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the field, as militia, every white man in the
State between the ages of sixteen and sixty years, not already in the service.
So urgent seemed the need, that he threatened conscription for all who should not volunteer.
But very few of that militia force confronted the
National troops anywhere in
South Carolina.
The Confederates occupied the line of the
Salkhatchie with infantry and artillery, at important points, while
Wheeler's cavalry hovered around the advance of the
National army; and when the Seventeenth Corps, with which
Sherman was moving, approached River's Bridge, over that stream, and the Fifteenth moved on Beaufort Bridge, they found a force ready to dispute the passage of each.
Those at River's Bridge were soon dispersed by the divisions of
Generals Mower and
G. A. Smith, of the Seventeenth Corps, who made a flank movement under extraordinary difficulties.
They waded through a swamp three miles in width, with the water from one to four feet in depth, the generals wading at the head of the columns.
The weather was bitter cold, and the water was almost icy in temperature.
But the work was accomplished.
The foe was quickly scattered in a disorderly retreat to
Branchville, behind the
Edisto, burning bridges behind them, and inflicting a loss on the Nationals of nearly one hundred men. The latter pressed rapidly on to the South Carolina railroad, at
Midway, Bamberg, and
Graham's stations, and destroyed the track for many miles.
Kilpatrick, meanwhile, was skirmishing briskly, and sometimes heavily, with
Wheeler, as the former moved, by
Barnwell and
Blackville, toward
Aiken and threatened
Augusta; and by noon, on the 11th,
the Nationals had possession of the railway from Midway to
Johnson's Station, thereby dividing the Confederate forces which remained at
Branchville and
Charleston on one side, and
Aiken and
Augusta on the other.
Sherman now moved his right wing rapidly northward, on
Orangeburg.
The Seventeenth Corps crossed the south fork of the
Edisto at Binnaker's Bridge, and the Fifteenth Corps passed over it at Holman's Bridge.
These converged at
Poplar Spring, where the Seventeenth, moving swiftly on
Orangeburg, dashed upon the
Confederates intrenched in front of the bridge near there, and drove them across the stream.
The latter tried to burn the. bridge, but failed.
They had a battery in position behind the bridge, covered by a parapet of cotton and earth, with extended wings.
This
Blair confronted, with
General G. A. Smith's division posted close to the
Edisto, while two others were moved to a point two miles below.
There
Force's division, supported by
Mower's, crossed on a pontoon bridge.
When Force approached the
Confederates, they retreated, and
Smith crossed over and occupied their works.
The bridge was soon repaired, and, by four o'clock that afternoon,
the whole of the Seventeenth Corps was in
Orangeburg, and had begun the work of destruction on the railway connecting that place with
Columbia.
Without wasting time or labor on
Branchville or
Charleston, which
Sherman knew the
Confederates would no longer hold, he-now turned all his columns straight on
Columbia.
The Seventeenth Corps pushed the foe across the
Congaree,
forcing him to burn the bridges, and then followed the
State road directly for the capital of
South Carolina, while the Fifteenth crossed the
South Edisto from
Poplar Spring at
Schilling's
