December 9, 1864, The Union Army was supposed to be protecting
and aiding the Freedmen of the south as they marched, unfortunately through panic
and poor decision-making on this night dozens, perhaps hundreds of former
slaves drown, or were shot to death, and more enslaved again under the Confederate
forces.
In Sherman’s March to the Sea and his cutting across Georgia, it
became inevitable the Union Army would collect refugees. On this date, the army
was pursuing Confederate forces with Union POWs from Camp Lawton. Some 20
miles north of Savannah the Union army encountered a rain-swollen Ebenezer Creek
a tributary of the Savannah River. By this time it is reported that the former
slaves accompanying the army were at least 600 and might have been as much as
2000.
Knowing that they had to cross the raging creek because the Confederate
forces had burned the bridge and complicating battle plans Confederate cavalry
under General Joseph Wheeler was actively harassing Sherman’s rear guard.
Sherman’s corps commander Brevet Major General Jefferson
C. Davis ordered the construction of a pontoon bridge across the creek and for his provost
marshal to keep the Freedmen from crossing until the Confederate forces on
the other side, which were not there, were dispelled. Once all of the 14,000
Union troops were across Davis ordered the pontoons cut loose. With the
pressure of Wheeler coming up behind them panic rushed through the Freedmen and
they rushed the water. Many drown, and others were crushed in the rush.
Some Union troops did fell trees to assist the Freedmen but
Davis ordered them a shot if they continued and ordered them to march. When
Wheeler’s men came up on the chaotic scene they opened fire. Davis's orders
infuriated several of the Union officers who witnessed the ensuing calamity. Secretary
of War Edwin M. Stanton received so much public pressure from the clergy that
he brought the incident up with Sherman and Davis during a visit to
Savannah in January 1865. Davis defended his actions as a matter of military
necessity, with Sherman's full support.
Veteran Col. Charles Kerr of the 16th Illinois Cavalry
recalled the incident some 20 years after with disgust, “As soon as we were over
the creek, orders were given to the engineers to take up the pontoons and not
let a negro cross. . . . I sat upon my horse then and
witnessed a scene the like of which I pray my eyes may never see again.”
Sources:
https://aaregistry.org/story/massacre-at-ebenezer-creek-a-story/
https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/ebenezer-creek-massacre/
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