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he pleasantly consented - with the proviso however that I should tell him beforehand whom I would invite. There being no one objectionable to him among these, the day was agreed upon, and at 9 in the morning, he met us near his dwelling so as to accompany us and indicate the drives. The party consisted of Vanderorst, Ed Nowell, Alfred, Dr Isaac Gregorie, Lieut O'Hear, Wm Kirkland, Capt Rutledge and myself, the dogs being supplied principally by O'Hear.
I had often hunted before but never had a shot at a deer until that day. A small one came towards my stand which I killed, but which had been shot before, and was therefore not legitimately mine. This was in the first drive. We then tried two other drives unsuccessfully, and the dogs having then got off in pursuit of a deer, followed by O'Hear and the negro driver, the rest of us returned to our camp. O'Hear continued absent until sunset, and then appeared with two deer, one on his horse and the other on the servant's horse. One of those was a fine buck with a good pair of antlers. He had been run down by the dogs and found dead; so that when O'Hear attempted to bleed him, the blood would not run. His flesh would consequently be almost worthless for the pot. The other was an equally large animal with smaller horns, and it had been properly bled.
As soon as I saw the two approaching and had explained to me the condition of the first, I decided that I would use it in order to prepare a skeleton from its bones. This I could with propriety do, as it was through me that the hunt had been instituted, and, above all, the flesh, from not having been bled, was scarcely fit to be eaten. Nothing was said of the proceeding by the bystanders who were looking on, all of whom expected a piece of the meat; but I heard afterwards that their disappointment was great, and that a deer should be used for the purpose of preparing a skeleton from its bones seemed to them altogether incomprehensible. I was busy for some time getting the carcase into condition to be macerated in a couple of casks which I happened to have, and when that was over and the bones bleached, I put them aside to await the process of mounting when peace should have returned. In the summer of 1866, four years afterwards, this was done, and the specimen is in the museum case of skeletons on the north side of the large central room. It is in the attitude of jumping.
In the month of July or August of this summer the memorable duel between Ransom Calhoun and Alfred Rhett occurred. There seemed to be no way of preventing it by the intervention of friends, and at last Calhoun decided not to wait any longer, but to have it over without further delay. He desired to wait until the war was over, but felt it necessary to agree to an immediate meeting, on account of the risk of his friends becoming involved. A hostile meeting had occurred between Rhett and Ar-
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Arnoldus Vanderhorst, after a discussion between the two, at the Club in Meeting St, with regard to the comparative efficiency of West Point officers and those then serving, who had never been to a military school. Calhoun being a West Pointer and Rhett not. Two shots were exchanged and no one hurt, but the incident was the cause of Calhoun's deciding to have his affair over a week afterwards.
Rhett had been practising with the pistol for months in anticipation of this duel, and made short work of poor Calhoun, who had never taken any trouble to prepare himself. The latter fell at the first fire. The event produced a profound sensation, and the regret was almost universal that Rhett had not been killed instead of Calhoun.
Rhett was court martialed afterwards and acquitted, he was then promoted to the rank of Colonel of the regiment of regular artillery which garrisoned Fort Sumter - the position that Calhoun had held. Some months afterwards he published a pamphlet to set himself right before the public. It was entitled "Audi alteram partem" hear the other side, and contained his version of the affair. The quarrel had lasted over a year and commenced on the day that the garrison of Fort Moultrie moved to Fort Sumter, after the first bombardment of April 1861. Calhoun, as captain of a company in which Rhett was a lieutenant, gave him a peremptory order in the style of West Point, at which Rhett look offence, and which Calhoun never explained away. They were both hot headed and high tempered, and neither would yield, but Calhoun had many friends, and Rhett, through his many faults, had scarcely any.
The skill that Rhett had acquired with the pistol from constant practise was such that he was able to kill anyone at 10 paces with absolute certainty. With so much certainty in his fire, if he had killed Vanderhorst, it would have been very much like murder. In this case, at the second fire, he was sufficiently magnanimous to discharge his pistol in the air.
My duties as commissary took me frequently to the city to look after company matters. I would go on an average once a month, and it was always a pleasant interlude. On the afternoon before the day for piquet duty I had to measure from a jug a gill of whisky to everyone who had to go. I was responsible for every man receiving his allowance, and many were the attempts to deceive me into giving a double share, all of which always failed. It often surprised me how well I remembered everyone who had once been served, without asking anyone to note down each recipient.
There were several alarms during the summer caused by reports of the enemy having landed a force which was marching on the railroad. At last on the 22d of October, at about 10 AM, while I was at Col Walker's headquarters receiving commissary supplies, the news came that the Yankees had landed at Mackay's point. Shortly afterwards, while I was still there, I met Blake Heyward, who was the captain of cavalry company recruited in the neighborhoods of
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Walterboro and Salkahatchie swamp. His command was at hand and they were the first to go, and a few moments afterwards I noticed the Beaufort artillery under way. Captain Heyward was a delicate and timid man - altogether unsuited to the position he occupied. Captain Stephen Elliott of the artillery was of sterner stuff, and was one of the heroes of the day. In justice to the former it should be stated that the position had been forced upon him, and that he was quite aware of his inablility to properly fill it.
I soon returned to camp and found the Dragoons in the saddle ready to start. I told them that I would first distribute the commissary rations and join them with my rifle as soon as I had finished. This I did leisurely, not feeling certain that there would be a fight, but I caught up with the company before they had dismounted. I was immediately sent back to hurry up an ammunition wagon, and, while waiting for one at old Pocotaligo, we heard the dull sound of the artillery about a mile distant on the Mackey's point road, which showed that there was hot work a-head, I was obliged to wait some time before a wagon came, and at last filled a havresack with cartridges which I carried rapidly to the point where the Dragoons were engaged. This was in a dense growth of live oaks overhanging a narrow marsh, and near a causeway, for the passage of which the enemy was contending.
Before joining them I had ridden up to Col Walker, who was near one of Elliott's guns at our end of the causeway. The discharges of grape were very rapid and the air was lurid and filled with smoke. It was the second stand we had made, the first one having been at a similar causeway further down the same Mackay's point road. While exchanging a few words with Col Walker, who told me to dismount and hitch my horse, as he pointed to where my company was, I noticed Capt Elliott a slight distance ahead and near his guns. There were several large cedar trees bordering the road near where Col Walker was standing, and one of his couriers whom I knew was standing behind one. The Colonel was not under cover as I spoke to him, and he was near enough to Elliott to confer with him as to when the position had been held long enough. It was my first opportunity for seeing the bearing and behavior of a professional soldier in the midst of a sharp engagement.
I did not tarry long while so near the guns when speaking to Col Walker, but soon hitched my horse to a small tree in an old corn field bordering the road on the right, and in a moment found the men of the company, distributed about in the live oak thicket. They had ceased firing for the time, but had been actively engaged with considerable effect, for in the enemy's account of the advance, they mentioned the severe fire of the sharpshooters concealed among the oaks. Three men had been wounded and sent to the rear. O'Neale Mackay Prioleau and Holland, none of them mortally.
Whlie standing among the Dragoons, but not firing, as I could see nothing, Col Walker came near us and told Capt Rutledge to fall back with
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his men, and that the whole command would rally again at old Pocotaligo, a quarter of a mile to the rear, and where there was antoher causeway with a bridge which was taken up, as the others had been, when everyone had crossed. The enemy was observed to be crossing the narrow swamp above and below the causeway, and it was useless to attempt to prevent its passage any longer, as we would run the risk of being attacked on our flanks and rear.
As I proceeded over the ground which was in the limits of the enemy's fire, the number of bullets that struck the dry autumn leaves lying on the ground were considerable. None of them touched me, and although any one of them might have wounded me mortally, their falling around me did not alarm me. I scarcely realised that they were leaden bullets. They seemed to be stray pieces of hail.
The retreat to the third and last stand of the day was effected without any mishap, most of the men engaged being mounted, and therefore able to move more rapidly. Of the infantry there was one company of sharpshooters under Capt Jos Blyth Allston, but I do not remember Izard's company. They had probably been sent towards Coosawhatchie, as a feint was made there by the enemy.
When the entire command of about 475 men had collected at old Pocotaligo, which consisted of a groove of large live oaks where a collection of country stores had carried on a lucrative business early in the century, but of which then only one wooden building remained, Col Walker ordered the Dragoons to remain in reserve on the main road leading eastwardly, a trifle beyond the range of bullets. We there dismounted and remained under protection of the embankment on the side of the road for about a half hour, a few spent bullets occasionally reaching us. Lieut O'Hear was sent to inform Col Walker that we awaited his orders, and he returned safely, after passing through a very heavy fire which the enemy was concentrating upon our position in the live oak grove. It was a heavy fire of musketry as I remember, and repeated discharges of field pieces on both sides, Elliotts guns doing good work from an enfilading position north of the grove which they had taken. Several wounded of our men passed us as we waited, and then there were quite a number who had left the fight under the impression that the day was lost. These had a demoralising effect upon us, and there was a movement to fall further back, but just then a courier brought the order from Col Walker to advance rapidly and with a cheer. We immediately turned about and proceeded at the double quick, Lieutenant Colcock encouraging the men by his spirited behavior and waving of his sword. Fortunately when we reached the grove the enemy's fire had almost ceased for the time, and everyone was able to get behind a tree before it recommenced. McCloud, Martin and myself went as far as the edge of the grove, from which we could have plainly seen the bluecoats, if there had been less smoke. There was a great deal
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of loud talking among them, and the temporary cessation of fire was probably due to the necessity for replenishing their cartridge boxes. While so far in front I fired my rifle three times and never had a chance to shoot at a Yankee again while the war lasted.
I soon saw that it would be foolish for me to remain so far in front, and, as the firing from the other side was recommencing I fell back in search of a tree behind which I could stand and fire at leisure. Every tree however near by was already occupied, and the best that I could do was to stand behind two dragoons who were under the protection of a moderate sized tree, only of sufficient size to protect one man, and then only from a front fire. The bullets were soon falling around us in a perfect hail, an important feature being their coming from the enemy's right, and consequently a flanking fire. I stood in this position for only a few moments, unable to use my rifle conveniently, when I was suddenly slightly stunned by what I thought was the falling of a branch above me on my head. I staggered and almost fell, but soon recovered myself, to find that blood was trickling over my face, and that I was wounded in my forehead near the nose. W. W. White, who stood near me, told me that I had better go to the rear, but I thought it unnecessary, as the wound was evidently slight, and I felt that I could still do effective work in the way of shooting. He insisted though, and went back for a horse, which I unwillingly mounted, and thus galloped rather ignominiously out of the fight. I had to pass through another shower of bullets before being beyond their range, and my not having been harmed by any of them then seemed a miracle. The quantity of lead that fell in the small area of old Pocotaligo that afternoon proved the truth of the oft told assertion - that in battle it required a man's weight in lead to kill him - the number of casualties having been very few.
The bullet which struck me was either a buckshot or from a pistol. It was glancing and entered the left eyebrow, coming out on the right side of the nose. It was a narrow escape for me, as it might have entered the eye, if it had struck a trifle lower.
When I reached the ambulances in the rear, a surgeon examined my wound and saw that the ball had not lodged in the bone. I decided then to go to the hospital at McPhersonville on horseback and arrived there a little after dark. not suffering any pain whatever after having received the wound.
At about the time that I left old Pocotaligo, a batallion of infantry, commanded by Major Nelson, brought up by the railroad, was reaching the spot. It was an important reinforcement, and, after deploying and their fire had commenced, the enemy gave up the day as lost. The number of the latter's wounded had been large