NP, AC 8/7/1864

From the Augusta Constitutionalist
 
August 7, 1864
 
(From the Macon Intelligencer)
A Ride Through the Raiders
   At a request of a number of gentlemen, I write for your columns the following sketch of what I saw and heard of the operations of the raiders around Macon & Milledgeville.
   I left Macon Saturday night at 10 o'clock in the midst of a drenching shower, with special instructions from the Governor to the officers commanding at Griswoldville and Milledgeville. A fall in Walnut Creek from a stumbling horse and the snapping of a musket by an exhilarated picket without commanding "halt!" brought me to "Cross Keys." There I took the road to Griswoldville, with which I was totally unacquainted and which I was kindly informed was infested with straggling Yanks. Descending a hill some two miles further on, I was aroused from a lonesome reverie by the sound of voices, and in a few moments I heard the notes of that old bacchanalian song,
   "We won't go home till morning, &c."
   I reined my horse suddenly into a copse close at hand, when twenty-five half drunk ceruleans passed bawling at the top of their lungs
   "He is a jolly good fellow, &c."
   They passed and so did I. The last fork of the road I reached about three minutes after fifteen Yanks had left the house and gone on towards Milledgeville. I reached Griswoldville at one o'clock, finding it, as I thought, in a blaze. The fire proved to be a train of cars {on the Central (of Georgia) RR} which were fired by the Yanks two miles above there, in the afternoon. A train of cars loaded with refugees and their furniture, left in the morning for Macon, but was halted three miles short of the latter place. Another train immediately followed, which also stopped when it reached the first one. To this the Yanks set fire, the passengers jumping out and saving themselves as best they could. When each car was well fired, they unfastened the engine and started back towards Griswoldville. When the train was under good headway, they stopped the engine, but the train kept on -- it being down grade -- blazing and snapping in a frightful manner. Arriving at G., blocks were put on the track which soon stopped it, without firing the place as the enemy intended. The cars were so far consumed that no efforts were made to save them. The engine was next fired, with dry pine, and the throttle opened, when it started with a fearful momentum towards the train which was standing on the track loaded with women and children. Providentially, the last two cars were unoccupied. On came the engine at the rate of fifty miles per hour, dashing into the train, split the first car in two pieces, from end to end; throwing it several feet on each side of the road, and passing half way into the next car. Three other cars were thrown off the track, but not a person on board was injured. Had the rear cars been filled, how awful would have been the massacre.
   From G., I started for Milledgeville, through byways and plantations, where I arrived at one o'clock, P. M. On the way I met Mr. Choate, who piloted the Yanks to Gordon. He is a gentleman of wealth and intelligence. Here is his story: At seven o'clock, P. M., the enemy arrived at his house, at the junction of the Gordon wagon road with the Macon. They numbered 225, and having forced him and a Mr. Wood to mount their horses, to act as pilots, started for Gordon, having just deprived Choate of all his horses and mules. Wood made his escape, followed by nine pistol balls, but Choate they closely guarded. They moved rapidly, but cautiously; not a word spoken nor an accoutrement rattled. The arrived at an old field close to Gordon as Gen. Wayne's train of soldiers passed in. There they remained still as death, until Gen. Wayne passed on to Milledgeville, and the passenger train to Macon, when they dashed in, setting fire to the depot, she and trains. If the freight train, which arrive before General Wayne, passed through, there were not more than forty cars and two engines destroyed; but if it failed, there were about sixty cars and three engines destroyed. About thirty of these cars and one engine belonged to the State Road {Western & Atlantic RR}; one engine and eight cars to the Milledgeville Road; and one engine and the remainder of the cars to the Central {(of Georgia)} Road. The cars were fired, and the engines chopped with axes.
   At Gordon the party divided; one detachment going down the road towards the Oconee, the other towards Milledgeville. Mr. Choate was taken towards the Oconee, but was released at No. 16.
   From citizens, prisoners and negroes, I derived the following facts which I carefully weight5e, and which, I think, may be considered entirely reliable.
   From Gordon they rode rapidly towards Milledgeville. Arriving in sight of the lights of the city they detached a scouting party which went close to Fishing Creek. This party then detached two men dressed in jeans, who went into the city on foot, and up to the very bivouac of our men, engaging in conversation with them. From our men they learned facts which prevented an attack. The enemy immediately withdrew from Milledgeville marching towards Griswoldville. Here I lost that party, as reports beyond there were too confused and unreliable.
   Here, then, was the programme. They were to have burned Gordon before troops could be sent through to Milledgeville. Having done that, one party was to march towards Oconee bridge, the other to Milledgeville, and destroy both places. Providentially they reached Gordon a half an hour too late.
   Had they been one half hour sooner they would have found Milledgeville defenseless, and at this moment our capital would have been in ashes. A shower of rain captured Napoleon, a half hours' delay saved the capital of Georgia.
   The force at Milledgeville captured eight Yanks and two negroes. From these scoundrels they took a large amount of silver plate and jewelry, a large portion of it belonging to Mrs. Jefferson Lamar, whose trunk they captured in the Milledgeville train at Gordon. Stragglers are continually being picked up, dismounted and completely exhausted. Citizens at the Ferries report that while waiting for the boats to cross, many would lie down on the grass and fall into deep sleep, have to be lifted into the flats and conveyed across b y their comrades. Had the citizens been armed and sufficiently energetic I believe every man of the Oconee party would have been captured.
   I must add, however, that the citizens, old and young, responded nobly. Every man was aroused and ready to do his duty. Gen. Wayne reached Milledgeville with a thousand men from Macon. When I left there on Monday not less than five hundred reinforcements had reported. Although I believe another raid will be attempted, I have no fears that it will be any more successful than the one just captured and dispersed.
C. C. C.
Intelligencer

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