Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 24.djvu/286

 -7 s Southern Historical Society

[From the Daily Charlotte (N. C.) Obrerver, April 7, 1895.]

WADE HAMPTON'S STRATEGY.

AN ATTACK ON RICHHOND FOILED.

Kilpatrick and Dahlgreen, with 4,000 Cavalry, were Planning to take

the Almost Defenseless City, Burn it and Kill the

President and Cabinet.

The South complains, and justly, of Northern historians for their misrepresentations of facts, and the men of the South who made the facts, during the war between the States.

A man's enemies are they of his own household, declares Sacred Writ, and when we come to consider the subject of this paper and the inaccuracy of two of our own historians with reference to it, the question forces itself, What can we do to deliver us from our friends ?

A great injustice has been done that grand man and soldier, Wade Hampton, by both Pollard in his ',' Lost Cause," and McCabe in his ' ' Lee and His Campaigns. ' ' Both of these historians recognize the peril that threatened Richmond and its inhabitants of sack, pillage and murder from the raid of Kilpatrick and Dahlgreen in March, 1864.

Pollard says: " In a general history there is little space for de- tached events. But we must make an exception to this rule in case of an expedition of Federal cavalry directed against Richmond in the month of March, 1864; a very small incident in military view, it is to be taken among the most interesting events of the war, as con- taining one oi the most distinct and deliberate evidences of the enemies' atrocity that had yet been given to a shocked and surprised world."

McCabe says: "An expedition consisting of 4,000 cavalry was fitted out with great care, for the purpose of capturing Richmond and releasing the Union prisoners confined there. The command of this expedition was intrusted to Kilpatrick. He was seconded by Ulric Dahlgren, a young officer of great skill and daring. The plan of the expedition was as follows: A column under General Custer was to make a dash on Charlottesville to draw attention from the main body which was to proceed to Beaver Dam, on the Central Railroad; arriving there, the column was to be divided, a part under General Kilpatrick was to move on Richmond along the north bank