Saturday, September 12, 2015

Diary of Corporal Alexander G. Downing: Saturday, November 26, 1864

The weather is cool but quite pleasant. We lay in camp awaiting the completion of the pontoon bridge. At 10 o'clock we began our march and by 3 in the afternoon both corps had crossed the river. The Fifteenth Corps had an engagement with the rebels on the 22d inst. near Macon, and after the fight the rebels fell back and scattered, leaving their dead and wounded on the field. Their loss was about one thousand, while ours was only five hundred. Their force was mainly state militia and came out from town to attack our approaching army. It is reported that the rebels are concentrating some fifty miles ahead of us and are strongly fortifying themselves on the Ogeechee river. We are on two-thirds rations, but still we have plenty to eat.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 232

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