But these hastily retreated east across the Oconee River, leaving us a good bridge, which we promptly secured.
At Milledgeville we found newspapers from all the South, and learned the consternation which had filled the Southern mind at our temerity; many charging that we were actually fleeing for our lives and seeking safety at the hands of our fleet on the sea-coast.

All demanded that we should be assailed, "front, flank, and rear;" that provisions should be destroyed in advance, so that we would starve; that bridges should be burned, roads obstructed, and no mercy shown us.

Judging from the tone of the Southern press of that day, the outside world must have supposed us ruined and lost.

I give a few of these appeals as samples, which to-day must sound strange to the parties who made them: Corinth, Mississippi, November 18, 1884.
To the People of Georgia: Arise for the defense of your native soil! Rally around your patriotic Governor and gallant soldiers! Obstruct and destroy all the roads in Sherman's front, flank, and rear, and his army will soon starve in your midst.

Be confident.