GENERAL HAMPTON’S CATTLE RAID, SEPTEMBER, 1864
General Wade Hampton, in the history of the Civil War, must ever be
acknowledged to be one of the really great leaders. Of distinguished
ancestry and high personal character, and endowed with sublime
courage, he early entered the contest, and it was not long before
his aptitude for cavalry service was so developed and amplified as
to induce the War Department to confine his talents entirely to that
branch. As the second of J. E. B. Stuart, he not only earned renown
for himself, but was also one of the potent factors in helping his
chief to carry out his cherished plans and to win the conspicuous
place he occupied in the annals of the great war. To succeed so
brilliant a leader and so thorough a cavalryman as General Stuart,
imposed upon General Hampton most perplexing tasks and placed him in
a position which would thoroughly try out the metal that was in him.
It may justly and truly be said of General Hampton that he met all
the conditions which surrounded him in the arduous work which his
talents had won for him.
By the summer and fall of 1864, the obstacles which confronted the
Confederate cavalryman had been largely augmented. Living upon the
enemy had become practically impossible. Raids, in which wagon
trains, provisions, army ammunition and clothing had hitherto been
so successfully captured, were now seldom successful, and outpost
duty and the punishment of the Federal cavalry, which undertook to
destroy the transportation agencies south of Petersburg, engaged all
the time and the energies and more completely developed the genius of
the Confederate cavalry leaders of the Army of Northern Virginia.
Supplies of food had now become one of the most important, as
well as the most difficult, of all the problems which faced with
unrelenting grimness the armies of the Confederacy. The Federal raids
west and north of Richmond, and frequent interruption of lines of
communication about Petersburg and Lynchburg and up the Shenandoah
Valley, had rendered the food supply uncertain. Three and a half
years of war overwhelming the agricultural sections tributary to the
Capital of the Confederacy, had greatly cut down the necessary quota
of provisions.
For neither infantry nor cavalry was there much chance during that
period to forage upon the enemy. The lines of investment and defence
between Petersburg and Richmond kept the cavalry too far south to
foray for supplies north of Richmond. The Atlantic Ocean—free to the
Federals, but blockaded to the Confederates—formed a water route ever
open and impossible of closure, giving the Federals perfect safety
in moving food and supplies upon the currents of the mighty deep,
where there could be no chance for the men of the gray to attack or
appropriate them.
General Wade Hampton, always resourceful, had learned that on the
James River, five miles east of City Point, the Federal army had
corralled a large herd of cattle, kept upon such pastures as had
been left by the environments and demands of war. Fortunate in the
possession of most trustworthy scouts, who were entirely familiar
with the topography adjacent to the James River and the Confederate
and Federal lines at Petersburg, General Hampton knew with absolute
exactness the place where these beeves were being fed and kept ready
for Federal slaughter. He well understood that in any dangerous and
hazardous undertaking, the men who followed him would never hesitate,
but would cheerfully go where he led. These men were always well
assured if he carried them into the midst of danger, he had genius to
extricate them with masterful skill, and their cheers, when ordered
to advance, were the best response which a commander could receive
from the loyal hearts of his followers, and nerved his arm and
quickened his brain for great exploits.
To succeed in this unique and difficult cattle raid, it was necessary
to make an incursion to the rear of the Federal army within a very
short distance of City Point, the headquarters of General Grant and
his subordinate commanders. City Point had become the center of
operations as well as the base of supplies of the Union forces, and
even the most sagacious and cautious Federal soldier hardly deemed
it possible that Confederate cavalry could march in the rear of the
great army that then lay beside the James, or could, with impunity,
pierce the lines covering Federal headquarters and drive off the
large supply of beeves which had been gathered for army use.
On September 4th, 1864, General Hampton set out on this perilous
undertaking. He took with him men who were tried and true, men who
feared to take no risk, to brave no danger and who were capable of
achievements deemed wellnigh impossible by those unaccustomed to the
daring enterprises of war. He had with him General W. H. F. Lee’s
division, Rosser’s and Dearing’s brigades, and a hundred men from
General P. M. B. Young and General Dunnovant. W. H. F. Lee’s division
was composed of three brigades: General Beale’s, General Barringer’s
and General Dearing’s—the last named having only one regiment and one
battalion! There could be little choice among those who composed the
cavalry of the Army of Northern Virginia. They were all and always
to be depended upon. In this extraordinary expedition, those who
were chosen were measured not so much by the individual courage they
possessed above their fellows, as by the condition of the animals to
be subjected to such extreme hardship as awaited the expedition.
The three thousand men mustering for this foray were told only that
the service was both daring and important. These men did not deem
it necessary to inquire where they were going and what the service
was. They knew that Hampton planned, that Lee and Rosser, Beale,
Young, Dunnovant, Barringer and Dearing aided their chivalrous
commander, and they had sublime faith in the skill, as well as the
courage, of these intrepid leaders. There is something in the cavalry
march that exhilarates men, stirring and stimulating the spirit of
adventure. Visions of glory give quickened powers to the men who
ride to war. Those who composed the long line behind General Hampton
were cheerful, patient and hopeful, and inspired by patriotism and
courage, they rode out southeastwardly with the confidence born of
chivalry and implicit belief in the ultimate success of their cause.
After a march of thirty miles southeastwardly, the little army
bivouacked at what was known as Wilkinson’s Grove. Undiscovered,
they had now traveled eastwardly far enough to steer clear of the
extended lines of the Federal army which lay between them and the
ocean. With the break of day, the march was resumed. The heads of
the horses were now turned north, and before daylight had receded
the adventurous command had reached the Black Water River. These
movements had brought General Hampton entirely around the left flank
of the Federals, and he had now come close to the place where he
had intended to force the enemy’s lines. The bridges had long since
been destroyed, and it was necessary to erect temporary structures.
There was no rest for the engineers or their assistants. They had
ridden all day, but now they must work all night. A torch here and
there was occasionally lighted to help the men adjust a refractory
timber, but in the velvety darkness of the still night, cheerfully
and heroically, these brave men hurriedly erected a rude bridge
across the stream, whose currents flowed between the narrow banks,
as if to defy or delay these patriots in their efforts to provide
food for their hungry comrades, who, in their beleaguered tents
around Petersburg, were longing and watching for supplies which would
give them strength to still withstand the vigorous assaults of an
ever-watchful and aggressive foe.
Leaving only the pickets on watch, the command bivouacked upon the
ground, and horses and men in mingled masses—side by side—slept until
midnight. Cooked rations had been brought with them, and no camp
fires were kindled which might reveal their presence. No trumpet or
bugle sound was used to wake the soldiers, the low-spoken commands
of the officers instantly aroused the slumbering troopers whose ears
were quick to hear the low but stern orders of those who called them
to renew their wearying march. Long before the darkest hours that
precede the dawn, the men mounted, and before the sun had risen had
ridden the nine miles which lay between the bridge and the largest
detachment of the enemy’s cavalry, which guarded the pasturing
cattle. The coveted beeves were feeding just two miles farther on.
North and south, there were several bodies of Federal horsemen, but
General Hampton believed that if he could distance the larger force
it would prevent the small detachments from having any base upon
which to concentrate. To General Rosser, always spirited, gallant
and aggressive, was assigned the duty of making an assault upon this
force, and he was ordered immediately after the dispersal of the
Federals to corral and drive the cattle away.
The march from the bivouac where the Confederate cavalry had rested
and obtained a few hours’ sleep, consumed five hours, but before the
sun had well risen, Rosser attacked with fiercest energy. To General
Lee was assigned driving in the videttes. A cavalry regiment from the
District of Columbia, as soon as attacked, entrenched itself behind
barricades and gave notice that they proposed to dispute Rosser’s
right of way and to resist him to the last. The coming of light
had renewed the enthusiasm of the horsemen, and with the rising
sun, their courage rose to the sublimest heights. This feeling of
determination to win at all hazards permeated the entire Confederate
commands, and when Rosser called for sharp, impetuous, decisive,
gallant service, his men rode and rushed over all obstacles, and in a
very few moments defeated the Federal command opposing them, all that
were not killed or captured riding off in wild dismay.
General W. H. F. Lee and General Dearing were directed to disperse
and ride down everything which wore a Federal uniform wherever met
with. Pickets, troops, regiments, whatever opposed, and wherever
opposing, they were to assault and drive away. Particularly were
they to look after couriers, who might bear any messages to Federal
commanders of the presence of these headlong and apparently reckless
Confederates. In fact, a courier was captured and a dispatch taken
from him, giving the exact location of the herd, which had been moved
only the day before.
As soon as General Rosser had dispersed the detachments of Federals
which he was ordered to destroy, he immediately dispatched a portion
of his command to secure the cattle, which was done without either
delay or difficulty. The guards, panic-stricken by the presence of
enemies whom they thought were forty miles away, were overpowered
and made prisoners before they realized that Confederates were in
their midst. A few horses and all the beeves, numbering 2,486, were
corralled. There was no time for parley, delay, congratulations or
cheers. Safety required an immediate movement southward and away
from the presence of the numerous Union forces, who would soon learn
of this bold and aggressive raid and set about the punishment of the
audacious aggressors. But the spirit of war and destruction could
not be stilled. Dangers could not deter the cavalry from proceeding
to burn camps, to destroy great quantities of supplies, and immense
storehouses of clothing and provisions. There was many times more
than enough to meet all the wants of the foraging troopers. They were
quick to appropriate such of the enemy’s goods as met their needs,
and then the torch did its destructive work and rendered useless the
immense stores of food, clothing and munitions of war which Federal
foresight had garnered and gathered for the use of the troops and
camps south of the James River.
The campaign was so mapped out and planned that each man fully
understood the duties he was to perform. The secret of the marvelous
success which had so far attended the expedition was the result of
perfect orders communicated to the men who had ridden fast and far
on this splendid adventure. The Confederate troops were necessarily
scattered, the cattle had been rounded up, couriers had been
intercepted, videttes had been driven away. These movements covered
a large territory, but it was all done so systematically and so
thoroughly that it looked as if some machine had been adjusted and
set for this task. There had been no mistake in the distribution
of the orders, and no officer or man failed to carry them out. The
troops were elated by their superb success. Their victory lifted
them to the greatest heights of enthusiasm, and its glory seemed
to fill the very air and yet, amid all the fascination of their
splendid success, prudence told everybody that now was the hour of
their extremest peril, and that the greatest task of all, that of
driving away this splendid herd of cattle and delivering them to the
Confederate commissary, was yet to be accomplished.
It was a trying work to which these soldiers were now subjected, but
one which the experience and courage of these men had fully trained
them to perform.
In the later months of the war, the sphere of action of the cavalry
became very much broadened. Earlier, raiding and scouting had been
their chief business, but now in emergencies they were used, not only
as cavalry, but as infantry; and their lengthy military training
fitted them to perform their part as soldiers in any enterprise and
in any line of service. Extraordinary scenes were now witnessed, for
the situation was weird in the extreme. The beeves, alarmed by the
shouts of the soldiers and the firing, had become frightened and
unmanageable, for their new masters were not only strangely garbed
but acted in a way that they had never before witnessed. To quiet
the beasts in this emergency, the Federal herders were called upon,
whom the terrified animals recognized as their former masters and
keepers, while they looked with fear and suspicion upon the noisy and
dust-stained cavaliers who now claimed them as their property.
The Confederates soon found that if the cattle were driven in one
herd, the difficulties of moving them would be much increased, their
speed would be much lessened and the animals in great crowds might
become panic stricken, and so with the help of the herders and
captors, three or four hundred cattle were placed in one bunch or
detachment; these were surrounded by the horsemen and forced forward
as rapidly as the condition of the beasts would permit. Celerity
of movement was one of the important elements in this splendid
enterprise. No one understood this better than General Hampton and
General Robert E. Lee, and even down to the youngest private this
knowledge quickened the movements and steadied the arms and braced
the hearts of every soldier who composed the command. Within three
hours from the time General Rosser fired the first gun, General
Hampton had accomplished all his purposes and was ready to withdraw.
With the self-possession and calm of a great leader and without
semblance of fear or apparent solicitude, he began the task of
extricating himself from the dangerous and hazardous conditions into
which the necessities of General Lee’s army and his energetic zeal
had involved him.
No Federal general or soldier had dreamed that such a campaign could
or would be undertaken. Even had it been thought of, the hazard and
the danger of it would have convinced the most cautious Federal
officers that nobody could or would essay to enter upon such a
perilous and reckless expedition.
General Hampton, though, had friends who knew of this brilliant
undertaking. General Lee counted the hours which intervened from the
time Hampton formed his lines and marched away. He knew that only
vastly disproportioned numbers could stay the men who rode behind his
adventurous cavalry associate. He could not hear Hampton’s guns,
but a soldier’s instinct, the telepathy of genius, had whispered
to him that Hampton had done his work. He felt that failure was
almost impossible; that Hampton might be annihilated by overwhelming
forces, but General Lee knew the men who followed the man, and so
when Hampton began his march southward the Confederate commander,
behind his lines at Petersburg, began a demonstration upon the entire
Federal front. With fierce assault, pickets were driven in, troops
at double-quick were moved from position to position; the whole
Confederate forces were under arms, and so far as military foresight
could discern, everything indicated that General Lee was preparing
to make a strenuous assault upon every vulnerable Federal position.
The cavalry, left behind with General M. C. Butler, also began to
skirmish with the enemy’s pickets and outlying posts, and between
the movements of the cavalry and infantry, the Federal officers were
firmly impressed that a crisis in the defense of the Capital of the
Confederates was on and that General Lee was now going to force a
battle which would decide the fate, not only of the Army of Northern
Virginia, but of the Confederacy itself.
Fortunately for General Hampton and General Lee, General Grant
was absent. He had gone to Harper’s Ferry to consult with General
Sheridan about a movement down the Shenandoah Valley. Telegram after
telegram began to pour in upon him; he had hardly time to read one
before another was forced into his hands, and they all bore tidings
which disquieted his calm. The Federal cavalry, which had been
completely scattered, brought in with them marvelous stories of
the overwhelming forces that had attacked and dispersed them. Their
distorted imaginations had increased the numbers of Confederate
troops until it appeared to them that every man in General Lee’s
army had been mounted and was charging down upon the lines about
City Point with a fierceness that indicated that the furies had
been turned loose and that the unleashed dogs of war were ready to
attack all that could oppose them. The communications which had
passed between General Meade and General Grant and the Federal
subordinates during this period are most amusing. The quick and
unexpected onslaught had completely dismayed the Federal Army. Its
officers believed that so much ado being made along the lines in
front could not possibly have occurred, unless General Lee really
intended some important and decisive movement. Along the wires were
flashed the stories from the fleeing cavalry that the Confederate
forces counted more than fourteen thousand men. Those who were
sending these messages did not stop to figure that this was more
cavalry than General Lee had in his army. Hour by hour quickened
these fancies born of fear, and each fleeing horseman painted in more
lurid terms the pursuing foes, which they declared were close behind.
The gunboats were ordered to cover City Point for the defense of the
immense supplies there stored. Reserved troops were quickly pushed
forward, and a universal spirit of alarm and uncertainty prevailed
throughout the Federal camps.
In a few hours, the results of General Hampton’s incursion dawned
upon the Federal leaders. Chagrined and surprised at the success of
the Confederates, and determined to punish and resent their temerity,
vigorous measures were taken to release the cattle and disperse or
annihilate their captors. They understood that the march and drive of
the cattle would be difficult and slow, that the Confederates had the
long line and their pursuers the short one.
The Federal cavalry, under Generals Kautz, Gregg, Davies, all
ambitious and restive under the just criticism of their superiors for
permitting such a coup, with fierce resolution and quickened energy,
set their followers in motion and hunted their receding foes.
General Rosser had the cattle and could protect the narrow line along
which he was passing. His brigade was a wall of fire in his immediate
rear, but the converging pursuers from the north and west, quickened
at every step by the appeals of their officers to avenge what they
regarded as an affront, must be held back by Generals W. H. F. Lee
and Dearing. Those who followed these officers always gave a good
account of themselves, and General Lee, while active in his retreat
(an activity strictly limited by General Rosser’s ability to move
the cattle), while not seeking battle, stood with iron will between
their hot pursuit and the coveted droves, which were forced to their
utmost speed by the whips of the captive drovers and the shouts and
belaboring of the bold horsemen whose every stride was haunted by the
fear of the following Federal cavalry, now galloping to punish the
audacity of the Confederate raid.
With eager eyes and ears, General Lee and General Dearing scanned
every angle of the horizon, and every sound that passed southward,
every cloud of dust that rose heavenward, every object that dimmed
the perspective was scrutinized with earnest gaze. Eyes and glasses
united in finding the position of every coming foe, and the quick
ears of these trained horsemen were turned to catch each breeze, and
to detect if possible the earliest tidings of those who were bent
upon their destruction.
General Hampton rose to the call of the hour. Anxious well he might
be, but despite the throbbings of a heart aroused to mightiest
effort, he bore himself with the calmness of a skilled leader and
fearless soldier. To him and those he led, the issues were momentous.
Capture, imprisonment, the humiliation of defeat and the loss of
prestige, were grievous burdens to carry, but behind him there was a
splendid past and before him a future big with patriotic hope, and he
waited the orderings of fate with sublimest confidence.
Along his lines he rode with words of encouragement and cheer,
and none could discern in his demeanor the tumult of dread that
disquieted his soul. No word or act of his was necessary to tell
the men who with unquestioning loyalty were ready to do his bidding
the grave dangers of the hour. Intelligent and watchful they shared
with their leader the knowledge that the situation was fraught with
utmost peril and that nothing short of the noblest courage, quickest
perception and unfailing steadiness could avert threatening disaster.
Hampton, Lee, Rosser and Dearing were splendid leaders, they had with
them great soldiers, and combined they wrested from fate a great
victory. General Davies was the only Federal cavalryman that was
able to force any sort of a battle, but General Lee was quick to
resist his interference. Halting to feel General Lee’s line, Davies
and Gregg sent a flanking detachment to strike the retreating columns
five miles away, but when they came the Confederates were gone and
this proved the last real attempt to stop the march of Hampton’s
forces.
General Hampton, the master mind of this splendid movement, by
the aid of his faithful scouts and ever alert guides, kept fully
in touch with each part of the ever-changing field. Self-reliant,
confident of his soldiers, and a believer in his ability and destiny,
nothing escaped his oversight and care. If he feared, none knew
it. If his brave heart ever trembled, there was no external sign
of his apprehension, and his unruffled countenance was a constant
inspiration to those who, if needs be, would follow to death at his
call, and who had not even a momentary doubt of his ability to safely
deliver them from the tremendous risks of the hour and the terrifying
difficulties of their hazardous expedition.
[Illustration: GENERAL WADE HAMPTON]
Uncertainty as to the number of men engaged in this movement dampened
the ardor of the attacking Federal cavalry. They did not know
really what to expect. They could hardly believe that a force so
small would have dared strike their rear, and if it was as large as
military science suggested, they had no real taste for grappling a
foe equal in numbers to their own. Lee and Rosser were fighting the
Federal cavalry and holding them at bay. The cattle, now divided,
with soldiers and herdsmen pressing them forward, were traveling
farther and farther south. The hours no doubt seemed long to
the Confederate horsemen, but the excitement of the battle and the
presence of the enemy had sustained them through all the experiences
of the day. With such mental surroundings, minutes had greatly
lengthened, and all the Confederates were glad when they saw a little
ahead of them Nottoway River and recognized that Freeman’s Ford,
where they were to pass that stream, was safe from the enemy’s grip.
As the lowing beasts, the shouting drivers, the tired riders and the
weary horses took the stream and passed safely over to the other
side, to a point where they were safe from attack, generals, line
officers and privates took renewed strength and all congratulated
each other that a kindly providence had guided their feet and brought
them safely under the protecting wing of the legions of infantry and
artillery, for whose sustenance they had endured such tremendous
suffering and faced such extraordinary dangers.
Hampton, with his matchless courage, felt that his full task had not
been performed, and leaving the beasts to browse and later under
lessened guards to pursue their journey leisurely towards General
Lee’s fortified camp, he, himself, summoning such of his followers as
were yet able to ride to still greater tasks, recrossed the stream
and began, now tigerlike, to hunt his pursuers. He felt that these
men, who had had the temerity to pursue him and his great commissary
stores, should be punished for their audacity, and so, turning
northward, he set out to search for the enemies who had attempted
to take from him the rich prizes which his superb intrepidity and
magnificent daring had won for the Confederate army.
The Federal cavalry, far from their infantry supports and with
magnified ideas of the strength of the Confederate forces, were not
impatient to try conclusions with the Confederate troopers who had so
audaciously possessed themselves of their cattle, and so Hampton’s
weary men, with more weary and tired horses, turned their faces in
pursuit of the Federal cavalry. They found that those who had pursued
were now ready to retreat, and the Federal cavalry was willing to
leave them alone to enjoy the spoils of victory and the splendid meat
supply which they had so courageously won.
General Hampton and his men had marched a hundred miles in three
days, part of this time encumbered with twenty-five hundred beeves;
he was far removed from the support or help of his friends, except
so far as General Lee, by his movements in the face of the Federal
lines, could intimidate the army which was opposing him and which was
creeping hour by hour closer and closer to Petersburg and endeavoring
day by day to find the vital and weakest points in the wasted
Confederate lines. The infantry and artillery who were keeping at bay
the besiegers who were pushing forward to throttle the Confederacy
and wrest its Capital from its control and to drive Lee and his army
from Virginia soil, upon which had flowed such torrents of the best
blood of the South and on which had been won such laurels by the Army
of Northern Virginia, heard strange rumors that day, as the first
couriers brought the tidings of Hampton’s Raid.
Fatigued men and jaded beasts mutely appealed for rest and sleep, and
so when General Hampton found that his foes, unwilling to hazard a
battle, rode away northward as he appeared from the south, he gave
the command to face about, and by easy stages he led his troopers
across the river where they might, for a brief while, enjoy the rest
they had so richly earned and receive the plaudits of their comrades,
to whom they had brought such needed and healthful supplies in their
extremity and hunger.
For a little while, it was impossible for the Confederate army
to realize what General Hampton had done. The cavalry, always
sufficiently boastful, were not slow to tell of the difficulties
and dangers of the march, of the excitement and adventure which
attended every hour from the advance until the retreat. They were
real heroes, and there was no reason for them to be modest about
their exploits, and to the amazed infantry they repeated, probably
oftentimes with more or less exaggeration, the experiences and events
of this strange, successful and wonderful expedition. Here and there
the infantry had questioned the steadiness and courage of the trooper
under fire, but as this famished army enjoyed, with gratitude and
satisfaction, the delicious steaks which their cavalry friends had
brought them from the Federal depot, they assigned this commissary
achievement to a high place in war’s annals, and accorded to Hampton
and his troopers in this raid unsparing and unmeasured praise. If
General Hampton had done nothing else than inaugurate, organize and
successfully promote this marvelous raid, he would be entitled to
high rank among the cavalry leaders, not only of the Civil War, but
of the ages.