Diary of Private Daniel L. Ambrose: Friday, December 4, 1863

All still to-day; a dull monotony in camp. The Seventh are now making shelter out of rails and their oil cloths, and what few boards they can gather up; no tents; on duty every day, scouting and running everywhere. This evening a call is made upon the different companies for twenty volunteers to carry dispatches one hundred miles across the country to Eastport, Tennessee River. To be relieved from the camp's dull life, we conclude to be one of the number. The remaining nineteen soon report. About nine o'clock p, M., we leave Pulaski under the command of Lieutenant Roberts, of Company C. We travel until four o'clock in the morning, when we halt at a plantation, feed and get our breakfast, prepared by the negroes. At daylight we move on, pass through Waynesboro, and go as far as Pin Hook, where we go into camp for the night.

SOURCE: Daniel Leib Ambrose, History of the Seventh Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 212

Major-General William T. Sherman to Major-General George H. Thomas, January 21, 1865

HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI,                 

In the Field, Savannah, Ga., January 21, 1865.

Maj. Gen. GEORGE H. THOMAS,

Commanding Army in the Field, North Alabama, via Nashville:

GENERAL: Before I again dive into the interior and disappear from view, I must give you, in general terms, such instructions as fall within my province as commander of the division. I take it for granted that you now reoccupy in strength the line of the Tennessee from Chattanooga to Eastport. I suppose Hood to be down about Tuscaloosa and Selma, and that Forrest is again scattered to get horses and men and to divert attention. You should have a small cavalry force of, say, 2,000 men to operate from Knoxville through the mountain pass along the French Broad into North Carolina, to keep up the belief that it is to be followed by a considerable force of infantry. Stoneman could do this, whilst Gillem merely watches up the Holston. At Chattanooga should be held a good reserve of provisions and forage, and in addition to its garrison a small force that could at short notice relay the railroad to Resaca, prepared to throw provisions down to Rome, on the Coosa. You remember I left the railroad track from Resaca to Kingston and Rome with such a view. Then with an army of 25,000 infantry and all the cavalry you can get, under Wilson, you should move from Decatur and Eastport to some point of concentration about Columbus, Miss., and thence march to Tuscaloosa and Selma, destroying former, gathering horses, mules (wagons to be burned), and doing all the damage possible; burning up Selma, that is the navy-yard, the railroad back toward the Tombigbee, and all iron foundries, mills, and factories. If no considerable army opposes you, you might reach Montgomery and deal with it in like manner, and then at leisure work back along the Selma and Rome road, via Talladega and Blue Mountain, to the Valley of Chattooga, to Rome or La Fayette. I believe such a raid perfectly practicable and easy, and that it will have an excellent effect. It is nonsense to suppose that the people of the South are enraged or united by such movements. They reason very differently. They see in them the sure and inevitable destruction of all their property. They realize that the Confederate armies cannot protect them, and they see in the repetition of such raids the inevitable result of starvation and misery. You should not go south of Selma and Montgomery, because south of that line the country is barren and unproductive. I would like to have Forrest hunted down and killed, but doubt if we can do that yet. Whilst you are thus employed I expect to pass through the center of South and North Carolina, and I suppose Canby will also keep all his forces active and busy. I have already secured Pocotaligo and Grahamville, from which I have firm roads into the interior. We are all well.

Yours, truly,

W. T. SHERMAN,                

Major-General, Commanding.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 45, Part 2 (Serial No. 94), p. 621-2

Major-General Henry W. Halleck to Major-General Don Carlos Buell, March 18, 1862

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE MISSISSIPPI,      

Saint Louis, March 16, 1862.

Major-General BUELL, Nashville:

Move your forces by land to the Tennessee as rapidly as possible. Our troops have destroyed the railroad at Purdy, but find the enemy in strong force at Eastport and Corinth, reported 60,000. Grant's army is concentrating at Savannah. You must direct your march on that point, so that the enemy cannot get between us. He still holds on to Island No. 10. We bombarded him yesterday and renew it again today. The detention of your boats at Paducah is without my orders. It will not be repeated.

H. W. HALLECK,    

Major-General.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 10, Part 2 (Serial No. 11), p. 42

Captain Charles Wright Wills: November 1, 1863

Florence, Ala., November 1, 1863.

We struck tents on the 27th ult. at Iuka, Miss., and marched to Eastport, eight miles, that night. We had in our division some 200 wagons, all of which with 1,200 horses and mules were to be crossed in a barge over the Tennessee river. I received a complimentary detail to superintend the crossing of the wagons belonging to one brigade. I think I never worked harder than I did from 7 o'clock that night until 6:30 o'clock the next day, a. m. It occupied two days and nights crossing the whole train, but we marched at 3 p. m., the 28th, and camped that night at Gravelly springs, 15 miles from Eastport. The road ran for some ten miles along the foot of the river bluff, and the numerous springs sparkling their beautifully clear and fresh jets of limestone water on the road, from which they rippled in almost countless little streamlets to the river, although adding much to the wild beauty of the country, made such a disagreable splashy walking for we footmen that (I speak more particularly for myself) we failed to appreciate it. We bivouacked for the night at about 9 p. m. The morn of the 29th we started at 8 o'clock, and after ascending the bluff, marched through a magnificent country to this place, 15 miles. Some three miles from here at the crossing of Cypress creek, something like 50 or 60 girls, some of them rather good looking, had congregated and they seemed much pleased to see us. All avowed themselves Unionists.

There had been a large cotton mill at this crossing, Comyn burned it last summer, which had furnished employment for these women and some 200 more. This is a very pretty little town. Has at present some very pretty women. Two of the sirens came very near charming me this a. m. Bought two dozen biscuits of them. Have been out of bread for two days before, but had plenty of sweet potatoes and apples. During the march on the 29th we heard Blair pounding away with his artillery nearly all day across the river, I should think about a dozen miles west of Tuscumbia. I was down to the bank the morning of the 30th ult. and the Rebels across shot at our boys, watering mules, but without effecting any damage. I saw a white flag come down to the bank and heard that Ewing sent over to see what was wanted, nothing more. There was some musketry fighting yesterday near Tuscumbia, but don't know who it was. We are four and one-half miles from there. Two companies of the 4th Regular Cavalry reached here on the 30th from Chattanooga, bearing dispatches to Sherman. He is at Iuka. All of these movements beat me completely. Can't see the point and doubt if there is one. We have commenced fortifying here. Have seen much better places to fight. We are "fixed up" most too nicely to hope to live here long. I have a stove, a good floor covered with Brussels carpet, plenty of chairs and a china table set under my tent. Eatables are plenty and would offer no objection if ordered to stay here a couple of weeks. Understand that not a farthing's worth of the above was “jayhawked.” Got it all on the square. I wish I could send you the mate to a biscuit I just ate. Twould disgust the oldest man in the world with the Sunny South. By hemp, but it is cold these nights. Last night there was an inch of white frost. I was nearly frozen. Dorrance swears that Mattison and I were within an ace of killing him in our endeavors to “close up” and keep warm.

SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an Illinois Soldier, p. 199-200