CHAPTER XXVI.

SHERMAN IN SOUTH CAROLINA.

GENERAL SHERMAN received, soon after his arrival in Savannah, instructions from General Grant to hasten with his army to James River. Transports were sent down for the shipment of the troops. Grant desired to combine the two great armies, throw Sherman upon his own left flank, and sever Lee's communications with the South, and also prevent his escape. Through all the long months of summer, autumn, and winter, from June to February,- Grant had put forth his energies to accomplish this object, but had not been able to cut the Danville road, Lee's chief line of supply or retreat. The arrival of Sherman upon the sea-coast made the plan feasible.

But that officer thought it better to march northward, driving the enemy before him, and finish up the entire Rebel forces on the Atlantic coast; besides, South Carolina deserved a retribution as severe as that which had been meted out to Georgia. He also believed that he could thus join Grant quite as soon as by the more circuitous route by water. Grant assented to the proposition, and having full confidence in the ability of his lieutenant, left him to co-operate in the manner he thought most advisable.

The Rebels expected that Sherman would move upon Charleston, but such was not his intention. He determined to make a movement which would compel its evacuation, while at the same time he could drive the forces of the Rebels in the interior of the State northward, and by destroying all the railroads in his progress, and severing Lee from the agricultural regions of the South, so cripple his resources as to paralyze the Rebel army before Richmond, and bring the war to a speedy close.

He wished to preserve his army entire, and accordingly a division of the Nineteenth Corps, which had fought under

Emory in the Southwest and under Grover in the Shenandoah, having no enemy to pursue after the annihilation of Early, was sent down to garrison Savannah, Grover being made commandant of the post.

General Howard, commanding the right wing, took transports with the Seventeenth Corps, Blair's, for Beaufort, whence he pushed into the interior, striking the Charleston and Savannah Railroad at Pocatoligo, and establishing there a depot of supplies. The Fifteenth Corps, Logan's, followed, except Corse's division, which, being prevented by freshets from marching direct to Pocatoligo, moved with the left wing, commanded by Williams, joining the Twentieth Corps, and crossing the Savannah marched to Hardeeville, on the Charleston Railroad, and opened communication with Howard.

"Come with me," was the kind invitation of General Williams; "you will see high old times, I reckon. My soldiers are crazy to get into South Carolina." But believing that

Sherman's movement would necessitate the evacuation of Charleston, I preferred to enter that city at the hour of her deepest humiliation.

Davis's corps, the Fourteenth, with Geary's division of the Twentieth, crossed at Sister's Ferry, fifty miles above Savannah. This detour was necessary on account of the flooding of the country by freshets. The gunboat Pontiac was sent up to cover the crossing. When Slocum reached the river at Sister's Ferry he found it three miles in width, and too deep to ford, and was obliged to wait till the 7th of February before he could cross. This movement deceived Hardee and Beauregard. The presence of Howard at Pocatoligo looked like an advance upon Charleston, while Slocum being at Sister's Ferry indicated an attack upon Augusta. The Rebel commanders therefore undertook to hold a line a hundred miles in length. D. H. Hill was hurried to Augusta, Hardee took position at Branchville, while Beauregard remained at Charleston. This scattering of the Rebel forces made Sherman's task comparatively easy, as their combined army would hardly have been a match for Sherman in a pitched battle on a fair field. His troops had entire confidence in themselves and in their commander. Having fought their way from Chat

tanooga to Atlanta, having marched to the sea and taken Fort McAllister and Savannah, they believed there was no obstacle which they could not overcome in marching or fighting.

Wilmington had been captured, and Sherman proposed to receive his next supplies from the coast.

"I shall reach Goldsboro' about the 15th of March," said Sherman to his chief quartermasters, who at once made preparations to forward supplies from Morehead City in North Carolina.

Sherman held a conference with Admiral Dahlgren on the 22d of January, and with General Foster, commanding the Department of the South. All the troops in that quarter were to be employed in a movement against Charleston. General Foster being in feeble health, Major-General Gillmore, who had charge of the department during the summer, and who had conducted the engineering operations against Wagner and Sumter, again took command.

The march of the right wing, under Howard, commenced on the 1st of February. Howard found obstructions on all the roads. The negroes from the plantations had been impressed into the Rebel service to burn bridges, fell trees, and open sluice-ways; but his Pioneer Corps was so thoroughly organized that such obstacles did not greatly impede his progress. The Salkehatchie River runs southeast, and reaches the Atlantic midway between Charleston and Savannah. Howard moved up its southern bank, northwest, till he reached River's bridge, thirty-five miles above Pocatoligo. It was a weary march, through swamps, mud, and pine-barrens. River's bridge and Beaufort bridge were held by the Rebels, who were strongly posted. Blair, with the Seventeenth Corps, was ordered to carry the first, and Logan, with the Fifteenth, the latter. Blair detailed Mower's and Corse's divisions for the work. The troops saw before them a swamp three miles wide, overflowed, with soft mire beneath, filled with gnarled roots of gigantic trees. It was mid-winter. The air was keen. They knew not the depth of the water. The forest was gloomy. Above them waved the long gray tresses of moss. There was nothing of pomp and circumstance to inspire them. It was an undertaking full of hazard. They must shiver an hour in the

water, breast deep, before they could reach the enemy.

But

they hesitated not an instant when the order was given to move. They stepped into the water jocosely, as if upon a holiday excursion.

A Rebel brigade guarded the farther shore; flanking it, and reaching the firm land below the bridge, the troops rushed recklessly forward, and quickly drove the enemy from his strong position, losing but seventeen killed and seventy wounded.

Thus by one dash the Rebel line of the Salkehatchie was broken, and Hardee retired behind the Edisto to Branchville. The railroad from Charleston to Augusta was reached the next day, and D. H. Hill at Augusta, with one third of the Rebel force, was severed from Hardee and Beauregard. For three days Howard's men were engaged in destroying the railroad west of the Edisto, waiting also for the left wing, which had been detained by freshets.

Kilpatrick, meanwhile, had pushed well up towards Augusta, driving Wheeler, burning and destroying property, and threatening Hill. The Rebels everywhere were in a state of consternation. They could not divine Sherman's intentions. The people of Charleston, who for four years had heard the thunder of cannon day and night down the harbor, and had come to the conclusion that it was impossible the city could ever be taken, now thought Sherman was intending to knock for admission at the back door. The people of Augusta saw that their fair town was threatened. It had been an important place to the Confederates through the war, contributing largely to help on the Rebellion by its manufacturing industry. Citizens fled from Charleston to Cheraw, Columbia, Winsboro', and other towns up the Santee and Catawba, little thinking that they were jumping from the "frying-pan into the fire."

Branchville is sixty-two miles northwest of Charleston, on the north bank of the Edisto. Hardee expected to see Sherman at that place, and made elaborate preparations to defend it, as it lay in the path to Charleston. But Sherman, instead of turning southeast, kept his eye on the north star, and moved on Orangeburg, thirteen miles north of Branchville, where also the Rebels were prepared to make a stand; but the Seventeenth Corps made one dash, and the enemy fled from a long breast

work of cotton-bales. This was on the 12th of February. Meanwhile General Hatch, with a portion of Gillmore's troops, was threatening Charleston along the coast.

A division under General Potter, accompanied by a large number of gunboats, went to Bull's Bay, north of Charleston, as if to approach the city from that quarter. The monitors were inside the bar. There were Union troops on Morris's Island, ready to move, while the batteries kept up their fire, sending shells into the city. Thus from every point except on the northern side Charleston was threatened.

It was not till Howard was well up towards Columbia that Hardee saw he had been completely flanked, and that Sherman had no intention of going to Charleston. The only force in front of Sherman was Wheeler's and Wade Hampton's cavalry, with straggling bands of infantry. Hampton's home was Columbia. He was rich, and had a palatial residence. He was an aristocrat, in principle and action. He was bitter in his hatred of the Union and the men of the North. He had fought upon nearly all the battle-fields of Virginia, and doubtless, in common with most of the people of his State, had not thought it possible the war should reach his own door. But Sherman was there, and being powerless to defend the capital of the State, he was reckless to destroy.

Columbia had been a depot of supplies through the war. In view of its occupation, Sherman gave written orders to Howard to spare all dwellings, colleges, schools, churches, and private property, but to destroy the arsenals and machinery for the manufacture of war material.

Howard threw a bridge across the river three miles above the city, and Stone's brigade of Wood's division of the Fif teenth Corps was sent across. The Mayor came out in his carriage, and made a formal surrender to Colonel Stone, who marched up the streets, where huge piles of cotton were burning. Hampton, in anticipation of the giving up of the city, had caused the cotton to be gathered, public as well as private, that it might be burned. There were thousands of bales. Negroes were employed to cut the ropes that bound them, and apply the torch. As Stone marched in the last of Hampton's troops moved out. The wind was high, and flakes