Locust Grove

Locust Grove. The Federal “Right Wing” Advances. Leaving McDonough on Thursday, November 17, 1864, the Federal 15th and 17th Corps separated and marched generally southeast using multiple roads. They comprised the “Right Wing” of Major General William T. Sherman's army, led by Major General Oliver O. Howard. Two divisions of Major General Francis P. Blair's 17th Corps of more than 11,000 men marched southeast on the (Old) Jackson road. Blair's other division advanced generally east into northern Butts County where it camped for the night., The nearly 16,000 men in four divisions of the 15th Corps, commanded by Major General Peter J. Osterhaus, moved south from McDonough to Locust Grove. Here the 15th Corps divided. Brigadier General John E. Smith's division proceeded to Jackson before spending the night five miles further southeast at Flovilla. The divisions of Brigadier Generals William B. Hazen and Charles R. Woods proceeded south then east, camping the following night (November 18th) at Indian Springs. Slowed by their assignment of guarding the 15th Corps' supply wagons, Brigadier General John M. Corse's division also marched through Locust Grove, arriving in Jackson on the 18th. One Federal soldier described in his diary this difficult duty: “We are flankers on [one] side of the [wagon] train … We marched about one hundred yards from the road … it was a hard place to march.”, Union Brigadier General H. Judson Kilpatrick's 5,000-man cavalry division rode south along the Macon and Western Railroad (running between Atlanta and Macon) to the north and west of Locust Grove. Pausing at times to destroy tracks, the Federal troopers also skirmished on November 16th at Lovejoy Station and Bear Creek Station (present-day Hampton) with portions of Confederate Major General Joseph Wheeler's cavalry division and Georgia militia led by Major General Gustavus W. Smith. Lieutenant John H. Ash of the Georgia Huzzars described the hopelessness of stopping the Federal advance, “Near Bear Creek Station met and encountered the overwhelming numbers of Sherman's advance, killing and wounding a great many of the enemy, but we were unable to check them, as our Reg[iment] could only muster 48 guns. We were so completely run over that we were scattered in every direction, those of us who were not killed and captured.” Kilpatrick's cavalrymen spent the night at two plantations along the road to Locust Grove before briefly joining the 15th Corps infantry divisions of Generals Hazen and Woods for their march further south on November 17th. Kilpatrick's new orders were to feint south toward Macon to convince Confederates that the Right Wing was marching toward that city when in reality their goal was to cross the Ocmulgee River unopposed east of Jackson., The Federal soldiers marching through Locust Grove did not leave the area as they found it. Describing the condition of the region after the Federals passed Eliza Atkins Walker wrote to her Confederate soldier husband, “It would surprise you, I think, just to see plantation after plantation destroyed.”, Captions (left to right) , . Sherman's March to the Sea Nearly 16,000 soldiers in the 15th Corps, plus thousands of wagons, horses, mules, cattle and more passed through Locust Grove on November 17, 1864 , . Federal soldiers on the march , . Union Brigadier General Charles R. Woods, Commander, First Division, 15th Corps His first command against Southern forces was in January 1861 of troops on the ship “Star of the West” attempting to reinforce the federal garrison at Fort Sumter. , . The “March to the Sea” through Henry County (Lloyd's Topographical Map of Georgia, 1864) , . William S. Fears Federal cavalry camped on his plantation near Locust Grove.