Women of Aiken, S. C., in time of Battle
by John C. Baird, Company E, 1st Alabama Cavalry

Confederate Veteran
Volume 18, Number 4, Page 158
April 1910

In the February VETERAN (page 61) W. H. Morris, of the 10th Ohio Cavalry, tells I. B. Ulmer, of the 3d Alabama Cavalry, "something he does not know." Now let me tell Mr. Morris something that he may not know. The 1st and 3d Alabama were in the same brigade. I. B, Ulmer's article in the December VETERAN is correct in regard to the Aiken fight as "a very important affair." As we rode into Aiken General Wheeler was at the head of our regiment, the 1st Alabama, and many ladies were out on the balconies waving handkerchiefs, and I heard them plead: "Do not let the Yankees come into this town." Now I have always thought that this was why the order was given to about face and make the charge. I do not believe that over five hundred men were in that fight. I saw only three regiments in the charge viz., the 1st and 3d Alabama and 8th Texas and most of the regiments were then reduced to less than two hundred effective men. The Ohio Cavalry were as brave a body of troops as we ever met in battle, and if they had known of the appeal from the ladies of Aiken to us, they doubtless would not have ventured so near the town. Mr. Morris admits that they "left Aiken in a hurry," but he evidently did not know that the fair women of Aiken were responsible for the "hurry." I write as a private soldier who could not see much in time of such deadly conflicts, and it has been so long that it now seems like a dream to me. When I enlisted, in 1861, I was a very delicate boy of sixteen years, and weighed only ninety three pounds. Now I am sixty five years old, have thirteen children and fifteen grandchildren, all stout and healthy, and all of them are fine looking.