72. An Incident in the March to
the Sea
BY GENERAL WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN (1864)
THE afternoon was unusually raw and cold. My
orderly was at hand with his invariable saddle-bags,
which contained a change of underclothing, my maps, a flask
of whiskey and bunch of cigars, Taking a drink and lighting a
cigar, I walked to a row of negro-huts close by, entered one
and found a soldier or two warming themselves by a wood-fire.
I took their place by the fire, intending to wait there till our
wagons had got up, and a camp made for the night. I was
talking to the old negro woman, when some one came and
explained to me that, if I would come further down the road, I
could find a better place. So I started on foot, and found on the
main road a good double-hewed log-house, in one room of
which Colonel Poe, Dr. Moore and others, had started a fire. I
sent back orders to the "plum bushes"to bring our horses and
saddles up to this house, and an orderly to conduct our head-quarter wagons to the same place.
In looking around the room, I saw a small box, like a candle box,
marked Howell Cobb, and, on inquiring of a negro, found that
we were at the plantation of General Howell Cobb, of Georgia,
one of the leading rebels of the South, then a general in the
Southern army, and who had been Secretary of the United
States Treasury in Mr. Buchanan's time. Of course, we
confiscated his property, and found it rich in corn, beans,
peanuts, and sorghum-molasses.
Extensive fields were all around the house. I sent back word
to General Davis to explain whose plantation it was, and
instructed him to spare nothing. That night huge bonfires
consumed the fence-rails, kept our soldiers warm, and the
teamsters and men, as well as the slaves, carried off an
immense quantity of corn and provisions of all sorts.
In due season the head-quarter wagons came up,
and we got supper. After supper I sat on a chair
astride, with my back to a good fire, musing, and be-came conscious that an old negro with tallow candle
in his hand, was scanning my face closely.
I inquired, "What do you want, old man?"
He answered, "Dey say you is Massa Sherman."
I answered that such was the case, and inquired what he
wanted. He only wanted to look at me, and kept muttering, "
Dis nigger can't sleep dis night."I asked him why he trembled
so, and he said that he wanted to be sure that we were in fact
Yankees, for on some former occasion some rebel cavalry had
put on light blue overcoats, personating Yankee troops, and
many of the negroes were deceived thereby, himself among
the number—had shown them sympathy, and had, in
consequence, been unmercifully beaten therefor. This time he
wanted to be certain before committing himself; so I told him
to go out on the porch, from which be could see the whole
horizon lit up with camp-fires, and he could then judge
whether he had ever seen anything like it before.
The old man became convinced that the Yankees had come at
last, about whom he had been dreaming all his life; and some
of the staff officers gave him a strong drink of whiskey, which
set his tongue going.
Lieutenant Snelling, who commanded my escort, was a
Georgian, and recognized in this old negro a favorite slave of
his uncle, who resided about six miles off ; but the old slave
did not at first recognize his young master in our uniform. One
of my staff officers asked him what had become of his young
master George. He did not know only that he had gone off to
the war, and he supposed him killed, as a matter of course. His
attention was then drawn to Snelling's face, when he fell on
his knees and thanked God that he had found his young
master alive and along with the Yankees.
Snelling inquired all about his uncle and the family, asked
permission to go and pay his uncle a visit, which I granted, of
course, and the next morning he described to me his visit. The
uncle was not cordial by any means, to find his nephew in the
ranks of the host that was desolating the land, and Snelling
came back, having exchanged his tired horse for a fresher one
out of his uncle's stables, explaining that surely some of the
bummers would have got the horse, had he not.
