Sunday, 4th—Rain last night. The First and Third Divisions and the First Brigade of the Fourth Division destroyed the railroad this forenoon for a distance of ten miles. The Iowa Brigade acted as train guard. We covered fifteen miles today and went into bivouac near Cameron Station. For the last two or three days, we marched through fine country, though in some places it is very sandy and the land is heavily timbered with pine. The soil is very sandy, but the higher land is well improved and thickly settled. Good crops were raised the past season, the work having been done by old men and negro women. Most of the citizens have left their homes.
Diary of Alexander G. Downing; Company E, Eleventh Iowa Infantry
Saturday, 3d—We started off on our railroad destroying this morning at 7 o’clock. Our corps destroyed about ten miles of road, from Millen down to Station No. 70, where we went into camp for the night. The Fourteenth and Twentieth Corps are off on our left, destroying the railroad from Millen toward Augusta. At Millen there was located one of those hell-holes, a rebel prison, where the rebels kept about thirteen hundred of our men as prisoners. They rushed them off on the train for Charleston, South Carolina, just before our army arrived. I never saw a feed-yard looking so filthy and forsaken as this pen.[1] We burned everything here that a match would ignite.
[1] The treatment which our soldiers received in the Confederate prisons is the one dark, damnable stain that the South of that time will always have to carry. The North can forgive, but it cannot forget.—A. G. D.
Friday, 2d—We marched eleven miles today and went into bivouac after dark near the town of Millen. We passed through some fine country with very large plantations. We crossed the east prong of the Ogeechee river about dusk, the infantry crossing over the railroad bridge and the artillery and teams by pontoon bridge. Millen is on the bank of this river and is a junction of the railroad running between Augusta and Savannah. We demolished the railroad all along the line.
Thursday, 1st—A heavy fog this morning. Our division crossed the Ogeechee river early this morning, the other two divisions of the corps having crossed last night. We crossed near Benton Station on the Savannah railroad. Our brigade destroyed the railroad this forenoon all the way from Benton Station north to Sebastopol on the road running to Augusta. Our entire corps destroyed about fifteen miles of railroad. We left Sebastopol about noon, and after marching eight miles through swamps, went into bivouac at dark. All is quiet.
Wednesday, 30th—Weather pleasant. We broke camp at 8 o’clock and covered only ten miles by the close of the whole day’s march, when we went into bivouac on the banks of the Ogeechee river. We had a bad road, it being almost one continuous swamp. Now and then there was a small farm with a log hut occupied by a poor woman and children, all the men and larger boys being off with the army.[1] All is quiet in the front, but the rebels keep close on our rear. It is reported that General Wheeler with his cavalry is in our rear. The boys all declare that it’s the safest place for him to be, just so he doesn’t get too close. This is the sixteenth day out from Atlanta and we have been on the march part of the time both day and night. We have had but little fighting, but we have destroyed one thousand miles of railroad and burned millions of dollars’ worth of other property. Camp in the swamps of Georgia.
[1] It has been truly said that Governor Brown of Georgia robbed the cradle and the grave, forcing all the boys and old men into the army at the time of their defense of Macon, where they were defeated and scattered by our Fifteenth Army Corps on November 22, 1864.—A. G. D.
Tuesday, 29th—We left bivouac at 8 a. m. and marched twenty miles today, going into camp about dark. The Eleventh Iowa acted as rear guard. We had good roads, there being no hills. The country is very flat and heavily timbered and the soil is sandy, mixed with clay. We are on two-fifths rations now, but the country still affords additional rations, such as potatoes and pork. Our general direction is southeast on the west side of the Savannah and Macon railroad. All is quiet in front.
Monday, 28th—We started at 7 o’clock this morning, marched fifteen miles, and went into camp at 5 p. m. Our division took up the rear on our march today and we had good roads for marching, with the exception of a small swamp which lay in our path. This is a fine country and there is plenty of forage. All is quiet in front, the rebels retreating without puffing up a fight.[1]
[1] Almost every day after leaving Atlanta large numbers of negroes, women, children and old men, came, some of them walking miles, to see the Yankees go by. The soldiers in the ranks would engage them in conversation and the odd remarks the negroes would make were often quite amusing. They were asked many questions, one as a joke, a favorite one with the boys, was asking the nice mulatto girls to marry them; the answer invariably would be in the affirmative. These incidents as well as others made a change, and broke the monotony of our long, weary marches.—A. G. D.
Sunday, 27th—We started at 8 o’clock this morning, marched eight miles, and went into camp for the remainder of the day. On our march this forenoon our division, the Third, destroyed ten miles of the railroad east of the Oconee river. The Fifteenth Corps is off on our right about two miles, while the Fourteenth and the Twentieth with Kilpatrick’s cavalry are off on the left, out toward Augusta, Georgia. All is quiet in front. This is a very fine country, thickly settled and with some very nice farms, though the soil is very sandy and there is considerable pine timber.
Saturday, 26th—The weather is cool but quite pleasant. We lay in camp awaiting the completion of the pontoon bridge. At 10 o’clock we began our march and by 3 in the afternoon both corps had crossed the river. The Fifteenth Corps had an engagement with the rebels on the 22d inst. near Macon, and after the fight the rebels fell back and scattered, leaving their dead and wounded on the field. Their loss was about one thousand, while ours was only five hundred. Their force was mainly state militia and came out from town to attack our approaching army. It is reported that the rebels are concentrating some fifty miles ahead of us and are strongly fortifying themselves on the Ogeechee river. We are on two-thirds rations, but still we have plenty to eat.
Friday, 25th—Our brigade marched out early this morning and relieved the First Brigade at the railroad bridge across the Oconee river, the rebels being just beyond. We burned the bridge and after waiting there a short time, got orders to march back to Toomsboro, which place we reached by 7 p. m. From there we started for Hawkins Ford, some ten miles distant, and after marching six miles went into bivouac. The Fifteenth Corps came in on the same road in order to cross the river by our pontoon bridge, which the engineers commenced to build late in the evening, after our men had driven the rebels from the river—they had to leave or be taken prisoners.
