Pictured below is the historical marker remembering the tragic Ebenezer Creek Massacre, which occurred Dec. 9, 1864, near the end of the Civil War. It is located on Georgia's HWY 275.
During Sherman's March to the Sea, U.S. General Jeff Davis, advancing his 14th Army corps to Savanah with nearly 2000 freed slaves following, hastily removed the pontoon bridges over the creek after his soldiers crossed. Hundreds of freed slaves drowned trying to swim in the dangerously surging waters. Not far behind the slaves were Confederate soldiers pursuing them. The newly freedmen were told to cross the bridge only after a Confederate force in front had been dispersed. No such party existed. Throughout Sherman's March to the Sea, enslaved people were considered "a growing burden."
Infuriated by Davis' actions, several Union soldiers on the Eastern bank of the creek tried to help, pushing logs out to the few refugees still swimming. While these efforts were underway, approaching Confederate cavalry scouts arrived, firing at the soldiers on the far bank. Officers from the XIV Corps ordered their men to leave.
Col. Charles Kerr of the 16th Illinois Cavalry in a speech 20 years after the incident recalled the following: "As soon as we were over the creek, orders were given to the engineers to take up the pontoons and not let a negro cross. I sat upon my horse then and witnessed a scene the like of which I pray my eyes may never see again."
Terrible! Quite terrible! Seems like every now and then some new discovery is made & reported about some kind of massacre of enslaved people..and supposedly "free" ones too..
And just imagine, there being no system or procedure or process to notify next of kin, which I'm pretty sure of despite their status. They simply disappeared, vanished, no longer being. Pure evil!
