791 Series I Volume XLIV- Serial 92 - Savannah
Page 791 | Chapter LVI. CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. -UNION. |
president of the Georgia Central Railroad, whom I treated kindly, and sent on his way to Macon; and between the several breaks of this railroad, as above, three locomotives and sundry cars were caught. The division of the Fifteenth Corps west of the Ogeechee River then crossed it at or near Fort Argyle (abandoned), and supported the other division already along the Little Ogeechee. The Seventeenth Corps on the 9th of December pushed on down the main (or Louisville dirt) road, on the upper (east) and north side of the Central railroad, and, driving back with a line of skirmishers some artillery stationed on the causeway, through a swamp between Station 2 and Station 1 (or Pooler), camped that night at the latter point. We lost two or three men, wounded by the explosion of two torpedoes buries in the road, before entering the swamp; seven were dug up by prisoners we held. On the 10th of December the Seventeenth Corps advanced to a point five miles from the city, and developed, in part, the rebel defenses in that quarter. On our left the Twentieth and Fourteenth Corps had continued to advanced to advance as rapidly as the swamps and narrow roads would permit; and by the 11th of December all the army corps were close up to the rebel outer line from the Savannah to the Little Ogeechee River-the Twentieth Corps on our extreme left, on the river-bank, and crossing the Charleston railroad three miles from the city; the Fourteenth Corps on its right, to the canal; the Seventeenth and Fifteenth forming our right; the whole an irregular line some fifteen miles long. The next day or two was occupied in tracing the rebel line, irregular and re-entrant in correspondence with the extensive swamps lying all round the rear of the city, crossed only by narrow causeways commanded by batteries of heavy guns. During this time a river boat was brought to on her way up, run aground, and burned by our infantry; and we captured a tender to two gun-boats which attempted to pass Winegar's battery (3-inch rifled guns) on the river-bank, but were driven back up the river, leaving their tender (a New York Harbor tug) in our hands almost uninjured. On Monday, 12th instant, I went over to our right and ordered for next day the assault by Hazen's division, of Fifteenth Corps, on Fort McAllister, the obstacle to our communication with the fleet in Ossabaw Sound. You will have already received, no doubt, through the papers [an account] of this very gallant and handsome affair, which lasted just fifteen minutes from the time the signal to charge was given till the old flag waver over the fort which has so long defied attack by sea. Our total loss was 11 killed, 80 wounded, largely caused by the torpedoes buried thickly the line of abatis. I witnessed the assault from a rice mill on the river, about three miles distant across the salt marshes, through the troops marched ten miles around to reach the fort before attacking it, and immediately went down in a boat to the fort the same evening, thence on down to the fleet, where I met Admiral Dahlgren and General Foster. After arranging with them for bringing supplies from Hilton Head, especially bread and forage, which were beginning to be needed, and also for 30-pounder Parrotts to bombard the city, I returned on the 15th to my camp. That night Colonel Babcock arrived with dispatches of importance from General Grant bearing upon my plans here. The length of my lines (nearly fifteenth miles) and the nature of the soil, even on the causeways made through the swamps, made necessary a large amount of corduroying to pass my trains to and from the depot of supplies which I directed General Easton to established at King's Bridge (over the Ogeechee), which the continued development of the rebel lines occupied last week. On the 17th I sent in to General Hardee, by flag of truce, on our left, a summons to
Page 791 | Chapter LVI. CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. -UNION. |