HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF WEST FLORIDA,
In the Field, Gonzales' Farm, July 22, 1864.
"CAPTAIN: I have the honor to submit that having left Barrancas yesterday afternoon I attacked, after a march of 30 miles, at daybreak this morning the enemy at Camp Gonzales, on the Pensacola railroad, 15 miles above Pensacola.
There were at Camp Gonzales three companies Seventh Alabama Regiment Cavalry, G, E, and I, in command of Colonel Hodgson, comprising, according to captured pay-rolls, over 120 men each. They completed only day before yesterday a new fort named Fort Hodgson, considered by them to be very strong, and they were decided to defend it at all hazards, but submitted to the vigorous dash made by a portion of the Seventh Vermont Veteran Volunteers, the Eighty-second U.S. Colored Infantry, the First Florida Cavalry (not mounted), and Company M, Fourteenth New York Cavalry, and the well-aimed shells of the First Florida Battery, and after half an hour's fighting deserted the new fort and the camp, leaving in our hands their regimental flag and all their official papers, 8 prisoners (among whom a lieutenant), a considerable amount of commissary and quartermaster stores, 17 horses with equipments, 18 sabers, 18 guns, a large quantity of ammunition, and 23 head of cattle. It is reported that the rebels carried with them on their horses over 30 of their wounded, leaving only 1 in the camp mortally wounded.
The horses and arms I turned over to the Florida cavalry, and will send the beef to Barrancas, but having no transportation I will destroy all the restof supplies by fire, including Fort Hodgson and all the buildings in the camp.
From inclosed statement of H. L. Knox, private, Company G, Seventh Alabama Cavalry, captured this day, the commanding general will see that General Sherman's detached force, expected to reach Pensacola, had three successful engagements with the rebel General Clanton and some militia troops at Talladega, Loachapoka, and Chehaw and destroyed the Montgomery and West Point Railroad, but returned to Sherman's main army without entering Montgomery.
I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,"
ASBOTH,
Brigadier-General.
It wasn't much of an affair as Civil War battles went. Thousands of brave men did not die on a single day as they did at Sharpsburg and Chickamauga. It was only a skirmish, in fact, but it has its own unique place in local history, and it is a true glimpse into how the war reached into the very heart of the Confederacy.
It happened in that long hot summer of 1864 when Ohio's Major General William Tecumseh Sherman was closing in on Atlanta and demonstrating why some historians rank him as the top Federal commander of the war. Hope was almost gone for the South, but if it could somehow hold on to Atlanta and regroup, the South might yet maintain its independence.
Sherman knew more about Southern pride and tenacity than most.
When the war started he was president of what is now Louisiana State
University. He had lived in the South for twelve years and had genuine
affection for its people. He was also a gut-fighter and knew what he
had to do to win. To take Atlanta, he had to cut off Atlanta's
defenders from the products of iron furnaces and mills of central
Alabama. He had to destroy the supply depots and tracks of the
Montgomery-West Point railroad.
To accomplish this formidable task, Sherman sent Kentucky's Major
General Lovell Harrison Rousseau with a cavalry force of 2,500 sabers
drawn from Kilpatrick's cavalry brigade near Chattanooga. His
instructions were to wreck the railroads, burn the depots, trestles,
and bridges, and then rendezvous with Sherman's Army outside of
Atlanta. If Rousseau could not fight his way out of Alabama, he was to
head south to Pensacola and the safety of Fort Barrancas.
The ever-thorough Sherman sent instructions to Kentucky's Major
General Edward R.S. Canby, commander of the Military Division of
Western Mississippi, headquartered in New Orleans, to look out for
Rousseau between July 20 and July 25 in case the Union cavalry had to
head south. Canby, in turn, notified the Federal commander of the
District of West Florida, Brigadier General Alexander Sandor Asboth, in
Pensacola. Asboth was a Hungarian who became a naturalized American
citizens and had been severely wounded at the Battle of Pea Ridge. He
knew what to do when Canby's dispatch came aboard the steamer Clyde
from New Orleans on July 20. Rousseau's raiders might be trying to get
to him that day.
Asboth quickly organized a relief force of 1,100 men to head north on
July 21 to meet Rousseau, perhaps to rescue what was left of his strike
force. Most of Asboth's men were commanded by Colonel William C.
Holbrook, and Colonel Eugene von Kielmansegge. Holbrook's command
consisted of four companies of the 7th Vermont, the 82nd U.S. Colored
Infantry, and six companies of the 86th U.S. Colored Infantry.
Kielmansegge's command consisted of four companies of the 1st Florida
Cavalry (dismounted), one section of the 1st Florida Battery reminding
us that some Florida men remained loyal to the Union, and Company "M"
of the 14th New York Cavalry. Against this force the Confederates would
mount only 360 men, Companies E, G, and I of the valiant 7th Alabama
Cavalry. According to some research, all of these men may not have been
present at the time of the skirmish.
The 7th Alabama Cavalry first fired shots on the blue coat
advance near the Gonzales farm. The Confederates, not knowing this was
a full-scale raid on their position, did not immediately consolidate
their force for defense. Several scouting expeditions from Barrancas
had already located their camps and picket posts, and the Confederates
thought this was another such scout. As the skirmish developed, and as
the Confederates rallied, it became obvious that this was a full-scale
raid. Knowing they could not hold out indefinitely against 3-to-1
numbers; the three also supported by artillery, the Confederates were
forced back. They sought the protection of their newly constructed,
square, hewn log fortification with earth works they had named after
their commander, Colonel Joseph Hodgson. Hodgson himself was not there,
so the command devolved to the senior captain present, Captain Tarver.
As the fighting raged closer to the fort, and the artillery unlimbered to go into action, the blue coat line surged forward. It was led by the 7th Vermont Veteran Volunteers, and the 82nd U.S. Colored. Soon after the advance began, the artillery fired many shells into the fort which caused much confusion in the Confederate ranks. They very quickly realized they would have to flee to save themselves, which they promptly did. They were hotly pursued by the Federal line, and more skirmishing continued in a running battle for several miles. The Confederates held as long as they could and fought valiantly against overwhelming odds. This, for all intents and purposes, ended the battle at Fort Hodgson.
After the chase was called off, the Federals returned to the fort and started their destruction. After burning the fort and destroying the Confederate supplies, and Asboth not yet knowing of Rousseau's fate, the next day the Federals continued on their mission. Asboth soon learned that Confederate reinforcements were close by, and the threat of his annihilation was imminent. Hearing of Rousseau's success and wishing to save his command, Asboth then counter marched to his home base at Barrancas.
Soon General Asboth would fight the Battle of Marianna, Florida and be severely wounded in the face and left arm there. Eventually he would die of those wounds following service as United States Minister to Argentina and Uruguay after the war.
As for Canby, he commanded the Union assault on Mobile and
received the rebel surrender there. Later he would be killed in the
Pacific Northwest by the Modoc Indians while arranging a peace treaty
with them.
General Rousseau, the raider Asboth was trying to help, never needed him. After doing his dirty work around Opelika, Alabama, and elsewhere, he rejoined Sherman without serious incident. After the war, Rousseau was sent to Alaska to receive it from the Russians in 1867.
And the 7th Alabama Cavalry? What was left of them by this time continued to fight on until the war's end. Soon after Fort Hodgson, they were transferred to General Forrest's Command and did excellent service in Mississippi and Tennessee. Descendants of these brave men are here today. Loyal sons of the South, helping us all to remember through living history, the traditions of courage and sacrifice that keep us free.
