Sherman’s army: ‘ragged, bareheaded, shoeless, brave, jolly’

On this day in 1865: George W. Nichols, a major in Sherman’s army, writes in his journal in Goldsboro:

“Our army [needs] not only to be reclothed, but to gain the repose it needs. Mind, as well as body, requires rest after the fatigues of rapid campaigns like these. These ragged, bareheaded, shoeless, brave, jolly fellows of Sherman’s legions, too, want covering for their naked limbs.”