The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1905-08-16
WAR STORIES.
s.. Louis Republic.

1.-The noise of the battle got louder
all the time and the dust and smoke
got higher and thicker. About 4
o'clock we could see men running
back across the Matthews place, get.
ting away from the fighting. More
and more of them went running back
toward Sudley.
1T wasn't long before it seemed ae
it all the men that had come down
from Sudley was running back that
way. The noise got fainter and dust
and smoke at the Henry place cleared
away enough for us to see the pufs of
smoke coming out of the guns
stretched across from the Henry to
the Robinson house. We could see
troops march down the pike and could
catch sight Of a flag once in awhile.
The fire slackened and the smoke
cleared away. The dust was rising
over toward Sudley, and we knew the
bluecoats were going around that way
to get back to Centrevile. Then we
went in the house and got sup per.
That evening we drove over toward
the Henry place. They vas gathering
ur the wounded, and some men were
digging trenches aud getting ready to
bury the dead. The field was torn up
with shells and killed and wounded
men were sprawled out all about, but
not thick like after the second battle.
There was good many dead horses
and some cannon with the wheels Of.
You could pick up wagouload of
guns aud haversacks in no time.
Mrs. Dogan was an important wit
ness in the congressional Inquiry
which corrected the record of General
Fitz John Porter. Porter did not
move forward on August 20, because,
as he said, Longstreet was in front
of him. Porter's opponents contend
ed that Longstreet did not pass
through Thoroughfare Gap till the
morning Of the 29th, and could not
have come down upon Jackson 8 right
at Groveton and in front of Porter till
the afternoon Of that day. Mrs.
Dogan testified that Longstreet and
his staff took breakfast in her house,
at Groveton, early in the morning of
the 29th, and that his troops were
coming up and deploy;ng to jackson s
right at that time.
Mrs. Dogan says General Lopg-
street told her at breakfast she had
better move from Groveton. Later in
the day, when the battle was hot back
OF Groyeton, and about Sudley, an
officer of Jackson staff rode up and
ordered her to leave the place and to
take along her children. She had not
been gone an hour when Union troops
and batteries began drawing up around
droveton, and Confederate shells
were breaking there. The next day,
August 30, the Dogan farm was one
oe the bloody battleields of the Civil
War. The railroad cut which Jack.
son held, and where the Union Army
sustained the most grievous loses,
runs through the Peach Grove Farm
Of the Dogans.
Pope withdrew from Groveton dur.
ing the night of August 80, and Mrs.
Dogan returned in the morning of
August 81.
The place was TERRIBLE" she said,
for the Union dead had not been
buried. They had shoveled dirt over
the bodies just where the men fell,
and out of the Hoft mounds that COW
cred the field could see heads, feet
and hands sticking out. Some of the
dead had. been overlooked and these
bodies were not even covered up.
There was hard rain soon after the
battle and the soft dirt was washed
of the bodies. Up there by the
cut you couldn't walk without
treading on dead man. The bodies
in time came to be nothing but bones,
and after the war men came down
with horses and wagons and gathered
up the bones and buried them at Ar.
lington. If the troops come down
this way this fall I hope they won't
use ball cartridges in their muskets."
The Dogan house was a popular
resting place for Mosby's men, and
that, enterprising cavalryman, or
raider-"scout," as the Southern poo.
pie called him, and bush VIII aoker."
as the Northern people called him
often dropped in Cor meal. The
morning after the reckless capture of
General S.oughten, at Fairfax Court.
house, Mosby stopped for breakfast.
II remember General stoughton
well" said Mrs. Dogar, "That morn.