An energetic corps of axmen to corduroy roads across the creeks and marshes opens in a short time enough space for any number of columns.
Major General Peter J. Osterhaus, commanding general, 15th Corps, Right Wing of Sherman’s Army
It is highly unlikely that “Uncle Billy” Sherman himself ever set foot near the farm of John and Sarah Wiggins. However, this does not exclude the possibility that Sarah and her children may have encountered the general as will be discussed later. Although traveling with the Right Wing of his army during this period, Sherman’s party returned to the Left Wing on the far side of the OgeecheeRiver just prior to entering EmanuelCounty. The general and his staff likely came no closer than Station 9 ½ on the east bank of OgeecheeRiver at Barton (modern-day Midville). Sherman left the duties of commanding and controlling the far right flank of his army to Major General Howard. The journal entry for November 30, 1864 by Major Henry Hitchcock of General Sherman’s staff confirms his location for the night:
Fifteenth day out, in camp on east bank of Ogeechee River at Burton, The ‘wire-grass region’ proper extends east to the Ogeechee River…Railroad here at Station is say 200 to 250 yards from river bank. Very good brick station house…[i]
It is an undisputed fact of history that the southern wing of General Sherman’s Army, commanded by Maj. Gen. Howard, passed near the present day community of Blun, Georgia on the 29th and 30th of November 1864. Although the precise facts of what transpired that day and in the days that followed are colored by family lore, it is certain that elements of General Howard’s Right Wing visit the Wiggins farm.
This family legend came to my mother and me via my grandmother, Lizzie Dalceda Wiggins Davis, the daughter of George Wiggins. Other siblings and cousins handed down the oral tradition of the Wiggins family encounter with the Yankee soldiers to the successive generations as well. It is most probable that Lizzie received her version of the story from her father, George Washington Wiggins, which she then passed on to her children and grandchildren. Other cousins in the Wiggins family have confirmed many of the key events of the incident in the retelling of the story over the years although details vary greatly. As the 14-year old son of John and Sarah Wiggins, George was a primary witness to the events of those days in late November 1864. It is important to note that George was not present during the encounter with the Union soldiers at the Wiggins farm. According to the traditional family retelling of the story, George played the role of hero for the family, saving much of the farm’s livestock from falling into the hands of the Yankee invaders while his mother and sisters were taken away by Sherman’s soldiers after their refusal to cooperate with the foragers.
The oral version of events handed down through the Wiggins family follows a very simple story line. On or about the 29th of November 1864, the soldiers of General Howard’s wing of Sherman’s Army made their appearance at the front door of Sarah Wiggins. Many of the local populace had sounded the warning of the approaching army several days before. This advanced warning allowed Sarah time to provide a measure of protection for a portion of her farm assets by gathering as much of the livestock as possible and sending them into the swamp of the North Prong Creek under the charge of her eldest son, George. This oral version tells us that Sarah also sent along in George’s care was his five-year-old brother, William. As will be discussed later, I do not believe that William accompanied his older brother into the North Prong Creek swamp.
The story continues that Sarah and the five girls prepared for the approach of the soldiers by continuing to hide food and valuables. When the Union army arrived at the Wiggins “plantation,” Sarah was forced to give all possessions of any value to the soldiers. It is recounted that she was less than fully cooperative with the Yankee soldiers an act for which she was taken into “custody” or “kidnapped” by Union forces.
Based on the size of the farm, the Union soldiers confronted Sarah with the charge that she was withholding the location of some of the other farm assets particularly the livestock. During the encounter with the Wiggins family, as the story was retold, the officer in charge who suspected that Sarah was trying to hide some of her assets and was being less than fully truthful with the foraging party forcefully questioned her. As he began to query her in greater detail concerning the whereabouts of the rest of the farm’s assets, the growingly defiant Sarah refused to reveal the location of the livestock. Because of her repudiation of the officer’s claim that she was hiding additional loot and her refusal to cooperate, Sarah and her girls were forced (the word “kidnapped” was used quite often in the retelling) to accompany Sherman’s army to Savannah. Upon the capture of Savannah, Sherman’s army placed Sarah and her children on a boat and sent them to an undisclosed location in the northern states. There they lived until the end of the war when they return to Georgia.[ii]
Until I began the research of these events, our family was unaware that a written historical record, including first-hand witness statements, existed for this incident. Sarah Wiggins, likely unknowingly, left us an invaluable document that provides a wealth of information about the family of John and Sarah Wiggins in addition to detailing the story of the encounter with Sherman’s soldiers. This document is a claim against the government of the United States, along with all supporting documents and statements, filed on her behalf before the Southern Claims Commission in the 1870s. The claim and support statements provide a wealth of information regarding these events.
Even with the SCC documents, the complete story of what happened on the Wiggins farm during those November days in 1864 will likely never be known completely. The claim lacks detail regarding the encounter with the soldiers plus family lore has been “improved” and colored by years of retelling making it difficult to sort out fact and fiction. The accurate version of the story most likely resides somewhere between the family legend and the statements made to the SCC. A broader analysis of Sarah Wiggins’ claim will be presented later.
There are some details of the story that we can have a high degree of confidence of their validity. For instance, it is certainly true that soldiers from Sherman’s Army first appeared at the doorsteps of Sarah Wiggins’ home on or about the 29th of November in 1864. There seems to be no evidence that would suggest this was fabricated in any way and the historical record supports it. The claim would have likely been immediately dismissed if the Union troops had never visited the Wiggins farm that day.
The movement of Sherman’s army in the approximate location of Blun and Summerville (modern-day Summertown – located approximately 3 miles north of Blun) is confirmed in various diaries and other historical documents. The best known route of march for the 15th Corps of Howard’s Right Wing shows that the headquarters spent the night of November 29, 1864 at Sutherland’s Mill which appears to have been located due west of modern-day Blun with some advance troops and foragers reaching the vicinity of the Wiggins’ farm that day. On the morning of the 30th, the Corps Headquarters with the 4th Division moved first to the east and then turned slightly north in the direction of Summerville.[iii] These forces may have moved along the modern-day Blun Road until reaching the road junction in the center of Blun where they turned left (north) onto modern-day Underwood Loop to head north toward Summerville. Modern-day Underwood Loop follows the route of the 19th century road that ran between Swainsboro and Midville (Barton).
From my research of the official reports, maps and diary entries, the most likely date that the Wiggins family could have encounter Union soldiers would have been November 29, 1864 when some advance pickets or scouts may have made it as far as Blun. There were likely many soldiers at the farm as Sarah claims on the 30th due to the size of the elements moving near Blun and the pace of the Army’s movement. 15,000 soldiers (half the number in the Right Wing of the army) with their associated animals and wagons would certainly take two days to clear the area. As will be discussed later, the train of some 1,900 head of cattle passed over this route and spent the night of the 30th of November on the Wiggins farm. According to her statement, Sarah and the children departed from her “plantation” to travel with Sherman’s Army on the evening of November 30, 1864.[iv]
I find one of the most significant clues that helps unravel part of this mystery is the conspicuous absence from the itemized claim and the supporting statements of any mention of mules or milk cow(s). There’s only one horse and 6 beef cattle listed on the claim.[v] Based on the expert opinions of individuals experienced in farming with animal power, it is estimated that a farm the size of the Wiggins “plantation” (100 acres in cultivation as Sarah claims in her statement) would have required several horses and/or mules to pull the farm implements and perform other tasks. Sarah only claimed “one bay horse” to the SCC.[vi] Also, the family would have required at least two good milk cows to support their dietary needs for a family of that size.
Based on these and other facts, my speculation is that 14-year old George took some portion of the family’s livestock and other farm assets deep into the swamp of the North Prong Creek prior to the arrival of Sherman’s Army in general vicinity of Blun on the 28th of November 1864. With a great deal of certainty, I believe that young William did not accompany his older brother into the swamps for reasons I will explain in detail later. The absence of milk cows, mules and a wagon appears to offer a veiled clue confirming that some of the livestock was hidden with George in the swamp as our family story has long held. Since all three of these farm assets were extremely valuable to the basic survival of any farm family in the 19th century, it would seem logical that Sarah would have made the decision to hide them from the Yankee soldiers.
Also, I discovered a rather fascinating statement made by Sarah Wiggins in her claim. In her disposition statement Sarah claims that she “could have concealed my property and prevented the army from getting it but I preferred and I felt it was my duty to do all I could for the union cause.” The confidence with which she makes this strong statement leads me to believe that her confidence is born of experience. Of course, this is easy to see with hindsight 140 years later. Given the other false and misleading parts of her statement, it is certainly possible that Sarah was making this assertion from experience.
As stated earlier, I do not believe that George accompanied his mother, younger brother and sisters when they left the farm in the company of Sherman’s Army. Additionally, Sarah’s SCC statement refers to her “seven” children. In fact, she had eight children at this time including George. Interestingly, in the same statement, Sarah later refers to her “eight” children when relating that her present family situation during the time of the claim submission. All her children were born prior to 1864, so this leads to the conclusion that one of her children did not accompany Sherman’s army to Savannah.
To my knowledge, no details of the trip north were handed down through the generations of our family from George Wiggins. If George had accompanied Sarah, William and his sisters to New York and on to Indiana, it seems he would have shared this important experience with his children. There are a number of open questions regarding the travels of the Wiggins family to the north that require additional research as will be discussed later.
Hiding from Sherman’s troops in the swamps with cows, mules, and possibly other livestock, George would have faced some significant challenges. In 1864, the foliage surrounding North Prong Creek would have been exceptionally restrictive to human movement and the woods would have been alive with all manner of creatures. Thick stands of virgin timber, both hardwood and pine, and dense underbrush along water-logged wiregrass made this terrain difficult to navigate even for a native. In the years after the war, the Wiggins family would turn this timber into a business, but in 1864 it was still quite undisturbed.
The presence of snakes, briars and “wait-a-minute” vines would have discouraged even the most adventurous Union soldiers from conducting a thorough search for the livestock. Since John Wiggins owned about 700 acres of land adjacent to or including the northern branch of Prong Creek, George would have been very familiar with the terrain. The southwestern area of the Wiggins farm was crossed by the seasonal tributary known as Hog Pen Branch. Hog Pen Branch joined North Prong Creek south of the Wiggins home and continued until it reached the Canoochee Creek. It’s likely that George Wiggins participated in numerous activities over this landscape during his boyhood including hunting, fishing, and cutting wood. There can be little dispute that George would have had a significant advantage over any Union troops who might have attempted to find him hiding with the livestock deep in the swamp.
Major General Osterhaus, commanding general of Sherman’s 15th Corps of the Right Wing, gave a graphic description of the countryside encountered by the Union forces as they made their way from Johnson County into northern Emanuel County.
The ground permitting, I ordered a parallel road to be cut for about two miles to a fork which led into a road that ran parallel to that taken by Woods and Corse. The country here is almost a perfect wilderness-long-leaved pines cover the poor sandy soil but sparely, marsh, lined with narrow skirts of shrub-like undergrowth, breaks this monitory; but what makes the soil almost worthless for agricultural purposes rendered it favorable to our operations. An energetic corps of axmen to corduroy roads across the creeks and marshes opens in a short time enough space for any number of columns.[vii]
These “corduroy roads” were built by cross logs and placing them along a path perpendicular to the direction of travel. The timbers in the soft sand would allow the wagon trains of the army to gain traction and not sink in the deep sand and mud. However, any passengers in the wagons were in for a bumpy ride and marching over these roads was difficult and tiring. Based on the writings of General Osterhaus and others in the 15th Corps, much of the distance travel by the Corps through western EmanuelCounty would have been over roads cut through the woods, many of those being corduroy roads.
The modern map below indicates the likely area of the North Prong Creek swamp that George Wiggins hid out in with the livestock:
In an attempt to evade the swarming army of “bummers,” it was common practice for many Georgia citizens to hide their farm assets in the face of the invading army. It seems the Georgia governor’s call to destroy anything of value lying in the invader’s path when mostly unheeded. Being out of the mainstream was nothing new for Joe Brown. Governor Brown was known as a maverick from the beginning of the war resisting almost every attempt by the central government of Jefferson Davis to gain more control of state resources. Interestingly, as Atlanta was falling to Sherman’s army in September of 1864, Brown granted furloughs to about 10,000 Georgia militiamen leaving Georgia even more unprotected from Sherman’s advance.
The governor’s call aside, the good people of Georgia demonstrated their loyalty to a pair of institutions even more esteemed than the state or the Confederacy…the family and the land. Most families along Sherman’s route of march were likely only trying to preserve their farm assets not destroy them. The Georgia populace along the anticipated route of march continued to do everything within their power to safeguard their farms and plantations from the swarm of locust in blue.
One example of Georgia residents of the area hiding their farm assets in the swamps is found in the diary of a Union soldier marching as a part of Sherman’s force. Lieutenant Cornelius C. Platter, of the 81st Ohio Infantry Volunteers, kept such a diary during Sherman’s march through Georgia and the Carolinas from November, 1864 – April 27, 1865.
On November 28, 1864, he recorded in his diary:
Quite a number of Horses & Mules were captured in the swamps today also some liquors – The Citizens to whom the animals belonged were hiding from the Yankees in the Swamps – some of them had come 30 mile from Sandersville.[viii]
Even General Howard, in his report of the campaign filed during the occupation of Savannah, commented on the tendency of citizens to hide their livestock in the swamps. He assigns equal responsibility to his forces and those of Confederate Cavalry commander General Wheeler for the panic of the fair citizens.
His report for November 29, 1864 states:
The character of the country, open pine woods, wire grass, quite a number of swamps along the OhoopeeRiver and its tributaries, very few clearings or plantations. Quite a number of mules and horses were captured in the swamps, the citizens having run them off, in the hope of escaping our army and Wheeler’s cavalry.[ix]
As indicated by the assets listed (see chart below) in Sarah’s claim to the SCC, the Wiggins family was likely very abundantly stocked for the winter months ahead. John and Sarah Wiggins would not have been considered to be wealthy by the standards of the 1860s. The Wiggins family owned a sizeable tract of land over 700 total acres with 100 of it in cultivation. It seems likely that they possessed a fairly large amount of livestock and farm products. The farm land was apparently extremely productive as where many other farms throughout the region. As indicated by her SCC claim, Sarah and her children had been able to produce more than enough food to provide for themselves during the two years of John’s absence in the Confederate Army.
Also, based on information from her statement, we believe that John and Sarah Wiggins owned at least one household slave. This is confirmed in the statements of Sarah and her two daughters.
Here is a listing of the assets taken from the family farm as enumerated by Sarah Wiggins in her SCC statement:[x]
|
Nature of the Claim |
Amt Claimed |
Amt allowed |
|
1 bay horse, 5 years of age |
$150.00 |
$100 |
|
6 beef cattle @ $12.00 |
$72.00 |
$0.00 |
|
40 stock hogs @ $2.00 |
$80.00 |
$80.00 |
|
10 fattening hogs @ $10.00 |
$100.00 |
$50.00 |
|
150 bushels of sweet potatoes @ .50 |
$75.00 |
$0.00 |
|
150 bushels of corn @ 1.00 |
$150.00 |
$100.00 |
|
4000 lbs. Fodder @ .01 |
$40.00 |
$20.00 |
|
40 gallons syrup @ 1.00 |
$40.00 |
$0.00 |
|
200 lbs. Sugar @ .12 |
$24.00 |
$0.00 |
|
32 lbs. Lard @ .15 |
$4.80 |
$0.00 |
|
40 lbs. Tallow @ .15 |
$6.00 |
$0.00 |
|
1 saddle @ 8.00 |
$8.00 |
$0.00 |
|
1 double barrel shotgun |
$12.00 |
$0.00 |
|
100 lbs. Bacon @ .15 |
$15.00 |
$15.00 |
|
70 chickens @ .25 |
$17.50 |
$0.00 |
|
TOTAL |
$794.30 |
$365.00 |
TABLE 1: Itemized SCC Claim of Sarah Wiggins.
Even today, there is a commonly held notion that the Confederate states were “starving” by the fall/winter of 1864. This appears to be far from the truth. While the Confederate army may have faced supply shortages during this period, much of it appears to be a problem with distribution, not the availability of supplies. Much like the Wiggins “plantation,” the farms of South Georgia were fully stocked from a bumper crop during the summer and fall harvests of 1864. This is confirmed in the dispatches of a reporter from New York City who accompanied Sherman’s army through Georgia.
Sherman’s march has fully exploded the common error that the rebellion could be starved out; that the constant drain upon the white working classes to fill the armies of the confederacy would leave the ground untilled, and granaries unfilled. Wherever we moved, from Covington to Savannah, every plantation was abundantly stocked, and the barns groaned under the corn and wheat that the fall harvest had produced. Every farm house yard was decorated with sweet potato pits and corn bins, which were very thoroughly cleared out by the men in their search for the of life.[xi]
If the itemized list from the SCC claim is close to accurate, the Wiggins farm was well supplied for the winter months and seems to have been relatively untouched by the war, so far. The bounty of the farm would be prime picking for the foragers of the Union army. Sarah Wiggins was not ready to willingly part with her assets and may have concocted a scheme to save her family and farm from complete ruin. She would meet the Union army head on.
[ii] The Wiggins family version of the encounter is taken from various family members including Lizzie Dalceda Wiggins Davis, the daughter of George Wiggins, and other Wiggins cousins. One of these cousins was Gertie Snipes, granddaughter of Ella Wiggins (Snipes). Gertie was 26 years old when her grandmother died in 1936, so she would have received first hand accounts of the encounter albeit through the memory of a young girl. The interview will be cited at various places throughout this document. I do not believe that any of these individuals had any knowledge of Sarah’s SCC claim.
[vii]Reports of Major General Peter J. Osterhaus, U. S. Army, Commanding Fifteenth Army Corps. HEADQUARTERS FIFTEENTH ARMY CORPS, Savannah, Ga., December 26, 1864.
[viii] From the Cornelius C. Platter Civil War Diary, 1864 – 1865 in the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia Libraries, access from http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/hargrett/platter
[ix]Report of Major General Oliver O. Howard, U. S. Army, commanding Army of the Tennessee. HDQRS. DEPARTMENT AND ARMY OF THE TENNESSEE, Savannah, Ga., December 28, 1864.
