Personal Recollections of Sherman's Campaigns in Georgia and the Carolinas

by George W Pepper

  THE BUMMERS.

  About this time the foragers began to spread over the country, and in irregular and regular parties went skirmishing over the country. These enterprising characters were known by the names of "Bummers," "Smokehouse Rangers' and "Do-Boys." A bummer is an individual who, by favor of a wagon-master becomes possessed of a broken down mule, or else starts, if need be, on foot, in either case, of course, armed with his musket. He makes his way into the enemy's country, finds horses in numbers by help of the negroes, hitches a team to a wagon, loads on it all the stores and supplies he can find in the nearest house, mounts his negroes on the rest of the horses, and returns with the spoils. He never objects to gold watches or silver plate if he can find them in a swamp a mile from any house." These men were stragglers, not in rear, but in front of the army, and they went before it like a cloud, being often twenty to thirty miles in advance of the head of the column. They would fight anything.

  Three "bummers" together would at any time attack a company of rebel cavalry, and in favorable circumstances would disperse them and capture their booty. With the exception of Columbia alone, every town in South Carolina through which the army passed was first entered by the bummers. At Chesterfield they were two days and a half ahead of the army, the whole corps having congregated at this point. They rigged up two logs for cannon, sent a flag ahead to the town, which was occupied by a detachment of Butler's Division of cavalry, demanded its surrender, frightened off the rebel cavalry, and entered the town in grand procession of broken down mules, ragged "bummers, and the " Quaker guns." The coat tails of the rebels disappeared at the end of the town as the “Do Boys “entered at the other.

  When the army was marching toward Midway, as above described, a smoke-house ranger was seen rushing toward the front, with an old bit of carpet on his mule for a blanket, and a couple of ropes with nooses for stirrups, in which his feet rested. This hero came rushing up to General Howard, and shouted out: "General, the bummers have taken the railroad, and are in line of battle, fighting to hold it, and if you'll only hurry up I think they'll hold it." The General did hurry up, and found the railroad, as the smokehouse ranger had said, in possession of about seven bummers, who were busily engaged skirmishing at long range with a detachment of Wheeler's cavalry.

  THE INVASION OF SOUTH CAROLINA.

  The left wing of the Army of Georgia invaded South Carolina on the twentieth of January, thirty days after its triumphal entry into Savannah. General Howard's wing moved around to Beaufort somewhat earlier than that date. Your correspondent with that column will detail its movements. The divisions — Jackson's and Ward's — of the Twentieth Corps, crossed the Savannah river at the city on the twentieth, and plunged into the swamps of South Carolina. General Geary's division was ordered to go to Sister's Ferry, sixty miles above Savannah, by the Georgia road. Williams traveled up the South Carolina shore, the others up the Georgia bank, without incident, but laboriously, till Saturday, January twenty-eight, when Jeff. C. Davis reached the ferry. Steamboats with supplies were sent up the river to that point, so that, after concentration, the left wing might cut loose from civilization again with plenty of provisions. There was plenty of water in the river, and vast piles of stores were soon accumulated at Sister's Ferry.

  Here is a week of unremitting toil — when soldiers waded about in mud up to their waists, chopping, lifting and treading on torpedoes — passed before the road over which the troops were to march was in condition. General Williams with his two divisions, had come up to Robertsville meanwhile, and was waiting to open communication. Kilpatrick's command crossed the pontoon into South Carolina on the third of February, and succeeded in reaching dry South Carolina space in the direction N of Aiken. General Slocum who had labored day and night to get his two corps together, drew a long breath of relief when Geary's division took the bridge, Saturday morning, February fourth.

  BEAUFORT DISTRICT.

  General Williams moved from Robertsville, through Lawtonville, two days before Geary's division of his corps had crossed, and on the fourth, was thirty-five miles in the heart of Beaufort district, L. M. Keitt's old stamping ground. Geary had the trains of the corps moved with considerable difficulty over roads where the mud averaged two and a half feet in depth, where I saw in several places, animals standing in the middle of the road, literally imbedded to the ears in mud. Many miles of corduroy were built and sunk, and built again. Coosawhatchie swamp and river, swollen by the heavy rains, were successfully crossed, although three-quarters of a mile of waist deep wading was required to do it. The Salkehatchie, (Siltkatcher, in South Carolina vernacular,) was crossed at Beaufort Bridge, and Williams' corps finally concentrated at Blackville, a little town on the Charleston and Augusta railroad, on February ninth.

  FIRST IMPRESSIONS.

  Our first impressions in regard to the country we had invaded, gave us no very exalted opinion of the State of South Carolina. Vast swamps, or barrens, where nothing but pine will grow, houses few and far between, no fence rails to burn, no living things in the fields to kill and eat, it was pretty generally conceded that we had not struck a very fine lead. The soil is treacherous, like the people who own it. A thin crust of earth and fine cane, cover four or five feet of quicksand; and to the unlucky horseman or muleteer who leaves the beaten path for a short cut through the fields or woods. Heavy bodies were only safe on the corduroy. More than one thousand wagons of the Twentieth Corps alone were brought over these roads to Blackville, by General Geary, in four days.

  THE YIELD OF SUPPLIES.

  As we entered Barnwell district, the country was richer. Foragers roamed at will, twenty miles on either flank and in front of the column, and brought in large amounts of new bacon and corn. There was no longer anxiety for the stomach's sake. Two hundred head of cattle, were brought in by Captain Gillette, Geary's commissary. "Thousands of bushels of corn were left by the roadside for want of transportation." Kilpatrick having been through the country before us, with fifteen thousand dismounted men, explained the scarcity of horses and mules along the route. Chickens, turkeys and sorghum were as abundant as in Georgia.

  DEVASTATION AND DESTRUCTION.

  During the first part of the march, houses were burned as they were found. Whenever a view could be had from high ground, black columns of smoke were seen rising here and there within a circuit of twenty or thirty miles. Solid built chimneys were the only relics of plantation houses after the fearful blast had swept by. The destruction of houses barns, mills, was almost universal. Families who remained at home, occasionally kept the roof over their heads. "Refugeeing," as our soldiers termed fleeing from the wrath to come, was taken as evidence that the refugees were rebels, and the property they had left was destroyed. Think of this black swath extending from Barawell to the coast, and figure upon the value of South-eastern South Carolina at the present day.

  TERROR OF THE PEOPLE.

  Even the negroes were wary— afraid in some instances to trust themselves among the men who made this fearful work on the country; while table cloths were suspended from the windows with "Have mercy on me" for a legend, and the fiery spirit of South Carolina was tamed effectually. Occasionally, in Georgia, a man could be found who had the courage to say that he voted for secession; but these abject men were afraid to own that they lived in a seceded State.

  NO FIGHTING.

  General Williams scattered a small force of rebel cavalry at Robertsville, and his foragers drove them on beyond Rockville. At Robertsville one man killed and nine wounded. Other than this, no organized body of rebels bothered the Twelfth Corps column.

  BLACKVILLE

  The little village of Blackville had been visited by Kilpatrick's cavalry before the infantry column came lip. The real estate had not suffered much; personal property suffered. General Slocum ordered the destruction of the railroad buildings, and set Ward's division, of Williams' corps, at work upon the railroad. Eight or ten miles of track were destroyed, till Ward joined with the Fourteenth Corps, w
hich had come up on the left of the Twentieth. Thus the rebels at Augusta were cut off from Charleston. No private dwellings were burned at Blackville.

  HEAD WATERS OF THE EDISTO.

  Saturday, February eleventh, the Twentieth corps marched to the Edisto River. Nine distinct streams, flowing sluggishly through a swamp half a mile in width where the road crossed, were the obstacles to be surmounted here. Two hundred rebel cavalrymen disputed the crossing for a while, but a strong skirmish line, plunging through the swamp, dispersed them ore drove them away in a body, and the corps crossed. General Williams' corps was now between the two forks which form the Edisto River. The balance of General Slocum's command was well up on the left, with Kilpatrick further on the flank. The road across the point formed by the two branches, was fourteen miles long. The corps marched to the north fork before night on the twelfth, and went into camp. The two hundred rebels who had been driven away from the lower Edisto had concentrated here; their force was augmented somewhat, and with the assistance of four pieces of cannon they made considerable noise. Skirmishing was kept up all that Sunday night, the pioneers working upon the bridge meanwhile. Monday morning the enemy were gone. General Ward's division being in advance, that General mounted his "kicking stallion, took two companies for skirmishers, and advanced toward Lexington and Columbia at a rattling pace.

  TUESDAY, FEBRUARY FOURTEENTH.

  All day Tuesday the regiment of rebels skirmished with our advance, but they were easily brushed away. Once they made a dash behind the advance and captured Captain Reynolds, Inspector of General Robin son's brigade, and chased Captain Ward four miles or more. The enemy appeared in blue clothes, and were frequently hailed as Union soldiers.

  CAPTURE OF LEXINGTON COURT HOUSE.

  At five o’clock in the afternoon of Wednesday, February fifteenth, General Barnum's brigade, of Geary's division, was at Two Notch road, two miles from Lexington and twelve from Columbia. General Slocum had calculated upon Davis' corps being in the town at that hour; but the rains and vile roads had prevented even that swift traveling corps from coming up. General Barnum's brigade was pushed into town, but arrived there just too late to strike a blow at the rear of the rebel cavalry column, which had been pouring through all day towards Columbia. Only a dozen shots were fired. Barnum's brigade was withdrawn, and the Fourteenth corps marched up on a line with the Twentieth. General Slocum's wing of the grand army of invasion was concentrated for action, Wednesday night, ten miles from Columbia, facing towards that town, and lie issued the order for an advance on the capital early next morning, with the expectation of a fight. Ward’s division of the Twentieth corps, closely followed by Jackson's, moved down the road parallel with Jiff. C. Davis' corps, who had "gone through" Lexington, and struck the Seventeenth corps on the banks of the Congaree, opposite Columbia, shortly after noon. By having the shortest line of March, the right wing had reached Columbia first. De Grass' battery of twenty-pounder Parrotts was firing shots at the great white marble front of the new Capitol building; sharpshooters chaffed each other across the Congaree; Sherman, Slocum, Howard, Frank Blair, and other general officers gossiped on the banks during the balance of the day, waiting for the pontoon train to come up. The rebels did not reply to the artillery fire, and it was plainly to be seen that they did not intend to fight much for Columbia. Of the subsequent capture of that city by the right wing, I will say nothing, leaving the option for your correspondent with that wing. I simply observe that the night of Friday, February fifteenth, in Columbia, would have cracked Alaric's if he had witnessed it.

  TO FAIRFIELD DISTRICT.

  From the front of Columbia, General Slocum's command moved to the left, across the Saluda and Broad, to the Greenville and Columbia railroad, and deployed that for thirty miles. Cheatham and S. D. with twenty thousand men from Hood's army, reported by Kilpatrick as crossing the river, and General Slocum's idea was to prevent a on between them and Hardee's Charleston troops rushed rapidly on to Winnsboro, the capital of Fair district, where it was expected the rebel cavalry will give us a fight. They were known to outnumber Kilpatrick's command two to one. Wade Hamp-Wheeler and Butler were in command. Forage began to roll in; more and breadstuff's than I saw at any one time during Georgia campaign was brought to the roadside day.

  GENEBAL SLOCUM SAVES WINNSBORO.

  General Slocum double-quicked the advance of his in into the village of Winnsboro to save the town the torch of his foragers. General Pardee's brigade of Geary's division, was in advance, and every was made to beat the stragglers from the grand into town. They were not successful. The town pillaged and set on fire before any organized body troops got in. All officers turned their attention to fire, and arrested the progress of the flames. General Slocum, Williams, Geary, Pardee, Barnum and worked with their hands, burned their whiskers and shed their clothes, to prevent the repetition of Columbia scenes. Nine or ten buildings were burned on the main street before the fire was stopped— at the house of a Mrs, Prope, said to be the property of a man in New York City. Guards were posted at every house in town, and other fires were quenched as they burst out. Unfortunately the church building of the Episcopalian society was destroyed.

  ORIGIN OF THE FIRE.

  Citizens of Winnsboro told us that Mrs. Lunderdale, a rabid secession woman, set fire to her own property rather than have it fall into the Yankee's hands, and so destroyed the property of her neighbors.

  OVER REVOLUTIONARY GROUND.

  From Winnsboro, the left wing marched to the Cahawba River, striking it at Rocky Mount ford, the scene of one of the South Carolina skirmishes during the Revolution. Rocky Mount was one of Cornwallis line of out-posts. The Cahawba here is about a thousand feet wide, and runs through a very hilly country. A pontoon was thrown across, and the Twentieth corps hurried over. The rain, we feared, cut off Geary's division, and the troubles increased. The red clay made heavy mud and plenty of it. No idea can be formed by outsiders, of the difficulties of the Cahawba crossing. Wagons were hauled down the steep hill to the pontoon, dragging loads of mud by the axles, the wheels not moving; artillery horses floundered, and cannon were stuck fest. Virginia campaigners said it eclipsed Stafford Court House. When the crossing was made, the ascension of the hill was just as difficult. Two days were spent by the Twentieth corps in this labor through the mud. The history of the troubles of the Fourteenth corps would fill a volume.

  CHESTERFIELD COURT HOUSE.

  Tracy's creek and other streams were crossed in rapid succession, and the Twentieth corps reached the town of Chesterfield on Friday, the third of March. A brigade of rebels were driven out by General Jackson's skirmish line, and possession taken of the paltry town. A brick court house and six houses comprise the village. From Chesterfield the left wing marched to the Great Pedee River, near the State line. Howard's wing was already in Cheraw. The Great Pedee, or Yadkin of North Carolina, is quite a formidable stream to an army depending on pontoon boats; and we were delayed on its banks two days. Crossing the cavalry and the Fourteenth corps, General Slocum plunged into the State of North Carolina.

  A NEW ORDER OF THINGS.

  Of course it would be necessary to take of whatever food was needed for army consumption, even from the people of North Carolina; but I think the general feeling of the command was more favorable to the people of North Carolina than to those of the State we had just left. There are many men who carry muskets in Sherman's army who believe North Carolina could be made a thoroughly loyal State with a little persuasion. Men who had made sacrifices for the Union, were to be found on every road, and they should be protected from their friends. Acting with this in view, General Slocum issued the following order: —

  General Orders — No. 8.

  HEADQUARTERS, LEFT WING, ARMY OF GEORGIA,

  NEAR SNEEDSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA,

  MARCH 7TH, 1866.

  All officers and soldiers of this command are reminded that the State of North Carolina was one of the last States that passed the ordinance of secession, an
d that from the commencement of the war, there has been in the State a strong Union party. Her action on the question of secession was undoubtedly brought about by the traitorous acts of other States, and by intrigue and dishonesty on the part of a few of her own citizens.

  The act even never met the approval of the great mass of her citizens.

  It should not be assumed that the inhabitants are enemies to our government, and it is to be hoped that every effort will be made to prevent any wanton destruction of property, or any unkind treatment of citizens.

  By command of

  Major General H. W. SLOCUM

  Robert P. Dechert, Captain and Acting Assistant Adjutant General.

  FAYETTEVILLE CAPTURED.

  The left wing crossed the path of Hardee, who retreated from Cheraw to Rockingham, and advanced on Fayetteville without let or hindrance, except from a small force of cavalry. Baird's division, of the Fourteenth corps, skirmished into town without a halt for a line of battle, and Colonel Morrow, Ninety-second Ohio, hoisted his flag over the Court House in the second city of North Carolina. Guards were posted at every house in town, and at the time I write everything is going oh as quietly as ever under the rebel rule. The last Union flag that floated over the Fayetteville Hotel has been brought out, and now swings across the street in front of General Slocum's headquarters. The office of the Observer newspaper has been burned by order. Nothing else has suffered. The arsenal here contained no great amount of ammunition. In fact, the captures of rebel property at Fayetteville, were far below those at Columbia and Cheraw.