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197 Series I Volume XLIV- Serial 92 - Savannah

Page 197 Chapter LVI. THE Savannah CAMPAIGN.

camped at night on east side of Cedar Creek. November 22, laid still to-day and let First and Third Divisions of the corps pass by. November 23, marched at 6 a. m., with two regiments as train guards and two as rear guard. Camped at night within two miles of Milledgeville, the rear guard reaching camp at 9. 30 p. m. November 24, marched at 10 a. m. through Milledgeville, with colors displayed and bands playing national airs, and camped at night seven miles beyond, on the Sandersville road. November 25, marched at 6 a. m. to Buffalo Creek, where we found the bridge had been destroyed just before our arrival. My command marching at he head of the division column to-day, upon its reaching this creek I set to work a company of pioneers and two companies of men from the Twenty-second Indiana, and in half an hour had constructed a very good foot bridge, upon which I crossed the Twenty-second Indiana and afterward the entire brigade, and marched a mile beyond, leaving my pioneer party to assist Colonel Buell in putting down a pontoon bridge for the crossing of trains. Camped at night on Keg Creek. November 26, marched at 6 a. m; crossed Keg Creek and met rebel skirmishers within two miles of Sadersville. My foraging party assisted the troops in the advance to drive the enemy through town. We arrived in town at 10 a. m. and went into camp on the orth side. November 27, marched at 7 a. m. on the Louisville road; crossed the Ogeechee River and camped within eight miles of Louisville for the night. November 28, marched at 6 a. m. to within one mile of Louisville, where we found that the bridge across Rocky Comfort Creek had been burned; the Third Division, Fourteenth Corps, was repairing the same. At dusk I crossed my command over, marched through the town, and went into camp on the left of the Augusta road, about one mile and a half beyond. November 29, remained in camp all day. November 30, still in camp at Louisville. To-day I deployed the Eighty-sixth and One hundred and twenty-fifth Illinois as skirmishers, supported by the Fifty-second Ohio and Twenty-second Indiana, and moved forward, covering the Warrenton and Augusta roads. This movement was induced by the presence in our vicinity of small parties of the enemy, who had, for two or three days past, been capturing and murdering foragers and other soldiers who were so unfortunate as to fall into their power. The enemy had, on the night previous to this movement, captured and killed two men of the Eighty-fifth Indiana, one of One hundred and twenty-fifth Illinois. My line advanced at 11 a. m. and drove the enemy in fine style, recapturing a small foraging party, with train, from the Twentieth Corps, that had ventured too far out. Pretty smart skirmishing continued for some minutes, when the enemy attempted to break my line, but were repulsed by the Eighty-sixth Illinois, with the loss of one captain and one private, who were killed outright and left by the flying enemy on the field. At this juncture, by order of General Morgan, I halted and adjusted my line. Everything remained quiet until 3. 30 p. m., when I received orders to move forward until my right should connect with the left of the Second Brigade, which was moving across toward the Augusta from the Waynesborough road. In this movement my line advanced at the double-quick across a corn-field, to the woods beyond, driving the enemy out of a line of works about 200 yards in length. It being deemed useless to pursue cavalry with infantry, I was directed, at sundown, to withdraw my brigade and re-establish my picket-line as it had been in the morning, which I did, the enemy following the skirmish line as it retired. In this day's operations a good deal of shooting was done by the enemy, but in driving him more than a mile he


Page 197 Chapter LVI. THE Savannah CAMPAIGN.