Battle of Aiken By John C. Rigdon

Although it is clear that Sherman did not care about Augusta, Kilpatrick was rash and always looking for an opportunity to advance his career. If not contested, Kilpatrick would possibly have destroyed the railroad as far as Hamburg. There he possibly would have shelled the Confederate Powderworks in Augusta from his side of the river or even may have made a dash into the city if he found it lightly defended. If bluffed, Confederates may even have destroyed Augusta to keep it from falling into Union hands.

Coming at the end of the war in the midst of the Confederate defeat, the Battle of Aiken makes few of the standard histories of the war. The Confederate victory is however crucial to the local history of the region because the victory prevented the destruction of Augusta.

This is volume three in the trilogy on Sherman's destruction of Georgia and South Carolina. The Battle for Buck Head Creek and Waynesborough covers the 6 weeks prior to Christmas 1864, and the surrender of Savannah when Sherman's troops executed their famed burning of Georgia in a 100 mile swath from Atlanta to Savannah The Battle for the Salkehatchie covers the 6 weeks from January 1, 1865 when Sherman's troops devastated the lower portion of the state of South Carolina, and The Battle of Aiken covers the events in the midstate leading up to the burning of Columbia.

Table of Contents

The Battle of Aiken
Map of Sherman’s March
A Turtle on a Fence Post
TimeLine of Sherman’s March
For the Love of a Girl
The Approaching Storm
Fighting Joe Wheeler Saves the Day
Clueless As Usual - The Augusta Chronicle Reports the Battle
The Battle of Aiken Today
When Grandpa Followed Lee

First Hand Accounts
• A Reminiscence of the Aiken Skirmish
• Ruffin Dragoons with A. S. Johnston
• Incidents of the Fighting at Aiken, SC
• Posey Hamilton
• D. B. Morgan
• Savannah to Columbia
• Reports of Major General William T. Sherman
• Sherman Crosses The Edisto
• The Horrid Results of Every Battle
• A Glance at the Long Ago
• Left For Dead
• Thirty Years of Suffering
• The Campaign Of The Carolinas

Biographical Sketches
Union Dead Buried in the First Baptist Churchyar
Confederate Dead Buried in the St. Thaddeus Churchyard
Confederate Order of Battle
Union Order of Battle
Bibliography
Index of Military Units