February 11, 1865---The Battle of Aiken, S.C.

FEBRUARY 11, 1865:         

The Battle of Aiken, South Carolina:

General Judson “Kill Cavalry” Kilpatrick U.S.A. is in South Carolina along with his superior, General Sherman. Sherman has asked him to detach himself from the main line of the March and to move on Augusta, Georgia, spreading ruin as he goes. The Augusta area is one of the few undespoiled areas of the South.

Kilpatrick takes his commanding officer at his word, and spends $5,000.00 on matches for his men. Kilpatrick’s column moves inland, fire-raising as they come. Kilpatrick, with his trademark mordant wit, calls the South Carolina town of Barnwell “Burnswell.”

Kilpatrick is, however, moving directly toward one of the few remaining organized Confederate forces in South Carolina, a cavalry force under General Joseph Wheeler C.S.A.

Although Wheeler had tried several times in Georgia to disrupt the March he had never been successful. Kilpatrick is overconfident in facing this familiar enemy. And Kilpatrick’s force outnumbers Wheeler’s by 1,000 men.

The South Carolina town of Aiken, outside of Augusta, Georgia, is a militarily important town in its own right, both for its gunpowder mill (one of the last operating in the South) and its textile mills (which produce 5,000,000 feet of cloth per year).

When Kilpatrick’s men ride into Aiken intending to burn it, street fighting erupts with Wheeler’s men who have garrisoned the town. A brief Union artillery bombardment is followed by a Union cavalry charge. Wheeler’s men charge too, and ten minutes of bloody close-quarters fighting ensues with sabers and pistols.   

The two sides then break off almost as if by mutual consent, and several hours later there is an exchange of prisoners and arrangements are made for the dead and wounded.  

Rather than renew the attack or move on toward Augusta, Kilpatrick chooses to rejoin Sherman’s March, allowing Wheeler to claim victory in Aiken. While the battle is tactically a draw, strategically it is a Confederate win; the mills are left undisturbed, and word of Wheeler’s “victory” puts starch in the spine of the flagging Confederate soldiery. It is a blow, albeit a minor one, to Sherman and the Union forces in the State to leave Aiken intact. In the endgame of the Civil War, Wheeler’s victory at Aiken means nothing, though unburnt Aiken flourishes post-bellum, becoming (with Augusta) a major commercial center during Reconstruction.

The Yellow House, Gen. Joseph Wheeler C.S.A.'s headquarters in Aiken