In 1864, Centreville, now Jersey, was a small farming village on Hightower Trail, a former Indian trading route, with several small stores and farm-related businesses including a blacksmith shop and cotton gin, while most local men of fighting age were away in Confederate armies. On November 17-18, 1864, the Federal 20th Corps under Brigadier General Alpheus S. Williams, part of the Left Wing of Major General William T. Sherman's army moving from Atlanta to the sea, spent the night in large camps around Centreville. The Second Division under Brigadier General John W. Geary arrived first and marched past to camp on the Dalley Plantation about three miles southeast, followed by the Third Division under Brigadier General William T. Ward and the First Division under Brigadier General Nathaniel J. Jackson, which found Centreville a pleasant rest stop. Nearly 10,000 soldiers, with wagons, horses, artillery, and hundreds of following slaves, camped throughout the community, benefiting from little danger and sufficient water from Centreville's deep wells, including one in the village center, after averaging fifteen miles a day on the march. While there, Federal parties searched the surrounding countryside for food and animals, and residents carefully hid their valuables, though local lore held that many chickens and other livestock were taken by Federal bummers. Many horses and mules had already been seized on the previous July 23 by Second Lieutenant William L. Birney and the 17th Indiana Mounted Infantry Regiment as they rode through Centreville toward Social Circle during Union Brigadier General Kenner Garrard's cavalry raid supporting Sherman's effort to isolate and capture Atlanta. On the morning of Friday, November 18, the three divisions of the 20th Corps left their camps in and around Centreville and marched southeast toward Social Circle.