georgia, offered a resolution, which was agreed to, that the Finance Committee be instructed to inquire what legislation is necessary for the relief of tax-payers residing in districts occupied or overrun by the enemy; and what legislation may be expedient for the relief of agriculturists who have been unable to comply with their bonds, required by the act of February 17, 1864, by reason of the depredations of the enemy, or by reason of the subsequent exaction of military service by the State or Confederate authorities since the execution of their bonds.
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As if the people of eastern and central Georgia did not have enough problems in the wake of the , on this day a series of floods devastated much of the area.
Eliza Frances Andrews wrote in her diary of the floods - at least they had eased her fears of Yankee raiders.
"...The newspapers bring accounts of terrible floods all over the country. Three bridges are washed away on the Montgomery & West Point R.R., so that settles the question of going to Montgomery for the present. Our fears about the Yankees are quieted, too, there being none this side of the Altamaha, and the swamps impassable."
Source: Eliza Frances Andrews, The War-Time Journal of a Georgia Girl, 1864-1865 (New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1908), p. 68
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Jan. 14, 1865: Eliza Frances Andrews wrote in her diary of how the rains and floods had made roads impassable.
". . . Father keeps on writing for us to come home [Washington, Georgia.]. Brother Troup says he can send us across the country from Macon in a government wagon, with Mr. Forline for an escort, if the rains will ever cease; but we can't go now on account of the bad roads and the floods up the country. Bridges are washed away in every direction, and the water courses impassable."
Source: Eliza Frances Andrews, The War-Time Journal of a Georgia Girl, 1864-1865 (New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1908), p. 68
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This week's edition of Harper's Weekly again featured Union General William T. Sherman and his campaign in Georgia.
Images Courtesy of Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library / University of Georgia Libraries
The storming of Fort McAllister:
And a charge at Waynesboro:
Images Courtesy of Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library / University of Georgia Libraries
Back to Jan. 1-7, 1865
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This Week in Georgia Civil War History Table of Contents
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