“First, there come along some cavalry-men, and they burned the depot; then come along some infantry-men, and they tore up the track, and burned it;” and just before he left they had “sot fire to the well.”

The next morning, viz., the 27th, I rode down to the station, and found General Corse’s division (of the Fifteenth Corps) engaged in destroying the railroad, and saw the well which my negro informant had seen “burnt.”  It was a square pit about twenty-five feet deep, boarded up, with wooden steps leading to the bottom, wherein was a fine copper pump, to lift the water to a tank above.  The soldiers had broken up the pump, heaved in the steps and lining, and set fire to the mass of lumber in the bottom of the well, which corroborated the negro’s description.

From this point Blair’s corps, the Seventeenth, took up the work of destroying the railroad, the Fifteenth Corps following another road leading eastward, farther to the south of the railroad.  While the left wing was marching toward Louisville, north of the railroad, General Kilpatrick had, with his cavalry division, moved rapidly toward Waynesboro’, on the branch railroad leading from Millen to Augusta.  He found Wheeler’s division of rebel cavalry there, and had considerable skirmishing with it; but, learning that our prisoners had been removed two days before from Millen, he returned to Louisville on the 29th, where he found the left wing.  Here he remained a couple of days to rest his horses, and, receiving orders from me to engage Wheeler and give him all the fighting he wanted, he procured from General Slocum the assistance of the infantry division of General Baird, and moved back for Waynesboro’ on the 2d of December, the remainder of the left wing continuing its march on toward Millers.  Near Waynesboro’ Wheeler was again encountered, and driven through the town and beyond Brier Creek, toward Augusta, thus keeping up the delusion that the main army was moving toward Augusta.  General Kilpatrick’s fighting and movements about Waynesboro’ and Brier Creek were spirited, and produced a good effect by relieving the infantry column and the wagon-trains of all molestation during their march on Millen.  Having thus covered that flank, he turned south and followed the movement of the Fourteenth Corps to Buckhead Church, north of Millen and near it.

On the 3d of December I entered Millen with the Seventeenth Corps (General Frank P. Blair), and there paused one day, to communicate with all parts of the army.  General Howard was south of the Ogeechee River, with the Fifteenth Corps, opposite Scarboro’.  General Slocum was at Buckhead Church, four miles north of Millen, with the Twentieth Corps.  The Fourteenth (General Davis) was at Lumpkin’s Station, on the Augusta road, about ten miles north of Millen, and the cavalry division was within easy support of this wing.  Thus the whole army was in good position and in good condition.  We had largely subsisted