MILITARY: Sabre Strokes of the Pennsylvania Dragoons in the War of 1861-1865 - Chapter 17 Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Banja Copyright 2005. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/pafiles.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/1pa/1picts/dornblaser/sabre-strokes.htm ________________________________________________ SABRE STROKES of the PENNSYLVANIA DRAGOONS in the WAR OF 1861-1865. INTERSPERSED WITH PERSONAL REMINISCENCES By T. F. DORNBLASER 206 SABRE STROKES CHAPTER XVII. WILSON'S RAID THROUGH ALABAMA AND GEORGIA. THE cavalry corps which was organized on the banks of the Tennessee, during the winter of sixty-five, consisted of four divisions - commanded, respectively by Generals McCook, Long, Upton, and Hatch; with Major General J. H. Wilson as commander-in-chief. Minty's old brigade constituted a part of Long's division. About the middle of March, Wilson's command began to cross over on the south side of the Tennessee river. The "Seventh" broke camp at two o'clock Monday morning. We turned the night into day, by making bonfires of our winter quarters. The writer wrote a letter home from Chickasaw Landing, dated March seventeenth, 1865, in which he says, "We crossed the river last Monday on the steamer Westmoreland. We are now encamped three miles northeast of East Port. We are turning over all our excess baggage. Each cavalryman is required to carry one hundred rounds of ammunition on his sabre-belt and in his saddle pockets. Sixty days' rations of sugar and coffee are to be PENNSYLVANIA DRAGOONS. 207 carried on wagons and mules. We must depend on the country through which we pass, for bread and meat. Our company now reports seventy mounted men for duty. Colonel C. C. McCormick, a tall handsome man, and a gallant officer, is now in command of the "old Seventh." On the twenty-third of March, General Wilson put his columns in motion southward. Upton's division took an easterly direction, and turning southward from Cherokee Station, kept on the left of the main column. Long's and McCook's divisions moved south through Frankfort and Russellville, to Black Warrior river. The crossing of this stream was beset with many difficulties, but the news that Forrest was concentrating his forces in our front, urged Wilson to push his corps across as rapidly as possible. A few horses were lost in the river, but no men. Leaving the wagons and artillery far behind (with a train-guard of 1500 dismounted men), the column pressed rapidly forward through Elyton and Montevallo. At this point Croxton's brigade was sent to the right, to destroy the military school, bridges, factories, and public stores at Tuscaloosa, and then rejoin the main column at Selma, if practicable. He did not find it practicable, however, and making a detour through northern Alabama, he finally made connections with Wilson at Macon, Georgia. 208 SABRE STROKES. Upton's division joined the main column at Montevallo on the thirty-first, and led the advance. The enemy attempted to make a stand five miles south of Montevallo, and after a sharp engagement they were completely routed, leaving fifty prisoners in our hands. Next day Upton and Long pushed Forrest's cavalry vigorously, in the direction of Selma. In the afternoon, Forrest offered battle on the north bank of Bigler creek. He had a force of five thousand men, and several batteries, well posted behind barricades. General Long ordered forward a few regiments of Indiana mounted infantry, to break the enemy's line, and then ordered Col. Frank White, commanding the Seventeenth Indiana, to make a sabre charge. "This regiment drove the enemy behind his barricades, charged against his main line, broke through it, rode over his guns, and turning left about, they cut their way out, leaving Captain Taylor and sixteen men with the enemy. In this charge, Taylor lost his life, having led his men into the midst of the enemy, and engaged in a running fight, for two hundred yards, with General Forrest himself." In this fight of one hour's duration, the enemy lost three guns and two hundred prisoners. "At sundown, Wilson's command bivouacked near Plantersville, keeping up a sharp skirmish with the PENNSYLVANIA DRAGOONS. 209 enemy, who had been driven twenty-five miles during that day." At daylight next morning, April second, 1865, Long's and Upton's columns were in rapid motion toward Selma. Minty's brigade led the advance on the direct road, Upton's division moved south on a road to the left of Long's line of march, and both columns converged toward Selma, pushing Forrest's rear-guard rapidly before them. During this rapid march of eighteen miles, the writer rode in company with Lieut. Sigmund, commanding the second battalion of our regiment. The lieutenant was unusually quiet and sober-minded that day. He expected a desperate battle with Forrest's command at Selma. Early in the afternoon Long's division was in line across the Summerfield road, not more than six hundred yards from the enemy's works. From our position we had an excellent view of the defenses of Selma. In our front were three batteries of artillery, strongly posted behind heavy parapets, projecting from the main line of earthworks. To charge the enemy at this point, it was necessary to pass over an open field enfiladed by artillery and swept by musketry, to break through a stockade of cedar posts five feet high and sharpened at the top, to pass over another open space fifteen yards wide, into the broad deep ditch, under the flaming muzzles 210 SABRE STROKES. of the enemy, then to climb an embankment whose slant-height was fifteen feet, to the top of the parapet, lined by a head-log behind which the enemy stood shoulder to shoulder, ready to deliver their well-directed volleys into the breast of the advancing battalions. It was scarcely presumed by officers or men, that General Wilson would order dismounted dragoons to make an assault upon such formidable earthworks. Nevertheless, after careful reconnoissance, he ordered the assault to be made. A signal gun from Rodney's battery, on our left, was to designate the moment for a general advance. We were waiting for Upton's division to get into position on our left. While standing in line, we saw a train of Union prisoners going south on the Alabama and Mississippi Railroad. They cheered and waved their hats to us as they sped out of sight. That hour of suspense, in waiting for the signal, was terrible. Lieut. Sigmund turning over his horse to his colored servant, said, "Good bye, Morgan, I am not sure that I shall see you again." Before General Upton was ready to assault the enemy on the left, a sharp skirmish began on our right and rear. Chalmers' brigade of Confederate cavalry was trying to cross Valley Creek on our right, and join Forrest within the defences of Selma. Fearing that this attack in the rear might com- PENNSYLVANIA DRAGOONS. 211 promise the general assault upon the town, General Long strengthened his rear guard, and determined to wait no longer on the signal gun, but with fifteen hundred dismounted men, out of the Seventh Pennsylvania, Fourth Michigan, Fourth Ohio, and Seventeenth Indiana, charged the enemy's works directly in his front. The line advanced over the brow of the hill, down through the open field, receiving the raking fire of the double-shotted batteries. The officers gallantly led their men on foot. Lieut. Sigmund was at the head of his battalion, going straight for the works, on the open Summerville road. There were no trees, no bushes, no logs, no rocks, behind which to seek shelter; there was no alternative but to face the fire. The fence on the left of the road was splintered and shivered by grape-shot. We reached the stockade. Sigmund was the first in the line to lift a stake and pass through. Some leaped over the stockade, others passed through the small openings. Sigmund did not stop in the ditch and wait for the battalion to come up. He clambered up the embankment, and just as he reached the top of the parapet, the first out of fifteen hundred, he received a charge of twenty buck-shot in his face, from a muzzle less than twenty inches from him. The brave Lieutenant rolled back, and lay lifeless at our feet. Colonel Minty ordered the brigade to re-form in the ditch, and all 212 SABRE STROKES. move over the embankment at once. The boys crawled to the top, and one volley from the "Spencers" scattered the rebel host, and Minty's brigade stood victors on the first line of earthworks. At this moment, General Wilson rode upon the field with the Fourth Regulars, and ordered a sabre-charge to be made on the second line of earthworks; but the charge was repulsed. At this stage of the battle, heavy firing was heard on the left. General Upton had penetrated the works on the left, and was driving the enemy before him into the streets of Selma. Simultaneously with this movement, Minty's dismounted regiments made another charge on the right, and carried everything before them; they did not stop until the town was captured, and Forrest's command completely routed. We never saw our boys so wrought up with the excitement of battle, and the unrestrained joy of victory. They laughed, they shouted, they clapped their hands for joy! Comrades met, clasped hands, wept, and blessed God that so many of us were safe! It was now dark, and we were resting three miles from the point where we started in the charge. A small squad was organized, consisting of Best, Wasson, Herr, Allison, and the writer, to go back in the night and carry Sigmund to a place of shelter. The night was very dark, and threatening with thunder-showers. We had gone back only a quarter of a mile when we heard some one PENNSYLVANIA DRAGOONS. 213 groaning with intense pain in the bushes to our right. We went to the spot, and found a Confederate soldier with his right leg shattered below the knee by a minie-ball. He said one of our boys had left a canteen full of water with him: he had not expected such kindness from the Yankees. He said he had been conscripted a few hours before the battle, and rushed into the breastworks in our front just as the battle opened. When our men mounted the parapet, he said, he did some "right smart running," but one of our Yankee bullets caught him before he got quite out of the woods. We proposed to carry him to the nearest shanty, and have his wound dressed, for which he was very grateful. We attempted to lift him on a board, and finding him heavier than we had calculated, we inquired his weight. He said his average weight was three hundred and twenty, but that he had lost some since he had joined the army. By resting a few times, we managed to carry him forty rods to a deserted shanty, where already several wounded "Johnnies" had found shelter. Some of these poor fellows were cursing the Yankees when we entered; but our Confederate giant hushed them up, and said they had every reason to be thankful for the kind treatment they had received. He requested us to write our names in his pocket-diary; that if any of us should be captured at any time, we should write to him at Selma, and he 214 SABRE STROKES. would come to our relief. He did not suppose that the great Southern Confederacy was about to give up the ghost. He said his name was Mr. Dudley, that his brother had been a United States Senator from Alabama, that he lived twelve miles east of Selma, on the Montgomery road, and if we passed that way, we would confer a lasting favor by communicating to his family his present hopeful condition. We promised to deliver his message, if at all possible. The night was so dark, the clouds so threatening, and the direction through the timber so uncertain, that our further search for Lieutenant Sigmund was abandoned until morning. Next morning, we found him at the foot of the embankment where he fell and died without a struggle. His bearded and manly face, which had passed unscarred through many a hard-fought battle, was now blackened with powder, and riddled with shot. His death, now, seems to us doubly sad, when we remember that it was the last battle in which his regiment was engaged. Our instructions from the adjutant were, to bury our dead near where they fell. Several of us dug the grave, while Sergeants Bricker, Darrah, and Loveland prepared a rough coffin. We wrapped the hero in his gory shroud, and laid him to rest. When it was decided to rest the command a few PENNSYLVANIA DRAGOONS. 215 days at Selma, the Masonic brotherhood raised the Lieutenant, and buried him in the public cemetery, attended by all the honors of war. Colonel McCormick of our regiment was severely wounded in the shoulder. General Long was disabled by a wound in the thigh, and Colonel Minty succeeded to the command of the division. Our company, in addition to its commander, lost Henry Paul, mortally wounded in four places, and his brother George was shot in the shoulder, from which injury he has died since the war; also Jacob Knights, Samuel McGill, George Fidler, William Fite, Joseph Allison, and Samuel Best, were wounded more or less seriously. As this was the last important battle in which our regiment was engaged, we will present the reader with a complimentary quotation from Van Horne's History, approved by General Thomas: "The charge of General Long, his brigade commanders leading with him, and fifteen hundred and fifty men following, was brilliant in the extreme. A single line without support advanced in utmost exposure for five or six hundred yards, leaped a stockade five feet high, a ditch five feet deep and fifteen wide, and a parapet ten feet high, and drove Armstrong's brigade, the best of Forrest's command, over fifteen hundred strong, in rout from works of great strength and advantages of wonderful superiority; and this was done while sixteen 216 SABRE STROKES. field-guns were playing upon them. In the charge, Colonel Dobbs, of the Fourth Ohio, was killed; General Long, and Colonels Miller, McCormick, and Biggs were wounded. The aggregate loss of the division was forty-seven killed, and two hundred and sixty wounded. "The fruits of victory were in correspondence with the gallantry of the troops that won it - thirty-one field guns, one thirty-pounder Parrott, two thousand seven hundred prisoners, including one hundred and fifty officers. Lieut. General Taylor sought safety in flight early in the afternoon, and under cover of the darkness, Generals Forrest, Roddy, Armstrong, and Adams, escaped with a number of men. The enemy destroyed twenty-five thousand bales of cotton; but left the foundries, machine shops, arsenals, and warehouses of this immense depot of war material, for the torch." On the tenth of April, Wilson's command crossed the swift current of the Alabama river at Selma, by means of a pontoon bridge nine hundred feet long. The column moved rapidly eastward, on the direct road to Montgomery. After we had marched several hours, we began to inquire after Mr. Dudley's family, and at a late hour in the afternoon, we found the house he had so minutely described to us. The wife and three or four of the daughters stood at the gate, inquiring of the soldiers as they passed concerning the fate PENNSYLVANIA DRAGOONS. 217 of Mr. Dudley. None in all that long procession of horsemen could give them any reliable information, until Corporal Best and the writer rode up to the gate, and delivered the welcome message from the husband and father. Their expressions of gratitude were unbounded. The comrades of Mr. Dudley, who had made their escape, reported that he was killed - that they had seen him fall in the edge of the wood. Our message, therefore, was doubly grateful, coming as it did from a loved one whom they supposed to be dead! At Montgomery, we anticipated another hard battle; but to our happy surprise, on the morning of April twelfth, the mayor and city council met our advance with a flag of truce, and surrendered the capital of Alabama, and the first capital of the Southern Confederacy, without firing a shot. "But how great changes four years of civil war hath wrought! On the fourth of March, 1861, the insurgent congress asserted, with great pomp and circumstance, the independence of seven slave-holding states." "To-day the quiet streets, the fleeing troopers and hiding citizens, are in striking antithesis to the pomp and boast of the frenzied multitude on that ill-fated inaugural." The rear-guard of the enemy, on leaving the city, put the torch to ninety thousand bales of cotton - a fitting illumination to signalize the downfall of "King Cotton." 218 SABRE STROKES. Wilson's column marched through Montgomery, greeted by many demonstrations of joy on the part of freedmen and loyal citizens. Not a soldier was allowed to break ranks. No private property was molested. All Confederate stores and munitions of war were destroyed. After resting one day in camp outside the city, we resumed our line of march for Columbus, Georgia. On the way, it was customary for each company to send out each day a small foraging squad to the right or left of the column, in charge of a non-commissioned officer. The instructions given to the foragers were, to pick up all serviceable mules and horses, to mount them each with an able-bodied negro, to gather supplies in the shape of flour, meal, chicken, turkey, ham, or fresh pork. Accordingly, on the first day's march east of Montgomery, it came the writer's turn to take charge of such an expedition. Some seemed to enjoy this kind of work, but to the writer it was absolutely the most distasteful service in the army. But it had come to that pass that a soldier who could not forage successfully might as well be in the hospital. To have foraged well was an achievement that called for higher compliment, than "to have fought well." Early in the day, the writer, with a squad of ten, started out to the right of the main column in search of plunder. We rode hard all forenoon, PENNSYLVANIA DRAGOONS. 219 stopping at a number of houses, making fruitless inquiries of women and negroes, peeping into smoke-houses, looking through stables, penetrating swamps, and with all found nothing. The answer everywhere was the same: "Capting, de mules run'd away." "De hams done gone." It was soon time to abandon our wanderings and return to the main column. Must we suffer the mortification of going to camp without a hair or feather of some kind? Seeing a group of plantation hands in front of us, we rode up hurriedly, and inquired if they knew of any mules or horses in the neighborhood. They declared upon honor, they knew of none. We singled out the stoutest negro in the party, and ordered him to "fall in," and keep pace with our horses. We told him what our instructions were, and that as soon as we found a horse or mule we would let him ride. "Trot up, boys, we must move along, or night will overtake us before we reach camp!" After trotting along about forty rods, the negro exclaimed - "Say! Capting, I knows whar is two mighty fine mules!" "All right! you mount my horse and we will ride over and get them." By winding through the heavy timber a mile or more, we came to a stable occupied by two monstrous long-eared quadrupeds. We ordered our 220 SABRE STROKES. negro, who happened to belong to that plantation, to find a bridle and mount one of the mules as soon as possible, while we proceeded to the house to find another negro, to ride the other mule. The lady of the house met us at the front gate. She began to agonize, and pray aloud to Almighty God for protection. She was a widow, and wholly dependent on her negroes for support. Her husband, who was a rebel captain, ran out at the back door and hid in the bushes, just as we rode up to the front-gate; which fact was communicated to us too late to be of any service. We steeled our hearts against her prayers and imprecations. "If you must take my mules, do let me have my negroes." We eased conscience a little by saying that "if we did not take them, others would." The boys began to mount. The lady brought a pitcher of wine and offered each a glass. Turning to her colored servants she said, "Go bring a ham for my boys, they will want something to eat; bring some bed-clothes, they must have something to sleep on." Verily, she was heaping coals of fire on our heads! Then began the music of broken heart-strings among the servants, as they said to their companions - "Good bye, brother Jim." "Good bye, brother George." "De Lord bless ye." We could stand it no longer. We put spurs to PENNSYLVANIA DRAGOONS. 221 our horses, and said "Forward." We galloped through the woods, shutting our ears against the prayers of the widow, and the heart-rending cries of the servants. When we had gone a few miles with our dear-bought booty, we met another plantation-group, and while we were sounding the depths of their hearts for the whereabouts of some more mules, a colored boy divulged the secret that a keg of "apple jack" was hid along the orchard fence. Instantly, about one-half of our squad broke ranks and charged down through the orchard, and "took jack in," that is, they took into their canteens the contents of the keg. Before we had gone much farther, one of our boys became somewhat hilarious. Knowing that the country through which we were passing was unfriendly to the "Yankees," either drunk or sober, and not wishing to lose any of our brave squad, we resolved to pour out the "apple brandy" and save our young friend; although it crossed his will a little at the time, he has, since the war, frequently expressed his gratitude for this timely interference. We stopped at a large white house for something to eat. We found the lady of the house greatly distressed. She said during the night previous two men, dressed in our uniform, broke into her house and demanded the "five hundred dollars in 222 SABRE STROKES. silver," which they knew was hid about the house. She refused to divulge the secret. They searched and rummaged every part of the house, and failed to find any trace of the money. Then one of the robbers drew his revolver and threatened to send a ball crashing through her brain, if she did not instantly reveal the place where it was hid. She still refused, but her little girl was almost frantic with fear, and begged her mother to tell where the money was. She yielded rather to the child's entreaty than to the robber's threat. They found the money in a tin box, buried in the corner of the garden. It was a pitiful story, and it was doubtless true. She supposed it was some of our soldiers who committed this villainous deed, but it is not at all probable, as our advance halted more than ten miles west of her place on the night of the robbery. It is much more reasonable to suppose that they were Confederate stragglers, or professional robbers, in disguise. She said her husband was a Union man, and in order to escape conscription, he had gone north, and was doing business in the State of Massachusetts. The five hundred dollars he had left with her to support the family during his absence. We had no desire to make any further inquiry about mules or horses, and from this point we beat a hasty retreat to the main column. We stopped to feed our horses in a country town through which PENNSYLVANIA DRAGOONS. 223 Upton's division was passing. We told our colored boys to go up town, and if they saw our soldiers making a raid on the Confederate stores, they should go in and help themselves. In a short time they came back, one with a bushel of coffee on his shoulder, and the other with half a hundred pounds of sugar. After a brief conference, we decided to let the colored boys go back to their mistress, if they preferred to do so. They said their mistress was very kind to them, and they would like to go back. We loaded them with coffee and sugar, and sent them home. We lost prestige as foragers, but in peace of mind we were gainers. On the night of the sixteenth, Upton's division made a gallant assault upon the enemy's works at Columbus, Ga., capturing fifty-two guns and twelve hundred prisoners. The covered bridge over the Chattahoochee river was saved from the torch. The bridge was lined inside with cotton saturated with turpentine, so that one match would put the entire bridge in a blaze; but the enemy was so completely surprised and utterly routed that no one seemed to think of a match. This was characteristic of the entire raid, that the enemy was so closely pressed as to find no opportunity to burn any important bridges. The next objective point was Macon, and thence 224 SABRE STROKES. to Andersonville prison. Minty's division took the advance. On the twentieth of April, when our advance-guard was yet thirteen miles west of Macon, a flag of truce, in charge of General Robinson, came out to meet us. The communication was from General Cobb, commanding Confederate forces at Macon, apprising General Wilson of Lee's surrender to Grant, and of the armistice existing between the forces of Sherman and Johnston. In view of this truce, Wilson was requested to halt his troops, and cease further hostilities, until the armistice was closed. Before General Wilson could reach the front and satisfy himself as to the truth of the above statements, Minty's advance had dashed into town and received the surrender of the garrison.