University of Virginia Library

LINES OF BERMUDA HUNDREDS.

At sunrise on the 17th, Beauregard moved forward in pursuit
of Butler. The road was filled with the debris of a broken army,
their dead lay unburied or hurriedly and incompletely buried
upon the route, and on every side wide-spread and wanton devastation
marked the spirit in which they had advanced, houses and
fences burned, and stock driven off, or killed and left where they
were slain. An instance of obedience to the order to destroy the |

Note.—In the North American Review, Volume 144, Number 3 (March, 1887,)
is an article entitled "Drewry's Bluff and Petersburg", which in all the points noted
in this Memoir sustains its accuracy, and does very full justice to Hagood's brigade.
It is over General Beauregard's signature.

breeding stock of the country was witnessed, which was ludicrous
and at the same time had a touch of pathos in it. A hen that
had evidently seen many summers, lay in front of a farm yard
with her head wrung off, while her brood still lingered about her,
and one little chick perched wearily upon her dead body. Poor
little thing, one fancied, as it gazed unconcernedly upon the
column tramping by, that it looked as if, after the turmoil and
trouble of the last few days, there was for it no subject of astonishment
left.

About 3 p. m., our advanced guard encountered Butler's pickets
in front of his entrenched position across Bermuda Hundred
Neck. Our columns were at once deployed, and skirmishers
thrown out and engaged. The position at Howlett's House was
seized after dark; the two 20-dr. Parrotts captured by Hagood's
brigade at Drury's Bluff were here put in position and manned
by Palmer's company, Twenty-seventh South Carolina, supported
by infantry from another brigade. The James, running southerly
from Richmond, at Dutch Gap encounters a considerable ridge,
which it passes by a detour of perhaps a mile and a half to the
west, and returning, after making almost a complete loop, resumes
its general course. Howlett's House was on a high bluff on the
western side of the river at the bend of the loop. Some 300 yards
below it, the river narrowed greatly, affording a good place for
obstructions under the guns of a battery at Howlett's, and immediately
spreads out into a wide reach as it progressed again
towards Dutch Gap. In this reach were congregated a number of
gunboats and transports, upon which the two Parrotts opened in
the morning, driving them beyond range. This position in the
rearrangement of the defenses of Richmond that ensued during
the campaign became its "Water Gate," a description applied by
Beauregard to Drury's Bluff in the original plan of the fortification.
It was made very strong and the desire to get up the river
with their gunboats without encountering its guns and obstructions
inspired Butler's famous canal across the ridge at Dutch Gap.[17]
Like most of the enterprises of this military chieftain, it failed of
success. General Beauregard named the battery in honor of
Colonel Dantzler, of South Carolina, who was killed in the fighting
a few days afterward near this point. Colonel Dantzler, a

planter of St. Matthews Parish, had commenced the war as a
lieutenant in the First South Carolina (Hagood's); had been
elected in the fall of '61 lieutenant-colonel (of Keitt's Twentieth
South Carolina), which he had commanded during the greater
part of the siege of Charleston with distinguished gallantry
and skill; and in consequence had been recently appointed to
the colonelcy of a regiment in Evans's (now Walker's) South
Carolina brigade. This regiment had been lately commanded by
Goodlett, who was broken for cowardice, and trained by him was
decidedly wanting in dash. It was in an effort to inspire his
new command with something of his own spirit of daring that
Dantzler threw his life away. Beauregard's attention was now
given to establishing the shortest practicable line across the neck
and entrenching it so as to hold Butler in the cul de sac to which
he had retreated, with the fewest number of troops. His purpose
was accomplished in the next few days in a series of actions,
rising almost to the severity of battles. After each he advanced
and strengthened his lines, until, commencing at Howlett's house
on the James, they ran in a line more or less direct to Walthal's
Mill Pond on Ashton Creek near its junction with the Appomattox.[18]
The "bottling up" process[19] was then complete and the
Confederate commander was at liberty to detach nearly half his
force to the assistance of Lee.

The scene of these actions was a wild, thickly wooded country
with few clearings, and in many places broken up into short but
steep hills. One day, while a sharp skirmish fight was going on.
a buck sprang up and ran for some distance between the lines;
at length one of Hagood's skirmishers brought him down and
secured the carcass.

The first position of Hagood's brigade was on Clag's Farm,
and that night it repelled a body of cavalry which was either
reconnoitering or attempting to break through our lines.

The 18th and 19th, its lines were advanced principally by
skirmish fighting.

On the 20th, a very heavy action occurred, in which the brigade
on its right was hotly engaged. Hagood's part was confined to

severe skirmishing. In the confusion of this fight, in the woods,
General Walker rode up to a regiment of the enemy before he
discovered his mistake. Turning to escape, he received a volley
from the whole regiment at short range, killing his horse and
wounding him in several places.[20] He was captured and survived,
but as a painful cripple for life. General Walker had gained
much reputation at the battle of Pocotaligo in South Carolina,
and was esteemed a valuable officer. Stephen Elliott, of Fort
Sumter, now colonel of the Holcomb Legion, received the vacant
brigade.

During the afternoon of the 22nd, Hagood's brigade was
ordered to move further to the right, to relieve Wise's brigade.
The position occupied by the latter was well entrenched, but its
pickets in front were advanced in no instance exceeding fifty
yards, and the enemy's in pits about 250 yards beyond made it
an act of no little danger to raise one's head above our parapets.
This disagreeable condition of things had to be endured until
dark, when General Hagood organized a strong party of skirmishers
and succeeded in getting position for his picket line
beyond where the enemy's had been. By daylight each pair of
men were securely entrenched in a rifle pit, and matters on the
main line were more comfortable. In this affair Lieutenant
Sineath, of the Eleventh regiment, was captured. After our new
picket line was taken, in attempting to connect it with that of
the brigade on our left, he blundered into the enemy's line.

The enemy's main line of entrenchments was here 800 yards in
front of ours, and a good deal of sharpshooting took place
between them, besides shelling. In the main, however, our position
was comfortable enough; part of our line was in the woods,
part in the open; the country was broken, giving comparatively
secure passage from point to point, and a rivulet behind us gave
abundant water, a blessing fully appreciated by the men covered
with the dust and grime of three weeks' marching and fighting.
Our train, too, here overtook us in its march by highway from
Wilmington, and the officers enjoyed the luxury of clean clothing.
It was sad though, as each valise was handed out and the familiar
names were called, to find so many to which there was no
response.

The casualties of the brigade on the lines of Bermuda Hundreds
was one officer and one man missing, five men killed, and
forty-seven wounded, making an aggregate of fifty-three.

At this time was organized Hoke's division as it continued to
the end of the war, with the exception of the temporary addition
to it of a brigade of reserves in North Carolina in the spring of
1865. It was made to consist of Hagood's, Colquitt's, Clingman's
and Martin's (afterwards Kirkland's) brigades, the commissions
of the brigadiers dating in order of seniority in the order in
which the brigades are named. Colquitt's men were from
Georgia; the last two brigades from North Carolina. Major-General
Hoke was from North Carolina—had commenced as
major, and won his way to a brigade command in Lee's Army of
Northern Virginia, serving principally in Stonewall Jackson's
corps. He had lately won his major-general's commission at the
capture of Plymouth in North Carolina. He was not exceeding
thirty years of age, of good presence and agreeable manner; a
good administrative officer, of undoubted personal gallantry, and
possessed of habits of vigilance. His intercourse with his subordinates
was always marked with good feeling on both sides.