![]() By keeping Kilpatrick’s cavalry tied up for the entire day on March 10, Hardee was able to reach Fayetteville unmolested, and to cross his entire command safely. Hampton’s plan was designed to buy time for Hardee’s infantry to make its escape, and in that, the Confederates were wildly successful. However, winning or losing the battle was not the issue. In the end, Kilpatrick won the battle by retaining the field at the end of the day, and having driven off Hampton and Wheeler. Many of the Confederate dead from the battle rest here. This cemetery is about a mile and a half from the battlefield. So ended the final major cavalry engagement in the Western Theater of the Civil War. The foot soldiers quickly dubbed it “Kilpatrick’s shirt-tail skedaddle,” not without merit. Morgan’s 14 th Corps Division arrived to reinforce Kilpatrick after the battle ended, and the Union commander soon became a laughingstock when the story of his flight into the swamp clad in only his nightshirt spread. His command spent the rest of the day licking its wounds. Having been caught by surprise and having taken heavy losses, he was in no hurry to pursue the grayclad horsemen. George Dibrell’s late-arriving brigade of Wheeler’s corps, and these troopers fended off Kilpatrick’s final attacks and allowed the rest of the Confederate cavalry to break off and withdraw safely. ![]() Law’s reserve troopers came forward to cover the Confederate retreat and were joined by Brig. After taking heavy losses-Wheeler had lost two division commanders and two brigade commanders badly wounded-and realizing that he had done all that he could, Hampton finally ordered his command to withdraw. They also punished those elements of Wheeler’s corps that had gotten bogged down in the swamp for the better part of 90 long minutes. Kilpatrick’s determined counterattack re-took his headquarters at the Monroe House and then began shoving the Confederate cavalry back toward the Morganton Road. In the background are graves for unknown Union dead. Sign indicating the location of the battlefield. James Hagan, lay on the ground bleeding from a severe wound. ![]() Humes, was badly wounded in the leg, and a brigade commander, Col. One of Wheeler’s division commanders, Brig. One of Kilpatrick’s troopers described the determined counterattack by the Union horse soldiers as “one of the most terrific hand-to-hand encounters I ever saw.” Blue and gray mingled promiscuously as they slugged it out for possession of the Union camps. Those blasts of canister served to rally the Union men. King, the commander of the Cobb Legion Cavalry, was also mortally wounded by one of Stetson’s blasts. The captain and his loyal steed were buried in the same grave. Leading his troopers forward, Humphrey and his horse were both felled by a blast of canister. Butler ordered an attack on the guns, which was led by The Citadel Cadet Ranger Company of the 4 th South Carolina Cavalry, led by Capt. Stetson was able to man first one, and then other, of his guns near the Monroe house, taking the starch out of the Confederate attack. Battle of Monroe’s Crossroads.Īfter rallying his troops, Kilpatrick found a ragged old nag of a horse, and ordered a counterattack by his men, who surged forward out of the swamp and engaged the Confederate cavalrymen.
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