Freedom by the Sword - US Army Center Of Military History

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Freedom by the Sword: The U.S. Colored Troops, 1862–1867
the afternoon of 10 July. Naval vessels watched the estuaries and tidal creeks
until daylight the next day to pick up stragglers. 47
None of the three Union columns had come close to accomplishing General
Foster’s objective of damaging the Charleston and Savannah Railroad, but Foster declared
himself satisfied with the result and withdrew the troops to the camps they had
occupied before the operation. “The late movements have had a decidedly beneficial
effect on the troops, both white and black,” he told General Halleck in Washington.
“The latter, especially, improved every day that they were out, and, I am happy to say,
toward the last evinced a considerable degree of pluck and good fighting qualities. I
am now relieved of apprehension as to this class of troops, and believe, with active
service and drill, they can be made thorough soldiers.” Foster must have found his
new confidence in the black regiments reassuring, for their number had grown until
they constituted half of his entire infantry force. 48
The bombardment of Charleston and its forts wore on through the summer, its
intensity lessening as ordnance depots in the Department of the South emptied to
supply the Virginia Campaign. In August, three white infantry regiments and General
Birney’s brigade, the 7th, 8th, and 9th USCIs, sailed for Virginia. As summer passed
into autumn, the troops that remained near Charleston toiled on gun emplacements,
preparing for the day when more ammunition for the artillery would arrive. 49
On 2 September, while Foster’s reduced force remained entirely on the defensive,
General Sherman’s armies occupied the city of Atlanta, two hundred
sixty miles west of Charleston. They then maneuvered against the Confederate
General John B. Hood’s Army of Tennessee for six weeks while Sherman readied
his force for the March to the Sea. Whether the destination would be the Gulf
of Mexico by way of the Chattahoochee River and Alabama or the Atlantic by
way of Georgia and the Savannah River, no one outside Atlanta was sure. Then,
on 11 November, Sherman telegraphed General Halleck, “To-morrow our wires
will be broken, and this is probably my last dispatch. I would like to have General
Foster to break the Savannah and Charleston road about Pocotaligo about
December 1.” The need to prevent Confederate reinforcements from annoying
the left flank of his March to the Sea was the reason behind Sherman’s instruction,
which marked the beginning of the last Union offensive movement in the
Department of the South. 50
Halleck was still not quite sure of Sherman’s route when he wrote to Foster on
13 November, but he emphasized that in any event “a demonstration on [the railroad]
will be of advantage. You will be able undoubtedly to learn [Sherman’s] movements
through rebel sources . . . and will shape your action accordingly.” General Hatch,
commanding the Union force in the siege of Charleston, judged from activity in
the Confederate defenses that Sherman was headed there. By the time Halleck’s
order arrived, Foster had a vague idea that Sherman had passed Macon, Georgia. He
47 Ibid., pp. 14–15, 78, 79 (“fall back”); ORN, ser. 1, 15: 554–56; J. M. Trotter to E. W. Kinsley,
18 Jul 1864, E. W. Kinsley Papers, Duke University (DU), Durham, N.C.
48 OR, ser. 1, vol. 35, pt. 1, pp. 16–17 (quotation, p. 17), and pt. 2, p. 204; ORN, ser. 1, 15: 556.
49 OR, ser. 1, vol. 35, pt. 1, pp. 21–23, and pt. 2, p. 202.
50 Ibid., pt. 1, p. 25, and pt. 2, p. 258; vol. 39, pt. 3, p. 740.