Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 23.djvu/32

 i!'! Southern Historical Society Papers.

of regiments than to the history of the army." I will, therefore, try to deal in facts as I remember them.

In January, 1865, General Lee ordered Lieutenant-General Hamp- ton, with General M. C. Butler and two of his brigades (Young's and Dunovant's) from the A. N. V. to meet Sherman at Columbia, where General Wheeler was to report to General Hampton upon his arrival. Each general had a squad of scouts, who were brave and courageous men. I will give their names as I remember them: General Hampton's scouts were G. D. Shadbourn, sergeant com- manding; Bob Shiver, W. W. Miller, D. F. Tanner, Phil Hutchin- son, Jim Doolin, Jim Guffin, Lem Guffin, Walker Russell, David Smith, Jack Shoolbred, Simons, Jim Sloan, Shake Harris, and R. B. Merchant.

General Butler's scouts were Dick Hogan, sergeant commanding; Hugh K. Scott, Bernard King, Joel Adams, Jim Niblet, - - Black, - Ashley, - - Callins, - - Hodges, Bill Burness, Bill Turner, Pem Guffin, and a brave young lad from Virginia named Colvin, and also the fearless Captain James Butler. Colvin was killed just before Johnston surrendered.

General Wheeler's scouts were commanded by Captain Shannon. The gallant General Butler commanded the rear guard. On the morning of the iyth of February, 1865, when the rear guard was leaving Columbia, and while the remnant of the Second squadron of the Fifth South Carolina Cavalry was reluctantly leaving our beauti- ful city, Sergeant Hill Winn was killed in the college campus, when withdrawing the picket line, by Black Jack Logan's advance guard. This gallant young soldier belonged to Company B, which, with Company F (the cadet company), formed the Second squadron than whom no braver squadron ever crossed the James.

The hero of Sherman's army was Lieutenant John A. McQueen, of the Fifteenth Illinois Cavalry, who saved several houses in Colum- bia, at the peril of his life, and in the language of Dr. A. Toomer Porter : " He was one of the finest men I have ever known a brave soldier, chivalrous enemy, a devoted friend and a devout and honest Christian gentleman." So much pleased was Dr. Porter with him that he wrote this letter :

COLUMBIA, S. C., February, 1865.

LIEUTENANT-GENERAL WADE HAMPTON :

Dear General, Should Lieutenant McQueen, Fifteenth Illinois Cavalry, one of General Howard's escort, U. S. A., ever fall into