"Fighting" Kilpatrick's Escape
by H. H. Scott, Morgana, SC

Confederate Veteran
Volume12, Number12 , Page 588
December 1904

In the April VETERAN, page 177, Lieut. Col. John W. Inzer, of the Twenty Second and Fifty Eighth Alabama Infantry, writes of how Gen. Kilpatrick's command was surprised and that officer's pistols and holsters were captured by Gen. Wheeler's command. Comrade Hizer's informant (he writes from hearsay) is mistaken. Gen. Wade Hampton is the one entitled to the honor of surprising Kilpatrick. Comrade Hizer says: "Gen. Wheeler divided his command and surrounded Kilpatrick's camp that night. He first sent out scouts to take in the Yankee pickets, this was done successfully, and at break of day the command was ordered to cross a marshy swamp and attack the enemy."

Now Lieut. Gen. Wade Hampton, in command of all the cavalry, including Wheeler's, was present. The writer, who was one of Gen. Hampton's headquarters scouts, and Capt. Shannon, chief of Wheeler's scouts, rode in front of our columns most of the day, Gen. M. C. Butler's Division leading. We struck the road on which Kilpatrick was moving a little after dark, in his rear, and it was at that time we captured his rear guard pickets. Consequently there was nothing to interrupt our march. Gen. Hampton, Capt. Shannon, and I, riding in front of the column, soon came within sight of Kilpatrick's camp fires, when Gen. Hampton ordered me to go back and "tell Gen. Butler to half: the command, dismount, and hold their horses," and they did hold their horses alt night in the road. Next morning Gen. Wheeler was ordered to cross a swamp and get in the rear of Kilpatrick. Owing to the marshy condition of his route, he failed to get all of his command over in time, and Butler's Division did most of the fighting that day.

The troops that led the charge were Cobb's Legion, commanded by Col. Gibb Wright. I well remember this, for Gen. Butler said to me as we were forming: "Now, Scott, you have been trying all along to get stripes on your collar. If you will bring Kilpatrick out to day, you shall have them." I asked what command was going to lead, and when he told me Cobb's Legion I rode up to Col. Wright, who knew me as one of Gen. Hampton's scouts, and got permission to go with him. "Fall in here by me," he answered, in reply to my request, and he and I were the two front men in the column. We rode some distance into Kilpatrick's camp before Col. Wright ordered the charge, and would doubtless have surrounded his headquarters had it not been for some of our men who were prisoners. Kilpatrick had captured about three hundred, and, as we got up so they could recognize us, they gave a genuine old Rebel yell. Then Col. Wright ordered the charge, and at it we went. Gen. Kilpatrick was up, had on slippers, and was looking at his horses, and in that condition made his escape. I know nothing about the capture of Kilpatrick's pistols or holsters, but if the orderly sergeant of Company E, Fifteenth Alabama Cavalry, led the charge of the attaching party, as Comrade Inzer has heard, and captured the holsters and pistols, it was after we had run over Kilpatrick's headquarters and taken his camp.

Now in reference to Kilpatrick's spotted horse: A man named Watkins, of Cobb's Legion, from Augusta, Ga. captured the horse, and I am satisfied that Gen. Wheeler never threw his leg over that animal, for afterwards, during the armistice at Hillsboro, N. C., Watkins was a member of the escort to Gens. Johnston and Hampton and rode the spotted horse. Gen. Kilpatrick saw and recognized him, and gave Watkins two good horses for him. I write this only to correct errors and to give honor to whom honor is due. Comrade Inzer's informant is also wrong about the little fight at Fayetteville, N. C., where he says "Wheeler gave Kilpatrick a good thrashing." We entered this town about eight or nine o'clock in the morning, Wheeler's command in front. I asked Gen. Hampton how long he would be there, as I 'wished to get breakfast at a private house. He consented. When I came out after breakfast I saw some of Wheeler's men falling back. They informed me that the Yankees had charged their advance squad and cut it in two. I saw some troops near the river, and, as it was my duty to find out what was in the town, I rode down four or five blocks. When 'I came to the market house there was a squad of ten or fifteen Yankee cavalry in line, who fired on me as I passed. Near the river I met Gen. Hampton and reported what I had seen. There were four other scouts with him. Turning, he said: "You scouts follow me. Where are they, Scott?" When we turned the corner of the street they were sitting as I had left them. The General ordered us to charge, and in we went. We killed some, captured some, and soon had them on the run. Turning back, we saw another party that had come in the street behind us. Again we were ordered to charge, and in we went. I saw Gen. Hampton cut two out of their saddles with his saber. In these two little brushes we killed thirteen and captured twelve.

Now to convince Comrade Inzer of the truth of this statement I submit a copy of a letter in my possession, written by Gen. Hampton, complimenting the little squad that was with him on that occasion:

To Lieut. Johnston, Charleston Light Dragoons.

Lieutenant, I commend to you Privates Wells, Bellinger, and Fishburn, of your company, who, with Private Scott and one member of Wheeler's command, whose name I regret I do not remember, acted with conspicuous gallantry in charging and driving from the town of Fayetteville that portion of the enemy's cavalry that had entered before it had been evacuated by my troops. Their conduct on this occasion reflects high credit on them as soldiers.

Your obedient servant,
WADE. HAMPTON, Lieut. Gen.
March 19, 1865

In after years, when Gen. Hampton was Railroad Commissioner and out on the Pacific Coast, a man came lip and introduced himself as Deane Day, slating that it was the first time he had seen the General since that memorable morning of the market house in Fayetteville, N. C.: that he was then chief of scouts for the Fourteenth Army Corps, that he had sixty two men in town that morning, but that, catching his squads divided and surprising them, besides fighting like devils, we had fairly licked him. Day was captured and had on a Confederate gray uniform. Gen. Hampton told him he would certainly have had him shot the next morning had he not made his escape that night.