Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-01-11
AN INCIDENT OF THE WAR.
How a Body of Cadets Engaged the
Federal Cavalry.

| SAYS IIGsluSul lub
! Columbia Spectator, that a strong body of
Federal cavalry, numbering, it is said. no
1 fewer than !, 200, detached by Gen. j. Il.
/ Wilson, then on his march from Tuscum-
1 bia, in northwestern Alabama, to Macon,
| in Georgia, struck the Black Warrior
river at the little town Of Northport, di-
| rectly opposite to Tuscaloosa, which lies
/ upon the southern bank. The object which
/ Gen. Wilson had IN view in ordering this
! expedition was to seize or destroy depot
| OF military supplies said truly to have
/ been formed in Tuscaloosa; for this city,
| though a point of no strategic i'm
/ portance, was convenient centre
in which to bring together levies
/ or contributions from a large district of
surrounding country. Had nothing occur
| red to interfere with this proceeding the
troops, after accomplishing their object,
would have retired. Unfortunately there
was an interference, and, as the result of
the interference, catastrophe. Rightly
| to understand what happened, it is neces-
/ sary to know that at this point the river
is spanned by large and well-built COW
| cred bridge of wood. AS the hostile visit
had been entirely uDanticIpated. no a.
/ tempt had been made to destroy the bridge
| or to interrupt communication between
the banks, so the troops effected a cross
ing in good order and unOppOsed. Reach
/ ing the lower terrace on the southern side
the commander halted his main body and
threw forward small squad to recon-
! hotter.
Now the tramping of !, 100 horses across
| wooden bridge several hundred feet
! long, however quietly conducted, could
scarcely take place without attracting
/ some attention from the people of a town
of several thousand inhabitants, quite
within earshOt. What happened, there
fore, during the time occupied by the
little army in crossing the river was this:
/ Some curious individuals who, attracted
| By the. unusual sounds, looked down from
the brow Of the hill (it was a
| bright moonlight night) upon the
/ formidable military array gathered
upon the lower terrace, scattered
! hastily and carried on the wings of the
wind to every corner Of the city the fright
! full intelligence that the Yankees, of whom
! they had heard so much, but had as yet
| seen nothing, were right on the spot at
/ last. The rumor reached the university.
| This Institution occupied { l say occupied
| advisedly, for it was soon an instance of
/ 1rCjd .fuit), and l am glad to say it now
/ occupies once more, an isolated site about
/ half mile beyond the chartered limits of
| the city. All its full-grown students had
/ long since flung themselves into the
| ranks of the Confederate armies, and
/ these had been replaced by a band of boys
of tender age, who were enjoying the
combined advantages of military and
/ civilian education, and preparing them
selves equally for the pursuits of peace
or Of war. They were subject, Of course,
to twofOld rule; it was true, neVerthe-
less, with them, as in A well-Ordered state,
that the military was subordinate to the
civil power. No sooner, however, had
the appalling announcement, "The enemy
is at the gates" been heard upon the col
Loo l,
juvenile patriots seized their muskets
very small mUskets they were, specially
constructed and proportional to the
feeble powers of those who were to bear
them J, fell into the ranks, and marched
incOnunently to the scene of anticipated
conflict, fercely bent On driving these
graceless invaders into the Black Warrior
river at the point of the bayOnet. When,
therefore, the accommodating party of the
Federals began slowly to ascend the hill,
this is what befell:
Suddenly the word ''fire'' was shouted
in clarion voice, and a Yolley Of musket
balls flew over the heads of the advancing
troops. The firing was so exact, so 81
multaneOus, and so instantly in sequence
to the order as to impress the Federals
with the belief that it had been delivered,
not by mob of hastily gathered civilian
defenders, but by body of regularly
drilled and disciplined troops. The ad-
vance party therefore fell back and re.
ported that the COnfedeTates were before
them in force. 1t was known, indeed, !
that there had been some Confederate
regiments stationed at GreensborOugh, 40
miles below Tuscaloosa; and it was
believed that these had been pushed
forward to defend Tuscaloosa against
this raid. The Federal commander
nevertheless felt confident that he should
be able to carry the town by coup de
main, and he lost no time In attempting
it. Massing his troops in solid column,
he gave the order to charge up the hill at
gallop, intending TO ride down all oppO-
sitiOn or to cut his way with the sabre.
| Then all these LOO hOrsemen swept up
the hill at the top of their speed, to find,
to their establishment, no trace of hui
man being-tO say nothing of COnteder-
ate army-tO oppose them. 1t was the
| firing of the university cadets which had
deceived and mYstifed these troopers,
( and the disappearance of the cadets was
| due to a very natural cause. The civil
| ian head of the university, the President,
in short, had not been long in discovering
| that his precious charge had
stolen a march upon him. He had
! the sense to understand the madness of
provoking a deadly conflict between a
powerful force of veteran troops and the
handful of children which constituted his
whole command. He had, therefore, in
all haste followed the march of the ca
diets, and he arrived Just in time to wit
ness their valOrOuS salutatiOn of the APP
preaching foe. 1t was sublime piece of
folly, and l make no doubt that the Presi-
dent an old friend of mine) was proud of
it in his heart, though with great out
ward show of indignation he ordered the
boys Instantly back to their barracks;
while inwardly he whispered to himself,
in the words of the military critic at Ba-
iaklaVa: "C'eSt MAGNITUDE, nldtS ce NEST
pas Ia g1terre."
But the cavalry, the cadets being out of
the way, carried forward by the momentum
of their first mad rush, dashed through
the city in all directions, and soon became
separated from their officers and past all
control. Then followed a scene without
parallel, it is to be hoped, in the history
Of the Union arms. There was, indeed,
no blOOdshed, no violence to person even,
and no intrusion into private dwellings,
except in one or two instances in search
for Confederate officers, supposed to be on
furlough, among their friends in town.
But the doors of the shops and warehouses
were burst in from one end of the town to
the other, and all the Valuables they con-
tanned were made the subject of an indis-
crminate loot. In this pillage the present
writer, though not present, was himself
to some extent a sufferer. All the books
he had been able to gather round him in
the previous 20 years of his life as an edu-
Gator had been forwarded from his more
recent residence in Mississippi to this
| presumably secure retreat and deposited
in l. large cases in the warehouse of
friend. All these cases, TO the last one,
were broken ruthlessly open. and their
contents either carried away or scattered
over the floor and trampled under foot.
1t Is hardly to be supposed that these
rough soldiers were sufficiently literary
in their tastes to be willing to cucumber
themselves with booty of this description.
But no sooner had they left their prey
than lawless crowd Of negroes and
s'Other fellows of the baser sOrt' bounced
upon the spoil they had refused, and
carried off everything that was portable.
Books which had anything attractive in
their bindings or in their Illustrations
were naturally first seized on; but others
less snowy soon shared the same fate, so
that when after the storm had passed by,
and the debris which it had left were at
length gathered together, out of the con-
tents OF seventeen cases there remained
confused mass of rubbish sufficient nearly
to fill three, which, when forwarded to
New York, were found to be hardly
worth the cost of their transportation.
The Simple Truth of History.
Hour.
Gen. Grants downward career began
/ when he the military idol of his fellow