USA > Massachusetts > History of the Fifty-fourth regiment of Masachusetts volunteer infantry, 1863-1865 > Part 21
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It was a busy time, our short stay there, for returns were in arrears, and the books had to be written up. Clothing was issued and drills resumed. The regiment furnished picket details in proper turn for the brigade. It was delightful weather, the gardens already blooming with camellias, japonicas, and Cape jessamine. On the 18th, the Fifty-fourth with the whole division was inspected by Brig .- Gen. Seth Williams, U. S. A. Our regiment was in
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excellent condition, and the colored brigade made a good appearance, numbering twenty-three hundred men.
It seemed that the government, having paid us once in the two years' service, was allowing that to suffice, for six months' pay was due at this time. The officers were penni- less, and had to send North for money or borrow it to subsist upon. Sherman's victorious progress, Sheridan's brilliant successes, Lee's inability to hold back Grant, and the whole seaboard fallen, made it manifest that the war was virtually over. The Fifty-fourth then expected but a brief period of garrison duty, followed by a homeward voyage, without again hearing a hostile shot; but a new field of service was before them, for after a review of the troops on the 25th by General Grover at " The Plain," orders came for the Fifty-fourth and One Hundred and Second United States Colored Troops to proceed to Georgetown, S. C.
The following changes took place among the officers at Savannah, - Lieutenant Emerson re-joined ; Lieutenant Knowles resigned at the North; Captains Emilio and Homans were mustered out at the expiration of their personal terms of service ; Lieutenant Chipman was pro- moted captain of Company D ; Lieutenant Duren, still at the North, was appointed adjutant.
On the 27th Lieutenant-Colonel Hooper embarked with the right wing on the steamer "W. W. Coit," accompanied by Colonel Hallowell. The same day Major Pope with the left wing boarded the steamer " Canonicus." After getting to sea, both transports touched at Hilton Head and then went on to Charleston, where Colonel Hallowell was directed to report to General Hatch. Bad weather and the want of coal prevented sailing thence until the morning of the 31st, when the voyage was resumed.
LIEUT. ALEXANDER JOHNSTON.
LIEUT. HENRY W. LITTLEFIELD.
LIEFT. DANIEL G. SPEAR.
LIEUT. ALFRED HI. KNOWLES.
LIEUT. FREDERICK E. ROGERS.
CHAPTER XV.
POTTER'S RAID.
W HILE at Columbia; S. C., General Sherman sent and destroyed the railroad to Kingsville and the Wateree Bridge. From Cheraw he broke the railroad trestles toward Florence as far as Darlington, and the enemy burned the railroad bridge over the Pedee. Between Florence and Sumterville was a vast amount of rolling- stock thus hemmed in. Sherman, considering that this should be destroyed before the roads could be repaired, and that the food supplies in that section should be exhausted, wrote General Gillmore from Fayetteville, N. C., directing him to execute this work. He suggested that Gillmore's force be twenty-five hundred men, lightly equipped, to move from Georgetown or the Santee Bridge, that the troops be taken from Charleston or Savannah, and added, -
" I don't feel disposed to be over-generous, and should not hesitate to burn Charleston, Savannah, and Wilmington, or either of them, if the garrisons were needed. : . . Those cars and locomotives should be destroyed if to do it costs you five hundred men."
These instructions caused the concentration of a selected force at Georgetown, of which the Fifty-fourth formed a part. The resultant movement, called "Potter's Raid," during which almost the last encounters of the Rebellion occurred, is little known, as it took place when momentous military events were taking place elsewhere.
19
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Georgetown was the port of one of the richest regions in the South, and until our vessels were stationed off its entrance, a resort of blockade-runners. There were de- cayed wharves, regular streets, some fine residences, public buildings, and the hall of the Winyaw Indigo Society in the place. Up the Waccamaw some fifteen miles was "The Oaks," the plantation of Governor Alston, whose wife, the beautiful and accomplished Theodosia, only daughter of Aaron Burr, was lost at sea on the pilot-boat " Patriot," with all on board.
Major Pope and the left wing of the Fifty-fourth on the " Canonicus " entered Winyaw Bay, ran up the river some eleven miles past Battery White and other works, and dis- embarked on March 31, the first troops to arrive. The wing marched to the outskirts and camped in a field where the right wing soon joined. Most of the troops for the expedition having arrived, on April 2, General Gillmore reviewed them in a large ploughed field. The " Provisional Division," under Gen. Edward E. Potter, was organized, composed of the First Brigade, commanded by Col. P. P. Brown, One Hundred and Fifty-seventh New York, of the One Hundred and Fifty-seventh New York, a detach- ment of the Fifty-sixth New York, and the Twenty-fifth and One Hundred and Seventh Ohio ; and the Second Brigade under Colonel Hallowell, composed of the Fifty- fourth Massachusetts, eight companies of the Thirty-sec- ond United States Colored Troops, and five companies of the One Hundred and Second United States Colored Troops. There were also detachments of the First New York Engineers and Fourth Massachusetts Cavalry, and two guns of Battery B, Third New York Artillery. It was a total force of about twenty-five hundred men.
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Our regiment marched with six hundred and seventy-five enlisted men and the following officers: Lieutenant-Colonel Hooper, Major Pope, Surgeon Briggs, Acting Adjutant Whitney, and Acting Quartermaster Bridgham ; Company F, Captain Bridge ; Company C, Lieutenant Spear ; Com- pany B, Lieutenant Hallett ; Company H, Captain Tucker and Lieutenant Stevens ; Company A, Lieutenant Rogers ; Company D, Captain Chipman and Lieutenant Swails : Company G, Captain Appleton ; Company E, Lieutenant Emerson, commanding, and Lieutenant Cousens ; Com- pany I, Captain Howard ; Company K, Lieutenant Reed. Lieutenants Newell and Joy took part on Colonel Hal- lowell's staff. Lieutenant Leonard was directed to remain in charge of the camp. A pioneer corps of twenty men was placed under Sergeant Wilkins of Company D for this field service.
April 5, at 8 A. M., Potter's force moved from George- town, the First Brigade in advance, over the centre or Sampit road for three miles, when the column took another to the right leading to Kingstree. Marching through a heavily timbered country and encountering no hostiles, the division compassed nineteen miles, camping at nightfall near Johnson's Swamp. Hallowell's brigade had the ad- vance on the 6th, preceded by the cavalry, the close, warm day causing some exhaustion and straggling. The column entered a better region with rolling ground, where foraging parties found good supplies and draught animals. Major Webster of the cavalry encountered a few of the enemy's mounted men, who skirmished lightly, and toward even- ing exchanged shots with them at Seven-Mile Bridge on the right, which the foe burned. Camp was made at Thorntree Swamp after a nineteen-mile march, with Kingstree across the Black River, seven miles to our right.
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An early start was made on the 7th toward the north- west, through a more open and settled country, containing still more abundant supplies, which our foragers secured, but, by orders, burned all cotton and mills. Light troops of the enemy, easily dislodged, kept in front of the column. Potter reached the Northeastern Railroad that day and broke the track for several miles, and the One Hundred and Second . United States Colored Troops, sent to the right, destroyed the Kingstree Bridge across the Black River, exchanging shots with a small force.
Captain Tucker, with Companies A and H of the Fifty- fourth, was sent to Eppes's Bridge on the Black River at about 3 P. M. That officer furnishes the following account of what befell him : -
" Leaving the main column, we filed to the right, marching by that flank nearly or quite a mile. I had previously mounted old Cyclops [a horse of Lieutenant Ritchie's, who was not on the raid], and put on as many 'general' airs as my general health and anatomy would endure. Great clouds of smoke were now coming up over the woods directly in our front. Stevens deployed one platoon on the left of the road, holding the other for support. Rogers disposed of his company on the right in the same way. Advancing, we soon found the ground low and overflowed with water. The men were wading knee- deep. We had not gone far before we received the fire from the enemy. The fire was returned. We advanced in sight of the bridge and easy musket-range, when the enemy abandoned the temporary works they had improvised from the flooring of the bridge on the opposite side of the river, making quiek their retreat and leaving behind the heavy timbering of the work in flames. During the interchange of shots Rogers and two men of his company were wounded. We did not or could not cross the river. I remember well of being sufficiently near to give them a bit of my Yankee eloquence and calling attention to their
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nervousness in not being able to shoot even old 'Cyclops.' Our object being accomplished, we started for and joined the regiment at Mill Branch about two o'clock next morning. My impression is that the force opposed to me was a company, or part of a company, of dismounted cavalry."
Privates J. C. Johnson and J. H. White, of Company H, were the men wounded. When Lieutenant Rogers was disabled, Lieutenant Stevens took command of Company A, which he retained until his death. After a march of fifteen miles the Fifty-fourth camped at Mill Branch.
April 8, the column moved over fair roads through a wooded country, with a bright sky overhead, our advance sighting the enemy now and then on the flanks and front. For four miles the course was westerly ; then, in conse- quence of a false report that a bridge in front near Ox Swamp was burned, to the left five miles, on a road running toward the Santee. Then turning again to the right northwesterly until the road of the morning was again entered, it was pursued toward Manning. On the edge of that town our cavalry had a slight skirmish, driving out a small force. Manning, a town of a few hundred inhabi- tants, was occupied at dark, after an eighteen-mile march that day. General Potter established himself at Dr. Hagen's house. Major Culp, Twenty-fifth Ohio, Colonel Cooper, One Hundred and Seventh Ohio, and some soldier- printers took possession of " The Clarendon Banner" newspaper office, and changing the title to read "The Clarendon Banner of Freedom," issued an edition which was distributed. In the evening Colonel Hallowell, receiv- ing orders to build a bridge across Pocotaligo Swamp, moved his force to the river of that name, and prosecuted the work to completion by midnight.
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At 1.30 A. M. on the 9th the Second Brigade broke camp, marched to and crossed the Pocotaligo Bridge, and advanced two miles, where it bivouacked in readiness for attack. At daybreak on a rainy morning the troops moved toward Sumterville, through a fine region with numerous planta- tions, from which the negroes flocked to the force by hun- dreds. The train had grown to a formidable array of vehicles, augmented every hour. During the morning the enemy's light troops fell back readily after exchanging shots. Information was received that the enemy was to dispute our progress at Dingle's mill on Turkey Creek four miles from Sumterville, with five hundred men, chiefly militia, and three guns. A mile from Dingle's the division halted, and a reconnoissance was made. Hallowell's brigade was then sent to the left and rear of the enemy's position ; but the guide furnished proving incompetent, the brigade returned to the main force, arriving after the action was over. At 2 p. M. the skirmishers of the First Brigade pushed toward the swamp, the enemy holding earthworks beyond a burned bridge, and opening with artillery as we came in range. The Twenty-fifth and One Hundred and Seventh Ohio, on either side of the road, moved forward to a dike on the border of the swamp, from which a musketry fire was maintained. At the same time Potter sent the One Hundred and Fifty-seventh and Fifty-sixth New York to turn the enemy's left, which was done, the Rebels re- tiring, leaving their dead, wounded, and some prisoners, besides the three guns, in our hands.
Our force then crossed the creek, the Twenty-fifth Ohio . forcing the enemy into the woods, where they made another stand along a fence skirting the timber. Upon the arrival of the One Hundred and Seventh Ohio, the force advanced
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and the enemy fled, closing the action, in which our loss was small. The division then moved to Sumterville, arriv- ing at dark, after a march of eighteen miles that day.
Sumterville, on the Manchester and Wilmington Railroad, boasted some good dwellings, two female seminaries, and the usual public buildings. Here the soldier-printers issued a loyal edition of the "Sumter Watchman." Every one was in fine spirits at having gained the railroad without serious opposition, for the rolling-stock was known to be below on the Camden Branch. Another cause of exultation was the news that Richmond, Mobile, and Selma were in our hands, in honor of which a salute of thirteen shots was fired from the captured guns. During the 10th, the Thirty-Second United States Colored Troops moved along the railroad to Maysville, where some seven cars and a bridge were destroyed. The One Hundred and Second United States Colored Troops went at the same time toward Manchester about three miles, burning a long cov- ered railroad-bridge, four cars, two hundred bales of cot- ton, a gin-house, and a mill filled with corn. Our regiment, from its bivouac in the town, sent details which destroyed three locomotives, fifteen cars, and the large and thor- oughly equipped railroad machine-shop in the place.
Gen. A. S. Hartwell with the Fifty-fifth Massachusetts, Fifty-fourth New York, and two guns of the Third New York Artillery, from Charleston, reached Eutaw Springs on April 10, by way of Monk's Corner and Pineville, to co-operate with General Potter. An effort was made to open communication from there by Maj. William Nutt. Fifty-fifth Massachusetts, with two companies of his regi- ment, which was unsuccessful, for Potter was thirty miles distant. Hartwell's foree returned to Charleston on the
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12th, with over one thousand negrocs and many wagons and draught animals.
Potter resumed the march April 11, leaving the Twenty- fifth Ohio as a covering force for the division, the large number of contrabands, and the immense train. The Fifty- fourth passed through Sumterville singing John Brown's hymn in chorus, and with the brigade, reached Manchester after a march of twelve miles. A mile and a half beyond that town the other regiments of the brigade bivouacked toward evening on the Statesburg road ; the First Brigade moved on a mile or so farther, camping in a fine grove on the Singleton plantation.
At Manchester the Fifty-fourth was detached, moving along the railroad about six miles and to a point near Wateree Junction. A reconnoissance made by Lieutenant- Colonel Hooper resulted in the discovery at the junction of cars, water-tanks, and several locomotives, - one of which had steam up. It was not known whether there was any armed force there or not; and it was important to seize the locomotive before it could be reversed and the rolling-stock run back. Night had set in. Some sharpshooters were posted to cover an advance and disable any train-men. Then our column, led by Lieutenant Swails, First Sergeant Welch, of Company F, and eighteen picked men, rushed over an intervening trestle for the junction. Swails was the first man of all, and jumped into the engine-cab where, while waving his hat in triumph, he received a shot in his right arm from our sharpshooters, who in the darkness probably mistook him for the engineer. The train-hands, some fifteen in number, fled down the railroad embank- ment into the swamp.
There were five engines and thirteen cars, besides tanks,
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a turn-table, and a large quantity of finished timber found at Wateree Junction. Learning from a contraband that there was more rolling-stock to the westward, after first burning the trestle-bridge on the Camden Branch, so that the enemy could not interfere suddenly, Captain Tucker with two companies was sent in search of it. Shortly after, Lieutenant-Colonel Hooper started on the return, leaving Major Pope with a detachment at the junction. Later the One Hundred and Seventh Ohio came there from the direc- tion of Camden along the railroad.
Captain Tucker proceeded some three miles, and secured three locomotives and thirty-five cars without opposition. Steam being up in one engine, to return more rapidly he embarked his men, and himself acting as engineer, ran back until he came in sight of the trestle, which we had fired, supposing he would march back. Captain Tucker thus narrates the sequel : -
" Knowing that any delay would be dangerous, and that life and death hung in the balance, I crowded on all steam, and we crossed the bridge through flame and smoke in safety, but with not a moment to spare, for scarcely had we accomplished the passage when it tottered and fell, a heap of blazing ruins."
While coupling cars, Sergeant-Major Wilson and Private George Jarvis of Company K were injured. Lieutenant Swails, with his wounded arm in a sling, assisted by Lieu- tenant Whitney, took charge of the leading engine and train and proceeded slowly away. The Fifty-fourth men and One Hundred and Seventh Ohio embarked on the cars brought in, Major Pope helping Captain Tucker with his engine. The destruction of all property at the junction was effected, and then the trestle leading toward Man-
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chester was burned after crossing it. As progress was slow with the heavy second train, to lighten it cars were dropped from time to time and destroyed, until at last the engine alone proceeded with the injured men, while the troops marched. Lieutenant-Colonel Hooper's force was joined on the roadside. It was the hope to run the engines and remaining cars to Manchester ; but a flue had blown out of Lieutenant Swails's locomotive, so they like the others were burned with the army supplies in them, estimated at a total value of $300,000.
When this was completed, and rest taken, the Fifty- fourth moved on, re-joining the Second Brigade at 7 A. M. on the 12th, after marching twenty-five miles and working all night. Sergeant Wilkins of Company D, relieved from charge of the pioneers by Sergeant Dorsey, of Company I, was appointed acting sergeant-major on the 12th. At 11 A. M. the regiment with the brigade moved forward and joined the First Brigade at Singleton's plantation. From there, on that day, Capt. Frank Goodwin of Potter's staff, accompanied by Lieutenant Newell of Hallowell's, with the Thirty-second United States Colored Troops as escort, took the wounded, several thousand contrabands, and the long train to Wright's Bluff on the Santee, twenty-five miles distant. They found some of our light draught vessels in the river, on which the wounded and the women and chil- dren were placed. Captain Goodwin distributed some two hundred captured muskets to the men and sent them overland to Georgetown.
From Singleton's on the 13th the One Hundred and Fifty- seventh New York went to Statesburg, thirteen miles dis- tant, where it destroyed some stores. :
The next day the Twenty-fifth Ohio was sent to gain the
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rear of the enemy on the Statesburg road. Throughout the 13th and 14th the remainder of the division was sta- tionary. Toward evening of the 14th some twenty of the enemy made demonstrations against our Fifty-fourth pickets, and later, Lieutenant-Colonel Hooper, with the right wing of the regiment, reconnoitred for two miles toward Statesburg, but found no enemy, and returned.
Everything was ready for an early advance on the 15th, but it was not made until 3 P. M., when the Thirty-second United States Colored Troops having returned from Wright's Bluff, the division moved from Singleton's. It rained in the afternoon and evening. That morning the Twenty-fifth Ohio, ordered to Statesburg to await the di- vision, encountered the enemy and drove them to Round Hill, where they made a stand, causing the Twenty-fifth some loss in repulsing them from there. Potter coming up with the main force, the One Hundred and Seventh Ohio was sent with six companies of the Twenty-fifth to engage the enemy as a demonstration, while the rest of the division, taking a road five miles from Singleton's, lead- ing to the right, moved to flank the enemy collected on the main road. Potter marched until midnight, making twelve miles, and bivouacked near Jenning's Swamp and Provi- dence Post-Office. The force on the main road after dark withdrew, joining the main column.
April 16, the march was resumed, the colored brigade leading, and Providence Post-Office was left on the right hand. With good weather the route was through a hilly and rolling country sparsely settled with poor whites. A halt was made for dinner at Bradford Springs ; and when the column again proceeded, the enemy's skirmishers were encountered, who gave way readily, but kept up a running
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fight all the afternoon. Private Lewis Clark, of Company C, was killed, and Private Levi Jackson, of the same company, wounded that day while foraging. The skirmishers of the Thirty-second United States Colored Troops killed one · Rebel and captured another. By sunset the colored brigade had advanced sixteen miles and camped at Spring Hill.
On the 17th the last forward march of the division was made. It moved at 6.30 A. M. toward Camden, the First Brigade leading, the foe yielding until we came to swampy ground, where works were discovered. There the First Brigade fronted the enemy ; and a part of the Twenty-fifth Ohio flanked the position, when the Rebels retired. The Second Brigade was also sent to the left for the same pur- pose, but its aid was not required. No further opposition was made ; and Potter's force entered Camden, the Second Brigade following the First, coming in at dark. Camden was historic ground, for there Gates was defeated by Corn- wallis in 1780, and Greene by Lord Rawdon at Hobkirk's Hill near by in 1781. Sherman's Fifteenth Corps entered the town Feb. 24, 1865, after some resistance, when the rail- road bridge, depot, and much cotton and tobacco were de- stroyed. It was ascertained that the rolling-stock had been sent below during our advance from Singleton's, making success assured, though fighting was expected.
Potter turned back from Camden toward Statesburg at 7 A. M. on the 18th. Our main body moved along the pike ; the One Hundred and Seventh Ohio on the railroad with only slight resistance until we came to Swift Creek, after marching some seven miles. There the enemy held earth- works running through a swamp and over the higher ground beyond the creek. Gen. P. M. B. Young commanded the Confederates, his force consisting of four hundred men of
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Lewis's Tennessee, and three hundred and fifty of Hannon's Alabama brigades of mounted men, and Hamilton's field battery.
General Potter, demonstrating with his main body along Swift Creek in front, sent the Fifty-fourth, One Hundred and Second United States Colored Troops, and One Hun- dred and Seventh Ohio to attempt crossings down the stream to the right, under the guidance of a native. In this flanking movement Lieutenant-Colonel Hooper led the Fifty-fourth along the creek over ploughed fields bordering the wood of the swamp, with Company F, under Captain Bridge, skirmishing. From contrabands it was learned that the swamp was impassable nearer than Boykin's Mills, some two miles from the road. When in the vicinity of the mills, the enemy's scouts were seen falling back.
Leading from a small clearing, a road was found ap- parently running in the proper direction, and our skir- mishers were again ordered forward. Just then Warren Morehouse, of Company E, who had been scouting in the woods to the left, came to Major Pope, saying, " Major, there's a lot of Rebs through there in a barn." The regi- ment was moving on ; and deeming quick action essential. Major Pope faced the left company about and led it toward the point indicated through the woods; and as we ap- proached, the enemy retired across the stream. This com- pany was left at that point temporarily, and the major hastened to rejoin the regiment.
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