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ASHAEL SUMNER DEAN
CIVIL WAR LETTERS TO
HIS FAMILY
Dec
14th, 1864 (Ship was anchored at Tybee Roads-ed.)
Dear
Virginia
Let
me narrate a few incidents as they have transpired today. It has been an
eventful one. You probably have it all by telegraph but not in detail. As we
lay in Tybee Pay’r Smith came up from [Wassaw] with the intelligence that
Sherman was down with a division of men at Fort McAlister guarding the
southern approach to Savannah whereupon we went down inside and as we came
into the Sound and rounded to along side the ‘PAWNEE’ and [an] Ironclad, the
NEMAHA came in from below At once she signaled that she had Sherman on board
He came along side came on board We dressed and [changed] ships The PAWNEE
gave a salute with shotted guns and every body was wild He had one of his
staff with him “Capt. Merritt” Gen. Foster returned to P.R. [Port Royal]
with the news and Sherman remained on board He wears a seedy suit slouch
black hat muddy boots with only one spur on is 43 y’s old a little sandy,
prominent nose and looks as though he was a Brighton shoot - driver
Capt Merritt told me many incidents of the campaign which never will get into
print and which I can't stop to relate They sent down 1500 men to take Fort
McAlister They moved upon it in three columns and took it with a loss of 70
men They had 21 guns and many provisions ammunition etc. and 157 men left
to be taken prisoner Thus a road was opened to the south side of Savannah
and Sherman let out to the sea only 30 miles below P. Royal a good harbor
Capt. M. says their march has been a succession of gala days They did not
lose a 100 men out of the 70,000 that left Atlanta They went to the Capitol
turned out the Members made a mock Legislator voted Ga. into the Union
Kilpatrick was the Gov. who approved the proceedings They burnt enormous
quantities of cotton gutted Publick property took all the negroes one Corps
drove 9000 head of cattle before them and the whole Army was remounted with
fresh horses They took buggies and coaches and hitched mules to them and
made themselves as [merry?] as colts They did not hurry Sometimes they made
5 miles sometimes 15 and again staid two or three days in a place Capt. M.
told me Gov. Brown took all his furniture cut up his carpets and put them on
the only train of cars Left his neighbors to look out for themselves They
never will forget it of him The Confederate [money?] they took was [HERE A
LARGE PORTION OF THE LETTER HAS BEEN CUT OUT-djt ed. ] [starting where I
can read again: ...... are on board Howard, Slocum, [indecipherable] and
a dozen besides I gave my bed up to Gen. Howard All the Generals sleep on
board and [indecipherable] will lay a bed tomorrow I take this midnight hour
as I have to sit up or chose to - to write to you I wish you could see some
of the brave fellows Sherman will meet with a stout resistance at Savannah
Hardee has 20, 000 men in the defences and the approaches are very narrow He
[Sherman] will lose heavily if he tries to carry the City by assault Capt. M.
thinks he will try it before three days Gen Howard has but one arm is tall
and slight He commanded the Left Wing Slocum the Right What will be done
tomorrow I can’t say All this quantity of RANK ! - am fast asleep now
I will write more may be and enclose with this - you must try and be brave for
my sake [ SECTION MISSING]
I
think it cant be long Sherman has broken the back of the Rebellion hasn’t
he? You must be brave and strong for my sake and put your mind on something
else on your children you must plan some way to do it don’t give up I love
you more than [indecipherable] God bless you my dear one
When
they charged upon the Fort they came out of a wood 800 yards distant - about
dusk - they fired one charge of solid shot which was too high The next time
they fired scrapnel -[note spelling djt ed] which they evaded by falling down
and before they could reload they were scaling the walls They suffered most
from torpedoes wh’ [his shorthand, in this case for which - djt ed] they
sprang upon them out side the Fort Capt. says he cant believe a single man
could have got into the Fort alone even with no one to oppose him He said he
could not see how they ever got over the obstruction Sherman took an
earthwork and did not have a single cannon Artillery could not have driven
them out Maj Anderson was in command a nephew of Gen. Anderson who commanded
Fort Sumpter before the War.
Sumner
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