Battle of the Wilderness.
At midnight, on the 3rd of May, Grant put this mighty force of his in
motion--the greatest body of men moving to combat that had ever been
assembled on the continent. On the 4th his army crossed the Rapidan,
at Germania and Ely's Fords, and began moving out towards the
turn-pike, leading from Orange Court House by way of the Wilderness to
Fredericksburg.
On the 5th Ewell had a smart engagement on the turn-pike, while
Heath's and Wilcox's Divisions, of Hill's Corps, had met successfully
a heavy force under Hancock, on the plank road--two roads running
parallel and about one mile distant. Both armies closed the battle at
night fall, each holding his own field. However, the enemy
strongly entrenched in front, while Hill's troops, from some cause
unexplainable, failed to take this precaution, and; had it not been
for the timely arrival of Longstreet at a critical moment, might have
been fatal to Lee's Army.
On the morning of the 5th we had orders to march. Foragers coming
in the night before reported heavy firing in the direction of the
Rapidan, which proved to be the cavalry engagement checking Grant
at the river fords. All felt after these reports, and our orders to
march, that the campaign had opened. All day we marched along unused
roads--through fields and thickets, taking every near cut possible.
Scarcely stopping for a moment to even rest, we found ourselves, at 5
o'clock in the evening, twenty-eight miles from our starting point.
Men were too tired and worn out to pitch tents, and hearing the orders
"to be ready to move at midnight," the troops stretched themselves
upon the ground to get such comfort and rest as was possible. Promptly
at midnight we began to move again, and such a march, and under such
conditions, was never before experienced by the troops. Along blind
roads, overgrown by underbrush, through fields that had lain fallow
for years, now studded with bushes and briars, and the night being
exceedingly dark, the men floundered and fell as they marched. But
the needs were too urgent to be slack in the march now, so the men
struggled with nature in their endeavor to keep in ranks. Sometimes
the head of the column would lose its way, and during the time it was
hunting its way back to the lost bridle path, was about the only rest
we got. The men were already worn out by their forced march of the day
before, and now they had to exert all their strength to its utmost to
keep up. About daylight we struck the plank road leading from Orange
Court House to Fredericksburg, and into this we turned and marched
down with a swinging step. Kershaw's Brigade was leading, followed by
Humphreys' and Wofford's, with Bryan bringing up the rear. The Second
South Carolina was in front, then the Third, Seventh, Fifteenth, Third
Battalion, and Eighth on extreme right, the brigade marching left in
front.
[Illustration: Capt. Chesley W. Herbert, Co. C, 3d S.C. Regiment.]
[Illustration: Capt. Theodore F. Malloy, Co. C, 8th S.C. Regiment.]
[Illustration: Capt. John W. Wofford, Co. K, 3d S.C. Regiment.]
[Illustration: Capt. John Hampden Brooks, Co. G, 7th S.C. Regiment.]
After marching some two miles or more down the plank road at a rapid
gait, passing Hill's field infirmary, where the wounded of the day
before were being cared for, we heard a sharp firing in our immediate
front. Longstreet's artillery was far in the rear, floundering along
through the blind roads as the infantry had done the night before. Our
wagons and subsistence supplies had not been since dawn of the 5th,
although this made little difference to the men, as Longstreet's Corps
always marched with three days' rations in their haversacks, with
enough cooking utensils on their backs to meet immediate Wants. So
they were never thrown off their base for want of food. The cartridge
boxes were filled with forty rounds, with twenty more in their
pockets, and all ready for the fray.
As soon as the musketry firing was heard, we hastened our steps, and
as we reached the brow of a small elevation in the ground, orders were
given to deploy across the road. Colonel Gaillard, with the Second,
formed on the left of the road, while the Third, under Colonel Nance;
formed on the right, with the other regiments taking their places on
the right of the Third in their order of march. Field's Division Was
forming rapidly on the left of the plank road, but as yet did not
reach it, thus the Second was for the time being detached to fill up.
The Mississippians, under Humphreys, had already left the plank road
in our rear, and so had Wofford, with his Georgians, and were making
their way as best they could through this tangled morass of the
Wilderness, to form line of battle on Kershaw's right. The task was
difficult in the extreme, but the men were equal to the occasion,
Bryan's Georgia Brigade filed off to the right, in rear, as reserves.
The line had not yet formed before a perfect hail of bullets came
flying overhead and through our ranks, but not a man moved, only to
allow the stampeded troops of Heath's and Wilcox's to pass to the
rear. It seems that these troops had fought the day before, and lay
upon the battlefield with the impression that they would be relieved
before day. They had not reformed their lines, nor replenished their
ammunition boxes, nor made any pretention towards protecting their
front by any kind of works. The enemy, who had likewise occupied their
ground of the day before, had reformed their lines, strengthened their
position by breastworks--all this within two hundred yards of the
unsuspecting Confederates. This fault lay in a misunderstanding of
orders, or upon the strong presumption that Longstreet would be up
before the hour of combat. Hancock had ordered his advance at sunrise,
and after a feeble defense by Heath's and Wilcox's skirmish line,
the enemy burst upon the unsuspecting Confederates, while some were
cooking a hasty meal, others still asleep--all unprepared for this
thunderbolt that fell in their midst. While forming his lines of
battle, and while bullets were flying all around, General Kershaw came
dashing down in front of his column, his eyes flashing fire, sitting
his horse like a centaur--that superb style as Joe Kershaw only
could--and said in passing us, "Now, my old brigade. I expect you to
do your duty." In all my long experience, in war and peace, I never
saw such a picture as Kershaw and his war-horse made in riding down
in front of his troops at the Wilderness. It seemed an inspiration to
every man in line, especially his old brigade, who knew too well that
their conduct to-day would either win or lose him his Major General's
spurs, and right royally did he gain them. The columns were not yet
in proper order, but the needs so pressing to check the advance of the
enemy, that a forward movement was ordered, and the lines formed up as
the troops marched.
The second moved forward on the left of the plank road, in support
of a battery stationed there, and which was drawing a tremendous fire
upon the troops on both sides of the road. Down the gentle slope
the brigade marched, over and under the tangled shrubbery and dwarf
sapplings, while a withering fire was being poured into them by as yet
an unseen enemy. Men fell here and there, officers urging ion their
commands and ordering them to "hold their fire." When near the lower
end of the declivity, the shock came. Just in front of us, and not
forty yards away, lay the enemy. The long line of blue could be seen
under the ascending smoke of thousands of rifles; the red flashes of
their guns seemed to blaze in our very faces. Now the battle was on in
earnest. The roar of Kershaw's guns mingled with those of the enemy.
Longstreet had met his old antagonist of Round Top, Hancock, the
Northern hero, of Gettysburg. The roar of the small arms, mingled with
the thunder of the cannon that Longstreet had brought forward, echoed
and re-echoed up and down the little valley, but never to die away,
for new troops were being put rapidly in action to the right and left
of us. Men rolled and writhed in their last death struggle; wounded
men groped their way to the rear, being blinded by the stifling smoke.
All commands were drowned in this terrible din of battle--the earth
and elements shook and trembled with the deadly shock of combat.
Regiments were left without commanders; companies, without officers.
The gallant Colonel Gaillard, of the Second, had fallen. The intrepid
young Colonel of the Third, J.D. Nance, had already died in the lead
of his regiment. The commander of the Seventh, Captain Goggans, was
wounded. Colonel John D. Kennedy, commanding the brigade, had left the
field, disabled from further service for the day.
Still the battle rolled on. It seemed for a time as if the whole
Federal Army was upon us--so thick and fast came the death-dealing
missiles. Our ranks were being decimated by the wounded and the dead,
the little valley in the Wilderness becoming a veritable "Valley
of Hennom." The enemy held their position with a tenacity, born of
desperation, while the confederates pressed them with that old-time
Southern vigor and valor that no amount of courage could withstand.
Both armies stood at extreme tension, and the cord must soon snap one
way or the other, or it seemed as all would be annihilated, Longstreet
seeing the desperate struggle in which Kershaw and Humphreys, on the
right, and Hood's old Texans, on the left, were now engaged, sought to
relieve the pressure by a flank movement with such troops as he had at
his disposal. R.H. Andersen's Division, of Hill's Corps had reported
to him during the time Kershaw was in such deadly throes of battle.
Four brigades, Wofford's, of Kershaw's, and G.T. Anderson's, Mahone's,
and Davis', of Anderson's Division, were ordered around on our right,
to strike the left of Hancock But during this manoeuver the enemy
gradually withdrew from our front, and Kershaw's Brigade was relieved
by Bratton's South Carolina Brigade. I quote here from Colonel
Wallace, of the Second.
"Kershaw's Division formed line in the midst of this confusion, like
cool and well-trained veterans as they were, checked the enemy, and
soon drove them back. The Second Regiment was on the left of the plank
road, near a battery of artillery, and although completely flanked
at one time by the giving away of the troops on the right, gallantly
stood their ground, though suffering terribly; they and the battery,
keeping up a well-directed fire, to the right oblique, until the
enemy gave way. General Lee now appeared on our left, leading Hood's
Texas Brigade. We joined our brigade on the right of the plank road,
and again advanced to the attack.
"We were relieved by Jenkins' Brigade, under command of that able and
efficient officer, General Bratton, and ordered to the rear and rest.
We had scarcely thrown ourselves upon the ground, when General Bratton
requested that a regiment be sent him to fill a gap in the lines,
which the enemy had discovered and were preparing to break through.
I was ordered to take the Second Regiment and report to him. A staff
officer showed me the gap, when I double quicked to it, just in time,
as the enemy were within forty yards of it. As we reached the point we
poured a well-directed volley into them, killing a large number, and
putting the rest to flight. General Bratton witnessed the conduct of
the regiment on this occasion and spoke of it in the highest terms."
But, meanwhile, Longstreet's flanking columns were steadily making
their way around the enemy's left. At ten o'clock the final crash
came. Like an avalanche from a mountain side, Wofford, Mahone,
Anderson, and Davis rushed upon the enemy's exposed flank, doubling up
Hancock's left upon his center, putting all to flight and confusion.
In vain did the Federal commander try to bring order out of confusion,
but at this critical moment Wadsworth, his leading Division General,
fell mortally wounded. Thus being left without a commander, his whole
division gave way, having, with Stephen's Division, been holding
Fields in desperate battle. The whole of Hancock's troops to the right
of the plank road was swept across it by the sudden onslaught of the
flanking column, only to be impeded by the meeting and mixing with
Wadsworth's and Stephen's retreating divisions.
At this moment a sad and most regretable occurrence took place, that,
in a measure, somewhat nullified the fruits of one of the greatest
victories of the war. One of Mahone's regiments, gaining the plank
road in advance of the other portion of the flanking column, and
seeing Wadsworth giving such steady battle to Fields, rushed over and
beyond the road and assailed his right, which soon gave way. Generals
Longstreet, Kershaw, and Jenkins, with their staffs, came riding down
the plank road, just as the Virginia Regiment beyond the road was
returning to join its brigade. The other regiments coming up at this
moment, and seeing through the dense smoke what they considered an
advancing foe, fired upon the returning regiment just as General
Longstreet and party rode between. General Jenkins fell dead,
Longstreet badly wounded. Captain Doby, of Kershaw's staff, also was
killed, together with several couriers killed and wounded.
This unfortunate occurrence put a check to a vigorous pursuit of
the flying enemy, partly by the fall of the corps commander and the
frightful loss in brigade and regimental commanders, to say nothing
of the officers of the line. Captain Doby was one of the most dashing,
fearless, and accomplished officers that South Carolina had furnished
during the war. The entire brigade had witnessed his undaunted valor
on so many battlefields, especially at Mayree's Hill and Zoar Church,
that it was with the greatest sorrow they heard of his death. Captain
Doby had seemed to live a charmed life while riding through safely the
storms upon storms of the enemy's battles, that it made it doubly sad
to think of his dying at the hands of his mistaken friends. On this
same plank road, only a few miles distant, General Jackson lost his
life one year before, under similar circumstances, and at the hands of
the same troops. Had it not been for the coolness of General Kershaw
in riding out to where he heard Jenkins' rifles clicking to return the
fire, and called out, "Friends," it would be difficult to tell, what
might have been the result.
To show the light in which the actions of Kershaw's Brigade were held
in thus throwing itself between Lee and impending disaster at this
critical moment, and stemming the tide of battle single-handed and
alone, until his lines were formed, I will quote an extract from an
unprejudiced and impartial eye witness, Captain J.F.J. Caldwell,
who in his "History of McGowan's Brigade" pays this glowing but
just tribute to Kershaw and his men. In speaking of the surprise and
confusion in which a part of Hill's Corps was thrown, be says:
"We were now informed that Longstreet was near at hand, with
twenty-five thousand fresh men. This was good matter to rally on. We
were marched to the plank road by special order of General Hill; but
just as we were crossing it, we received orders to return to the left.
We saw General Longstreet riding down the road towards us, followed
by his column of troops. The firing of the enemy, of late rather
scattering, now became fierce and incessant, and we could hear a
reply to it from outside. Kershaw's South Carolina Brigade, of McLaws'
(afterwards Kershaw's) Division, had met them. The fire on both sides
of the road increased to a continuous roar. Kershaw's Brigade was
extended across the road, and received the grand charge of the
Federals. Members of that Brigade have told me that the enemy rushed
upon them at the double-quick, huzzahing loudly. The woods were filled
with Confederate fugatives. Three brigades of Wilcox's Division and
all of Heath's were driven more or less rapidly, crowding together
in hopeless disorder, and only to be wondered at when any of them
attempted to make a stand. Yet Kershaw's Brigade bore themselves with
illustrious gallantry. Some of the regiments had not only to deploy
under fire, but when they were formed, to force their way through
crowds of flying men, and re-established their lines. They met Grant's
legions, opened a cool and murderous fire upon them, and continued
it so steadily and resolutely, that the latter were compelled to give
back. Here I honestly believe the Army of Northern Virginia was saved!
The brigade sustained a heavy loss, beginning with many patient,
gallant spirits in the ranks and culminating in Nance, Gaillard, and
Doby."
No further pursuit being made by Kershaw's Brigade during the day, it
was allowed to rest after its day and night march and the bloody and
trying ordeal of the morning. Friends were hunting out friends among
the dead and wounded. The litter-bearers were looking after those too
badly wounded to make their way to the rear.
Dr. Salmond had established his brigade hospital near where the battle
had begun in the morning, and to this haven of the wounded those who
were able to walk were making their way. In the rear of a battlefield
are scenes to sickening for sensitive eyes and ears. Here you see men,
with leg shattered, pulling themselves to the rear by the strength of
their arms alone, or exerting themselves to the utmost to get to some
place where they will be partially sheltered from the hail of bullets
falling all around; men, with arms swinging helplessly by their sides,
aiding some comrade worse crippled than themselves; others on the
ground appealing for help, but are forced to remain on the field amid
all the carnage going on around them, helpless and almost hopeless,
until the battle is over, and, if still alive, await their turn from
the litter-bearers. The bravest and best men dread to die, and
the halo that surrounds death upon the battlefield is but scant
consolation to the wounded soldier, and he clings to life with that
same tenacity after he has fallen, as the man of the world in "piping
times of peace."
Just in rear of where Colonel Nance fell, I saw one of the saddest
sights I almost ever witnessed. A soldier from Company C, Third South
Carolina, a young soldier just verging into manhood, had been shot in
the first advance, the bullet severing the great artery of the thigh.
The young man seeing his danger of bleeding to death before succor
could possibly reach him, had struggled behind a small sapling.
Bracing himself against it, he undertook deliberative measures for
saving his life. Tying a handkerchief above the wound, placing a small
stone underneath and just over the artery, and putting a stick between
the handkerchief and his leg, he began to tighten by twisting the
stick around. But too late; life had fled, leaving both hands clasping
the stick, his eyes glassy and fixed.
The next day was devoted to the burying of the dead and gathering
such rest as was possible. It was my misfortune to be wounded near
the close of the engagement, in a few feet of where lay the lamented
Colonel Nance. The regiment in some way became doubled up somewhat on
the center, perhaps in giving way for the Second to come in, and here
lay the dead in greater numbers than it was ever my fortune to see,
not even before the stone wall at Fredericksburg.
In rear of this the surgeons had stretched their great hospital
tents, over which the yellow flag floated. The surgeons and assistant
surgeons never get their meed of praise in summing up the "news of the
battle." The latter follow close upon the line of battle and give such
temporary relief to the bleeding soldiers as will enable them to
reach the field hospital. The yellow flag does not always protect the
surgeons and their assistants, as shells scream and burst overhead as
the tide of battle rolls backward and forward. Not a moment of rest or
sleep do these faithful servants of the army get until every wound is
dressed and the hundred of arms and legs amputated, with that skill
and caution for which the army surgeons are so proverbially noted.
With the same dispatch are those, who are able to be moved, bundled
off to some city hospital in the rear.
In a large fly-tent, near the roadside, lay dying the Northern
millionaire, General Wadsworth. The Confederates had been as careful
of his wants and respectful to his station as if he had been one of
their own Generals. I went in to look at the General who could command
more ready gold than the Confederate States had in its treasury.
His hat had been placed over his face, and as I raised it, his heavy
breathing, his eyes closed, his cold, clammy face showed that the end
was near. There lay dying the multi-millionaire in an enemy's country,
not a friend near to hear his last farewell or soothe his last moments
by a friendly touch on the pallid brow. Still he, like all soldiers on
either side, died for what he thought was right.
"He fails not, who stakes his all,
Upon the right, and dares to fall;
What, though the living bless or blame For him,
the long success of fame."
Hospital trains had been run up to the nearest railroad station in the
rear, bringing those ministering angels of mercy the "Citizens' Relief
Corps," composed of the best matrons and maidens of Richmond, led by
the old men of the city. They brought crutches by the hundreds and
bandages by the bolt. Every delicacy that the, South afforded these
noble dames of Virginia had at the disposal of the wounded soldiers.
How many thousands of Confederate soldiers have cause to bless these
noble women of Virginia. They were the spartan mothers and sisters of
the South.
* * * * *
COLONEL JAMES D. NANCE.
I do not think I would be accused of being partial in saying that
Colonel Nance was the best all round soldier in Kershaw's Brigade,
none excepted. I have no allusion to the man, but the soldier alone.
Neither do I refer to qualities of courage, for all were brave, but
to efficiency. First to recommend him was his military education and
training. He was a thorough tactician and disciplinarian, and was only
equaled in this respect by General Connor. In battle he was ever cool
and collected--he was vigilant, aggressive, and brave. Never for a
moment was he thrown off his base or lost his head under the most
trying emergencies. His evolution in changing the front of his
regiment from columns of fours to a line of battle on Mayree's Hill,
under a galling fire from artillery and musketry, won the admiration
of all who witnessed it. Socially, he had the manners of a
woman--quiet, unassuming, tender of heart, and of refined feelings.
On duty--the march or in battle--he was strict and exacting, almost
to sternness. He never sought comfort or the welfare of himself--the
interest, the safety, the well being of his men seemed to be his
ruling aim and ambition.
I append a short sketch of Colonel Nance taken from Dr. Barksdale's
book, "Eminent and Representative Men of the Carolinas:"
"Colonel James Drayton Nance, the subject of this sketch, Was
born in Newberry, S.C., October 10th, 1837, and was the son
of Drayton and Lucy (Williams) Nance. He received his school
education at Newberry, and was graduated from the Citadel
Military Academy, at Charleston. In 1859 he was admitted to
the bar and began the practice of law at Newberry.
"When the State seceded from the Union, December, 1860, and
volunteers for her defense were called for, he was unanimously
elected Captain of 'The Quitman Rifles,' an infantry company
formed at Newberry, and afterwards incorporated into the Third
Regiment, South Carolina Volunteers. With his company he was
mustered into the Confederate service at Columbia in April,
1861, and was in command of the company at the first battle of
Manassas and in the Peninsula campaign in Virginia.
"On May 16th, 1862, upon the reorganization of the Third
Regiment, he was chosen its Colonel, a position which he
filled until his death. As Colonel, he commanded the regiment
in the various battles around Richmond, June and July, 1862,
Second Manassas, Maryland Heights, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg
(where he was severely wounded), Gettysburg, Chickamauga,
Knoxville, and the Wilderness, where on the 6th of May,
1864, he was instantly killed. His body was brought home and
interred at Newberry with fitting honors. He was a brave,
brilliant young officer, possessing the confidence and high
regard of his command in an extraordinary degree, and had he
lived, would have risen to higher rank and honor. His valuable
services and splended qualities and achievements in battle
and in council were noted and appreciated, as evidenced by the
fact that at the time of his death a commission of Brigadier
General had been, decided upon as his just due for meritorious
conduct.
"At the age of seventeen he professed religion and united
with the Baptist Church at Newberry, and from that time to his
death was distinguished for his Christian consistency."
* * * * *
LIEUTENANT COLONEL FRANKLIN GAILLARD.
Lieutenant Colonel Franklin Gaillard is not known to fame by his
military record alone, but was known and admired all over the State
as the writer of the fiery editorials in the "Carolinian," a paper
published in Columbia during the days just preceding Secession, and
noted for its ardent State Rights sentiment. These eloquent, forcible,
and fearless discussions of the questions of the day by young Gaillard
was a potent factor in shaping the course of public sentiment and
rousing the people to duty and action, from the Mountains to the Sea.
Through the columns of this paper, then the leading one in the State,
he paved the way and prepared the people for the great struggle soon
to take place, stimulating them to an enthusiasm almost boundless.
He was in after years as fearless and bold with the sword as he
had been with the pen. He was not the man to turn his back upon his
countrymen, whose warlike passions he had aroused, when the time for
action came. He led them to the fray--a paladin with the pen, a Bayard
with the sword. He was an accomplished gentleman, a brave soldier, a
trusted and impartial officer, a peer of any in Kershaw's Brigade.
Colonel Gaillard was born in 1829, in the village of Pineville, in the
present County of Berkeley. In his early childhood his father,
Thomas Gaillard, removed to Alabama. But not long thereafter Franklin
returned to this State, to the home of his uncle, David Gaillard,
of Fairfield County. Here he attended the Mount Zion Academy, in
Winnsboro under the distinguished administration of J.W. Hudson. In
the fall of 1846 he entered the South Carolina College, and graduated
with honor in the class of 1849, being valedictorian of the class.
Shortly after graduation, in company with friends and relatives from
this State and Alabama, he went to California in search of the "yellow
metal," the find of which, at that time, was electrifying the young
men throughout the States.
After two or three years of indifferent success, he returned to this
State once more, making his home with his uncle, in Winnsboro. In 1853
(or thereabout) he became the proprietor of the "Winnsboro Register,"
and continued to conduct this journal, as editor and proprietor, until
1857, when he was called to Columbia as editor of the "Carolinian,"
then owned by Dr. Robert W. Gibbes, of Richland, and was filling that
position at the time of the call to arms, in 1861, when he entered
the service in Captain Casson's Company, as a Lieutenant, and became a
member of the renowned Second Regiment.
In March, 1853, he was married to Miss Catherine C. Porcher, of
Charleston, but this union was terminated in a few years by the death
of the wife. Colonel Gaillard left two children, one son and one
daughter, who still survive, the son a distinguished physician, of
Texas, and the daughter the wife of Preston S. Brooks, son of the
famous statesman of that name, now of Tennessee.
Colonel Gaillard was a descendant of a French Huguenot emigrant, who,
with many others, settled in this State after the Revocation of the
Edict of Nantes, in 1685.
* * * * *