The American Massacre you never heard of in history class…

I have mentioned before that so much of what I am learning was not taught in school. Following is just one more example of American history that was simply not in my history books. I stumbled upon this story when doing research for another piece. I can only believe it is because it’s just not important. It was a long time ago and it’s about black slaves, so who cares?

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December, 1864, just months before the end of the Civil War and U.S. General Sherman was leading some 60,000 Federal troops on his 285 mile March to the Sea  from Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia.   It was his intention to scare the civilian population into abandoning the Confederate cause.   He stole food and livestock and burned the houses of anyone who challenged him.  In his words “We’re not only fighting hostile armies, but hostile people” and they needed to “make old an young, rich and poor, feel the hard hand of war.”  

One of Sherman’s Generals was Brigadier General Jefferson C. Davis (No relation to Jeff Davis, President of the Confederacy).   He served as a XIV corps commander under Sherman during the March to the Sea, at the rear of the column.

As they blazed their way across Georgia, they left a trail of burned and ransacked houses and plantations, weeping white women and children and rejoicing freed slaves. These newly freed slaves had no way to care for or feed themselves. They’d lived their whole life on plantations where the master took care of such things.  They had no money, no food, and were for the most part dressed in rags; their homes had been burned by the invading Union troops.   Every day, hundreds of poor black men, women and children arrived in camp, begging for food. 

The blacks supplied the manpower to keep the army on the move by clearing roads and obstacles and serving as teamsters, cooks and servants.  In return, the Army fed them.  This arrangement worked well when foraging in the fertile farmland area of Georgia, but as they approached the sea, the low sandy areas made finding food a real problem.  Even in this Union army of liberation, the racism of the age was still prevalent throughout the ranks, and the soldiers resented the blacks.

All along the way the Union soldiers had been harassed by Major General Joseph Wheeler’s Confederate troops at their rear flank.   Union General Davis was irritated by the presence of the blacks; they slowed his army and made the food shortage problem worse for his men.  

On December 3, 1864, Davis’ troops needed to cross the icy, swollen Ebenezer Creek, about 20 miles North of Savannah.  It was some 10’ deep and 165’ across and the only way to cross was by using a pontoon bridge.  By midnight is men had assembled the pontoon bridge, but told the slaves to stay behind the Army, who would cross first to look for hostile soldiers.  A guard was posted, but was unnecessary; black slaves in Georgia did not disobey the orders of a white man.

Colonel Charles Kerr, at the rear of the column, later wrote that orders were then given to take up the pontoons and not allow a single negro to cross.  He estimated that about 5,000 men, women and children were abandoned on the wrong side of the creek.   The exact number is unknown. Major General Oliver O. Howard, commander of the right wing of Sherman’s army recalled seeing ‘throngs of escaping slaves’ of all types, ‘from the baby in arms to the old negro hobbling painfully along the line of march; negroes of all sizes, in all sorts of patched costumes, with carts and broken-down horses and mules to match.’ 

Soon afterward, the group of slaves was beset upon by Major Wheeler’s Confederate soldiers.  In the ensuing panic, untold numbers of slaves stampeded into the icy river and were swept away and drowned.  A few made it across to safety. Others were shot and slashed with sabers; the remainder were recaptured and returned to slavery.  To this day, it is unknown how many slaves drowned or were butchered by the Confederates. 

Many of the Union soldiers were horrified and infuriated by what had been done, and complaints were made to the War Department, but ultimately, the Army justified the incident as a “military necessity”.  

None of the Union officers was ever punished and most were later promoted.  Brigadier General Davis was promoted to Brevet Major General.

The Confederate soldiers who massacred the slaves were condemned, but Major General Wheeler, the commander of the Confederate troops, later served in the U.S. House of Representatives and then as a Major General of volunteers in the Spanish-American War in 1898.

General Sherman was promoted by President Ulysses S. Grant to the General-in-Chief of the U.S. Army.

Nobody was ever held accountable for the deaths of the innocents.    For the slaves, it was just one more example of the white man treating them like animals and property.  

Remember the name. Ebenezer Creek.

Read the last sentence on the sign in the photo. This is the what is talked about in the famous “40 acres and a mule” promised as a form of reparations to every freed slave.

 Next post: We don’t owe anyone 40 acres and a mule