Southern Storm: Sherman's March to the Sea by Noah Andre Trudeau

Author:Noah Andre Trudeau [Trudeau, Noah Andre]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, azw3
Tags: Non-Fiction, American History, Civil War
ISBN: 9780061860102
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2009-10-13T00:00:00+00:00

In one of the more remarkable personal journeys of the campaign, the officer on whom President Jefferson Davis pinned his greatest hopes of stopping the Yankee juggernaut was crossing Sherman’s wake to reach the front. General P. G. T. Beauregard had been in Montgomery, Alabama, on December 1, traveling toward Mobile, when he was handed a dispatch from Richmond placing him in direct command of all coastal forces opposing Sherman’s march. Beauregard, acknowledging the new instructions on December 2, then plotted a bold course to reach the crucial area. A train carried him from Montgomery to Macon on December 3. From there the trail was by horse, departing Macon for Milledgeville, thence to Sparta and Mayfield, the latter about a day’s ride from Augusta. In his last message to Savannah before breaking contact, Beauregard had offered Lieutenant General Hardee advice on improving the city’s defenses besides urging him to use every effort to obstruct the roads. Further instructions would have to wait until he reached Augusta on December 6.

One of the irregular military assets available to Beauregard was touted today in a letter written in Louisville for publication in the Augusta Daily Chronicle & Sentinel. The unit, not part of any formal order of battle, was called Hazzard’s Scouts. These soldiers, proclaimed the missive’s author, “have kept the enemy terribly annoyed on his rear and flank—dashing into them at unexpected places and capturing prisoners. The Hazzard Scouts are notorious for their gentlemanly deportment. They are never found away from their posts of duty or danger. Capt. Hazzard having been long engaged as a scout, seems to understand all the tricks of a Yankee and how to take advantage of them. He is certainly a terror to Yankees, knowing as he does how to handle his gallant scouts. There are few, if any, who surpass him as a commander of scouts. He is a gentleman and a soldier.”

In Richmond, the December 5 issue of one of the city’s dailies, the Sentinel, offered an upbeat analysis of events in Georgia. “Sherman’s campaign, which was daringly conceived, has been timidly prosecuted,” it announced. The writers pointed to the slow pace plus numerous delays that had marked the operation thus far. “It has given us time to concentrate our means of resistance and to obstruct his path with daily increasing obstacles. SHERMAN seems to have realized his peril, and to be concerned now only to make his escape. The hero has turned fugitive.” While the government may not have embraced every conclusion reached by the newspaper’s editors, there was a guarded optimism coursing through the War Department. “We are…hopeful of the defeat of Sherman—a little delay on his part will render it pretty certain,” wrote a clerk in a position to hear all that his bosses were hearing. However, unlike those running things, the clerk was left with a nagging question: “If it should occur, will it give us peace?” he wondered.

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