"In approaching Savannah, General Slocum struck the Charleston Railroad near the bridge, and occupied the river bank as his left flank, where he had captured two of the enemy's river boats, and had prevented two others (gunboats) from coming down the river to communicate with the city; while General Howard, by his right flank, had broken the Gulf Railroad at Fleming's and way stations, and occupied the railroad itself down to the Little Ogeechee, near 'Station No. 1;' so that no supplies could reach Savannah by any of its accustomed channels. We, on the contrary, possessed large herds of cattle, which we had brought along or gathered in the country, and our wagons still contained a reasonable amount of breadstuffs and other necessaries, and the fine rice crops of the Savannah and Ogeechee Rivers furnished to our men and animals a large amount of rice and rice straw. We also held the country to the south and west of the Ogeechee as foraging ground. Still, communication with the fleet was of vital importance, and I directed General Kilpatrick to cross the Ogeechee by a pontoon bridge, to reconnoitre Fort McAllister, and to proceed to Catherine's Sound, in the direction of Sunbury or Kilkenny Bluff, and open communication with the fleet. General Howard had previously by my direction sent one of his best scouts down the Ogeechee in a canoe for a like purpose. But more than this was necessary. We wanted the vessels and their contents, and the Ogeechee River, a navigable stream, close to the rear of our camps, was the proper avenue of supply. "The enemy had burned the road-bridge across the Ogeechee, just below the mouth of the Canoochee, known as 'King's bridge.' This was reconstructed in an incredibly short time, in the most substantial manner, by the 58th Indiana, Colonel Buel, under the direction of Captain Reese, of the Engineers' Corps, and on the 13th of December the 2d Division of the 15th Corps, under command of Brigadier-General Hazen, crossed the bridge to the west bank of the Ogeechee and marched down with orders to carry by assault Fort McAllister, a strong inclosed redoubt, manned by two companies of artillery and three of infantry, in all about two hundred men, and mounting 23 guns _en barbette_, and one mortar. General Hazen reached the vicinity of Fort McAllister about 1 P. M., deployed his division about that place, with both flanks resting upon the river, posted his skirmishers judiciously behind the trunks of trees whose branches had been used for _abattis_, and about 5 P. M., assaulted the place with nine regiments at three points; all of them successful. I witnessed the assault from a rice-mill on the opposite bank of the river, and can bear testimony to the handsome manner in which it was accomplished.