ON THE RETREAT FROM CHARLESTON. BY R. DE T. LAWRENCE, MARIETTA, GA.
With the order to evacuate Charleston, necessitated by the advance of Sherman, the different stations of the signal corps were called in. Going to headquarters in the night and finding that all had left, there was nothing to do but to overtake the corps, which I did the next morning near the old Goose Creek Church, a church built when the attempt was made to found a town a few miles north of the site afterwards selected for the city of Charleston. The English royal emblem was then, and no doubt still is, shown on the wall above the altar. In passing through the deserted streets in the dead of night the stillness was broken only by the occasional bursting of a shell fired from Morris Island as it passed through some dwelling abandoned by its occupants, who had fled to the upper part of the State or moved to that portion of the 'city beyond the range of the Parrot guns. As the signal corps was the last to leave Morris Island, the atmosphere no longer disturbed by even the hum of human voices, there seemed a weird stillness in the air; so in passing through the quiet streets of the city in the calm of the night there was the sense of utter solitude.
In leaving Charleston I had hung over my shoulder, in addition to a blanket, a pair of new army boots, gotten under 'tthe following circumstances: My classmate and comrade, W. A. Clark, now and for many years President of the Carolina National Bank, told me of a shoemaker who for $90 would make a pair of boots if the upper leather was furnished. So from a kipskin costing $100 was cut for the boots a part we estimated at $60, Mr. Clark taking what was left for $40, the boots thus costing $150. Unfortunately, they were too tight for me. Finding that they would fit Lieutenant Memminger, son of the Confederate Treasurer, and that the boots he had.on fitted me, I proposed a swap of some kind. This he declined. The next day I told him he was treating me badly, as he knew I could not wear the boots and he could, and I was unable to carry them indefinitely. To this he replied that he could not pay the value of the boots, which were worth -$700 in Charleston, but would give me for them $300 and the boots he had on, which offer I very gladly accepted, as it gave me a very comfortable article of foot wear, with, as I felt at the time, "money to burn." What became of the $300 T can at this date give no account, as there was too much of interest in other directions to give thought to the then so small a matter as money.
In order that movements of the enemy might be observed and reported, the signal corps were the last to leave their stations on the evacuation of Charleston, so the battle of -Averyboro had been fought shortly after we reached the neighborhood. In this battle Lieut. Col. Robert de Treville was killed. Early in the war the then lieutenant colonel killed the colonel of his regiment in a duel and thereupon became colonel and Major de Treville became lieutenant colonel. The former afterwards challenged the latter, who declined to accept the challenge partly upon religious grounds and also upon having a wife and two children entirely dependent upon him. Denounced at the time as a coward, Lieutenant Colonel de Treville's reputation was vindicated and his moral courage applauded when, in the absence of the colonel, he led his regiment in battle and was killed. It was at first reported that the colonel had deserted to the enemy, but, to his credit, it was subsequently shown that he was captured while reconnoitering, and his courteous treatment by General Sherman was due to his well-dressed appearance, unusual in a Con-
-of the carpetbaggers.
federate colonel, and to his commanding oné of the few regu- | lar regiments of the Confederate States. i
While the signal corps was not disbanded and had one man killed in an affray with the enemy on the retreat, still I wanted to have a more active participation in the struggle, and, without getting a transfer, I joined a company of the Sth South Carolina Cavalry of General Logan's brigade. Gen. T. M. Logan had the distinction of being the youngest general in the service, though the statement has been made that another brigadier general was due this honor. General Logan and Col, Aleck Haskell were competitors at college for first honor. After much consultation between the professors Mr. Logan was given first honor and Mr. Haskell second honor. So too, it was reported, they were both named for promotion to a brigadier generalship, and after much discussion Colonel Logan was given the place. Col. Aleck Haskell in a combat with two Federals received a severe saber cut on the side of his head and was left as dead. Reviving, he lived for many years after, and he and his brother, Col. John Haskell, were potent factors in ridding South Carolina
The regiment of which I was now a member performed the duties usual on the skirmish line, in checking the advance guards of the enemy while slowly falling back. We noticed an increased daring and boldness on the part of the Federals. On one occasion we were fired on from three directions. A light piece of artillery had evidently been hurried forward on a road paralleling the one we were on and placed directly between us and Raleigh. There was nothing for us to do to avoid capture but to follow a trail through the woods that led to the main road, which we knew had been taken by the army. Satisfied that the army had passed, and going back a short distance in the woods to see whether or not we were pursued and seeing no trace of the enemy, we went on slowly toward Raleigh. The next day we were surprised to hear it reported that we had acted cowardly in leaving a squad asleep on the opposite side of the road from where we had emerged from the woods.
Two or three years after, while stopping over on Sunday at Winona, Miss., a traveling man, also stopping over there, a member of the squad which, to their credit, drove off the attacking party and regained their horses and guns, mentioned the charge against the regiment. I assured him that we had not only satisfied ourselves that none of the enemy were in the immediate vicinity, but that we saw nothing to indicate the presence of a man or horse in the neighborhood, due no doubt to our attention being directed altogether in the direction in which the enemy might be expected.
That night one of our scouts reported that General Lee had surrendered. We ridiculed the report, but he said General Johnston believed it and that there was great rejoicing in the Federal army over it. When the report was corroborated later, we found the explanation of the increased activity and daring of the Yanks.
On one occasion during the retreat our sympathies were aroused by the frantic pleadings of some women refugees who begged us for protection. We could only urge them to go at once into the house to escape danger from the Minie balls, which were then flying about us from the enemy's advanced sharpshooters.
Arriving at Greensboro, N. C., we learned definitely of General Lee's surrender. With my parole, I started on the five-hundred-mile trip to Talbotton, Ga., to which town my father's family had refugeed upon General Johnston's falling' back from Kenesaw Mountain. For the expenses of this trip