On Nov. 24, 1864, the 1st Alabama Cavalry of the Union army reached Ball’s Ferry, one-quarter mile north, to secure it for the passage of the Left Wing, the 15th and 17th Corps, of Gen. Sherman’s Union army, which had left Atlanta on Nov. 15th on its destructive March to the Sea. Finding the boat on the east bank guarded by Confederate pickets, the cavalrymen moved upstream, crossed on rafts, and dislodged the pickets, but encountered a larger Confederate force approaching the ferry and were forced to recross the river under fire. On the 25th, the head of the 15th Corps under Osterhaus, which had marched via Irwinton and Myrtle Spring Church, and that of the 17th Corps under Blair, which had followed the railroad from Gordon to Toomsboro while destroying it en route, arrived. They found the defenders well entrenched on the east bank, with skirmishers up and down the stream. Osterhaus’ infantry and the 12th Wisconsin Battery engaged them in front while Blair’s infantry crossed upstream and worked through the swamps to their rear. With their position turned, the Confederate defenders withdrew without serious loss. Pontoon bridges were laid by the 1st Michigan Engineers and, by noon on the 26th, the troops were crossing. The 15th Corps moved to Irwin’s Crossroads, nine miles northeast, and the 17th Corps to the forks of the Oconee-Irwins roads, four miles northeast. By noon on the 27th, the last of the trains had crossed and the bridges were being taken up and loaded in their wagons.