"When I go through South Carolina, it will be one of the most horrible things in the history of the world. The devil himself couldn't restrain my men in that state."
~Union Major General William T. Sherman, 1865
On Wednesday, February 1, 1865, Union Major General William Tecumseh Sherman invaded the State of South Carolina in what would be referred to as the Carolinas Campaign, the last major push of the War Between The States.
Setting out from Savannah, Georgia, Sherman (known affectionately by his soldiers as "Uncle Billy") advanced towards Columbia, the capitol of South Carolina with his 60,000 man army. The Union Army was divided into three main groups: the Army of the Tennessee, under Major General Oliver O. Howard, the Army of the Ohio under Major General John M. Schofield, and the Army of Georgia, under Major General Henry W. Slocum.
 |
| Union Major General Hugh Judson Kilpatrick, Sherman's cavalry commander during the Carolinas Campaign. |
Prior to the invasion of the Carolinas, Kilpatrick told his cavalry corps: "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!'" It was also rumored that Kilpatrick himself reportedly spent $5,000 in Savannah on Lucifer matches for his troopers in anticipation for the destruction they would reek on the State of South Carolina -- the first State to declare independence in December of 1860.
As they had in Georgia, Kilpatrick and his men would leave a scorched swath across the South Carolina lowcountry, burning down homes, farms, mills, and churches in addition to viable military targets like railroads.
By the end of January 1865, the invasion of South Carolina had begun. As he had in Georgia, Sherman marched his armies in multiple directions simultaneously, confusing the scattered Confederate defenders as to his first true objective. Half of Sherman's command under Howard -- who had been sent to Beaufort by ship from Savannah -- began marching toward Charleston. The other wing of Sherman's command under Slocum moved up the Georgia side of the Savannah River crossing into South Carolina at Sister's Ferry on Thursday, January 19th moving toward Augusta, Georgia, where the Confederacy's key gunpowder mills were located. Kilpatrick's cavalry was with this wing. Sherman's goal was to keep the Confederates guessing whether Augusta or Charleston would be attacked, while his true objective was to march between them and capture Columbia, the capitol of South Carolina.
Sherman's opponents on the Confederate side had considerably fewer men. The primary force in the Carolinas was the battered Army of Tennessee, now once again under the command of General Joseph E. Johnston following the dismissal of General John Bell Hood by Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Davis was not in favor of Johnston, however it was the recommendation of General Robert E. Lee that convinced him to restore Johnston to command of the Army of Tennessee. His strength was recorded in mid-March at 9,000 men and just over 15,000 by mid-April. The army was organized into three corps, commanded by Lt. General William J. Hardee, Lt. General Alexander P. Stewart, and Lt. General Stephen D. Lee. Also in the Carolinas were cavalry forces from the division of Maj. Gen. Wade Hampton III and scattered along Sherman's route through South Carolina were small units of home guards -- mostly wounded veterans of the Confederate army and young boys.
The weakened Southern defenders could only delay Sherman's advance through the Carolinas. On Friday, February 3rd about 1,200 Confederates under Major General Lafayette McLaws delayed the Union invasion a day at River's Bridge in Bamberg County.
Two days later on Monday, February 5th, Kilpatrick reached the town of Barnwell. The town was hated personally by Sherman, who felt that the town should be burned to the ground since it shared the same name as one of the most prominent politicians who demanded South Carolina secede from the Union. (In actuality it was named for John Barnwell, a local hero of the American Revolutionary War's Southern Campaign.) Confederate General Johnson Hagood, who was later governor of South Carolina, was from Barnwell, as were many of South Carolina's sons who fought in the Confederate army.
After arriving in the small Southern town, the Yankees began looting and burning the town. The Yankees even stabled their horses in the Episcopal Church of the Holy Apostles, using the baptismal font in the church to water them. Kilpatrick sarcastically renamed the town "Burn-well" in a memo to Sherman.
Two days later, on Wednesday, February 7th, Kilpatrick reached the small railroad town of Blackville. The railroad that ran through the town connected Augusta to Charleston. For four years this railroad, which ran through Aiken, had transported Confederate soldiers from various states to numerous battlefields -- as well as returned many of those same soldiers home to their families in pine boxes. Lt. General James Longstreet's corps had passed on this route to Chickamauga in the late summer of 1863. Kilpatrick destroyed the track and several cars left at the Blackville station.
The Defense Of Aiken & Graniteville
After four years of war, Confederate forces were exhausted and badly depleted. The Confederate Army of Tennessee was wounded mortally by the Pyrrhic victory at the Battle of Franklin in November of 1864, then broken in defeat at Nashville two weeks later. Sherman's campaign through Georgia led to many desertions from the army as men and boys fearing for their family's safety left to return home.
To defend against Sherman's invasion, Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard had various forces of the Army of Tennessee and some militia and home guard units composed of young boys and old men. Lieutenant General William J. Hardee, Commander of the Departments of South Carolina and Georgia, was falling back from Savannah toward Charleston facing Howard's advance. Major General Joseph "Fighting Joe" Wheeler and his cavalry corps was in almost daily contact with Sherman trying to delay the Yankee invader's progress towards Columbia as much as possible. In Augusta, Major General Daniel H. Hill was placed in command of area forces.
Augusta was vital to the Southern war effort because of the huge Confederate Powderworks facility constructed there which produced virtually all of the gunpowder used by the South. In addition, the nearby Graniteville mill was producing as much as four million yards of much needed cotton cloth a year. Between them stood the town of Aiken which served as the terminus of an important rail line from Charleston to the Savannah River and Augusta.
In order to protect the area, Hill had the Georgia Militia commanded by Major General Gustavus W. Smith, and Hardee's Corps of the Army of Tennessee, now commanded by Major General Benjamin F. "Frank" Cheatham. General Hill moved these units, which consisted to just over 3,000 men, to form a defensive line along Big Horse Creek. Cheatham ordered General James Argyle Smith, now commanding the remnants of Cleburne's old Division, to defend Graniteville. Between this defensive line and Kilpatrick's advancing Union cavalry, operated Wheeler's Cavalry Corps and the Aiken Home Guard. "Fighting Joe" Wheeler had approximately 4,500 cavalrymen near Aiken. His force consisting of men from Tennessee, Texas, Arkansas, Alabama, and Georgia.
The War Comes To Aiken County
Headquarters Cavalry Command Blackville, Feb. 8, 1865
Major-General Sherman:
General: I will encamp tonight at Williston and destroy some track; February 9 (will be) at or before Windsor, and the following day make demonstrations toward Augusta. Will, if prudent, destroy Government property at Aiken, and as much railroad as possible and return to Windsor. I will be prudent, bold, but not rash.
Very respectfully, J. Kilpatrick, Brevet, Major-General
After sending this message to his superior officer, Kilpatrick crossed into Aiken County, South Carolina, near White Pond engaging Colonel Charles C. Crew's regiment of Wheeler's cavalry. After a brief firefight, the Confederates fell back toward Aiken to consolidate their forces with Wheeler.
As Kilpatrick's cavalry forces moved toward Aiken, residents of the county realized their worst fears were coming true. There was no civility among the Union soldiers as they looted, killed, and maimed along the way. The following stories have been told numerous times and show the ruthlessness of the Yankees and the disdain they had for the Southerners as they moved toward Aiken.
A resident of Aiken County, Mr. James Courtney, had his home set on fire three times by the Union troopers. Each time Courtney extinguished the fire, the Yankees would restart it. After the third time, a Union soldier shot him in the leg to prevent him from saving his house. Courtney sent a request for a Union surgeon to come and stop the flow of blood, but the surgeon refused to come. Family members eventually saved the home, but Courtney slowly bled to death in his yard.
Ransey and Kelly Toole, both brothers who stayed at home because they were too young to fight, had ropes placed around their necks and were threatened with hanging if they didn't reveal where their horses were hidden in the swamps. Their mother was forced to prepare dinner for the officers, only to see her dishes thrown against a tree when they were through eating. Even after these insults, a fire was started under the Toole house as they left, although Mrs. Toole and her boys were able to extinguish the blaze.
A lady in Johnston's Station (Montmorenci) reported on the destruction and pillage of personal property:
It may have been an hour after their arrival when Pauline came rushing to me saying the Yankees had come....our first floor was specially filled with armed men. At first I very politely unlocked several trunks assuring them that they only contained ladies apparel....This band of 150 men ransacked every nook and corner, breaking open trunks and boxes, singing, whistling, swearing....one young villain came in, fastened the doors, demanded our watches, and using the most profane language and terrible threats ordered us to confess where our gold and silver was buried....the entreatines of our faithful servants alone saved the house from conflagration....They began digging and found all the concealed provisions but gave us a few hams and some rice. We have lost all our silver, china, and glass. All our blankets, quilts, shawls and all the pillowcases were used as bags to remove provisions.
Incidents such as these would be repeated by Sherman's bummers throughout the Carolina's Campaign.
Kilpatrick captured Pascalina, the plantation home of John and Theodosia Wade at Montmorenci several miles from Aiken and used it as his headquarters. Here he advised his officers on the next steps in their campaign: the destruction of the mills and railroad in Aiken. Possibly the destruction of the town itself as they had done to Barnwell. It was also suggested there that Kilpatrick could even feint towards Augusta, forcing the Confederates there to destroy their powderworks rather than letting them fall into Union hands.
As refuges fled through Aiken and into Augusta, panic began to ensue. Would the towns be destroyed? General Hill wrote Wheeler on the 8th: It seems to me that a concentration of your cavalry upon Kilpatrick would crush him....I hope that you will keep us constantly apprised of movements.
After consolidating his cavalry in Aiken, Wheeler occupied the Eubanks House in downtown Aiken as his headquarters. It was here that he devised a plan to surprise and trap Kill-Cavalry. The Aiken Home Guards scouted the area and kept Wheeler appraised as to Kilpatrick's movements.
Wheeler formed his cavalry in the shape of a V, with the bottom of the V pointed west toward Augusta. The railroad and Park Avenue ran down the center of the V. A thin line of skirmishers was deployed between the top tips of the V, which paralleled Williamsburg Street. On the approach of Kilpatrick's troops, the line would fall back toward the west. It was hoped that Kilpatrick would be rash and would charge after the retreating Confederates into the V. Wheeler would then collapse the tops of the V around Kilpatrack, surrounding him and his entire force.
The Battle
Although civilians had warned Kilpatrick the Wheeler and Cheatham were in Aiken, the arrogant Union officer leisurely marched toward the town. On Sunday, February 11th, the Union troops entered Aiken and rode up Park, Richland and Barnwell Avenues. Wheeler's advanced picket line on Williamsburg Street fell back as planned towards York Street. Here, the plan fell apart when an Alabama trooper fired his gun prematurely, thus springing the trap too soon. Realizing that he must act quickly or lose the initiative, Wheeler ordered all units to attack.
The main engagement took place on Richland Avenue in front of the Baptist Church where the two sides engaged in hand-to-hand battle. Scattered fights occurred in other parts of the town, including a desperate fight around the Williams' House off South Boundary Street. Adding to the confusion, a Union artillery battery of the 10th Wisconsin lobbed 59 shells into the town.
The battle lasted about ten minutes before Kilpatrick was routed and retreated back towards his base at nearby Montmorenci.
The best description of the battle is from Private John Reed from the 92nd Illinois Mounted Infantry:
We were within a half-mile of the town of Aiken, when we discovered lone lines of rebel cavalry. The column halted....Kilpatrick came dashing up to the head of the column and desired to know the reason of the halt. Just then a locomotive ran out in plain view near Aiken and whistled and whistled. Kilpatrick brought up the artillery and sent a few rifled shells toward the locomotive and into the town. Kilpatrick also called on the 92nd Illinois Silver Cornet band to play Yankee Doodle.
The next thing in order was for the 92nd Illinois to charge into the town....Now we felt that we were going into a trap, but Kilpatrick took the lead....Gen. Atkins ordered the 9th Ohio into line of battle on the right of the road, flanking the artillery, and the 9th Michigan Cavalry into line of battle, flanking the artillery on the left of the road, and holding the 10th Ohio Cavalry in reserve.
The ladies of the town 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. It was an additional evidence of danger. In the farther edge of the town, the enemy was in line of battle.
After the accidental shot per Reed, (the officers) quickly formed the regiment to charge back again to the brigade, the rebels having formed in long in our rear. Every man in the regiment appeared to be conscious that the only way to get out was to assault the rebel lone and cut a hole in it. We rode forward to the charge. The rebels awaited out approach until within close range, when they 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. It was a desperate charge, and the men fought face to face and hand to hand. Now the brigade bugle sounded the charge and with a yell the 9th Ohio and the 9th Michigan charged into the town of Aiken recapturing a great many of the boys that had been taken prisoners....We were five miles from camp, where the balance of the division lay behind their rail barricades (Montmorenci). The rebels at Aiken, came thundering down upon out four little regiments, and the five miles back to came was a battle field all the way....
Private D.B. Morgan of the 5th Georgia Cavalry gives a Confederate account of the battle:
Gen. Wheeler was trying to entrap him (Kilpratrick) and capture his whole force....This ruse, no doubt, would have worked well but for an extra enthusiasm of an Alabama regiment (who)....opened fire and thus precipitated a general engagement....Our regiment had just been issued sabers with wooden scabbards, which were awkwardly attached to our saddles. I was mounted on a very fine mule. We charged the enemy though scrub oak forest and open peach orchard, through the village, driving them back....It was an all-day fight. As we halted in one of the charges, my mule was shot from under me, the ball passing immediately under my left leg and entering the poor creature's heart. With an unearthly yell....she bounded into the air and in falling, caught my half dismounted, with my left leg under her body. The soft plowed ground on which I fell prevented its being broken....
The Reverend John Henry Cornish of St. Thaddeus Church wrote the following civilian account:
Several shells came whizzing by us from a battery on Railroad Avenue....Two shells went through the house at the corner of Railroad Avenue and Laurens Street; one struck in the yard of the old parsonage....The enemy came nearly to the street passing the west end of the Aiken Hotel....The bugles sounded a charge. It is a marvelous what a different aspect was thrown over the scene in an instant. The horses started and came tearing down Richland Street, the men rising in their stirrups, with their pistols in their hands, yelling and screaming, each one looking as if he could devour a dozen Yankees....The enemy was driven back. There was a fight in William's old field. The enemy was driven back to Pole Cat Pond (Montmorienci)....Five of our wounded were brought to my house where the surgeons attended to them....Two of the killed were taken to the (St. Thaddeus) church yard, where they were put in coffins and buried.
Kilpatrick had been routed back to his defensive position at Montmorenci. During the chase, a Confederate cavalryman rode up to the Yankee general and snapped his pistol at his chest, but the gun misfired. In panic, Kilpatrick fled, losing his hat in the rout. Reaching their defenses at Montmorenci, Kilpatrick's cavalry lined up behind barricades previous built and skirmished with Wheeler's cavalry for the rest of the day. The following day on Monday, February 12th, Kilpatrick sent out a flag of truce that evening to exchange and recover the dead and wounded.
The following day on the 13th, Kilpatrick retreated from Aiken County and moved out to rejoin Sherman in the march toward Columbia. Wheeler did the same, sweeping wide in an attempt to get ahead of Sherman and help General Hampton in the defense of the capitol.
The Aftermath
Commanders in their reports often overestimate their opponent's casualties and downsize their own. Kilpatrick states that Wheeler lost 31 killed, 160 wounded and 60 taken prisoners, for a total of 251 Confederate casualties. Wheeler admitted losing only 50 killed and wounded. Wheeler also claimed that the Confederate attack resulted in 53 Federals killed, 270 wounded and 172 captured, a total of 495 Union casualties. Kilpatrick admitted to losing only 25 killed and wounded and less than 20 captured.
The estimated total losses for both sides were between 45 and 495 for Kilpatrick and 50 to 251 for Wheeler. Twenty Union soldiers killed in the battle lie buried in the First Baptist Church graveyard in downtown Aiken, along with one Confederate soldier. Two Tennessee Cavalrymen lie in the St. Thaddeus Church graveyard. It is presumed that the rest of the Confederate dead were shipped to their homes.
The citizens of Aiken, the governor of South Carolina and General D.H. Hill hailed Wheeler as a savior. If not for his successful defense, Kilpatrick would have undoubtedly destroyed both Aiken and Graniteville. Although Sherman did not care about Augusta, Kilpatrick was rash and always looked for ways to advance his career. Had it not been for Wheeler, Kilpatrick would have destroyed the railroad, possibly as far as Hamburg and maybe shelled the Confederate Powderworks from across the Savannah River. If he thought he could have done it, Kill-Cavalry would likely have made a dash into the city if he thought it was lightly defended, forcing the Confederates to possibly destroy it rather than let it fall into Union hands.
Coming at the end of the War Between The States in the midst of the Confederate defeat two months later, the Southern victory at the Battle of Aiken makes few of the standard histories of the war. The Confederate victory was however crucial to the local history of the region because it prevented the destruction of the county seat and economy, enabling the area to withstand the hardships of the Reconstruction period better than other more devastated areas of the South.
Perhaps the biggest irony in this would be that Aiken would quickly welcome Northerners back as it became first a health resort, and then a grand winter sporting resort for the Northern elite -- among them Kilpatrick himself later in life!
As they had in Georgia, Kilpatrick and his men would leave a scorched swath across the South Carolina lowcountry, burning down homes, farms, mills, and churches in addition to viable military targets like railroads.
By the end of January 1865, the invasion of South Carolina had begun. As he had in Georgia, Sherman marched his armies in multiple directions simultaneously, confusing the scattered Confederate defenders as to his first true objective. Half of Sherman's command under Howard -- who had been sent to Beaufort by ship from Savannah -- began marching toward Charleston. The other wing of Sherman's command under Slocum moved up the Georgia side of the Savannah River crossing into South Carolina at Sister's Ferry on Thursday, January 19th moving toward Augusta, Georgia, where the Confederacy's key gunpowder mills were located. Kilpatrick's cavalry was with this wing. Sherman's goal was to keep the Confederates guessing whether Augusta or Charleston would be attacked, while his true objective was to march between them and capture Columbia, the capitol of South Carolina.
Sherman's opponents on the Confederate side had considerably fewer men. The primary force in the Carolinas was the battered Army of Tennessee, now once again under the command of General Joseph E. Johnston following the dismissal of General John Bell Hood by Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Davis was not in favor of Johnston, however it was the recommendation of General Robert E. Lee that convinced him to restore Johnston to command of the Army of Tennessee. His strength was recorded in mid-March at 9,000 men and just over 15,000 by mid-April. The army was organized into three corps, commanded by Lt. General William J. Hardee, Lt. General Alexander P. Stewart, and Lt. General Stephen D. Lee. Also in the Carolinas were cavalry forces from the division of Maj. Gen. Wade Hampton III and scattered along Sherman's route through South Carolina were small units of home guards -- mostly wounded veterans of the Confederate army and young boys.
The weakened Southern defenders could only delay Sherman's advance through the Carolinas. On Friday, February 3rd about 1,200 Confederates under Major General Lafayette McLaws delayed the Union invasion a day at River's Bridge in Bamberg County.
Two days later on Monday, February 5th, Kilpatrick reached the town of Barnwell. The town was hated personally by Sherman, who felt that the town should be burned to the ground since it shared the same name as one of the most prominent politicians who demanded South Carolina secede from the Union. (In actuality it was named for John Barnwell, a local hero of the American Revolutionary War's Southern Campaign.) Confederate General Johnson Hagood, who was later governor of South Carolina, was from Barnwell, as were many of South Carolina's sons who fought in the Confederate army.
After arriving in the small Southern town, the Yankees began looting and burning the town. The Yankees even stabled their horses in the Episcopal Church of the Holy Apostles, using the baptismal font in the church to water them. Kilpatrick sarcastically renamed the town "Burn-well" in a memo to Sherman.
Two days later, on Wednesday, February 7th, Kilpatrick reached the small railroad town of Blackville. The railroad that ran through the town connected Augusta to Charleston. For four years this railroad, which ran through Aiken, had transported Confederate soldiers from various states to numerous battlefields -- as well as returned many of those same soldiers home to their families in pine boxes. Lt. General James Longstreet's corps had passed on this route to Chickamauga in the late summer of 1863. Kilpatrick destroyed the track and several cars left at the Blackville station.
The Defense Of Aiken & Graniteville
After four years of war, Confederate forces were exhausted and badly depleted. The Confederate Army of Tennessee was wounded mortally by the Pyrrhic victory at the Battle of Franklin in November of 1864, then broken in defeat at Nashville two weeks later. Sherman's campaign through Georgia led to many desertions from the army as men and boys fearing for their family's safety left to return home.
To defend against Sherman's invasion, Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard had various forces of the Army of Tennessee and some militia and home guard units composed of young boys and old men. Lieutenant General William J. Hardee, Commander of the Departments of South Carolina and Georgia, was falling back from Savannah toward Charleston facing Howard's advance. Major General Joseph "Fighting Joe" Wheeler and his cavalry corps was in almost daily contact with Sherman trying to delay the Yankee invader's progress towards Columbia as much as possible. In Augusta, Major General Daniel H. Hill was placed in command of area forces.
 |
| Confederate Major General Daniel Harvey Hill. Commanding Confederate troops in Aiken County and Augusta, Georgia during the Battle of Aiken. |
In order to protect the area, Hill had the Georgia Militia commanded by Major General Gustavus W. Smith, and Hardee's Corps of the Army of Tennessee, now commanded by Major General Benjamin F. "Frank" Cheatham. General Hill moved these units, which consisted to just over 3,000 men, to form a defensive line along Big Horse Creek. Cheatham ordered General James Argyle Smith, now commanding the remnants of Cleburne's old Division, to defend Graniteville. Between this defensive line and Kilpatrick's advancing Union cavalry, operated Wheeler's Cavalry Corps and the Aiken Home Guard. "Fighting Joe" Wheeler had approximately 4,500 cavalrymen near Aiken. His force consisting of men from Tennessee, Texas, Arkansas, Alabama, and Georgia.
The War Comes To Aiken County
Headquarters Cavalry Command Blackville, Feb. 8, 1865
Major-General Sherman:
General: I will encamp tonight at Williston and destroy some track; February 9 (will be) at or before Windsor, and the following day make demonstrations toward Augusta. Will, if prudent, destroy Government property at Aiken, and as much railroad as possible and return to Windsor. I will be prudent, bold, but not rash.
Very respectfully, J. Kilpatrick, Brevet, Major-General
After sending this message to his superior officer, Kilpatrick crossed into Aiken County, South Carolina, near White Pond engaging Colonel Charles C. Crew's regiment of Wheeler's cavalry. After a brief firefight, the Confederates fell back toward Aiken to consolidate their forces with Wheeler.
As Kilpatrick's cavalry forces moved toward Aiken, residents of the county realized their worst fears were coming true. There was no civility among the Union soldiers as they looted, killed, and maimed along the way. The following stories have been told numerous times and show the ruthlessness of the Yankees and the disdain they had for the Southerners as they moved toward Aiken.
A resident of Aiken County, Mr. James Courtney, had his home set on fire three times by the Union troopers. Each time Courtney extinguished the fire, the Yankees would restart it. After the third time, a Union soldier shot him in the leg to prevent him from saving his house. Courtney sent a request for a Union surgeon to come and stop the flow of blood, but the surgeon refused to come. Family members eventually saved the home, but Courtney slowly bled to death in his yard.
Ransey and Kelly Toole, both brothers who stayed at home because they were too young to fight, had ropes placed around their necks and were threatened with hanging if they didn't reveal where their horses were hidden in the swamps. Their mother was forced to prepare dinner for the officers, only to see her dishes thrown against a tree when they were through eating. Even after these insults, a fire was started under the Toole house as they left, although Mrs. Toole and her boys were able to extinguish the blaze.
A lady in Johnston's Station (Montmorenci) reported on the destruction and pillage of personal property:
It may have been an hour after their arrival when Pauline came rushing to me saying the Yankees had come....our first floor was specially filled with armed men. At first I very politely unlocked several trunks assuring them that they only contained ladies apparel....This band of 150 men ransacked every nook and corner, breaking open trunks and boxes, singing, whistling, swearing....one young villain came in, fastened the doors, demanded our watches, and using the most profane language and terrible threats ordered us to confess where our gold and silver was buried....the entreatines of our faithful servants alone saved the house from conflagration....They began digging and found all the concealed provisions but gave us a few hams and some rice. We have lost all our silver, china, and glass. All our blankets, quilts, shawls and all the pillowcases were used as bags to remove provisions.
Incidents such as these would be repeated by Sherman's bummers throughout the Carolina's Campaign.
Kilpatrick captured Pascalina, the plantation home of John and Theodosia Wade at Montmorenci several miles from Aiken and used it as his headquarters. Here he advised his officers on the next steps in their campaign: the destruction of the mills and railroad in Aiken. Possibly the destruction of the town itself as they had done to Barnwell. It was also suggested there that Kilpatrick could even feint towards Augusta, forcing the Confederates there to destroy their powderworks rather than letting them fall into Union hands.
As refuges fled through Aiken and into Augusta, panic began to ensue. Would the towns be destroyed? General Hill wrote Wheeler on the 8th: It seems to me that a concentration of your cavalry upon Kilpatrick would crush him....I hope that you will keep us constantly apprised of movements.
After consolidating his cavalry in Aiken, Wheeler occupied the Eubanks House in downtown Aiken as his headquarters. It was here that he devised a plan to surprise and trap Kill-Cavalry. The Aiken Home Guards scouted the area and kept Wheeler appraised as to Kilpatrick's movements.
 |
| Confederate General Joseph "Fighting Joe" Wheeler, Cavalry commander at the Battle of Aiken. |
The Battle
Although civilians had warned Kilpatrick the Wheeler and Cheatham were in Aiken, the arrogant Union officer leisurely marched toward the town. On Sunday, February 11th, the Union troops entered Aiken and rode up Park, Richland and Barnwell Avenues. Wheeler's advanced picket line on Williamsburg Street fell back as planned towards York Street. Here, the plan fell apart when an Alabama trooper fired his gun prematurely, thus springing the trap too soon. Realizing that he must act quickly or lose the initiative, Wheeler ordered all units to attack.
The main engagement took place on Richland Avenue in front of the Baptist Church where the two sides engaged in hand-to-hand battle. Scattered fights occurred in other parts of the town, including a desperate fight around the Williams' House off South Boundary Street. Adding to the confusion, a Union artillery battery of the 10th Wisconsin lobbed 59 shells into the town.
The battle lasted about ten minutes before Kilpatrick was routed and retreated back towards his base at nearby Montmorenci.
The best description of the battle is from Private John Reed from the 92nd Illinois Mounted Infantry:
We were within a half-mile of the town of Aiken, when we discovered lone lines of rebel cavalry. The column halted....Kilpatrick came dashing up to the head of the column and desired to know the reason of the halt. Just then a locomotive ran out in plain view near Aiken and whistled and whistled. Kilpatrick brought up the artillery and sent a few rifled shells toward the locomotive and into the town. Kilpatrick also called on the 92nd Illinois Silver Cornet band to play Yankee Doodle.
The next thing in order was for the 92nd Illinois to charge into the town....Now we felt that we were going into a trap, but Kilpatrick took the lead....Gen. Atkins ordered the 9th Ohio into line of battle on the right of the road, flanking the artillery, and the 9th Michigan Cavalry into line of battle, flanking the artillery on the left of the road, and holding the 10th Ohio Cavalry in reserve.
The ladies of the town 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. It was an additional evidence of danger. In the farther edge of the town, the enemy was in line of battle.
After the accidental shot per Reed, (the officers) quickly formed the regiment to charge back again to the brigade, the rebels having formed in long in our rear. Every man in the regiment appeared to be conscious that the only way to get out was to assault the rebel lone and cut a hole in it. We rode forward to the charge. The rebels awaited out approach until within close range, when they 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. It was a desperate charge, and the men fought face to face and hand to hand. Now the brigade bugle sounded the charge and with a yell the 9th Ohio and the 9th Michigan charged into the town of Aiken recapturing a great many of the boys that had been taken prisoners....We were five miles from camp, where the balance of the division lay behind their rail barricades (Montmorenci). The rebels at Aiken, came thundering down upon out four little regiments, and the five miles back to came was a battle field all the way....
Private D.B. Morgan of the 5th Georgia Cavalry gives a Confederate account of the battle:
Gen. Wheeler was trying to entrap him (Kilpratrick) and capture his whole force....This ruse, no doubt, would have worked well but for an extra enthusiasm of an Alabama regiment (who)....opened fire and thus precipitated a general engagement....Our regiment had just been issued sabers with wooden scabbards, which were awkwardly attached to our saddles. I was mounted on a very fine mule. We charged the enemy though scrub oak forest and open peach orchard, through the village, driving them back....It was an all-day fight. As we halted in one of the charges, my mule was shot from under me, the ball passing immediately under my left leg and entering the poor creature's heart. With an unearthly yell....she bounded into the air and in falling, caught my half dismounted, with my left leg under her body. The soft plowed ground on which I fell prevented its being broken....
The Reverend John Henry Cornish of St. Thaddeus Church wrote the following civilian account:
Several shells came whizzing by us from a battery on Railroad Avenue....Two shells went through the house at the corner of Railroad Avenue and Laurens Street; one struck in the yard of the old parsonage....The enemy came nearly to the street passing the west end of the Aiken Hotel....The bugles sounded a charge. It is a marvelous what a different aspect was thrown over the scene in an instant. The horses started and came tearing down Richland Street, the men rising in their stirrups, with their pistols in their hands, yelling and screaming, each one looking as if he could devour a dozen Yankees....The enemy was driven back. There was a fight in William's old field. The enemy was driven back to Pole Cat Pond (Montmorienci)....Five of our wounded were brought to my house where the surgeons attended to them....Two of the killed were taken to the (St. Thaddeus) church yard, where they were put in coffins and buried.
Kilpatrick had been routed back to his defensive position at Montmorenci. During the chase, a Confederate cavalryman rode up to the Yankee general and snapped his pistol at his chest, but the gun misfired. In panic, Kilpatrick fled, losing his hat in the rout. Reaching their defenses at Montmorenci, Kilpatrick's cavalry lined up behind barricades previous built and skirmished with Wheeler's cavalry for the rest of the day. The following day on Monday, February 12th, Kilpatrick sent out a flag of truce that evening to exchange and recover the dead and wounded.
The following day on the 13th, Kilpatrick retreated from Aiken County and moved out to rejoin Sherman in the march toward Columbia. Wheeler did the same, sweeping wide in an attempt to get ahead of Sherman and help General Hampton in the defense of the capitol.
The Aftermath
Commanders in their reports often overestimate their opponent's casualties and downsize their own. Kilpatrick states that Wheeler lost 31 killed, 160 wounded and 60 taken prisoners, for a total of 251 Confederate casualties. Wheeler admitted losing only 50 killed and wounded. Wheeler also claimed that the Confederate attack resulted in 53 Federals killed, 270 wounded and 172 captured, a total of 495 Union casualties. Kilpatrick admitted to losing only 25 killed and wounded and less than 20 captured.
The estimated total losses for both sides were between 45 and 495 for Kilpatrick and 50 to 251 for Wheeler. Twenty Union soldiers killed in the battle lie buried in the First Baptist Church graveyard in downtown Aiken, along with one Confederate soldier. Two Tennessee Cavalrymen lie in the St. Thaddeus Church graveyard. It is presumed that the rest of the Confederate dead were shipped to their homes.
 |
| Twenty Union soldiers killed at the Battle of Aiken buried in the First Baptist Church Cemetery. |
The citizens of Aiken, the governor of South Carolina and General D.H. Hill hailed Wheeler as a savior. If not for his successful defense, Kilpatrick would have undoubtedly destroyed both Aiken and Graniteville. Although Sherman did not care about Augusta, Kilpatrick was rash and always looked for ways to advance his career. Had it not been for Wheeler, Kilpatrick would have destroyed the railroad, possibly as far as Hamburg and maybe shelled the Confederate Powderworks from across the Savannah River. If he thought he could have done it, Kill-Cavalry would likely have made a dash into the city if he thought it was lightly defended, forcing the Confederates to possibly destroy it rather than let it fall into Union hands.
Coming at the end of the War Between The States in the midst of the Confederate defeat two months later, the Southern victory at the Battle of Aiken makes few of the standard histories of the war. The Confederate victory was however crucial to the local history of the region because it prevented the destruction of the county seat and economy, enabling the area to withstand the hardships of the Reconstruction period better than other more devastated areas of the South.
Perhaps the biggest irony in this would be that Aiken would quickly welcome Northerners back as it became first a health resort, and then a grand winter sporting resort for the Northern elite -- among them Kilpatrick himself later in life!
2 comments:
to: the Southern Historical Society , the Virginia Flaggers and the polymathic C.W. Roden
(FYI CW. Facebook messed up my access to SHS. The SHS folks will likely get this thing one way or another. If you happen by there, please let them know I’m not snubbing them deliberately.)
to all whom it may concern,
All indications up here in this liberal lunatic asylum of the CommieWealth of Massachusetts suggest we’re nearing the end of this remake of the War Between the States. Still decisive battles to win of course. However, the most important battle is still up for grabs. The provably true major causes of the War itself. Properly armed with that multifaceted truth you modern day Confederates should be able to stop this from happening again.
Jefferson Davis et al had absolutely no choice. There was, and still is, a Constitutional mandate to separate from the Union under the rules of our system of governance in a situation like that. The last chance for the Supreme Court to stop the Civil War was its flawed December 1854 decision in the case of Carpenter v Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It’s not hard to prove the flaw exists but I’ll start with other major factors.
This once great Nation began with what’s legally called ‘mutual assent’, often referred to as a meeting of minds in mutual agreement. The Northern States were working mostly by ‘express’ assent; the expressly written or spoken form of agreement. Southern States going mostly by ‘implied’ assent; where conduct or behavior implies agreement.
A simple but powerful example of that involves the 3/5 rule used in the counting of slaves in the population. The racist Northern view clearly shows they took that to mean 3/5 of a human. Abraham Lincoln’s racist campaign rhetoric of the inferiority of blacks concurs with that interpretation of that simple fraction. Those who voted for Lincoln signed onto that racist interpretation of the legal fraction by express and implied mutual assent.
Your Southern ancestors, clearly by the implied assent of their behavior patterns, took that fraction to mean that slaves were indeed equally human but only 3/5’s of the way to becoming citizens. The job of training those future citizens from Africa was made infinitely more difficult by the horrific conditions on Yankee slave ships. You never get a second chance to make a first impression and white Yankee slavers made a lasting first impression on blacks.
That level of such intense psychological harm cannot be undone for some people in their own lifetime. Even their children can suffer from the after effects, making them also too dangerous to be free and equal citizens. Separating black families, taking slave children away from the care of their emotionally damaged parents became a widespread necessity. It was the modern equivalent of an intuition based child protective services system of foster parent care.
No surprise to you folks the Yankees were clearly to blame and that info should help.
I suggest that whenever possible you Confederates expressly state the implied assent of your ancestors regarding the 3/5 rule. Turn their implied assent into express assent by openly stating it. Don’t waste your time educating our opposition with the details, send those fools running to lawyers and law books.
Simply state loud and clear, that your ancestors by their ‘implied assent’ treated slaves as equally human and 3/5’s of the way to full citizenship.
Hey there Captain Roden. I’ve got a fun script for a short video you and your starship crew might wanna make. A new battle of achin’-from-laughing-tummies-amid-mortally-wounded-racist-yankee-spirits sort of thing.
It might work best coming from a South Carolinian given this Aiken history lesson of yours. Could be more of a Galaxy Quest thing, but whatever. Simple Monty Python type imaging is all it should take along with an easy voice-over audio to make it a fun yet educational video, predestined for goin’ viral.
“Lincoln versus Lee” is the gist of the idea. Utilizing a modern edit of Lincoln’s most racist quote combined with Lincoln chastising Lee for his pro-Jewish behavior. Lincoln does all the talking throughout.
At the start, a pillow case with eye-hole cutouts conceals an Abe Lincoln image. After a bit of the hooded racist’s rant an ever silent image of Robert E. Lee slowly enters the scene from the side. At the proper point in the monologue, Lee’s hand and arm quickly yank off the pillow case to reveal that it’s Lincoln ranting like a racist lunatic. At that point the names of both men appear under each. Then Lee drifts back off screen while Abe continues his rant. It ends with a snarky written comment like, “LOL and the Yankees still say Lee was the racist.” Okay, here’s the Lincoln monologue script:
“I am not and never have been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races. I am not and never have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, or qualifying them to hold office, or to intermarry with white people.
There is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. While they remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior race. And I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race.
Hey, I recognize that guy sneakin’ up me. Jews were the largest ethnic group in his Jew lovin’ Confederate army.” {Lee yanks off the pillow case.}
The unmasked Lincoln continues, “Admit it Robert E. Lee. You let those Jews in your Jew lovin’ Army worship like Jews. Ha! What a fool you were Lee. General Grant and I forced the Jews we were stuck with to worship like Christians just like everybody knows they should.
Lee, you know my plan for after the war was to deport all the Africans to Liberia to make my restored Union free and white. Come back and face me you Jew lovin’ Confederate coward. My Yankee dream still lives on. Don’t doubt that for a minute Lee! I still have plenty of modern supporters. With you and your statues out of the picture forever Lee, my Yankee dream will finally come true. Make America free and white. Make America free and white!” {transition to the LOL comment. The end.}
Post a Comment