There
have been many conjectures as to why Major General William Tecumseh Sherman
by-passed Augusta on his "March to the Sea." Some of them were reasonable,
some romantic, some ridiculous. In his memoirs, Sherman gives a logical
military reason, but it is entirely possible that there were extenuating
circumstances.
Was
it because of a beloved baby buried in the Arsenal cemetery that Sherman
came no nearer than eighteen miles to Augusta? Did President Lincoln really
order the by-pass of Augusta because of valuable cotton stored there as
the property of Mrs. Lincoln's sister (Mrs.Helm)? Did the ruse work that
Longstreet was on his way to join Bragg's forces to resist Sherman? Did
Sherman have a sudden reversal of his feelings of bloodthirstiness, changing
his plans to avoid a possible battle and unnecessary loss of life? Could
he possibly have thought Augusta would be able to do battle against his
forces? Was it the memory of a romance which lingered for twenty years?1
There
were two dungeons deep in the dark underground beneath the Headquarters
building of Augusta when that building was ready for use after having been
removed from its old Savannah River site to the seventy-two acre tract
(Bellevue) on Walton Way in 1827.
One
of these dungeons played a part in Sherman's first visit to Georgia, which
was in 1844--twenty years before his "March to the Sea."
For
seventeen years the dungeons were unused, or, if they were used, no record
was kept of the use to which they had been put. 1
The
boy Sherman had been orphaned, adopted by Senator Thomas Ewing, attended
grade school, high school, and the United States Military Academy. He had
been graduated from West Point near the top of his class, and had been
assigned in Florida during a Seminole Indian flare-up. His job was "mapping
the terrain."2
In
1844, Sherman received a temporary duty assignment to Augusta Arsenal in
Georgia. His mission was one requiring considerable tact and diplomacy.
Lieutenant
John R. Vinton was the Arsenal's commander. Although the Arsenal was an
Ordnance station, a half Company of Artillery had been garrisoned there.
A young lieutenant of Artillery had, unwisely perhaps, "imbibed too freely
of spirituous liquors", and behaved in such a manner (in the opinion of
Lt. Vinton) as to bring "discredit upon the uniform of an officer of the
United States Army."
The
Arsenal commander had the drunken lieutenant "incarcerated in the dungeon"
under the Headquarters building. Report of the matter was made to the Adjutant
General in Washington, D.C. and that office sent order to Florida to Lt.
William T. Sherman to "repair to Augusta Arsenal and there to take such
steps as may be necessary to have one Lieutenant _________ removed from
imprisonment."3
When
Lt. Sherman arrived in Augusta, the elite of the city welcomed him. He
was entertained at dinners, teas, receptions, and an elaborate ball was
given in his honor.
He
was charming, witty, diplomatic, and generally attractive in his auburn-haired,
military way and won many friends in Augusta. He is said to have danced
with one young Augusta belle many times and that he wrote to her (and to
some of the other people he met during his stay in Augusta) for long years
after. His affection for this Georgia belle has been given as the reason
Sherman spared Augusta.4
Apparently
Lt. Sherman's rather unstable personality, which became so obvious in later
years, was not evident during his tour of duty in Augusta in 1844. He accomplished
his diplomatic mission; succeeded in having the young Artillery lieutenant
restored to favor; and when Sherman returned to Florida (by way of Charleston)
he took the young lieutenant with him.5
While
in Augusta, Lt. Sherman had an opportunity to see the city and its surroundings.
Local residents were proud of Augusta's industries. They called the city
the "Manchester or the Lowell" of the South. They pointed out to the young
West Pointer the city's many advantages, its military possibilities and
its fortifications. Sherman was shown the iron works, the carriage factory,
the cotton mills, shoe manufactory, flour mills, machine shops, dye works,
candle factory, and other industries. He was shown the Savannah River docks
and boats which transported cotton. It is very probable that Sherman made
topographical maps of the Augusta area similar to those he had been making
in Florida.
All
of the information which he gathered while he was in Augusta on his six
months tour of "detached service" in 1844 was to be of value in 1864 to
this young native of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, who was born four weeks before
the Missouri Compromise was passed.
When
the bloody battles of Peachtree Creek and Atlanta had been fought and won
by Union troops under Major General Sherman's command, the city which was
the South's most important railroad junction) was ravaged and burned to
total destruction. The man who had been so charming and so diplomatic in
1844 at Augusta, looked on the leaping flames with what he himself described
as complete satisfaction. He said he thought of all the things which had
been made in Atlanta and which had been used in fighting the soldiers of
the north. He resolved that no railroads, no buildings, no machine shops,
no machinery, or other equipment, would be left to enable the Confederates
to send any more things "made in Atlanta to the battlefields.
(Could
it be that Sherman did not have this same feeling about the large quantities
of war material which had been "made in Augusta?")
Sherman
had spent July 18, 1864, at which is now the Peachtree Golf Club at Peachtree
Road and Old Cross Keys Road. He was increasingly nervous about the Georgia
Railroad. From Virginia (the day before) Grant had telegraphed him that
Lee was toying with the idea of sending twenty thousand of his own badly
needed men to Johnston's aid by way of Wilmington, Charleston, Augusta
and on to Atlanta. Such a transfer of troops had been done before, under
Longstreet, resulting in a heavy defeat for the Union at Chickamauga. It
could be done again.6
So,
Sherman made ashes of' Atlanta and planned his next move with the shrewdness
of a brilliant military commander. In his memoirs he quotes correspondence
which he had with General U.S. Grant, in which Grant gave Sherman carte
blanc in the conduct of his activities in Georgia.7
Grant's
primary objective was the enemy's armies. Sherman's was the seizure of
strategic points. Having leveled Atlanta, he decided that he would make
a rapid march to the sea.
Sherman
sent his excess artillery and stores, his sick and wounded, and all noncombatants
to the rear. He destroyed the railroads as far back as the Etowah River,
eliminating Atlanta from any further military purpose. "Traveling light",
he then set out across Georgia on his infamous march.
Sherman's
intent was to isolate the Confederate Government from any source of supply
of food or funds. This he did without visiting Augusta. He reasoned that
anxiety for their families would tempt Confederate soldiers to desert,
thus weakening the confidence of the Confederate armies. Credit would be
destroyed. Confederate paper money would become worthless. Foreign assistance
would be cut off, and then the war must end.8
When
Sherman left Atlanta on November seventeenth, the Confederates were almost
certain that Augusta would be the next point of his attack. Military officials
argued that the Federals would have to stay on the railroad in order to
maintain their line of supply. At the end of the Georgia Railroad was Augusta,
sheltering such grand prizes as the Confederate Powder Mills, the Augusta
Arsenal, and the industries providing military supplies. Approximately
twenty-five million dollars was invested in public interests in the city,
besides an additional fifteen million to twenty million dollars worth of
cotton in private hands. The capture of Augusta would have dealt an irreparable
blow to the Confederacy's munitions supply.
A
large amount of cotton stored at Augusta was owned by a Mrs. Helm, sister
of Mrs. Abraham Lincoln. This cotton has been given as a reason for Sherman's
by-pass of Augusta. It has been said that President Lincoln ordered Sherman
riot to come to Augusta, lest the cotton be destroyed.9
Preparing
to leave Atlanta, Sherman divided his army (60,000 infantry and artillery,
5,500 cavalry, and sixty-eight guns) into two wings. The Right Wing, commanded
by Major General O.O. Howard, left Atlanta by way of Stockbridge, McDonough
and Jackson, to create the impression that the first objective was Macon.
At Jackson it turned southeast, crossed the Ocmulgee on pontoons at Planters
Factory, nine miles from Jackson, and marched through Hillsboro and Clinton
to Gordon where it had been ordered to concentrate to receive orders for
the next movement.
The
Left Wing of Sherman's army was commanded by Major General H.W. Slocum,
who, with his 20th Corps, left Atlanta by way of Decatur, Stone Mountain
and Social Circle, and marched to Madison, creating the impression that
Augusta was the objective. At Madison, Brigadier General John W. Geary
was sent to the Oconee to destroy the railroad bridge and large stores
of grain at Blue Springs (now Swords), and to rejoin the 20th Corps near
Eatonton. After destroying the railroad facilities in and near Madison,
Brigadier General A.S. Williams turned south toward Milledgeville where
the Left Wing had been ordered to concentrate.
The
Fourteenth Corps, accompanied by Sherman left by way of Covington, Shady
Dale and roads west of Eatonton to rendezvous with the Twentieth Corps
at Milledgeville.
From
Milledgeville, the Left Wing moved on Sandersville, which it occupied after
a sharp fight with Wheeler's Cavalry. The Right Wing, which Sherman had
joined at Tennille, marched on roads south of the railroad and the Ocmulgee.
The Left Wing moved east from Louisville, where it had assembled, crossed
the Savannah and Augusta Railroad between Waynesboro and Millen, and marched
down the peninsular between the Savannah and Ogeechee Rivers.
Sherman's
army reached Savannah with no real difficulty.10
When
Sherman had left Atlanta, moving his troops in three columns, Confederate
military forces were forced to divide to meet the threat. At the time,
Brigadier General Birkett D. Fry was in command of the Augusta district.
He began making rapid preparations to secure the city against attack. Thousands
of negroes who had migrated to Augusta were put to work on fortifications.
Old men, young boys, women, and convalescing soldiers volunteered to dig
trenches fill sand bags and throw up earthworks. The surrounded the city
in a crescent-shaped chain of works which began at the Savannah River east
of East Boundary and extended to the powder works on the west. In addition,
there was an inner line of defense in the "commons" and ten earth forts
around the downtown section. Bunkers were thrown up and trenches were dug
near the Georgia Railroad on the Hill. Others ran along the top of the
Hill just beyond what is now Peachtree Road. Gun emplacements were built
near the railroad between Augusta and Belair.11
It
is reasonable to think that Sherman's intelligence forces knew all of these
preparations for defense of Augusta.
As
early as November 14, camp rumors and prisoners reported that Sherman was
on his way to Augusta. As a precaution, the state stores and records had
been sent from Milledgeville to Augusta. By November 24th these records
were shipped to Columbia, South Carolina. Augusta newspapers reported that
valuable machinery had been shipped to Columbia. This was false but was
calculated to mislead the Federals.
Augusta
expected General Sherman to arrive for dinner on November 25th, which Lincoln
had proclaimed Thanksgiving Day. Confederate generals and their staffs
set up offices and quarters in Augusta hotels. Besides General Fry, Lieutenant
General William J. Hardee and Brigadier Generals Ambrose R. Wright, James
Chasnut, Jr., Albert G. Blanchard, and Lucius J. Gartrell were in the city.
General Braxton Bragg came in from Wilmington with ten thousand men for
reinforcements, and Major General Pierce M.B. Young arrived soon after
with a dismounted cavalry unit.
Colonel
John S. Mosby and his band of daring horsemen also rode in to help defend
the city. The Chronicle and Sentinel noted that "Augusta ... now has the
appearance of a vast military camp."12
Augusta
remained on the alert for ten days and an editorial asked, "Where is that
fellow Sherman, anyway?"
When
Sherman began his journey back north from Savannah, rumors were rampant
again that he was on his way to Augusta. This time he would approach the
city from South Carolina. Lieutenant General Daniel H. Hill was then in
command of Augusta and vicinity. Once more the city dug in to meet attack.
Then the newspapers gave out the information that machinery had been shipped
to Athens. This too was false. Torpedoes had been placed in the Savannah
River seventy-five miles below Augusta, but no gunboats came up the river.
"As Sherman marched through South Carolina, he sent Kilpatrick against
Augusta, but Kilpatrick was defeated at Aiken, S.C. on February llth, by
General Wheeler. Thus Augusta was saved."13
United
States Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton criticized Sherman's march to
the sea as "vainglorious". Stanton thought Sherman should have cut off
Lee's ammunition supply by destroying the powder mills and government works
at Augusta. Had he done so, the war might have ended earlier.
Confederate
General Braxton Bragg, in a letter to a close friend, H. W. Graber, of
Dallas, Texas, explained why Sherman did not include Augusta in Georgia
cities visited on his march to the sea.
"When
Sherman's infantry were nearing Waynesboro ... General Bragg instructed
General Wheeler, whose cavalry was the only Confederate force disputing
Sherman's advance, to notify him when his infantry entered the town; to
leave the telegraph instrument intact, but give the office the appearance
of having been abandoned precipitately. Waiting a reasonable time for the
Federals to take possession of the telegraph instrument, he called for
General Wheeler and was answered by some Federals, when he transmitted
the following: 'General Wheeler hold Waynesboro at all hazards. Longstreet's
Corps is arriving. I will take the field in person. Braxton Bragg.'"14
Sometime
after the close of the war, a newspaper reporter had an interview with
General Sherman in which Sherman gave the following reasons for not destroying
Augusta: "I have often been asked my reason for not burning Augusta. To
set this matter at rest, I will say that my army was without a commissary,
depending upon the country for subsistence, therefore not in condition
to give battle. When I reached Waynesboro, I learned that General Bragg
with Longstreet's Corps and other troops, was in Augusta prepared to defend
the place, which forced me to abandon its destruction and rapidly move
to my new base of supplies, Savannah."
A
few years later an article appeared in the Scientific American under the
caption of "Telegraphy in War", by a writerwho
claimed that he was a lieutenant in
Sherman's
army and in the telegraph service; that he struck and tapped the telegraph
wire between Augusta and Waynesboro and took off the following telegram:
"General Wheeler hold Waynesboro at all hazards. Longstreet's Corps is
arriving. I will take the field in person. Braxton Bragg."
"Thus
we have General Bragg's own statement on his effective ruse to save Augusta
when he had no troops there to defend it, corroborated by General Sherman's
interview and the lieutenant's article in the Scientific American; therefore
there can be no doubt that this was General Sherman's real reason for not
destroying Augusta."15
Sherman's
official report to the War Department concerning his march said: "We consumed
corn and fodder in the region of country thirty miles on either side of
the line from Atlanta to Savannah;also
sweet potatoes, hogs, sheep, and poultry, and carried off more than ten
thousand mules and horses. I estimate the damage done to he State of Georgia
at one hundred million dollars, at least ten
Million
of which inured to our benefit, and the remainder was simply waste and
destruction."16
Sherman
is credited with having said that "War is Hell." In Georgia, at least,
he set out to prove that it was just that. He recognized that an Amy without
a constant flow of sufficient supplies cannot fight to victory. By his
march through Georgia, he cut off the main source of supplies of the Confederate
armies as well as the means of transporting those supplies. He could and
did accomplish this without touching Augusta.
Bishop
Henry C. Lay of Arkansas had an interview with General Sherman in 1864,
in which Sherman said: "To be sure I have made war vindictively. War is
war, and you can make nothing else of it... Southerners are a military
people. If I went to New York and was introduced as Captain or Major Sherman,
U.S. Army, the people would pass me by as a useless man. But if I went
to Charleston, my profession would be a passport into society and cause
my acquaintance to be sought.'' So it had been in Augusta in 1844!
In
describing Sherman, Bishop Lay said he had eyes that were restless; he
was of active temper; ordinarily kind-hearted but when aroused he was severe
and unrelenting. He said that Sherman was sarcastic, sometimes appears
to be sober, thoughtful, and unpretentious; at times elated, yet at other
times morose. Sherman, at 44 years, of age, was nervous in gesture, quick
in action. Fighting in the last of the gallant wars, he was a realist before
his time.17
The
most ridiculous reason given for Sherman's bypassing Augusta has been put
into newspaper print by enterprising reporters who fail to secure documentation
for their feature stories. It is that Sherman and his young wife had to
bury a beloved infant in the Augusta Arsenal cemetery in 1844; that the
love of this baby made him spare the city in 1864. Since Sherman was not
married until 1850, it is wiser to bury that story.
Sherman
gave his own reasons for not attacking Augusta. He did not want to fight
when he could achieve his objective without a battle. In a letter to Pleasant
A. Stovall, editor of the Augusta Chronicle, in 1888, General Sherman wrote
his explanation:
"Our
enemy had garrisons at Macon and Augusta. I figured on both and passed
between to Savannah. Then starting northward the same problem presented
itself
as
to Augusta and Charleston. I figured on and passed between. I did not want
to drive out their garrisons to accumulate ahead of me... The moment I
passed Columbus (Columbia) four factories powder mills, and the old stuff
accumulated at Augusta were lost to the only two armies left, i.e. Lee's
and Hood's so, if you have a military mind you will see that I made better
use of Augusta than if I had captured it ...I
used Augusta twice as a buffer, its garrisons were just where it helped
me. If the people of Augusta think I slighted them in the winter of 1864
they are mistaken; or if they think I made a mistake in
strategy
let them say so and with the President's consent, I can send a detachment
of 100,000 or so of Sherman's Bummers andtheir
descendants who will
finish
up the job without charging Uncle Sam a cent. The truth is these incidents
come back to me in a humorous vein."18
Sixty-eight
years old, twenty-four years after the march to the sea, a vindictive spirit
and a strange sense of humour were still part of Sherman's unstable personality.
Sherman's
detour around Augusta was a defensible move. He never seems to have been
wholly dedicated to this plan. At least twice he considered attacking the
place but was dissuaded because of the large number of homeguards
and troops there. As a result Sherman left Augusta unharmed by Federal
guns and torches.
Sherman
mayhave had a memory of moonlight
and music and a happy sojourn in Augusta in 1844 twenty years before the
torch of fury had been lighted in Georgia He may have remembered the minuet
and the waltz and pretty girls with soft eyes and lovely hair. He may have
had a spark of sentiment down deep inside and a compassion for people who
had treated him as a gentleman-officer-graduate of West Point. If he did,
memory was not his reason for by passing Augusta, leaving the city, the
cotton, the Arsenaland the powder
mill unbattered and unburned.
William
Tecumseh Sherman was a master military strategist. He knew the land; he
knew the people, he knew his mission. He took the shortest distance between
two points both strategically important to the accomplishment of objective.
By
his march through Georgia, Sherman cut off Lee's lifeline. After that the
end came swiftly.
On
the march, Sherman'smen romped down
the red roads of Georgia in holiday, picnic spirit. Sherman had said, "...if
the people raise a howl against my barbarity and cruelty, I will answer
that war is war and not popularity seeking."19
In
his diary for one of the marching days Sherman wrote: "A spirit of exhilaration
runs through the entire army. Fallen are the hopes of the Confederacy.
We are marching through Georgia to the sea. As they travel my men are singing
"John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave but his soul goes marching
on!"20
It
is still marching!