nearby family was in harm’s way.
Other characters were part of a mass movement by rail of troops stationed in Richmond, Virginia and transported to Northern Georgia. They were among the ones who historian Mary Chesnut wrote about when she
recorded, “At Kingsville, NC, I caught a glimpse of our army. God Bless these brave fellows. Not one man intoxicated, not one rude word did I hear. It was a strange sight. Miles of platform cars-soldiers
rolled in their blankets, lying in rows, heads covered and fast asleep. In their gray blankets, packed in regular order, they looked like swathed mummies. All these fine fellows going to kill or be
killed. Why?”
These men were part of the 132,000 soldiers who descended on the farm land of Northwestern Georgia, from all areas of this young country, in the drought ridden summer of 1863.
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