General Sherman, meanwhile, was preparing to march northward through the Carolinas, with Savannah as his base. His army was organized in two wings, the right, under Gen. O. O. Howard, composed of the corps of John A. Logan and Frank P. Blair; the left, under Gen. H. W. Slocum, of the corps of Jeff C. Davis and A. S. Williams. The average strength of each corps was 13,000 men, and the cavalry, under Gen. Judson Kilpatrick, was about 4,000 in number. This, with the artillery, made up an aggregate effective strength, officers and men, of 60,000.
General Howard was ordered to embark his wing, transport it to Beaufort, and by the 15th of January to make a lodgment on the Charleston & Savannah railroad at or near Pocotaligo, while the other wing and cavalry were ordered to rendezvous near Robertsville and Coosawhatchie. Howard performed his part of the program, but on account of the loss of a pontoon bridge, Slocum was compelled to cross at Sister's ferry, and the river, even there, was so overflowed as to be three miles wide, and he did not get entirely across until February. In the meantime, to make Sherman's advance easier, Grant had sent a division to garrison Savannah, Schofield's corps to operate from New Bern, N. C., and a tremendous fleet of warships, assisted by a land force, was about to reduce Fort Fisher, the main defense of Wilmington.
