Leaving McDonough on Thursday, November 17, 1864, the Federal 15th and 17th Corps separated and marched generally southeast on multiple roads as the Right Wing of Major General William T. Sherman's army under Major General Oliver O. Howard. Two divisions of Major General Francis P. Blair's 17th Corps, numbering more than 11,000 men, moved southeast on the old Jackson road, while his other division advanced generally east into northern Butts County and camped there for the night. The nearly 16,000 men in four divisions of the 15th Corps, commanded by Major General Peter J. Osterhaus, moved south from McDonough to Locust Grove, where the corps divided. Brigadier General John E. Smith's division went on to Jackson and then camped five miles farther southeast at Flovilla, while the divisions of Brigadier Generals William B. Hazen and Charles R. Woods proceeded south and then east, camping the following night at Indian Springs. Brigadier General John M. Corse's division, slowed by guarding the 15th Corps' supply wagons, also marched through Locust Grove and reached Jackson on November 18. A Federal soldier recorded the difficulty of that duty in his diary, writing, “We are flankers on [one] side of the [wagon] train … We marched about one hundred yards from the road … it was a hard place to march.” Union Brigadier General H. Judson Kilpatrick's 5,000-man cavalry division rode south along the Macon and Western Railroad north and west of Locust Grove, pausing to destroy tracks and skirmishing on November 16 at Lovejoy Station and Bear Creek Station with portions of Confederate Major General Joseph Wheeler's cavalry division and Georgia militia led by Major General Gustavus W. Smith. Lieutenant John H. Ash of the Georgia Huzzars recalled the futility of resisting the advance: “Near Bear Creek Station met and encountered the overwhelming numbers of Sherman's advance, killing and wounding a great many of the enemy, but we were unable to check them, as our Reg[iment] could only muster 48 guns. We were so completely run over that we were scattered in every direction, those of us who were not killed and captured.” After camping at two plantations along the road to Locust Grove, Kilpatrick's cavalry briefly joined the 15th Corps divisions of Hazen and Woods for their march farther south on November 17, then turned to a feint toward Macon intended to convince Confederates that the Right Wing was advancing on that city while its real goal was to cross the Ocmulgee River unopposed east of Jackson. The Federal passage through Locust Grove left heavy destruction in the surrounding countryside, prompting Eliza Atkins Walker to write her Confederate soldier husband, “It would surprise you, I think, just to see plantation after plantation destroyed.”