History of the 85th Illinois Regiment
Illinois Volunteer Infantry
by
Henry J. Aten

CHAPTER XXII
Page 268-284

January, February & March, 1865

CAMPAIGN OF THE CAROLINAS

     Preparations for the coming campaign called forth every energy, and the utmost activity prevailed through­out the army. But a rise in the river swept away our pontoon bridge at Savannah, and General Slocum was ordered to move with the remaining divisions of the left wing, including General Kilpatrick's division of cavalry, up the Georgia side of the river to Sister's ferry, where he was to cross over and seize the Augusta and Charles­ton railroad near Blackville. This railway he was to destroy effectually, while making a well-sustained men­ace on Augusta. At the same time the right wing was expected to strike the same line of railroad at Midway, still maintaining the feint against Charleston.
     The army numbered sixty thousand men, and car­ried with it sixty-eight pieces of artillery. The trains were made up of some twenty-five hundred wagons, with six mules to each wagon, and about six hundred ambulances, with two horses each. The wagons contained an ample supply of ammunition for a great battle, for from that time to the end, the possibility of our having to fight a battle with the united armies of the Confeder­acy, should General Lee escape from General Grant, was a contingency to be provided for. The wagons also contained forage for seven days, and provisions for twenty days, mostly of bread, coffee, sugar and salt. The supply of the small rations was generous, but the troops were to depend largely for breadstuff and meat, on flour, meal, cattle, hogs, and poultry likely to be found along the line of march.
     The country was considered so difficult that the Confederate authorities believed the swamps and streams would prove an impassable barrier to Sherman's army. It was like all the southern sea board, low and sandy, with numerous swamps and rivers. The streams are usually bordered with wide swamps and approached by long, narrow causeways leading to bridge or ferry. These causeways could be defended indefinitely by small bodies of troops, who, when dispersed, could destroy the bridges and ferry boats, and obstruct the roads by felling trees. The rivers of South Carolina generally flow par­allel with the Savannah, and many of them are both broad and deep. So it would be found necessary to march far into the interior of the state, on the ridges be­tween the streams, until near their headwaters, before crossings would be found and the heads of column turned in the desired direction.
     On January 20th the left wing, to which the Eighty-fifth belonged, moved out of Savannah in a pouring rain and marched ten miles on the Augusta road.  At this point we were mud-bound and water-bound until the 24th, when we abandoned the road, and by struggling through field and forest, the command reached Sister's ferry on the 28th, having marched but forty-two miles in eight days. To add to the difficulties of the situation the river had been raised by the continued rains until it overflowed its banks, and at that time was about three miles wide. A pontoon bridge had been laid at this point, and was guarded by the gunboat Pontiac. The weather cleared on the next day and the river ran down, so that a part of the command crossed over on the 5th of February. Previous to crossing we had to build tres­tles for considerable distance and then corduroy the road for two miles and a half, the men working in water from ankle to waist deep.
     While marching through Georgia it was not unusual to hear ihe citizens say, "Why don't you all go over into South Carolina, and take, burn and destroy; her people began the war." Sometimes this was said with a sneer­ing, taunting manner, implying that there we would find a people less submissive, who would fight to the bitter end and die in the last ditch. But generally we thought we could see that the people of Georgia would look upon a raid through their sister state with at least a degree of complacency. To this charring our men invariably re­plied that we were going to South Carolina as fast as we could march, and if they would possess their souls with patience, they would soon see a just recompense of reward meted out to those who first set up the flag of rebellion.
     General Kilpatrick's cavalry division moved throughout this campaign on the front or flank of the left wing. These troopers crossed on the pontoon bridge on the evening of the 7th, and many of the Third brigade were at the bridge when they passed into South Carolina, and never were troops in higher spirits. They said that "Wherever we followed their trail we would find chimneys but no houses; that their route would be marked by blazing ruins, and that a crow in passing over their line of march would need to carry a haversack." That this was no idle boast was fully established by the ravaged country found whenever we had the misfortune to fall in the rear of Kilpatrick's rough riders.
     The Fourteenth corps had left Savannah without being supplied with hard bread, sugar, coffee and salt, but while waiting for the flood in the Savannah river to subside, steamers brought an abundance of these rations. Mails were received and north-bound mail was taken by the out-going transports until the last moment.
     The Third brigade left Sister's ferry on Wednesday, the 8th, in charge of the corps train, marched fifty miles in the next three days, and reached the Charleston and Augusta railway at Williston on the 12th. At a cross road near this place the guide boards pointed north to Barnwell C. H., south to Burton's ferry, east to Fiddle pond, and west to Augusta, Ga. This railroad was destroyed for some thirty miles or more, while the cavalry drove the enemy to within twenty miles of Augusta. At the same time our working parties met those of the right wing, it having reached the railway at or near Mid­way. When the destruction of the road had been com­pleted, and the feints against both Augusta and Char­leston had attracted sufficient attention both wings took direct roads to Columbia.  We crossed both branches of the Edisto river, meeting no opposition other than swamps, until the 15th, when a slight skirmish was had with Wheeler's cavalry, which did not delay the march­ing column a moment. On the morning of the 16th we arrived in front of Columbia, within an hour after the arrival of General Howard and the right wing. The union of the two wings of the army before the first ob­jective in tne campaign was a fine tribute to the skill with which the widely divergent wings had been ted and manoeuvred. It was now so evident that the enemy could offer no serious defense at Columbia that the city was left to the tender mercies of the right wing, while we moved up the Saluda river to Mount Zion church, where we laid a pontoon bridge during the night and crossed that stream the next morning. On the 17th we marched to Broad river, camping for the night at the mouth of Wateree creek, where we learned that the right wing had entered Columbia at ten o'clock that morning.
     As the command marched across the high land between the Saluda and Broad rivers, a very extended view of the country was afforded. The day was clear, but a perfect tempest of wind was raging. In every direction as far as eye could see fire was burning, the wind spread­ing the devouring flames far and wide. None had ever seen such widespread and almost universal destruction. That evening the ammunition train was parked near the camp of the Third brigade. While the preparation of supper was in progress fire, which had been communi­cated to the tall dry grass which surrounded both camp and train, was observed approaching the wagons. In­stantly all realized the presence of a new enemy, and for a lime it seemed no possible effort could arrest the progress of the eager flames, and that our ammunition train was doomed. But by heroic fighting the flames were finally subdued, our ammunition saved and a ter­rible disaster averted.
     That night, while the tempest was still raging with unabated fury, Columbia was burned. General Sherman always claimed that the retreating rebels, by burn­ing cotton in the streets, from which the fire was carried to the buildings by the high wind, caused the burning of the city. The writer has never been able to adopt that theory. There had been many Union prisoners of war held in Columbia until the appearance of our army in front of the city caused their removal. Many of them, by concealing themselves in the city until our troops entered, had been rescued. These men claimed to have been badly treated by their captors and by the citizens as well, and they would have been more than human if they had not embraced the opportunity to get even. More­over, some of them, after escaping from prison, where they had been almost starved, had been hunted down and recaptured by citizens with bloodhounds. Then, too, there was a feeling among the rank and file that the capital of the state first to adopt the ordinance of seces­sion, and first to insult the flag, should feel more than a passing touch of war. For these reasons it would seem probable that if our men did not burn Columbia it was because the fire was accidentally started before they got round to that which they considered a duty.
     At Freshley's ferry, the point selected for crossing Broad river, that stream was found to be fully two hundred yards wide.  On account of the tardy arrival of the pontoon train the Third brigade crossed in flat boats and took position on the opposite hills to protect the cross­ing in the event of an attack from that direction. When the pontoon train arrived and all the boats had been placed in position, the bridge fell short by ten boats of reaching the farther shore, and we had to await the ar­rival of additional pontoons. Meanwhile General Cheatham, with a part of the remains of Hood's army, was crossing the same stream a few miles above in haste to unite with other forces in our front.
     The man after whom the ferry was named owned a flouring mill a short distance below and a large plantation half a mile or more beyond the crossing. Well supplied with wordly goods he had become prominent as a citizen before the war and during its progress he acquired notoriety as a rebel. One of our men of an inquiring turn of mind, "on investigation bent," learned this and much more from the books and letters found in the Freshley mansion before it accidentally caught fire. These papers and books of account showed that this man held a commission as receiver of the tax levied in kind on the people of his district by the Confederate authorities for the subsistence of the rebel armies. Our men also learned through the colored people that this miller, planter and ferryman had kept a pack of blood­hounds with which lie hunted escaping Union prisoners and ran down the fleeing slaves. Whether Freshley fell into the hands of our advance or not the writer never knew, but if he did the awful score that stood against him may have been most unfortunate - for him.
     Early on Sunday, the 19th, we moved toward Alston, breaking up the railroad to near that place.  On the 21st we crossed Little river at Winnsboro, where both wings of the army were again united, the right wing having destroyed the railway the entire distance from Columbia to Winnsboro, where the army was now massed.
     Winnsboro is situated on the South Carolina and Charlotte railway, thirty-nine miles north of Columbia and seventy miles south of Charlotte, N. C. The movement of the entire army so far north served to support the theory that it was Sherman's purpose to march to Virginia by the way of Charlotte. To maintain this de­lusion the cavalry were boldly pushed up to within five miles of Chester, while the infantry broke up the rail­road almost to that point.
     At Winnsboro there was a rigid inspection of the wagon trains, and all surplus baggage was thrown out and burned. This was rendered necessary because every wagon would be needed in the conveyance of grain and forage for the animals while marching through the very difficult and barren country the army was now about to enter. "Soldiers," says the cynic, "may live on enthusi­asm, but horses and mules must have oats." Here, too, many broken-down horses and mules were shot, rather than abandon them to fall into the hands of the enemy. This was a sad duty, for the men had long since learned to admire the patient endurance of those much abused partners of adversity.
     Next in importance in the army, after the health and efficiency of the men, is the condition of the mules. At this period of the war the Federal government was the largest mule owner in the world, and in a campaign like the present their endurance was tested to the utmost limit. Without ancestry or hope of posterity this curi­ous animal is the puzzle of the brute creation. A past-master in devilment, he abounds in cunning while his solemn visage tends to disarm suspicion. He appears to have been born old in iniquity; an appearance which the dexterity of his heels and roguish tricks seem to con­firm. Always longing for something to eat, he prefers forbidden or stolen food, but on occasion can go for days without food or water. The most disreputable in ap­pearance, he is the most useful of all the dumb toilers whom man holds in unending slavery. Steady, method­ical work suits the mule, and he seems to know the na­ture of the emergency as well as his driver does. His great sad eyes may have a distressed look; his gaunt flanks throb, but there is no lagging. Driven by whip and spur on half or quarter feed until they drop from exhaustion, thousands of mules were left to die in the mud holes in which they fell. A man can give vent to his sufferings; he can ask for help; he can find some re­lief in crying, praying or swearing, but for the poor abandoned mule there was no help - no hope.
     On the 22nd the Second division moved in charge of the corps train, and for the next few days the rain fell almost constantly, the road seemed bottomless and wherever a wagon moved the road had to be corduroyed. We reached the Catawba river at Rocky Mount Post-office, on the evening of the 23rd. and on the completion of the pontoon bridge the Second division crossed over. Then the bridge parted, leaving the other divisions and the corps train on the other bank. At this point were encountered the greatest difficulties. A broad, turbu­lent and rapidly rising  river separated the command, which was the left and exposed flank of the army, while the other corps, more fortunate in their crossing, were pushing for Cheraw, on the Great Pedee river. When the general commanding learned the awkward situation confronting the Fourteenth corps he authorized General Davis to destroy his trains. But no one in the command would sanction this except as a last resort. Again and again the bridge wras swept away by the rising stream and the flooring lost, but fortunately all the boats save two were recovered, and material to replace the lost flooring was obtained by tearing down the buildings near the crossing. Finally, about midnight of the 27th, the bridge was reconstructed and the trains, without the loss of a single wagon, crossed over, followed by the other divisions belonging to the corps. The unfortu­nate, but wholly unavoidable delay of the Fourteenth corps, had checked the progress of the whole army at a time when an effort was being made for a rapid concen­tration of the army at Cheraw.
    Between the Catawba, the Wateree, and the Great Pedee rivers, our line of march led us through a country rich in memories of the War of the Revolution. We were told that Lord Cornwallis with his command crossed the Catawba at the place the Fourteenth corps found such a difficult crossing. But a short distance to our right was the battlefield of Camden, where the brave Baron DeKalb fell fighting in the patriot's cause. On the first day of March we took dinner on the field where troops under General Gates had an engagement with the British under Colonel Tarleton, and the swamps bor­dering the streams were made forever famous by the ad­ventures of General Marion and his dashing rangers.
     By a forced march we made seventy-two miles in the four days next after leaving the Catawba river, over roads that had to be corduroyed almost the entire dis­tance. One night the Third brigade marched all night long, arriving in camp just as the head of column moved out on the new day's march. The command, of which the Eighty-fifth was a part, reached the Great Pedee river, eight miles north of Cheraw, on the 3rd of March, the same day that the right wing entered that city. At Cheraw General Howard captured twenty-eight pieces of artillery, three thousand stand of small arms, and an immense quantity of ammunition and stores. Many of the captured stores belonged to private parties who had moved them to Cheraw for safe keeping when General Hardee evacuated Charleston. The left wing of the army remained quietly in camp in the vicinity of Sneedsboro, while a bridge was thrown across the river, and until the right wing moved north from Cheraw.
     Stung into activity by the overwhelming disaster threatening the Confederacy the rebel authorities put forth every effort to concentrate a force capable of meet­ing Sherman's army in the field. General Hampton with his cavalry division hastened to join Hardee in his retreat from Cheraw to Fayetteville, while Joseph E. Johnston was called from retirement and placed in supreme command of all the troops supposed to be avail­able to stay the triumphant march. General Johnston was at this time at Charlotte trying to form an army out of the remnants of Hood's army, iocal garrisons and the militia of North Carolina, with which to meet and turn the invader back. Energetic, skillful and courageous, he only lacked an army to make him a foe to be dreaded.  The news of Johnston's assignment to command was received by our army as notice to be prepared for well-planned, stubborn resistance. Officers and men agreed that the Confederate government had at last taken a wise step, although they felt equally sure that it was too late for even Johnston to stop the progress of Sherman's army.
     The Great Pedee is three hundred yards wide where we crossed just below Sneedsboro, and required for a bridge forty-two canvas boats. The crossing was completed and the pontoons lifted and loaded on the evening of the 7th, and the next day we crossed the line into the state of North Carolina, fourteen miles south of Rockingham. On the 9th we crossed Lumber river (Little Pedee) at Graham's bridge in a very heavy rain. A resin factory was burning just above the bridge, and as our column passed over the surface of the water was ablaze with burning resin and turpentine, presenting in the pouring rain a weird, uncanny sight. The command reached the plank road leading to Fayetteville at Thirty-five Mile Post.
     About the beginning of the present campaign General Wade Hampton had been sent from Virginia to take command of the Confederate cavalry in South Carolina in the hope that his great personal influence would arouse the people of that state to energetic action in de­fense of their homes, and thus do what the most fervent appeals had so signally failed to accomplish in Georgia. But the people, almost frantic from fear, refused to rally to his standard, and so far the magic of his great name had not checked the advance of Sherman's army. Com­ing as the especial champion of South Carolina, Hampton had been driven from her capital, the city of his home, and expelled from his native state, without fight­ing a single battle. In the retreat from Cheraw to Fayetteville he had been deceived into moving too far north, and on the evening of the 9th, in his effort to rejoin Hardee, he unexpectedly found Kilpatrick's cavalry division interposed between his command and the infantry column he was seeking to overtake. Thinking he saw an opportunity to surprise Kilpatrick by a night attack, and hoping in the sudden onset to disperse or capture his dashing troopers, Hampton made his plan to attack be­fore daylight on the morning of the 10th. The plan was well conceived, the movement up to the moment of attack skilfully concealed, and the resulting surprise complete. But Kilpatrick and his men were apt to de­velop unexpected resources in the rough-and-tumble fight, and it required but a short time for them to rally, when they routed the enemy by a return charge.
     The Second division was moving on the extreme left of the infantry column, and the evening of the 9th, camped about four miles south of Kilpatrick. Between two and three o'clock on the next morning, the noise of a furious battle broke out in the direction of the cavalry camp. The artillery firing was heavy and continued, giving notice of more than the ordinary affair between outposts, and the Second brigade was hurried off in the direction of the conflict, while the other brigades of the division resumed the march with the utmost unconcern. That night when the Second brigade rejoined the divis­ion we learned that Kilpatrick had been surprised, his headquarters, his artillery and many of his men captured in the first onset.  But while the exulting enemy was engaged in plundering headquarters, and trying to harness the horses to the batteries, Kilpatrick rallied his men and charged the foe, recovering his headquarters, recaptur­ing his artillery and driving the enemy from his camp with heavy loss, before the arrival of the infantry brigade sent to his relief.
     Meeting General Kilpatrick many years ago he told the writer some interesting details omitted from the official report of that rough-and-tumble fight. The general said, "On the evening before the fight we ran into the rear of General Hardee's column, and from pris­oners captured learned that Hardee was rapidly retreat­ing to Fayetteville, and that Hampton with the cavalry was a few miles in the rear, but rapidly moving on the same point. Upon receiving this information, I deter­mined to intercept him, and prevent his force from unit­ing with that of Hardee. I posted one brigade at a ham­let called Solemn Grove, on the Morgantown road, another brigade on a road some three miles north, and the third brigade some three miles southeast, at the point where the last mentioned road intersects the road to Morgantown. That night I slept in a house at the inter­section of the roads. Toward morning I became rest­less, got up and stepped out on the porch, where I was standing in my nightshirt, when several men dressed in our uniform rode up and inquired for General Kilpatrick's headquarters.  Something in the tone of voice, perhaps, aroused my suspicion, and I promptly replied, ''Down the road about half a mile," and away they went. Just then I saw the enemy in force coming on the charge, and I ran around the corner of the house and in the direc­tion of a swamp. Soon I was fortunate enough to catch a horse and mounting bareback rallied a few men and began to fight. The sound of our firing made a rallying point for our men, and very soon I had a charging column formed. The rebels struck our artillery park in their charge, which broke them up rather badly and ob­serving that they were intent on plunder, and widely scattered, the charge was sounded and after a sharp fight, we drove the enemy from the field."
     On the 10th, the Third brigade had charge of the division train, and soon after leaving camp the rain be­gan to fall in torrents, the earth seemed to melt under our feet, and that day and night we corduroyed the road for the greater part of twelve miles. Layer after layer of corduroy disappeared in the ooze, and it required the best efforts of both men and officers to move the train of one hundred and fifty wagons over the weary miles of quicksand. Officers and men were compelled to work through the whole night in pouring rain, and in mud and water from one to three feet deep, but the hardy Union warriors lifted the wagons out of the mire, and landed the train in the division camp at eight o'clock on the morning of the nth. Here we rested an hour for breakfast, and then pushed on to Fayetteville, arriving there at two o'clock that afternoon.
     On approaching Fayetteville, the Fourteenth corps was designated to enter first and the Third division hav­ing the advance on that day, with but a slight skirmish, took possession of the city about noon, the enemy under Hardee retreating in the direction of Raleigh. Seventeen pieces of artillery and many small arms were captured and the U. S. arsenal, basely surrendered by a treacher­ous officer at the beginning of the war, was recaptured.

 

Chapter 21       Chapter 23

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