Diary of Orrin Brown, Robertville, SC
Sunday–Feb. 5th
The weather came off nice clear and warm this morning. We received orders about 11 Oclock last night to be ready to march at a moments warning, some of the boys cralled out and began to pack up and cook something to take with them and in a few minutes the orders came again to be ready to march at a moments warning today, so we all layed down and went to sleep again. The mail came in again about midnight but none for me. We got up about 4 Oclock this morning got our breakfast packed up our duds ready to march at any moment. Then we had orders to be ready for inspection at 11 AM after inspection we received orders to be ready to march at 1 PM, but did not leave camp till about 2 PM. Then we marched about 1/2 mile farther and haulted again and layed there till after 9 PM then we fell in again and crossed the pontoon and the corderoy about 3 miles and went into camp at 11 PM pitched our tents and went to bed. I read 7 Chapts. in the Testament today.
On 5 February 1865, The XIV Corps began crossing the Savannah River at Sister’s Ferry, Georgia, with the First Division starting at daylight. The Third Division began to cross at 8:30 am, and Reserve artillery and corps headquarters followed at 2:30 pm. Morgan’s 2nd Division, including the 14th Michigan, began to cross the pontoon bridge at 4pm, and went into camp 2-1/2 miles east of the river in South Carolina.
Robertville, or Robertsville, was the 1837 birthplace of Gen. Henry Martyn Robert, author of Robert’s Rules of Order, whose father moved to Ohio due to his opposition to slavery. Robert served in the Union Army Corps of Engineers during the Civil War, working on Federal urban defenses in the Northeast.
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