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 |
