(April 5\u201321, 1865). General Edward E. Potter\u2019s raid into lowcountry and central South Carolina in April 1865 was neither massive nor particularly crucial to Union victory. But coming as it did on the heels of William T. Sherman\u2019s \u201cMarch to the Sea\u201d and his destruction of Columbia, the raid witnessed some of the last engagements of the Civil War. The raid also underscored the unchallenged ability of the Union army to reach any part of the Confederacy. Among South Carolinians, the raid produced a rich collection of folklore and reminiscence that still resonates in the state.<\/p>\n
In March 1865, while the rest of Sherman\u2019s army marched into North Carolina, a detachment of Union soldiers drove toward Darlington in hopes of breaking the area\u2019s railroad connections. Meeting resistance, they fell back. The failure irked Sherman, who called for a heavier force to finish the job. \u201c[T]he food supplies in that section should be exhausted,\u201d he wrote Major General Quincy A. Gillmore. \u201cI don\u2019t feel disposed to feel overgenerous. . . . Those cars and locomotives should be destroyed if to do it costs you 500 men.\u201d Gillmore obliged, ordering Potter with 2,500 men, including detachments from the 32d and 102d U.S. Colored Troops, to move inland from Georgetown and \u201cmake all the display possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although hampered somewhat by Confederate guerrillas and slowed by supply difficulties, Potter encountered little to stop him. He raided as far as Sumter District before news of Sherman\u2019s armistice with Confederate general Joseph E. Johnston brought a cease-fire that eventually resulted in Confederate surrender. By then, Potter reported the destruction of trestles, lines, rolling stock, and 51,000 bales of cotton. When Potter returned to his base on the coast, according to one authority, five thousand newly liberated slaves followed him.<\/p>\n
Thigpen, Allan D., ed. The Illustrated Recollections of Potter\u2019s Raid, April 5\u201321, 1865. <\/em>Sumter, S.C.: Gamecock City Printing, 1998.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" (April 5\u201321, 1865). General Edward E. Potter\u2019s raid into lowcountry and central South Carolina in April 1865 was neither massive nor particularly crucial to Union victory. But coming as it did on the heels of William T. Sherman\u2019s \u201cMarch to the Sea\u201d and his destruction of Columbia, the raid witnessed some of the last engagements […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":-1,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","class_list":["post-10560","entry","type-entry","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","ecms-a-z","ecms-encyclopedia","ecms-lowcountry","ecms-midlands","ecms-military","ecms-p","ecms-u-s-civil-war-1861-1865"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n