USA > Illinois > Ninety-Second Illinois Volunteers > Part 21
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through the whirling mazes of the dance. Kilpatrick's head- quarters were frequently set on fire while the dance was in progress. It was the bitterest satire on social pleasure ever witnessed.
The command marched early, on February seventh, to Black- ville, a small station on the railroad, between Charleston and Augusta, driving the enemy, and destroying miles of the railroad. Marched at noon, on the eighth of February, toward Augusta, ten iniles, and bivouaced at Williston Station, and destroyed the rail- road and several cars found at the station. A small force of Rebel cavalry fell back as we advanced, giving an occasional shot, but not fighting hard. Marched at seven A. M., on the ninth, still toward Augusta, and camped at Windsor. A soldier, in his diary, writes: "Goddard and Pulver, of the Ninety- Second, out foraging, on returning, found themselves between the Rebel picket and Rebel camp, and put spurs to their horses, killed one of the Rebel vedettes, and captured the other; but, being hotly pursued, they dropped their prisoner, and reached camp all right, minus their forage." Captain E. T. E. Becker, of Company I, reported to Division head-quarters, with fifty men, and was ordered, by General Kilpatrick, to proceed to and destroy the cotton mills near Augusta, on the Savannah River, provided he could get by the enemy without being discovered. The Cap- tain marched first south about four miles; then turned west, on a road running parallel with the railroad. When near Aiken, and the inen were congratulating themselves on their success in evad- ing the enemy, they suddenly ran upon one of his picket posts, and gave the Rebels a most lively run into the town of Aiken. which was found full of Rebels, in most disorderly disorder. The detail returned to Pole Cat Pond, marching thirty miles in going and returning. There were no casualties, except that Lyman Gray's mule was shot through the nose. At half past twelve at night, Captain H. M. Timms, of Company A, with his company, and Companies C, B, and D, dismounted, accompanied by Captain D. L. Cockley, A. A. D., on General Atkins's staff, mnoved out through the woods and fields, from our reserve picket post, two miles, and came on the road in rear of the Rebel pickets, killing one, capturing one, and capturing six or eight horses, and scattering the Rebel picket, without loss to us. At daylight, on February eleventh, 1865, General Atkins's Brigade, leaving the Division at Pole Cat Pond, marched toward Aiken, eight miles distant. Two miles from our picket, we struck the
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Rebel picket post, and, at a house by the roadside, just behind the Rebel picket, a woman informed General Kilpatrick, who accom. panied the Brigade, that the Rebel Generals Wheeler and Cheat- ham had just left her house. It was thereby made evident that Wheeler and Hampton's cavalry was again in our front, with Cheatham's division of infantry. The Ninety-Second was in advance, and moved cautiously, driving the Rebel picket ahead of it. Flanking parties were marching through the woods and fields on both sides of the road. The head of the column came within plain view of the town of Aiken. Lieutenant Henry C. Cooling, of Company B, as cool and brave an officer aus there was in the Regiment, reported to General Atkins that he had discovered long lines of Rebel cavalry on the right of the road in the woods and fields, dismounted, and holding their horses by the bridle reins. The column was halted. It was evi- dent that a trap had been laid; and into the jaws of that carefully planned Rebel trap the Brigade Commander did not care to go. The firing on the left of the road told plainly that our flankers had struck the enemy, also, on the left. But there was no enemy on the road between the head of the Ninety-Second and the town of Aiken. Kilpatrick came dashing up to the head of the col- umn, and desired to know the reason of the halt, and it was explained to him. Just then a railroad locomotive ran out in plain view near Aiken, and whistled and whistled. Kilpatrick stationed a section of artillery on the road, and sent rifled shell screaming toward the locomotive, and into the town of Aiken. Kilpatrick wanted to capture that locomotive; he was assured that its whistling was only a part of the trap the enemy had set, and that they would swing in from both flanks, and surround any force sent into Viken; but Kilpatrick ordered the Ninety-Second, only about two hundred and twenty-five men in line, as part were left on picket, and others engaged on various details and flanking parties, to charge into the town. Forward it went, and met no resistance in reaching the town; the screaming locomotive ran to the rear; the Ninety-Second was seen plainly entering the town. There was no firing, and General Kilpatrick himself rode forward toward Aiken.
General Atkins ordered the Ninth Ohio Volunteer Cavalry, Colonel William D. Hamilton, into line of battle on the right ot the road, flanking the section of artillery ; and the Ninth Michi- gan Cavalry, Colonel George S. Acker, in line of battle, flanking the artillery on the left of the road, holding the Tenth Ohio Cavalry
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reserve. Colonel William D. Hamilton, of the Ninth Ohio, and the Major commanding one battalion of the Ninth Michigan, were ordered to be ready to charge into Aiken at the sound of the Brigade bugle; and, on reaching Aiken, and relieving any of the Ninety-Second still there, to immediately fall back to the position then held by them. These dispositions had not been completed, when the enemy's cavalry swung in from both flanks, and the little Brigadier, who commanded the Division, was, seen coming to the rear as fast as his horse could run, and hotly pursued by forty or fifty Rebels. As he came within sight of the line of bat- tle of the Ninth Ohio and Ninth Michigan, the Rebels were actu- ally grabbing for him, as he hugged his horse's neck, and roweled his horse's flanks with his spurs. It was laughable in the extreme : but the Ninth Ohio and Ninth Michigan could not fire a gun at the enemy, so mixed up were the General and his staff officers and orderlies with the pursuing Rebels. Let no one think that this reflects upon Kilpatrick's courage ; it does not; he was the bravest man in all his brave Division. He made a mistake when he sent the Ninety-Second into Aiken, and another mistake when he himself rode toward the town, but he made no mistake when he rode so rapidly back to the Brigade. Kilpatrick had now seen for himself the heavy forces of the enemy-ten times the force of the Brigade-and he ordered the artillery to the rear, and it went; and he ordered General .Atkins to withdraw with the balance of his Brigade; but Atkins held his line of battle steadily, resolved to aid the Ninety-Second, if an opportunity offered. The officers and men of the Ninety-Second had heard the shots on the flanks, and felt, when they went forward into the town, that they were going into a trap. They found no enemy in the edge of the town. The Secesh ladies waved their handkerchiefs in welcome, and smilingly invited the officers and men into their houses: but that kind of a welcome was unusual in South Carolina, and not an officer or soldier accepted the seductive invitation-it was an addi. tional evidence of danger to the Ninety-Second. In the farther edge of the town of \iken the enemy's line of skirmishers was found, and, at the same instant, the Rebels swung in from both flanks, and forined a perfect line of battle in rear of the Ninety- Second. Lieutenant Colonel Van Buskirk, commanding the Regiment, quiet, cool and brave, took in the situation at a glance, and, without the least excitement, or confusion, or haste, issued his orders to the Ninety-Second as cool, quiet, and brave as their competent and gallant Lieutenant Colonel, and leaving Compa.
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nies K and A engaged with the Rebel skirmish line on the farther side of the town, to hold them, he formed his Regiment for a charge upon and through the Rebel line of battle that had been formed in his rear. Every man in the Regiment appeared to be conscious that the only way to escape was to desperately assault the Rebel line, and cut a hole in it. Coolly the Regiment rode forward to the charge! The Rebel line of battle stretched far off to the right and left, and the Rebels, confident of bagging the Regiment, very coolly awaited the approach of the comparatively little squad of the Ninety-Second, until within close range, when the Rebels demanded a halt and surrender, and were answered by every man in the Regiment pumping into them the eight Spencer bullets in his trusty repeating rifle; and then, clubbing their guns, with a wild shout the heroic Regiment dashed onto the Rebel-, the men wielding their heavy rifles, as stalwart Indians wield their battle-clubs, knocking down and killing the gray-coats in their way. It was a desperate charge, and desperately the Ninety. Second men fought, face to face, and hand to hand.
" Was there man dismayed? Not tho' the soldier knew Some one had blundered : . Theirs not to make reply, Theirs not to reason why; Theirs but to do and die. Into the Valley of Death Rode the two hundred."
The men had read the story of the horrible sufferings of the Union prisoners in the Andersonville prison pens; they had seen the men of the Ninety-Second, who, surrounded and overwhelmed by the Rebels at Nickojack, had surrendered, and had been inhu- manly murdered by their inhuman captors: they knew that our men captured by Wade Hampton's troop, had been stripped of clothing, and had their throats cut by the roadside; and, while die they might, and some of them innst, vet, the Ninety-Second. while there were three men left to stand by one another, would not surrender. Enveloped by the huge mass of Rebel cavalry surrounding them, and mixed up helter skelter, gras-coats and blue-coats, in a confused and jumbled crowd, they pressed on to the Brigade, and soon saw the Stars and Stripes floating over the immovable line of battle formed by the Ninth Ohio and Ninth Michigan Cavalry, that gave new courage to the Ninety . Second
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inen ; but those regiments could not fire a shot, so inixed up were the soldiers of the Ninety-Second and the Rebels-each claiming the other prisoner; and on they pressed, close up to the Brigade line of battle, when the Rebels began halting and retreating ; then the Brigade bugle rang out clearly, and, with a yell, the Ninth Ohio and one battalion of the Ninth Michigan gallantly began the charge, the men of the Ninety-Second wheeling and charging with them back again toward the town of Aiken. The charge of the Ninth Ohio and Ninth Michigan, with the Ninety- Second, was so quick and prompt when the Ninety-Second broke through the Rebel line, that the Rebels were taken by surprise, and, in confusion and disorder, rapidly gave the road to the steady line that went forward toward and into the town of Aiken, reliev- ing the two companies of the Ninety-Second, Companies A and K, left on picket : and, before the Rebel cavalry could reform, the three regiments had again withdrawn from the town, as they had been ordered to do, bringing out the wounded. Twenty-six were killed and wounded in the Ninety-Second, the loss not being so heavy in any one of the other regiments of the Brigade. The enemy buried eighty of his slain in Aiken. The Rebels had seven divisions of cavalry,-and were supported by Cheatham's division of Rebel infantry,-had laid a well-planned trap, and the Ninety- Second had been sent into it: but with courage born of many vic- torious battles, the Regiment extricated itself from the toils of the enemy, and turned into glorious victory what would have been au honorable surrender, had the Regiment been willing to have sur- rendered upon any terms. But the Brigade was yet nearly eight miles from camp, where the balance of the Division lay behind their rail barricades, and seven divisions of Rebel cavalry, baffled and defeated at Aiken, came thundering down upon the four little regiments, the Ninety-Second, the Ninth and Tenth Ohio, and Ninth Michigan, and the eight miles back to camp was a battle- field all the way. The Tenth Ohio, a regiment that had long belonged to General Atkins's Brigade, and that made so handsome a charge at Bear Creek Station. in the very commencement of the march from Atlanta to Savannah, and the gallant Ninth Ohio, commanded by the brave and competent Hamilton, were sent to the rear in column, on the road, building barricades at suitabh. points as they marched; while the Ninety- Second, under Inu tenant Colonel Van Buskirk, who ought to have been promoted to Brigadier General for his gallant and cool management of his little command at Aiken, moved back in line of battle on the right
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of the road, and the Ninth Michigan Cavalry, armed with Spen- cer Repeating Carbines, commanded by Colonel George S. Acker, a cool, confident and brave cavalry soldier, moved back in line of battle on the left of the road. Time and time again, the Rebels, in overwhelming force, charged the two regiments, who always met them coolly, with murderous volleys from their Spencer Rifles and Carbines, the two regiments together, many times, not only repulsing the enemy's charge, but charging and routing them in turn. And so the little Brigade fell back, repulsing every assault of the enemy, and giving him no time to envelop the flanks, or reach the road in rear. When Pole Cat Pond was reached, the Brigade was dismounted, and took up position behind the rail barricades. The enemy felt the lines with his dismounted skirmishers, but, even with his overwhelming numbers, made no assault. While the Brigade lay resting, with arms stacked, behind the barricades, Kilpatrick rode out to the line of battle, and wanted to know why the men were not in line, and was told there was no need of it; they lay resting close by their arms, and if an assault was made, could spring to arms instantly ; but that Wheeler never would assault a rail barricade after his repulse, near Buckhead Creek, on the Georgia campaign. True it is, that neither Wheeler nor Hampton ever assaulted a rail barricade after that memorable defeat; and they did not assault that, after they had once seen it. Wheeler and Hampton had seven divisions, but they dared not assault Kilpatrick in his own chosen position, behind barricades. Kilpatrick, a brave and dashing cavalry soldier, was as generous as he was brave and dashing, and personally complimented and thanked General .Atkins for his disobedience to his order in hold. ing his line of battle with his Brigade, near Aiken, and aiding the Ninety-Second, and was profuse in his praises of the gallantry of the Regiment.
During the twelfth of February, the Ninety-Second lay behind the barricades, with the Division, at Pole Cat Pond, sending out scouting parties toward Aiken, and finding the enemy's picket a half mile beyond our own. The infantry came up to within five miles of the cavalry, and spent the day in effectually destroying the railroad. On the thirteenth, the infantry marched toward the South Edisto; and at noon, Kilpatrick's Cavalry Division pulled out, and camped at night, close by the infantry, at Davis's Mills, on the South Edisto River, the enemy not following. The Ninety-Second men were disappointed, in not visiting Aiken again. They would have liked to have occupied that town for a
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few hours; they would have gone into the houses without any smiling invitations from the Secesh ladies; and when they had marched out of the town, no houses would have been left. Marched at daylight, on the fourteenth, twenty miles, to the South Edisto River. Reveille sounded, at two o'clock, on the morning. of February fifteenth; but the enemy had cut a dam above the place where the cavalry was to cross the river, flooding the whole country ; and the Division did not march until seven A. M., burning everything in the country as it marched along. \ brigade of Wheeler's Rebel cavalry was reported to be march- ing on the same road ahead of us, and the balance of the Rebel cavalry on a parallel road to our left, while the Fourteenth Army Corps was marching in the same direction, on the first par- allel road to our right. Camped that night within twenty iniles of Columbia. The country was a dense pine forest, and forage for animals and rations for men very hard to obtain. Marched at seven A. M., on the sixteenth, to Lexington, South Carolina. twelve miles, and camped early; drew one day's rations from the wagon train, the first since leaving Sisters' Ferry. During the night, our picket was attacked, and the Division was in line of battle at daylight, but no attack came in force. Marched at nine A. M., leaving the town of Lexington in flames, and crossed the Saluda River, on the infantry pontoons, at Saluda Factory; drew two days' rations from the wagon train. Marched at eight A. M., on the eighteenth, to Alston, and attempted to save the large covered bridge across Broad River; but the enemy had satu- rated the bridge with turpentine, and fired it on our approach. The country was poor, and had been passed over the day previous by Cheatham's division of infantry from Aiken, and Wheeler and Hampton's cavalry. Marched at sundown, on February nine- teenth; but the roads were so filled with the infantry wagon trains that only four miles had been made at four .A. M., when the com- mand bivouaced for two hours' rest. Started again, at six A. M., and was three hours in marching three miles, to the pontoons over Broad River; crossed on the pontoons, and marched five miles, and halted one hour to feed animals; and then marched through Montecello, already on fire when the Ninety-Second passed through the town, and camped at White Oak Station, on the railroad. The country was full of provisions and forage, and many excellent horses and mules were found. George Fox, of Company I, was missing at roll call. Nine of the soldiers belong. ing to General Kilpatrick's Division were captured by Wade
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Hampton's men; and the fiends cut the throats of the Yankee prisoners, and pinned upon them papers marked, " No quarter for foragers." South Carolina valor was equal to the task of burying torpedoes in the country roads; and South Carolina valor was equal to the cool and deliberate butchery of prisoners, dis- armed and helpless in their hands. General Kilpatrick threatened retaliation, in a communication to General Wheeler, of the Rebel cavalry; and Wheeler replied, denying all knowledge of it, and . promising to investigate it, and have the guilty punished-but no one has ever heard of any investigation or punishment. The Division marched at sunrise, on the twenty-second, the Ninety. Second leading, to Blackstock Station, fed animals, and erected barricades. The infantry came up and completely destroyed the railroad. Countermarched two miles, and turned square east, and marched seven miles, and camped for night. Marched at day- light, on the twenty-third, to Gladden's Grove, through a con- tinuous rain-storm, and, at dark, started for the pontoons over the Catawba River, at Rocky Mount. The roads were so bad, and the night so intensely dark, the rain pouring in torrents, that the crossing of the river was not effected until after daylight: marched out into the country in advance of the infantry, and the weary soldiers, up all night in the pouring rain, lay down in the mud and water to rest. Men and animals were completely ex- hausted. Two Union officers, almost naked, and gaunt with hunger, who had escaped, after having been twenty-two months in a Rebel prison pen, hailed our advance from the bushes by the roadside, and were warmly welcomed by our troops. The prison- ers were wild with joy, at feeling themselves safe within the lines of the Union army once more. Marched at noon, on the twenty- fourth, eight miles, toward Lancaster, the roads almost impassa- ble, and the rain still pouring down. Plenty of forage was found, and the command camped at dark. At daylight, on the twenty-fifth, marched five miles to Lancaster, without breakfast, the rain being so heavy and continuous that fires could not be built to cook by. At Lancaster, the command went into camp. Again all the extra horses in the command were killed. Camped at Lancaster, the rain continuing. On Sunday, February twenty-sixth, lay in camp at Lancaster, picketing Camp Creek, five miles out, on the Charlotte Road, the enemy picketing the other side of the creek. Many animals were captured by our scouting parties. General Atkins had his head-quarters at the residence of Dr. Wylie, and. learning that the Doctor contemplated a visit to the Union pris.
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oners held by the Rebels, he gathered up a quantity of Confede- rate money, from the Union soldiers who had escaped from the Rebel prisons, and sent it, by Dr. Wylie, to the Union soldiers still remaining in the hands of the enemy, taking the following receipt from Dr. Wylie:
" HEAD-QUARTERS 2D BRIG. CAV. COM'D, ¿ Lancaster, S. C., Feb. 26th, 1865.
" Rec'd of Bvt. Brig. Gen'l Smith D. Atkins, U. S. Vols .. Eleven Thousand Two Hundred and Eighty-Two Dollars, ($11,282) in Confederate Currency, which I agree to use my efforts to have conveyed to the U. S. prisoners of war at Char- lotte, N. C., or wherever they may be, it being money sent to them by prisoners of the U. S. A., who have escaped from con- finement, and are now within the lines of Sherman's army.
" R. E. WYLIE, M. D."
Lay in camp all day the twenty-seventh, at Lancaster, the cold rain pouring down steadily. General Kilpatrick sent a flag of truce to Wheeler, at Camp Creek, and he and Wheeler met, and made an informal arrangement to exchange prisoners that each might capture. The next morning, Kilpatrick sent a squad of the gray-coats to Wheeler, with all their clothing and private property, and Wheeler returned twenty-two of our men, who had been stripped bare of everything. It was a sad sight to see them marching into Lancaster, in the cold February storm, barefooted. hatless, coatless, pantless, and many with nothing but under- shirt and drawers. They did not remain naked long. Kilpatrick ordered them clothed by the citizens, and they were so clothed : and then they were a funny looking lot of soldiers, in citizens' clothing; some with black broadcloth spike-tailed coats and plug hats! At two P. M., the command left Lancaster, and camped after dark in the woods, at Gill's Creek Church, where the Regi- ment remained on picket the next day. The command moved carly, on the second of March, crossed Lynche's Creek, and camped near the infantry.
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Marched at daylight, on the third of March : roads very bad ; skirmishing in front and rear of the Division; marched eighteen miles, and camped eight miles from Wadesboro. Ordered to march at davlight, on the fourth, but order was countermanded after the command was saddled up. A strong scouting party of the Ninth Michigan Cavalry was sent toward Wadesboro, taking with them sky-rockets, to be used as signals at night. News was
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received of the capture of Cheraw by the Yanks. At noon the enemy made a furious attack, very suddenly, upon the Tenth Ohio Cavalry, and drove that regiment out of its camp. The Ninth Michigan and Ninety-Second, with their Spencer Carbines and Rifles, repulsed the enemy, and held the cross-roads until the First brigade, that had camped several miles in the rear, had come up and passed through Atkins's Brigade, when the column con- tinued its march, the Ninety-Second covering the rear, and fight- ing all the way with the Rebel cavalry under Wheeler and Hamp- ton. Camped at dark, the Division of Kilpatrick's Cavalry build- ing circular barricades all around the Division. The enemy drove in our pickets before dark, and by ten o'clock at night were encir- cling the entire Division, being in front of our barricades on all . sides. The Rebel artillery was brought up, and opened on the house in which Kilpatrick had his head-quarters; but the Yankee artillery soon silenced the Rebel battery. Wheeler and Hampton had a very much larger force than Kilpatrick ; and, with our pick- ets driven in before dark, and the enemy encircling our barri- caded position, it looked like a battle at daylight, or before, and the men lav behind the barricade resting on their arms. Kil- patrick was furnished with sky-rockets, that, when high in air, would burst, giving different colored lights. Had the infantry columns been near enough, they might have been signaled with the rockets; but they were not near. Kilpatrick commanded the officer in charge of his fireworks to send up a lot of rockets; and. when the officer desired to know what information or message he wished to communicate, Kilpatrick told him he wanted to scare the Rebel cavalry ; to just send up lots of rockets of all colors, and have a regular Fourth of July display. Up the rockets went, a white one, then a blue one, then a red one, then two blue ones. and so on, until an answer came to them from the rear ot the Rebel cavalry. We knew what it meant; it was the scouting party from the Ninth Michigan Cavalry, of Atkins's Brigade, that had been sent toward Wadesboro, and whom we had supposed to be cut off. But the enemy didn't know what it meant. Rockets in front of them, and rockets behind them-it might mean a trap for them. In a little while we could distinctly hear them with- drawing their troops who encircled our position. The fertile gen- ius of Kilpatrick had helped him to avoid a battle, by his regular Fourth of July display of fireworks, so luckily and opportunely answered by the Ninth Michigan scouting party. Marched at daylight, three miles, when the Ninth Michigan scouting party
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