A Diary of the "March to the Sea"

John Hartwell

Lt. Colonel
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Central Massachusetts
I have just added a new narrative (the 21st) to my Civil War Miscellany website:
"With Sherman through Georgia: the diary of Andrew Jackson Boies".​

Andrew J. Boies (some records say "Boice") was born in Castine, Maine, in 1832, but was living in Chelmsford, Mass. when, on July 11, 1862, he enlisted in Company E, 33rd Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry for a term of three years. The following spring, the regiment was attached to Howard’s XI Corps, and first saw action, with little loss, at Chancellorsville. Heavily engaged at Gettysburg late on the 2nd day, the 33rd suffered 8 killed and a score of wounded. That fall, XI and XII Corps were ordered to Tennessee, to cooperate with the Army of the Cumberland, and the following spring, were merged to make the new XX Corps. The 33rd Mass. saw considerable action during the Atlanta Campaign, taking heavy casualties at Resaca, Dallas, and Kennesaw Mountain. After the fall of Atlanta, as part of XX Corps’ 3rd Brigade, 3rd Division, the 33rd became one of a very few Massachusetts regiments to accompany W. T. Sherman’s “Army of Georgia” in its famous “March to the Sea.”

All this time, Corporal A. J. Boies was on duty with the Pioneer Corps, and was keeping a personal diary of his experiences. The excerpt here begins on November 12, 1864, as the army moves out of Atlanta, and heads east. In the experience of this young Massachusetts man, the campaign that “made Georgia howl,” seems rather a leisurely stroll.

With Sherman through Georgia, the diary of A. J. Boies
 
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