Sherman's
heads to Atlanta
At 6 p.m. on the 20th of April, the authorities of Macon,
under protest, surrendered the city to the Seventeenth Indiana, Colonel Minty's
advance regiment, claiming, under the provisions of an armistice then reported
existing between the forces of Generals Sherman and Johnston, that the capture
was contrary to the usages of war. General Wilson, not being at hand when the
surrender was made, when the case was reported to him, with admirable good
judgment declined to recognize the validity of the claim asserted, as the city
had been taken possession of by one of his subordinates before he (General
Wilson) could be advised of the existence of an armistice, and he therefore
held, as prisoners of war, Maj. Gen. Howell Cobb and G. W. Smith, and
Brigadier-Generals Mackall, Robertson, and Mercer.
On the 21st, General Wilson
was notified by General Sherman, from Raleigh, N. C., over the enemy's telegraph
wires and through the headquarters of General Joseph E. Johnston, that the
reported armistice was a reality and that he was to cease further operations. Owing to the
difficulty of procuring animals for his command and the bad condition of the
roads, General Stoneman was only enabled to start from Knoxville about the 20th
of March, simultaneously with General Wilson's departure from Chickasaw, Alabama. 
In
the meantime General Sherman had captured Columbia, S.C., and was moving
northward into North Carolina. About this period reports reached me of the
possibility of the evacuation of Lee's army at Richmond and Petersburg, Va., and
in that event of his forcing a passage through East Tennessee, via Lynchburg and
Knoxville. To guard against that contingency, Stoneman was sent toward Lynchburg
to destroy the railroad and military resources of that section and of Western
North Carolina. The Fourth Army Corps was ordered to move from Huntsville,
Ala., as far up into East Tennessee as it could supply itself, repairing the
railroad as it advanced, forming, in conjunction with Tillson's division of
infantry, a strong support for General Stoneman's cavalry column in case it
should find more of the enemy than it could conveniently handle and be obliged
to fall back. With three brigades, Brown's, Miller's, and Palmer's, commanded by
General Gillem, General Stoneman moved, via Morristown, Bull's Gap, and thence
eastward up the Watauga and across Iron Mountain, to Boone, N. C., which he
entered on the 1st of April,(*) after killing or capturing about seventy-five
home guards. From Boone he crossed the Blue Ridge and went to
Wilkesborough, on the Yadkin, where supplies were obtained in abundance, after
which he changed his course toward Southwestern Virginia. A detachment was sent
to Wytheville and another to Salem to destroy the enemy's depots at those places
and the railroad, whilst the main body marched on Christiansburg and captured
the place. The railroad to the eastward and westward of the town was destroyed
for a considerable distance. The party sent to Wytheville captured that place
after some fighting and burned the railroad bridges over New River and several
creeks, as well as the depots of supplies. The detachment sent to Salem did the
same, and proceeded to within four miles of Lynchburg, destroying as they
advanced. A railroad was never more thoroughly dismantled than was the East
Tennessee and Virginia Railroad from Wytheville to near Lynchburg. Concentrating
his command, General Stoneman returned to North Carolina, via Jacksonville and
Taylorsville, and went to Germantown, where Palmer's brigade was sent to Salem,
N. C., to destroy the large cotton factories located there and burn the bridges
on the railroad between Greensborough and Danville and between Greensborough
and the Yadkin River, which was most thoroughly accomplished, after some
fighting, by which we captured about 400 prisoners. 
Sherman's troops pulled up, heated, and bent sections of track -
insuring they could not be reused.
At Salem 7,000 bales of
cotton were burned by our forces. From Germantown the main body moved south to
Salisbury, where they found about 3,000 of the enemy defending the place, and
drawn up in line of battle behind Grant's Creek to await Stoneman's attack.
Without hesitation a general charge was made by our men, resulting in the
capture of all the enemy's artillery--14 pieces--and 1,364 prisoners. The
remainder scattered and were pursued. During the two days following, the troops
were engaged destroying the immense depots of supplies of all kinds in
Salisbury, and burning all the bridges for several miles on all the railroads
leading out of the town.
On the afternoon of April 13, the command moved westward to Statesville and
Lenoir, at which latter point General Stoneman left the troops to be disposed of
by General Gillem, and proceeded with the prisoners and captured artillery to
East Tennessee, reporting his arrival, on the 19th, at Greeneville, and
detailing the disposition of his troops, which was as follows: Palmer's brigade,
with headquarters at Lincolnton, N. C., to scout down the Catawba River, toward
Charlotte; Brown's brigade, with headquarters at Morganton, to connect with
Palmer down the Catawba, and Miller's brigade, with General Gillem, was to take
post at Asheville, with directions to open up communication through to
Greeneville, East Tennessee, the object in leaving the cavalry on the other side of
the mountains being to obstruct, intercept, or disperse any troops of the enemy
going south, and to capture trains. General Gillem followed the directions given
him, and marched on Asheville with Miller's brigade, but was opposed at
Swannanoa Gap by a considerable force of the enemy. Leaving sufficient of his
force to amuse them, with the balance he moved by way of Howard's Gap, gained
the enemy's rear, and surprised and captured his artillery; after which he made
his appearance in front of Asheville, where he was met by a flag of truce on the
23rd, with the intelligence of the truce existing between Generals Sherman and
Johnston, and bearing an order from General Sherman to General Stoneman for the
latter to go to the railroad station at Durham's, or Hillsborough, nearly 200
miles distant, whereas the distance to Greeneville, East Tennessee, was but sixty.
Coming to the conclusion that the order was issued by General Sherman under the
impression that the Cavalry Division was still at Salisbury or
Statesville, General Gillem determined to move to Greeneville. The rebel General
Martin, with whom he communicated under flag of truce, demanded the rendition of
the artillery captured, which, of course, could not be granted, and in return
General Gillem requested the rebel commander to furnish his troops with three
days' rations, as by the terms of the armistice they were required to withdraw.
Had it not been for this, Asheville and its garrison would have fallen into our
hands. Up to that period I had not been officially notified of the existence of
any armistice between the forces of Generals Sherman and Johnston, and the
information only reached me through my sub-commanders, Generals Wilson and
Stoneman, from Macon, Georgia, and Greeneville, East Tennessee, almost simultaneously.
The question naturally arose in my mind, whether the troops acting under my
direction by virtue of General Sherman's Special Field Orders, No. 105, series
of 1864, directing me to assume control of all the forces of the Military
Division of the Mississippi "not absolutely in the presence of the
general-in-chief," were to be bound by an armistice or agreement made at a
distance of several hundred miles from where those troops were operating, and of
which they were advised through an enemy then in such straightened circumstances
that any ruse, honorable at least in war, was likely to be practiced by him to
relieve himself from his difficult position.
Confederate volunteers
