Battle of Monroe’s Cross Roads

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Kilpatrick had awakened early in the morning and had stepped to the front door of the house. Dressed in his underwear or a nightshirt, he looked out to see if his horses had been fed. Most of the camp was quiet, and his troops were still asleep. The buglers and drummers stood in the farmyard ready to sound reveille. All were unaware that in the stillness beyond the pine trees, death was coming for many of their comrades.

At that moment, the Confederates galloped into the camp screaming the Rebel yell and firing their pistols. Union troopers jumped from their bedrolls, blankets and equipment flying everywhere. Men in nightclothes scurried in all directions, grabbing their carbines and pistols and running for cover in the swamp. The Confederates, firing their pistols and slashing with their sabers, rode them down.

Partially dressed, Kilpatrick ran into the yard to make his own escape. As he did so, Captain Bostick and Captain Samuel Wilds Pegues of the 3rd Alabama, the first to reach Kilpatrick’s headquarters, rode up to him and asked, ‘Where is General Kilpatrick?’ Kilpatrick coolly replied, ‘There he goes, on that horse,’ and pointed at a Federal riding through the woods. Not knowing that they had just addressed the Union general himself, Bostick and Pegues turned their mounts around and galloped off. Kilpatrick ran barefoot to retrieve a horse. The general later claimed that he made his escape on horseback, but another account stated that although Kilpatrick started his escape on a horse, he then fell on the wet ground and disappeared into the swamp on foot. Kilpatrick confessed in his official report that he ‘retreated afoot.’

Sergeant A.F. Hardie, one of Shannon’s Scouts, recorded that Kilpatrick left ‘his hat, coat, pants, sword and pistol etc.’ Wells caught a glimpse of the general and commented that he was a’sorry looking figure in shirt and draws cutting loose a horse.’ However, Captain Theodore F. Northrop, Kilpatrick’s chief of scouts, reported that the general wore ‘a shirt, vest, trousers, and slippers or shoes, but without hat, coat and probably boots.’ He stated emphatically that no nightshirt was in evidence.

At any rate, in less than one minute, the Confederates had overrun both camps and captured the farmhouse, surrounding some staff officers still inside. The surprise was complete. Wright’s command rode down the slope through the camp in a terrific charge, then turned around and charged back through again. Some of Wheeler’s men had stopped their charge in the farmyard to harness mules and horses to pull the captured artillery and wagons out of the camp. Meanwhile, Butler rode about with a ‘lady’s silver-mounted riding crop,’ pointing out things he wished to have done.

This failure to press the retreating Federals allowed them precious time to recover and regroup. The Federals who had made it to the swamp, about 50 yards from the camp, now positioned themselves behind trees and poured a hot volley toward the Rebels. The 1st Alabama, 5th Kentucky and 5th Ohio formed a line in the swamp strong enough to check the Confederates’ advance. The Texas regiments in Harrison’s brigade tried to charge the swamp, but the fire from 1st Alabama forced them to withdraw.

In the meantime, the 200 Confederate prisoners had managed to overpower their guards and run toward Butler’s command. Butler halted Law near the entrance of the camp and ordered him to take charge of the prisoners and move them to the rear.

At the onset of the battle, Wheeler’s brigade had encountered a bog and had not been able to get through the impassable swamp. Trapped at the edge of the bog, they were helpless and fell before the Federals’ Spencer carbines. The fighting was intense, and about 20 South Carolina troops were killed outright in the first few minutes of the battle. Some of the victims of the withering fire were just boys, cadets from The Citadel, in Charleston. How many actually perished in this one area will never be known. Some were killed by gunfire, while others simply sank into the dismal bog. Skeletons of a horse and rider later found at the site revealed that the horse had sunk nose first before its rider could even dismount.

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Tags: 19th Century, America's Civil War, American Civil War, Historical Conflicts

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