Will Fisher to his mother
Camp 4 miles from Savannah
December 18, 1864

My much loved Mother,

Dear Mother do you want to hear from your absent boy very much after so along a separation? I’ll warrant you do. Well, I last left you about the 6th of Nov. at the ill fated city of Atlanta. I forgot if I wrote again or not, but at any rate on the 15th after one or two sham starts we got under way taking the line of railroad running to Augusta. There were these four corps, exclusive of the cavalry, viz: the 20th & 14th, composing the left wing commanded by Maj. Gen. Slocum, & the 15th & 17th, right wing under Howard. Each Corps took a separate road so as to make the destruction of property more complete, & to facilitate foraging.
Oh, it was an awful sight & one I never shall forget the morning we left Atlanta. An awful cloud of black smoke covered the face of the heavens as far as you could see & the constant thunder of whole blocks of buildings being blown to atoms by powder & the explosion of immense quantities of fixed ammunition, amid the cheers of thousands & thousands of Union soldiers as they turned their faces east and south. All this, I say, was a sight not easily forgotten nor easily described.
We, the left wing, continued going east till we got to Madison where we turned to the South & went direct to Milledgeville, the capitol of the state, where we found the rest of the army who had been around by Macon. We then came on by the Georgia Central RR to Savannah. We got to our present camp the 13th, so you see we have been on the road nearly 30 days.
We have not had a man hurt in the regt. yet nor we haven’t fired muskets yet since we left. The Rebs are fortified here 4 miles from the city & we lay here close under their nose. They shell us all the time, but don’t hurt a man.
I propose as soon as possible to send you a lengthy & minute description of the whole trip with maps & our mode of living, for we have lived on the country all together, one meal have ten cartloads of the richest forage & the next, nothing. Since we got here we have not had a thing only fresh beef & rice & it is over a week now. We have got a line opened around the right somewhere near Warsaw Sound, where we can get something now. We got a mail yesterday, 15 tons of it all, & the wagons have gone after rations. I expect it will be very nice having such good communication & by water too.
In the mail was a letter from you written Thanksgiving day. One from John, one from Aunt Eliza T., & one from Cousin John Taggart.
You say you had got the money & I hope that if you got the letters I wrote before leaving Atlanta you must know that everything you sent me was received. Every package, money & all, that you ever spoke of have been rec’d. I will send you soon for the shirts & some other articles I want, together with some eatables to be sent to me at Savannah. Express will not be very high now to come here. We will be in Savannah soon.
I expect Ab & Min are one ere this. Tell them I must have a photo taken together. A great deal of love to every body, Aunt S., Laura, little Willie & ever so much for you. Write very soon to your own loved boy.

Will

Direct to Co. & Regt. with the corps marked plain at Savannah, Ga.