6th. Drew rations in the night. Moved at 7—whole army. Cavalry to the left of Burkeville. Charged the reb wagon train. Scattered the skirmish line and charged each way. Chester and myself charged nearly 4 miles, nearly to the head of train—no support. (Battle of Sailor’s Creek.) Chester wounded in the head. Eggleston and Smith got several pieces of artillery. Got back to command by a circuitous route, the rebs having cut us off. Two divisions charged mounted and were repulsed. Reformed and charged again with success, the 6th Corps engaging the rear. Lt. Stearns killed. Several Co. “C” captured. Several thousand prisoners, many colors, Generals and cannon. 2nd credited 650 prisoners, 60 officers and 4 pieces of artillery. Lost good men.[1]
[1] In a letter from Capt. Chester dated March 23, 1914, regarding the fighting at Sailor’s Creek he says:
“Our regiment and brigade was ordered to charge Lee’s wagon train in sight, across a small stream with banks on the farther side. Our regiment was, as I remember it, the last one in the column so were the left of the line of battle or attack. We struck the wagon train and commenced taking prisoners. All formation of company or regiment was broken, every soldier acting independently. The driver of a mule team refused to stop when I ordered him to do so, and I was about to shoot him when it occurred to me that if I killed the driver the team would continue to go just the same. So I rode up to the “lead” mule (the one on the left hand side of head pair) and shot it. That stopped the entire team and blocked the narrow road. I then captured a rebel Major and turned him over to Sergt. Waters of Co. H to take to the rear. As soon as that was done Joe T. Haskell—now of Wellington—came to me. Capt. Tenney with his orderly, and Lieut. Stearns, came up, so there were five of us. We turned to the right and rode to the top of the bank or bluff and there the rebel train was in full sight again a mile or more from where we first charged it. The five men took position several rods apart so as to cover or show quite a line. As we showed ourselves the train guard fired on us. We each turned and called out loudly for the “pretended battalions” in the ravine to charge. We advanced on the gallop firing our revolvers and shooting as we went. The train guard was stampeded and ran. We followed along the train for a quarter of a mile to where the fence had been thrown down and the wagons were going into a piece of woods. I was a few rods from the fence when a rebel from behind a tree in the woods fired at me and missed hitting me. I fired my revolver at him, to no effect, however. He then reloaded his gun, stepping from behind the tree in doing so, then rested his gun beside the tree and took deliberate aim at me, and fired. The bullet knocked me from my horse. Capt. Tenney rode up, caught my horse and told me I was all right. I supposed I was mortally wounded. Haskell came to me and taking a suit case from a wagon found some white cloth and tied up my head. In the meantime other men came up and Capt. Tenney and Lt. Stearns led them to attack the train again going through the woods, some distance I think. Somewhere after leaving me Lieut. Stearns was killed by a train guard.”
