Major-General Henry W. Slocum to His Family, November 7, 1864

ATLANTA, GA., Nov. 7th, 1864.

The last train for the North leaves here to-morrow morning. Our soldiers are scattered along the railroad a hundred miles north, and as soon as that train passes the work of destruction will commence. The railroad will be completely destroyed and every bridge burned. Then both armies (the Armies of the Tennessee and the Cumberland) will assemble here, and after destroying this city will commence the march. I fear their track will be one of desolation.

I have been to the R. R. depot for the past three days several times, and have witnessed many sad and some ludicrous scenes. All citizens (white and black) begin to apprehend that something is about to happen. The whites are alarmed, and many are leaving the city, giving up houses, lands, furniture, negroes, and all. The blacks want to go North, and the Car House is surrounded by them. Hundreds of cars are literally packed with them and their dirty bundles, inside and out. Old toothless hags, little pickaninnies, fat wenches of all shades, from light brown to jet black, are piled up together with their old bags, bundles, broken chairs, etc. Some are gnawing old bones, some squatted by the cars making hoe-cakes, some crying for food. Many of the whites are as anxious to get North as the darkies, and gladly accept a place in a car reeking with the odor peculiar to "the American of African descent." It is a sad sight, but I anticipate seeing many such before spring.

I wish for humanity's sake that this sad war could be brought to a close. While laboring to make it successful, I shall do all in my power to mitigate its horrors.

SOURCE: New York (State). Monuments Commission for the Battlefields of Gettysburg and Chattanooga, In Memoriam: Henry Warner Slocum, 1826-1894, p. 98

Diary of 1st Lieutenant Daniel L. Ambrose: December 1, 1864

Thursday morning we are soon; on the way; we make a hard march and go into camp at 3 o'clock P. M.

SOURCE: Daniel Leib Ambrose, History of the Seventh Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 282

Diary of 1st Lieutenant Daniel L. Ambrose: Friday, December 2, 1864

To-day we lay in camp while the work of destruction is going on along the Savannah Railroad.

SOURCE: Daniel Leib Ambrose, History of the Seventh Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 282

Diary of 1st Lieutenant Daniel L. Ambrose: Saturday, December 3, 1864

The country is all wrapped in flame; how terrible the sweep of an unchecked army! We go into camp early this evening.

SOURCE: Daniel Leib Ambrose, History of the Seventh Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 282

Diary of 1st Lieutenant Daniel L. Ambrose: December 9, 1864

Companies I, E and F, are now mounted—are now moving upon the war path as of old. The non-mounted portion of the regiment are in the advance of the Fifteenth Army Corps. To-day we find the roads all obstructed by the felling of trees, but not enough to check the army; the Pioneers keep the roads all free from impediments. Some skirmishing to-day but nothing serious. The weak rebel forces seem but idle toys for the moment.

SOURCE: Daniel Leib Ambrose, History of the Seventh Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 282

Diary of 1st Lieutenant Daniel L. Ambrose: December 10, 1864

We move early this morning. Meeting increased obstructions and encountering rebels in our front, we only succeed in getting about four miles, when we go into camp for the night. Soon after going into camp the Seventh is sent forward to the Little Ogeechee river to stand picket.

SOURCE: Daniel Leib Ambrose, History of the Seventh Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 283

Diary of 1st Lieutenant Daniel L. Ambrose: December 11, 1864

This morning we cross the Ogeechee, and do not advance far until skirmishing commences; Company K is deployed forward, and Company H barricades the road with rails. Soon the Thirty-ninth Iowa comes up and the entire Seventh is deployed forward; advancing a short distance we discover a rebel fort and camp swarming with rebels, who seeing our flag appear from the margin of the woods on to an open field, open their artillery upon us. Upon the field we find ourselves. much exposed, and being unable to advance in consequence of the extensive rice swamps in front of us, we change position by the left flank under a heavy fire, cross the road and take our position behind an embankment thrown up from a ditch, where we remain until night comes on, and then return to the woods and go into camp.

SOURCE: Daniel Leib Ambrose, History of the Seventh Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 283

Diary of 1st Lieutenant Daniel L. Ambrose: December 12, 1864

Finds us across the Ogeechee, finds us before Savannah, finds us twelve miles from the sea. A defiant foe is before us disputing our advance; this day we may fight a battle—may see what virtue there is in lead and steel. The army is now at a stand; some skirmishing and some fighting is continually going on. The troops are upon quarter rations. Will we fail? Our gallant Sherman says no, follow me, and I will lead you through. To-night we hear Slocum's guns echoing a death-knell to arch-treason. Tomorrow's sun may set upon a field wet with the heart's blood of warriors, for everything this evening looks warlike.

SOURCE: Daniel Leib Ambrose, History of the Seventh Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 283-4

Diary of 1st Lieutenant Daniel L. Ambrose: December 13, 1864

With but short intervals, Slocum's guns have been heard all day. About three o'clock in the evening we hear to our right a sullen roar, a desperate crash, a whoop, and all is over; and soon we are told that Fort McAllister has fallen; that the immortal Hazen, Ohio's ideal son, has planted his battle-flag upon the ramparts there, making free our passage to the sea, and now we hope to receive supplies, as we have access to the fleet anchored in Ossabaw Sound. This evening Captain Ed. R. Roberts of Company C, makes his appearance in camp, after an imprisonment of seven months in the southern prison hells. The reader will remember that Captain Roberts, together with Captain McGuire, Lieutenant Fergus, and about thirty of the men, were captured on the seventh of May, 1864, in our encounter with Roddy and Johnson at Florence, Alabama. The captain has now a large crowd of the Seventh congregated around him, listening attentively to his heart-rending stories of rebel cruelty. We will now follow Captains Roberts and McGuire and Lieutenant Fergus during their wanderings in the land of their captivity. After their capture at Florence, Alabama, on the 7th of May 1864, they, in company with the men, were taken via Mobile and Montgomery, Alabama to Macon, Georgia, where they arrived May 28th. As soon as they entered the stockade Roberts washed his shirt, and after wringing it out, approached the picket fence immediately inside of the stockade to hang it thereon to dry, and just as he was about to touch the fence he was pulled back by a comrade who saved his life-saved him from being cruelly murdered; for it was the dead line he was about to touch, a line upon which many a noble patriot Union soldier poured out his life blood. At one time while here they were compelled to be two and a half days without anything to eat. After remaining in the Macon stockade for some time the officers were separated from the men, and transferred to the city work-house and jail at Charleston, South Carolina, and while here they were continually under the fire of Gilmore's guns. On the 5th of October they were all moved to Columbia, South Carolina, with the exception of those who were sick, among which number was the gallant Lieutenant Fergus, who was suffering with the yellow fever. After long weary months of suffering known only to those who were the sufferers, Captain Roberts and a number of other officers made their escape from those wicked men who sought their lives. The story of the Captain's march from bondage to liberty would alone fill a good sized volume. Guided by the trusty negroes they traveled one hundred and eighty miles in ten nights, (lying in the swamps by day) and reached Sherman's army, seventy miles above Savannah, Georgia, December 5th.

The Captain remained with Kilpatrick's cavalry until the 12th of November, when he joined his regiment and company. Brave, self-sacrificing soldier, the story of your trials, the longings that were yours, the revolting scenes that met your eyes, and the feeling of joy that came to your heart when your eyes fell upon the old flag, will never be known to any save those who experienced like trials, who witnessed like scenes and felt like joys. We now think of those of our number who are yet suffering in southern prison pens, and we are informed that some of them have been freed from their suffering, have been starved, have been murdered. It cannot be that these brave men's sufferings and sorrows which they endured in this land of cruel wrongs will not be righted in the world beyond the stars. We could not believe in a heaven if we should lose the faith that these men's wrongs will be made right above.

SOURCE: Daniel Leib Ambrose, History of the Seventh Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 284-6

Diary of 1st Lieutenant Daniel L. Ambrose: December 21, 1864

This morning we walk through the Seventh's camp, and everywhere we see the men with their clubs hulling out rice; this is all they have, but they are in fine spirits, all seem firm; seem confident and hopeful that this the most daring march in the military history of the nineteenth century, will be successful.

SOURCE: Daniel Leib Ambrose, History of the Seventh Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 287

Diary of 1st Lieutenant Daniel L. Ambrose: December 22, 1864

Last night Savannah was evacuated—her power yielded. The grand army is tramping now. Soon Sherman's terrible battle-flag will be flying beneath the shades of Bonniventure, where the chivalric knights have so often rehearsed their gallant deeds to the South's fair ones. With drums beating and colors flying we enter a fallen city. Our work in this campaign is done. We behold rebellion dying. The tramp of armies; the burning of cities; the destruction of railroads, have ruined Georgia. Such destruction and desolation never before followed in the wake of armies. History has never recorded a parallel. Sherman was terrible, severe, unmerciful. But his severity and unmercifulness have stamped his name high upon the "Table Rock of immortality" as the boldest, most fearless and most consummate leader of the nineteenth century, and second to none in the world. In the language of a Soldier Poet,

Proud was our army that morning,

When Sherman said, "boys, you are weary,

But to-day fair Savannah is ours."

Then sang we a song to our chieftain,

That echoed over river and lea;

And the stars in our banner shown brighter,

When Sherman marched down to the Sea.

SOURCE: Daniel Leib Ambrose, History of the Seventh Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 287

Diary of 1st Lieutenant Daniel L. Ambrose: November 15, 1864

This morning the command moves by day-light. The Seventh is ordered to bring the extreme rear from the Chattahoochee to where Companies H and K are now ordered to assist the pioneers in taking up the pontoons, after which we move on and join the division at Atlanta, where we find it halted for dinner. Here we receive our last mail, which brings the commissions for the new officers of the regiment. The promotions in the veteran organizations are as follows:

Captain Hector Perrin to be Lieutenant Colonel, vice Rowett, promoted.

Captain Edward S. Johnson to be Major, vice Estabrook, term expired.

Commissary Sergeant Frank Morse, to be First Lieutenant and Adjutant, vice Robinson, killed in battle.

First Lieutenant Benjamin Sweeney to be Captain of Company A, vice McGuire, term expired.

Quartermaster Sergeant Henry L. Balcom to be First Lieutenant of Company A, vice Sweeney, promoted.

First Lieutenant Edward R. Roberts (now prisoner of war) to be Captain of Company C, vice Lawyer, term expired.

Second Lieutenant John Hubbard to be First Lieutenant of Company C, vice Roberts, promoted.

First Lieutenant Seth Raymond to be Captain of Company D, vice Clark, term expired.

Private Elias Lorey to be Second Lieutenant of Company E, vice Miller, term expired.

First Lieutenant Henry Ahern to be Captain of Company F, vice Knowlton, term expired.

Second Lieutenant Thomas B. Atchison to be First Lieutenant of Company F, vice Ahern, promoted.

First Sergeant William P, Hackney to be Captain of Company H, vice Ring, term expired.

Sergeant D. Lieb Ambrose to be First Lieutenant of Company H, vice Pegram, term expired.

Private William E. Norton to be Captain of Company I, vice Johnson, promoted.

Private James Crawley to be First Lieutenant of Company I, vice John E. Sullivan, killed in battle. Second Lieutenant William C. Gillson to be Captain of Company K, vice Hunter, term expired.

First Sergeant Sanders to be First Lieutenant Company K, vice Partridge, resigned.

Commissions for the above promotions, with the exception of Lieutenant Colonel Hector Perrin's, Major Johnson's, and Captain Norton's, were received by to-day's mail, Lieutenant Colonel Hector Perrin's, Major Johnson's and Captain Norton's, having been received while in camp at Rome. The regiment is now newly officered by soldiers who have labored long and faithfully, and Allatoona tells us that the above list merit well their commissions. This evening at three o'clock we again move, our division being the last to pass through Atlanta; we go into camp three miles from the city. Up to this day communications have kept open. This evening the last train will leave for Nashville, by which Sherman will send his last dispatches to the Government, and ere the sun goes down we will have launched forth upon the perilous march. The destination we know not-everything seems to be clouded in mystery. The camp fires are now burning as it were upon a thousand hills, as if to rival the stars above. The boys are all in fine spirits. We to-night behold the conflagration of the great city. Atlanta is burning. "She sowed to the wind, she is now reaping the whirlwind."

SOURCE: Daniel Leib Ambrose, History of the Seventh Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 275-8

Diary of 1st Lieutenant Daniel L. Ambrose: November 16, 1864

This morning the army moves upon four different roads. The Seventeenth and Fifteenth A. C., comprising the right wing, commanded by Major General Howard, the Twentieth and Fourteenth A. C. the left wing, commanded by Major General Slocum. All eyes are now turned towards General Sherman, as he sits upon his restless war steed, directing the perilous movements of a mighty army, which if successful, will add a new chapter to the arts of war. Will he succeed? Will he plant his banner upon the ocean strand? His countenance seems to say “I will, if these seventy thousand warriors keep thundering at my heels." To-night we camp upon the banks of Cotton River.

SOURCE: Daniel Leib Ambrose, History of the Seventh Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 278

Diary of 1st Lieutenant Daniel L. Ambrose: November 17, 1864

This morning our brigade takes the advance. At eleven o'clock we pass through McDonald, and in the evening go into camp four miles from Jackson.

SOURCE: Daniel Leib Ambrose, History of the Seventh Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 278

Diary of 1st Lieutenant Daniel L. Ambrose: November 18, 1864

We remain in camp to-day to let the Seventeenth A. C. pass. We live high to-day; plenty of fresh meat and yams. Five o'clock P. M., we move, go about eight miles and go into camp for the night. The soldiers are tired to-night; it is twelve o'clock before they lie down to rest. We are now far in the South-land, encompassed by foes in the front, the rear, and on both flanks, but the hearts of the seventy thousand warriors beat high, and this land is feeling their powerful tread.

SOURCE: Daniel Leib Ambrose, History of the Seventh Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 278-9

Diary of 1st Lieutenant Daniel L. Ambrose: November 19, 1864

We move early this morning and go as far as the Ocmulgee river, where we go into camp. Two pontoon bridges are now being spanned across the river, one for the teams and artillery, and the other for infantry. This evening Colonel Perrin receives orders from General Corse to mount his regiment as fast as stock can be captured. The order is received by the boys with great delight.

SOURCE: Daniel Leib Ambrose, History of the Seventh Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 279

Diary of 1st Lieutenant Daniel L. Ambrose: Sunday, November 20, 1864

Before daylight this morning we cross the Ocmulgee River, all the rest of the army having crossed last night. Our division is now in the rear guarding Kilpatrick's train; the roads are very muddy; only succeed in getting ten miles to-day, when we go into camp near Monticello. A cold rain is now falling; the chilling winds, how fierce they blow! The Seventh suffers to-night.

SOURCE: Daniel Leib Ambrose, History of the Seventh Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 279

Diary of 1st Lieutenant Daniel L. Ambrose: Monday, November 21, 1864

At seven o'clock we move. Oh! how terrible the mud; teams sticking all along the road, and in consequence we move slow. We go into camp about ten o'clock upon an open field. It is now raining. The regiment is upon half rations; the men are standing, shivering around the camp fires; it is a terrible night; the fierce, wild winds sweep through the Seventh's camp. Nothing to shelter the men from the howling storm, but this matters not. "Let the world wag as it will, we'll be gay and happy still," breaks forth from the soldiers as it were in harmony with the elements. There is manhood here; there is fidelity around these camp fires, and how sad the fact that there are men in America who would be loath to acknowledge it.

SOURCE: Daniel Leib Ambrose, History of the Seventh Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 279-80

Diary of 1st Lieutenant Daniel L. Ambrose: Tuesday, November 22, 1864

We move at seven o'clock this morning; weather very cool. Mud, mud everywhere; this evening the trains all swamp; night comes on dark and dreary, and being unable to extricate the teams, we go into camp two miles from Clinton.

SOURCE: Daniel Leib Ambrose, History of the Seventh Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 280

Diary of 1st Lieutenant Daniel L. Ambrose: Wednesday, November 23, 1864

We move at seven A. M.; the troops succeed in getting the train in motion; we go into camp in the evening five miles from Gordon.

SOURCE: Daniel Leib Ambrose, History of the Seventh Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 280