Friday, December 9, 1864

JOHN HIGHT, Chaplain, 14th Corps, In Camp near Ebenezer Creek, 5 a.m.

Where can you find in all the annals of plantation cruelty anything more completely inhuman and fiendish than what I witnessed this last night.

On the pretense that there was likely to be fighting in front, the negroes following our wagons were told not to go upon the pontoon bridge until all the troops and wagons were over. A guard was detailed to enforce the order. But, patient and docile as the negroes always are, the guard was really unnecessary. After the army wagons were across, General Davis ordered the pontoon bridge to be taken up, and to not let a negro cross on pain of court marshall. He left those people on the other side of that swollen, racing creek without any means of crossing.

Some of them plunged into the water and swam across. Others ran wildly up and down the bank, shaking with terror. Someone shouted “Rebels!” and Wheeler’s calvary charged on them, driving them pellmell, into the waters, and mothers and children, old and young, perished alike! Many were drowned—how many is not known. There went up from that multitude a cry of agony.

Davis is a military tyrant, without one spark of humanity in his makeup. He was an ardent pro-slavery man before he entered the army, and he has not changed his views since!


COLONEL CHARLES D. KERR, 126th Illinois Cavalry, Head Quarters Cavalry Corps, near Savannah

To-night I witnessed a scene the like of which I pray my eyes may never see again. Hundreds of old men, women and infants abandoned by “General Reb” on the north side of Ebenezer Creek.

With Wheeler's cavalry closely pressing from the rear, the negroes raised their hands and implored from the corps commander the protection they had been promised; the prayer was in vain and, with cries of anguish and despair, men, women and children rushed by hundreds into the turbid stream and many were drowned before our eyes.

Some of our soldiers returned and cut down trees to float across. And the negro men themselves built rafts to ferry the terrorfied refugees across. Some of these makeshift rafts overturned and women and their babies were swept downstream. So many bodies piled up they formed a human dam across the 100 foot creek. The others huddled as close to the edge of the water as they could, crying, praying, and fearful that the rebels would come before they could get over.

From what we learned afterwards, the rebels did return and of those who remained upon the land, their fate at the hands of Wheeler's troops was scarcely to be preferred.



J. WHEELER, MAJ. GENL., CSA, Near Ebenezer Creek

Lt. Coln. T. B. Roy, A. A. Genl. Hd. Qs. Dept., etc. Colonel:

On the night of Dec. 8th, we shelled the camp of the 14th Corps with good effect, throwing the corps into confusion and causing it to leave camp at midnight, abandoning clothing, arms, etc. By breaking up the camp during the extreme darkness, a great many negroes were left in our hands whom we sent back to their owners. We also captured three wagons and teams, and caused the enemy to burn several more wagons. The whole number of negroes captured from the enemy during the movement was nearly 2,000.

Respy. Col., Your Obt. Servt.



FORTUNE BELL, Camp Meeting, south of Ebenezer Creek

My master used to throw me in a buck and whip me. He would put my hands together and tie them. Then he would strip me naked. Then would make me squat down. Then he would run a stick through behind my knees and in front of my elbows. My knee was up against my chest. My hands was tied together just in front of my shins. The stick between my arms and my knees held me in a squat. That’s what they call a buck. You couldn’t stand up and you couldn’t get your feet out. You couldn’t do nothing but just squat there and take what he put on. You couldn’t move no way at all. Just try to. You just fall over on one side and have to stay there till you were turned over by him. He would whip me on one side till that was sore and full of blood and then he would whip me on the other side till that was all tore up. The blood flew. It ran all down my back and dripped off my heels. But that don’t compare to our betrayal at the hands of this Union Army.

You thought the Yankees was going help the nigger. What kind of help you call this? We should have known it. What can you expect from a hog but a grunt. We have to take care of ourselves, people. Don’t expect nothing from the Union Army for it is rife with copperheads. We are between two poisonous snakes. Their names are slavery and freedom. The snake called slavery lay with his head pointed south and the snake called freedom lay with his head pointed north. Both are riled up against the nigger. Don’t’get too close to either one of them, people, or they will bite.