Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Diary of Corporal Alexander G. Downing: Sunday, November 13, 1864

We started early this morning for Atlanta and after marching twenty miles went into camp for the night. A detachment of the Twentieth Army Corps is stationed at the railroad bridge crossing the Chattahoochee river. They will soon destroy the bridge, and also the track clear to Atlanta. All is quiet in the front. We burned everything in our camp yesterday that we did not need, and it seems that everything in sight is being burned. Every man seems to think he has a free hand to touch the match. The nice little town of Marietta which we left behind this morning will doubtless be burned before the last of Sherman's army leaves the place.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 228

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