Confederate “Bridle-Cutter” Pike

"Bridle-cutter" pike head, with remains of languets, and 1 in. section of Confederate rail. Pike is 18 in. long with approx. 4 in. bridle-cutter. With identification tag #513.Manufactured in the Confederate States of America. 1861-1865, this bridle cutter pike head was recovered from a Confederate munition train traveling between Camden and Bentonville, South Carolina. Destroyed by General E.E. Potter's Raiders. U.S. Army in 1865. This original Confederate arm and was excavated from the right of way of the old Wilmington & Manchester Railroad.

Relevant references are documented in the official records concerning this raid: Hilton Head, April 26, 1865....We marched to that place [Boykins' Mill] on the 18th and found the enemy intrenched on the opposite side of a mill pond and swamp. After several attempts at different points a crossing was at length effected by the One hundred and second U.S. Colored Troops, and the rebels at once gave way. The trains moved farther down the road. On the following day, the 19th, we drove the enemy from a similar position at Denkins' Mill on Rafting Creek. At Beech Creek, a short distance to the northward of Statesburg, he made another stand, but the Twenty-fifth Ohio and One hundred and fifty-seventh New York charged through water waist-deep and drove him in complete rout. We moved on the Middleton Depot, and there found the railroad trains we were seeking. On the 20th 18 locomotives were destroyed and 200 cars, more than half of them being filled with subsistence, ordnance, and quartermaster's stores and railway machinery. On the 21st we began moving toward Georgetown by the Santee Road, and at noon of that day I received a dispatch by flag of truce from Major-General Young, stating that a truce had been agreed upon on the 19th instant between Generals Johnston and Sherman....Edward E. Potter, Brigadier-General.

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Inventory Number: REL 067