USA > Illinois > Ninety-Second Illinois Volunteers > Part 20
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not far from the ship-landing, from which Sherman's troops about Savannah were to get supplies of hard-tack, sow-belly, and am- munition. At two P. M., the Division, under command of Colo- nel Atkins, marched again toward Midway, in rear of General Mower's division of infantry, on an expedition to Altamaha River, to destroy the railroad and railroad bridges on the Savan- nah and Gulf Railroad. The infantry wagon trains were fast in the mud. Long after dark, the command bivouaced, having marched but six miles. Only five companies of the Ninety. Second accompanied the command. At daylight, marched to Midway, ted animals, and cooked breakfast. Marched at nine A. M., passed the infantry, and took the advance, and halted for dinner at Hinesville, a very pretty little town, quite a resort in summer for the rice planters. The country was full of forage and provisions.
Len Lockridge, of Company D, was picking up provisions for General Kilpatrick, and, after the command had marched through Hinesville, Len returned with a wagon load of such eatables as he had gathered. Riding ahead of the wagon into, Hinesville, he ran into a squad of Rebel cavalry belonging to Hawkins's brigade. They had on blue overcoats, and, supposing them to be our own men, Len rode right in among them. There were seven of the Rebels. . They stripped Lockridge of all his clothing, except pant- and shirt, and took him to Hawkins's head-quarters, and, after be- ing examined by Hawkins, he was ordered to be taken to the head-quarters of General Iverson, at two o'clock in the morning. It was twelve o'clock at night, and, until the party were ready to start with him, they put Lockridge into an old church, under guard. Lying down near the pulpit, as if to sleep, he saw that he might crawl under the seats to the door. His guards were nap- ping, and he crawled carefully under the seats back to the church door, determined to escape if possible. As he approached the door, once through which and into the woods, he felt he would be safe from the pursuit of his too careless guards, he saw, by the fire outside, two bloodhounds. His heart, panting to escape. sank at the sight; to spring from that door was to be seized by those bloodhounds, and he might as well face a Rebel prison-pen. He quietly crawled back again. At two o'clock .1. M., a Rebel Captain and five men started with him to Iverson's head-quarters : at the end of eleven miles, one man was relieved, and at the end of the next ten miles, two men were relieved, and not long after that the Captain and one man stopped at a house, leaving Lock-
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ridge in charge of but one guard, who was told to shoot him if he attempted to get away. A little farther on, they came to a house where a woman stood at the door, and Lockridge requested his guard to get him a drink of water. The woman handed a cala- bash of water to the guard, and he handed it to Lockridge; after drinking, he returned the calabash to the guard, who was sitting on his horse, with his gun across the pommel of his saddle, and just as the guard was reaching the calabash back to the woman, Lockridge struck the guard with his fist, knocking him from his horse, and, grabbing the guard's gun, he beat him over the head with it; then, mounted on the guard's horse, he dashed up the road, and as soon as out of sight of the house he took to the woods. He rode rapidly four or five miles, when his horse gave out and mired in a swamp, and Lockridge kept on on foot. At sundown, he could hear the hounds baying on his track. The Rebel gun he held in his hand would not do for a pack of bloodhounds. To climb into a tree, safe from their pursuit, would only be to wait until the hounds came up, accompanied by his pursuers. To escape the hounds and the pursuing Rebels, he swam the Alta- maha River, and learning its course by its current, he kept down the river on the other side. He had gone about five miles, when he heard the hounds again, and he again crossed the river, and kept on down the stream, and again hearing the hounds, he again swam the river. Lockridge traveled on day and night, for sev- enty hours, through swamps and woods, shunning the road, along which the Rebel courier line ran. He grew hungry, and would crawl up back of the houses until he would see men about, and then skulk back into the woods again. At length he found at house with no men about it, and entered it and helped himself to cold victuals from the cupboard, and hastened to the woods to eat, the first he had tasted for seventy-two hours. And so he kept on, through swamp and cane-brake, for four days and nights. Dur- ing the fourth night he saw a fire in the woods, and, fearing it might be a Rebel picket, he cautiously crawled up to it, and found a single old negro asleep by the fire. Stalking up to him, with his gun, he pretended to be a Rebel soldier, and endeavored to learn his surrounding: but the old negro was so dumb he could get no information from him. Lockridge changed his tactic -. and told the old black man that he was a Yankee soldier, trying to escape from the Rebel-, and then the old negro was intelligent and chatty. The old negro became his guide, and procured an axe, with which they made a raft and crossed the Altamaha River.
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At daylight he hid in the woods, and the old negro brought him his breakfast; he lay in the woods all day, and in the evening the old negro brought him his supper, and was again his guide; and they traveled all night, making about twenty miles, when the old negro again brought him his breakfast, and turned him over to a friend, another negro, who was his guide the next night. And thus guided and helped on his way by the negroes, he reached the Yankee lines eight days after his capture.
The Cavalry Division camped after dark, on December eight- eenth, at Johnston's Station. A lady residing there, said that when the Union prisoners were taken South, she went to the train with a basket of food, but that the guard would not let her give it to the Yankees. She saw one Yankee prisoner pick up a kernel of corn, and the guard made him throw it away again. The command marched early on the nineteenth, crossed Jones's Creek, and marched to the Altamaha River, opposite Doctor- town, the intention being to burn the railroad bridge crossing the river; but the Rebels had a fort protecting the bridge. The Ninety-Second marched out into the swamps, dismounted, to flank the fort, but was ordered back, and the command withdrew. The Rebels ran an engine with a flat car ahead of it, from Doctortown to the fort; on the flat car was a cannon, and the Rebels blazed away with it, until a section of our 10-pound rifled Rodmans opened in reply, when they ran their railroad artillery to the rear. A long, high trestle was destroyed. The command returned to Johnston's Station, and camped, after dark. In fording Jones's Creek, a large number of horses were drowned. Marched at seven A. M., on the twentieth, to Jonesville, and camped amidst plenty of forage for animals and plenty for the men to eat. Marched next day, to Riceboro. The people had seen nothing of the war, and were all at home. On the twenty-second, the com- mand returned to King's Bridge, and went into old camps, after dark. On the twenty-third of December, we heard of the capture of the city of Savannah, with two hundred pieces of artillery, one hundred railroad locomotives and many cars, thirty thousand bales of cotton, and nine hundred Rebel prisoners. It was a happy day in camp. Colonel Atkins, in closing his official report of the march through Georgia, said : " During the campaign, iny Brigade has marched five hundred and twenty miles; been fre- quently in action, and always successful; has captured eleven hundred and fifty-nine mules and horses; men and animals were subsisted principally upon the country ; my Brigade burned five
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thousand, eight hundred and forty bales of cotton, one hundred and twenty-nine cotton gins and cotton houses, and eleven flour- ing mills." General Kilpatrick's official report of the campaign from Atlanta to Savannah, contains the following: "Before closing my remarks, I desire to make favorable mention of my Brigade Commanders, Colonels Murray and Atkins; both have at all times faithfully and ably performed the responsible duties which have devolved upon them ; always on duty, attentive to orders, energetic, skillful and brave. Both are educated, gentle- manly and accomplished cavalry officers. Both merit promotion." And further on in his official report, General Kilpatrick, in men- tioning the various regiments in his Division, says: "The Nine- ty-Second Illinois Mounted Infantry, Lieutenant Colonel Van Buskirk, have, at all the various places mentioned, behaved most handsomely, and attracted my especial attention." After receiv- ing General Kilpatrick's official report, General Sherman ad- dressed the following letter to General Kilpatrick :
" HEAD-QUARTERS MIL. DIV. MISS. ¿ " In the Field, Savannah, Ga., Dec. 29th, 1864.
" Brig. Gen'l Judson Kilpatrick, Comd'g Cavalry Division, Army of Georgia :
" GENERAL: I have read, with pleasure, your report, just received, as well as those of your Brigade Commanders. I beg to assure you that the operations of the cavalry under your com- inand have been skillful and eminently successful. As you cor. rectly state in your report, you handsomely feinted on Forsythe and Macon; afterwards did all that was possible toward the rescue of our prisoners at Millen, which failed simply because the pris. oners were not there. And I will here state, that you may have it on my signature, that you acted wisely and well, in drawing back from Wheeler to Louisville, as I had instructed you not to risk your cavalry command. And subsequently, at Thomas's Station, Waynesboro, and Brier Creek, you whipped a superior cavalry force, and took from Wheeler all chance of boasting over you. But the fact, that to you, in a great measure, we owe the march of four strong infantry columns, with heavy trains and wagons, over three hundred miles, through an enemy's country, without the loss of a single wagon, and without the annoyance of cavalry dashes on our flanks, is honor enough for any Cavalry Commander.
" I will retain your report for a few days, that I may, in my own report, use some of your statistics, and then will forward it
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to the War Department, 'when I will endorse your recommenda. tions, and make such others as I may consider necessary and proper.
I am truly your friend, " W. T. SHERMAN, " Maj. Gen'l Comd'g."
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CHAPTER VII.
CAMPING AND FORAGING ABOUT SAVANNAH-STARTING ON THE MARCH AGAIN-A TORCH-LIGHT BATTLE-INTO SOUTH CAROLINA-BARNWELL-THE REBEL TRAP AT AIKEN-THE NINETY-SECOND, COMPLETELY SURROUNDED BY THE ENE- MY, GALLANTLY CUTS ITS WAY OUT-EXCHANGING PRIS. ONERS WITH WHEELER -- SENDING UP SKY-ROCKETS- RUNNING INTO THE REBEL CAMPS AT NIGHT-AVERYS- BORO-BENTONSVILLE -- NEWS OF LEE'S SURRENDER --- FIGHTING NEAR RALEIGH-ENTERING RALEIGH-CHAPEL HILL-MARCHING ALONG, GRAY-COATS AND BLUE-COATS TOGETHER -- CONCORD -- MUSTERED OUT -- HOMEWARD BOUND -THE THREE YEARS' SOLDIERING ENDED.
Sherman presented to President Lincoln the captured city of Savannah, as a Christmas present, December 25th, 1864. It was Sabbath. The Ninety-Second lay in camp, in the pine woods bordering the Ogeechee River, near King's Bridge, enjoying a Christmas feast of oysters in the shell, fresh from the Atlantic brine, all the Regiment feeling very happy at the glorious ending of the long campaign. Captain J. M. Schermerhorn, of Com- pany G, the informal Commissary General of the Ninety-Second, had provided the oysters; with a detail of men, Captain Scher- merhorn had gone to the coast, and returned with several six- mule wagon loads of oysters in the shell. When Atlanta was taken, the Regiment had anticipated a rest; but the capture of Savannah created no such anticipations. Hood's army had gone to Nashville, and we were too far from Lee's army, which was properly our objective; it must come toward us, or we must go toward it. Preparations for a march through the Carolinas began immediately, but it required weeks to put the large army in con- dition to resume the march. On the twenty-sixth of December, the Ninety.Second moved, at seven A. M., with the Brigade and Division, and went into camp eight miles south of Savannah,
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where it remained until the second of January, IS65. It was ex. pected that rations and forage would be plenty at Savannah; but rations were short, and forage so scarce that Sherman had not enough for the animals belonging to the artillery, ambulances, and trains of the infantry. The cavalry were without forage, and the men dug the rice straw out of the Rebel fortifications, where it had been used, as the ancients used straw to make bricks, to hold together the soft swamp soil of which the fortifications were constructed, carefully washed it in the swamp water, and fed it to the starving horses. Sometimes, on the rice plantations about Savannah, the men would find rice in the straw, and it was fed to the horses, as the farmers feed oats in the sheaf; but the hard rice was indigestible, and made the animals sick.
On the thirty-first of December. 1864, at midnight, the Ninety- Second Silver Cornet Band played the old year out, with sad music, and the New Year in, with gay music, and the men of the Regi- ment joined in the chorus with gleeful shouts. Sweetly the music of the silver horns rang out on the stillness of the midnight air. Those who would have kept watch-night at home, kept it in the camp. One year before, they had kept it by their great fires on Judge Hammond's plantation, in Northern Alabama; and now. beneath the long-leaved pines on the Atlantic coast, in Southern Georgia, they watched the old year out, and welcomed the New Year in. It was not so cold as the year before : ro-es, and many other flowers, were in bloom in the gardens about the deserted dwellings. The animals were in a starving condition, and, on the second of January, 1865, the Brigade moved across King's Bridge, and marched twenty miles, to Taylor's Creek, to be in a country where food for men and animals was procurable. The horses were so weak and poor that most of the command walked, and led their faithful and hungry horses. Taylor's Creek was reached after dark, and plenty of forage and provisions were found. On the third, the Ninety-Second was sent out to forage for the Brig. ade, and about five miles from camp found plenty of corn, hams and sweet potatoes, and loaded the wagons, and returned to camp with abundance for the entire Brigade. A soldier, in his diary, wrote: " This is what is called living on the enemy, for the Lord knows we have nothing else." But nothing else was needed- corn for the animals, and sweet potatoes and meat for the men, were all that was required. On the fourth, one-half the Ninety. Second went foraging. The following characteristic communica. tion was received from General Kilpatrick, the jolly little Briga-
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dier, who commanded Sherman's cavalry. We give it as a specimen :
"Colonel ATKINS, Commanding Cavalry, Taylor's Creek, Ga .:
" Colonel: I have heard from Colonel Jordan. He is doing well. Has been directed to push in to-morrow and form a junc- tion with you on, or beyond Taylor's Creek. I wish you to thoroughly scout the country, capturing all the horses and mules possible. Be bold. Times have wonderfully changed. One Yankee can run sixteen lousy Rebs. Isn't it funny? Keep your tailors, shoemakers, blacksmiths, and farmers, poor cowardly devils from the North, constantly at work, and don't give the brave, chivalric, and magnanimous sons of the sunny South a chance to steal, cook, and eat ary tater. I desire you to remain until Satur- day morning. No news of importance.
" Very respectfully yours, "J. KILPATRICK, " Brig. Gen'l."
Many of the wealthy people living in Savannah had gone to the plantations on Taylor's Creek, to escape Sherman's troops, taking their elegant city furniture with them. The Ninety- Second boys made saddle cloths of their beautiful Brussels and Turkey carpets. On the sixth, the command started on the return, every trooper loaded down with corn for his horse, and eatables for himself-a funny cavalcade. Many of the men loaded their horses so heavily with corn, hams, chickens, turkeys, and sweet potatoes, that the horses could scarcely stagger along tinder their loads, the men leading them. Every old wagon, cart. buggy, sulky, and family carriage that could be found in that country, was loaded down; and the soldiers had hitched to theni all kinds of animals. One silver mounted family carriage was loaded inside and out, and drawn by a little, old jackass and a cow hitched together! A handsome one-horse carriage was drawn by a little burly bull! One aristocratic Yankee, seated on a well loaded ox cart, drove a handsome tandum team-a poor. old, blind mule, led by a stubborn little jackass! To stop by the roadside and see the cavalcade go by, was better than going to a circus; and the wit of the men, when some soldier's team would get to kicking, or his vehicle break down, was more pointed than the old saws of the circus clowns. The column moved slowly, and bivouaced that night at King's Bridge, and reached the old camp, eight miles south of Savannah, at noon, on the seventh,
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with many days' forage and rations, for men and animals. One soldier wrote in his diary, in the evening: " Here we are in camp again, as quiet as you please. There was a rumor afloat, that we will leave to-morrow. I fixed up my traps, and spun around generally." Sunday, the eighth, was very warm. Many men in the Regiment were permitted to go to Savannah. One soldier, in his diary, wrote: " I to-day visited Savannah, with Captain Hawk and others. The buildings are old, tumble-down things: the streets, beds of loose sand; I should call the city third-class. The troops are constructing lines of earthworks around the city, so that a small force can hold it. I think it very singular that this place yielded up so soon. One good corps of Yankee troops would have held it for weeks against the whole of the Rebel armies."
On the twelfth of January, 1865, the Cavalry Division of Gen- eral Kilpatrick was reviewed in the streets of Savannah, by Major General Sherman, in the presence of Hon. Edwin M. Stanton. Secretary of War. Mr. Stanton rode by the line in an open car. riage, and sat in his carriage while the column passed him in re- view. On the fourteenth of January, orders were received to pre- pare for a six weeks' campaign through the Carolinas. Colonel Atkins received, from the Secretary of War, his commission of Brigadier General U. S. Volunteers, by brevet, with a special order of the President of the United States assigning him to duty with his brevet rank. He was serenaded by the Ninety Second Silver Cornet Band, and was congratulated, in the evening, by the officers of his Brigade, in a body. On Sunday, the fifteenth, Chaplain Clark, of the Tenth Ohio Volunteer Cavalry, who was taken prisoner at Lovejoy's Station, when the Division was making the raid around Atlanta, August twentieth, IS64, preached an elo- quent sermon, detailing his prison experience, which was listened to by nearly the entire Brigade. The troops lay in camp, with nothing to do; the officers drawing supplies of all kinds, and get- ting ready for the march. A soldier, on the nineteenth, in his diary, wrote: "Running horses seems to occupy the attention of the sporting men of the command just now. I went out to the race course and let iny mare run through once, just to ascertain her speed, but found she had none." It rained several days in succession, and the horses were knee deep in the soft soil. The roads became so bad that it required three days for the teane to get to Savannah, eight miles, and return, and, in consequence, the men were short of rations, and the animals again withont forage
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The swamps were almost impassable, and full of alligators, many being killed by the men. Alligator steak is regarded by some people as a luxury, but the hungry soldiers would not eat alli- gator meat. On the twenty-third, supplies began to come from Savannah by rail, and the Ninety-Second moved camp to be nearer the railroad. On the evening of the twenty-seventh, General Kil- patrick gave a party to the officers of his command, and, in his speech, said: "In after years, when travelers passing through South Carolina shall see chimney stacks without houses, and the country desolate, and shall ask, 'Who did this?' some Yankee will answer, ' Kilpatrick's Cavalry.'" On the morning of January twenty-eighth, 1865, the march through the Carolinas began, the Ninety-Second in advance. The roads were almost impassable. Marched eight miles, and camped on the Springfield Road. Marched at sunrise on the twenty-ninth, twenty miles, through the swamps, and bivouaced at dark, with plenty of rails for fires. Marched at daylight, passing through Springfield, a town that was nearly all burned up when Sherman marched to Savannah, and camped at Sisters' Ferry, on the Savannah River, where there was a large camp of infantry. Pontoons were being laid across the Savannah River. At three o'clock P. M., a fleet of steamers arrived from Savannah, with supplies and the mails. On the thirty-first, the Regiment received orders to be ready to march at a moment's notice, with five days' rations, and all the ammunition each man could carry. The road opposite Sisters' Ferry was filled with buried torpedoes by the Rebels. One man was killed on the thirty-first by the explosion of a buried torpedo. To fill country roads with buried torpedoes was a new style of warfare, but about equal to South Carolina valor. The Regiment lay in camp in the pine woods, and, at night, the fat pine knots lighted made flaming torches, and the men, full of fun, fought a battle with the fat pine torches as weapons. It was a curious sight, beneath the sombre pine trees, and the men enjoyed the sport hugely, although some of them were severely burned; one man in Company B had an eye nearly punched out by a burning brand. At two P. M., on February third, General Atkins's Brigade took the lead, crossed the pontoons over the Savannah River, and floundered through the swamps, caring little for buried torpedoes, and, by ten P. M .. had made six miles, reaching the first dry land, where the Brigade bivouaced. A soldier, in his diary, wrote: "Crossed the Savan. nah River, and trod on the . sacred' soil of South Carolina. 1 rather expected that the earth would open and swallow up the
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grand army of 'mudsills;' but it didn't, and we got over the long swamp, and found good bottom for man and beast. I saw the place where once a noble, aristocratic South Carolina mansion had stood; and I looked, and lo, only ashes, charred timbers, and a chimney stack of rough stone were left of that grand mansion, and its chivalric owner, the noble South Carolina gentleman, had fled from our advance, not waiting to whip three of the detested Yankees." Marched at ten A. M., and passed through Roberts- ville, and camped at Lawtonville, amidst plenty for horses and men to eat. At night, the South Carolina skies gave back a blood- red reflection from South Carolina's burning homes. Started early next morning, and marched twenty miles, to Allendale: forage and rations plenty, and the town, of course, burned up.
Marched early on the sixth of February, General Atkins's Brigade leading; and when within two miles of Barnwell, the enemy was found in strong position, on the opposite side of Salkhatchie River and Swamp, occupying earthen rifle pits. The Ninety-Second Illinois was dismounted, and two companies of the Ninth Ohio Cavalry were also dismounted; and, pushing out into the swamp, they waded the Salkhatchie, and flanked the enemy out of his line of earthworks. We here learned that the main force of the Rebel cavalry had been awaiting our advance. at Barnwell; but our cavalry not showing itself, the Rebel cavalry had, the day previous, marched from Barnwell toward Branch- ville, and the right of Sherman's army, leaving their heavy earthworks at the Salkhatchie to be held by about one hundred men. The squad of Rebels, when they found they were flanked, retreated 'on the Augusta Road, leaving one killed and three wounded. No one hurt in the Ninety-Second. After repairing the road over the swamp, and rebuilding the bridge, the command marched into Barnwell, and camped. All the cotton found had been burned up; but the people of Barnwell hit upon a novel plan to save their cotton. There had been thousands of bales stored in the town; it was removed from the buildings, and scattered, a bale in a place, in the woods and fields all around the town ; and it had been soaked by the rains, and would not burn. The town was burned up. Kilpatrick had his head-quarters at a hotel. Nero fiddled while Rome was burning; and the jolly Kilpatrick gave a grand ball in Barnwell, while the dwellings of the inhabi- tants were lighting up the sky with their flames. He sent out his invitations, and the receivers, doubtless regarding them as impera- tive orders, put in an appearance, and, like sad ghosts, went
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