In the woods, Pocotaligo, S.C. Jan. 28

 

My Dear Sister:

                        To-day, cold and blustering, I have retreated to the woods, built a huge fire, and am now set down beside it with the intention of writing a few lines home whilst opportunity still offers. I must finish my journal of our former proceedings in this letter so that I may have a fair start for the prospective campaign.

 

            Monday, Dec. 12^th was spent in marching a roundabout course of 12 miles toward the Ogechee River. The day was destitute of incident. Our route lay through a poor, swampy pine country.

 

            Tuesday we lay in camp. The question of rations now bagan to assume considerable importance. The supply was exhausted, and there were none in the wagons, and no forage near. In lieu of anything else, a lot of unhulled rice was issued us. How to hull it was the question. The grain is encased in a hull which it is very / difficult to separate. The work is generally done by machinery. Small quantities for domestic use are pounded out with a mortar and pestle. But mortar and pestle we had none. So we wrapped it up in a cloth and pounded away at it. This operation was slow and tedious. By dint of severe labor however, you could pound out enough between meals to answer for the next meal. Some of us parched it in a frying pan. It would burst open just like pop corn, and resembled it almost exactly in taste. In the evening we heard of the fall of Fort McAllister, and the opening of communication, and the air rang with cheers.

 

            Wednesday we started on a foraging expedition. Long trains and bad roads hindered us, and it was nine o'clock when we camped having made but about 8 miles. We crossed the Ogeechee River, a stream about the size of the Muskingum—larger perhaps. The banks are low and swampy. Immense rice farms are found all along its course. Rice requires low ground for its cultivation. As a / general thing it is raised on ground which is capable of being overflowed, by means of levees ditches and tide water. It is overflowed twice during its culture. I have seen however small quantities on higher land, but most of the rice land is too low to admit of the cutlivation of anything else. It seems to be the main staple of this section of country. The stalk resembles that of wheat. Large quantities of it were used for forage for the teams. The grain is very good when fresh. Although it used to be customary to throw away our rice, we have got so now that we like it. Large quantities were captured in Savannah and issued to us.—During the day we had nothing to eat. For the first time we knew what hunger was. I myself eat a few grains of raw corn which really tasted good. I picked a few grains out of a wagon, with the intention of parching them for supper, but at night we met a returning forage train, and procured an abundance of potatoes, meat and molasses. You may rest assured that we all ate with a keen relish that night. /

 

Thursday, after a march of 15 miles we found an abundance of forage, and we again feasted on the fat of the land. We passed a church called Midway Church. There was a burial ground beside it over 100 years old. A church on the same site was burnt by the English in the Revolutionary war.

 

            Friday we returned to camp, and were ordered out again immediately; the command being about to start on another railroad burning expedition. We returned to the river that night.

 

            Saturday we retraced our steps to Midway Church.

 

            Sunday was a very warm day. The perspiration started profusely, and the shade was eagerly sought for. We marched very rapidly, making at one time 7 miles in an hour and three fourths, without stopping. Many gave out. The rapid marching was due to some crazy whim of our drunken, insane Division General,—Gen. Mower,—than whom a more reckless, desperate, dare devil does not exist. We passed through a little town called Walthowsville; a pretty place, with some elegant mansions, evidently the abode of wealth. The citizens had all left. We halted there an hour or two. Everything in the town was completely turned upside down. I entered one house. Carpets were torn up, furniture smashed, drawers ransacked, clothing torn to shreds, or carried off, crockery broken, papers and books scattered, an elegant piano broken,—in fact a debris of broken, ruined articles everywhere. The demon of destruction had broken loose and held wild carnival. This house was a representation of the scene everywhere. Had the inhabitants remained at home, however, the interior of their houses would not have been disturbed. Such is war. Thankful you may well be that it has never reached Northern soil.—The only plunder I carried off was two or three books out of a fine library.

 

            Monday was devoted to the destruction of railroad. We were now five miles from the Altamaha River. The bridge over this river we / did not succeed in destroying, it being difficult of access and defended by a rebel force. The road we were now destroying was the Savannah and Gulf R.R. and we were now 50 miles southwest of Savannah.

 

            Two days march returned us to camp again, the R.R. destruction being completed. On the day that we arrived Savannah was evacuated. Here I close my journal. For some time rations were somewhat limited, but save that one day I have spoken of, I cannot say that I was ever real hungry. We bought considerable quantities of rice, which helped out our rations.

 

            Report now fixes day after to-morrow as the one in which we shall again cut loose from the world. The sick have already been sent back. All extra tents and baggage are also sent away, and we shall start light. The general opinion seems to be that we shall pass through / the center of South Carolina, leaving Charleston to our right, pass into North Carolina and come out at some point on the coast there, Newbern, Beaufort, or Wilmington, probably occupying five or six weeks in our march. In my opinion it will be a blow no less stunning to the rebels than our trip through Georgia. Of course we shall destroy all the railroads on our way.

 

            Do not worry about me. Commit me to God's hands. He will do all things well.

 

            Remember me constantly at the Throne of Grace.

                                                           

Good-bye,

Your aff. Brother,

 

            Don't fail to write. Direct by way of New York to my Reg't, Div., and Corps.

SOURCES