In late November 1864, the Left Wing of Union Major General William T. Sherman's army, commanded by Major General Henry W Slocum, approached the Ogeechee River during the march to the sea and had to move the 14th and 20th Corps, about 28,000 soldiers, thousands of horses and mules, a large herd of cattle, and more than 1,200 wagons across the river despite the threat of Confederate cavalry. To reduce vulnerability and congestion, the Left Wing crossed at three locations. On Monday, November 28th, Brigadier General William T. Ward's division of the 20th Corps left Davisborough followed by Brigadier General William P. Carlin's division of the 14th Corps while protecting the supply train, and their advance guard, led by the 33rd Indiana Infantry Regiment, reached the west bank at noon and received brief fire from Confederate Major General Joseph Wheeler's cavalry on the east bank, where the main bridge and smaller bridges across the lowlands had been burned. At 1:00 pm, Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Moore's 58th Indiana Infantry, a regiment of bridge builders, arrived and erected a 110-foot-long pontoon bridge, while engineers also cut a new corduroy log road through 3/4 mile of swamp, finishing by dark so Ward's and Carlin's divisions could cross. By the end of November 29th, all Federal troops and wagons except the 33rd Indiana were across and moving toward Louisville; the regiment crossed on the 30th, removed the bridge, and marched on. Meanwhile, two other divisions in the 14th Corps had crossed on November 27th northwest of Louisville at Fenn's Bridge, and the other two divisions in the 20th Corps, after destroying portions of the Central Railroad near Bartow, crossed on the 30th about 2-1/2 miles south of Louisville. All Left Wing divisions converged on Louisville, where delays in moving wagons and livestock across the river, combined with soldiers entering town on their own and without officers, brought trouble to the town.