Tag: Jarrell Plantation

November 18th, 1864

November 18th, 1864:

The Left Wing continues to move towards Milledgeville.  General Sherman is still traveling with the 14th Corps and they turn south from the area of Covington and move towards Milledgeville via Shady Dale.  The 20th Corps moved on Madison where they destroyed the railroad while Geary’s Division was sent to the Oconee River to destroy the bridges crossing it.  After they completed their assignments, the 20th Corps was to move south through Eatonton to link up with the 14th Corps near Milledgeville.  The Right Wing crosses the Ocmulgee River and begin moving south east.  They are working their way toward Monticello and toward Clinton, which is just north east of Macon.

The Federals process of foraging was in full swing.  The “Bummers” as they were often called, would leave the camps in the morning ahead of the main column and move out to the flanks.  Along the flanks they would visit every home and plantation and take their food and livestock.  There are many accounts of the”Bummers” also taking personal items and random keepsakes.  There are even accounts of the soldiers stealing and wearing ladies dresses.  For the most part, if there was more food than the soldiers could carry or use, they would destroy it so it would be of no use to an Confederates that may come around.  The “Bummers” stopped at Jarrell Plantation, now a state historic site, to forage and destroy what they could not carry.  They burned the cotton gin and destroyed 300 bushels of the families wheat, they stole the livestock, and wagons.  They Federal troops also freed all the slaves on the plantation.

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Jarrell Plantation House.  Built in the early 1840’s this home and land belonged to the Jarrell family for 140 years.  When Federal foragers came through they torched the cotton gin, took all the food they could carry, destroyed 300 bushels of wheat, and freed 39 slaves.
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Parts of the Right Wing also passed through the area of Round Oak and past Sunshine Church, where a Federal Cavalry had been engaged with Confederates in a small battle during the summer.
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Elements of the Right Wing marched down this road through Round Oak on their way to Clinton.  This is also the spot where, during the Battle of Sunshine Church, the Confederates blocked the road with an artillery piece.