Military movements are kept very much in the dark. Nothing
going on about Richmond, except cannonading, particularly at Dutch Gap.
Sherman is moving across Georgia in direction of
Milledgeville, looking towards Savannah, or perhaps Charleston, or to some
intermediate point on the coast, where he may, if necessary, meet with
reinforcements and supplies from Federal shipping already there, or on their
way down the Atlantic coast for that very purpose. Efforts are being made by
the Governors of South Carolina and Georgia to arrest him. Beauregard, too, has
made a short, stirring address, assuring them that he was hastening down to
their aid, and that with proper exertions which might be made on their part,
the destruction of the enemy would be certain. Nothing equal to the demands of
these trying times has yet been done by any of the authorities. Oh that they
would strain every nerve to put a stop to this bold and desolating invader! It
would require united effort, made without delay. No hesitation, no doubting and
holding back must there be; every human being capable of bearing arms must fly
to the rescue; all the stores of every kind should be destroyed or removed;
bridges burned, roads torn up or obstructed ; every difficulty should be thrown
in the way. He should be harassed day and night, that he might be delayed, and
entrapped, and ruined. Oh that these things could be done! It may be a woman's
thought, but I believe that had Georgia one tithe of the experience of the
ruined, homeless Virginians, she would exert every fibre of her frame to
destroy the enemy; she would have no delusive hope of escape. I trust that the
doctrines of Brown, Stephens, and such like, are not now bearing their bitter
fruits! that the people of patriotic Georgia have not been rendered unfit for
the sacrifices and dangers of this fearful day, when every man is required to
stand in the deadly breach, and every earthly interest, even life itself, must
be surrendered rather than yield to the barbarous foe, by their treasonable
doctrines of reconstruction, reunion, etc. Oh, I trust not; and I hope that our
now uncertain mails may bring information that all Georgia and South Carolina
are aroused to their awful condition.
SOURCE: Judith W. McGuire, Diary of a Southern Refugee, During
the War, p. 317-8
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