Page:American Historical Review vol. 6.djvu/480

 470 J. F. Rhodes division of the wagon trains gave each corps about 800 wagons, which occupied on the march five miles or more of road. The ar- tillery and wagons with their advance and rear guards had the right of way, the men taking improvised paths at their side. The troops began their daily march at dawn and pitched their camp soon after noon, having covered ordinarily ten to fifteen miles. Milledgeville, the capital of the state, was reached by the left wing in seven days. This march through the heart of Georgia alarmed the Confeder- ates lest either Macon or Augusta or both might be attacked, with the result that they divided their forces ; and when it became clear that Savannah was the place on the sea aimed at it was im- possible for various reasons to concentrate a large number of troops for defense. By December 10 the enemy was driven within his lines at Savannah ; the march of 360 miles was over ; the siege began. In the special field order of November 9 it was said, " The army will forage liberally on the country during the march." As the state was sparsely settled and the plan of making requisitions on the civil authorities therefore impracticable, this was the only possible mode of supplying the troops. The arrangements for the foraging were made and carried out with military precision. Each brigade sent out a party of about fifty men on foot who would re- turn mounted, driving cattle and mules and hauling wagons or family carriages loaded with fresh mutton, smoked bacon, turkeys, chickens, ducks, corn meal, jugs of molasses and sweet potatoes. The crop having been large, just gathered and laid by for the win- ter, the section never before having been visited by a hostile army, the land was rich in provisions and forage. While Sherman was maturing the plan of his march to the sea, he wrote to Halleck: "The people of Georgia don't know what war means but when the rich planters of the Oconee and Savannah see their fences and corn and hogs and sheep vanish before their eyes they will have something more than a mean opinion of the ' Yanks.' Even now our poor mules laugh at the fine cornfields and our soldiers riot on chestnuts, sweet potatoes, pigs and chicken." While Sherman and his officers la- bored sincerely to have the foraging done in an orderly way the men often took food on their own account in a riotous manner. The general himself relates this incident occurring on the march between Atlanta and Milledgeville : " A soldier passed me with a ham on his musket, a jug of sorghum-molasses under his arm and a big piece of honey in his hand, from which he was eating, and, catching my eye he remarked sotto voce and carelessly to a comrade, ' Forage liberally on the country,' quoting from my general orders." Sher-