In December 1864, after a 300 mile march that left a wide belt of destruction from Atlanta to the Sea, General Sherman's army of about 60,000 men was nearing Savannah. During the first weeks of the campaign, its four widely spread columns had found adequate supplies on the rich farms and plantations of central and eastern Georgia, but in Chatham County there was little but rice and rice straw to feed men and animals. Sherman needed all classes of supplies as well as heavy guns for a siege. Although a supply fleet under Admiral Dahlgren waited in nearby anchorages, the ships could not pass Fort McAllister, 10 miles downstream at Genesis Point, and naval bombardment had failed to reduce it. On the 13th, Hazen's Division, Fifteenth Corps, crossed the river here, moved by way of Cross Roads at Richmond Hill, 2.5 miles south, and Bryan Neck Road to Fort McAllister, and overwhelmed it by assault from the rear. With Fort McAllister's great guns silenced, heavily laden supply ships began moving upstream. Details from the Seventeenth Corps built a wharf here, and King's Bridge became the base from which all supplies, including siege materiel, were distributed to Union forces.