USA > Illinois > Ninety-Second Illinois Volunteers > Part 18
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38
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hundred splendid horses were knocked in the head with axes. We could not use them, and we did not desire to have the enemy use them. At daylight, the First brigade moved to take the advance, and Atkins's Brigade held the rear, and the Ninety-Second, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Van Buskirk, held the rear of the Brigade, with one piece of artillery and the Ninth Michi- gan Cavalry in support of the Ninety-Second. As soon as the First brigade passed through, the Rebels came on. The Ninety- Second lay concealed by willows that grew along a creek, with an open field in front; and, when the rear-guard of the First brigade came across the field, and kept on over the creek and up the road, the enemy, in strong force, set up a yell, and came charging over the open field. The Ninety-Second, concealed by the willows, waited for them to come close up, and then, with their trusty Spencers, sent them flying back again across the open field. Mounting quickly, after repulsing the enemy, the Regimen' fol- lowed the command, always presenting a company front in rear, ready to punish the audacious Rebels if they ventured too close. Lieutenant Colonel Van Buskirk handled the Ninety-Second with consummate coolness and courage, successfully beating off each desperate assault of the enemy. He revolved his companies, one around another, like a revolving horse-rake, always presenting an unbroken front to the enemy. About ten o'clock, A. M., the head of the Ninety-Second turned squarely to the right, and soon found the road obstructed by the column, that was slowly crossing by twos over a rickety old bridge, below a flouring mill ; the Reb- els were pressing desperately, and, crossing the angle, were at- tacking the column in flank. By order of the Brigade Command- er, a battalion of the Ninety-Second was deployed on foot to pro- tect the flank, while the troops slowly crossed. The rifled gun, and a company with Spencer Rifles, were stationed on the hill be- vond the mill and stream, concealed by a growth of thorn-brush and crab-apple trees. When the column was over, the mill and bridge were fired, and the mounted rear-guard of the Ninety-Sec- ond disappeared over the hill. The mill and bridge soon burned down, also destroying the mill-dam, and the water from the mill- pond rushed through so that the enemy could not cross. The Rebels gathered in the open space around the mill, in crowds, on the farther side of the creek, when the gun from the crab-apple knoll, and the Spencers opened. The gray-coats hunted cover lively. The Rebel column sought a crossing farther up the stream, and the Regiment had not marched many miles, when
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the gray-coats were again charging the rear with desperate cour- age. Their style of fighting was more dashing and desperate than usual, and it was pretty certain that other troops than Wheeler's cavalry were on our trail. Colonel Atkins, desiring positive in- formation as to who was following him, sent two half-breed In- dians, soldiers in the Ninth Michigan Cavalry, of his Brigade, dressed in the butternut clothing worn by the citizens generally, and by very many of the Rebel soldiers, to a house half a mile from the road, with orders to remain until the Rebel column came up, then mingle with the Rebel foragers, and ride through the Rebel column. They did it successfully ; riding with Wheeler's escort, they found all of Wheeler's command, with two fresh brigades from the Rebel army at Richmond, under the command of Lieutenant General Wade Hampton : when, starting out to the side of the road with the foraging parties of the Rebels, they hur- ried along through the woods and fields to return to the head of their own Brigade with the information. The reckless, dashing courage of the enemy in his persistent attack, was now explained -the Rebel soldiers from Richmond, under Hampton, were show- ing the Western Rebels, under Wheeler, how to fight. Informa- tion was sent to General Kilpatrick, at the head of the Division, that Wheeler and Hampton were both after us, and it was sug- gested that the Division had better turn around and give them a square fight; but Kilpatrick replied: "Hold them steady, and keep well closed up. I am going to Millen, and don't want to fight, and shall not stop to fight if all of Lee's army is after me." Desperately and continually the gray-coats kept charging the Ninety-Second. Various were the devices for decoying the enemy on close to those Spencers, and then punishing them severely. A company of fifty men would form at some point in the thick brush, with open fields in rear; in the road a squad of six or eight mounted men would halt, fire at the enemy at long range, then turn and retreat on the column; and on would come their confi- dent pursuers at a gallop. When close up, the fifty concealed horsemen, cool and quiet from much: similar practice, would volley them with their repeating rifles. Then the enemy would imagine a long line of Yankees concealed there, and while the fifty mounted men were leisurely closing up on the column, the enemy would deploy his skirmishers, and carefully feel his way, and find. ing no one, he would come on again more desperately than ever. Selecting points with good range to the rear, a company of cav- alry would be turned out at the head of the Brigade, to build a
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barricade-and such barricades were built frequently all along the road-the companies building them, as soon as done their work, trotting through the fields, or by the sides of the road, to the head of the column, and taking their places again. The Ninety-Second would come along, and, concealed by the barricade, would give the too confident enemy a repulse. And then the Ninety-Second would pass the barricades, leaving them empty, and the enemy would, for a while, imagine them full of Yankees, and would de- ploy his troops, feeling his way carefully, or flanking them, and finding many barricades empty, he would grow reckless again, and would again run onto a nest of those death-dealing Spencer Rifles. Companies D, Captain Lyman Preston, and C, Captain R. M. A. Hawk, and I, Captain Egbert T. E. Becker, acted nearly all day as the rear-guard of the Regiment. The advance of the Division captured a train of cars at Waynesboro, tore up the railroad, and burned up the town. The Ninety-Second passed through the burning town of Waynesboro at dark, the enemy hotly pursuing, and about a mile south of Waynesboro found the First brigade encamped, with strong barricades facing north. The weary Regi- ment passed through the First brigade, procured forage for ani- mals, cooked supper, helped to tear up the railroad track, and sank wearily to rest. The gray-coats skirmished around the barricades of the First brigade all night long, but made no attack in force.
The cavalry had demonstrated strongly on Augusta. General Kilpatrick learned, during the night, that the Union prisoners had all been removed from Millen ; and on the morning of the twenty- eighth, the Division took up its line of march for Louisville, Georgia, where the infantry columns were to rendezvous. Kil- patrick complimented the Ninety.Second highly for the splendid manner in which the Regiment had held at bay the Rebel cav- alry, under Wheeler and Hampton, the day previous, and desired the Ninety-Second to hold the rear again on the twenty-eighth; but the Colonel commanding the Brigade protested against put. ting all the work on a single Regiment, and offered to hold the rear with the Ninth Michigan Cavalry, of his Brigade, a splendid regiment, armed with Spencer carbines. General Kilpatrick de. cided to take the Ninth Michigan and the Eighth Indiana, and hold the rear himself, and did so. Not many miles out, the Gene- ral, forgetting to " keep well closed up," as he had ordered Atkins to do the day previous, formed the two regiments in a good posi- tion, and resolved to give the enemy a charge with both regi- ments ;. but, while waiting for the enemy to attack, a portion of
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the Rebel cavalry reached the road in Kilpatrick's rear, and cut off the Ninth Michigan and Eighth Indiana, and the General had to about face, and charge through the Rebels to join his own Divis- ion. Just after crossing Buckhead Creek, an Orderly came riding up to Colonel Atkins, telling him that the Ninth Michigan and Eighth Indiana had been cut off, and those regiments, with Gen- eral Kilpatrick, had been captured. Covering the crossing of the creek with two pieces of artillery and the Fifth Ohio Cavalry, At- kins's, Brigade took up position, and waited for the First brigade to pass through, and with the rear came General Kilpatrick and the two regiments all right. The General said that the enemy had surrounded him and those regiments, but that they cut their way through to the command again. The artillery, and the car- bines of the Fifth Ohio Cavalry, swept the bridge and corduroy road at Buckhead Creek, as the enemy attempted to take the bridge by a charge. The enemy was handsomely repulsed, and the bridge completely destroyed. The command passed on about two miles, to a large plantation, where General Kilpatrick re- solved to make a stand with the two brigades constituting his Division, and give the enemy a repulse. The ground was admi- rably selected for it. By the side of the road stood a large house. and around the house, in circular shape, were constructed rail bar- ricades, Murray's brigade on the left, and Atkins's Brigade on the right of the road, dismounted. In front, on the right of the road. was an open field, and the ground was, for twenty steps, rising. so that the Yankee barricades could not be seen any distance off. The barricade was constructed in the usual method, that is, of rails, by first building a rail fence innnediately in front of the line of battle, and then laying on the fence other rails, one end on the ground toward the enemy, and the other end on the fence. and piling them on thickly. It furnished an excellent protection against musketry, and a complete barrier to a cavalry charge, as no horse could leap it, or throw it down by impact from the out. side. Eight pieces of artillery were stationed on the road, and behind the barricade, and, flanking the artillery on the right, was the Ninety-Second, and beyond, stretching to the right, were other regiments of the Brigade. The enemy was delayed, in crossing Buckhead Creek. a sufficient time to enable General Kilpatrick to complete his arrangements, and get his two brigade- in position behind the barricades, when the enemy came on. One battalion of the Fifth Ohio Cavahy, of Atkins's Brigade, was lett on the road, some distance in front, with instructions to stubbornhy
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resist the enemy, and compel him to deploy. Just before the enemy made the attack upon Atkins's Brigade in force, and while the one battalion of the Fifth Ohio, on picket, was stubbornly holding the road, in order to compel the enemy to deploy, a Rebel horseman showed himself on our extreme right. He halted his horse beneath a large tree, and there, remaining mounted, coolly surveyed us. This was too much for Colonel Van Bus- kirk; his equilibrium was disturbed by it. Said the Colonel to William Black, of Company K, who stood near the Colonel: " Will, hand me your gun, and I will shoot that fellow." Will handed his gun to the Colonel; the Colonel took deliberate aim. and fired. The Confederate soldier and his horse never stirred. The Colonel blazed away again, but the Rebel remained as im- movable as an equestrian statue. 'Said Will: " Colonel, you are disgracing my gun; give it to me." Will took his gun-one quick glance along the barrel from his dark eye, and the rifle cracked; the Rebel fell, and away went .the horse, riderless. At about five P. M., the Rebels made the attack ; they deployed in an open field, in front of Atkins's Brigade, on the right of the road, in heavy force, and came on in splendid style : when the field was filled with them, and their advance was within seventy paces of the barricades, the eight gun-, double shotted, opened on them : the Ninety-Second and Ninth Michigan volleyed them with their Spencers, and the Fifth, Ninth, and Tenth Ohio Cavalry, with their carbines. The field was so full that they could not well re- treat, and, for a few moments, they, with courage, pressed on. The artillery was tired as rapidly as the gunners could work their guns, and the Spencers and carbines volleyed in steady succes- sion, the roll of small arms being as unbroken and continuous as the thunder of a waterfall. Men and horses were moved down in front. One of the Confederate officers appeared determined to find out just what was in front of him, and, mounted on a beautiful white horse, with reckless courage, rode up to within twenty paces of the barricade, glanced from right to left over our line; when, turning to retreat, horse and rider were killed; and many a soldier wearing the aring bine almost regretted to see so brave an officer fall. The enemy retreated, and abandoned his fruitless effort to run over Kilpatrick's two brigades, leaving the field in front of the barricades covered with his dead and wounded. A light attack was afterwards made on the First brigade, on the left of the road, which was easily repulsed. A Rebel prisoner reported the enemy's loss, in killed and wounded, at about three
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hundred; but a Major, in General Howard's corps, who after. wards marched by that plantation, reported that the Rebel cavalry buried two hundred of their dead there; and if that was true, their killed and wounded must have been near five hundred. After repulsing the enemy, the command withdrew. The rear guard reported that, long after they had retired, they heard the enemy firing upon the empty barricades. The Rebel cavalry had dogged us most persistently for two days, and probably concluded, be- cause Kilpatrick did not choose to fight them. that he was afraid to fight, but this repulse undeceived them. The two brigades from Lee's army, under Hampton, learned that the Western Yankee cavalry was not afraid to sit down in the road, and let the enemy try to run over them. The Rebel cavalry did not follow us any farther that night, and Kilpatrick bivouaced after dark, several miles east of Louisville, Georgia.
On the twenty-ninth of November. 1864, the Ninety. Second moved early, with the Division, to Louisville, where the infantry columns lay resting for a day or two, and waiting for " Uncle Billy," as the men familiarly called General Sherman, to tell them when to go again and where to. It is not likely that any one, aside from General Sherman, unless very high in rank, knew where General Sherman was " coming out." Some wisely shook their heads, and " guessed " he would go to Augusta, and through the Carolinas; some thought it would be Savannah; and other -. with maps before them, demonstrated very clearly that he in. tended to break off to the right, and " come out" somewhere on the Gulf of Mexico. A soldier, in his diary, writes: " If the Rebels don't know Sherman's plans better than we do, they must be sorely puzzled." General Sherman is chatty and talkative. but nothing escapes his lips that he desires should remain unknown. The country was very fine, the weather beautiful; cattle, horses. hogs, sheep, geese, chickens, turkeys, hams and sweet potatoes were found in the greatest abundance. The camps were scattered in the groves along the streams, and Sherman's soldiers, in the heart of an enemy's country, were like a vast concourse of jolly picnicers, lolling around in the shade of the trees, telling stories. wrestling, pitching quoits, playing ball or leap-frog, and anything for sport and fun, they leisurely whiled awaya day or two that had been given them for rest. Sherman's soldiers, like Sherman's hummers, were a jolly set. They would joke each other, and phy all day on the march, and play at night when they went into bit .
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ouac. The soldiers under Sherman will remember their campaign through Georgia as the long holiday of their soldier life.
On the thirtieth of November, the Ninety-Second lay in camp. washing their clothing, shoeing animals, visiting the infantry camps to see their friends and relatives in other regiments, and getting ready for a fresh start. A soldier writes in his diary under this date: " We are now in a country where some sugar-cane is produced; figs, apples, peaches, and all kinds of fruits, and horses and mules, and lots of niggers, of all colors, are also produced here." That soldier's head was level-negroes, of all shades of color, were a regular " production " of that country. Some of the female quadroons were really very pretty ; they always had large. lustrous eyes, and pearly white teeth. They knew the Yankees were their friends, and they warmly welcomed their deliverers from slavery.
On the first of December, at about ten A. M., the Ninety-Sec. ond marched with the Division. The enemy, apparently, still re- garded Augusta as Sherman's objective point, and Wheeler and Hampton's cavalry were north of Louisville, on the Augusta Road. Their pickets were struck as soon as the command moved out. General Baird's division of infantry marched in the road, maintaining a line of battle with two regiments, Atkins's Brigade of Cavalry marching through the woods and fields on Baird's right flank, and Murray's brigade in the same manner on his left flank. It was only a feint, and it was desired that the enemy should especially see the infantry ; and for two days this manner of march- ing slowly, the infantry always with a line of battle at the front, was maintained, the cavalry on the flanks, with flags and guidon> unfurled, and bands of music playing. It was a magnificent sight; and the enemy had frequent opportunities of observing the heavy column of infantry, Hanked by cavalry, slowly approaching them, and marching on Augusta. It was eminently successful : and the enemy gathered up all his forces to protect Augusta, leaving an open and uninterrupted road for Sherman to Savannah. On the third, the column marched near the place where the car- alry had repulsed Wheeler and Hampton, on November twenty- eighth, after crossing Buckhead Creek, and the citizens, living in that vicinity, put the enemy's loss at four hundred Killed and wounded. That night the column bivouaced at Thomas's Sta- tion, on the railroad, between Augusta and Millen. The infantry had orders to tear up and burn the railroad ties and twist the rails, as soon as supper was over. The Ninety-Second was sent to
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picket the road beyond the infantry, toward Waynesboro. A sol- dier writes: " I watched, with great interest, Baird's division of infantry tear up and burn this railroad. Just at twilight, after supper, the division turned out, all at once, at the tap of the drum, and for four miles the track was one busy line of living blue. They would stand in line, close together, on one side of the track, and, taking hold of the ties and rails, they would, by main strength, lift up that side of the railroad track and ties as high as their heads, and then let it fall back. The first effort would al- ways loosen a few of the iron rails, when a dozen men would pick them up, handling the long iron rails as easily as a farmer handles his pitchfork, and with them they would pry off other rails: other men would pick them up, and, in like manner, pry off other rails, and, in an incredibly short space of time. without any tools-so many men were at work-they would have the rails all loosened. Then the railroad ties were piled up, like the boys build corn-cob houses, crossing them regularly, in piles about three feet high, in the middle of the old railroad track; and then the iron rails were carefully laid upon them, with the ends extending over. The pitch-pine and red cedar rail fences at the sides of the road were added as fuel to make the railroad ties burn well, and, in half an hour, for four miles, those burning piles of railroad ties made a magnificent sight. The work was so equally distributed that the men all seemed to finish it at the same time, and the fires all along were lighted at once. In half an hour more the iron rails were red-hot in the center, and for four miles those piles of burn- ing railroad ties, the rails heated red-hot in the center, made a sight not soon to be forgotten. The nien would take the iron rails by the ends, when red-hot in the center, and wrap them around the trees and telegraph poles; or, twisting them into knots and interlacing them, the ends sticking every way, would leave them to cool in huge piles. In destroying those rails, the blue- coated soldiers were putting their hands directly into the haver- sacks of General Lee's soldiers at Richmond and Petersburg, and taking from them their rations. No car loaded with food would again pass over that railroad to Lee's army ; no long trains loaded with troops would again pass over it, as Longstreet had done to reinforce Bragg at Chicamauga." In the middle of the night, the Ninetv-Second, while on picket, heard the enemy bringing up artillery, and soon the sharp report of their guns was heard. What did it mean? Was the Rebel infantry before us? The Rebel newspapers were representing Sherman as wandering about
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in Central Georgia, not knowing where to go, and obscurely hinted that a terrible fate awaited his army. Camp rumors were flying about that Richmond was evacuated, and Lee's army con- ing to meet Sherman. But the Rebels fired only two shots, and run their guns to the rear again, and the Ninety-Second men knew that they did not intend to make a general attack. But these two shots killed two men in the Regiment: Corporal William Erb and Emmet A. Merrill, both of Company A.
Early on December fourth, 1864, the Division moved out, to attack the Rebel cavalry under Wheeler and Wade Hampton, At- kins's Brigade in advance, and, as the column came by the Ninety-Second, on picket duty, the Regiment, that had been up all night, without a chance to cook a cup of coffee for breakfast. and they had no supper the night previous, was ordered to advance on foot, and forward it went. The Tenth Ohio Cavalry was lead- ing the Brigade, and soon found the enemy, and charged in col- umn down the road, and close up to the enemy's barricade, which was erected around a house; and there the Tenth Ohio halted within pistol shot of the enemy, but the Rebels had carefully se- lected their ground, and built strong lines of barricades, one back of another, and felt so certain of repulsing our attack, that they did not care to punish, as they might have done, the Tenth Ohio Cavalry; and, by direction of the Rebel General Wheeler, who could be seen and heard distinctly by us, the Rebels held their fire. . The Ninety-Second was ordered to come forward on the double-quick ; but the weary men, who had not slept the night previous, and had gone without supper, and had not a chance to cook breakfast, were not in condition to double-quick far. Lieu- tenant Colonel Van Buskirk, with the Ninety-Second, was or- dered to move upon the enemy's first barricade, directly in front, and charge him out. The Fifth Ohio Cavalry was ordered to move in column on the right flank, and the Ninth Ohio Cavalry, Colonel William D. Hamilton, commanding, a gallant soldier, whose eagles should have been stars, on the left flank, in column. The Ninety-Second came up, and formed in line within plain sight and easy range of the Rebel barricade, but the enemy did not fire. The Ninety-Second moved down to the fence in the hollow, in front of the enemy, and crossed it, and again dressed in line, and then coolly and deliberately started over the open field and up the hill in' front, and within ten rods, of the barricaded Rebels. Now the enemy had the Ninety-Second, as they thought, at their mercy, and up the enemy rose behind their breastwork of
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rails, and blazed their carbines into the faces of the Ninety-Second men; but the storm of bullets from the repeating rifles of the Ninety-Second that went hissing back at them was too much for the gray-coated soldiers, and they sank back again behind their barricade, while the Ninety-Second leaped forward with a shout, and onto and over the Rebel barricade, and pumped their Spen- cers at the backs of the retreating Rebel soldiers. Eighty-seven prisoners were captured by the Ninety-Second, behind the barri- cade from which they had driven the enemy. The Tenth Ohio was pushed forward, and, just beyond the barricade taken by the Ninety-Second, it was charged by the Rebels, and was broken into confusion; but the Ninety-Second, with cool courage, moved for- ward in line, and repulsed the charging Rebels. Another line of barricades was found full of the gray-coats, who, while fighting hard, did not wait as long as the first line had done, but retreated before the Ninety-Second. The artillery was brought up, and commenced shelling the town of Waynesboro. The Fifth Ohio was pressing in hard on the Rebel left, and the Ninth Ohio had already passed the Rebel right flank, and the enemy was leaving his third line of barricades. The Ninth Michigan and Tenth Ohio were ready to charge in the center, as soon as Colonel Hamilton, of the Ninth Ohio, opened the fight on the Rebels beyond the creek and near the town, when Kilpatrick ordered a halt! Twenty minutes more would, probably, have given us five hundred pris- oners. As it was, the Rebel cavalry, under Wheeler and Hamp. ton, that had tried to run over Kilpatrick at Buckhead Creek on the twenty-eighth of November, and had been so handsomely re- pulsed, had here chosen its own ground, erected three separate lines of barricades, each back of the other, and had hoped to re- pulse us; but the Ninety-Second alone had routed them from their first and strongest barricade, with great loss to the Rebel cavalry, including eighty-seven prisoners; and a single brigade had put the Rebel cavalry, commanded by Generals Wheeler and Hampton, to flight!
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