Charles Roberts to Maggie Roberts (1 March 1865)

              In camps near Milledgeville, Geo
March 1st 1865"
My darling wife,
I am at last “on the road” again and feel better satisfied
than when remaining in town. The wagon train arrived in Macon last
Friday, but in consequence of heavy rains, we could not get down
the pontoon bridge to cross the river until Sunday morning, when
we started for this place. We have been three days coming thirty
miles, the roads being in terrible condition and the rain which we
have had most of the way, making it still worse. We are now in
camps and will probably have to remain here a day or two until the
Oconee river falls sufficiently for us to put in our pontoons. The
country we have passed through, coming from Macon, shows
abundance of signs of Sherman’s march from Atlanta to Savannah.
They not only robbed the people of almost Everything they possessed
but in many cases committed the worst of outrages upon the women.
I can scarcely credit that men living in a Christian Country
in the nineteenth century could be guilty of such fiendish conduct.
Sherman is still pushing on for Virginia; whether he will succeed
in getting there, time will only discover. I understand [however]
that there is extensive preparations making to check him is his 
“mad career” and I am in hopes he will yet Come to trouble.)
The recognition and intervention rumour is again on foot and
it is going the rounds of the paper that the French Consul at
Charleston informed the Mayor of that city, previous to his
leaving, that he had been officially advised by the French
government that the Emperor Napoleon would recognise the Con-
federate States of the fourth of March and if necessary [Sustain]
by armed intervention. I hope it may be so, but so not place
much confidence in the report.
It is difficult to say when we shall get with the Command,
for they are still moving and I should not be surprised if we
dont all “fetch up” in Virginia. I would have remained in 
Mobile with Capt Ray QM for the Battalion of Artillery, but I
thought the probability of being captured was too great and I 
have a great dread of a Yankee prison. I would rather be