Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: December 29, 1864

Rained all night; spitting snow this morning. Although Gen. Bragg announces that the enemy's fleet has disappeared off Wilmington, still the despondency which has seized the croakers remains. It has probably sailed against Charleston, to co-operate with Sherman. Sherman says officially that he got, with Savannah, about 1000 prisoners, 150 heavy guns, nearly 200 cars and several locomotives, 35,000 bales of cotton, etc. etc. And Gen. Foster says the inhabitants (20,000) were "quiet, and well disposed." Most people believe Charleston will fall next, to be followed by a sweep of the entire sea-board; and grave men fear that the impetus thus given the invader cannot be checked or resisted.

The great want is fighting men, and they are mostly exempted or detailed under that portion of the "War Department" which is quietly worked by Judge Campbell, who is, of course, governed by his own great legal judgment. Well, the President has been informed of this, and yet waits for Mr. Secretary Seddon to suggest a remedy. I have often thought, and still think, that either the Bureau of Conscription must be abolished or the government must fail. The best generals will not avail without sufficient men to fight.

Gen. Beauregard telegraphs from Charleston, December 26th, that there is a conflict of authority at Mobile as to which branch of the service, navy or army, shall command the torpedo boat. The two Secretaries are referring it to commanders, and I fear that, by the time the question is settled, some calamity will befall the boat, and the city, and the country.

Grant is said to be moving troops to the north side of the river again, fearing an attack from us, or intending one himself.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p. 369

General Braxton Bragg to Colonel John B. Sale, December 1, 1864—12 m.

AUGUSTA, December 1, 1864—12 m.

Col. JOHN B. SALE,
        Military Secretary, Richmond:

* * * The [enemy's] cavalry having been driven in, the enemy's main force was yesterday found near Louisville, with strong outposts in this direction. They have secured large supplies in the country; but our cavalry is now all up, and it is hoped they will be prevented, to a great extent, in future. The report from Savannah of the enemy's entrance into Millen on 27th was premature. Telegraphic communication was reopened to Savannah by that route yesterday. Enemy is just now reported as at Station 9, on Central railroad, advancing.

BRAXTON BRAGG.

(Extract submitted to the Secretary of War by Colonel Sale.)

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 44 (Serial No. 92), p. 915

General Braxton Bragg to Colonel John B. Sale, December 3, 1864—6 p.m.

AUGUSTA, December 3, 1864—6 p.m.        

(Received 12.30 a.m. 4th.)

Col. JOHN B. SALE,
        Military Secretary, Richmond:

A strong force of the enemy's cavalry and infantry advanced from Louisville, and encamped last night six miles from Waynesborough. They turned off this morning toward Savannah. Our cavalry is pressing on the rear, and all available means are being thrown to their front by rail. There is time yet for any assistance which can be spared to be sent by way of Charleston.

BRAXTON BRAGG.

[First indorsement.]

Respectfully submitted to His Excellency the President, as information.

JNO. B. SALE,        

Colonel and Military Secretary.

[Second indorsement.]

SECRETARY OF WAR:

What has been or can be done to augment force, &c.?

J. D.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 44 (Serial No. 92), p. 925

General Braxton Bragg to Colonel John B. Sale, December 4, 1864—Recived 1 p.m.

AUGUSTA, December 4, 1864.        

(Received 1 p.m.)

Col. JOHN B. SALE,
        Military Secretary, Richmond:

The column is moving on what is known as "Eastern road to Savannah." There are several ferries from mouth of Brier Creek to Charleston and Savannah Railroad bridge; none below that. General Hardee reports he is patrolling river with a gun-boat. I have had all ferryboats destroyed, and ordered all roads to and from river to be broken up and blockaded by felling heavy timber. The roads all pass by causeway to the river, on both sides, over dense swamps. None of enemy's forces remain near Macon, and from best information I can obtain it is thought all of ours have left there for Savannah. The Georgia militia who were on Central railroad moved back toward Savannah, and at last accounts were at Station 4½, our cavalry, however, far in advance of them.

BRAXTON BRAGG.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume44 (Serial No. 92), p. 927

Major-General Joseph Wheeler to General Braxton Bragg, December 8, 1864

GRAHAMVILLE, December 8, 1864.

[General BRAXTON BRAGG:]

The enemy are still moving on toward Savannah, obstructing the roads in their rear, and resisting warmly this morning. I cannot learn that any force of the enemy have crossed the Savannah River. I hear artillery firing far in my front; do not know what it means. The Fourteenth Corps and Kilpatrick's cavalry are on the river road, Fifteenth on Middle Ground road, and Seventeenth, and probably Twentieth Corps, on Central railroad. I think the force on the right bank of the Ogeechee must be small.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOS. WHEELER.

(Same sent by General Bragg to Col. John B. Sale, military secretary, December 9, 1864.)

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 44 (Serial No. 92), p. 941

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: December 2, 1864

Warm, and raining moderately.

My landlord gets $400 of the $500 increase of my salary.

Dispatches from Gen. Bragg :

AUGUSTA, December 1st, 1864. Following received from Lieut.-Gen. R. Taylor, Savannah, Ga.: “Gen. Hardee is at Grahamville. No fighting there since yesterday evening, when the enemy was driven five miles, leaving their dead upon the field.—B. B.”

Another :

AUGUSTA, December 1st, 1864, 12 M.—The (enemy's) cavalry having been driven in, the enemy's main force was yesterday found near Louisville, with strong outposts in this direction. They have secured large supplies in the country; but our cavalry is now all up, and it is hoped they will be prevented to a great extent in the future. The report from Savannah, of the enemy's entrance into Millen, on the 27th, was premature. Telegraphic communication was reopened to Savannah by that route yesterday. The enemy is just now reported as at Station 9, on Central Railroad, advancing.—B. B.

During the last month, 100 passports were given to leave the Confederate States by Provost Marshal Carrington and War Department.

Mr. G. B. Lamar, Savannah, Ga., tenders his services to go to New York and purchase supplies for our prisoners in the hands of the enemy, and to negotiate the sale of 1000 bales of cotton, etc. Twelve M. Heavy and pretty rapid shelling is heard down the river.

Col. Chandler, Inspecting Officer, makes an ugly report of Gen. Winder's management of the prisons in Georgia. Brig.-Gen. Chilton appends a rebuking indorsement on Gen. W.'s conduct. The inspector characterizes Gen. W.'s treatment of the prisoners as barbarous, and their condition as a "hell on earth." And Gen. W. says his statements are "false."

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p. 345

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: Sunday, December 11, 1864

Cloudy and melting—snow vanishing rapidly. The thousand and one rumors of great achievements of Gen. Longstreet on the north side of the river seem to have been premature. Nothing official of any advantage gained over the enemy near the city has been received so far as I can learn. Gen. Lee, no doubt, directed Longstreet to make demonstrations on the enemy's lines near the city, to ascertain their strength, and to prevent more reinforcements being sent on the south side, where the struggle will occur, if it has not already occurred.

There is no doubt that the enemy's column sent toward Weldon has been checked, and great things are reported of Gen. Hampton's cavalry.

A battle must certainly occur near Savannah, Ga. Sherman must assail our lines, or perish between two fires.

President Lincoln's message to the Congress of the United States, republished in our papers, produces no marked effect. His adherence to a purpose of emancipation of the slaves, and his employment of them in his armies, will suffice for an indefinite prolongation of the war, and perhaps result in the employment of hundreds of thousands of slaves in our armies. The intimation, however, that all applications for "pardon," etc. have been and are still favorably entertained, will certainly cause many of our croakers who fall into the lines of the United States forces to submit. Others, though so disposed, have not an opportunity to signify their submission. But everything depends upon events in the field.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p. 351-2

Diary of George Mifflin Dallas, February 23, 1861

Dined to-day at Moreria's, the Brazilian Minister, and went late to the Premier's.

It is rumoured, though doubted, that at Savannah a mob has tarred and feathered Mr. Molyneux, the British Consul. What's the exciting cause of this proceeding? Have all our Southern friends "eaten of the insane root"?

The arrest and imprisonment in the Mazas jail of Mires, the great Jew speculator and railroad contractor, is producing an immense sensation in Paris. It is supposed that, to avoid disgrace, one of his confederates in frauds and embezzlement, named Richemont, was led to commit suicide, and that he himself contemplates purchasing his own security by threatening to disclose facts which must involve many high personages. The case reminds one of Law and his South-sea bubble.

Gave notice of my intention to quit my present residence at the expiration of the year, March 24th. By that time I shall be ready for recall, and trust it may not be delayed.

SOURCE: George Mifflin Dallas, Diary of George Mifflin Dallas, While United States Minister to Russia 1837 to 1839, and to England 1856 to 1861, Volume 3, p. 437-8

Diary of Gideon Welles: Monday, May 29, 1865

[W]e took a morning ride, Mrs. Welles being able to go with us, and drove about the place. Returning to the wharf, we took a tug, visited the Pawnee, and then went to Sumter, Moultrie, Fort Johnston, etc. The day was beautiful and all enjoyed it.

There was both sadness and gratification in witnessing the devastation of the city and the deplorable condition of this seat of the Rebellion. No place has suffered more or deserved to have suffered more. Here was the seat of Southern aristocracy. The better blood — the superior class, as they considered themselves — here held sway and dictated the policy, not only of Charleston but of South Carolina, and ultimately of the whole South. The power of association and of exclusiveness has here been exemplified and the consequences that follow from the beginning of evil. Not that the aristocracy had more vigorous intellects, greater ability, for they had not, yet their wealth, their ancestry, the usage of the community gave them control.

Mr. Calhoun, the leading genius and master mind of the State, was not one of the élite, the first families, but was used, nursed, and favored by them, and they by him. He acknowledged their supremacy and deferred to them; they recognized his talents and gave him position. He pandered to their pride; they fostered his ambition.

Rhett, one of the proudest of the nobility, had the ambition of Calhoun without his ability, yet he was not destitute of a certain degree of smartness, which stimulated his aspirations. More than any one else, perhaps, has he contributed to precipitating this Rebellion and brought these terrible calamities on his State and country. The gentlemanly, elegant, but brilliantly feeble intellects of his class had the vanity to believe they could rule, or establish a Southern empire. Their young men had read Scott's novels, and considered themselves to be knights and barons bold, sons of chivalry and romance, born to fight and to rule. Cotton they knew to be king, and slavery created cotton. They used these to combine other weak minds at the South, and had weak and willing tools to pander to them in certain partisans at the North.

The results of their theory and the fruits of their labors are to be seen in this ruined city and this distressed people. Luxury, refinement, happiness have fled from Charleston; poverty is enthroned there. Having sown error, she has reaped sorrow. She has been, and is, punished. I rejoice that it is so.

On Monday evening we left for Savannah, but, a storm coming on, the Santiago put into Port Royal, having lost sight of our consort. It had been our intention to stop at this place on our return, but, being here, we concluded to finish our work, and accordingly went up to Beaufort. Returning, we visited Hilton Head and Fort Welles on invitation from General Gillmore.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 312-3

Major-General Ulysses S. Grant to Major-General Henry W. Halleck, June 14, 1863

BEHIND VICKSBURG, MISS., June 11, 1863,        

VIA MEMPHIS, TENN., June 14.

Maj. Gen. H. W. HALLECK, General-in-Chief:

I have reliable information from the entire interior of the South. Johnston has been re-enforced by 3,000 troops from Mobile and other parts of Georgia; by [J.P.] McCown's and Breckinridge's divisions (9,000 men), and 4,000 of   Forrest's cavalry, from Bragg's army; 9,000 men from Charleston, and 2,200 from Port Hudson. Orders were sent the very day General Banks invested Port Hudson, to evacuate it. Garrison there now 8,000. Lee's army has not been reduced; Bragg's force now 46,000 infantry and artillery and 15,000 cavalry. Everything not required for daily use has been removed to Atlanta, Ga. His army can fall back to Bristol or Chattanooga at a moment's notice, which places, it is thought, he can hold, and spare 25,000 troops. Mobile and Savannah are now almost entirely without garrisons, further than men to manage large guns. No troops are left in the interior to send to any place. All further re-enforcements will have to come from one of the great armies. There are about 32,000 men west of the Mississippi, exclusive of the troops in Texas. Orders were sent them one week ago by Johnston. The purport of the order not known. Herron has arrived here, and troops from Burnside looked for to-morrow.

U.S. GRANT,        

Major-General.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 24, Part 1 (Serial No. 36), p. 42

Brigadier-General Rutherford B. Hayes to Sophia Birchard Hayes, December 20, 1864

CAMP AT STEPHENSON'S DEPOT, VIRGINIA,        

December 20, 1864.

DEAR UNCLE: - We broke camp at Camp Russell yesterday at early daylight and marched to this place on the railroad from Harpers Ferry towards Winchester. It rained, snowed, "blew, and friz" again. Awful mud to march in and still worse to camp in. But today it is cold and none of us got sick, so far as I know. Our First Division took cars to join Grant. It is said we shall follow in a day or two. This is not certain, but I shall not be surprised if it is true. I prefer not to go, and yet one feels that it is almost necessary to be present at the taking of Richmond. I am content, however, to go. I believe in pushing the enemy all winter if possible. Now that we have a decided advantage is the time to crowd them. Things look as if that were to be the policy.

I like the new call for troops. What good fortune we are having. If Sherman takes Savannah and then moves north, this winter will be the severest by far that our Rebel friends have had.

I received today your letter of the 14th enclosing Uncle Austin's about the sad fate of Sardis. I will do what I can to get further information, but we are no longer with the Nineteenth Corps and may not again see them.

I am sorry to hear you have a severe cold. I am getting more nervous when I hear of your taking cold. Don't try to visit Lucy or anybody else in the winter. I am afraid I shall not get to visit you this winter.

Sincerely,

R. B. HAYES.

P. S. — There is a short but tolerably fair account of the battle of Winchester in Harper's Monthly of January. It is written by somebody in the Nineteenth Corps. You will hardly read it with such emotion as I do. The writer calls our force "the Eighth Corps.” When you read on the 199th page his account of our battle-yell as we advanced, and of the Rebel musketry which met it, you will remember that I led the advance brigade of the advance division, and that perhaps the happiest moment of my life was then, when I saw that our line didn't break and that the enemy's did.

23d. — It is pretty certain (that) we do not go to Grant; probably in a week or two to Cumberland or West Virginia.

S. BIRCHARD.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 550-1

Diary of Brigadier-General Rutherford B. Hayes: Monday, December 26, 1864

A dull, foggy day; snow thawing rapidly. Savannah captured by Sherman on the 21st, Hardee making a hasty retreat across the river to South Carolina. Some important captures. Salute of one hundred guns fired. We expect to go to New Creek soon.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 552

Diary of Brigadier-General Rutherford B. Hayes, Wednesday, December 14, 1864

Snow going off rapidly; sun shining at intervals. In quarters almost all day. News from Sherman favorable. He is near Savannah and can probably avoid a fight and go to the sea if he wishes to do so. Nothing new from Nashville.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 548

Diary of Brigadier-General Rutherford B. Hayes, Thursday, December 15, 1864

Cold, a little sleet. This evening we get the first message from Sherman's army. “So far all well,” says General Howard from camp five miles from Savannah. Rebel news is that a battle for the possession of Savannah was raging on the 12th. God protect the right!

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 548

Diary of Gideon Welles: Saturday, January 21, 1865

The congratulations and hearty cheer of the people over the victory at Fort Fisher are most gratifying. It is a comfort, too, to see, with scarcely an exception, that there is a rightful appreciation of the true merits of those who engaged in the contest, as well as of those who planned and persistently carried out this work.

But there is a contemptible spirit in one or two partisan journals that indicates the dark side of party and personal malice. The Evening Post in the capture of Fort Fisher makes no mention of the Navy. In some comments the succeeding day, the ill feeling again displays itself. The army is extolled, the Navy is ignored in the capture, and turned off and told to go forward and take Wilmington, which the editor says Admiral Porter can do if as eager as he has been for cotton bales. This gross and slanderous injustice called out a rebuke from G. W. Blunt which the editor felt bound to publish, but accompanied it with churlish, ill-natured, virulent, and ill-concealed malevolence. All this acrimony proceeds from the fact that the publisher of the Post is arrested and under indictment for fraud and malfeasance, and the Navy Department has declined to listen to the appeals of the editors to forbear prosecuting him. Henderson's guilt is known to them, yet I am sorry to perceive that even Mr. Bryant wishes to rescue H. from exposure and punishment, and, worse than that, is vindictive and maliciously revengeful, because I will not condone crime. No word of kindness or friendship has come to me or been uttered for me in the columns of the Post since Henderson's arrest, and the Navy is defamed and its officers abused and belied on this account. In this business I try to persuade myself that Godwin and Henderson are the chief actors; but Mr. Bryant himself is not wholly ignorant of what is done.

At the Cabinet-meeting yesterday Stanton gave an interesting detail of his trip to. Savannah and the condition of things in that city. His statements were not so full and comprehensive as I wished, nor did I get at the real object of his going, except that it was for his health, which seems improved. There is, he says, little or no loyalty in Savannah and the women are frenzied, senseless partisans. He says much of the cotton was claimed as British property, they asserting it had the British mark upon it. Sherman told them in reply he had found the British mark on every battle-field. The muskets, cartridges, caps, projectiles were all British, and had the British mark upon them. I am glad he takes this ground and refuses to surrender up property purchased or pretended to be purchased during the War, but which belongs in fact to the Confederate government. Mr. Seward has taken a different and more submissive view, to my great annoyance on more than one occasion, though his concessions were more generally to French claimants.

I am apprehensive, from the statement of Stanton, and of others also, that the Rebels are not yet prepared to return to duty and become good citizens. They have not, it would seem, been humbled enough, but must be reduced to further submission. Their pride, self-conceit, and arrogance must be brought down. They have assumed superiority, and boasted and blustered, until the wretched boasters had brought themselves to believe they really were a superior class, better than the rest of their countrymen, or the world. Generally these vain fellows were destitute of any honest and fair claim to higher lineage or family, but are adventurers, or the sons of adventurers, who went South as mechanics or slave-overseers. The old stock have been gentlemanly aristocrats, to some extent, but lack that common-sense energy which derives its strength from toil. The Yankee and Irish upstarts or their immediate descendants have been more violent and extreme than the real Southerners, but working together they have wrought their own destruction. How soon they will possess the sense and judgment to seek and have peace is a problem. Perhaps there must be a more thorough breakdown of the whole framework of society, a greater degradation, and a more effectual wiping out of family and sectional pride in order to eradicate the aristocratic folly which has brought the present calamities upon themselves and the country. If the fall of Savannah and Wilmington will not bring them to conciliatory measures and friendly relations, the capture of Richmond and Charleston will not effect it. They may submit to what they cannot help, but their enmity will remain. A few weeks will enlighten us.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 227-30

Diary of Gideon Welles: Tuesday, January 3, 1865

Much engaged. The two days have brought an amount of business which it is difficult to dispose of in a single day. But three of us at the Cabinet meeting. Various little matters talked up.

Old Mr. Blair was lingering in an adjoining room during the latter part of our sitting. Rumor has said that he and his son Montgomery had gone on a peace mission, and that Davis had invited them to Richmond. Nothing has been said to me on the subject, yet I am inclined to believe there has been a demonstration sufficient for the rumor. They have, for some purpose, been to the front, their absence has been longer than was contemplated, but I am not confident that any results have been obtained.

Simeon Draper, Collector of Customs at New York, called on me a few days since, stating that he had been appointed cotton agent by the Secretary of the Treasury, to proceed to Savannah and dispose of the captured cotton recently taken by Sherman. Draper called to get from me a letter of introduction to Rear-Admiral Dahlgren, as he would be likely to be thrown in Dahlgren's company. Of course, I could not refuse. But the idea of sending such a man on such a mission, when he has more than any one honest man can do to discharge his duties as a collector faithfully, sickened me. Fessenden certainly knows as little of men as Chase. This mission of Draper will be a swindle, I can scarcely doubt. A ring will be formed for the purchase of the cotton, regardless of public or private rights.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 219-20

Diary of Gideon Welles: Monday, December 26, 1864

 Received a letter from Osborn denying that he furnished information concerning operations against Fort Fisher. At the same time Mr. Faxon tells me that Hart, a correspondent of the Rochester Democrat, says that paper was informed a fortnight previous.

Mr. Fox presses for further and more earnest application to Stanton for the punishment of O. Says Stanton thinks and asserts that I am not very anxious on the subject. In other words he desires me to importune him to harsh and general measures against O. and others. As O. is doubtless already arrested, I wrote Stanton transmitting his denial, also the letter of the Philadelphia Press, stating besides the assertion of Hart, and recommended a speedy trial.

Three hundred guns were fired by order of the Secretary of War on Vermont Avenue on account of the capture of Savannah. I felt as joyful as any one, perhaps, over Sherman's success, but I should have dispensed with over two hundred and sixty of those guns, had I made the order.

We have nothing definite or satisfactory from the Wilmington expedition. The weather has not been favorable, and there has been almost too imposing a force to furnish us as good success as we have sometimes had.

I have no faith in General Butler's scheme of knocking down Fort Fisher by blowing up a vessel filled with powder. Herein I differ with military men. The ordnance officers of the Navy and army advised the scheme, and are, as is also Fox, quite confident of its success. (Butler's influence.) I hope it may be so, and that the powder vessel may get near Fort Fisher, and be left by the crew before the explosion. Could we get Wilmington now along with Savannah, the Rebellion would run low.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 209

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: March 16, 1864

There was ice last night. Cold all day. Gen. Maury writes that no immediate attack on Mobile need be apprehended now. He goes next to Savannah to look after the defenses of that city.

The Examiner to-day publishes Gen. Jos. E. Johnston's report of his operations in Mississippi last summer. He says the disaster at Vicksburg was owing to Gen. Pemberton's disobedience of orders. He was ordered to concentrate his army and give battle before the place was invested, and under no circumstances to allow himself to be besieged, which must of course result in disaster. He says, also, that he was about to manoeuvre in such manner as would have probably resulted in the saving a large proportion of his men, when, to his astonishment, he learned that Gen. P. had capitulated.

Willoughby Newton reports that the enemy are building a number of light boats, to be worked with muffled oars, at Point Lookout, Md., and suggests that they may be designed to pass the obstructions in the James River, in another attempt to capture Richmond.

It is said Lieut.-Gen. E. Kirby Smith, trans-Mississippi, has been made a full general, and that Major-Gen. Sterling Price relieves Lieut.-Gen. Holmes, who is to report at Richmond. If this be so, it is very good policy.

Gen. Lee is still here, but will leave very soon.

Gen. Bragg has taken measures to insure the transportation of meat and grain from the South. Much food for Lee's army has arrived during the last two days.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p. 172-3

Captain Charles Wright Wills: January 9, 1865

Green Square, Savannah, Ga. 

January 9, 1865. 

Thinking we for once in the service had a chance to enjoy quiet life, two of our number were sent to Hilton Head for a full supply of men's apparel for the outer man, and of refreshments substantial and fancy for the inner. 

They returned to-day just in time to receive marching orders. The men's clothing was packed in valises, and all the eatables sold to parties who remain here, save one barrel of Irish potatoes. We leave to-morrow morning. Major Willison's resignation was accepted to-day, and this evening the officers unanimously agreed to recommend me to fill the vacancy. There was not a hint towards any one else. I take it as a high compliment. I am the youngest captain in the regiment, and this recommendation made by men whom I have campaigned with for two and a half years, and not one of whom has been accused of failing to do his duty in the service, makes me feel a little proud. I will value the recommendation more than the commission, if I get it. 

SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an Illinois Soldier, p. 335-6

Captain Charles Wright Wills: December 6, 1864

Eden Ferry, Ogeechee river, 

December 6, 1864. 

We lay in camp until 1 p. m. when we suddenly pulled out and made this point, and had works up by dark. There was a good wagon bridge over the river at this point, which the Rebels partially destroyed. But a portion of our 3d Brigade, which had the advance, got across on the remains and stirred up a little skirmish. Killed four Rebels without any loss to us.

Our ad Division got across three miles below. The 3d, I guess is with them. Hear nothing of the other corps. In the swamps to-day I saw more of the “barren lemon tree.” We were talking over last night what this army had cost the Confederacy since the 4th of October last, when we started from Eastpoint after Hood. We all agree that the following estimate is not too high in any particular: 100,000 hogs, 20,000 head of cattle, 15,000 horses and mules, 500,000 bushels of corn, 100,000 of sweet potatoes. We are driving with us many thousand of the cattle. The destruction of railroad property has been complete whenever within our reach. I can learn nothing of the prospect of a fight at Savannah, or whether we are going there. All think, though, that we will see tide-water this week. People here say they often hear the firing both at Savannah and Charleston. 

SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an Illinois Soldier, p. 332