THE FAILURE TO CAPTURE HARDEE.
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drawing his fire from all points, indicating a forcemore than double that of our brigade. Dismountedcavalry were now sent forward to prolong theskirmisli-line. Captain Grafton was reportedbadly wounded in the leg, but still commandingwith his usual coolness. Suddenly he appearedstaggering out of the wood into the open space inour front, bareheaded, his face buried in his hands,his saber hanging by the sword-knot from his wrist,one leg bound up with a handkerchief, his uniformcovered with blood; in a moment he fell towardthe colors. Officers clustered about him in silence,and a gloom spread through the brigade as wordpassed that Grafton was dead.
The main column was now arriving, and as thetroops filed off to the right and left of the road,and the field-guns galloped into battery, we movedforward to the attack. The enemy gave us a hotreception, which we returned with a storm of lead.It was a wretched place for a fight. At some pointswe had to support our wounded until they could becarried off, to prevent their falling into the swampwater, in which we stood ankle-deep. Here andthere a clump of thick growth in the black mudbroke the line as we advanced. No ordinarytroops were in our front. They would not giveway until a division of Davis’s corps was thrown
upon their right, while we pressed them closely.As we passed over their dead and wounded, I cameupon the body of a very young officer, whose hand-some, refined face attracted my attention. Whilethe line of battle swept past me I knelt at his sidefor a moment. His buttons bore the arms of SouthCarolina. Evidently we were fighting the Charles-ton chivalry. Sunset found us in bivouac on theGoldsboro’ road, and Hardee in retreat.
As we trudged on toward Bentonville , distantsounds told plainly that the head of the columnwas engaged. We hurried to the front and wentinto action, connecting with Davis’s corps. Littleopposition having been expected, the distancebetween our wing and the right wing had beenallowed to increase beyond supporting distance inthe endeavor to find easier roads for marching aswell as for transporting the wounded. The scopeof this paper precludes a description of the battleof Bentonville, which was a combination of mis-takes, miscarriages, and hard fighting on both sides.It ended in Johnston’s retreat, leaving open theroad to Goldsboro’, where we arrived ragged andalmost barefoot. While we were receiving lettersfrom home, getting new clothes, and taking ourregular doses of quinine, Lee and Johnston sur-rendered, and the great conflict came to an end.
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SHERMAN’S “BUMMERS” CAPTURING FAYETTEVILLE COURT HOUSE, N. C. FROM A SKETCH MADE AT THE TIME.
THE FAILURE TO CAPTURE HARDEE.
BY ALEXANDER ROBERT CHISOLM, COLONEL, C. S. A.
W hen General Sherman in his march acrossGeorgia had passed through Milledgeville,General Beauregard was hastily ordered from Mis-sissippi to Charleston , there to assume commandof the department then commanded by GeneralHardee ,} who had urgently asked for his presence.
When he arrived in Charleston Sherman wasclose to Savannah , the end of his march to the sea.
Here he lost an easy and brilliant opportunity tocapture, with that city, Hardee’s entire commandof about 10,000 men. In his “ Memoirs ” he writes(Vol. II., p. 204) that General Slocum wanted totransfer a whole corps to the South Carolina bankof the Savannah River , the object being to cut offHardee’s retreat. At that time Hardee’s only lineof retreat was at Screven’s Perry to a causeway,