Merchant marine ships carried war supplies to American and allied soldiers. For Ellison, the war was a time of learning and trying to write.

商船向美国和盟国士兵运送战争物资。对埃里森来说，战争是一个学习和写作的时期。

They had ambitious plans to cut the vitally important railroad between Atlanta and Tennessee and then swing southward into Atlanta to destroy the factories and the war supplies concentrated there in that key city of the Confederacy.

他们妄想切断亚特兰大和田纳西之间的极端重要的铁路线，然后向南攻入南部联盟的枢纽城市亚特兰大，把集中在那里的工厂和军需物资彻底摧毁。