320 NortH Cakonina Troops, 1861-’65.

ORDERED SOUTH.

The battalion, however, had work enough from December
1864, to the end of the war to satisfy the most ambitious sol-
dier, and during the next five months there was hardly a day
“which they could call their own.” General Sherman had
“cut loose’ from his base of supplies. The plan to divert his
raid across Georgia was frustrated by the repulse of Hood’s
army at Franklin, Tenn., and Federal forces moved across
the State of Georgia with comparatively little opposition.
So soon as Savannah was found to be the “objective point”
of Sherman’s march, its defence was assigned to Lieutenant-
General W. J. Hardee, a most gallant officer of world-wide
reputation, and this battalion was put into the trenches
around that city. The writer was in hospital suffering from
rheumatism, when the command left Wilmington. The
lines of entrenchment around Wilmington which the com-
mand had picketed for so many days and nights and guarded
so zealously, were to be left by them to other hands to de-
fend when assaulted by the enemy. The writer came with

the command to Augusta, Georgia, and there all soldiers
who had already seen service at the front, but were now
doing “post duty,” once more volunteered to return to the
field and defend the State. The enthusiasm was intense and
the writer, although in hospital, reported for such duty as he

might be able to perform.

SAVANNAH.

The Tenth Battalion went into Savannah just as Sherman
appeared before that city, and here for nearly twenty days it
was almost continuously under fire.

The army commanded by General Sherman was well nigh
invincible, rude and truculent though it seemed at times, but
made up as it was of the brawn and muscle of the great North-
west, it became a “scourge of God,” a dire punishment to the
South.

For days and days of that cold December (1864) Sher-
man’s men would form in skirmish line, on the edge of the
woods, and move across the “opening” right up to the range
of our canister and grape shot before they could be driven

 

TENTH Barra.ion, 3821

back to cover. During the weeks of siege, our General found
out that the coil was being tightened around his devoted com-
mand. Fighting for “home.and fatherland,” his small force
was doing all that could be done to save the lovely city en-
trusted to them, and yet we all began to think that before the
winter closed we would be in prison at Fort Delaware or on
Johnson Island; still we stood to our guns and did our duty.

A DANGEROUS CONSPIRACY.

Inside of these lines there was an infantry battalion whose
officers were some of our best young men, noble in heart and
in spirit, cadets of some of the oldest families in the Caro-
linas, but the rank and file were made up of men who had
been captured by our armies in various battles. These we
called “galvanized Yankees.” True they were nearly all
foreigners, mostly Irishmen, who cared for neither side es-
pecially, but had been first regularly enlisted in the Federal
army. If captured, they knew they would be tried for de-
sertion, for they now “wore the gray.” Amongst them was
a young Sergeant, a native of Delaware, he came with the bat-
talion, thus made up. They soon “‘took in the situation,”
and almost felt like the rope was around their necks. Who
could blame them for their desire to escape such a fate ?

One night a gigantic Irish Corporal in this command, be-
cause he had become so devoted to one of the Confederate of-
ficers over him, revealed a plot which had been formed to
spike the guns of our main battery, kill or capture the officers
near by and go over into Sherman’s lines. The young Dela-
ware Sergeant was the originator of the plot. Several regi-
ments from another portion of our line surrounded this un-
happy band and their guns were speedily taken from them.
A drum-head court-martial was held, and in less than an hour
our young Delaware Sergeant and six others, at the hour of
midnight, were duly executed by sentence of this court; the
residue of the command was passed through our lines to the
rear. Our General was tried after the war under orders of
the War Department at Washington for the execution of
these conspirators, but of course he was acquitted.

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