Ep 28 War & Tragedy at Boykin, South Carolina

SPECIAL THANKS to Collett Carter for the family history story lead.

The Boykin Mill Pond in South Carolina has been the hub of regional industry for processing grains and timber. In 1865 it was the scene of one of the last battles of the Civil War. And in 1860 it was the hallowed grounds of one of South Carolina’s saddest tragedies.

Flatboat history:
https://peoplesriverhistory.us/blog/history-of-flatboating-and-a-charming-educational-film/

Individuals in order of mention:
Robert English
Samual Boykin
Israel Mathis
Quincey A. Fillmore
Edward E. Potter
James Fowler Presley
William Alexander McQueen
Joseph Thomas Wilson
54th Massachusetts
James P. Johnson
E.L. Stevens
Burrell H. Boykin
Confederate Home Guard
William T. Sherman
W. H. Garland
Ralph Leland Goodrich
Alexander Leslie McCandless
Amelia A. Alexander
A. H. Boykin
Samual Young
Mary Ann Young
Hollie Young
Names of persons drowned,
Miss Sarah Howell, from Camden;
Miss Celina Crosby, from Camden;
Miss Mary Hinson, from Camden;
Miss Louisa S nettles, from Camden;
Miss Elizabeth McKagan, from Camden;
Miss Margaret McCown, from Camden;
Miss Louisa McCown, from Camden;
Miss Amelia Alexander, from Camden;
Miss Alice Robinson, from Camden;
Miss Jane Kelly, from Boykin
Two daughters and one son of Mr. Samuel H Young, near Boykin;
Miss Jenkins, daughter of Mr. M.D. Jenkins, from Clarksons;
Mr. Jeremiah R. McLeod, Sumter district;
Mr. Jos. Huggins, Sumter district;
Mr. T.S.S. Richbourg, Sumter district;
Mr. Lucius R. Legrand, from Camden;
Mr. William C Legrand, from Camden;
Mr. John A. Oaks, from Camden;
Mr. William McKagen, from Camden;
Mr. B.F. Hocott, from near Camden.
And two Negroes making 24 persons in all.
Individuals Continued…
Mr. Magnet
Hiawatha
Mr. Ancrum

Location:
Boykin, Kershaw County, South Carolina
Camden, South Carolina
Boykin Mill Pond
Swift Creek
Florence, SC
Sumter, SC
Georgetown, SC
Sumter Hospital
Owego, NY
Summerville
Dinkin’s Mill
Fernandina, Florida
Pine Grove Acadamy
New York City
Wilmington, North Carolina
Philadelphia 
Delaware 
Baltimore 
Susquehanna 
Washington DC
Richmond
Petersburg
New Jersey
Charleston, South Carolina
South Carolina College
Kirkwood
Camden Depot
South Carolina Railroad Company

Transcript

A 🎙 Boykin, Kershaw County, South Carolina is a rural community of 100 people located about 9 miles south of Camden, and is nowadays known for an eclectic Christmas parade, a grist mill that began operation in the 18th century, a skirmish that took place in the waning days of the War Between the States, a shop that sells handmade brooms and a handful of small restaurants housed in 19th century structures.

The early settlement of Boykin was established because it was near a fine spring. In 1790 a small log school and a place for "camp meetings" was set up. Boykin was named for the family which settled there, and many of their descendants still live there.

The early twentieth century grist mill in Boykin was preceded by a series of grist and saw mills dating from the 1700s. Built around 1905, the current mill is powered by Boykin Mill Pond, which was itself created sometime before 1786. The pond was formed by the damming of Swift Creek.

In 1786 the pond and surrounding land were platted for Robert English, who sold it to Samuel Boykin. Boykin then deeded a portion of the land to Israel Mathis for the construction of a mill. By 1792 Mathis had built the first known sawmill and gristmill on the tract.

Boykin SC : War & Tragedy

B🎙 In 1865, the property was the site of a battle fought days after the Civil War had officially ended (which was April 9, 1865). This belated skirmish was the last Civil War battle fought in South Carolina. As Union troops were destroying railroads and rail cars throughout the state at the end of the war, Confederate troops brought rail cars from neighboring Camden to safety at Boykin Mill. 

Union Major General Quincy A. Gillmore ordered a provisional division assembled under the command of Brigadier General Edward E. Potter. Potter was ordered to destroy the railroads in the area between Florence, Sumter, and Camden. The importance of the mission was pointedly made by Sherman's statement that "Those cars and locomotives should be destroyed if to do it costs you 500 men." Potter took command of the provisional division on April 1, 1865, at Georgetown. The division numbered 2,700 men composed of two infantry brigades and auxiliary troops.

Battle of Boykin’s Mill

(Civil war battle sounds, trumpet charge, music, gunfire, yelling)

C 🎙 

On April 18, 1865, Potter's troops met with the Kentuckians in the quiet town of Boykin, South Carolina.

Confederate militiamen, under the command of Col. James Fowler Pressley, dug in their heels behind meager breastworks and awaited the arrival of the Union forces. The two working pieces of artillery were commanded by Lt. William Alexander McQueen and a patient of Sumter hospital, Lt Pamerya, an artilleryman from New Orleans. A third piece of artillery was too rusted to work.

General Potter ordered Col. Hallowell to attack from the left and rear. The 54th was a part of this flanking column. Unable to reach the Rebels' position, the United States Colored Troops countermarched to where Colonel Brown's First Brigade was stationed on the main road. A Confederate volunteer remembered hearing "the church bells in town ringing for afternoon service" as the battle got underway. Hallowell's brigade reached their comrades a little after two in the afternoon.

When Potter’s Raid found its way to Boykin Mill, Confederate troops cut the dam and flooded the road. 

The Confederates held a strong defensive position in an abandoned fort. Sergeant Major Joseph Thomas Wilson later wrote about this fort: "No better position could be found for a defense, as the only approach to it, was by a narrow embankment about 200 yards long, where only one could walk at a time." The 54th Massachusetts was given the job and sustained two killed and thirteen wounded before Confederate troops, heavily outnumbered, ran from the field. The dead men were Private James P. Johnson of Company F, a barber 21 years of age from Owego, NY, and First Lieutenant E.L. Stevens, the latter being the last Federal officer killed in action during the Civil War. Stevens was killed by 14-year-old Burrell H. Boykin, a member of the Confederate Home Guard whose family owned the land the Union troops were moving through.

Confederate Lt. McQueen was struck in the shoulder, incapacitating him, while Lt. Pamerya was killed by a minie ball in the forehead. The Confederate forces fell back toward Sumterville in the face of overwhelming odds. They made one more stand, but left the field of battle about six in the evening, ending the fight.

Union troops pursued the fleeing Southerners unsuccessfully, and the mill was burned to the ground according to Major General William T. Sherman's "Scorched Earth" policy. The engagement proved to be the bloodiest battle of the campaign for the 54th which had had the highest casualty rate of the operation. However, the two opposing units (Potter's and the Kentuckians) continued to skirmish through April 19 at Dinkin's Mill where they fought the last major conflict of the Eastern Theater. The preliminary cessation of hostilities was announced to both sides two days later though Confederate General Johnston did not officially surrender until 26 April, 1865.

The Confederate force disbanded and returned to their homes after fighting the battle.

• Southern losses were six killed, seven wounded, two captured.
• Northern losses were four killed, twenty-three wounded.

One witness, W. H. Garland of Fernandina, Florida, claimed at least fifteen additional Northern forces were dead where they had crossed the swamp, and were buried in shallow graves.

(Gunshots and war sounds fading away to nature & picnic noises around Boykin Mill Pond)

D 🎙 Tragedy at Boykin’s Pond

 On the evening of February 3, 1860, Ralph Leland Goodrich, an aspiring teacher in Owego, New York, received a letter from Alexander Leslie McCandless, superintendent of the Pine Grove Academy in Camden, South Carolina. 

(Sounds of handwriting) 

“McCandless wants me to come immediately,” Goodrich wrote in his diary, “I shall start as soon as I can.” Goodrich traveled first by train to New York City, where he bought a ticket for Wilmington, North Carolina. His route would not be direct, however. His first hop was a short one by train to Philadelphia, where he caught a ferry across the Delaware to a horse drawn omnibus that took him to another train to Baltimore. From there a ferry took him across the Susquehanna into Washington, D.C., where he caught a steamer into Richmond and then traveled overland to Petersburg and finally to Wilmington. This is where his trip into the Southern interior really began, through a  (writing sounds) “barrier of limitless forest ... shut out from every breeze so refreshing to the feverish cheek.” “At night we lay in a hammock tormented by mosquitoes,” Goodrich noted in his diary, “lulled to sleep by the endless rattle of the locusts and the melancholy strain of the whipporwill.”

By the time Goodrich arrived in Camden he was homesick and tired, but he was happy to discover that the town seemed lovely, with its “houses peeping out of groves, mounted on pedestals of brick, and surrounded with flowers of almost every description.” The people were nice too, and although “very sensitive about slavery,” were almost universally polite. Between 1783 and 1865, Camden residents entertained themselves with ball-playing, rifle shooting, and horse racing, as well as by holding patriotic celebrations, plays, society balls, monthly militia parades, quilting frolics, and dances.

E 🎙 His opinion shifted drastically upon meeting McCandless. Leslie McCandless was a Camden institution, holding despotic over the town’s major boys’ school for more than fifty years. “No other individual has left so deep an impression upon the men of Camden,” noted one of his students. He might have meant this literally, as McCandless was merciless in his use of corporal punishment. 

Born in 1820 in New Jersey, McCandless had lost his parents at an early age and was sent to an orphanage in Charleston, South Carolina. There he proved such a phenomenal scholar that locals sent him to South Carolina College, where he again excelled. By eighteen, he had landed the position as headmaster of the Pine Grove Academy in Camden, a post he would hold for most of his life.

Some of McCandless’s students would remember him fondly. “His scholarship was superb,” recalled one of his better pupils. “He had perfect mastery of the Greek and Latin classics, also of French, German, Italian, and Spanish. It is doubtful if the State has produced a finer scholar.” 

Former Student: “Thats all fine and dandy if’n you’re up to snuff with Ol High and Mighty McCandless, yet upon us lesser students, of which I seem to qualify fur, McCandless’s “cuffs and buffets” fell like rain, accompanied by “such edifying epithets as, ‘You stupid jackass.’” His “besetting sin was his temper, which was violent and ungoverned.” You’d think that folks would be a bit leery of Lucifer Leslie…yet Far from losing students on this account, McCandless gained them.” 

Local Old man: “He was noted for severity and force if necessary. Hence fathers would deliver over dull boys to his auspices to be dealt with at will. A term in purgatory would be about as inviting.”

‘A term in purgatory’ is a pretty adept description of Mr. Goodrich’s experience in Camden. 

F 🎙 Although he was tired after his long trip, he right away found himself at McCandless’s house…

(knock knock) Servant: “Hello, what may I do for you today kind sir?” 

Goodrich: “Afternoon…I am here to see Mr Leslie McCandless.” 

Servant: “Mr. McCandless is absent. I would be most happy to inform him of your visit upon his return.

So Ralph headed back to his hotel. He had just settled in when one of McCandless’s servants arrived to call him back to the house.

McCandless: “Well if it isnt mr Goodrich. I assume your travel was well enough?

Goodrich: “well yes er no…i mean the mosquitos….”

McCandless (cutting off his reply)…”Fine fine…I expect you to start fresh on Monday morning.”

Goodrich: “yes sir, i look forward……..”

McCandless (Cutting off his reply again)…”and I will be attending your classes…if you are not as I deem worthy, well, we will just go from there. Good evening to you Mr. Goodrich, please see your way out.”

The Monday morning sessions went well enough, but when Goodrich turned to Latin and Greek—McCandless’s specialties—then “came the tug of war.” After the children filed out, McCandless told Goodrich that…

“You are wholly incompetent to go on with those classes. I would prefer to dismiss you immediately but ... kinder feelings condemned the idea. Yet I am still going to slash your pay, you will no longer be pretending to teach the language classes, and you will need to find a new job in two months.” 

Goodrich confessed to his diary, “I am feeling very miserable, and have cursed the day that I wrote to him accepting the situation. I am alone among strangers & without money.”

G 🎙 Goodrich’s students may have sensed that their new teacher was being thrown out with the bathwater by their principal. Regardless, they set upon him with their typical zeal. 

Ralph confessed to his diary, “The boys are wild and very obtuse. One morning a group of them “stuck a pen in my chair … so that when I sat down, it would stick into me. It stuck up about half an inch.” I discovered the pen in time, but I’ve had a hard time of it today. They are the worst creatures to govern I ever met.” 

Laughed at by the other teachers, sullen and silent at dinner, openly disrespected by his principal and his students, Ralph was ready to condemn all of Camden. 

Ralph Goodrich “The people may be chivalrous but they have appeared very cold to me. I have not been a warm spirit in their hearts. None but my roommate to sympathize with. Laughed at for my awkwardness. I am deserted indeed.”

H 🎙 Saturday, May 5 dawned warm and pleasant. Ralph’s time in Camden was drawing to a close, and, having the day off, he took a long walk in the woods to Kirkwood where he “saw a beetle in the road & watched him roll a large piece of manure to the side of the road & dig a hole under it & take it by piece meal into it.” Goodrich fancied himself something of a naturalist and nature writer. “I quietly observe what passes around me,” he said, “noting what seems to be an anomaly in society or what is picturesque in nature, and treasure them up in the store-house of memory.” Goodrich had returned home and settled into a cup of tea when he began to hear the rumors. 

On that Saturday afternoon in May of 1860 a Mayday picnic outing and fishing expedition, comprised mostly of youth of the Camben and surrounding communities, had met at the Camden Depot and taken a locomotive from the South Carolina Railroad Company to Boykin. The large gathering was enjoying a lively and joyous picnic, fishing and boating that afternoon on the banks of the Boykin pond. 

(Train ride from Camden to Boykin and then back with the bodies)

(train sounds, train whistle, steam, screaming, yelling, adults crying)

Pouring out onto the street, Goodrich found everything in an uproar. Men, women, and wagons, messengers and servants, were sweeping past, most on their way to the Camden depot. By the time Ralph reached the depot, the body…no the bodies…were already arriving.

Thirteen came in the first car. Ralph was grief-stricken. Hours before he had been watching a dung-beetle in the road and idly hating Camden and its children. Now TWENTY FOUR of them were dead, including one of his own students, and he was united with the town in its pain. Something terrible had happened at Boykin Mill Pond about ten miles south. But what?

What in the Sam Hill could have happened at Boykin’s Pond to take the lives of so many of Camden’s innocent youth? 

(Water sounds, oars splashing, laughter, nature, frogs)

I 🎙 A long day of fun, sun, friends, conversation, fishing, and games had been had on the shores of Boykin pond. Long about 5 pm it was decided that a bit more than 50 people, mostly comprising girls, including several young children, would set out on a flatboat on the 400-acre pond, for a bit of a joyride to cap of their May Day festivities. 

(Water sounds, oars splashing, laughter, nature, frogs)

About 100 yards off shore the boat hit a snag or in other words struck a stump just below the surface of the water.

(metal hull being hit, suspense music, Scared sounds, screaming, whimpering)

Ralph Leland Goodrich, detailed the events in his diary: “No immediate danger was apprehended, but then the boat began to take on water. Watching from shore, their friends gradually stopped laughing and eating and then began to panic.

(Screaming, shouting, water splashing…ending in drowning sounds)

Some few tried to swim out to them but it was too late. Most of those on the boat were young women and girls, whose skirts became extremely heavy as the boat began to sink. The boys on board tried to help, but most went down in a single mass, clinging to each other as drowning victims do.

It’s possible the disaster might have been averted had the passengers not panicked, but when they noticed the flatboat taking on water, everyone moved en masse to one end and the boat tipped, dumping all into the water.

J 🎙 The findings of the coroners’ inquest for the victims of the Boykin Mill Pond tragedy is short, if not sweet.

For Amelia A. Alexander, 20, of Camden, SC, it reads: “… upon their oaths do say that the said Amelia A. Alexander came to her death by accidental drowning in the millpond of A.H. Boykin … by sinking of a Flat caused by the weight of between fifty-three & fifty-six persons.”

At least four sets of siblings lost their lives in the tragedy, including Samuel Young, 7; Mary Ann Young, 11; and Hollie Young, who would have turned 19 the following day.

Goodrich wrote of following a wagon-load of four bodies that “all went to the same house.” He helped dress the corpses as the mother “whose almost every child was gone,” wailed ‘“& these too, & these too?’” over and over. Her “grief could not be measured,” he later wrote.

The number of deaths isn’t definitive; while at least one slave was among the dead in the coroner’s report, it is believed others may have been onboard and lost their lives, as well, but gone uncounted.

Ralph Goodrich wrote in his journal, “Oh what lamentations the night witnessed! Truly in the midst of life we are in death. It deeply impressed my mind & the shock will not soon be removed. So teach me O God to number my days that I may apply my heart to wisdom.”

K 🎙 

In the Camden Journal an article announcing the tragedy was entitled

Terrible Catastrophe 

Our community is overwhelmed in gloom in consequence of a most heartrending disaster, which occurred on Saturday afternoon last, about 5 o’clock, at Boykins Mill, 8 miles from town. In the morning a party of ladies and gentlemen from Camden and the neighborhood met at the place mentioned, on a picnic excursion, and after spending most of the day, concluded in the afternoon to get aboard a flat boat near the shore for the purpose of going out onto into the pond. Some 50 persons, it is sad, got on, and the flat was moved off, and went about 50 or 60 yards out into the water, it is supposed that it struck a snag, which caused the boat to commence leaking, and in a few minutes, from the heavy weight upon it, commenced sinking. In the consternation which seized hold upon the party many jumped overboard and out of the number we are pained to say that 24 persons were drowned – mostly ladies. Others, more fortunate, we’re just saved through the timely assistance of those who had left the flat, or went to the rescue from the shore. 

What a sad and calamitous termination of a festive occasion! 

The following is a correct list of those who are drowned, and whose bodies have all been recovered: 

Names of persons drowned, 

Miss Sarah Howell, from Camden; 

Miss Celina Crosby, from Camden; 

Miss Mary Hinson, from Camden; 

Miss Louisa S nettles, from Camden; 

Miss Elizabeth McKagan, from Camden; 

Miss Margaret McCown, from Camden; 

Miss Louisa McCown, from Camden; 

Miss Amelia Alexander, from Camden; 

Miss Alice Robinson, from Camden; 

Miss Jane Kelly, from Boykin 

Two daughters and one son of Mr. Samuel H Young, near Boykin;

Miss Jenkins, daughter of Mr. M.D. Jenkins, from Clarksons; 

Mr. Jeremiah R. McLeod, Sumter district; 

Mr. Jos. Huggins, Sumter district; 

Mr. T.S.S. Richbourg, Sumter district; 

Mr. Lucius R. Legrand, from Camden; 

Mr. William C Legrand, from Camden; 

Mr. John A. Oaks, from Camden; 

Mr. William McKagen, from Camden; 

Mr. B.F. Hocott, from near Camden. 

And two Negroes making 24 persons in all. 

The pall of gloom is spread over the entire community, and there is not a single heart which we are sure does not feel painfully impressed with this sad and overwhelming calamity. 

On Sunday last our town presented a scene which we pray it may never be our luck to witness again. In every direction distress and lamentation might have been witnessed, and our sympathizing, noble hearted community, we’re all alive in ministration of kindness and sympathy - visiting the stricken homes of our bereaved and deeply afflicted fellow citizens. Everything that the most thoughtful and unremitting kindness and attention could suggest, was promptly done to soothe the crushed and brokenhearted relatives of the unfortunate victims. 

Our spirit is overwhelmed by this crushing calamity, and it would be an idle mockery of words in attempting to give an idea of the grief which has been carried to so many kindred hearts, by this sudden and most remarkable visitation. 

But He who does all things well, is too wise to err, and too good to be unkind. Tis not ours to question, but adore.

L 🎙 Ralph’s journal entry for May 6, 1860

Came home about half past five this morning, feeling sick & tired. I never want to witness such a scene again. It was heartrending…

Attended church in the morning. Afternoon attended the funeral of 10 at the Methodist church. A great many were present [and there were] hundreds of carriages. Walked down to the burying ground. In lowering the coffin [of] one lady, the fastenings broke, & it fell & broke off the lid. The body nearly came out. It was solemn to see so many buried at once. So many people — so sad. There is a general lamentation. The loss almost entirely falls on the Methodist society. One young girl, a member of the Episcopalian denomination was amongst the number of the dead. She was the staff and comfort of her poor old mother. Mr. Manget worked very hard & is sick tonight. He went to bed early.

May 7, 1860

Rose rather late. Attended the funeral of Miss [Selina] Crosby at the Episcopal church. Quite a large number present. Read Hiawatha. Mr. Ancrum here to dinner. Afternoon attended funeral at the Baptist Church….This occurrence has bound me closer to Camden & I will depart with far different feelings than I otherwise would & I hope with more Christian, religious feelings. Oh God, be with me in this trying moment. Pour into my heart the balm of salvation. Give me stronger faith.

May 9, 1860

Wednesday. Did some trading this morning. Feel badly. I do not like to leave. I have become acquainted & the ties are hard to break. Left for Florida on the mid-day train….

(Train leaving the station and driving off in the distance)

Life is a battle enshrouded in gloom,
We share in its conflicts and haste to the tomb,
‘Tis a journey of joy, commingled with woe,
Yet we have a hope, tis a pleasure to know.

That when this pang and wild struggle is ‘oer,
This sin-hated world will goad us no more,
Thy youth hath sons, age is wrinkling thy brow,
And the bloom of youth is flying thee now.

But as you approach the age of decline,
In the purer virtues the brighter you’ll shine.
You’ll then find a solace thro’ hope of a rest.
In the bosom of God, in the land of the blest.

Ralph L. Goodrich, Camden (S.C.), April, 1860

Here’s a little something for you to think today:

Memento mori (Latin)- “remember you will die”