The Savannah Road

The Savannah Road. Camp in the Pine Barrens. On Monday, November 28, 1864, while elements of the Federal 20th Corps were destroying sections of the Central Railroad of Georgia at Bartow (aka Speir's Turnout), Major General William T. Sherman was traveling with his army's 17th Corps led by Major General Francis P. Blair, Jr. After camping that night at New Hope Methodist Church, Sherman and the 17th Corps marched past Tarver's Mill and just south of Bartow the following day along the Savannah road., General Sherman and the 17th Corps marched a total of seventeen miles on the 29th, stopping in a forest of tall pines. The camps of the nearly 12,000 Federal soldiers stretched for about two miles along the Savannah road, mostly on its north side for easier access to nearby Rocky Creek., Major Henry Hitchcock, an officer on Sherman's staff, kept a diary during the march to the sea. On the night of November 29th he wrote, "The perfection of this campaign just now consists in our marching through this 'pine barrens' country: good (sandy) roads, fine pure air, no difficult hills, [wagon] trains well up, forage of every kind in super-abundance, and our camp tonight superb. Tents are pitched in open space in fine grove of large pine trees, no undergrowth, water convenient, clear, and good (as is all the water in this region, even the swamps and ponds)-in our rear, say 100 feet from the tents a dense growth of young pines, just the place to picket horses the ground covered thick and soft with pine stew' and 'wire grass,--so soft that while tents were being pitched...I lay down on it as on a bed and had a jolly nap." , The next morning, Wednesday, November 30th, the march continued east along the Savannah road., [Photo captions] , Background: Sherman's Headquarters , Left bottom: "General Sherman's during March to the Sea" Sherman's headquarters camp the night of November 29, 1864 along the Savannah road , Right top: Approximate routes of the "March to the Sea" through coastal Georgia in November and December 1864 , Right bottom: Union Major General William T. Sherman issuing an order