| 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 |
|