The Life And Legacy Of Major General D. H. Hill C.S.A. (1821 - 1889)

Confederate Major General D. H. Hill
(July 12, 1821 - September 24, 1889)

Daniel Harvey Hill was born at Hill's Iron Works on Thursday, July 12, 1821 in York District (now York County, South Carolina) to Solomon and Nancy Cabeen Hill. His maternal grandfather was a native of Scotland.

Hill's paternal grandfather, William "Billy" Hill, was a native of Ireland and local Revolutionary War hero who made cannon for the Continental Army and served as a colonel of militia in various campaigns under Patriot General Thomas "Gamecock" Sumter during the summer and fall of 1780 -- probably best known for his role in the events leading up to the Battle of Huck's Defeat (Wednesday, July 12, 1780).

He entered the West Point U.S. Military Academy in 1838 at age 17 and graduated 28th in his class of 56 fellow cadets in the Class of 1842. Included among his classmates were several future American Civil War generals: Earl Van Dorn, William Starke Rosecrans, Abner Doubleday, and fellow South Carolinian, James Longstreet, whom he maintained a life-long friendship with.

Following his graduation, Hill was assigned to the 1st U.S. Artillery at the rank of 2nd Lieutenant. He was later transferred to the 3rd Artillery on Tuesday, October 20, 1843, then later to the 4th U.S. Artillery. He was promoted to 1st Lieutenant on Wednesday, March 3, 1847.

During the Mexican-American War (1846-1848) Hill served under U.S. Major General Winfield Scott. He first saw action with the 4th U.S. Artillery at the Siege of Veracruz (March 9-29, 1847) then later at Cerro Gordo (Sunday, April 18, 1847). During the war, Hill was promoted twice; first to captain for bravery at the Battles of Contreras and Churubusco (August 19-20, 1847), then to major also for bravery at the Battle of Chapultepec (September 12-13, 1847).

In 1848, Hill married Isabella Sophia Morrison, with whom he would have seven children: Robert Hall (1850-1857). Mary Eugenia Arnold (1852-1934), Willie Morrison (1855-1856), Nancy Lee (1857-1938), Daniel Harvey Jr. (1859-1924), James Irwin (1864-1866), and Joseph Morrison (1864-1950).

After the war ended, Hill resigned his commission in 1849 and became a professor of mathematics at Washington College (now Washington and Lee University) in Lexington, Virginia. Later in 1854, he joined the faculty at Davidson College near Charlotte, North Carolina.

In 1857, Hill’s sister-in-law, Mary Anna Morrison, married fellow artilleryman and Mexican War veteran and future Confederate Lieutenant General Thomas Johnathan Jackson, a teacher at the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) next to Washington College in Lexington where Hill previously taught mathematics. The two men had struck up a close friendship while Hill was in Lexington. Jackson, a devout Christian, was also the founder of a Sunday School for both enslaved and free African-Americans in Lexington.

Like his brother-in-law, Daniel Harvey Hill also had a history of teaching black children -- notably one of the freed slaves on his family's Iron Works as a young boy. The child, Elias Hill, was taught to read and write by Daniel, and would later become a black minister in York County before the upcoming War Between The States (1861-1865) and during the Reconstruction Era (1867-1876).

In 1858, seeing the need for a "Southern West Point" Hill founded the North Carolina Military Institute in Charlotte becoming its superintendent with fellow educator and future Confederate General James Henry Lane, the later founder of the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets. The school based its academic and disciplinary structures on the West Point model. The school did not last long with the start of the American Civil War and the cadets taking up arms for the Southern Confederacy when North Carolina seceded from the United States on Monday, May 20, 1861.

Hill immediately offered his services to the State of North Carolina and was appointed the rank of colonel of the 1st North Carolina Infantry Regiment where, less than a month later, he fought in the first land battle of the war at the Battle of Big Bethel, near Newport News, Virginia on June 10, 1861 -- a Confederate victory. For his quick action and courage, on July 10, 1861, he was promoted to the rank of brigadier general and given command of Confederate troops guarding the new Confederate capitol of Richmond, Virginia.

By the spring of 1862, Hill was a major general and division commander in the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. He participated in the Peninsula Campaign in the spring of 1862. Hill led his division with great distinction in the Battle of Seven Pines (May 31-June 1, 1862) and later at Malvern Hill (Tuesday, July 1, 1862) during the Seven Days Battles.

At Malvern Hill, he unsuccessfully urged General Robert E. Lee not to attack what would prove to be an impregnable Federal position. One of his brigades would loose over 40 percent of its strength as casualties in the battle as a result. This would be the beginning of Hill's outspoken wartime criticisms of the famous Southern general which eventually resulted in his expulsion from the Army of Northern Virginia.

Following the Seven Days Battles, Hill's division was left behind to defend Richmond from Union forces still in the area while the rest of the Army of Northern Virginia marched north to engage another Union Army at the Second Battle of Manassas (Bull Run) on August 29-30, 1862).

During this time in Richmond, Hill developed a system for prisoner of war exchanges with Union Major General John A. Dix. On Tuesday, July 22, 1862, the agreement known as the Dix-Hill Cartel was established. The cartel worked well for a few months, but broke down when the Confederate government insisted on treating captured black Union prisoners as fugitive slaves and returning them to their previous owners. This would largely lead to many Union and Confederate prisoners of war suffering and needlessly dying long-term harsh conditions -- both unintentional and otherwise -- in the horrid prisoner of war camps throughout eastern America.

Hill and his division returned to the Army of Northern Virginia in time for its first invasion of the Northern States in September of 1862.

During the Maryland campaign, Hill was mistakenly sent two copies of Lee's Special Orders No. 191, which detailed the divided positions of Confederate forces as it attempted to march north towards Pennsylvania. One of these copies was accidentally left (likely never delivered) in a field near Frederick, Maryland wrapped around three cigars, where a Union soldier, Corporal Barton W. Mitchell of the 27th Indiana Volunteers (who would later be wounded at the subsequent Battle of Sharpsburg), discovered it on September 13th. The copy of Lee's order was sent up the chain of command and delivered to the commander of the Army of the Potomac Union Major General George B. McClellan.

Hill would later claim that he was only given one copy of what would later be known as Lee’s Lost Order.

Realizing that Lee’s divided army was now vulnerable, McClellan pursued the Confederates with uncharacteristic speed. 

Hill's division fought to slow down the Union advance at the Battle of South Mountain (or Boonsboro Gap) on Sunday, September 14, 1862. Scattered as far north as Boonsboro, Maryland when the fighting began, but for the entire day Hill's vastly outnumbered division fought with distinction, slowing down McClellan and buying Lee's army enough precious time to concentrate at nearby Sharpsburg, Maryland.

General D.H. Hill and his now 2,500 man division took part in some of the bloodies fighting during the Battle of Sharpsburg (near Antietam Creek) on Wednesday, September 17, 1862 holding the center of the Confederate lines against waves of Union assaults on the Sunken Road (also known as "Bloody Lane") He rallied a few detached men from different brigades to hold the line at the critical moment and later allowing the Confederates to withdraw in good order.

After the battle, Lee's army retired back across the Potomac River into Virginia, giving the Union army its first major victory of the war and Abraham Lincoln the moment he needed to issue his famous Emancipation Proclamation, expanding the war to preserve the Union into a crusade to end slavery in the eyes of European and other foreign powers that might have come to the aid of the young Confederate States.

Hill's division also participated in the Battle of Fredericksburg on December 12-13, 1862.

James Wylie Ratchford, a South Carolinian on Hill’s staff, wrote that Stonewall Jackson said of Hill: "there was not another man in the Southern army superior in his military genius than D.H. Hill."

Although General D.H. Hill was widely recognized as a superb combat leader, he also had a tendency to make powerful enemies. One Confederate official described Hill's personality as: "harsh, abrupt, often insulting in the effort to be sarcastic."

According to  his friend, General James Longstreet, Hill’s cause was furthermore undermined by the fact that he was a North Carolinian in an army of Virginians -- though this fact is in dispute since many of the best division-level officers of the Army of Northern Virginia were from States other than Virginia.

Hill was an outspoken critic of decisions made by Lee and Braxton Bragg, two men highly favored by Confederate President Jefferson Davis. In addition to his old classmate, Longstreet, Hill was also a good friend to Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston, a fact which also didn't earn him any points with Davis.

Nonetheless, Hill had an excellent reputation on the battlefield.

In the spring of 1863, Hill was detached from the Army of Northern Virginia to help defend North Carolina and Southern Virginia. He never rejoined Lee’s army.

After helping defend Richmond during Lee’s 1863 invasion of Pennsylvania and the Gettysburg Campaign, D.H. Hill was sent west to command a corps in Braxton Bragg’s Army of Tennessee along with General Longstreet. Hill led his corps in some of the heaviest fighting in the bloody victory at the Battle of Chickamauga (September 19-20, 1863). After the battle, however, tensions with Bragg over his failure to properly exploit the victory led to Hill being sidelined and to the cancellation of his formal promotion to lieutenant general.

Hill would not command troops in a significant engagement again until the Battle of Bentonville (March 19-21, 1865) in the final weeks of the war. Hill was again a division commander when he, along with General Johnston, surrendered the Confederate Army of Tennessee on Wednesday, April 26, 1865 to Union Major General William T. Sherman at Bennett Place in Durham, North Carolina.

Following the war, Hill sought to document Southern history by establishing two literary publications: The Land We Love and My Southern Home, both of which included coverage of literature, history, and agriculture. He edited the journal from 1866 to 1869.

From 1877 to 1884, Hill was elected to serve as the first president of the University of Arkansas.

In 1885 he became president of the Military and Agricultural College (Georgia Military College) of Milledgeville, Georgia. He held the post for four years until August of 1889 when he resigned due to failing health and returned to Charlotte, North Carolina, where he died on Tuesday, September 24, 1889 at age 68.

Daniel Harvey Hill is buried with his wife, Isabella, in the Davidson College Cemetery in Davidson, North Carolina.

 

A special thanks to the following sources for the information in this blog post:

Lee's Maverick General: Daniel Harvey Hill by Hal Bridges. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1991. ISBN 0-8032-6096-2. First published 1961 by McGraw-Hill.
Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1959. ISBN 978-0-8071-0823-9.
North Carolina History Project: Daniel Harvey Hill (1821-1889) by Troy L. Kickler.
North Carolina State Department of Archives and History online.

The Battle Of Aiken -- A Confederate Victory In Sherman's Carolinas Campaign 1865

"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.

In command of Sherman's cavalry forces was Major General Hugh Judson Kilpatrick, a somewhat boastful and obnoxious fellow sometimes known to both Union and Confederate soldiers alike as "Kilcavalry" (or "Kill-Cavalry") for his straight-forward rashness that often got more of his own men killed than the enemy. By no means a military genius, something he proved time and time again against the likes of Confederate cavalry generals like J.E.B. Stuart and Wade Hampton III in the northern Virginia campaigns in the early half of the War.

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.

Confederate Major General Daniel Harvey Hill.
Commanding Confederate troops in Aiken
County and Augusta, Georgia during the
Battle of Aiken.

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.
 

Confederate General Joseph "Fighting Joe"
Wheeler, Cavalry commander at the Battle
of Aiken.

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.  

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!