Late on Nov. 24, 1864, Lieut. Gen. Wm J. Hardee, C.S.A., arrived in Tennille to consult with Maj. Gen. H.C. Wayne, adjutant general of Georgia, about whether further resistance along the Oconee River was advisable after Gen. Sherman’s U.S. army had already reached it during the destructive March to the Sea. After visiting Oconee and learning the gravity of the situation, Hardee ordered a withdrawal through Tennille to the line of the Ogeechee River, which was carried out on the 26th. The last Confederate unit had scarcely cleared Tennille when the advance guard of the 20th Corps of Sherman’s Left Wing arrived from Sandersville. That day Geary’s division of the 20th Corps destroyed four miles of railroad toward Davisboro, while units of the Union Right Wing, having crossed the Oconee River at Ball’s Ferry, destroyed track from Oconee to Tennille and burned the bridge over the river. In Tennille, the depot, water tank, and all other rail facilities were burned. After leaving Atlanta on the 16th, Sherman’s headquarters had accompanied the Left Wing as far as Sandersville, and on the 27th he transferred his headquarters to the Right Wing. At 10:00 A.M. he arrived in Tennille to join headquarters of the 17th Corps, Blair’s, and accompanied it from Tennille by way of Midville and Millen to the outskirts of Savannah.