Hampton and reconstruction

Preface

I venture to ask a favor of the reader — that he do what I myself often shirk, it must be confessed — read this preface. You would naturally infer from the title of this volume that it is the biography in part of a man whose career was very remarkable. So it is, but it is also — or is intended to be — something more. You may be inclined, at the first glance, to suppose that it can possess no interest for the present generation except as "ancient history." If you will read the narrative, I think that you will find this first impression an error. This sketch is part of the biography of a people, the American people, at a most important period of «2 its life. The past is the parent of the present and of the ft future of a people's life, as it is with every man's life. Hered- >: itary inclinations, good and evil, influence a people's career 'd just as they influence that of an individual, and they should 3 be equally subject to the guidance and restraint that experience imposes through conscience. Although this is an acw count of events happening many years ago, yet the causes ^ producing them, at present in the background, are as full of ™ vitality now as then — they are sleeping lions. Where treas- § ure is, near at hand will always be lurking thieves. Because you may be sailing on summer-seas, free of care and with no <5 thought of tempests, you do not doubt that the ocean, now so \ harmless-looking, will some time or other be lashed into angry : waves mountain-high by blasts at present slumbering in the " caves of the winds. So will the demon of storms reappear from time to time in your political summer-seas. You cannot ;) prevent this by ignoring it, but you can save yourself from shipwreck by profiting by the experience of others. The miseries of Reconstruction were rendered possible only by the subversion of representative government — "the consent of the governed" — without which all government is simply despotism, however disguised. This thing can never again take place at the South under the same pretext — the negro — for that humbug has been exploded by the unanswerable logic of the iv PREFACE

reductio ad absurdum. But wily, unscrupulous politicians, hungering for plunder, will sooner or later manufacture other pretexts to "fool the people." Next time the North or West may become the scene of such planned wholesale burglary. When that time comes, the afflicted section will sorely need a political heir of the qualities of Hampton, and also sorely stand in need of the experience taught to the Southern people by their affliction.

It may perhaps be said that, granting all so far, the account of this period should be written only by one who has grown to manhood since its close, for he would write in a more "judicial spirit," as the phrase is, than an older man. But this view seems to me wrong, and a little reflection will convince anyone of its error. The keen interest that animates an observer of contemporary events stamps on his mind exact impressions of facts, and these impressions are durable as brass. If he be fairly intelligent and educated, and becomes an earnest, conscientious, lifelong student of the subjects involved with the facts graven on his mind, he is likely to arrive at approximately correct conclusions. On the other hand, a mere academician, cold, unimpassioned, totally inexperienced in the heartbeat of sympathy evoked by the personal sight of human misery, of "the agony and bloody sweat" of his fellowman, who undertakes to gather materials and impressions from lifeless, moldy volumes, nine-tenths of the contents of which consist of ex parte testimony from the side that was the stronger in numbers, is like an artist attempting to make a faithful portrait of a dead stranger by glancing at his corpse ; or, rather, like a surgeon dissecting a cadaver and assuming to analyze and set down on paper all the glorious characteristics that the immortal soul, which formerly inhabited that now senseless clay, may have possessed. But when he who has been a personal observer of "times that tried men's souls" becomes conscious that he is an old man, standing on the verge of the grave, very well aware that he must soon render a truthful account of his stewardship, he finds that his own vain aspirations, animosities and prejudices fade away into nothingness, but that the noble, unalterable principles of right, the basic elements of the social compact,

PREFACE v

loom up before his eyes in all their vast proportions. That man will not — dare not — misrepresent.

The responsibility for Keconstruction as carried out has been, so far as I know, ascribed only to negroes and carpet-baggers or to the refractory spirit of the South, unwilling to accept the legitimate results of the war. But neither of these had anything whatever to do with it except as deaf, dumb, blind instruments in other hands. It was not the outgrowth of racial antagonism, nor was it a war legacy. The cause was but the pirate's instinct of a few, deluding the many, to wreck the ship of state in order to plunder the cargo and rob the passengers ; and this could be accomplished only by murdering the pilot, representative government. How and by whom the murderous dagger was used will be made clear by these pages. It will also be made clear how the State's resurrection from the grave was brought about by Wade Hampton, and that in the pacification of the entire country, in the restoration of fraternal feeling, no man's handiwork was so widely beneficent as his; that he was in the truest, most patriotic, most exalted, and most all-embracing sense of the term, a Union man.

E. L. W.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. Family. Early Life. Characteristics. Secession 1

II. War 36

CHAPTER SECOND WAR Forth from its scabbard, high in air

Beneath Virginia's sky !

And they who saw it gleaming there, And knew who bore it, knelt to swear That where that sword led, they would dare

To follow — and to die !

— Father Ryan.

Hampton was forty-three years of age when he first drew his sword. He had had no military training whatever, unless a connection with the militia may be considered such. This was, as a matter of course, a great impediment to promotion in the army, firstly and evidently, because technical knowledge had to be acquired by experience, by practical study; and, secondly, because there was a very natural, and proper prejudice among the professionals, the old West-Pointers at Richmond, against amateurs, and "political generals," and all are naturally supposed to be such, until they prove themselves of different stuff. But, in spite of this, he rose to be one of the two officers in the Confederacy commanding cavalry who attained the rank of lieutenant-general, the other being Forrest, who, singularly enough, had also received no military education prior to the war. There were no other lieutenant-generals of cavalry in the Confederate army. As they operated in entirely different spheres of action, and were subject to quite dissimilar conditions, there is no need to attempt to argue about their respective rank in the world's gallery of great cavalry leaders : let us say, then, par nobile fratrum. Forrest possesses a biographer worthy of him in Wyeth.

This narrative is not intended as an account of Hampton's military career, but only as an attempt to give the reader some idea of him as man and statesman ; but, in order to do this effectively, it is necessary to point out the most marked of his characteristics developed in war, which constituted, in great measure, his strength when at the helm in civil storms, and the knowledge of which gave his people un-

WAR 37

bounded confidence in him. Only a short outline will be given of his military career, and a few incidents related illustrating his possession of the qualities referred to. Such an account, to be of any value at all, must be not only conscientiously accurate in intent, but the writer of it must also be in a position to know what is true in regard to friends, and the same with respect to former antagonists : he must be able to sift the evidence and arrive at the real facts. The present writer believes himself to be in this position. He has already published an account of the chief parts of Hampton's military career (Hampton and His Cavalry in '64), and in writing it had the advantage of access to private notes and memoranda of the General kindly lent him for that purpose, which were afterward burned in the destruction of the Hampton residence in 1899 ; he also made use of and studied other available original sources of information, as well documentary as oral data from persons then living, and himself possessed some personal knowledge of the subject. It is not for a moment denied by the writer, that recollections of the "long ago," when

Forth from its scabbard, high in air Beneath Virginia's sky,

he first beheld Hampton's "stainless sword," or that the impressions of some few great events of which he happened to be a spectator, still send a very vivid thrill through the long interval of years and stir the blood. But he does emphatically deny that these feelings bias his judgment of military events, or affect his relation of them. To magnify or exaggerate about one's own side in the past contest would be unpardonable; to misstate about the other, contemptible.

In May, 1861, Hampton was commissioned as colonel, and authorized to raise a body to be composed of infantry, cavalry, and artillery, combined in a "legion" designed to act together as an independent command. After a little experience in a great war, it was found that such an organization was impracticable: the infantry became a body to itself, and the cavalry and artillery were otherwise incorporated. A considerable portion of the cost of organizing and arming the Legion was paid for by Hampton from his

449055 own purse. He went to Virginia with his Legion in June, and they took part in the first battle of Manassas (Bull Run) . This was a great historic battle, much written about, and the important part taken in it by the General is not widely understood. We shall, therefore, quote here the exact words of Major T. G. Barker, who was adjutant of the "Legion" in that engagement, and whose military services during four years of war, and subsequent high position at the bar, and personally, are a guarantee of accuracy :

"The Legion was formed and became the apple of his eye. It went to Virginia in June, 1861, and in a few short weeks thereafter it received its first baptism in war. On July 21st, before daylight, the Legion was dropped from the cars at Manassas Junction and at eight o'clock a. m. it was marched thence under the very indefinite order 'To go in the direction of the firing.' Under these orders it preceeded westward on the Sudley Ford road toward the left of General Beauregard's line, where heavy firing was heard, and at ten o'clock it took position on the Warrenton turnpike, on the brow of a hill, on which stood a farmhouse known in history as the 'Robinson house.' After half-past nine on that morning, this hill was the extreme left point of the Confederate line, facing north, and it became the pivot of ground around which the Federal Army, advancing from the north, from the west, and finally from the south and rear of the position, wrapped the apparently irresistible folds of its great flank movement.

"It is very slightly known in history, but it is none the less a fact, that on that day Colonel Hampton, with six infantry companies of the Hampton Legion, held that 'Robinson hill' under a continual fire from before ten o'clock in the morning until two o'clock in the afternoon; that, after twice refusing to withdraw, he at last retired under peremptory orders from General Beauregard communicated by General Barnard E. Bee; and that, when he did at last withdraw his command, the Legion fell back upon the plateau upon which Stonewall Jackson's command was posted. Before the Legion left the 'Robinson hilP the enemy was firing upon it from the north, and from the west,

WAR 39

and from the south, and rear, with infantry and with artillery.

"The Legion had held its position on the 'Robinson hill' all day without any supporting force near it. When it withdrew, under orders to fall back upon General Jackson's position, it took position on the right of the new line, which General Beauregard had formed, by facing to the rear, and the Legion kept that position on the extreme right in the two charges, which were made, first up to, and afterward past the 'Henry house.' In the first of these charges Colonel Hampton was wounded, and the Legion, under command of Captain James Conner, occupied the right of the line in the second charge. Conner's company, the Washington Light Infantry, from Charleston, was right company of the Legion, and, therefore, the extreme right of Beauregard's line in the charge past the 'Henry house,' which charge of the whole line, simultaneously with the movement of General Kirby Smith on the left, put the enemy to flight and decided the fate of a most eventful day.

"I do not propose to attempt to recount General Hampton's work in the war, but this, his first experience in battle, has been so little known and so clearly revealed the possession by him of the true military instinct, and of the qualities, which made him afterward a great soldier, that it is not out of place to speak of it at some length.

"In his subsequent career I never knew him to encounter the responsibilities of a new and larger command, or to be thrown in contact with troops to whom he was a stranger, or with officers, who met him with more or less prejudice against him, as a civilian, or a volunteer officer having had no military education, without witnessing the effect of his force as a commander upon all who came under his command or in contact with him.

"I do not believe any officer in the Southern Army received such deep and loving personal devotion from his soldiers and officers as General Hampton seemed to compel by his irresistible charm of character. No commanding officer was more implicitly trusted by his men in battle,- or in camp, or on the march.

"I cannot pretend to paint him, or to recall his brilliant career as a military hero, but if any one wishes to know what he was, let him go to the survivors of the men, whose lives he so often held in his hands, with whom he so constantly risked his own life during four memorable years of danger and of death, and let him ask those men how his officers and men valued General Hampton, and why they thought so much of him, and he will learn from the best witnesses the secret of his power and success as a commander of men."

In the May number, 1885, of the Century Magazine will be found an article written by General Hampton himself on the Legion at Manassas.

After Hampton resumed command of the Legion, on sufficiently recovering from his wound, he was presented with a regimental flag by President Davis in person, the command being formed in three sides of a square to receive him. An account may be found in the Richmond Dispatch.

At the commencement of the War General Hampton had accumulated unsold on his Mississippi plantation 4700 bales of cotton. At the time of which we are about to speak it was worth in United States currency probably about f 1,200,000, but later on nearly four times that amount. He urged upon the Confederate government to ship this cotton to Europe, invest the proceeds in arms and bring them back to the Confederacy for the army's use. But nothing was done about it, and when New Orleans was captured, and the Mississippi threatened, the cotton was burned lest it fall into the hands of the Federals. Major Barker relates the conclusion of this matter :

"On the afternoon of the day when the news of this heavy loss reached camp, I rode out with Colonel Hampton, and I wondered at the equanimity with which he bore the loss. It was a revelation of character. I truly believe that he felt the disappointment of his pet scheme for procuring arms for the soldiers far more than the large pecuniary loss. I remember his then repeating as he rode along the favorite lines :

Ah, well! for us all some sweet hope lies, Deeply burled from human eyes.

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"Such was the temper, and such the philosophy or faith of this heroic man."

It is rather remarkable that out of the officers and men orginally composing the Legion there were two who became lieutenant-generals, one a major-general, and three brigadiergenerals.

After Manassas Hampton continued, on recovering from his wound, to serve with his Legion in General Joseph E. Johnston's army in Virginia. When McClellan commenced his campaign in the following spring at Yorktown, Hampton was there confronting him. At Seven Pines he was wounded in a desperately fought field.

In May, 1862, he was made brigadier-general of infantry. Early in the autumn of 1862 he was assigned to the First Cavalry Brigade of the Army of Northern Virginia, "Mac- Gregor on his native heath," a fish put in its element. It was after Sharpsburg, in October, that J. E. B. Stuart struck out on his famous raid to Chambersburg, Pa. Hampton was second in command, and it was then that he and A. K. McClure first met, as described by the latter, which has been referred to. Hampton was responsible for safe-guarding private property, and it was safer so than it would have been under the present police of most of our cities. Nothing whatever of private property was touched, except for subsistence, and for that and the horses impressed the regular quartermaster receipts were given the owners, thus enabling them to claim and receive compensation from their own government. Mr. McClure had a "model farm" just outside of the town, and was spending a day or two of holiday there. None of his fancy poultry or blooded calves or lambs were molested, or the favorite trout in the spring, or anything else. No soldiers were allowed to enter private houses. Mr. McClure invited some of the officers to take coffee after dinner, and smoke in his library, and there they talked together about the current topics of the day, just as gentlemen would do in time of peace, but Mr. McClure noticed that, in the free references to the relative merits of different commanders, no allusion was ever made to the position., or numbers of troops at that time. We cannot help thinking, though, that, in this instance, the host was inclined to "speed the going guest."

In the winter of 1862-63 Hampton guarded the crossings of the upper Rappahannock, near Brandy and Stevensburg, and from there led in person a number of daring expeditions in the rear of the Federal Army near Fredericksburg, capturing prisoners and commissary and quartermaster stores in large quantities. He was fond of choosing the most inclement weather, particularly snow-storms and sleet, for these expeditions, and would thus pounce down unsuspected in the darkness and confusion, and be off with his "plunder" before daylight. At the celebrated cavalry battle of Brandy Station, June 9, 1863, he exhibited conspicuous personal valor and professional ability. It was here that his brother Frank Hampton — noted, among other things, so greatly for amiability that he never had a private enemy — met his death in the forefront of battle. At Gettysburg he was with Stuart's command. There is — and probably always will be — a controversy as to how far General Lee was placed at a disadvantage from being deprived of the use of "the eyes and the ears of the army," through Stuart's being on the right (east) flank of Hooker's (Meade's) marching column on its advance to Gettysburg. However that may be, Hampton had no responsibility whatever in the matter, having been second in command, and not consulted about the movement. Hampton reached the field in time for effective fighting. He received two sabre-cuts in the head, and a shrapnel wound in the thigh, and was disabled, but not before he had successfully repelled and driven off after a sanguinary engagement a vastly superior force. The brigade had twenty-one of its twenty-three field officers killed, or wounded during the Gettysburg campaign. But Hampton was soon back in the field again, as will be remembered from the incident about "Blank" in the Mine Run campaign of November, 1863.

On August 3, 1863, he was commissioned major-general. During the winter of 1863-4 he was near Milford picketing the Rapidan and Rappahannock rivers on the right of the army, about sixty miles by road from Richmond. On the morning of February 29, it was discovered by his scouts

WAR 43

that the Federal infantry and cavalry were moving. This proved to be merely a feint on the part of the infantry to divert attention from Kilpatrick, who marched with a cavalry force of nearly 4,000 picked men on Sunday evening, February 28th, for the purpose of dashing round the right flank of Lee's army and capturing Richmond unawares, Dahlgren, leading the advance with 460 men, intending to cross the river above the city, and cooperate from the south side with the rest of the expedition. Ascertaining this, Hampton started in pursuit without a moment's delay, taking with him 306 troopers and a part of a horse-artillery battery, all that could be spared from pickets at such short notice. Sunday night had been almost summer-like in temperature, but it proved a "weather-breeder," as Hampton thought and prayed it would, for Tuesday opened with a snow and sleet storm, which increased in severity as the day advanced, and the night closed in pitch dark, as well. About ten o'clock at night the camp fires of Kilpatrick were made out near Atlee's Station, about ten miles north of Richmond. Hampton decided at once to attack with vigor, counting upon the storm and darkness concealing the small number of his men. He dismounted one hundred troopers, supported by the rest mounted on each flank, with orders, when the pickets were encountered, not to return their fire, but to rush in on the main body. Complete silence was enjoined, until the camp itself was reached, when all the yells that throats could furnish were to be poured forth, for dear life. In connection with this, his two pieces of artillery were to open, firing as rapidly as possible, and making all the noise practicable. The plan worked out perfectly. It was a complete surprise, and Kilpatrick, supposing himself attacked by a large force, made haste to get away, leaving rations cooking on the fires and other good things — much to the satisfaction of Hampton's famished troopers — and also one loaded wagon with horses attached, and a caisson of ammunition. He was cut off from return to his own army, pursued, and forced to seek Ben Butler of the Army of the James, and his command had to be shipped back by steamers to the Army of the Potomac. He says in his official report, that learning Hampton "was after him" — as he expressed it — "with a large force of mounted infantry and cavalry, and four pieces of artillery," who had attacked him the night before, he "decided to move by the nearest route to General Butler's lines at New Kent Courthouse." The "large force" numbered, after deducting the necessary details for scouts and pickets, less than three hundred men. The losses officially reported by Kilpatrick on his expedition were 340. Meantime Dahlgren's small party had been otherwise destroyed, and Richmond was saved. Hampton was thanked for his succor thus rendered in a general order from the Commandant at Richmond.

On May 11, 1864, J. E. B. Stuart, senior major-general of cavalry of the Army of Northern Virginia, was mortally wounded and died on the following day. General Hampton became by this event senior major-general of the cavalry. The generals commanding the other two Divisions — the Second and Third, his own being the First — would have to report to his headquarters, when their Divisions were under his immediate command, but otherwise to army headquarters. If considered a corps, all division commanders would report always to corps headquarters. On August 11, 1864, by "Special Order No. 189. vii," this drawback to the efficiency of the cavalry was removed, and he was assigned the command of all the cavalry of the Army of Northern Virginia, and division commanders were ordered to report to him. It is a pity this had not been done before.

Taking command on May 10, 1864, Hampton assumed the responsibility for the cavalry in the hardest fought, most sanguinary, and most momentous campaign of that war — or of any other. How he acquitted himself, the results, and the commendations of General Lee illustrate. He commenced at the battle of the Wilderness, closely succeeded by Spottsylvania, and followed by almost continuous fighting until the Thirty-days "Overland Campaign" of General Grant was ended by his final defeat at Cold Harbor, and the transfer of his army to the siege of Petersburg, with losses aggregating during that terrible month far over sixty thousand men — as many as Lee's entire army. During that awful month there was not a day that the cavalry was

WAE 45

not engaged, and picketing always where not fighting. Hampton seemed to be omnipresent, always at hand. For the cavalry it was hopeless fighting, too, and that is the most trying kind, for it well knew that it must always ultimately fall back daily before vastly superior numbers, its duty being to check, as much as possible, and develop the position of the opposing army, and allow its own infantry and artillery time to come up.

To appreciate what Hampton accomplished, when in command in 1864, it is necessary to have some idea of what his means of carrying on the struggle were, compared to those of his opponent ; of what his resources were in number of men, subsistence, equipment as to arms, and supply of horses and forage.

The regular rations intended for each man daily were a half pound of bacon, or salt pork, and a pint of corn meal, or flour, but frequently this was from necessity reduced to one half, and even this often could not be had for days together. This was all ; no tea, coffee, sugar, or any stimulant. No foraging was allowed. Now and then "bull beef" would be issued instead of bacon; and, in winter quarters, but not until then, infinitesimally small doses of sugar and coffee were doled out.

In armament, the cavalry had usually only muzzle-loaders, whereas its opponents were armed with excellent magazine (breech-loading) rifles. Some Sharp's single-shooting, breech-loading carbines, which had been captured, were used, but there were few of them and they were very poor weapons. But not only were the rifles used by Hampton thus inferior in class, but frequently they were not sufficient in number.

The horse supply was another weak point. In the cavalry each man furnished, at his own expense, his horse, and when unserviceable, must supply another, which necessitated giving him a furlough home to obtain the remount, and this always at the most inconvenient time to spare him.

In forage supply there were equal disadvantages. As to disparity in numbers of men, it is, of course, needless to point out that.

Hardly had the carnage at Cold Harbor ended, and Grant decided to abandon his attempts from that direction on Richmond, when Hampton was called upon for another supreme effort, perhaps the most important of his life, and one of the most important that any cavalry leader ever embarked upon, the result of which, if he had never achieved anything else, would entitle him to a place among the greatest of the world's commanders. Early on the morning of June 8, his scouts reported that a large force of cavalry and artillery had crossed the Pamunkey River, and were moving north. Hampton at once signaled this news to General Lee, and dispatched him a letter giving his interpretation of the movement ; that Sheridan's plan was to strike at Gordonsville and Charlottesville, to destroy the railroads and stores, and then to unite with Hunter, who was moving on Lynchburg. Assuming this to be the plan, he urged that he be allowed to endeavor to frustrate these purposes, and after full consultation with him, General Lee agreed to this.

General Hampton had read aright General Grant's intentions. General James H. Wilson wras to be ordered out from Grant's left flank to destroy the railroads on the south of the James River as far as Lynchburg. Hunter was directed to move up the Shenandoah Valley toward Staunton, and Lynchburg. Sheridan with two divisions of cavalry, with artillery, pontoon bridges and all the appointments of a powerful flying column, was to pass around Grant's right and proceed by the way of Charlottesville to unite with Hunter and bear down upon Lynchburg, destroying all railroads and supply depots on his route and, on his return, the James River Canal. This was an admirably conceived plan, and if it had been carried out successfully would have necessitated the falling back of Lee from his line of defense at Petersburg and Richmond, and thrown open to Federal occupation all eastern Virginia and North Carolina, for the lines of communication being destroyed, the army would have been like a human body without arteries to maintain life. And there was good reason for Grant to suppose that the plan would succeed, for, as he was to besiege Petersburg, he could spare most of his cavalry and he knew that Hampton's force must be much depleted in both horses and men by the losses of the