As he rides out of Atlanta on that dark November day, the smoke of the doomed city filling all the heavens like a pall, we catch a glimpse of the General, who has conceived and is about to execute this desperate enterprise. Born in 1820, he graduated at West Point in 1840 in the same class with George H. Thomas and Richard S. Elwell, the latter holding high command in the Confederate army. Sherman was at this time in his forty-fifth year. A tall, slim, iron-built figure, all nerve and sinew, with not an ounce of flesh to spare. A large head, long and conical, with slanting brow, crossed and cut by furrows, eyes of dark brown, hair of the same hue, cropped close, sandy beard and mustache, a large mouth, with an expression of countenance kindly, even humorous, but keen, anxious, vigilant and suspicious. Such is the outward and visible aspect of the "Old Man," as the soldiers called him. He denies himself and his staff every luxury. He has fewer servants, fewer horses than the regulations allow, and his staff is smaller than that of a brigade commander. He has reduced himself and every man under him to fighting weight. The army was divided for the march into two wings, General Howard commanding the right, General Slocum the left, with General Kilpatrick in command of the cavalry. Milledgeville, the Capital of the State, was the first objective of the march, distant southeast one hundred miles. Here the Georgia Legislature was in session, and here the Georgia militia, under General Howell Cobb, was concentrating. Gaily, and with a free step, the troops full of the confidence success inspires, swung forward into Milledgeville. Each wing of the army was composed of two corps, and the ordinary order of march where practicable was by four roads, as nearly parallel as possible. Each column marched within supporting distance of the others. The General commanding issued his orders indicating generally the object to be accomplished or the line to be followed. On the subordinate commanders devolved the task of carrying the orders out in detail. In order to subsist supplies must be gathered from the country passed over, and to this end each brigade had a regularly organized toraging party, whose business it was daily to gather near the route traveled corn and forage of any kind, meat, vegetables and cornmeal, or whatever was needed by the command, aiming at all times to keep in the wagons ten days' provisions for the command and three days' forage. These foraging parties soon got to be known as Sherman's "bummers," and they achieved for themselves a bad eminence for conduct that can scarcely be defended even under the rigorous rules of war. The line between taking for the army and stealing for one's self ought to have been better marked than it seems to have been according to all authentic accounts. Such acts as taking the last chicken, the last pound of meal, the last bit of bacon, the only remaining scraggy cow from a poor woman and her flock of children, were strictly forbidden by Sherman. He must not be held responsible for what the bummers following his army did. In the hurried march he could not stop to punish transgressors. One of Sherman's objects in the great march was to destroy all warlike stores and means of transport, including railways, bridges and canals, and this was done with remarkable thoroughness. Most of the march was made along the lines of railroad, which were destroyed as the troops advanced. The method of destruction was to burn and dig up all the bridges and culverts, and tear up the track and bend the rails. The ties would be placed in piles, the rail laid across them and the ties set on fire. The rails becoming red hot in the middle, the soldiers would then twist them around trees, thus completely preventing their ever being used again. Everything that could serve an army in the field was destroyed, and over a breadth of fifty miles, the line of march of the army, an almost desolate waste was made. It was currently said that a jaybird would have to carry a haversack in going through that country. GOV. TOD'S PART IN THE WAR. CHAPTER X. He was Hon. David Tod, for several years before the breaking out of the rebellion, had been a prominent politician in the State of Ohio. identified with the Democratic party, and had frequently been honored by his party. He had served nearly five years as United States Minister to Brazil. He was chosen to preside over the Democratic National convention at Baltimore that nominated Douglass for President. He was a man of sound judgment and positive convictions of duty. When he saw that the Government was in danger of being disrupted, he at once dropped his party prejudices and heartily co-operated with the Union party to save the Nation. He was nominated and triumphantly elected, and in January, 1862, he was inaugurated and entered upon the duties of Governor of Ohio. And it is the verdict of the people of the State that well did he discharge the duties of his office. He was a |