72. An Incident in the March to
the Sea
BY GENERAL WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN (1864)
The Romance of the Civil War | ||
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.
GENERAL SHERMAN.
[Description: A portrait of General Sherman in full Union regalia]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.
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.
72. An Incident in the March to
the Sea
BY GENERAL WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN (1864)
The Romance of the Civil War | ||