Chapter 11

In all honesty, I have to admit I was surprised at how cold it was becoming as our column crossed from the chaotic State of Tennessee into the "Breadbasket of the Confederacy, the State of Georgia.

A light sprinkling of snow made it even more bizarre for our operations in the heart of the Deep South. I looked in vain for some sign that we were crossing into Georgia but the terrain was quite similar and the roads showed no change at all. The people had that same blank look of shock at seeing the hordes of Union troops, with me included. The white folks scurried to get indoors because they were aware of our "Standing Order" that precluded entering into the civilian houses unless fired on from inside. Of course, all domestic animals, especially horses and mules were fair and square "foraging" targets as well as any crops already collected or even still in the ground if they could be harvested without much difficulty. I was expecting to see the Sherman "neckties" start to blossom across the countryside but was disappointed and realized that they would not really come into play until after Sherman broke out of Atlanta and was engaged in his famous "March to the Sea" on that devastating move down to the key port city of Savannah on the Atlantic Ocean.

As we moved forward into the rolling hills of Northern Georgia, the long column began to collect a large number of "refugees" in the form of freed Negros deciding to attach to the camp of the Union forces hoping for respite from their former masters. When it came to the point that the regular troops were forced to have their rations cut to make do for the dark-skinned travelers, some of the men started to grumble about marching on an empty stomach. At that time we were moving in two main columns with some distance between us. It was better that way because we were able to scoop up more foraging provisions living off the land because out basic twenty day issue of rations was long consumed and we had no visible line of supply except that which came on the flatboats down the river.

The Negros were either fighting age males that fit easily into our ranks as support troops and we welcomed them without rancor although they were mostly unarmed and allowed to take shelter in a "hot zone" of heavy gunfire. The others who were of the civilian variety and generally in small family units were given papers that identified them as the new owners of "Union Granted" parcels of forty acres and usually awarded either a horse or a mule with farm equipment to fend for themselves on the liberated land. A copy of the "Emancipation Proclamation" was generally distributed to them to put over their stove or fireplace declaring them "free" and now citizens of liberated Union Territory. Since most of the white male populace was off fighting the Yankees in different States, there was little likelihood of interference.

The movement down into Georgia Territory started real slowly and we spent a lot of time training the fresh recruits from the East that had not had any combat experience before their arrival under General Sherman's command.

This happened to be an election year and the politics were flying in every direction for President Lincoln's re-election. He had an awful lot of enemies even in his own party, the Republican Party, because of his haste to declare the Emancipation Proclamation at a time when the entire war was really still in question. Back in my own time, that was always the case even in re-elections but I had never really considered that it would be the case of an election taking place one hundred and fifty years ago. There was a strong movement back East to sue for peace and give the States some more leeway in deciding their own internal affairs but the freeing of the slaves was the final straw for most southerners that didn't own slaves and had no dog in that fight at all.

It seemed to me that the majority of the Tennessee boys and the Georgia boys fighting us on the battlefield could give a rat's ass about the debate over slavery but were mighty sensitive when they were told their State of birth was to submit to the will of the Federal Government and they needed to be obedient to the will of bureaucrats who had never set foot below the Mason-Dixon Line.

I made a point of explaining to as many of the replacements as possible that it was important to keep their heads down when there were snipers in the area and that there was no point in standing up to face the cannon just to show you were not afraid of getting killed. They looked at me funny but most of them saw the value of that line of thinking and they accepted the common sense to "hit the ground" when the bullets started flying. I tried my best to instill upon them the importance of ammunition economy as well because the last thing you wanted was to come up dry in the middle of some attack by Rebel sharpshooters with no hesitation to take as many lives as possible before they were cut to pieces.

The whole campaign to take Atlanta was dragging out now but I could easily understand General Sherman's reluctance to commit large numbers of troops to attack the fortified positions of the Confederate retrograde movement. He seemed pleased as punch just as long as the Rebels kept retreating back to the relative safety of Atlanta. The loss of Chattanooga was a serious setback to them and they were determined to make a better stand in Atlanta.

After a few hop-scotching flanking movements, I started to recognize General Sherman's preference to fix the enemy's position and then develop a flanking maneuver to their left flank. Invariably, it would force the Confederates to repair to the rear in order not to be surrounded and captured by our superior sized forces. You would think that after constant repetition, the dang fools would get the message and shift to the right to block the Union forces before General Sherman had a chance to penetrate to their rear.