PART FOUR: Saturday, December 10, 1864

BRIG. GENERAL G. T. BEAUREGARD, CSA, Charleston, S. C.

Lieut. Genl. Hardee, Savannah, Ga.:
Having no army of relief to look to, and your forces being essential to the defense of Georgia and South Carolina, whenever you shall have to select between their safety and that of Savannah, sacrifice the latter….


REV. G. S. BRADLEY, Chaplain, 22nd Wisconsin, In the field, near Savannah, Georgia

Came to a halt about noon. We lay in the woods till nearly night, when our brigade was ordered into camp near the railroad. And here we are at last before Savannah.


MAJOR JAMES A. CONNOLLY, 123rd Illinois Infantry, in the field, near Savannah

Mine eyes have beheld the spires of the city!

This forenoon Capt. Biddle and myself rode down to the river, visited the rice plantations, and rice mills, saw a rebel steamboat, captured by our foragers yesterday, saw the spires of Savannah, saw the sacred soil of South Carolina, saw and talked with the real genuine plantation nigger, and indeed were surfeited with sights to us entirely new. There is as much difference between niggers on rice plantations and “up-country” ones, as there is between negroes and baboons.

Many of those I saw to-day were scarcely a single remove form brutes, and they speak a broken sort of English that I can scarcely understand.

On one plantation I saw about 150 niggers principally women and children, and nearly every one of them sick, not a mouthful for them to eat on the whole plantaiton, except the rice which was stacked up, in the straw, in huge ricks that look like large wheat ricks.

Negroes employed on rice plantations live but a few years, and I suppose from this fact, the idea has become prevalent that white men could not stand it to labor on southern plantations. If they would take any decent care of their negroes on rice plantations, they would live as long as on any other plantations, but the proprietors of rice plantations live in cities or in Europe. Everything is done by overseers, and the negroes are treated with just the same brutality as our army mules; profits are large, and if a nigger dies it makes but little difference, another can easily be bought.
After returning from my visit to the rice plantations, I gave the General a description of what I saw, and he went down himself this afternoon.



BREVET MAJOR GEORGE WARD NICHOLS, Aide-de-Camp, in the field, less than 10 miles from Savannah

This evening a movement of the greatest importance has begun. Hazen’s division of the 15th Corps is marching to the other side of the river. Fort McAllister must be taken. To-morrow’s sun will see the veterans whom Sherman led upon the heights of Missionary Ridge within striking distance of its walls. Warm words have been uttered by the Genrals of the 15th and 17th Corps because the second division has been assigned the honor of this expedition. The possibility of repulse, the fear of wounds and death, do not seem to be considered in the rivalry. These brave men of ours have seen too many wounds, and death has passed too near them to suggest any terrors now. The glory of the flag and victory is the noble thought which animates and stimulates officers and men alike.

We have now connected our lines, so that the four corps are within supporting distance of each other. The soldiers are meanwhile in most cheerful spirits, displaying the unconcern which is the most characteristic feature of our troops.