Today in History:

554 Series I Volume XLVII-II Serial 99 - Columbia Part II

Page 554 OPERATIONS IN N. C., S. C., S. GA., AND E. FLA. Chapter LIX.


HDQRS. CAVALRY COMMAND, ARMY OF INVASION,
Camp Creek, on Road to Hunter's Store, S. C., February 24, 1865.

[General SHERMAN:]

GENERAL: I reached my present camp at daylight. My last brigade, Colonel Jordan's, will not get into camp before 9 a.m. This road is horrible. If the Fourteenth Corps intends to move on it the greater part will have to be corduroyed as far as Camp Creek. I did not get the bridge last night till 10. 30 p.m. General Williams must have known that I was to have the bridge at 7 p.m., when he ordered General Geary (who had already gone into camp) forward at 6 p.m. I am sorry to trouble you with such matters, but I know of no other way of preventing a similar occurrence in the future. Yesterday five of my people, detailed to forage for my wounded in ambulances with twentieth Corps were arrested by a provost-marshal of that corps and strapped to a tree and there kept till the corps marched by, with inscriptions on their breasts "House-breakers. " I do not recognize General Williams's right to punish my people or disgrace them. I can and will do all the punishment myself. If I liked, I could retaliate every hour. Stragglers and foraging parties of the Twentieth Corps were here yesterday, eight miles from their command, committing acts most disgraceful. This house was pillaged at 10 a.m. yesterday by men of the Twentieth Army Corps. General Williams will have all he can do to maintain discipline in his own command. I have allowed foragers from the Left Wing to pass through my lines, and even assisted them. Yesterday a detail sent out by Major Dunbar, my quartermaster, captured ten mules and four horses for his wagon train. An officer of the Twentieth Army Corps arrested them and took mules and horses away. I shall now allow no foraging parties to pass through or out of my lines, and I shall dismount and seize all horses ridden by infantrymen who enter my column. This I shall continue to do, unless otherwise ordered by you or until my people are treated with that respect and courtesy, I feel their conduct and services demand. I also most respectfully call your attention to the fact that foraging parties and stragglers form Twentieth Army Corps burned sufficient forage on this road to have fed my entire command. I had occasion to mention this same fact to General Slocum some days since. I shall rest here till 1 p.m., when I will move slowly forward, as I feel confident that General Davis can move but a short distance to-day. Hampton is a Lancaster and a small portion of Wheeler's cavalry. The country is rich and full of forage. Until the rain is over, unless the road are better than this one, our progress must be very slow.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. KILPATRICK,

Brevet Major-General, Commanding Cavalry, Army of Georgia.


HEADQUARTERS CAVALRY COMMAND,

[February 24, 1865.]

Major General W. T. SHERMAN,

Commanding Military Division of the Mississippi:

GENERAL: I have the honor to report that Private Charles Wright, Ninth Ohio Volunteer Cavalry, General Atkins' headquarters, came in last evening from scout near Feasterville, below and west of Chesterville. He reports having found twenty-one of our infantrymen in a ravine, about eighty rods from the main and about tree miles from Feasterville, with their throats cit and stripped of their clothing. The


Page 554 OPERATIONS IN N. C., S. C., S. GA., AND E. FLA. Chapter LIX.