Page images
PDF
EPUB

cross a swamp three miles wide, with water varying from knee to shoulder in depth. The weather was bitter cold, the rain falling in torrents, and the wind coming in boisterous gusts. The line of the Salkehatchie being thus broken, the Edisto was the next line, and thither the enemy retreated, taking post at Branchville. Sherman's whole army was pushed rapidly to the South Carolina Railroad at Midway, Bamberg, and Graham's Station. The 17th Corps, by threatening Branchville, forced the enemy to burn the railroad bridge and Walker's Bridge South Carolina. below, across the Edisto. All hands were at once set to work to destroy the railroad track: it was thoroughly done from the Edisto to Blackville. In the mean time, Kilpatrick had brought his cavalry by Barnwell to Blackville, and had turned toward Aiken, with or ders to threaten Augusta. He had skirmished with Wheeler's cavalry.

The whole army in

to Howard.

On the 7th of February Wheeler addressed a letter to Wheeler's letter General Howard in these words: "If the troops of your army be required to discontinue burning the houses of our citizens, I will discontinue burning cotton." To this, on the next day, Sherman himself replied:

"I hope you will burn all the cotton, and save us the trouble. We don't want it. It has been a curse to our country.

Sherman's reply. All you don't burn I will. As to private houses oc

cupied by peaceful families, my orders are not to molest or disturb them, and I think my orders are obeyed. Vacant houses, being of no use to any body, I care little about, as the owners have thought them of little use to themselves; I don't wish to have them destroyed, but do not take much care to preserve them."

Williams, with two divisions of the 20th Corps, reached the railroad at Graham's Station on the 8th, and Slocum reached Blackville on the 10th. So swollen was the river that the forests of water-oaks which line both its banks were submerged. The rain fell in such torrents as to blind both horses and riders. "We must all turn amphibious," wrote

Sherman to Slocum, "for the country is half under water. Mower had to fight at the Salkehatchie with his men up to their armpits, he himself setting the example." The destruction of the railroad was now continued by the left wing from Blackville up to Windsor. By the 11th of February all the army was on the railroad from Midway to Johnston's Station, thereby dividing the enemy's forces, which still remained at Branchville and Charleston on the one hand, and at Aiken and Augusta on the other.

Destruction of the
South Carolina
Railroad.

Alarm of the

Sherman was personally familiar with the country through which he was now marching. He inhabitants. had formerly hunted over it frequently. The aspect of Nature still remained the same, but great were the social changes. The South Carolinians had never imagined that war would approach their firesides. They thought that they were encircled by a rampart of other states. None were more clamorous in upholding the war so long as its devastations were at a distance-on the banks of the James, the Tennessee, the Mississippi; but, now that the tide of blood had reached the Edisto, they were urgent that there should be peace. Already, through this country of solemn woods and sandy plains, columns of black smoke rising to the sky indicated that an avenging army was approaching.

Of the Confederate commanders, Hardee was in CharlesPosition of the Con- ton, with about 14,000 men, expecting Sherfederate generals. man coming from Branchville; D. H. Hill and G.W. Smith were at Augusta, also looking for his approach ; Beauregard was near the North Carolina line, collecting troops.

Sherman's army

Sherman was at this time operating west of Branchville, on the railroad from that place to Augusta. crosses the Edisto. He now struck north to Orangeburg, the first important station from Branchville to Columbia. The next important station is Kingsville, where the road from Wilmington to Charleston intersects the Columbia and

Charleston Road. The 17th Corps crossed the south fork of the Edisto at Binnaker's Bridge, and moved directly for Orangeburg; the 15th crossed at Holman's Bridge, and moved to Poplar Springs, to act as a support; the left wing, which was still at work on the railroad, was ordered to cross the South Edisto at New and Guignard's Bridges, to move to the Orangeburg and Edgefield Road, and there await the result of the attack on Orangeburg. On the 12th the 17th Corps found the enemy intrenched in front of the Orangeburg Bridge, but swept him away by a dash, and followed him, forcing him across the bridge, which was partially burned. Behind the bridge was a battery in sition, covered by a cotton and earth parapet with wings. Blair held one division (Smith's) close up to the Edisto, and moved the other two to a point about two miles below, where he crossed Force's division by a pontoon bridge, holding Mower's in support. As soon as Force emerged from the swamp the enemy gave ground, and Smith's division gained the bridge, crossed over, and occupied the ene my's parapet. The bridge was soon repaired, and by 4 P.M. the whole corps was in Orangeburg. Orders were

Destruction of the
Columbia and
Charleston Railroad.

po

given to destroy the railroad effectually up to Lewisville, to push the enemy across the Congaree, and force him to burn the bridges, which he did on the 14th. Sherman, without wasting time on Charleston, which he knew could be no longer held, turned all his columns on Columbia.

Advance to

The 17th Corps followed the State Road, and the 15th crossed the North Edisto at Schilling's Bridge, Columbia. above the mouth of Cawcaw Swamp Creek. On the 15th it found the enemy in a strong position at Little Congaree Bridge (across Congaree Creek), with a tête-depont on the south side, and a well constructed fort on the north side, commanding the bridge with artillery. The ground in front was very bad, level and clear, with a fresh deposit of mud from a recent overflow. The leading diviIII.-M M

sion, however, succeeded in turning the flank of the têtede-pont by sending a brigade through a cypress swamp to the left; and, following up the retreating enemy promptly, got possession of the bridge and the fort beyond. The bridge had been somewhat damaged by fire, and had to be repaired for the passage of artillery, so that night closed in before the head of the column reached the bridge across Congaree River in front of Columbia. Early the next morning the head of the column was opposite Columbia, but too late to save the fine bridge which spanned the river at that point: it was burned by the enemy. While waiting for the pontoons to come to the front, the troops could see people running about the streets of Columbia, and occasionally small masses of cavalry. A few shots were fired at the unfinished state-house walls, and a few shells at the railroad dépôt, to scatter the people, who were carrying away sacks of corn and meal that Sherman's troops would need. There was no flag or manifestation of surrender. Howard was ordered not to cross the river in front of Columbia, but to move over the Saluda at a factory three miles above, and then over Broad River, so as to approach the city from the north. Within an hour after the arrival of Howard's head of column opposite Columbia, the head of column of the left wing also appeared, and Slocum was directed to cross the Saluda at Zion Church, and thence take roads direct for Winnsboro, breaking up the railroads and bridges about Alston.

The capital of South
Carolina in pres-

army.

To South Carolina the Day of Retribution had at last come. For more than thirty years she had ence of the national been conspiring against the unity of the nation. Forgetting that pretensions to sov ereignty are only respected in proportion as they can be made good by physical power, she gave herself no concern with the reflection that she was one of the weakest of the states. There were single towns in the North surpassing her in population and resources. The domineering spirit

engendered by her despotism over slaves in the cotton plantation, she had carried into the public councils. Slavery had produced in her the same result that it has done on a grander scale in Asia-the sympathy of the Orientals centres in men, never in governments. She thought more of the dicta of Calhoun than of the Constitution. Her political leaders had found-such was the condition of public sentiment—that they could array their own private ambition against the general good.

Civil War, with all its tremendous evils, she had provoked, not because of any injustice, any tyranny inflicted on her, but only because she foresaw that, through the ir resistible development of other portions of the nation, her relative influence must decline, her politicians lose their importance. She had drawn over to her views all the other slave states by teaching them that their domestic institution was in peril. It was in peril, not because of the North alone, but because of the civilized world. Human slavery in the nineteenth century was a political anachronism, and had no rightful claim to exist.

South Carolina believed that she was assailable only on her Atlantic front, and there she made a gallant defensea defense on which, in her ruin, she may reflect with pride. But never did she expect that a great army, making real warfare, would pass like a tornado through her midst. The army that was coming was not like those which in the earlier days of the war waited for the roads to dry, for the weather to become cooler and then to become warmer, for the leaves to fall-armies spell-bound through dread of masked batteries. This was one which had forced the passage of the Alleghanies with many tremendous pitched battles; which had corduroyed its way for hundreds of miles through quagmires and morasses; which had crossed broad rivers, and built great bridges sometimes in a single night. When the 1st Division of the 17th Corps, its general, Mower, leading, forded and fought

« PreviousContinue »