Diary of Orrin Brown, near Clyo, Georgia
Sunday–Jan. 29th
We have orders for marching this morning, the weather is still cold. The report came that the mail would go out at 2.30 PM, I wrote a short letter home. The smoke has nearly blinded my eyes today. I read 1 chapt. in the Testament today.
Most of the XX Corps had come across the Savannah River when it was passable, to march up to Robertville or Robertsville, SC, opposite Sister’s Ferry, GA, where the XIV Corps and Kilpatrick’s cavalry would cross and join to re-form the Left Wing, while the Right Wing marched from Beaufort. At Robertsville the XX Corps met rebel cavalry, who were dislodged with few injuries. The vanguard of the XIV Corps who started out from Savannah on the 20th had began to arrive at Sister’s Ferry on the 28th. Gen. JC Davis reported:
The excessive rainy season which so much impeded our progress during the succeeding ten days set in as the troops left their camps, and by night the roads through the swamps have become impassable to trains so heavily loaded, until they were corduroyed in many places for miles. Under the circumstances our movements were necessarily slow and fatiguing, especially to the animals…
Source: United States. War Dept. The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union And Confederate Armies. Series 1, Volume 47, In Three Parts. Part 1, Reports., Book, 1895; p.429 (http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth142233/ )
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