Hide Article Text (OCR)
“That was one of Billy Mahone’s most stubborn, fights.”The New York and Michigan men had been talking about the fierce battle which took place on the Weldon Railroad, a few miles to the left of Petersburg, thirty-two years ago to* day—the day upon which I am writing about it—Aug. 21.,I guess the Michigan man was right, though Mahone had been in many a hot place and. shown great skill and doggedness in pushing his enemy before that hot day in August, 1864.It was the third of a series of fights. General Grant had sent General G. K. Warren with the Fifth corps to take the Weldon Railroad, one of Lee’s important lines of communication. His command left the line in front of Petersburg early on the morning of Aug. 18, one of the hottest days of the year. That afternoon Warren charged and took the Weldon Railroad at what has ever since been known as the Yellow-House, not far from which General Meade had his headquarters during the winter of 1S64-5, and up to the time the army broke camp for the last campaign that ended at Appomattox. The Confederates had been taken somewhat by surprise on the lSth. The next day, a rainy, gloomy, drizzly day it was, too. Mahone drove back three of- Warren’s brigades and came very near turning the Fifth corps commander’s victory of ‘■'he day before Into a serious defeat. For an hour or two there was savage work with both artillery and musketry. The list of dead and wounded sickened the hearts of the men who were on the eve of being mustered out at the end of their three-year term.On the 20th both armies rested, but early on the 21st there were evidences of a coming clash. Cutler’s division, ■which soon after became Crawford’s, occupied a line of works in a semicircle, in an open field, not far from a rather dense forest. The men had been In line long enough to put up substantial breastworks. Mahone, with his large division of hard-hltters, was in line through the woods, and in front of Cutler’s troops. It was a bright, snnny day, the wind blowing briskly from the west. Scattering firing in the woods warned our boys that the Virginians,.led by that dashing genei--al, one of Robby'Lee’s pets, would soon try titles with the Fifth corps division. The skirmishers were driven in and tumbled over the breastworks, and a moment later, three or four lines deep, came Mahoneys .troops,.,moving up as If on a gala excursion. Suddenly there burst forth from every Confederate throat that old familiar sound, the rebel yell, and in another instant a sheet of lead from Cutler’s men swept the field and stunned, cheeked and drove back Mahone and his dauntless followers. The field where the volley struck them was covered with dead, dying and more or less badly wounded.Brigadiers sent word to the commanders of regiments to keep their men in position, ready for action at a moment’s notice. In a brief space of time a second charge was made with a like result. Cutler’s division had been slaughtered time after time, coming through the wilderness* and elsewhere, because it had been caught without breastworks, and by Mahone and his men. This time they held the dnchers, behind breastworks, and won an important victory. Cutler’s men were so well protected that they fought with little lose. It was not a common experience for them. They had done most of their fighting in open fields or In charging the enemy's fortifications, as the enemy that day charged theirs.Colonel Morrow of the Twenty-fourth Michigan said, after the Confederates had been driven back the second timer ’‘General Mahone ought to know that be cannot drive this division from its position with ten times the troops he has; but if he will pound away until his men are all gone he can’t blame .us. We are here to give him this sort of a reception.”The Confederate General Hagood, who commanded a brigade that charged well to the left of Cutler’s division, had a narrow escape from capture. His brigade rushed down to the line at a point where there was a depression, and the union troops were so .situated that a flank as well as a front fire was pouring into them. While they stood there fighting and apparently undecided as to the next move a member of Cutler’s staff. Captain Dennis B. Dailey, dashed up to Hagood and demanded his immediate surrender. Hagood drew his revolver and shot Dailey,'and then hastened to retire his brigade.Yoars after the war, when Hagood was Governor of South Carolina, or a. Congressman, he told a New York correspondent of his experience on the 21st of August, 1864. He said; “I saw in that battle one of the most daring deeds that came under my observation during the war,” and then went in to relate the story of Captain Dailey’s charging, alone, into Ids brigade and demanding his surrender—one man against a whole brigade! General Ila-good said: “I disliked to shoot him, but the idea of surrendering to one man could not be entertained for a moment” In the story to the New York correspondent he expressed a’ deslrc tohear from Dailey. At that‘time CoL Dailey, for he had won promotion up to that rank, was a lawyer at Council Bluffs, Iowa. He saw thq, story and wrote General Hagood. They had a pleasant correspondence. A few years ago Colonel Dailey asked General Hagood if he was willing to make an affi« davit touching, what he, Dailey, tried to do at the Yellow House, Aug. 21, 1864, and what he, Hagood, did in the matter of shooting him. Hagood made the affidavit, and it was upon that, very largely, that the colonel was given a pension.A few days ago I met John Lindsay, a merchant, and for years postmaster at Marshall, near. Madison. Lindsay was In the battle of the 21st. WheD he thought the danger was past he stood up and looked over the field. A sharpshooter saw him. Lindsay fell back like one dead: he was shot In the neck and shoulder. The surgeon said:. “I do not think we can save him, but we will try.” When the boys picked him up to carry him to the ambulance he asked: “What did you say, doctor?” “I said, ‘we will try to pull you through,’ John.” “Doctor, Just say you will pull me through; I am not going to die.” His determination to live is what saved him. Probably he has not been a minute without pain from that wound given him thirty-two years ago to-day.I can see Bob Montieth as he rode up to our brigade and said: “General Cutler sends his compliments and asks General Bragg to assume command of the division, as he Is wounded.” Bragg •asked where he was wounded. Mon-, tieth, the sober-sided Scotchman, answered, without a thought, “In the mustache.” The answer provoked hearty laughter, when Montieth corrected his report by saying that he was wounded in the lip and that part of his mustaehe was shot away.—.T. A. Watrous, in Chicago. Times-Herald.
Newspaper Details
Cedar Falls Semi Weekly Cedar Falls Gazette
Cedar Falls, Iowa, US
Tue, Oct 27, 1896
Page 3
Full Page
Clipped by
Patrick M.
USA 18 Nov 2023
Other Publications Near Cedar Falls, Iowa
Cedar Falls New Prairie Primer
Cedar Falls Semi Weekly Cedar Falls Gazette
Cedar Falls Citizen
Cedar Falls Gazette
Cedar Falls Globe
