USA > Illinois > The story of the Fifty-fifth regiment Illinois volunteer infantry in the civil war, 1861-1865 > Part 37
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FIFTY-FIFTH ILLINOIS INFANTRY.
ing that the surprise would rout the detachment, and that the main body at the bridge, supposing themselves assailed in the rear, would at once give way.
Skirmishers were sent forward, but when within about thirty rods of the camp were brought to a stand by a mill- race. Observations from this point being reported to Captain Andress, he prudently ordered a withdrawal, his force being too small to give hope of a successful surprise. Sergeant Bigbee, who had command of the skirmishers, could with difficulty restrain his men from firing upon an unsuspecting straggler from the camp, who came out within range of their place of concealment. In their retreat they were discovered by a rebel sentinel, and a great commotion was noticed; but no attempt was made to pursue them. Darkness closing down, after long and tiresome wading through the swamp, all effort to regain the command that night was abandoned. The party found as dry a spot of ground as they could and lay down together, cold, wet and hungry, to await the open- ing of another day. The next morning they rejoined the regiment to find that the Confederates had withdrawn from their intrenchments at the bridge, no doubt hastened by the report from their reserves that the Yankees were crossing the river above. The Seventeenth Corps had crossed at Binnak- er's Bridge, several miles below, during the night.
Intrenchments were now thrown up at the end of each day's march, for the enemy was reported to be in our front in great strength. The North Edisto was reached February 12th. Shilling's Bridge, our intended place of crossing, had been burnt, and riffe-pits strongly manned blocked the road. While the Second brigade engaged the enemy here, General Hazen led the First and Third two miles below. A floating bridge was quickly constructed and a crossing effected, but a swamp was found beyond three-fourths of a mile wide, and flooded to a depth varying from one to five feet. The gen- eral and staff led the way, and the First brigade followed without waiting for orders. For a time short men were at a discount. The Third brigade followed closely, and the troops at the bridge, finding themselves completely flanked, beat a hasty retreat, the Second brigade crossing in time to capture
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APPROACHING COLUMBIA.
over fifty prisoners. The total loss in the division was re- ported as one killed, one drowned and four or five wounded. The Seventeenth Corps at the same hour occupied the little city of Orangeburg. Thus the swamps of South Carolina, which the Confederates boasted were to swallow up Sherman and his army, were safely passed with insignificant loss, and the whole force with all its trains was upon high ground, with the broad highways leading cast to Charleston and north to Columbia open before it. Which way would it turn? The average soldier hardly troubled himself to ask the question. All roads were the same that led to victory.
To illustrate the recklessness of soldiers the following simple incident is given: On the morning of the thirteenth, while the regiment was patiently waiting to take its proper place in the moving column, the writer climbed a tall pine to see which course the advance took after marching through Orangeburg, a mile ahead. One of the men, as a practical joke, began chopping down the tree. An order to "come down out of that" being unheeded, the chopping was per- sisted in, and finally the tree and the game fell to the ground, the latter with an injured foot which made riding in an ambu- lance for a few days a necessity.
Turning towards Columbia the army was brought into more compact arrangement in expectancy of battle, for the Confederate generals had been given ample time to perfect concentration and prepare for a stubborn resistance in de- fence of the state capital. As we drew near Columbia, entering a more densely peopled district, the whole country seemed on fire at times. The inhabitants of that city could plainly see the columns of smoke rapidly coming nearer day by day, and anticipate the retribution about to overwhelm them. The First division encountered a large force of Con- federates at Congaree Creek, south of and about five miles from Columbia. This force was soon pushed back, and was pursued by both the First and Second divisions, which took position with their right resting on the Congaree River, and their left at Congaree Creek. Here earth-works were quickly thrown up. It was dark before the line was fully established, and the camp-fires disclosed its direction to the enemy.
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FIFTY-FIFTH ILLINOIS INFANTRY.
About nine o'clock a rebel battery opened from across the river, completely enfilading the works. In an instant the fires were extinguished, and each company made a right wheel and built traverses for protection, in the shelter of which the men lay until morning. The battery annoyed the line all night, firing shells at regular intervals. Some of Company F had a turkey boiling in a camp-kettle when the battery got the range. A shell struck the kettle, and not a fragment of that, and only a faint smell of turkey, could be afterwards discovered. The language aired upon that occa- sion would create consternation in a Sabbath-school.
At dawn the advanced skirmishers found the Congaree Bridge at Columbia destroyed, and a battery upon the oppo- site shore fired on them. A few cavalry soldiers and numbers of citizens were rushing to and fro in the streets, or watching for the approach of Sherman's army.
The Second division moved at once to the Saluda River, two miles beyond. The bridge at Saluda factory had been burned. Generals Sherman, Howard, Slocum and Logan came up together, and the Fifty-fifth Illinois, with the Thir- tieth Ohio, were ordered to cross the river upon pontoons in the face of the rebels, push across to the Broad River, and save the bridge over that stream, if possible. The order was executed with a will. The enemy were driven on the double- quick over the two miles between the Saluda and the Broad, and across the covered bridge; but the planks had been tur- pentined, and a match set the bridge in a blaze instantly, which prevented the Fifty-fifth from being the first of the Union army to enter Columbia. During the charge over the peninsula, one of the regiment is said by his comrades to have passed through a smoke-house that stood in his way, and to have come out with a ham upon his bayonet, without losing a step. Sergeant Mills of Company A ran a Confed- erate cavalry-man into such close quarters that he dropped his saddle-bags filled with corn-bread and boiled sweet pota- tocs, which came very opportunely in the dearth of rations then existing.
During the night pontoon bridges were thrown over both the Saluda and Broad, and on the morning of February 17th
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BURNING OF COLUMBIA.
the army marched triumphantly into humiliated Columbia. The Fifteenth Corps had the advance. The city was soon filled with thousands of straggling soldiers, who seemed to believe that the judgment day for South Carolina had arrived, and that they were ordained to pass and execute sentence upon her capital. Before the army entered the city bales of cotton were burning in several places along the chief streets. The wind rose during the evening to a gale, scattering flocks of smoking cotton far and wide. By these, aided doubtless by the incendiary matches of escaped prisoners and inebri- ated soldiers, the central portion of Columbia was fired and rapidly swept away in storm-driven flames. An immense amount of supplies and munitions of war of all kinds had been collected here for safety and distribution. Some of these had already been destroyed by Hampton's cavalry to prevent them from falling into Union hands. What remained that could not at once be utilized by the army were burned, thrown into the river, or blown up with the arsenal. The beautiful, unfinished capitol was not seriously injured, although the stately facade will long bear a scar or two made by De Gress's Battery from the other side of the river, in the first salute paid to the Confederate flag floating over it.
The scenes of that night were the most horrible of the kind we had seen during the whole war. The fire spread in all directions from many centres. Shifting winds scattered the burning brands from roof to roof, and from one part of the city to another. Brigades were ordered out to fight the flames, and the generals used their best efforts to this end; but for a long time all labor was fruitless. The seal of de- struction had been set upon the city, and it was doomed. Hundreds of the terror-stricken inhabitants were running hither and thither to save themselves and what few things they could wrest from the fire-fiend. Women and children left roofless were seeking shelter with wringing hands, cries of anguish, and faces paled with mortal fear. About forty blocks, including all the chief business portion of the place, and the best of the private residences, were entirely wiped out. Columbia was a beautiful city, and its destruction was a severe blow to its inhabitants and to the state. The people
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began more fully to realize that their cause was lost, and their property at the mercy of a long-suffering and victorious army.
Little comment need be made respecting the manner of, and responsibility for, the burning of Columbia. It only paid the just penalty for its treason. It was among the first to cry out for war, and at length reaped its reward. If, as sol- diers mostly believed, the conflagration was in some measure due to the revengeful action of scores of escaped prisoners, fresh from the terrible sufferings needlessly inflicted by their Southern jailers, few that saw the condition of these inen will harshly blame them. The chief officers of the Union army made every exertion to stay the flames.
Among all the gloomy and distressing surroundings shone out the smiling faces of the colored people. The welcome given to General Sherman by the negroes was singularly touching. As has been told by a historian of the campaign, they greeted his arrival with exclamations of unbounded joy. "Tank de Almighty God," they said, "Mister Sherman has come at last. We knew it; we prayed for de day, and de good Jesus heard our prayers. Mr. Sherman has come wid his company." Groups of negroes lined the streets and sent up cheers of welcome to the passing column. They seemed to realize that the destruction of their masters' power was their own salvation. While the whites were crest-fallen, and plainly showed their distressed state of mind, the blacks were joyous and exultant. They believed that the day of jubilee had come. An old colored couple occupied a small building which was miraculously left in the heart of the burnt district. They knew that the Almighty had specially pre- served them, and no one was disposed to dispute this when viewing the surroundings.
All the railroads leading into Columbia were soon com- pletely destroyed. This work was done, as in many instances before, by distributing the troops along the road-bed and assigning a portion to each regiment. Two sets of men, using a rail, pried up the track; others piled the ties with the rails in the centre, the ends projecting several feet from the pile; fire was started, and when the rails were so hot that the
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ON THE WAY TO CHERAW.
ends dropped, short levers with couplings fastened to them were applied by two or three men to each end of a rail, one party twisting one way and the other in the opposite direc- tion. In this manner cach rail for several feet in the centre was made to look like a cork-screw. Sometimes rails were bent around the trees near the track. These were called Jeff Davis's neck-ties. One regiment could thus destroy several miles in a day.
The army resumed the march on February 20th, and reached the Wateree River on the 22d, whence a small force of the enemy was dispersed, a pontoon bridge laid, and the troops safely crossed. The regiment was in front on pioneer duty on the twenty-third, but the country being broken and the roads good it had little work to do.
On February 24th we passed through Camden of revolu- tionary fame, where a lot of old whiskey and bottled wine was captured. Some of the last had seals over the corks dated 1832. It had rained all day, the men's clothing was completely soaked, and they went into bivouac weary and down-hearted. A copious inward application of the captured juice of the grape counteracted fatigue, drove away trouble, and cheerfulness reigned throughout the camp. The regi- ment acted as rear guard on the twenty-fifth, and with the Thirtieth Ohio encamped at Kelly's Bridge over Lynch Creek, while the rest of the brigade advanced six miles to a bridge higher up the stream. We joined it the following morning, then countermarched to the same ground we had occupied the night before; all of which extra fatigue was occasioned by a miscarriage of orders. Some of the Fifty- fifth foragers were missing for three days, but returned with a lot of mules and more wet weather antidotes, which were greatly needed, as it rained daily. These rains so raised the creek that the army did not move until March ist. The streams and bottom lands for a long distance had to be bridged, when the water subsided enough to permit it. Be- fore all had crossed, the water had fallen so that most of the bridging was removed from the road.
We reached Cheraw on the Great Pedee during the fourth. There had been a camp rumor that thirty thousand Confed-
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FIFTY-FIFTH ILLINOIS INFANTRY.
erate troops were awaiting us here, prepared to obstinately defend the place, and that General Lee had said that Sherman must be defeated at Cheraw; yet a few hundred foragers took it. It was also reported that as the army neared the place General Sherman sent a message to General Logan, directing him to halt his command and let the Twentieth Corps occupy the town, as that division of the army had not yet had the honor of taking any important point during the campaign. General Logan replied by messenger: "I have halted my corps, but my bummers took Cheraw yesterday." A large amount of merchandise and munitions of war had been accumulated here, having been brought hither from Charleston at the beginning of the campaign, when Sherman was supposed to be moving upon that city. The enemy made such haste to escape from our advance that everything was left intact. Among the captures here were twenty-five cannon, chiefly twenty-pounder rifled guns, from which a salute was fired in honor of the second inauguration of Lincoln.
Fayetteville was captured after a sharp skirmish, March 12th. Here was a supply depot of great importance to the enemy. The old United States arsenal had been enlarged and used to its utmost capacity in the manufacture of ord- nance stores, but everything was abandoned uninjured. The fleet-footed defenders, escaping across Cape Fear River, burned the bridge behind them. The pontoons were soon brought to the front, and the army was not long detained. The regiment went out with a forage train on the thirteenth, returning at nine o'clock at night, after a march of thirty miles. Boats came up the river from Wilmington, opening communications, but brought few supplies, and the army was much in need of provisions and clothing, particularly of shoes. A large number of refugees, who had sadly encumbered the army since our leaving Columbia, were sent down the river on the returning boats. These unfortunates, mostly colored, had by thousands followed the army with a confidence that was child-like. They were ready to do anything or go any- where, as Sherman directed.
At Fayetteville, as at other places where the troops had
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AT FAYETTEVILLE.
been delayed a sufficient time, the train teams were inspected and all worthless mules and horses were replaced by better ones captured from the inhabitants. The rejected animals were corralled on the banks of a river, and a detail of soldiers surrounded and shot them, many falling into the stream. Thousands were disposed of in this way to prevent them from becoming useful to the Confederacy. Thus the war was prosecuted in every way to cripple the enemy. It was a campaign of obliteration.
Every division train was also inspected by a regiment, and all goods found therein of a nature by order forbidden to be carried in the wagons were taken out. Sometimes books, furniture, tobacco, and all kinds of household goods would be found. The tobacco and all catables would be issued to the troops, and the other articles were destroyed. This work created a good deal of merriment for the inspectors, but chagrin and wrath in the train men, who often lost trophies of war which they highly prized.
The rain poured down in torrents during March 15th and 16th, flooding the country, here a continuous swamp. A part of the Twentieth and Fourteenth Corps had a severe fight on the sixteenth at Averysborough, about thirty miles south of Raleigh, and finally drove from intrenchments a force of ten thousand Confederates. The bad roads and the presence of the enemy in force on front and flank made foraging very unproductive. The activity of the rebels indicated that Gen- cral Joseph Johnston, who was now in command, would stand for a test battle at the next favorable position. The advance of the Fourteenth Corps was attacked March 19th by a superior force of the enemy. A heavy engagement was soon in progress, and lasted all day, resulting finally in the enemy's repulse with severe loss. The right wing of the army was marching on a parallel road six miles away. Our division remained in camp until ten o'clock in the afternoon to allow the other divisions of the corps to pass. We had made eight miles by midnight, when we were countermarched and hastened to the assistance of the left wing, making eight- ven miles by six o'clock in the morning, at which hour we joined the right of the Fourteenth Corps.
Our regimental foragers encountered a large force of cav-
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FIFTY-FIFTH ILLINOIS INFANTRY.
alry and lost two men captured. Lewis Winget of Company F was also taken prisoner while venturing too far from the column of march. We moved forward at noon two miles through a continuous swamp, the Sixth Missouri and Thirti- eth Ohio in advance, deployed as skirmishers. They drove the rebels into their works, sustaining some loss. The Fifty- fifth relieved the Sixth Missouri at dusk, and immediately began a lively skirmish. Firing was kept up more or less vigorously all night, the lines being in close proximity, the Confederates posted behind intrenchments.
Joseph Moorehead of Company G was here killed. He, with Lingenfelter of Company A, were together upon picket, and saw a flash of light as if from a lantern. Moorchead said that if it appeared again he should fire at it. He was advised not to do so, but, as good as his word, he shot at it the next time he saw it. Simultaneously with the flash of his musket came the report of a rebel rifle, and he fell dead at his comrade's feet. Moorehead was one of the youngest men in the regiment, being but twenty years of age when slain. He had served his country faithfully for nearly four years, and at this our last battle he heroically lay down his life. Captain Giles F. Hand, who had charge of the picket line, was slightly wounded in the head. It was a severe ex- perience for the men; they had marched all the night previ- ous, their rations were exhausted, and the foragers were unable to supply them because of the presence of the enemy in great force throughout the country around.
The sergeant-major, with a detail of men and the pack animals, was sent back through the swamp to find division headquarters, report the situation, and procure ammunition and axes. It was nearly dawn before the detail returned to the regiment, having marched several miles to accomplish its errand. The regiment was relieved in the morning, when the men endeavored to take a little rest. During March 21st the right wing got into position, and the Seventeenth Corps became hotly engaged. The same day there was skirmish- ing or hard fighting from extreme right to left. Both wings by forward movements upon the flanks. gradually began to envelope the enemy's position.
In our front there was only sharp skirmishing by a strong
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BATTLE OF BENTONVILLE.
picket line. When volunteers were called for to re-enforce the pickets, twenty of the Fifty-fifth instantly stepped for- ward, and were soon hotly engaged. Aaron Lingenfelter, one of the number, was severely wounded in the right shoul- der. He was the last of the regiment hit by Confederate bullet in battle. He still lives, a great sufferer from the grave injury then received.
Lieutenant Ridenour had charge of the brigade pickets during that night, and in posting them encountered the rebels; but the dense darkness admonished all to keep quiet until the lines were established, when courtesies ended in a brisk fire from both sides, which was kept up in order to prevent the men from going to sleep, for they had been marching or on continuous duty for three days and nights.
The enemy had tried their strength sufficiently in the effort to put a period to Sherman's progress, and were glad to take advantage of night and steal away. When the morning of the twenty-third opened, Johnston was retreating towards Raleigh. The army took up the march on the twenty-third, and on the twenty-fourth it encamped in the vicinity of Goldsborough, on the New Berne road, to rest awhile and enjoy the fruits of the most memorable campaign of its kind in modern warfare. In the fifty days since leaving Beaufort the regiment had marched five hundred and sixteen miles, and eight hundred and fifty miles since starting from Atlanta. There had not during this period been a single death among its number from disease --- a remarkable fact considering the hard service. At this camp several of those left behind in hospital when the march to the sea began, rejoined the command.
Not only had the campaign ended gloriously, but the bat- tle losses had been extremely light. A wide expanse of country had been scorched by the blight that always attends the tread of an invading army. It should be noted here that the devastation so conspicuous while in South Carolina for the most part ceased after the boundary of North Carolina was passed. General Sherman in his report says: "We have traversed the country from Savannah to Goldsborough with an average breadth of forty miles, consuming all the forage, cattle, hogs, sheep, poultry, cured meats, corn meal, etc.
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FIFTY-FIFTH ILLINOIS INFANTRY.
The public enemy, instead of drawing supplies from that region to feed his armies, will be compelled to send provis- ions from other quarters to feed the inhabitants." The very vitals of the Confederacy had been pierced through and through, and its days were already numbered. Its army could not be held together longer, and it only required one more blow to break it in pieces. That blow was soon given.
March 27th a detail from the Fifty-fifth went out as guard to a forage train. The party was attacked by a superior force of rebels. L. B. Mohler of K, attempting to escape, was fired upon and fell from his horse. Sergeant William Constantine of I, and Corporal J. A. Cameron of D, were captured not far away, and saw afterwards a group of Con- federates, one of whom had on Mohler's boots, another his coat, a third his hat, and a fourth his pantaloons. They then believed that Mohler was killed, and as he has never been heard from since, it is probable that he was slain -- the last of the regiment to fall by a rebel bullet. These were the final war casualties in the Fifty-fifth, ending a long list which few regiments in the Union army can equal. Constantine and Cameron were soon exchanged, and reported to the regiment.
The entire loss in the Fifty-fifth during the campaigns from Atlanta to Goldsborough was two killed, two wounded, and five captured. The aggregate effective strength of the regiment on April Ist, 1865, was one hundred and forty-three. Total aggregate present and absent, two hundred and thirty- eight. This was a small remnant of the full battalion that left Chicago in 1861. A large proportion of the missing filled soldiers' graves in ten different states. The flag of the Fifty-fifth was always found at the front, and no demands, however severe the work might be, were made upon the regi- ment to which it did not respond cheerfully. Its brigade and division were frequently chosen for arduous duties which were always performed-such duties as only the bravest of the brave are competent to achieve. The regiment had grown weak in numbers, but was yet strong in character. Little discipline was exacted by the officers in the latter part of the war, for every man could be relied upon to know and to do his duty at all times. Long association had made us one family.
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