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enemy commanding, in a large degree, his communications, yet it was in no sense a retreat, but a new campaign, offensive in all its plans and their execution.
Sherman was with
Blair's corps when it crossed the
Ogeechee and moved down the left bank of that stream towards
Millen.
In order to distract his foe, he directed
Kilpatrick to leave his wagons and all obstructions with the left wing, make demonstrations in the direction of
Augusta, and give
Wheeler all the fighting he desired.
At the same time
Howard, with the divisions of Woods and
Corse, was moving south of the
Ogeechee, along the dirt road leading to
Savannah, while the divisions of
Hazen and
J. E. Smith were still further to the right.
At
Statesborough the former had a severe skirmish
with some Confederate cavalry, which he dispersed.
Slocum marched from
Louisville with the left wing, on the 1st of December, the Twentieth Corps in advance.
It moved down the left bank of the
Ogeechee, everywhere met by fallen trees or other obstructions in the swamps.
The Fourteenth Corps moved farther to the left, and
Kilpatrick, supported by
Baird's infantry division of that corps, pushed on toward Waynesboroa.
At
Thomas's Station, on the railway connecting
Millen and
Augusta, he fought
Wheeler,
and drove him from his, barricades through Waynesboroa and across
Brier Creek, full eight miles, while
Baird was breaking up the iron road and destroying bridges.
Then cavalry and infantry rejoined the Fourteenth Corps, which was concentrated in the vicinity of Lumpkin's Station, on the Augusta railway.
Sherman reached
Millen, with the Seventeenth Corps, on the 3d of December.
It had destroyed the railway from the
Ogeechee to that town, where, so lately, thousands of Union prisoners had been confined.
The sight of the horrid prison-pen, in which they had been crowded, and tortured with hunger,
