Febuary 3rd 1865 Salkehatchie River, Rivers Bridge:
SC Lt Art'y 3rd Palmetto Batt. Company A:
Sr 2nd Lt S.S. Kirby's two cannons were behind the breast works with a fair sweep of the bridge and road. Here they fought for two days and part of two nights every man had to do what little sleeping he could get at his post. What little they had to eat they had to eat it fighting. Just before orders to retreat Lt. Kirby said "Oh Lordy"clutched his breast and fell to his knees. In the next few minutes two more soldiers would have arm wounds one severly. Cannoneer Larke hollars at JP Scruggs "stop fireing the cannon so the smoke can clear or this ____ gonna kill us all". As the smoke cleared Larke saw the Yank behind a log within 20 - 30 steps loading for another shot through the gunners ports. Larke grabbed a rifle from the infantry man next to him and hollared at sharp shooter. As the sharpshooter looked up Larke shot him through the chest.
The Union sharpshooter who killed Kirby most likely was with the 32nd Wisconsin Infantry. They crossed the river somewhere just above the causeway road. They also had a force of 15 picked marksmen stationed in a rifle pit in the road within 200 yards of the Confederate guns. The commander of this group was a Lieutenant in Company G of the 32nd. We have identified most of the unit’s casualties, including 2 guys from Co. G of the 32nd. We got the compiled service records of one, hoping we might find a reference to him being killed, but there wasn’t any. We are thinking that any such reference will most likely be found in the regimental casualty reports in the National Archives. We are looking for the name of a gunner who might have been reported being dead close to the battery. His name would complete a small story in the war but a interesting one for Rivers Bridge State Park. The above information was pulled from a letter from Larke to S S Kirby's sister in 1899 detailing his death and returning S.S. Kirby's blood stained Testament to the family. We wanted to post here and in Ohio in case someone has this data.