On November 17th, the Right Wing of General Sherman’s U.S. army marched from McDonough to Jackson, en route to Planters’ Factory on the Ocmulgee River, where it was to cross the next day. To relieve congestion on the Jackson road, Smith’s division of the 17th Corps, with the 1st Missouri Engineers and a pontoon train, moved east from McDonough on Key’s Ferry Road and camped that night near Worthville. The next day, the bridge train moved through Iron Springs to Planters’ Factory, twelve miles southeast. By one o’clock, two bridges had been laid, and the troops and trains of the Right Wing were crossing into Jasper County on their destructive March to the Sea.