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Letter by Lieut. Laurens W. Wolcott of the 52nd Illinois Infantry, Co. D, recounting their Southern takeover in November and December of 1864 as part of Sherman's March to the Sea. Dated 21 December 1864 from Little Ogeechee, Georgia on the exact day Sherman captured the port of Savannah, four-page letter reads in full: ''Dear Sister, Having been on my travels since I last wrote and having turned up at last in this place, I will write to you again hoping to get some letters from somewhere and news, though in a roundabout way, from home. We left Rome Nov. 11th having first burned quite a number of the principal buildings, passed Marietta and Atlanta both of which were partially burned and bore south down the east side of the Atlanta and Macon RR. Leaving Macon twelve miles to the right and crossed the Ga. Central railroad at Gordon, the junction of Milledgeville branch. This RR was completely destroyed from Griswold, the station nearest Macon, far beyond Millen and could not be repaired by the rebels in less time than six months if they had the materials. Leaving Gordon we turned east (Nov 24th) crossed the Oconee on our pontoons and veering a little to the north struck the railroad near Tennille and burned 3 1/2 miles of track; then leaving it to the Army of the Cumberland, who did most of that work, we turned southeast, crossed the Ogeechee river opposite Scanboro and burned some three miles more of track (Dec 3rd) and recrossed; marched fifty odd miles farther down and again crossed to the east bank. The Johnnies had cut away the bridge but it was a short job to lay the pontoons as at the Ocmulgee and Oconee rivers, and cross on our own bridge, while the piles on which their bridge had rested served us very well as posts to steady ours. On the opposite bank we found a force of the enemy; part of them 'Gov. Brown's Cripples' or in other words Georgia state militia, and the rest North Carolina heavy artillery; (acting as infantry) who had served over three years and never seen a fight; accordingly, our brigade being in advance two regiments (the 2d & 7th Iowa) proceeded to give them a few 'pointed instructions' in skirmishing. They were posted behind rail works but when our boys 'went for them' across the open field in their front (as the Hoosier's say) 'they just lit out' leaving some forty prisoners and six or eight killed and wounded in our hands. Next day (the 8th) while marching south we passed a house where there were some thirty or forty beehives, it would astonish people who are afraid of been to see the boys upset a hive, kick off the cover, and paw out the honey, regarding the bees no more than so many flies. At night we camped on the Ogeechee canal, fifteen miles from Savannah; next day another skirmish occurred in which our second brigade took one ten pounder rifled gun and a number of prisoners, looking but one man wounded; Next day (the 10th) we arrived here, eight miles from Savannah and a little southwest from it. The rebels are posted on the other side of a swamp three fourths of a mile wide, level as a prarie and covered with grass and rice stubble intersected by numerous large ditches and a small river; Altogether it almost if not quite impossible in the face of an enemy. So we sit quietly in camp while someone else does the work of taking Savannah. On the 13th our Second Division charged and took Fort McAllister, commanding the mouth of the Ogeechee with 23 heavy guns and 200 prisoners, thus opening a safe harbor for landing supplies. It was a joke that the boys enjoyed to the fullest extent, for the rebel papers to represent us in a starving condition, weak and exhausted by famine: the fact is we never lived so well while in the service as during our march of 360 miles from Rome though on half rations most of the time. We had plenty of pork, fresh beef, sweet potatoes, yams, molasses, & sugar with a little poultry now and then, if that is starving we would be willing to starve a little more. Capt Newton, who with the other officers and men whose time had expired was obliged to make the trip from Rome by an order from Gen Howard, was mustered out on the 18th & started for home the next day hoping, I suppose to get there for Christmas though I hardly think he will make it out. Three hundred miles farther south makes about as much more difference in the climate as the former 750 or 800 between northern Georgia & northern Illinois, we still have musketoes and flies living absolutely out of doors hardly even need the aide of fires to keep warm, it don't seem at all like winter. I've heard nothing from home since leaving Atlanta, please write and give me the latest news you have heard. But I am called for and must close. Remember me to all the friends, your Aff Brother / Laurens''.
Signed again ''Laurens / Dec 21/64'' vertically at top corner of page 4. 4pp. card-style letter on a single sheet measures 7.75'' x 12''
with bisecting folds creating pinholes in a few spots and some minor toning. Very good overall.
Civil War Letter, Chronicling Sherman's March -- ''...our brigade...proceeded to give them a few 'pointed instructions' in skirmishing...'' & ''...passed Marietta and Atlanta...partially burned...''
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