fogs; there are more mud-banks in the Ogeechee than
were reported, and there are no pilots whatever.
Admiral Dahlgren promised to have the channel buoyed
and staked, but it is not done yet. We find
only six feet of water up to King’s Bridge at
low tide, about ten feet up to the rice-mill, and
sixteen to Fort McAllister. All these points
may be used by us, and we have a good, strong bridge
across Ogeechee at King’s, by which our wagons
can go to Fort McAllister, to which point I am sending
all wagons not absolutely necessary for daily use,
the negroes, prisoners of war, sick, etc., en
route for Port Royal. In relation to Savannah,
you will remark that General Hardee refers to his
still being in communication with his department.
This language he thought would deceive me; but I
am confirmed in the belief that the route to which
he refers (the Union Plank-road on the South Carolina
shore) is inadequate to feed his army and the people
of Savannah, and General Foster assures me that he
has his force on that very road, near the head of Broad
River, so that cars no longer run between Charleston
and Savannah. We hold this end of the Charleston
Railroad, and have destroyed it from the three-mile
post back to the bridge (about twelve miles).
In anticipation of leaving this country, I am continuing
the destruction of their railroads, and at this moment
have two divisions and the cavalry at work breaking
up the Gulf Railroad from the Ogeechee to the Altamaha;
so that, even if I do not take Savannah, I will leave
it in a bad way. But I still hope that events
will give me time to take Savannah, even if I have
to assault with some loss. I am satisfied that,
unless we take it, the gunboats never will, for they
can make no impression upon the batteries which guard
every approach from the sea. I have a faint
belief that, when Colonel Babcock reaches you, you
will delay operations long enough to enable me to
succeed here. With Savannah in our possession,
at some future time if not now, we can punish South
Carolina as she deserves, and as thousands of the people
in Georgia hoped we would do. I do sincerely
believe that the whole United States, North and South,
would rejoice to have this army turned loose on South
Carolina, to devastate that State in the manner we
have done in Georgia, and it would have a direst and
immediate bearing on your campaign in Virginia.
I have the honor to be your obedient servant,
W. T. SHERMAN, Major-General United States Army.
As soon as the army had reached Savannah, and had opened communication with the fleet, I endeavored to ascertain what had transpired in Tennessee since our departure. We received our letters and files of newspapers, which contained full accounts of all the events there up to about the 1st of December. As before described, General Hood had three full corps of infantry—S. D. Lee’s, A. P. Stewart’s, and Cheatham’s, at Florence, Alabama—with Forrest’s corps of cavalry,