At Toomsboro on November 22nd 1864, the left wing of General Sherman's army, the 15th and 17th corps under Major O.O. Howard, U.S.A., began moving from Gordon to the Oconee River after leaving Atlanta on November 15th on its destructive march to the sea. The 15th Corps under Osterhaus moved by way of Irwinton and Myrtle Springs Church to cross at Ball's Ferry, eight miles southeast, while the 17th Corps under Blair moved along the railroad to Toomsboro to cross at Jackson Ferry, six miles northeast. That day G. A. Smith's division of the 17th Corps, preceded by the 1st Alabama Cavalry, reached Toomsboro. On the 23rd the cavalry advanced along the railroad and drove Confederate skirmishers from a stockade two miles from the river. They were relieved by Potts's brigade, which, with one gun from the 1st Minnesota Battery, drove the defenders from the second stockade and across the bridge, but was confined to the railroad by swamps on each side. Potts was unable to dislodge the defenders from their works on the east bank, from which rifle and artillery fire swept both the bridge and its one narrow approach. After learning from Smith that at Jackson Ferry there was an abandoned road to the swamp impassable for troops and trains, Blair diverted the 17th Corps to Ball's Ferry, which had been secured by the cavalry. Smith destroyed two miles of trestle work and three miles of track, then withdrew his troops by way of Toomsboro and joined Blair at Ball's Ferry on the 25th.