The Battle of Dingle's Mill was an American Civil War battle that took place near Sumterville, South Carolina.
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.
157th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment augmented by a detachment of the 56th N.Y. Veteran Volunteer Infantry
In addition small detachments of the 1st New York Engineers, 4th Massachusetts Cavalry and two guns of Battery B 3rd New York Artillery accompanied the two infantry brigades.
On Easter Day, April 9, 1865, the Battle of Dingle's Mill was fought 3 miles (4.8 km) south of Sumter. At approximately three in the morning, General Edward E. Potter's army, called Potter's Raiders, came from the direction of Kingstree. They were joined by Col. Edward Needles Hallowell's troops, who had crossed the Pocotaligo River, throwing Colonel Presley's men across Turkey Creek. This put them north of the pond at Dingle's Mill.
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.
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 battle.
At about this same time, General Robert E. Lee was meeting with General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, 300 miles (480 km) away. The Confederate force disbanded and returned to their homes after fighting the battle.
The American Civil War (1861–1865) was the deadliest conflict in American history, killing an estimated 620,000 to 750,000 soldiers and an unknown number of civilians. The Confederate States of America, formed by eleven seceding Southern states, faced the Union in four years of warfare across 23 states and territories. Major engagements included First and Second Bull Run, Antietam (the bloodiest single day in American history, September 17, 1862), Chancellorsville, Gettysburg (July 1–3, 1863), Vicksburg (surrendered July 4, 1863), and Sherman's March through Georgia and the Carolinas (1864–1865). President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, transforming the war's stated purpose to include the abolition of slavery and enabling the enlistment of approximately 180,000 Black men in the United States Colored Troops. Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. The war resolved the question of secession and ended American slavery, though Reconstruction would face sustained resistance in its attempt to secure civil rights for formerly enslaved people.
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