| Show FORESIGHT OF GEN SHERMAN Grand March Through Georgia Regarded Re as of Paramount Importance Importance Import Import- ance in Hastening End I When Jeff Davis made his visit to Macon Ga ho he said In a speech delivered delivered delivered ered there Septem September r 23 1864 Though misfortune has befallen our arms from Decatur to Jonesboro our cause Is not lost Sherman cannot keep up his long line of oC communications communications and retreat sooner or later he must Dust When that tha day comes the fate that befell the army of the French empire In its retreat from Moscow will be repeated Our cavalry and our I people will harass and destroy his I army as did the Cossacks that of at Napoleon and the Yankee general like him will escape with only a I bodyguard Sherman was not apprehensive of fly ny d desperate sperate fighting after atter he began his march He was positive his army would have a good time He wrote to General Ha Halleck leck as aa if he Qa were going on a foraging expedition This movement movement move move- ment he wrote is not not purely military mili mill tary or strategic but it will illustrate the vulnerability of the south They dont don't know what war war means but when the rich planters on the Oconee and the Savannah see their fences and corn and hogs and sheep vanish before before be be- fore their eyes they will have something something some thing more than a mean opinion of the Yanks Even now our poor mules laugh augh as they anticipate the fine cornfields cornfields corn fields and our s soldiers the chestnuts sweet potatoes pigs chickens etc Sherman was determined to make Georgia feel the horrors of war wr In writing to General Wilson he said I Iam Iam Iam am going into the bowels of the Confederacy Confederacy Con and propose to leave a trail that will be recognized 50 years j hence I Georgia howled A track of desolation desolation desola desola- I tion reached to the sea and today one can follow either of at the the three columns col col- columns columns which left let Atlanta by what are called Shermans Sherman's sentinels the sentinels the chimneys chimneys chim him n ys l left ft standing in n the fields or by bythe bythe bythe the side of ot the road to mark the spot where Shermans Sherman's bummers burned the dwellings cotton gins mills or fac fac- tories On November 16 1864 1861 Sherman started from Atlanta with tried and true men The wires were cut and moving through the state in three separate columns they foraged upon the country A few days b before fore Slocums Slocum's left wing r reached ached Milledgeville l the legisla legisla- L y f I 1 r rI rII rr r I 1 II r II I I 1 Sherman Made Mado March in 34 Days ture of ot the state stat had been in In session there The lawmakers dispersed with without without out formality when he arrived there Sherman occupied the executive mansion man man- sion slon Governor Brown having fled with all his belongings Sherman made his march In 34 days having marched miles President Lincoln under date of ot December 26 1864 wrote wro When you were about to leave Atlanta for the Atlantic coast I was anxious if not fearful but feeling that you were the better judge and remembering nothIng nothIng nothing noth ing risked nothing gained I did not Interfere Now the undertaking is a success the honor is all yours for I believe none none of us went farther than to tp acquiesce and taking the word of General Thomas Thomps into accounts as it should be taken It is indeed a great success Not only does it afford the time obvious obvious' and important military advantages ad vantages but in showing to the world worM that your army could be divided putting putting putting put put- ting the stronger part to an important Important Important tant new service and yet leaving enough nough to vanquish the old oM opposing force the whole of oC Hoods Hood's army it brings those who sat in darkness to see see seea a gr great at light But what next I suppose it will be safer Jr if I leave General Grant and yourself to de de- de cide clde Sherman regarded the march as of paramount Importance in hastening the end of ot the I 1 war He expressed himself that this grand march to Savannah and from Savannah to Raleigh was an important factor Inthe in inthe inthe the final result the overwhelming victory at Appomattox Sherman estimated the damage done tho the state of ot Georgia by his army passing through as aa amounting to fully tuny I r |
