direction were calling for aid—­to be reinforced, or that the enemy was making advances, without means to stop him.  The answer to all these calls were the same, in substance at least, as that given by Napoleon to the request of Ney of Waterloo, when that marshal called upon the Emperor for reinforcements, “Where does he expect me to get them?  Make them?” It seems that the people, with the exception of the privates in the field and the women and children at home, had become panic stricken.

On the 3rd of February General Sherman began crossing the Saltkahatchie at places between Broxton’s and Rivers’ Bridges (and above the latter), and was moving by easy stages in the direction of Branchville.  It was not conclusively known whether Sherman, on reaching that place, would turn towards Augusta or in the direction of Charleston, or continue his march to Columbia.  President Davis having declined the proposition of General Beauregard to evacuate all the cities on the coast and make a stand on the Edisto, declined also a like proposition to fight the great battle at either Branchville or Columbia, without offering any better policy himself.  The only alternative the latter had was to keep out of Sherman’s way as well as possible and to allow him to continue laying waste the entire center of the State.  His only encouragements were dispatches from the President to “Turn and Crash Sherman,” “Call on the Governors,” “Bring out the militia,” etc.

Sherman’s columns of advance consisted of four great patrolled lines, with a corps on each.  His extreme right was made up of the Seventeenth Corps, under General Frank P. Blair, the Fifteenth next, under General Jno.  A. Logan, the two being the right wing of the army, commanded by General Howard.  The left wing, under General Slocum, consisted of the Fourteenth Corps, on extreme left, General Jeff.  C. Davis commanding; the next, the Twentieth, under General A.S.  Williams, the whole numbering sixty thousand.  The cavalry, numbering four thousand additional, was on either flank.

To meet this formidable array, Beauregard had under his immediate command Hardee, with thirteen thousand seven hundred (three thousand being State militia); around Augusta and on the march in Georgia and upper South Carolina was the remnant of Hood’s Army—­Steven D. Lee, with three thousand three hundred and fifty; Dick Cheatham, with two thousand five hundred.

Stewart’s Corps was far back in Georgia, and too far away to give any hopes of meeting Beauregard in this State.  It consisted of Loring’s Division, one thousand eight hundred and eighty-seven; Wathals’ Division, one thousand and thirty-six; French’s Division, one thousand five hundred and nineteen.

It must not be forgotten that the number under Hardee included the troops in and around Charleston, and all the cities and towns in the State where soldiers were stationed.

General Wheeler, in command of several brigades of cavalry, now reduced to a mere skeleton organization, was hovering around the enemy’s flanks and in front between Branchville and Augusta.