Memoirs of Gen. W.T. Sherman (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER XXI. THE MABCH TO THE SEA FBOH ATLANTA TO SAVANNAH. NUVEMBKK AND DEOEHBER, 1864. Om the 12th of November the railroad and telegraph communications with the rear were broken, and the army stood detached from all friends, dependent on its own resources and supplies. No time was to be lost; all the detachments were ordered to march rapidly for Atlanta, breaking up the railroad en route, and generally to so damage the country as to make it untenable to the enemy. By the 14th all the troops had arrived at or near Atlanta, and were, according to orders, grouped into two wings, the right and left, commanded respectively by Major-Generals O. O. Howard and H. W. Slocum, both comparatively young men, but educated and experienced office1 s, fully competent to their command. The right wing was composed of the Fifteenth Corps, Ma- jor-General P. J. Osterhaus commanding, and the Seventeenth Corps, Major-General Frank P. Blair commanding. The left wing was composed of the Fourteenth Corps, Major- General Jefferson C. Davis commanding, and the Twentieth Corps, Brigadier-General A. S. Williams commanding. The Fifteenth Corps had four divisions, commanded by Brigadier-Generals Charles R. Woods, W B. Hazen, John E. Smith, and John M. Corse. The Seventeenth Corps had three divisions, commanded byMajor-Qeneral J. A. Mower, and Brigadier-Generals M. D. Leggett and Giles A. Smith. The Fourteenth Corps had three divisions, commanded by Brigadier-Generals W. P. Carlin, James D. Morgan, and A. Baird. The Twentieth Corps had also three divisions, commanded by Brigadier-Generals N. J. Jackson, John V. Geary, and W. T. Ward. The cavalry division was held separate, subject to my own orders. It was commanded by Brigadier-General Judson Kil- patrick, and was composed of two ...