Toomsboro

TOOMSBORO. On Nov. 22, 1864, the Left Wing (15th and 17th Corps. Maj. Gen. O. O. Howard, USA) of General Sherman's army [Federal], which had left Atlanta on Nov. 15th on its destructive March to the Sea, began moving from Gordon to the Oconee River. The 15th Corps (Osterhaus) moved via Irwinton and Myrtle Spring Church to cross at Ball's Ferry (8 miles S.E.).

The 17th Corps (Blair) moved via the railroad to Toombsboro to cross at Jackson's Ferry (6 miles N..E). That day, G. A. Smith's division, 17th Corps, preceded by the 1st Alabama Cavalry [Federal], reached Toombsboro (Emmett-No.15, CRR). On the 23rd, the cavalry advanced along the railroad and drove Confederate skirmishers from a stockade two miles from the river.

They were relieved by Pott's brigade which with one gun from the 1st Minnesota Battery, drove the defenders from a second stockade and across the bridge; but, confined to the railroad by the swamps on each side, Potts was unable to dislodge the defenders from their works on the east bank, from which rifle and artillery fire swept both the bridge and its one narrow approach.

Learning from Smith that Jackson's Ferry was on an abandoned road through the swamp, impassable for troops and trains, Blair diverted the 17th Corps to Ball's Ferry, which had been secured by the cavalry. Smith destroyed two miles of trestle work and three miles of track, then withdrew his troops via Toombsboro and joined Blair at Ball's Ferry on the 25th.

158-9 GEORGIA HISTORICAL COMMISSION 1957