2nd Alabama Cavalry
Sergeant
- Joined
- Jan 29, 2019
31 Aug 1864:
On this date the Battle of Jonesboro, Georgia just south of Atlanta had begun and it would be the last battle waged and fought between Union Major General William Tecumseh Sherman and Lt. General John Bell Hood for the City of Atlanta.
Brig. General Samuel Wragg Ferguson`s Cavalry Brigade, to include the 2nd Alabama Cavalry Regiment were reported operating and skirmishing with the enemy between "Howells Mill" and Nancy Creek in the vicinity of Peachtree Creek along Buck Head Road. Which is where the 2nd Alabama Cavalry Regiment bivouacked for the night as they established their camp and set out their Pickets and placed Guards for the night close to "Howell`s Mill" adjacent to the creek until they were awoken in the early hours, about 3 AM long before sun rise and ordered to get to Atlanta post haste.
1 Sep 1864:
Early in the Morning around 3 am Brig. General Samuel Wragg Ferguson`s Cavalry Brigade was ordered to break camp at "Howells Mill" in the vicinity of Peachtree Creek along Buck Head Road by Lt. General John Bell Hood and to get to the City of Atlanta without hesitation. As they crossed over Peachtree Creek on Buck Head Road they destroyed the bridge burning it to the ground as they hastened to get to Atlanta as ordered. Once they had arrived to Atlanta they were ordered to dismount and occupy the trenches along side the Infantry and to await further orders. This as the Battle of Jonesboro was playing itself out. They were informed that if Atlanta should fall that they would cover the retreat of the Confederate Army of Tennessee as they were evacuating the city. They occupied the trenches of the main Confederate breast works located in the City closest to the center square (Statehouse).
At days end the Battle of Jonesboro, Georgia, which had been being waged all day, was a victory for the U.S. Forces under Major General William Tecumseh Sherman which ensured him that Atlanta would soon fall. After the Confederate loss was acknowledged around 5 pm the order from Lt. General John Bell Hood issued orders for all remaining Confederate Soldiers to evacuate Atlanta. The evacuation started just after dark along the McDonough and Jonesboro road withdrawing south to Lovejoy`s Station with the last of the Confederate Infantry and Artillery leaving before midnight. Hood had ordered all of the locomotives and cars at the Depot to be fired upon his giving the order, but was delaying giving that order having hopes that his quartermaster could load the ammunition, black powder and shells onto wagons to be taken with them as they retreated toward`s Lovejoy`s Station.
After darkness had fallen, while the Confederate Army under General Hood and Hardee were still retreating out of Atlanta and heading towards Lovejoy`s Station along McDonough road, heavy explosions were heard and seen in the direction of Atlanta and beyond. Brig. General Ferguson and his Cavalry Brigade left the trenches and mounted their chargers to blow up the Confederate Ordnance train`s left abandoned and unable to be moved at the Atlanta Depot which consisted of numerous cars loaded with black powder, shells, cannon shot, ammunition and other Military Ordnance. All in all 81 car loads of ammunition and black powder along with 5 locomotives were blown up and destroyed by General Ferguson`s Cavalry Brigade during this single action. Two more Locomotives were badly damaged but not wholly destroyed, one of those was the famed "General" (later restored), which was driven in the back of one of the ammunition cars to make it inoperable, it was therefore damaged but not completely destroyed. In addition to the cars and Locomotives which were destroyed in the blast, the Schofield and Markham`s Rolling Mill alongside the tracks was also completely destroyed by the explosion and fire, leaving nothing but the Chimney`s visible and still standing. It was reported that the continuous explosions were so loud and bright that they could be seen for as far as 20 miles away. All night long the explosions went off and the fire kept the night`s sky around Atlanta glowing bright. Not a person could sleep in the City with many homes being evacuated by their occupants who came out side to watch the spectacle and try and find out what was happening and who was responsible.
Sherman, 20 miles away at the time of the explosion, after seeing and hearing the explosion notified General Slocum and a force of Federals was at once ordered of each division to make a reconnaissance in the direction of Atlanta to try and determine what had just happened, and more importantly what it meant. After the explosion Brig. General Ferguson and his Cavalry Brigade dismounted once again and returned to the trenches of Atlanta to enjoy the great spectacle. They thought that their wait would be short, and for hours they waited on the Federal Army to come but no one came to the city until just about daybreak hours after the explosion was set off.
Here is what Brig. General Ferguson wrote in his daily journal and memoirs regarding the explosion:
"the fighting around Atlanta was continued and desperate. In the end the place was evacuated. I was sent into the trenches to prevent the movement being discovered any sooner than possible. I did not really expect to remain in them more than two or three hours, for hardly as night set in when the bursting of shells and explosion of ammunition of all kinds must have let the enemy know what was on foot, and what could a Cavalry Brigade with one fourth of the men holding horses, accomplish against Sherman`s Army."
What he was speaking to at the end of his entry: "and what could a Cavalry Brigade with one fourth of the men holding horses, accomplish against Sherman`s Army." Was a jab at Sherman, because when he took to the trenches it was Cavalry protocol after dismounting for one trooper to hold his own horse and the horses of three other troopers at the rear of the trench line, allowing the rest of the dismounted Cavalry to take to the trenches. There-by reducing the effect of the entire Brigade by 25%. So he was saying that with only one Cavalry Brigade left in Atlanta, reduced even further to 75% strength because of 25% acting as horse holders they could still be quite effective in creating so much damage. Ferguson later admitted several times that he and his Cavalry Brigade were the ones responsible for firing the Locomotives and cars full of ammunition and black powder the last night that they were in Atlanta as Hood and the Army of Tennessee were in general retreat towards Lovejoy`s Station.
2 Sep 1864:
By midnight the only Confederate Forces reported left in Atlanta was Brig. General Samuel Wragg Ferguson and his Cavalry Brigade, being comprised of the 2nd Alabama Cavalry Regiment, the 56th Alabama Partisan Rangers, the 12th Mississippi Cavalry Regiment (Col. Inge), Perrin`s Regiment of Mississippi Cavalry (11th Mississippi Cavalry), Miller`s Regiment of Mississippi Cavalry (9th Mississippi Cavalry) and Captain Thomas Flourney (Sanders' Tennessee Battalion) who was the Scout Company for Ferguson`s Cavalry Brigade. while the rest of the Confederate Army were withdrawing as they marched out of the City along the McDonough and Jonesboro Road making their way south of Atlanta toward Lovejoy`s Station some distance away.
Brig. General Samuel Wragg Ferguson went on to state in his daily Journal and memoirs that:
"the night was simply infernal, the explosions were incessant and appalling. Daylight came still no signs of the enemy. Finally after sunrise they appeared in three lines of battle. I called my men in from the trenches and advised the Mayor of the City to go out with a flag of truce and surrender the city, telling him he could assure the Federal General that there would not be any firing in the streets."
Here is the account of Captain H. M. Scott of the 70th Indiana Volunteers, 3rd U.S. Army Division, 20th Army Corps who was present and took part in the Surrender of Atlanta that night:
"After entering the Breast Works of the enemy a few Rebels were seen retiring towards the place and we immediately gave pursuit. A few moments later however Rebel Cavalry (General Ferguson`s Brigade) formed in line across each of the streets leading toward us and a considerable force moved to our left, drew up in line and fired upon us. As the rest of my Cavalry had not yet made its appearance, we drew out a distance".
He went on to write in his report:
"As we were approached by the Mayor with his formal surrender General Ferguson`s Cavalry were then just retiring from the City after the General had agreed to withdraw without offering us resistance in order to insure the safety of non-combatants".
That would be Colonel John Coburn the Commander of the 3rd Division, 20th U.S. Army Corps who upon reaching the City of Atlanta hours later at daybreak was met by Mayor James M. Calhoun of Atlanta who made a formal surrender of the town to him with these words:
"Sir: The fortune of war has placed Atlanta in your hands. As mayor of the city I ask protection to non-combatants and private property".
According to some of the Federal accounts in their daily activity reports stated that Ferguson and his Cavalry Brigade left the trenches and took to their mounts as soon as the Federal Forces were making the approaches of the City, and that Ferguson`s Cavalry Brigade formed two different lines of battle at the City Square near the State House and that they fired on the Federals as they came into town as warning shots just before Mayor Calhoun was sent out to discuss the terms of surrender. Ferguson`s terms were simple, that he and his Cavalry Brigade would turn and leave the City giving it to Federal control without a fight if the Federal General guaranteed that it would not be burned and the citizens would not be harmed or harassed.
Several different accounts in the "OR" confirm this account. Either way Brig. General Samuel Wragg Ferguson and his Cavalry Brigade, being comprised of the 2nd Alabama Cavalry Regiment, the 56th Alabama Partisan Rangers, the 12th Mississippi Cavalry Regiment (Col. Inge), Perrin`s Regiment of Mississippi Cavalry (11th Mississippi Cavalry), Miller`s Regiment of Mississippi Cavalry (9th Mississippi Cavalry) and Captain Thomas Flourney (Sanders' Tennessee Battalion) who was the Scout Company for Ferguson`s Cavalry Brigade, were the very last Confederate Forces to leave the City of Atlanta after they supervised and over-saw the surrender between General Slocum, Colonel John Coburn and Mayor James M. Calhoun.
Then as Ferguson`s Cavalry Brigade left the city along the McDonough road towards Lovejoy`s Station while performing a rear guard action regarding the retreat of Hood`s Army of Tennessee from Atlanta, Ferguson and his Cavalry Brigade went by Decatur and blew a second of Hood`s Confederate Ordnance trains. All of the trains which they blew, first at Atlanta and then at Decatur with-in a 12 hour time period, could not be moved because of the railroad tracks being torn up and ripped out for miles in every direction of Atlanta so as opposed to leaving all of the Ordnance to the Federal Army to later be used against the Confederate States Army Ferguson decided to blow the trains up instead. Some accounts found in the "OR" reveal that General Hood was not too pleased with this action as he wanted for the trains to be unloaded, the content to be placed in numerous wagons (hundreds if not thousands) and moved to another storage facility. Hood blamed his quartermaster for not getting the Ordnance moved. But under the circumstances this expectation was unrealistic as Ferguson and his Cavalry Brigade had neither the man power nor the time required to meet these expectations. So he did the only thing that he could, he blew the Ordnance Trains and destroyed as much as he could, leaving nothing to the enemy that could later be used against him.
Brig. General Samuel Wragg Ferguson speaks about the second ordnance being blown in his daily Journal and memoirs, he wrote:
"I hoped thus to save the place from being burned (Atlanta). It escaped then only to be deliberately fired by Sherman a few days later. When I reached Decatur I found a large train of ammunition abandoned there. I had no means of moving it so set it on fire and continued my march to the sounds of exploding ammunition. The road in rear of our Army now presented a very different sight from that to which I had been accustomed from Kingston to the Chattahoochee River (at the beginning of the Atlanta Campaign). In all that distance I had brought up the rear on one of the main roads over which the Army (Confederate) had retreated, yet never encountered a broken or abandoned wagon. Now the road was strewn with wrecks of all kinds."
On this date the Battle of Jonesboro, Georgia just south of Atlanta had begun and it would be the last battle waged and fought between Union Major General William Tecumseh Sherman and Lt. General John Bell Hood for the City of Atlanta.
Brig. General Samuel Wragg Ferguson`s Cavalry Brigade, to include the 2nd Alabama Cavalry Regiment were reported operating and skirmishing with the enemy between "Howells Mill" and Nancy Creek in the vicinity of Peachtree Creek along Buck Head Road. Which is where the 2nd Alabama Cavalry Regiment bivouacked for the night as they established their camp and set out their Pickets and placed Guards for the night close to "Howell`s Mill" adjacent to the creek until they were awoken in the early hours, about 3 AM long before sun rise and ordered to get to Atlanta post haste.
1 Sep 1864:
Early in the Morning around 3 am Brig. General Samuel Wragg Ferguson`s Cavalry Brigade was ordered to break camp at "Howells Mill" in the vicinity of Peachtree Creek along Buck Head Road by Lt. General John Bell Hood and to get to the City of Atlanta without hesitation. As they crossed over Peachtree Creek on Buck Head Road they destroyed the bridge burning it to the ground as they hastened to get to Atlanta as ordered. Once they had arrived to Atlanta they were ordered to dismount and occupy the trenches along side the Infantry and to await further orders. This as the Battle of Jonesboro was playing itself out. They were informed that if Atlanta should fall that they would cover the retreat of the Confederate Army of Tennessee as they were evacuating the city. They occupied the trenches of the main Confederate breast works located in the City closest to the center square (Statehouse).
At days end the Battle of Jonesboro, Georgia, which had been being waged all day, was a victory for the U.S. Forces under Major General William Tecumseh Sherman which ensured him that Atlanta would soon fall. After the Confederate loss was acknowledged around 5 pm the order from Lt. General John Bell Hood issued orders for all remaining Confederate Soldiers to evacuate Atlanta. The evacuation started just after dark along the McDonough and Jonesboro road withdrawing south to Lovejoy`s Station with the last of the Confederate Infantry and Artillery leaving before midnight. Hood had ordered all of the locomotives and cars at the Depot to be fired upon his giving the order, but was delaying giving that order having hopes that his quartermaster could load the ammunition, black powder and shells onto wagons to be taken with them as they retreated toward`s Lovejoy`s Station.
After darkness had fallen, while the Confederate Army under General Hood and Hardee were still retreating out of Atlanta and heading towards Lovejoy`s Station along McDonough road, heavy explosions were heard and seen in the direction of Atlanta and beyond. Brig. General Ferguson and his Cavalry Brigade left the trenches and mounted their chargers to blow up the Confederate Ordnance train`s left abandoned and unable to be moved at the Atlanta Depot which consisted of numerous cars loaded with black powder, shells, cannon shot, ammunition and other Military Ordnance. All in all 81 car loads of ammunition and black powder along with 5 locomotives were blown up and destroyed by General Ferguson`s Cavalry Brigade during this single action. Two more Locomotives were badly damaged but not wholly destroyed, one of those was the famed "General" (later restored), which was driven in the back of one of the ammunition cars to make it inoperable, it was therefore damaged but not completely destroyed. In addition to the cars and Locomotives which were destroyed in the blast, the Schofield and Markham`s Rolling Mill alongside the tracks was also completely destroyed by the explosion and fire, leaving nothing but the Chimney`s visible and still standing. It was reported that the continuous explosions were so loud and bright that they could be seen for as far as 20 miles away. All night long the explosions went off and the fire kept the night`s sky around Atlanta glowing bright. Not a person could sleep in the City with many homes being evacuated by their occupants who came out side to watch the spectacle and try and find out what was happening and who was responsible.
Sherman, 20 miles away at the time of the explosion, after seeing and hearing the explosion notified General Slocum and a force of Federals was at once ordered of each division to make a reconnaissance in the direction of Atlanta to try and determine what had just happened, and more importantly what it meant. After the explosion Brig. General Ferguson and his Cavalry Brigade dismounted once again and returned to the trenches of Atlanta to enjoy the great spectacle. They thought that their wait would be short, and for hours they waited on the Federal Army to come but no one came to the city until just about daybreak hours after the explosion was set off.
Here is what Brig. General Ferguson wrote in his daily journal and memoirs regarding the explosion:
"the fighting around Atlanta was continued and desperate. In the end the place was evacuated. I was sent into the trenches to prevent the movement being discovered any sooner than possible. I did not really expect to remain in them more than two or three hours, for hardly as night set in when the bursting of shells and explosion of ammunition of all kinds must have let the enemy know what was on foot, and what could a Cavalry Brigade with one fourth of the men holding horses, accomplish against Sherman`s Army."
What he was speaking to at the end of his entry: "and what could a Cavalry Brigade with one fourth of the men holding horses, accomplish against Sherman`s Army." Was a jab at Sherman, because when he took to the trenches it was Cavalry protocol after dismounting for one trooper to hold his own horse and the horses of three other troopers at the rear of the trench line, allowing the rest of the dismounted Cavalry to take to the trenches. There-by reducing the effect of the entire Brigade by 25%. So he was saying that with only one Cavalry Brigade left in Atlanta, reduced even further to 75% strength because of 25% acting as horse holders they could still be quite effective in creating so much damage. Ferguson later admitted several times that he and his Cavalry Brigade were the ones responsible for firing the Locomotives and cars full of ammunition and black powder the last night that they were in Atlanta as Hood and the Army of Tennessee were in general retreat towards Lovejoy`s Station.
2 Sep 1864:
By midnight the only Confederate Forces reported left in Atlanta was Brig. General Samuel Wragg Ferguson and his Cavalry Brigade, being comprised of the 2nd Alabama Cavalry Regiment, the 56th Alabama Partisan Rangers, the 12th Mississippi Cavalry Regiment (Col. Inge), Perrin`s Regiment of Mississippi Cavalry (11th Mississippi Cavalry), Miller`s Regiment of Mississippi Cavalry (9th Mississippi Cavalry) and Captain Thomas Flourney (Sanders' Tennessee Battalion) who was the Scout Company for Ferguson`s Cavalry Brigade. while the rest of the Confederate Army were withdrawing as they marched out of the City along the McDonough and Jonesboro Road making their way south of Atlanta toward Lovejoy`s Station some distance away.
Brig. General Samuel Wragg Ferguson went on to state in his daily Journal and memoirs that:
"the night was simply infernal, the explosions were incessant and appalling. Daylight came still no signs of the enemy. Finally after sunrise they appeared in three lines of battle. I called my men in from the trenches and advised the Mayor of the City to go out with a flag of truce and surrender the city, telling him he could assure the Federal General that there would not be any firing in the streets."
Here is the account of Captain H. M. Scott of the 70th Indiana Volunteers, 3rd U.S. Army Division, 20th Army Corps who was present and took part in the Surrender of Atlanta that night:
"After entering the Breast Works of the enemy a few Rebels were seen retiring towards the place and we immediately gave pursuit. A few moments later however Rebel Cavalry (General Ferguson`s Brigade) formed in line across each of the streets leading toward us and a considerable force moved to our left, drew up in line and fired upon us. As the rest of my Cavalry had not yet made its appearance, we drew out a distance".
He went on to write in his report:
"As we were approached by the Mayor with his formal surrender General Ferguson`s Cavalry were then just retiring from the City after the General had agreed to withdraw without offering us resistance in order to insure the safety of non-combatants".
That would be Colonel John Coburn the Commander of the 3rd Division, 20th U.S. Army Corps who upon reaching the City of Atlanta hours later at daybreak was met by Mayor James M. Calhoun of Atlanta who made a formal surrender of the town to him with these words:
"Sir: The fortune of war has placed Atlanta in your hands. As mayor of the city I ask protection to non-combatants and private property".
According to some of the Federal accounts in their daily activity reports stated that Ferguson and his Cavalry Brigade left the trenches and took to their mounts as soon as the Federal Forces were making the approaches of the City, and that Ferguson`s Cavalry Brigade formed two different lines of battle at the City Square near the State House and that they fired on the Federals as they came into town as warning shots just before Mayor Calhoun was sent out to discuss the terms of surrender. Ferguson`s terms were simple, that he and his Cavalry Brigade would turn and leave the City giving it to Federal control without a fight if the Federal General guaranteed that it would not be burned and the citizens would not be harmed or harassed.
Several different accounts in the "OR" confirm this account. Either way Brig. General Samuel Wragg Ferguson and his Cavalry Brigade, being comprised of the 2nd Alabama Cavalry Regiment, the 56th Alabama Partisan Rangers, the 12th Mississippi Cavalry Regiment (Col. Inge), Perrin`s Regiment of Mississippi Cavalry (11th Mississippi Cavalry), Miller`s Regiment of Mississippi Cavalry (9th Mississippi Cavalry) and Captain Thomas Flourney (Sanders' Tennessee Battalion) who was the Scout Company for Ferguson`s Cavalry Brigade, were the very last Confederate Forces to leave the City of Atlanta after they supervised and over-saw the surrender between General Slocum, Colonel John Coburn and Mayor James M. Calhoun.
Then as Ferguson`s Cavalry Brigade left the city along the McDonough road towards Lovejoy`s Station while performing a rear guard action regarding the retreat of Hood`s Army of Tennessee from Atlanta, Ferguson and his Cavalry Brigade went by Decatur and blew a second of Hood`s Confederate Ordnance trains. All of the trains which they blew, first at Atlanta and then at Decatur with-in a 12 hour time period, could not be moved because of the railroad tracks being torn up and ripped out for miles in every direction of Atlanta so as opposed to leaving all of the Ordnance to the Federal Army to later be used against the Confederate States Army Ferguson decided to blow the trains up instead. Some accounts found in the "OR" reveal that General Hood was not too pleased with this action as he wanted for the trains to be unloaded, the content to be placed in numerous wagons (hundreds if not thousands) and moved to another storage facility. Hood blamed his quartermaster for not getting the Ordnance moved. But under the circumstances this expectation was unrealistic as Ferguson and his Cavalry Brigade had neither the man power nor the time required to meet these expectations. So he did the only thing that he could, he blew the Ordnance Trains and destroyed as much as he could, leaving nothing to the enemy that could later be used against him.
Brig. General Samuel Wragg Ferguson speaks about the second ordnance being blown in his daily Journal and memoirs, he wrote:
"I hoped thus to save the place from being burned (Atlanta). It escaped then only to be deliberately fired by Sherman a few days later. When I reached Decatur I found a large train of ammunition abandoned there. I had no means of moving it so set it on fire and continued my march to the sounds of exploding ammunition. The road in rear of our Army now presented a very different sight from that to which I had been accustomed from Kingston to the Chattahoochee River (at the beginning of the Atlanta Campaign). In all that distance I had brought up the rear on one of the main roads over which the Army (Confederate) had retreated, yet never encountered a broken or abandoned wagon. Now the road was strewn with wrecks of all kinds."
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