On Nov. 19, 1854, Maj. A. L. Hartridge, CSA, arrived from Savannah with 186 men and 2 guns to defend the railroad bridge against raiding parties from Gen. Sherman’s army during its March to the Sea. The next day, Maj. Gen. H. C. Wayne, adjutant general of Georgia, joined him with the Corps of Cadets of G. M. I., a detachment of Factory and Penitentiary Guards, Roberts’ Guards, and three small military units under Maj. F. W. Capers, superintendent of the Georgia Military Institute, bringing the total to 450 men and 4 guns. Reinforcements from Wheeler’s cavalry increased Wayne’s force to about 1200 men and 6 guns. On the 23rd, Wayne learned that Union cavalry had reached Ball’s Ferry, eight miles south, and that Sherman had occupied Milledgeville. To protect his flanks, he burned the bridges over Buffalo Creek above Oconee and sent Hartridge with two companies of cavalry, 80 infantry, and 2 guns to Ball’s Ferry. On the 25th, Sherman’s left wing had crossed the Oconee at Milledgeville and his right was forcing a passage at Ball’s Ferry. Although Wayne had held the bridge for three days against frontal assaults, his flanks were now threatened, so he recalled the force at Ball’s Ferry and, early on the 26th, evacuated Oconee and withdrew to Tennille.