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GIFT OF
EVGENE MEYER.JR

CONFEDERATE
MILITARY HISTORY

A LIBRARY OF CONFEDERATE
STATES HISTORY, IN TWELVE
VOLUMES, WRITTEN BY DISTIN
GUISHED MEN OF THE SOUTH,
AND EDITED BY GEN. CLEMENT
A. EVANS OF GEORGIA.

VOL. IV.

Atlanta, Ga.
Confederate Publishing Company

J899

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

PAGE.

CHAPTER I. First and Last— Situation in the Beginning-
Preparing for War — The Dual Organizations of North Caro
lina Troops, State and Confederate 5

CHAPTER II. From Bethel to First Manassas — Fighting
Along the Coast — Supplies of Clothing and Arms a Serious
Difficulty 21

CHAPTER III. The Second Year— Burnside's Expedition—
Roanoke Island Lost — Battle at New Bern — South Mills and
Fort Macon — Renewed Efforts to Raise More Troops 32

CHAPTER IV. The Federal Movements Against Richmond-
Peninsular Campaign — Dam No. i, or Lee's Mill — Retreat
up the Peninsula — Williamsburg — Hanover Court House —
Seven Pines — Jackson's Wonderful Valley Campaign 46

CHAPTER V. The Great Struggle of 1862 for Richmond-
Battles of Mechanicsville Cold Harbor, Frayser's Farm, Mal-
vern Hill — North Carolina Troops Conspicuous in all En
gagements — McClellan's Utter Defeat by Lee 76

CHAPTER VI. The Campaign Against Pope— Cedar Mount
ain — Gordonsville — Warrenton — Bristoe Station — Groveton
— Second Manassas — Chantilly, or Ox Hill — Pope Defeated
at all Points 92

CHAPTER VII. Lee's Maryland Campaign— The March to
Frederick City — The "Lost Order" — Mountain Battles —
Crampton's Gap — Boonsboro — Vigorous Skirmishing — The
Surrender of Harper's Ferry by the Federals — Battle of
Sharpsburg or Antietam — First North Carolina Cavalry with
J. E. B. Stuart in Pennsylvania 106

CHAPTER VIII. The Fredericksburg Campaign— Affairs in
North Carolina — Supplies for Troops Brought by the Ad
vance — Engagements in North Carolina— Battle near Golds-
boro — North Carolina Troops in the Western Army — Battles
of Murfreesboro and Stone's River 133

CHAPTER IX. North Carolina in the Beginning of 1863—
Gathering Fresh Supplies — Demonstrations by D. H. Hill
Against New Bern — Fights at Deep Gully and Sandy Ridge
— Siege of Washington, N. C. — Blunt's Mills and Gum
Swamp 150

CHAPTER X. Chancellorsville— Brandy Station— Winchester
— Berryville — Jordan Springs — Middleburg — Upperville —
Fairfax 156

CHAPTER XL The Confederate Invasion of , Pennsylvania-
Battle of Gettysburg — North Carolinians in the Three Days
— Fighting on the Retreat— The Potomac Recrossed by Lee's
Army — Cavalry Fighting in Virginia during the Invasion of
Pennsylvania 171

IV CONTENTS.

PAGE.

CHAPTER XII. Defense of Charleston— North Carolinians in
Mississippi— The Battle of Chickamauga— East Tennessee
Campaigning — North Carolina Cavalry in Virginia— In-
fair ry Engagements around Rappahannoek Station— Fights
at Kelly's Ford, Bristoe and Payne's Farm 200

CHAPTER XIII. North Carolina Events, 1803-64— Federal
Treatment of the Eastern Part of the State— Military Oper
ations in the State— Ransom Recovers Suffolk — Victory of
Hoke and Cooke at Plymouth— Gallant Fighting of the
Albemarlc— Spring Campaign, 1864, in Virginia 218

CHAPTER XIV. The Wilderness, 1864— Grant Moves on Rich
mond—The Opening Battles of May— The "Bloody Angle"
—Battle of Drewry's Bluff— Service' of North Carolina Com
mands — Hoke's Division 229

CHAPTER XV. Services of the North Carolina Cavalry along
the Rapidan— Battle of Yellow Tavern— The Second Cold
Harbor Battle — Early's Lynchburg and Maryland Cam
paigns — Battles in the Valley of Virginia — Activity of the
Confederate Cavalry , 249

CHAPTER XVI. Around Petersburg— Beauregard's Masterly
Defense — Lee's Army in Place and Grant is Foiled — The
Attempt of Grant to Blow up the Fortifications— Battle of
the "Crater"— The Dreary Trenches— Reams' Station —
The Fort Harrison Assault — The Cavalry 262

CHAPTER XVII. The North Carolina Regiments in Ten
nessee and Georgia Campaigns, 1864 — Events in North Caro
lina—Fort Fisher— The Close of the Fourth Year-North
Carolina Troops in Army Northern Virginia. 1865 — Battles
near Petersburg— Hatcher's Run — Fort Stedman — Appo-
mattox 273

CHAPTER XVIII. The Last Battles in North Carolina— Gen.
T. G. Martin's Command — Battles with Kirk and the Federal
Marauders— The Army under Gen. Joe Johnston — Evacua
tion of Forts— Fight at Town Creek— Engagement at Kins-
ton— Battle at Averasboro — Johnston Repulses Sherman at
Bentonville— Johnston Falls Back to Durham— Surrender . 280

BIOGRAPHICAL 287

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

FACING PAGE.

ANDERSON, GEORGE B 296

AVERASBORO, MAP OF BATTLEFIELD. . 280

BAKER, LAWRENCE S 296

BARRINGER, RUFUS 296

BENTONVILLE, MAP OF BATTLEFIELD 280

BRANCH, LAWRENCE O'B 3*7

BURNSIDE EXPEDITION (Map) 32

CLINGMAN, THOMAS L 296

COOKE, JOHN R 296

Cox WILLIAM R 34°

DANIEL, JUNIUS 296

GATLIN, RICHARD C 340

GILMER, JEREMY F 34°

GODWIN, ArcniBALD C 31?

GORDON, JAMES B 34°

GRIMES, BRYAN 296

HILL, D. H., JR i

HOKE, ROBERT F 31 7

JOHNSTON, ROBERT D 296

KlRKLAND, W. W 296

LANE, J AMES H 34°

LEVENTHORPE, CALI.ETT 34°

LEWIS, WILLIAM G 296

McRAE, WILLIAM 3^7

MARTIN, JAMES G 296

NEW BERN, BATTLEFIELD OF (Map) 40

NEW BERN TO GOLDSBORO (Map) 144

NORTH CAROLINA, MAP OF Between pages 286 and 287

FENDER, WILLIAM D 3r7

PETTIGREW, JAMES J „ 34°

RAINS, GABRIEL J 296

RAMSEUR, STEPHEN D 34°

RANSOM, MATTHEW W 3*7

RANSOM, ROBERT, JR 34°

ROBERTS, WILLIAM P 3*7

SCALES, ALFRED M 34°

TOON, THOMAS F 3*7

VANCE, ROBERT B 3J7

WILMINGTON, N. C. , FRONT OF (Map) 276

WHITING, WILLIAM H. C 317

D. H. HILL, JR.

NORTH CAROLINA

D. H. HILL, JR.

PREFACE.

IN presenting this sketch of the North Carolina troops
in the Civil war, the author feels that, in justice to
himself and to the heroic soldiers whose deeds it
attempts to commemorate, some facts in connection with
its preparation should be stated.

The authorship of this chapter was originally assigned
to a distinguished participant in the deeds recorded.
He, however, after vainly striving for about a year to
find time in which to write the sketch, was reluctantly
forced by his engagements to relinquish the undertak
ing. Thereupon the author was invited to prepare the
chapter. The time which the publishers could then allow
for the collection of material and the completion of the
manuscript necessitated more rapid work than such a
subject merits.

This necessity for haste especially prevented the col
lection of much-needed data about the last twelve months
of the war. During those months the Confederate officers
wrote very few official reports. The only way, there
fore, to get reasonably full information concerning the
events of that period is by correspondence with the sur
vivors. This was attempted, but the time was too short
for satisfactory results.

The author regrets exceedingly that many gallant
deeds and minor actions are shut out by space limitation.
He can only hope that the publication of this imperfect
sketch may incite other pens to more elaborate works.
As a subsequent edition of this work may be published,
the author asks for the correction of any errors unwit
tingly made.

4 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

He renders hearty thanks to Judge A. C. Avery for the
use of some material that he had collected; to Judge
Walter Clark for books, and to Col. T. S. Kenan and
Judge Walter Montgomery and others for valuable
counsel and sympathy.

CHAPTER I.

FIRST AND LAST— SITUATION IN THE BEGINNING-
PREPARING FOR WAR— THE DUAL ORGANIZA
TIONS OF NORTH CAROLINA TROOPS, STATE AND
CONFEDERATE.

WHEN the women of North Carolina, after years of
unwearying effort to erect a State monument to
the Confederate dead, saw their hopes realized in
the beautiful monument now standing in Capitol Square,
Raleigh, they caused to be chiseled on one of its faces
this inscription :

FIRST AT BETHEL:

LAST AT APPOMATTOX.

This terse sentence epitomizes North Carolina's devotion
to the Confederacy. From the hopeful loth day of June,
1 86 1, when her First regiment, under Col. D. H. Hill,
defeated, in the first serious action of the Civil war,
General Pierce 's attack at Bethel, to the despairing gth
day of April, 1865, when Gen. W. R. Cox's North Caro
lina brigade of Gen. Bryan Grimes' division fired into
an overwhelming foe the last volley of the army of
Northern Virginia, North Carolina's time, her resources,
her energies, her young men, her old men, were cheer
fully and proudly given to the cause that she so deliber
ately espoused.

How ungrudgingly the State gave of its resources may
be illustrated by a few facts. Gen. J. E. Johnston is
authority for the statement that for many months pre
vious to its surrender, General Lee's army had been fed
almost entirely from North Carolina, and that at the
time of his own surrender he had collected provisions

6 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

enough from the same State to last for some months.*
The blockade steamer Advance, bought by the State,
operated in the interest of the State, brought into the
port of Wilmington — not counting thousands of dollars'
worth of industrial and agricultural supplies — "leather
and shoes for 250,000 pairs, 50,000 blankets, cloth for
250,000 uniforms, 2,000 Enfield rifles, with 100 rounds
of fixed ammunition for each rifle, 500 sacks of coffee
for the hospitals, $50,000 worth of medicines," etc.f
These articles were bought either from the sale of cotton
or on the credit of the State, and were used not only by
the State troops already mustered into the Confederate
service, and hence having no further legal claim on the
care of their own State, but were also distributed to
troops from other States. In the winter succeeding
Chickamauga, Governor Vance sent to Longstreet's
corps 14,000 suits of uniform complete. Maj. A. Gor
don of the adjutant-general's office says: "The State of
North Carolina was the only one that furnished clothing
for its troops during the entire war, and these troops were
better clothed than those of any other State. {" "The
State arsenal at Fayetteville, " reports Maj. M. P. Taylor,§
"turned out about 500 splendid rifles each month" — this
being after the second year of the war. Wayside hos
pitals were established in all the chief towns for the sick
and wounded. These things and hundreds of others
were done, not simply in the first enthusiasm of the con
test, but during the whole desperate struggle.

How unsparingly the State gave of her sons may be
shown by a single instance cited by Governor Vance :

Old Thomas Carlton, of Burke county, was a good
sample of the grand but unglorified class of men among
us who preserve the savor of good citizenship and enno-

* Gordon's Organization of the Troops,
f Vance's address at White Sulphur Springs.
\ " Organization of the Troops."
§ Article in Regimental Histories.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 7

ble humanity. He gave not only his goods to sustain
women and children, but gave all his sons, five in num
ber, to the cause. One by one they fell, until at length a
letter arrived, telling that the youngest and last, the
blue-eyed, fair-haired Benjamin of the hearth, had fallen
also. When made aware of his desolation, he made
no complaint, uttered no exclamation of heart-broken
despair, but called his son-in-law, a delicate, feeble man,
who had been discharged by the surgeons, and said,
whilst his frail body trembled with emotion and tears
rolled down his aged cheeks, "Get your knapsack, Wil
liam, the ranks must be filled!"*

Every day some heart-broken mother showed the same
spirit.

In the agitation that pervaded the South previous to
secession, North Carolina preserved its usual conserva
tive calmness of action. Her people, although pro
foundly stirred and keenly alive to the gravity of the
"impending crisis," were loath to leave the Union
cemented by the blood of their fathers. That retrospect-
iveness which has always been one of their marked char
acteristics, did not desert them then. Recollections of
Mecklenburg, of Moore's Creek, of Guilford Court House
pleaded against precipitancy in dissolving what so much
sacrifice had built up. Even after seven of her sister
States had adopted ordinances of secession, "her people
solemnly declared" — by the election of the 28th of Feb
ruary, 1 86 1 — "that they desired no convention even to
consider the propriety of secession. ' '

But after the newly-elected President's Springfield
speech, after the widespread belief that the Federal
government had attempted to reinforce Sumter in the
face of a promise to evacuate it, and especially after
President Lincoln's requisition on the governor to
furnish troops for what Governor Magofrin, of Kentucky,
called "the wicked purpose of subduing sister Southern
States," — a requisition that Governor Jackson, of Mis-

* Address at White Sulphur Springs.

8 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

souri, in a superflux of unlethargic adjectives, denounced
as "illegal, unconstitutional, revolutionary, inhuman,
diabolical," — there was a rapid change in the feelings of
the people. Strong union sentiment was changed to a
fixed determination to resist coercion by arms if neces
sary. So rapid was the movement of public events, and
so rapid was the revolution in public sentiment, that just
three months after the State had refused even to consider
the question of secession, a convention composed almost
entirely of men who thought it was the imperative duty
of their State to withdraw from the Union was in session
in Raleigh.

On May 2oth, a day sacred to her citizens in that
it marked the eighty- sixth anniversary of the colonial
Declaration of Independence of England, the fateful
ordinance that severed relations with the Union was
adopted. Capt. Hamilton C. Graham gives the follow
ing account of the attendant circumstances : *

uAs a youthful soldier and eye-witness of the scene, it
made an impression on me that time has never effaced.
The convention then in session in Raleigh was composed
of men famous in the history of the commonwealth.
The city was rilled with distinguished visitors from every
part of the State and South. The first camp of instruc
tion, located near by, under command of that noble old
hero, D. H. Hill, was crowded with the flower of the old
military organizations of the State, and sounds of martial
music at all hours of the day were wafted into the city.
When the day for the final passage of the ordinance of
secession arrived, the gallant and lamented Ramseur,
then a major of artillery, was ordered to the Capitol
grounds with his superb battery to fire a salute in honor
of the event. The battery was drawn up to the left of
the Capitol, surrounded by an immense throng of citi
zens. The convention in the hall of the house of repre
sentatives was going through the last formalities of sign
ing the ordinance. The moment the last signature was
fixed to the important document, the artillery thundered

* New Bern Memorial Address.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 9

forth, every bell in the city rang a peal, the military
band rendered a patriotic air, and with one mighty shout
from her patriotic citizens, North Carolina proclaimed to
the world that she had resumed her sovereignty. "

This step meant war, and no people were ever less pre
pared for an appeal to arms. Agriculture and allied pur
suits were the almost exclusive employments. Hence,
for manufactured articles, from linchpins to locomotives,
from joint-stools to cotton-gins, the State was dependent
on Northern and English markets. According to the
census of 1860, there were only 3,689 manufacturing
establishments of all kinds in its borders, and most of
these employed few laborers. Out of a total population
of 992,622, only 14,217 were engaged in any sort of fac
tories. The whole industrial story is told by a few of the
reports to the census officers. For instance, there were in
the State, as reported by these officers, the following insig
nificant number of workers in these most important oc
cupations: In wrought iron, 129; in cast iron, 59; in
making clothes, 12; in making boots and shoes, 176; in
tanning leather, 93; in compounding medicines, i. This
was the foundation on which North Carolina, when cut
off by the war from Northern markets and by the
blockade from English or other foreign ports, made a
most marvelous record of industrial progress, and devel
oped a capacity for self-support as unexpected as it was
wonderful.

But the State's power to manufacture the ordinary
articles of commerce was truly boundless when compared
with its capacity to produce arms, equipments and the
general munitions of war. To make uniforms for over
100,000 soldiers, and at the same time to supply regular
customers, there were seven small woolen mills! To
furnish shoes, saddles, harness for the army, and also
to keep the citizens supplied, there were ninety-three
diminutive tanneries. The four recorded makers of
fire arms were so reckless of consequences as combinedly

Nc 2

10 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

to employ eleven workmen and to use up annually the
stupendous sum of $1,000 worth of raw material. The
commonwealth was without a powder-mill, without any
known deposits of niter, and without any supply of sul
phur. Not an ounce of lead was mined, and hardly
enough iron smelted to shoe the horses. One of the pre
liminaries to war was to buy a machine for making per
cussion caps. Revolvers and sabers, as Col. Wharton
Green says, "were above all price, for they could not be
bought. ' ' Cartridge belts were made out of several
thicknesses of cloth stitched together and covered with
varnish. For the troops so freely offering themselves
there were no arms except a few hundreds in the hands
of local companies and those that the State had seized in
the Fayetteville arsenal. These, according to President
Davis,* consisted of 2,000 Enfield rifles and 25,000 old
style, smooth-bore guns that had been changed from
flint and steel to percussion. After these had been
issued, the organizing regiments found it impossible for
some time to get proper arms. Some, as the Thirty-
first, went to the front with sporting rifles and fowling-
pieces; some, as the Second battalion, supplemented
their arms by borrowing from the governor of Virginia
350 veritable flint-and-steel guns that nobody else would
have; some organized and drilled until Manassas and
Seven Pines turned ordnance officer and supplied them
with the excellent captured rifles of the enemy. How
ever, after the fall of 1862 there was no difficulty in
getting fairly effective small-arms.

But these difficulties never daunted so heroic a people
nor led them to withhold their volunteers. "None,"
says Governor Vance,f "stood by that desperate venture
with better faith or greater efficiency. It is a proud
assertion which I make to-day that, so far as I have been
able to learn, North Carolina furnished more soldiers in

* Rise and Fall of Confederate Government.
f Address at White Sulphur Springs.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 11

proportion to white population, and more supplies and
materials in proportion to her means for the support of
the war, than any other State in the Confederacy. I
beg you to believe that this is said, not with any spirit of
offense to other Southern States, or of defiance toward
the government of the United States, but simply as a
just eulogy upon the devotion of a people to what they
considered a duty, in sustaining a cause, right or wrong,
to which their faith was pledged."

Such a military record, if the figures bear it out, is a
proud heritage. Do figures sustain it? Adjutant and
Inspector-General Cooper reports (probably a close esti
mate) that 600,000 men, first and last, enrolled them
selves under the Confederate flag. What proportion of
these ought North Carolina to have furnished? The
total white population of the eleven seceding States was
5,441,320 — North Carolina's was 629,942, and it was third
in white population. Hence North Carolina would have
discharged to the letter every legal obligation resting
upon it if it furnished 62,942 troops. What number did
it actually supply?

On November 19, 1864, Adjt.-Gen. R. C. Gatlin, a
most careful and systematic officer, made an official
report to the governor on this subject. The following
figures, compiled from that report by Mr. John Neathery,
give the specific information :

Number of troops transferred to the Confederate service,

according to original rolls on file in this office 64,636

Number of conscripts between ages of 18 and 45, as per
report of Commandant of Conscripts, dated September
30, 1864 18,585

Number of recruits that have volunteered in the different

companies since date of original rolls (compiled) 21,608

Number of troops in unattached companies and serving in

regiments from other States 3,103

Number of regular troops in State service 3,203

Total offensive troops m,i35

To these must be added: Junior reserves 4,217

Senior reserves 5,686

Total troops in active service 121,038

12 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Then, organized and subject to emergency service in the

State, Home Guard and Militia 3,962

Total troops, armed, equipped and mustered into
State or Confederate service 125,000

From these official figures it will be seen that, estimat
ing the offensive troops alone, North Carolina exceeded
her quota 41,715 men. Including the Junior and Senior
reserves, who did active duty in garrison, guarding pris
oners, and on occasion good fighting, the State exceeded
its quota by 51,618. Taking all, it went over its quota
by the large sum of 55,580! This number of troops far
exceeded the State's voting population. The highest
vote ever cast was in the Ellis- Pool campaign. The
total vote in that election was 112,586. Hence, even
leaving out the Home Guards, North Carolina sent to
the Confederate armies 8,452 more men than ever voted
at one of its elections.

Another remarkable proof of the State's brave devo
tion to the Confederacy is noteworthy in this connection.
As shown by the census of 1860, the total number of
men in North Carolina between the ages of 20 and 60,
the extreme limits of military service, was 128,889. Sub
tract from this number the number of troops furnished,
and it reveals the extraordinary fact that in the whole of
North Carolina there were only 3,889 men subject to
military duty who were not in some form of martial
service. Most of these 3,889 were exempted because
they were serving the State, in civil capacity, as magis
trates, county officers, dispensers of public food, etc.
So, practically, every man in the State was serving the
State or the Confederacy. It may well be doubted
whether a more striking evidence of public devotion
was every recorded.

In April, 1861, it became apparent that a peaceful
arbitrament of existing difficulties was hardly possible,
so the authorities began to organize the troops. The
regiments, offering themselves in hot haste, were organ-

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY, 13

i zed under two separate laws: First, those that organized
under the old law of the State, through Adjt.-Gen. John
F. Hoke's office, were called "Volunteers;" second,
those that organized for the war under the act of the
May convention were called "State Troops."

The "Volunteers" were the first to begin mobilization;
for on the zyth of April, a month before the secession
convention, Governor Ellis, seeing that some sort of
struggle was inevitable, had called for volunteers. The
companies responding to this call were, in accordance
with the usual routine, placed in camps of instruction to
be armed, equipped and drilled. The first camp was
pitched in Raleigh, and Governor Ellis invited Maj.
D. H. Hill, of Charlotte, to take command of it. Major
Hill was a West Pointer and a veteran of the Mexican
war. To the raw volunteers, unused to any restrictions,
as well as to the men accustomed to the laxity of militia
methods, he seemed, as Judge McRae expressed it, "a
tremendous disciplinarian." But, adds the Judge, in
speaking of the effect of his discipline on the first body
organized there, "As a proof of the value of the training,
the old First (on its disbandment at the expiration of its
term of enlistment) sent scores, I might almost say hun
dreds, of officers into other commands. " From the mate
rial assembled at Raleigh, the First regiment was soon
formed and hurried away to Virginia under Major Hill,
whom it elected colonel. Then, says Major Gordon,
whose excellent article on the "Organization of the
Troops" furnishes many of these facts, "the Second,
Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Seventh soon followed.
The first six were sent to Virginia, the Seventh to
Hatteras. " These regiments were under the following
colonels: Solomon Williams, W. D. Fender, Junius
Daniel, R. M. McKinney, Stephen Lee and W. F. Martin.
However, many of them were soon reorganized. Be
tween the 1 5th of June and the i8th of July, the Eighth,
Colonel Radcliffe; the Tenth, Colonel Iverson; the

14 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Eleventh, Colonel Kirkland; the Twelfth, Colonel Pet-
tigrew; the Thirteenth, Colonel Hoke; the Fourteenth,
Colonel Clarke, were organized. It will be noticed that
no Ninth regiment is included in these fourteen. There
was some controversy about the officers of this regi
ment, and this number was subsequently given to Spru-
ill's cavalry legion. These were the regiments that after
ward had their numbers changed by ten: i. e. , instead
of retaining their numbers from one to fourteen, as organ
ized, they were changed to number from eleven to twen
ty-four. The First volunteer regiment, hence, became
the Eleventh, and so through the series of fourteen.

Coincident with the formation of many of these volun
teer regiments, ten other regiments were organizing.
The convention had directed Governor Ellis to raise ten
regiments for the war. These were to be designated as
"State troops," and were to be numbered from one to
ten. The Ninth regiment was to be cavalry, and the
Tenth, artillery. Major Gordon says, an adjutant-gen
eral and other staff officers were authorized for these
troops. Maj. J. G. Martin, on his arrival at Raleigh,
after his resignation from the United States army, was
appointed by the governor adjutant- general of this corps.
This office soon became one of the utmost importance.
Col. John F. Hoke, the regular adjutant-general, having
resigned to accept the colonelcy of the Thirteenth vol
unteers, the duties of both these offices were consoli
dated under Major Martin. More important still, "the
legislature conferred upon him all the military powers
of the State, subject to the orders of the governor. It
consolidated under him the adjutant-general, quarter
master-general, ordnance and pay departments."* The
man thus trusted was a one-armed veteran of the Mex
ican war, a rigid disciplinarian, thoroughly trained in
office work, and not only systematic but original in
his plans. The State has never fully appreciated,

* Organization of the Troops.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 15

perhaps never known, the importance of the work done
for it by this undemonstrative, thoroughly efficient
officer.

Under Martin's supervision the ten regiments of "State
troops" and all subsequent regiments were organized.
The first six regiments, commanded respectively by Cols.
M. S. Stokes, C. C. Tew, Gaston Meares, George B.
Anderson, D. K. McRae, and Charles F. Fisher, were in a
short while transferred to the Confederacy and ordered
to Virginia, three of them arriving there in time to be
present at the first battle of Manassas. The Seventh,
Col. R. P. Campbell, was, after some delay, sent to New
Bern ; and the Eighth, on its completion, went to garri
son Roanoke island. The Ninth was a cavalry regiment
formed by Col. Robert Ransom. There were many
exasperating delays in getting this regiment equipped.
Horses were scarce, and Major Gordon says that neither
the State nor the Confederate States could furnish sad
dles or sabers. Saddles were at last found in New
Orleans, and Spruill's legion, on the promise of being
furnished later, generously gave up its sabers. While still
ill-fitted for active service, this regiment joined General
Johnston near Manassas. The Tenth regiment was
composed of five batteries of light artillery and five of
heavy. J. J. Bradford was its first colonel, but the reg
iment was, in the nature of things, always scattered.
The equipping of this regiment was slow and trying.
The first battery ready was a magnificent body of men,
and was armed with the light guns seized in the Fayette-
ville arsenal — the only complete battery in the State. It
elected Lieut. S. D. Ramseur first captain ; on his pro
motion it was commanded by Basil C. Manly, and then
by B. B. Guion. The next was Reilly's hard-fighting
Rowan light battery This battery was equipped with
guns captured at Manassas. After Reilly's promo
tion to major, Capt. John A. Ramsey commanded it
to the end of the war. Capt. T. H. Brem, of Char-

16 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

lotte, organized another of the light batteries, and with
rare patriotism advanced out of his private means the
money to buy uniforms, equipment and horses. Capts.
Joseph Graham, and A. B. Williams succeeded to the
command. When this battery lost its guns at New Bern,
the town of Charlotte had its church bells moulded into
new guns for it. The other two light batteries were
commanded by Capts. A. D. Moore and T. J. Souther-
land. The five heavy batteries, commanded respectively
by Capts. H. T. Guion, W. S. G. Andrews, J. L. Man-
ney, S. D. Pool and T. K. Sparrow, were all assigned to
coast defense, and while they did not have as much field
service as the light batteries, they were called upon to do
much arduous and thankless service, and did it well.

By this dual system of organization there were two
sets of regiments with the same numbers: First and
Second regiments of volunteers and First and Second
State troops, and so on. This led to confusion. So to
the "State troops," as being enlisted for the longer
term, the numbers one to ten were assigned, and the
"Volunteers" were required to add ten to their original
numbers. Hence, of course, the First volunteers be
came the Eleventh ; the Second, the Twelfth ; and the
last of these under the first organization, the Fourteenth,
became the Twenty-fourth.

Following these, the regiments went up in numerical
order, and by the close of 1861, or early in 1862, the fol
lowing had organized: The Twenty-fifth, Col. T. L.
Clingman; Twenty-sixth, Col. Z. B. Vance; Twenty-
seventh, Col. G. B. Singletary; Twenty-eighth, Col.
J. H. Lane; Twenty-ninth, Col. R. B. Vance; Thirtieth,
Col. F. M. Parker; Thirty-first, Col. J. V. Jordan;
Thirty-second, Col. E. C. Brabble; Thirty-third, Col.
L. O'B. Branch; Thirty-fourth, Col. C. Leventhorpe;
Thirty-fifth, Col. James Sinclair; Thirty-sixth (artil
lery), Col. William Lamb; Thirty-seventh, Col. C. C.
Lee; Thirty-eighth, Col. W. J. Hoke; Thirty-ninth,

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 17

Col. D. Coleman; Fortieth (heavy artillery), Col. J. J.
Hedrick; Forty-first (cavalry), Col. J. A. Baker.

"Thus," comments Gordon, "the State had, in January,
1862, forty-one regiments armed and equipped and trans
ferred to the Confederate States government."

Long before these latter regiments were all mustered
in, the earlier ones had received their "bloody chris
tenings. ' ' Some one has said that in the drama of seces
sion North Carolina's accession was the epilogue, but it
is equally true that in the tragedy of battle that fol
lowed she furnished the prologue ; for within two months
after its officers were commissioned, the First regiment
was engaged in the first battle of the war, and one of its
members was summoned to form the advance guard of
the new Confederate army that then began to enlist
under the black flag of Death.

The long struggle that was to cost North Carolina all
its wealth, except its land ; that was to overthrow its
social system ; that was to crush to mute despair its
home-keepers; that was to cause the almost reckless
pouring out of the blood of as proudly submissive, as
grimly persistent, as coolly dauntless a body of soldiers
as ever formed line of battle opened at Bethel Church,
Va. Bethel is only a short distance from' Yorktown. It
is not a little singular that the great contest with our
brethren began only ten miles from the spot where the
weary struggle of our fathers culminated.

This battle — if with the memory of Gettysburg and
Chickamauga still fresh, we can call it a battle — was
fought on the loth of June, 1861. Being the first seri
ous fight of the war, it of course attracted attention out
of proportion to its importance. Anticipating attack,
Col. D. H. Hill had, with the First North Carolina regi
ment, thrown up an enclosed earthwork on the bank of
Marsh creek. The Confederate position was held by the
following forces : Three companies of the Third Virginia,
under Lieut -Col. W. D. Stuart, occupied a slight earth-

Nc 8

18 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY

work to the right and front of the enclosed work ; three
companies of the Virginia battalion, under Maj. E. B.
Montague; five pieces of artillery, under Maj. (after
ward secretary of war) G. W. Randolph, of the Rich
mond howitzers; and the First North Carolina, under
Colonel Hill, occupied the inside of the works. The
companies composing the North Carolina regiment,
which had the envied distinction of being the initial
troops to enter organized battle, were: Edgecombe
Guards, Capt. J. L. Bridgers; Hornet's Nest Riflemen
(Mecklenburg), Capt. L. S. Williams; Charlotte Grays,
Capt. Hi. A. Ross; Orange light infantry, Capt. R. J.
Ashe; Buncombe Rifles, Capt. William McDowell;
Lafayette light infantry (Cumberland), Capt. J. B. Starr;
Burke Rifles, Capt. C. M. Avery; Fayetteville light
infantry, Capt. Wright Huske; Enfield Blues, Capt.
D. B. Bell; Southern Stars (Lincoln), Capt. W. J. Hoke.
The whole force was nominally under the command of
Col. J. B. Magruder, and numbered between 1,200 and
1,400 men.

To surprise and capture this force, Gen. B. F. Butler,
commanding on the Virginia coast, sent Gen. E. W.
Pierce with five New York regiments, five companies of
the First Vermont, five companies of the Fourth Mas
sachusetts, two of Carr's mountain howitzers, and two
pieces of regular artillery under Lieut. J. T. Greble,
the whole force amounting, according to General Carr*
of the Federal army, to 3,500 men. On the night of the
9th this force was advanced toward the Confederate
position on two roads. At the convergence of these
roads Colonel Bendix's Seventh New York regiment
mistook Colonel Townsend's Third New York for Con
federates and fired upon it. The fire was returned and
twenty-one were killed and wounded before the mistake
could be correctedf Thinking it impossible after the

*rCarr's Articles, Battles and Leaders, II, 149.
fPierce's Report

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 19

firing to surprise the Confederates, General Pierce sent
back for reinforcements and then moved on toward
Bethel. About 9 o'clock on the morning of the roth
the Federals appeared on the field in front of the South
ern works, and Greble's battery took position. A shot
from a Parrott gun in the Confederate works ushered in
the great Civil war on land. The first Federal attack
was on the front. As a result of this attack Colonel
Carr says: "Our troops were soon seeking the shelter of
the woods after a vain attempt to drive the enemy from
the works. ' ' This attack was repelled mainly by Ran
dolph 's accurate fire, aided by the gallant conduct of the
Burke Rifles under Captain Avery and by the Hornet's
Nest Rifles. A little later in the action the Edgecombe
Guards, Captain Bridgers, gallantly retook a redoubt
that had, on the accidental disabling of a gun, been
abandoned by the Confederates. In front of this redoubt
the Federals had found shelter behind and in a house.
Colonel Hill called for volunteers from the Edgecombe
Guards to burn this house. Sergt. George H. Williams,
Thomas Fallon, John H. Thorpe, H. L. Wyatt and
R. H. Bradley promptly offered their services and
made a brave rush for the house. On the way a shot
from the enemy's rear guard struck Wyatt down. The
determined spirit of this heroic young soldier led to a
premature death, but by dying he won the undying
fame of being the first Confederate soldier killed in
action.

An attempt to turn the Confederate left having failed,
a force headed by General Butler's aide, the gifted
young Connecticut novelist, Maj. Theodore Winthrop,
made an atempt on the left, but the Carolinians posted
there killed Winthrop at the first fire, and his followers
soon rejoined Pierce and the whole force retreated
toward Fortress Monroe. Just at the close of the
action, Lieutenant Greble, who had served his guns untir
ingly against the Confederates, was killed. The gun

20 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

that he was firing was abandoned, says General Carr,
and his body left beside it, but subsequently recovered
by a company that volunteered for that purpose.

Swinton in his "Army of the Potomac" says that
while Colonel Warren yet remained on the ground the
Confederates abandoned the position. This is far from
correct. General Magruder in his report says that the
Confederate cavalry pursued the Federals for five miles.
Colonel Carr, who commanded the Federal rear guard,
says, "The pursuit of the Confederates was easily
checked."* These two reports establish the fact that
there was pursuit and not abandonment. Colonel Ma
gruder further says,f "It was not thought prudent to
leave Yorktown exposed any longer. I therefore
occupied the ground with cavalry, and marched the
remainder of my force to Yorktown. ' ' So evidently the
position was not abandoned while "Warren was yet on
the ground. ' ' The Confederate loss in this precursor of
many bloody fields was i killed and u wounded; the
Federal loss was 18 killed and 53 wounded.

In the South this little victory over a vastly superior
force awakened the wildest enthusiasm, for it was
thought to indicate the future and final success of the
cause for which its people were battling.

* Battles and Leaders, II, 150.
f Official Report.

CHAPTER II.

FROM BETHEL TO FIRST MANASSAS— FIGHTING ALONG
THE COAST— SUPPLIES OF CLOTHING AND ARMS A
SERIOUS DIFFICULTY.

THE six weeks that intervened between Bethel and
First Manassas were weeks of ceaseless activity.
Regiments marched and countermarched; the
voice of the drill-master was heard from hundreds of
camps; quartermasters and commissary officers hurried
from place to place in search of munitions and stores ;
North Carolina was hardly more than one big camp,
quivering with excitement, bustling with energy, over
flowing with patriotic ardor.

Toward the middle of July expectant eyes were
turned to Virginia. The Confederate army under
Generals Johnston and Beauregard was throwing itself
into position to stop the "On to Richmond" march of
the Federal army under Gen. Irvin McDowell. Two
* 'armies vastly greater than had ever before fought on
this continent, and the largest volunteer armies ever
assembled since the era of standing armies"* were
approaching each other. Battle is always horrible, but
this was most horrible in that these two armies were
sprung from the same stock, spoke the same tongue, re
joiced in the same traditions, gloried in the same history,
and differed only in the construction of the Constitution.
In this great battle, so signally victorious for the Con
federate arms, North Carolina had fewer troops engaged
than it had in any other important battle of the armies
in Virginia. Col. W. W. Kirkland's Eleventh (after
ward Twenty-first) regiment, with two companies —

* Beauregard in Battles and Leaders.

22 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Captain Conolly's and Captain Wharton's — attached, and
the Fifth, Lieut. -Col. J. P. Jones in command during
the sickness of Colonel McRae, were present, but so situ
ated that they took no decided part in the engagement.
The Sixth regiment was hotly engaged, however, and lost
its gallant colonel, Charles F. Fisher.

This regiment had, by a dangerous ride on the Manas-
sas railroad, been hurried forward to take part in the
expected engagement. When it arrived at Manassas
Junction, the battle was already raging. Colonel Fisher
moved his regiment forward entirely under cover until he
reached an open field leading up to the famous Henry
house plateau, on which were posted Ricketts' magnifi
cent battery of Federal regulars with six Parrott guns,
and not far away Griffin's superbly-equipped battery of
Fifth United States regulars. These batteries, the com
manders of which both rose to be major-generals, had done
excellent service during the day, and not until they were
captured was McDowell's army routed. At the time of
Fisher's arrival these guns, which had only recently
been moved to this plateau, were supported by the
Eleventh New York (Fire Zouaves) and the Fourteenth
(Brooklyn) New York. Fisher's presence was not even
suspected by the enemy until he broke cover about, says
Captain White,* 125 yards in front of Ricketts' battery,
and with commendable gallantry, but with lamentable
inexperience, cried out to his regiment, which was then
moving by flank and not in line of battle, "Follow me,"
and moved directly toward the guns. In the confusion
of trying to get in line, three of the left companies,
with Lieutenant-Colonel Lightfoot, became separated
from the right companies and took no part in the gallant
rush forward, of which General Beauregard says, "Fish
er's North Carolina regiment came in happy time to join
in the charge on our left."f The Sixth was so close to

*Ms. Regimental History,
f Official Report.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 23

Ricketts that the elevation of his guns lessened their
deadly effect, and its close-range volleys soon drove back
the supporting zouaves and terribly cut down his brave
gunners. At this juncture Capt. I. E. Avery said to
his courageous colonel, who was also his close friend,
"Now we ought to charge." "That is right, captain,"
answered Fisher, and his loud command, "Charge!" was
the last word his loved regiment heard from his lips. In
prompt obedience the seven companies rushed up to
the guns, whose officers fought them until their men
were nearly all cut down and their commander seriously
wounded. But the charge was a costly one. Colonel
Fisher, in the words of General Beauregard, "fell after
soldierly behavior at the head of his regiment with
ranks greatly thinned." With him went down many
North Carolinians "whose names were not so prominent,
but whose conduct was as heroic. ' ' *

Just as the Sixth reached the guns there was a lull
in the fierce contest, and officers and men sought a
moment's rest. Young Wiley P. Mangum, exclaiming,
"I am so tired!" threw himself under the quiet shadow
of one of the guns, so recently charged with death, and
Captain Avery, Lieuts. John A. McPherson, B. F. White,
A. C. Avery and others gathered around the battery.
Just then, from a wood in their left front, the Second
Wisconsin regiment fired into the Carolinians. This
regiment was dressed in gray uniform, f and from this
fact, as well as from its position, the officers of the Sixth
thought it was a Confederate regiment and called out
to their men who were beginning to return the fire not
to shoot, and made signals to the supposed friends.
Young Mangum, who had sprung to his feet at the sound
of the firing, fell mortally wounded, and several others
were killed or disabled. Not knowing what to do, the
regiment fell back in some confusion to the point where

* Roy's Regimental History,
f Sherman's Memoirs.

24 CONFEDERA TE MI LIT A R Y HIS TOR Y.

it had entered the field, and the enemy advanced to
recover the battery. On Kershaw's advance, however,
the Sixth again went to the front, and some of them had
the pleasure of seeing General Hagood and Captain
Kemper of Kershaw's force turn the recaptured guns
on their enemies. Shortly after this the arrival of Gen.
Kirby Smith's forces on the enemy's right flank ended
the battle. The Sixth lost 73 men in killed and wounded.

Gen. William Smith (Southern Historical Society's
Papers, Vol. X, p. 439) falls into a grievous mistake
about this regiment. He says, "When driven back from
the guns, neither the North Carolinians nor the Missis-
sippians remained to renew the charge, but incontinently
left the field." The North Carolinians never fell back
except when, as explained above, they were fired upon by
a regiment thought to be on their own side, and they
yielded ground then only after repeated injunctions from
their own officers not to fire. They returned with Ker-
shaw, followed the enemy in the direction of Centreville
until ordered to return, and at night camped on the battle
field. Maj.R. F.Webb and Lieut. B. F. White, detailed to
bury the dead, collected twenty-three bodies near the bat
tery, and those of Colonel Fisher and Private Hanna were
lying far beyond it. These assertions are substantiated
by five officers present on the field, and by the written
statements of many others, published years ago.

This battle ended the fighting in Virginia for that year.
North Carolina, however, was not so fortunate, for the
next month saw Butler's descent upon its coast.

The coast of North Carolina, as will be seen by the
accompanying map, is indented by three large sounds:
Currituck, Albemarle and Pamlico. Into these the
rivers of that section, most of them navigable, empty.
These were the great highways of trade, and by them,
by the canal from Elizabeth City, and by the railroads
from New Bern and Suffolk, the Confederacy was largely
supplied with necessary stores. "The command of the

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 25

broad waters of these sounds, with their navigable rivers
extending far into the interior, would control more than
one -third of the State and threaten the main line of
railroad between Richmond and the seacoast portion of
the Confederacy. . . . These sounds of North Carolina
were no less important to that State than Hampton
Roads was to Virginia. ' ' *

The long sandbank outside of these sounds and sepa
rating them from the ocean, reached from near Cape
Henry to Bogue inlet, two-thirds of the entire coast line.
Here and there this bulwark of sand is broken by inlets,
a few of which allow safe passage from the Atlantic,
always dangerous off this coast, to the smooth waters of
the sound. The necessity of seizing and holding these
inlets, controlling as they did such extensive and impor
tant territory, was at once seen by the State authorities.
So, immediately after the ordinance of secession was
passed, Governor Ellis ordered the seizure of Fort C as-
well, near Smithville, and of Fort Macon, near Morehead
City. These were strengthened as far as the condition of
the State's embryonic armories allowed. Defenses were
begun at Ocracoke inlet, at Hatteras inlet, and on Roan-
oke island. Though these works were dignified by the
name of forts, they were pitifully inadequate to the tasks
assigned them. The one at Ocracoke was called Fort Mor
gan, and the two at Hatteras respectively Fort Hatteras
and Fort Clark. When the State became a member of the
Confederacy, these works, along with the "mosquito
fleet, ' ' consisting of the Winslow, the Ellis, the Raleigh
and the Beaufort, each carrying one gun,f were turned
over to the new government. Even a cursory reading
of the official correspondence of the successive officers
detailed, as they could be spared from the Virginia field,
to take charge of these coast defenses, awakens sympathy
for them in their fruitless appeals to the government for

* Scharf's History of the Confederate States Navy,
f Scharf's History of Confederate Navy.
No 4

26 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

proper munitions of war, and admiration for their untir
ing energies and plucky utilization of sand-bars, turf,
and smooth-bore guns.

As the Federal government tightened the blockade,
rapidly raising the number of its ships from 42 in 1861 to
671* in 1864, it saw the necessity of possessing these
sounds for safe anchorage, and it realized, as Scharf puts
it, "that they were depots from which the very central
line of inland communication of the Confederates might
be broken, and that they were the 'back-door' to Norfolk,
by which the navy yard might be regained. ' ' More
over, the daring excursions of little Confederate vessels,
mounting one or two guns, like the Winslow, under the
restlessly energetic Thomas M. Crossan, which dashed
out from these inlets to reap a rich harvest in captured
vessels, raised such an outcry in Northern business cir
cles that there was added incentive to seize the home
waters of these vessels. An illustration of the activity of
these diminutive ships of war is found in the fact that in
the month and a half preceding the capture of Hatteras
they had seized as prizes eight schooners, seven barks
and one brig.f

Accordingly, in August, 1861, the Federal govern
ment fitted out at Fortress Monroe a combined army
and navy expedition for an attack on the two forts
at Hatteras. The land forces, J consisting of 800 infantry
and 60 artillerymen, were commanded by Gen. B. F.
Butler; the naval force, comprising the war vessels
Wabash, Susquehanna, Pawnee, Monticello, Cumberland,
Harriet Lane and transport ships, carrying in all 143
guns, was commanded by Flag-Officer S. H. Stringham.
these forces sailed for Hatteras inlet on the 26th of
August and arrived off the inlet that afternoon.

To resist this formidable expedition, the Confederates

* Lossing's Civil War.

f Schedule in Rebellion Records, IV, 588.

i Rebellion Records, IV, 580.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 27

in the forts had eight companies of the Seventeenth
North Carolina regiment, Col. W. F. Martin, and some
detachments of the Tenth North Carolina artillery. The
whole force on the first day of the engagement amounted
to 580 * men. On the second day the Ellis f landed some
reinforcements, raising the number to 718. The post was
commanded by Maj. W. S. G. Andrews. These forces
were divided between Fort Hatteras and Fort Clark,
which were about three-quarters of a mile apart. Fort
Hatteras — the position of which was so good that the
enemy's engineer officer said after its capture, "With guns
of long range it can successfully defend itself from any
fleet" — was a square redoubt with pan coupes at all the
salients, and was constructed of sand, revetted with turf
from adjoining marshes. Instead of being defended by
guns "with long range, ' ' it mounted twelve J smooth-bore
3 2 -pounders. The other, Fort Clark, was a redoubt of
Irregular figure, and mounted five 3 2 -pounders and two
small guns. Its supply of ammunition was expended
early in the engagement.

On the morning after the fleet's arrival, 318 men and
two pieces of artillery, under cover of the ships' guns,
were landed "without opposition from the Confederates,
whose garrison was unequal to defense and only large
enough to give importance to its capture. ' ' § During
the landing of these troops and until late in the day,
when a rising gale drove the ships out to sea, the fleet
fiercely bombarded the forts. In this engagement Boyn-
ton, as quoted by Hawkins, || asserts that Commodore
Stringham introduced the system of ships firing while in
motion instead of waiting to fire from anchorage, a sys
tem adopted by Farragut and which has, in the Spanish-

* Rebellion Records, IV, 574.
f Scharf 's History Confederate Navy.

\ Both Hawkins in Battles and Leaders and Scharf fall into mis
take of saying 25 guns.
§ Scharf.
\ Battles and Leaders.

28 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

American war, given such world-wide celebrity to the
fleets of Admirals Dewey and Sampson.

The next morning the Federal fleet, using improved
Paixhan, Dahlgren and columbiad guns, stood well out
from shore and battered to pieces the forts and their
guns. This they did in perfect safety, for, says Flag-
Officer Barron, * of the Confederate navy, who arrived at
Hatteras on the evening of the 28th and succeeded to
the command, "not a shot from our battery reached
them with the greatest elevation that we could get. ' ' So,
adds Barron, "without the ability to damage our adver
sary, and just at this time the magazine being reported
on fire ... I ordered a white flag to be shown. ' '

"The immediate results of this expedition," says Gen
eral Hawkins, f "were the capture of 670 men, 1,000 stand
of arms, 35 cannon and two strong forts; the possession of
the best sea entrance to the inland waters of North Caro
lina, and the stoppage of a favorite channel through which
many supplies had been carried for the use of the Confed
erate forces. ' ' Porter, in his Naval History, comments :
* ' This was our first naval victory — indeed, our first victory
of any kind, and great was the rejoicing thereat through
out the United States. ' ' The Federals at once occupied
this commanding position and made it the basis of
future operations against this coast.

With the exception of a skirmish at Chicamacomico
this battle ended the offensive operations in 1861. After
the capture of Hatteras the Twentieth Indiana regiment
was moved up the beach to hold Chicamacomico, or
Loggerhead inlet. On the ist of October the Federal
steamer Fanny "with a large supply of ammunition and
stores" left Hatteras for the Indiana camp, but Col.
A. R. Wright, of the Third Georgia regiment, stationed
on Roanoke island, in conjunction with Commander
Lynch, of the "mosquito fleet," captured this vessel—

* Official Report

t Battles and Leaders.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 29

the first capture of an armed vessel during the war. En
couraged by this success, Colonel Wright and Colonel
Shaw, of the Eighth North Carolina, loading their troops
on Commodore Lynch 's vessels, moved down to attack
Chicamacomico. The Georgia troops effected a landing
and drove the Indiana regiment some miles down the
beach, taking about 30 prisoners. Colonel Shaw, who
had moved further down the coast with the intention of
landing and cutting off the enemy's retreat, put his men
off into the water, his vessels having grounded, but they
found it impossible on account of intervening sluices to
wade ashore. The failure of Shaw's arduous efforts to
land led to an abandonment of further pursuit.

The fall of Hatteras and the report of the preparation
of another great expedition to fall on Southern coasts
produced the utmost anxiety. This disquietude was not
unmixed with indignation at the condition of affairs.
The State's troops, especially her best-armed and
best-trained regiments, were nearly all in Virginia, and
all her coast defenses were, like Hatteras, poorly armed
and insufficiently manned. Governor Clark, in a letter
to the secretary of war, thus pictures affairs in his State :

We feel very defenseless here without arms . . . We
see just over our lines in Virginia, near Suffolk, two or
three North Carolina regiments, well armed and well
drilled, who are not allowed to come to the defense of
their homes. . . . We are threatened with an expedition
of 15,000 men. That is the amount of our seaboard
army, extending along four hundred miles of territory,
and at no point can we spare a man, and without arms we
cannot increase it. ... We have now collected in camps
about three regiments without arms, and our only reli
ance is the slow collection of shotguns and hunting rifles,
and it is difficult to buy, for the people are now hugging
their arms for their own defense.

Despairing at last of getting even his own regiments,
he writes :

30 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

The President has informed me that no troops for this
defense can be withdrawn from Virginia, but I earnestly
trust that if soldiers cannot be spared, I may at least
hope that requisitions for arms and powder may be
speedily and favorably attended to.

But this was 1861, and military stores were not obtain
able. Governor Clark and his people, however, were
not of a race to succumb to difficulties without a desperate
struggle, and they went to work with vigor to do all
that their circumstances would allow. At the request of
the governor, Gen. D. H. Hill was sent from the army
of Virginia that his experience as an artillery officer
might be utilized in strengthening the existing fortifica
tions and in the construction of new defenses. J. R.
Anderson, a retired soldier of Virginia, was commis
sioned by President Davis a brigadier-general and sent
to the Cape Fear district. With the paucity of material
at their command, these officers exerted every energy to
aid General Gatlin, who was in charge of the whole
department. General Hill, however, could be spared from
his command for only a few months, and in November
he was ordered back to command a division in General
Johnston's army. Gen. L. O'B. Branch succeeded him
and was put in command of the forces around New
Bern, and Gen. Henry A. Wise was assigned to the
command of Roanoke island. Mirth-provoking would
have been some of the shifts for offensive and defensive
weapons had not the issues at stake been human life.
Antiquated smooth-bore cannon, mounted on the front
wheels of ordinary farm wagons, drawn by mules with
plow harness on, moved to oppose the latest rifled
columbiads and Parrott guns of Goldsborough's fleet. A
regiment armed with squirrel rifles and fowling-pieces,
and carving knives in place of bayonets, was transported to
Roanoke island to engage the admirably equipped sol
diers of Burnside. The catalogue of the names of
Lynch 's fleet in Albemarle sound — the Seabird, Ellis,

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 31

Beaufort, Curlew, Raleigh, Fanny and Forrest — sounds
imposing enough even now when we remember that
with fewer vessels Dewey fought at Manila; but when
we recall that the flagship was a wooden side-wheeler,
carrying only two guns and one of them a smooth-bore ;
that the other members of the squadron were canal tug
boats, carrying one gun each ; that the gunners were raw
details from raw infantry; that the fleet had frequently
to anchor while the crew cut green wood to fire the boil
ers — when we recall all this, we hardly know whether
most to admire their hardihood, or to grieve that so
brave a people had to go to war with such a travesty on
preparation.

As the first winter of the war drew on, a serious ques
tion that confronted the State authorities was how to
clothe and shoe the forty regiments in the field ; for it was
evident the Confederacy could not do it. Major Gordon
gives this account of how it was done :

The legislature directed General Martin, late in Sep
tember, to provide winter clothing, shoes, etc., for the
troops. The time was short and it was no small task,
but he went about it with his usual energy. He organ
ized a clothing factory in Raleigh, under Captain Garrett ;
every mill in the State was made to furnish every yard
of cloth that was possible; Capt. A. Myers was sent
through North Carolina, South Carolina and as far south
as Savannah, purchasing everything that was available
for clothing the troops. The ladies came nobly to
their assistance and furnished blankets, quilts and what
ever they could. Many carpets were torn up, and by
the combined efforts of the ladies and the officers, these
were lined with cotton and made into quilts. 'The troops
of North Carolina were clothed the first winter of the
war, if not exactly according to military regulations, at
least in such a manner as to prevent much suffering.
After this winter the State was in better condition to
supply the wants of the troops.

CHAPTER III.

THE SECOND YEAR— BUTLER'S EXPEDITION — ROAN
OKE ISLAND LOST — BATTLE AT NEW BERN -
SOUTH MILLS AND FORT MACON — RENEWED
EFFORTS TO RAISE MORE TROOPS.

EARLY in 1862 the Federal government decided to
follow up its successes at Hatteras by descending
upon the North Carolina coast with the famous
"Burnside expedition." This expedition was supplied
with almost every conceivable necessity for the prosecu
tion of its mission. Even railroad hand-cars were
brought along to be used, when needed, in the trans
portation of troops. Its infantry and artillery were
equipped with the latest arms. Its highest officers were
all members of the regular army, and three of them
were veterans of the Mexican war.

North Carolina, as shown above, was at that time not
prepared, either in the available number of its soldiers or in
the arms of its soldiers, to resist successfully such a large
and well- organized force. Its regiments that had seen
most service and that were best armed were in Virginia.
Although earnestly requested to do so, the Confederate
government felt unable to spare any of these regiments
to reinforce the small garrisons on the coast. So the
heroic Shaw was left on Roanoke island with two regi
ments, to oppose, as best he might, Burnside with nearly
15,000 men. At New Bern the gifted Branch, having
only seven regiments and most of them but newly
organized, was called upon to make an effort to hold a
long line of intrenchments against this same force, aided
by numerous gunboats. As a result of this disparity in
numbers, Roanoke island, New Bern, and Fort Macon

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 33

soon fell into Federal hands, and all eastern North Caro
lina above Bogue inlet went with these fortified points.

Nothing more strongly marks North Carolina's subor
dination of her own interests to the welfare of her coun
try than that her authorities consented at this crisis in
her history, when her sons were being captured by regi
ments and her territory subjugated by the square mile,
to the retention in Virginia of so large a number of her
troops.

The disasters to the State began in February of 1862;
for, commencing in October, 1861, another combined
army and naval expedition, similar to the one com
manded by General Butler but on a much larger scale,
had been prepared in New York and other seaports.
The object of this expedition was to seize the coasts of
North Carolina above Hatteras, "and penetrate into the
interior, thereby threatening the lines of transportation
in the rear of the main army, then concentrating in Vir
ginia, and holding possession of the inland waters on the
Atlantic coast. "* The vessels of this expedition were of
light draught, to ascend the sounds and rivers, were
well armed, mounting in all 61 guns, and were attended
by naval convoys. Including the transports, on which
were loaded about 15,000 selected troops, the fleet num
bered over 80 vessels, perhaps the largest aggregation
of warlike vessels seen up to that time on the western
continent. The number was so large that when the
ships reached their destination and crowded the harbor,
General Burnside says, ''We were ready to wish that the
fleet were not so large." In command of the land
forces, General Burnside was assisted by Generals Reno,
Foster and Parke. Admiral Goldsborough, with Com
modore Rowan as second, commanded the naval forces.
This fleet sailed from Fortress Monroe on the nth of
January, 1862, but, owing to having to widen the chan-

* Battles and Leaders, i, 661.
Nc 5

34 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

nels near Hatteras, did not arrive before Roanoke island
until the yth of February.

In spite of the fact that this formidable invading force
was known to be designing an attack somewhere on this
coast, and in spite of the further fact that Roanoke was
the key to the whole sound region, it seemed out of the
power of the Confederacy to provide it with defenses
commensurate with its imporfance, or to spare it enough
troops to hold its insignifLcaiv* fortifications. General
Gatlin had said in answer to a request for more troops,
' ' The place is of so much importance that could I have done
so I should long since have reinforced it, but I am unable to
send a soldier without drawing them from parts already
insufficiently defended. ' ' General Hill had reported to the
secretary of war, "Four additional regiments are abso
lutely indispensable to the protection of the island."
General Wise had written the authorities, "With present
means I cannot guarantee successful defense for a day. ' '
The place should have been reinforced or abandoned.

The defenses on the island consisted of four batteries,
mounting in the aggregate 30 guns, all 32-pounders, as
follows (see map) : Fort Huger, 10 smooth-bore and 2
rifled guns ( this battery, being out of range, was not
engaged in the battle) ; Fort Blanch ard, 4 smooth-bore
guns (this battery fired only an occasional shot) ; Fort
Bartow, 8 smooth-bore and i rifled gun. This last battery
is the one that fought the Federal fleet all day on the
7th. • Across on the mainland was another battery that
was not fired at all, being out of range also. In addition
to these coast batteries, there was a three-gun battery in
the middle of the island, a short distance northeast of
where the Federals landed. This battery contained one
howitzer, one 6-pounder brass field piece, model of 1842,
and one i8-pounder, a Mexican war trophy, and described
as of "venerable aspect." It was around this land bat
tery, that was flanked by earthworks for a quarter mile
on each side, that the land fighting all occurred. One

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 85

flank of this earthwork rested on a morass, and the other
on a swamp. Both of these were thought to be impene
trable, but they proved otherwise. Scattered about in
these different redoubts, the little Confederate force
awaited the coming of Burnside's flotilla. As General
Wise was away at Nags Head sick, Colonel Shaw, of the
Eighth North Carolina, was in command. He says that
his force, exclusive of the infantry detached for the bat
teries, amounted to 1,434 effectives. This was made
up as follows: Eighth North Carolina (568); Thirty-
first North Carolina, Col. J. V. Jordan (in part, 456);
part of the Forty-sixth and part of the Fifty-ninth
Virginia, under Lieut. -Col. F. P. Anderson and two
companies of the Seventeenth North Carolina, under
Maj. G. H. Hill. Colonel Shaw was entirely without
trained artillerymen, and for his i8-pounders he had
only i2-pounder ammunition. The Confederate "paste
board fleet, ' ' seven vessels and eight guns, took position
above Fort Bartow and behind some piles that partly
obstructed the channel.

On the morning of the 7th, the Federal squadron in
imposing array neared the island. "By 1 1 o'clock, ' ' says
General Hawkins, "the first division of army gunboats,
under Commodore Hazard, arrived opposite the forts on
the west side of Roanoke island and commenced the
bombardment in earnest, and at the same time engaged
the enemy's fleet. As the navy vessels arrived they
went into action, and by half past 1 1 the whole fleet of
gunboats was engaged. The engagement between the
heavy guns lasted all day without much damage having
been done to either side. At the close the gunners
answered each other with about the same spirit dis
played at the commencement. The Confederate forts had,
however, fared better than their fleet. The latter was
protected from an assault on the part of our vessels by a
row of piles driven across the navigable part of the chan
nel and by sunken vessels ; but, notwithstanding this pro-

36 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

tection, the accurate fire of the Union fleet soon com
pelled it to retire out of range, with the loss of one of its
vessels. ' ' * The Confederate vessels did not retire, how
ever, until they had expended their ammunition. Fort
Bartow, which had, owing to the position of the Federal
fleet, been able to use only three guns, was little injured,
although sustaining the fire of the fleet for six hours.
This fort, the single one in action, made a gallant resist
ance to the numerous guns of the fleet.

While this battle of heavy guns was in progress, Gen
eral Burnside landed his infantry at Ashby's Point, about
a mile and a half below the three-gun redoubt. His
troops spent the night on the island, and early on the
morning of the 8th began the attack on the redoubt
with its flanking earthworks. The three guns of this
redoubt were commanded by Captain Schermerhorn,
Lieutenant Kinney and Lieutenant Selden, each having
charge of one gun. These were supported by six com
panies of infantry, occupying the earthworks, and two
companies on its left. The other Confederate forces
were distributed at the other batteries or in reserve.
General Wise reported that some companies of the
Thirty-first evaded the combat. The whole land fight
ing was over the possession of this redoubt. If it fell, all
the other batteries would be left exposed in the rear.

General Foster began the attack about 8 o'clock on the
8th. He moved up six Dahlgren howitzers on the only
road that led to the redoubt. These he supported with
the five regiments of his brigade. Reno followed with
his brigade, moving into the swamp on the Confederate
right to flank the position. Parke followed with his
brigade. Each of Foster's attacks in front was held at
bay until General Reno's brigade succeeded in making
its way through the dense morass. Two Massachusetts
regiments had penetrated the swamp on the right also,
and had fallen on Wise's three companies and driven

* Battles and Leaders, 1,640,

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 37

them toward the redoubt. Attacked thus on all three
sides, the little force fell back to the north side, and there
surrendered. Colonel Shaw says, "With the very great
disparity in numbers, the moment the redoubt was
flanked, I considered the island lost. The struggle could
have been protracted and the small body of brave men,
which had been held in reserve, might have been brought
up into the open space to receive the fire of the over
whelming force on our flank, which was under cover of
trees; but they would have been sacrificed without the
smallest hope of a successful result. ' '

The loss of the Confederates was 23 killed and 62
wounded; among the killed were Capt. O. Jennings
Wise, and Lieutenants Selden and Munroe. The Federal
loss was, killed, 37, wounded, 214. Colonel Shaw surren
dered about 2,000 men, including his sick. The differ
ence between this force and his reported effectives comes
from the fact, that, after the main battle, the Second
North Carolina battalion (eight companies) and Major
Fry with four companies of the Forty-sixth Virginia
arrived on the island and were included in the surrender.

When the Confederate vessels retreated from Roanoke
they might have escaped to Norfolk, but they felt
impelled to obey general orders "to defend home
waters," and went to Elizabeth City. There, with 200
pounds of regular and 100 pounds of blasting powder,
Lynch made what defense he could against the gunboats
that followed him, but his ships were destroyed by the
enemy or beached and left. So, in addition to Roanoke,
Elizabeth City was in the hands of Burnside.t

Shortly afterward an expedition, commanded by Col.
Rush Hawkins, Ninth New York, made its way up to
Win ton and burned a good part of the town. The five
companies, all raw militia, sent to defend it, "fled, " Moore
says, "ingloriously in the direction of Murf reesboro. "

With the fall of Roanoke the way was clear for Gen
eral Burnside to direct his army against New Bern, the

38 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

second largest town on the North Carolina coast.
Events soon showed this to be his intention. Hence the
State sent its available forces there under Brig. -Gen.
L. O'B. Branch. Six regiments of regularly organized
troops, one battalion and several unattached companies
of militia, hastily gathered from the adjoining counties,
half-armed, undrilled, undisciplined, were thrown into
the fortifications a few miles below the city. To these
were joined one or two companies of heavy artillery and
Brem's and Latham's light batteries, and some com
panies of the Second cavalry. Much time had been
expended constructing, on the Neuse river, works to repel
gunboats, but comparatively little preparation had been
made to repel land attacks. There were two main lines
of defense designed, however, to be held by more men
than General Branch had under his command, so on
the approach of General Burnside with his land and
naval forces, all fortifications below Fort Thompson were
abandoned. The works behind which the Confederates
fought extended from Fort Thompson (13 guns) on the
Neuse to a swamp on the Weathersby road, a distance of
two and a half miles. From the fort to the railroad, a
distance of one mile, were posted, beginning at the fort,
the Twenty-seventh North Carolina, Major Gilmer; the
Thirty-seventh, Colonel Lee; the Seventh, Colonel
Campbell ; the Thirty-fifth, Colonel Sinclair, and a bat
talion of militia under Colonel Clark. Across the rail
road, for a mile and a half, the only forces were the
Twenty-sixth North Carolina, Colonel Vance; two dis
mounted companies of the Second cavalry, and one unat
tached company of infantry, and to the right of these two
pieces of Brem's* battery under Lieutenant Williams.
Between the railroad and Vance's left there was, at a
brickyard, a break in the Confederate lines. This break,
the finding and occupation of which won the victory for
the Federals, was being protected by a redoubt when
* Not Harding' s, as Battles and Leaders has it.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 39

the opening- of the battle stopped the work on the
redoubt and left this vital point guarded only by some
artillery acting as infantry. Back of the line, on the
railroad, Col. C. M. Avery's regiment, the Thirty-third,
was held in reserve. Latham's battery was posted near
the Thirty-seventh, and Brem's on the railroad.* A
careful search of official records convinces one that it
is impossible to ascertain Branch's force with positive
accuracy. General Hawkins (Battles and Leaders, I,
648) makes it between 7,000 and 8,000 men. This is far
too large. Branch says in his official report: "I have at
no time been able to place 4,000 men in the field at New
Bern, and at the time of the battle had been seriously
weakened by the re-enlistment furloughs. " Many of his
regiments were being reorganized from six and twelve
months' enlistments to enlistments for the war. On such
occasions the authorities granted, freely, short furloughs
for the men to put their business in order. Hence the
regiments were very small. Colonel Hoke reports that
he had only 614 men present. It is fair to assume that
the other regiments, affected by the same cause, had
about an equal number. The six regiments present,
then, would number about 3,684. The militia battalion
reports 264 men. The artillery and cavalry present did
not, from best accounts, number over 400. This would
make Branch's force aggregate about 4,348, which is
nearly the figure at which he placed it, and is very nearly
right.

It is also difficult to get accurately the Federal num
bers. Burnside had thirteen regiments engaged. These
were not reorganizing. But if we give them the same
number present as the Confederate regiments, they would
aggregate 7,982, and with the artillery would make a
total of at least 8,300, or about double the Confederates.

* General Hawkins errs greatly in saying: "These works were
armed with 41 heavy guns and 19 field pieces." (Battles and Lead
ers.) The only guns on this line were as follows: Fort Thompson,
13; Brem's battery, 6; Latham's, 6; total, 25.

40 CONFEDERA TE MI LI TAR Y HIS TOR 3 '.

But there is no reason to put the Federal regiments as
low as 614. On the 3ist of January, Burnside reported
present for duty, 12,829. It is hardly probable that a
month later, with no serious battle intervening, and, so
far as reported, no detachments, that it would number
less than 10,000 men.

On the 1 3th of March, General Burnside landed his
forces at Slocomb's creek, and on that same day marched
to within striking distance of the Confederate lines. On
the 1 4th the attack opened by Foster moving on the
Confederate left, between Fort Thompson and the rail
road. At the same time Reno moved against Vance's
position, on the right, and Parke followed up the railroad
in the center to support either Foster or Reno at need.
The Federal gunboats all the morning vigorously shelled
the earthworks. Foster's front attack on the left was
easily repelled for some hours. But on the right, Gen
eral Reno with Lieutenant-Colonel Clark, of the Twenty-
first Massachusetts, found the break at the brickyard and
gallantly charged in, and then turned to the right on the
Confederate militia posted there under another Colonel
Clark. The militia, raising the cry that they were flanked,
retreated in confusion, and unfortunately the Thirty-
fifth, under Colonel Sinclair, "very quickly," says Gen
eral Branch, "followed their example, retreating in the
utmost disorder." Avery's regiment of reserves was
ordered to the brickyard, and with Vance's regiment
made a determined stand. In speaking of the bravery of
these two regiments, Colonel Clark, of the Massachusetts
regiment, says in his official report: "They were the
best armed and fought the most gallantly of any of the
enemy's forces. . . . They kept up an incessant fire for
three hours, until their ammunition was exhausted and
the remainder of the rebel forces had retreated."

Into the gap in the Confederate line, left by the retreat
of the militia and the Thirty-fifth, Reno poured his
forces, and they thus turned the whole right of the

— Federal

{&...77l<l-BaX*~y iff** tflii

aJsisgissasr'

&...JB/wfU'JPai&eiy.
r aonttn6*2toa&y

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 41

intrenchments from Fort Thompson. Colonel Campbell,
commanding that wing, ordered Lieutenant-Colonel Hay-
wood to charge the front of Reno. This the Seventh did
in fine form and retook Brem's battery,* but was in
turn driven back by the advance of the Fifth Rhode
Island and Eighth Connecticut. After their center was
thus cut, the Confederates saw that with their inferiority
of numbers they could no longer make effective resist
ance, and they retired on New Bern. Their losses had
been, killed, 64; wounded, 101; prisoners, 413. The Fed
eral losses were, killed, 90; wounded, 380. \

The fall of New Bern opened much territory to the
Federals. Shortly thereafter their troops occupied Car
olina City, Morehead City, Beaufort and Newport, and
detachments were sent out in all directions. On April
1 3th a skirmish between one of these detached parties
and a portion of the Second North Carolina cavalry
occurred at Gillett's farm, in which Lieutenant-Colonel
Robinson, the Confederate commander, was captured.

On the i Qth of April a spirited action took place at
South Mills, near the Dismal Swamp canal. Rumors of
ironclads building for a descent on the Albemarle fleet
led the Federals to send a considerable force, under
General Reno, to destroy the locks that connected both
the Dismal Swamp canal and the Currituck canal with
the rivers. | General Reno took with him from New
Bern the Twenty-first Massachusetts, "500 picked
men, ' ' and the Fifty-first Pennsylvania. On his way he

* General Hawkins again makes an error when he says: "Lieu
tenant-Colonel Clark . . . came upon a light battery of sixteen
pieces." Colonel Clark in his report says five pieces. There were,
.however, only four; the two others of Brem's 6-gun battery were
on the right, as already mentioned.

f Official Reports.

j " I have organized in conjunction with Commodore Rowan
against that place (Elizabeth City), and if we succeed in capturing
or driving the enemy back, we shall move up to South Mills and
blow up the lock of the canal, and then proceed up to the head of
Currituck canal and blow in its banks, thus rendering it impossible
for the gunboats, which are said to be building at Norfolk, to come
into these waters. "—Official Records, page 271, Series I, Vol. IX.
No e

42 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

was joined by Col. Rush Hawkins with his brigade, then
stationed on Roanoke island. Hawkins says that his
forces numbered 2,000 men. General Reno's whole
command, including four pieces of artillery, numbered
fully 3,000 men. This force was landed from transports
at Elizabeth City, and at once marched toward the locks.
Near South Mills it encountered Col. A. R. Wright,
commanding the Third Georgia regiment (585 strong),
some drafted North Carolina militia, Gillett's company
of Southampton cavalry, and McComas' battery of four
pieces. Wright's total force seems to have numbered
about 750 men. Of these, he sent three companies and the
militia a mile to the rear to hold an important crossing.
Stationing his artillery in the road and supporting it with
his little force, which General Huger says was not over 400
men, Wright pluckily waited for the attack of the enemy.
In spite of a long march, Reno, who had no idea of the
small number of his foe, attacked promptly, but for three
hours made no impression on Wright's force, sheltered
cleverly by the artillery and a strip of woods. At last
McComas, who had fought his guns manfully, was killed,
and Colonel Wright fell back a mile to his supports.
General Reno did not attempt to follow, and that night
at 10 o'clock left his dead and wounded behind and made
a forced march to his boats. The losses on both sides
were as follows: Confederate, killed, 6; wounded, 19.
Federal, killed, 13; wounded, 92.*

*An interesting difference between official and private reports
comes out in the Federal accounts of this battle. General Reno and
his second in command, Colonel Hawkins, made such glowing
reports of what they had done that their commander, General Burn-
side, issued a congratulatory order to their troops. In it he felici
tates them "upon the indomitable courage with which they attacked
a large body of the enemy's best artillery, infantry and cavalry in
their own chosen position, achieving a complete victory. " — Rebellion
Records, IX., 307.

In a private letter to the same commander, the same General
Hawkins says in reference to the same affair: "Doubtless the unfor
tunate occurrence of the igth has been brought to your notice. No
one can regret the result more than myself. First, because of the
loss of life ; second, the object of the expedition not being accom-

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 43

The culmination of the serious losses that had befallen
the coast by the operations of General Burnside was the
surrender of Fort Macon, on the sand-bar opposite Beau
fort. This fort was an "old style, strong, casemated
work," mounting about fifty guns.f Col. M. J. White
occupied the fort with four companies of the Tenth
North Carolina artillery and one company of the Forti
eth. General Burnside sent General Parke with his divi
sion to lay siege to the work. After some weeks spent in
preparing mortar and Parrott batteries, under protection
of the sand hills, General Parke opened fire on the fort
with four batteries on the 25th of April. The Federal
fleet joined in the fire for an hour or two. By 4 o'clock
the combined batteries threw 1,150 shells and shot at the
fort, 500 of which took effect, \ dismounting over half
the guns. Colonel White says in his official report: "The
attack from the land was kept up with great vigor, the
enemy having immense advantage from superior num
bers, being able to relieve their men at the guns, while
our morning reports showed only 263 men for duty. Our
guns were well managed but able to do little damage to
water batteries and siege guns, firing through narrow
embrasures. At 6:30, finding that our loss had been
heavy, and, from the fatigue of our men, being unable to
keep up the fire with but two guns, a proposition was
made to General Parke for the surrender of the fort. ' '
The regimental history of the Tenth regiment declares:
"Of the forty-four guns, half were entirely disabled.
None on the parapet facing the entrance to the harbor
could be brought to bear on the land batteries, nor could

plished after all the obstacles in our way had been removed. It
seems that both parties were badly frightened. The enemy ran like
quarter-horses toward Norfolk, and we as fast as our weary legs
would carry us toward Roanoke, leaving quite a number of our
wounded, and destroyed the bridges behind us." — Ibid., 316.

f It is difficult to tell how many guns Macon had ; Hawkins says,
64 ; Burnside, 54 ; and the Tenth Regiment History, 44.

\ Flagler's Report.

44 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

those facing Beaufort." The Confederate loss was 7
killed and 18 wounded.

These successive defeats aroused the people instead of
dispiriting them. They saw plainly that the Richmond
authorities had been far too slow in realizing the State's
condition and the importance of the territory being lost.
They saw, not without some bitterness, enough North
Carolina troops sent into the State, after the fall of New
Bern, to have prevented its loss. Still the almost
defenseless condition of the other part of the State called
for new exertions, and without taking time for much
repining, the State government sent out an order that
was fruitful in results. This was, that the captains of all
militia companies were to detail one-third of their men
for immediate service, and these men were accorded
permission to volunteer for the war. Major Gordon
says: 4< This order struck a wave of patriotism that was
floating over the State from east to west, which had
been almost dormant for some months on account of the
government's refusing to furnish arms to twelve months'
volunteers. Prominent men in every county of the
State vied with one another in raising troops, and many
of those not actually going to the field were as busy
helping as those going. Instead of getting one-third,
the writer believes that fully two-thirds of those liable to
service volunteered under this call. In all, twenty-eight
regiments and several battalions promptly volunteered.
The adjutant-general's office was daily crowded by men
offering companies for service. The Eleventh regiment
(Bethel) was reorganized at High Point ; the Forty-sec
ond (Col. G. C. Gibbs), at Salisbury, April 22d; and at
Camp Mangum, near Raleigh, were organized the Forty-
third (Col. T. S. Kenan), the Forty-fourth (Col. G. B.
Singeltary), the Forty-fifth (Col. Junius Daniel), the
Forty-sixth (Col. E. D. Hall), the Forty-seventh (Col.
S. H. Rogers), the Forty-eighth (Col. R. C. Hill), the
Forty-ninth (Col. S. D. Ramseur), the Fiftieth (Col. M. D.

CONFEDERA TE MILITARY HISTORY. 45

Crator), the Fifty-second (Col. J. K. Marshall), the
Fifty-third (Col. W. A. Owens), the Fifty-fourth (Col.
John Wimbish), and the Fifty-fifth (Col. J. K. Conolly)
— all between the 2ist of April and the igih of May.
The Fifty-first (Col. J. L. Cantwell) was recruited in the
Cape Fear district and organized at Wilmington.

"The State had now in a very short while fifteen splen
did regiments organized and ready for service, except
arms, which will be mentioned later. All the military
departments of the State were tried to their uttermost to
clothe, feed and equip this large number of troops, who so
promptly came to the defense of the State. In addition
to those mentioned above, twelve or thirteen more regi
ments were in sight at the adjutant-general's office, to be
taken care of when fully recruited. ' ' *

* Organization of the Troops.

CHAPTER IV.

THE FEDERAL MOVEMENTS AGAINST RICHMOND-
PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN— DAM No. i.OR LEE'S MILL
—RETREAT UP THE PENINSULA — WILLIAMSBURG
—HANOVER COURT HOUSE — SEVEN PINES— JACK
SON'S WONDERFUL VALLEY CAMPAIGN.

WHILE these new regiments were forming, the
North Carolina regiments already transferred to
the army of Virginia were engaged in the famous
Peninsular campaign and the battles around Richmond.
Just a few weeks after the battle at New Bern, McClellan's
army began to land at Fort Monroe preparatory to its
ascent of the peninsula. On the 4th of April, 1862, his
troops began to move against the Confederate works,
held at that time by Gen. J. B. Magruder with about
1 1 , ooo men. General Magruder had spent much time
and work upon the construction of parallel lines of fortifi
cations across the peninsula. However, the Confederate
commander-in-chief, General Johnston, after an exami
nation of the works and of the whole ground, decided
that it was not feasible to attempt to hold the peninsula,
flanked as it was by water; and the forces there, and
those sent to their aid after McClellan began to move,
were placed under orders to withdraw gradually upon
the approach of the Union army, but to strike, if need be,
and to protract the giving up of the lines as long as
possible.

Accordingly, on the nearer approach of McClellan the
Confederates fell back upon the Warwick line of defenses.
On the 1 6th of April, at Lee's Mill, or Dam No. i, the
first sharp trial of strength between the opposing forces
took place. Gen. W. F. Smith's division was ordered to

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 47

attack the Confederate works there, the object being,
according to General McClellan, "to force the enemy to
discontinue his work in strengthening his batteries, to
silence his fire, and to gain control of the dam existing
at this point. ' ' * Smith brought up his three brigades,
Brooks', Hancock's and Davidson's, and during the
morning kept up a vigorous artillery fire. Then, at 3
o'clock, under cover of a sharp artillery and musketry
fire, two attacking and two supporting companies of the
Third Vermont regiment crossed the stream and rushed
gallantly for the Confederate works. The part of the
works immediately in their front was occupied by the
Fifteenth North Carolina regiment, Col. R. M. McKin-
ney. The regiment at the time of the Federal attack
was not on its lines, but was about 200 yards in the
rear, engaged on some heavy intrenchments that it had
been ordered to make. When the pickets gave the
alarm, the Fifteenth rushed to its arms and advanced to
meet its assailants, who on reaching the unoccupied line
had partly taken refuge behind the earth thrown from
the Confederate rifle-pits, f and opened upon the North
Carolinians, as they advanced, an accurate and deadly fire.
The fire was promptly returned and several volleys
exchanged. Colonel McKinney of the Fifteenth was killed
in the advance. The Seventh Georgia and other adjoin
ing regiments, none knowing the strength of the attack
ing party, rushed to the aid of the North Carolinians, and
in a few moments the little band of Vermont men was
driven back with a loss of 83 men.

At 5 o'clock a more formidable attack was made by
the Sixth Vermont, in conjunction with the Fourth Ver
mont. Colonel Lord, of the Sixth Vermont, says: "The
companies . . . advanced fearlessly and in perfect order
. . . with a view of taking the rifle-pits of the enemy at
the point of the bayonet. Before this could be accom-

* Letter to Adjutant-General Thomas, April igth.
f Ihrie's official report.

48 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

plished, and at a distance not exceeding 30 yards, a
most rapid, galling and destructive fire was opened,
telling with fearful effect upon our men who were ad
vancing to make the assault. " As a result of this heavy
fire, all the Federal regiments participating were soon
withdrawn. The total Federal loss in this engagement
was 165. The Fifteenth North Carolina lost its colonel,
of whom General McLaws said, "He was pure in all his
thoughts and just in all his acts. ' ' In addition, 1 2 men
were killed and 31 wounded.

In this retreat up the Peninsula, retiring from one
intrenchment to another, the North Carolina soldiers, in
common with all their comrades from other States,
suffered unusual hardships. General Magruder gives
this account of the situation in the trenches: "From the
4th of April till the 3d of May this army served almost
without relief in the trenches. Many companies of artil
lery were never relieved during this whole period. It
rained almost incessantly. The trenches were filled with
water. No fires could be allowed. The artillery and
infantry of the enemy played upon our men almost con
tinuously, day and night. The army had neither coffee,
sugar nor hard bread, but subsisted on flour and salt
meats, and these in reduced quantities, and yet no mur
murs were heard. ... I speak this in honor of those
brave men whose patriotism made them indifferent to
suffering, disease, danger, and death." Gen. E. P.
Alexander, in commenting on this report, declares:
"These statements are not exaggerated in a single word.
The trenches filled with water as fast as they could be
opened and could not be drained. Yet the continual
firing compelled the men to remain in them. ... A
hand or head could not be exposed for a moment with
out receiving a ball from the telescopic target rifles of
the sharpshooters. The trenches were so hastily con
structed that they barely afforded room for the line of
battle to crouch in. ... In many places they became

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 49

offensive beyond description. Fires were strictly for
bidden by day and night. The sick lists increased by
thousands, and cases occurred where men actually died
in the mud and water of the trenches before they could
be taken out to the hospitals. ' ' Then General Alexander
adds a fact that shows the intense earnestness with which
these men were imbued : 4 ' Not only were there no mur
murs or complaints, but in the midst of all this, the terms
of enlistments of a large part of the army expired, and
they at once re-enlisted 'for three years or the war.' "*

By May 4th the retreating Confederates had reached
the line of fortifications around Fort Magruder, just
below the old town of Williamsburg. On that day the
Federal cavalry and infantry pressed the Confederate
rear so closely that the trains became imperiled. Hence,
the battle fought there on the 5th of May was not from
Confederate choice, but from the necessity of the hour.
The Northern reports, and indeed many Northern writers,
show an entire misconception of the purpose of this bat
tle. They seem to think that it was part of Johnston's
purpose to hold permanently the Fort Magruder line.
Keyes says in his official report: "If Hancock had failed,
the enemy would not have retreated." This is far
from the true state of affairs. As Colonel Maury ob
serves: "General Johnston had no intention of tarrying
at Williamsburg, nor was the place defensible, for the
enemy now had control of both York and James rivers,
on each flank, and intended to push Franklin's division,
kept on transports . . . rapidly up the York river in the
vain hope of getting in our rear." General Johnston
says: "It was an affair with our rearguard, the object
of which was to secure our baggage trains, "f General
Webb, of the Federals, observes: "The demonstration
of the Union cavalry the previous afternoon, and Hook
er's pressure the next morning, compelled them to face

* Southern Historical Society Papers.
\ Johnston's Narrative.

No 7

50 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

about to escape being run over at will by their pur
suers. "*

General Magruder had been ordered not to stop in
Williamsburg at all. Gens. G. W. Smith and D. H. Hill
were ordered to resume the march at 2 a. m. on the 5th,
and Longstreet was to cover the trains. Accordingly,
General Smith moved at the hour appointed, and General
Hill's infantry was just filing into the road to follow his
trains when he was stopped by the news that a battle
was imminent in the rear. His division spent most of
the day on the campus of William and Mary college,
waiting to see whether Longstreet would need help, for
a heavy downpour of rain had fallen on the night of the
4th, flooding the low swampy road, and "part of the trains
were stalled on the ground where they stood during the
night, "f

At daylight on the 5th, Anderson, of Longstreet's
corps, seeing the condition of things and believing that a
struggle would be necessary to save the wagon trains,
re-manned the redoubts on the right of Fort Magruder
and as many on the left as the heavy rain permitted him
to see. Two redoubts on the left were not seen, and
perhaps could not have been occupied if seen, for that
long line of works had been designed for an army to
hold, not for a rear guard division fighting for time to
save its stores. \ These were the two redoubts after
ward seized by Hancock, and were the scene of the Fifth
North Carolina regiment's bloody fight.

Hooker attacked Longstreet manfully at 7 o'clock on
the 5th. However, as General Webb of the Federal
army chronicles, "he lost ground until Kearny came up"
about 2 o'clock. Subsequently Couch arrived, but the
three divisions never gained an inch from Longstreet's

* The Peninsula, in Civil War Series.

f From Manassas to Appomattox.

\ Colonel Maury, in his article on Williamsburg in Southern His
torical Society Papers, seems to overlook this fact when he censures
the Confederate leaders for not occupying all these redoubts.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 51

sturdy fighters. When reinforcements began to reach
the Federals, Longstreet sent to D. H. Hill for one bri
gade, and at 3 o'clock Hill's whole division moved back
to be in supporting distance, but only two of his regi
ments were actively drawn into the battle on the right.
Longstreet 's division contained few North Carolinians.
The Thirteenth, Col. A. M. Scales, and the Fourteenth,
Col. P. W. Roberts, and Manly 's battery, were the
State's sole representatives in that part of the battle.
Both of these regiments were in Colston's brigade. Col
ston was not put in till late in the afternoon. The
Thirteenth went to A. P. Hill's right and was suddenly
and fiercely attacked. It, however, under the stimulat
ing example of Colonel Scales and Lieutenant-Colonel
Ruffin, held its own till the close of the contest. The
Fourteenth was deployed in a skirt of woods on A. P.
Hill's left, and remained under fire for several hours,
behaving with conspicuous bravery. Longstreet reports:
" Brigadier-General Colston, though last upon the field,
was hotly engaged until darkness put an end to the
struggle, ' ' and he compliments both Scales and Roberts
on "having discharged their difficult duties with marked
skill and fearlessness. ' '

Manly's North Carolina battery made an enviable
record in this battle. Five of its guns were posted in
Fort Magruder, and one under Lieutenant Guion was in
a redoubt. When Webber's battery, afterward cap
tured, was trying to get in position, Manly's guns, the
first of which was fired by Sergeant Brooks, largely aided
the infantry in so disabling it that it never rendered
effective service. Longstreet 's fight for time was a
marked success in that he held his own all day and cap
tured five of the enemy's guns.

On General Longstreet's left, Hancock had, during the
uproar of battle, crossed Cub Dam creek and entered the
first of the unoccupied redoubts, already mentioned as
being on the left of Fort Magruder. Having the first

52 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

one, he then, in the amusing language of the Comte de
Paris, "seeing no enemy, fearlessly proceeded to march
into the next." This put his force directly on the Con
federate flank, in a position of strength, "having a crest
and natural glacis on either flank, and extending to the
woods on the right and left," and "entirely commanding
the plain between me and Fort Magruder. "* As Han
cock had five regiments and Cowan's battery of six pieces
and Wheeler's of four, he felt strong enough, as he was
so advantageously posted, to proceed "to make a diver
sion in favor of that portion of our forces which were
engaged with the enemy directly in front of Fort Magru
der." Up to that time the Confederates had been so
absorbed in the hard fight in front that "Hancock's
maneuver had been executed before its dangerous sig
nificance became apparent"! Webb adds, "By this
movement on our right, the enemy were forced to pay
special attention to Hancock." "The occupation of
these two redoubts on his extreme left, ' ' says Lossing,
"was the first intimation that Johnston had of their
existence, and he at once perceived the importance of
the position, for it was on the flank and rear of the Con
federate line of defense, and seriously menaced its integ
rity. "{ Hancock soon got his batteries to work, and,
says the Regimental History of the Fifth regiment, was
"seriously annoying our troops by an enfilading fire."
So, to counteract Hancock's "diversion," Early 's brigade
of D. H. Hill's division, all of which division "had been
waiting to see whether Longstreet needed any further
support," was moved toward the left, and its officers,
says General Longstreet, made a reconnoissance in their
front. As a result of this reconnoissance, "General
Early," says General Johnston, "sent an officer to report
that there was a battery in front of him which he could

* Hancock's Report.

f Peninsular Campaign.

j Civil War in America, II, 382.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 63

take, and asked authority to do so. The message was
delivered to General Longstreet, who referred the mes
senger to me, we being together. I authorized the
attempt, but desired the general to look carefully first."*
General Hill's report is virtually the same, for he says:
"He (Early) soon reported to General Longstreet in
person that there was a Yankee battery in his front on
the edge of a wood, and asked leave to take it. General
Longstreet approved the move, and directed me to
accompany it. "f Generals Hill and Early then rode to
the front and examined the ground in front of them,
declares Early in his report. General Hill also says in
his report, "I reconnoitered the ground as well as I
could. "J

General Hill evidently understood that this brigade
was to wage just such a battle as the right was then
making — a rear guard engagement to gain time, and that
in addition it was to prevent the enemy on Longstreet 's
left from flanking him, and that the battery the brigade
was to assail was not to be carried by direct assault but
by "getting in rear of the battery by passing through
the woods to its left. " This was the plan he had in view,
for he says, "I directed this wing (the Fifth and the
Twenty-third North Carolina) to halt as soon as the
stream was crossed and undergrowth penetrated, to get
the whole brigade in line, and sent my adjutant, Major
Ratchford, to General Early to know whether he had
gotten over. We had not halted five minutes (waiting
to reform the line) when I heard shouting and firing, and
a voice which, above the uproar, I took to be General
Early 's, crying, 'Follow me!' " The advance of that part
of the brigade made it necessary for Hill to direct "the
right wing to move rapidly forward, and I went myself in

* Johnston's Narrative, 122.

f It is proper to add that General Longstreet says that General Hill
made this request.

\ Colonel Maury, evidently writing without carefully reading these
reports, asserts that no reconnoissance was made.

54 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

advance of it. " If the batteries were to be charged
across the open, the quicker the better. He adds, "I
regretted that our troops had gone into the open field
where the ground was so heavy . . . and where they
were exposed for half a mile to the full sweep of the
Yankee artillery, but it was now too late to change the
order of things, and there was some hope of a direct
attack, if made rapidly."* Below in his report, he again
says, "I have always regretted that General Early, carried
away by his impetuous and enthusiastic courage, advanced
so far into the open field. "

General Longstreet says of the attack: "General Hill
ordered the advance regiments to halt after crossing the
streamlet and get under cover of the woods until the bri
gade could form, but General Early, not waiting for
orders or the brigade, rode to the front of the Twenty-
fourth Virginia regiment, and with it made the attack.
The gallant McRae, of the Fifth North Carolina, seeing
the Twenty-fourth hotly engaged, dashed forward nolens
volens to its relief. The other [two] regiments, seeing
the confusion of movements and of orders, failed to go
forward."f But these regiments were not as entirely
inactive as General Longstreet and others have thought.
General Hill says that, seeing that the woods on the left
were full of the enemy, and "that a column moving
across the field would be exposed to a fire in flank, ' ' he
ordered these regiments to change direction to the left
and clear the woods. The regiments were imperfectly
drilled and the ground densely wooded, and before they
succeeded in carrying out the maneuver it was too late
for them to assist the attack of the Twenty-fourth Vir
ginia and the Fifth North Carolina.

The charge made by the Fifth North Carolina, led by
Col. D. K. McRae, Lieut. -Col. J. C. Badham, Maj. P. J.
Sinclair and Adjt. J. C. McRae, will be a lasting mon-

» Hill's Official Report

t From Manassas to Appomattox.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 55

ument to the heroism of North Carolina troops. This
regiment, on clearing the woods, changed direction to
the left and, lapping wings with the Twenty-fourth Vir
ginia, rushed upon Hancock's strong line. The Regi
mental History gives this account of the charge: "In
front of the redoubt were five regiments of infantry
supported by a battery of ten pieces (Cowan 6, Wheeler
4), with clouds of skirmishers in their advance. The
charge of the Fifth has rarely been surpassed in the his
tory of war. Pressing on from the first in the face of
the battery, entering in the plunging fire of the infantry,
wading into a storm of balls which first struck the men
on their feet and rose upon their nearer approach, it
steadily pressed on. . . . Officers and men were falling
rapidly under the withering fire of grape, canister and
musketry. Lieutenant-Colonel Badham was shot in the
forehead and fell dead. Major Sinclair's horse was killed
and he was disabled. Captains Garrett, Lea and Jones
were all shot down, as were many of the subalterns.
Among them were Lieut. Thomas Snow, of Halifax, who
was killed far in advance of his company, cheering on
his men; and Lieutenants Boswell, Clark and Hays."

Four hundred and fifteen men of this regiment
answered to morning roll-call on that day ; before night,
the blood of 290 fed the soil of that bleak hill. Such
losses are rarely chronicled. The Light Brigade at
Balaklava took 600 men into action and lost only 247.
Twenty-four commissioned officers of the Fifth regiment
led their men up that slope ; only four came out unhurt.
No wonder that their antagonist for that day, General
Hancock, said, in a generous burst of enthusiasm for
such daring, "Those two regiments deserve to have
immortal inscribed on their banners. "

Whether the Fifth and Twenty-fourth would have suc
ceeded in routing Hancock had they not been ordered to
fall back, or had the other two regiments pushed rapidly
to their assistance, must, as General Hill says, "forever

56 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

remain an undecided question." Colonel McRae evi
dently thought they would. However, the student of the
Confederate war history knows from the slaughter at
Malvern Hill and Boonsboro, at Gettysburg and Fred-
ericksburg, how well-nigh impossible it is for the most
dauntless infantry to drive an American foe from an
artillery and musketry crowned plateau. Even if the
rest of the brigade had come when sent for, it hardly
seems possible for two regiments, already crippled by
many casualties, numbering together "not over 1,000"
before any loss, aided by only two fresh regiments, all
without any artillery, to have put to flight five full regi
ments and ten pieces of artillery, posted on a crest, shel
tered in part by a redoubt, and commanded by so good a
soldier as Hancock. Moreover, a careful reading of Han
cock's report shows that what McRae took for a retreat
of Hancock's artillery was simply the retirement of his
guns, one by one, to his original and stronger line, made
in obedience to an order from General Smith and show
ing no signs of disorder. Colonel McRae confirms this
when he says in his report, "the battery had been retired
en echelon with great precision, and there was no such man
ifest disorder as would justify storming the redoubt."
Colonel Maury, of the Virginia regiment, says: "Had
the regiments been allowed to go on, the redoubt would
have been captured without further loss." That this is
a mistake is shown by McRae 's report. He says: "I
had previously sent my adjutant to General Hill, an
nouncing my loss and the danger of my position, and
earnestly begging for reinforcements; but finding iny
force too small and the position fatally destructive, / did
not wait his return, but ordered my command to fall off
down to the cover of the fence, and immediately after I
received the order to retire."

Colonel Maury in this same article, blames the Confed
erate commander for not bringing up his whole division
to extricate the two regiments from their perilous pool-

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 57

tion and to support them ; but he forgets that the com
manding officer was under positive orders from General
Longstreet "not to involve us so as to delay the march
after night, ' ' and it was nearly dark when the assault was
fairly joined.

In commenting on the battle, General Longstreet says :
"The success of General Hancock in holding his position
in and about the forts with five regiments and two bat
teries against the assault of the Fifth North Carolina and
Twenty-fourth Virginia was given heroic proportions by
his chief, who christened him 'The Superb,' to relieve, it
is supposed, by the picturesque figure on his right, the
discomfiture of his left. But reading between the lines,
the highest compliment was for the two Confederate regi
ments. "* Draper, the New York historian, adds: "The
manner in which the Confederate rear guard turned upon
their pursuers at Williamsburg and gave them a bloody
check will always exact the applause of military critics."!

On the yth of May, at Eltham's landing, nearly opposite
West Point, Va., Franklin's division of McClellan's army
disembarked from transports for the purpose of getting
in the rear of Johnston's retreating army. The purpose,
however, was frustrated, for Franklin found G. W. Smith
on the ground, and Whiting's division attacked him there.
Captain Reilly's battery and Colonel Fender's Sixth
North Carolina regiment were under fire, but not seri
ously engaged.

The next battle in Virginia was at Slash church, near
Hanover Court House, on the 2 yth of May. This, with
the exception of one regiment, was purely a North Caro
lina fight. The Confederate force, one brigade and two
attached companies, was commanded by Gen. L. O'B.
Branch, of North Carolina, and of the seven regiments
present all were from the same State except the Forty-
fifth Georgia, Col. T. M. Hardeman. This brigade, after

* From Manassas to Appomattox.
t Civil War in America.

Nc 8

58 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

its engagements around New Bern, had been ordered to
join Jackson in the valley, but on its way was stopped at
Hanover Court House, and kept on lookout duty there.
General McClellan, expecting General McDowell to join
him in a movement on Richmond, threw forward his
right wing under Gen. Fitz John Porter to crush Branch's
force out of his path.

Porter had in his command Morell's division and War
ren's brigade. Branch's force consisted of his own bri
gade — the Seventh North Carolina, Col. R. P. Campbells
the Eighteenth, Col. R. H. Cowan; the Twenty-eighth,
Col. J. H. Lane; the Thirty-seventh, Col. C. C. Lee;
and the Thirty-third, Lieutenant-Colonel Hoke; and
also two temporarily attached regiments, the Twelfth
North Carolina, Col. B. O. Wade, and Forty-fifth Geor
gia — in all seven regiments — and Latham's North Caro
lina battery, that joined him the night before the battle.
In view of the hard fight that Branch gave him, it is not
surprising that General Porter, writing the day after the
battle, should say that Branch's force "comprised about
8,000 Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia troops."
But for General Webb, writing in 1881, and claiming to
have "sifted" and "collated for careful investigation the
new material gathered by the war department, and now
for the first time made a basis of the history of that
time,"* to say — for him to say in the face of such a claim
as that — "that Branch's command must have been about
10,000 strong" is, as the Federal General Palfrey sweetly
says in commenting on some of McClellan's figures,
"one of those extraordinary, inconceivable, aggravating
things that stirs up everything that is acrid in the nature
of those who follow his career, "f

What was the Confederate strength? Branch, in his
congratulatory order to his brigade (July 24th), states
that his total force was "about 4,000. " This would make

* Preface to "Peninsula Campaign."
f Antietam to Fredericksburg, p. 39.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 59

his seven regiments average about 600 men to the regi
ment, a high average for Confederate regiments, and
especially for those that had been over as much territory
as Branch's. Even McClellan, with his fondness for big
numbers on the Confederate side, admits "the regi
ments (Confederate) will not average over 700 men. "*
Some of the regiments that opposed Branch that day
reported fewer than 600. Porter does not state his num
bers. General Webb says that Porter had "about 12,000
men. "f Probably, as Porter had one whole division
(Morell's) and one brigade (Warren's), this is not far
wrong. General Warren gives the number in each of his
regiments, and the aggregate is 2,705; his regiments
averaging 653 men each. In Morell's division there were
fourteen regiments (eleven infantry, two cavalry, one
sharpshooters), three batteries, and two companies of
sharpshooters. Putting these regiments and batteries at
the same as Branch's (600 to the regiment), they aggregate
8,700, and with Warren's make a total force of 11,405
at the very least — nearly three times the Confederate
force.

At the approach of the two forces, General Branch
advanced Colonel Lane with the Twenty-eighth North
Carolina, and a section of Latham's battery, under Lieu
tenant Potts, to support his pickets. The regiment soon
became heavily engaged with Porter's van, the Twenty-
fifth New York regiment, and drove it back, inflicting
heavy loss. Pressing the Twenty-fifth they encountered
Butterfield's| entire brigade. Helped by a friendly
wood, Lane maintained his position for some time.
However, in spite of the efforts of his two guns, Butter-
field's force was soon overlapping both his wings, and so
Lane gave orders to retire along a fence. All the horses
of one of Pott's guns had been disabled, and he was

* Rebellion Records, XI, I, 271.

f Peninsula Campaign.

\ Not Martindale's, as Lane reports.

60 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

forced to leave this piece. Lane says of the fight of this
section: "Never were two guns served more hand
somely. " On their retreat toward Hanover Court
House, this regiment found the enemy between it and the
rest of the brigade and lost many prisoners. However,
Webb's assertion that "it was almost entirely captured,"
is far wide of the mark, as Lane reports that it reached
its brigade on the Chickahominy with 480 men.* Col
onel Lane says of his retreat: "Already exhausted from
exposure to inclement weather, from hunger, from fight
ing, it was three days before the regiment, by a circuit
ous route, rejoined the brigade . . . where it was wildly
and joyfully received. It was highly complimented by
Generals Lee and Branch for its behavior on this mas
terly retreat. ' '

While Lane was engaged with Butterfield, Branch
advanced his other regiments toward Peake's crossing
and found the enemy stationed across the road. Branch
thus describes his movements: "My plan was quickly
formed, and orders were given for its execution. Lee
with the Thirty- seventh was to push through the woods
and get close to the right flank of the battery. Hoke, as
soon as he should return from a sweep through the woods
on which I had sent him, and Colonel Wade, of the
Twelfth, were to make a similar movement to the left
flank of the battery, and Cowan (Eighteenth) was to
charge across the open ground in front, Latham mean
while bringing his guns to bear on their front. Hoke,
supported by Colonel Wade, had a sharp skirmish, taking
6 prisoners and n horses, but came out too late to
make the movement assigned to him ; and Lee having
sent for reinforcements, I so far changed my plan as to
abandon the attack on the enemy's left, and sent Lieu
tenant-Colonel Hoke to reinforce Colonel Lee, relying on
the front and right attack. Colonel Cowan, with the
Eighteenth, made the charge most gallantly; but the

* Regimental History.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 61

enemy's force was much larger than supposed, and
strongly posted, and the gallant Eighteenth was com
pelled to seek cover. It continued to pour heavy volleys
from the edge of the woods, and must have done great
execution. The steadiness with which the desperate
charge was made reflects the highest credit on officers
and men. . . . The combined attack of the Eighteenth
and Thirty-seventh compelled the enemy to leave his
battery for a time and take shelter behind a ditch bank. "*
This attack fell on Martindale's Second Maine regiment,
Forty-fourth New York, some detachments of the Ninth
and Twenty-second Massachusetts and of the Fourth
Michigan, and what Lane had left of the Twenty-fifth
New York, all supporting a section of Martin's battery.
The Federal line was broken and the gunners driven
from their pieces. General Martindale says: "The bat
tle had now lasted for quite an hour, and although the
center of my line was broken, under a cross fire that was
entirely destructive and unsupportable, still the Second
Maine on the right and the largest body of the Forty-
fourth New York on the left, maintained their ground
without flinching. (It is now disclosed that they were
assailed by four times their number.)"! Federal rein
forcements soon arrived. Generals Porter and Morell
hastened personally to the firing, and at this crisis sent
in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth New York and Griffin's
battery to reform Martindale's broken line. The Ninth
Massachusetts and Sixty- second Pennsylvania were hur
ried back from toward Hanover. Their line of march
threw them on Branch's left flank and rear, and, already
far outnumbered before the arrival of this new force,
Branch was left no option except to retreat. The
Seventh North Carolina and Forty-fifth Georgia, which
had been held in reserve and not at all engaged, covered

* Official Report.

fThis "four times their number" was, as seen above, only Cow
an's and Lee's regiments.

62 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

the Confederate retreat. Branch's loss, including
Lane's, was 73 killed, 192 wounded, and about 700
captured. If Porter's report, "of the enemy's dead we
buried about 200," be true, he must have buried some
twice. The Federal loss was 62 killed, 223 wounded,
and 70 missing.

General Lee sent his congratulations to General Branch,
in which he used these words: "I take pleasure in
expressing my approval of the manner in which you
have discharged the duties of the position in which you
were placed, and of the gallant manner your troops
opposed a very superior force of the enemy. ' '

Closely following Hanover Court House came Seven
Pines, with a list of casualties at that time thought appall
ing. There, as at Hanover, an officer from North Caro
lina directed the fiercest and most protracted part of the
contest; for, says Gen. Cadmus Wilcox, "Seven Pines,
the successful part of it, was D. H. Hill's fight." Gen
eral Longstreet, who commanded the whole right wing,
says: "The conduct of the attack (on the Confederate
right) was left entirely to Major-General Hill. The
entire success of the affair is sufficient evidence of his
ability, courage and skill. ' '

The Confederates in front of Richmond were appre
hensive that the force under McDowell would be added
to that under General McClellan, and thereby give him
strength enough to overpower them and take Richmond.
To prevent this, Johnston, learning that two of McClel
lan 's army corps, those of Keyes and Heintzelman, were
on the south side of the Chickahominy, determined on
an immediate attack upon them. In order to get an
intelligible idea of the part of the North Carolina troops
in this great battle, it will be necessary first to take a
glance at the whole field.

Casey's division of Keyes' corps was nearest to Rich
mond. This lay behind earthworks, strengthened by an
unfinished redoubt, on the Williamsburg road, west of

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 63

Seven Pines. Behind Casey, at a distance of about a
mile and a quarter, Couch was in position on the same
road, his right extending out toward Fair Oaks on the
Nine-mile road. Kearny's and Hooker's divisions, form
ing Heintzelman's corps, were in rear of Couch. The
rest of the Federal army was north of the Chickahominy.

General Johnston's battle plan was simple, and if all of
it had been carried out as effectively as a part of it was
the result must have been disastrous to McClellan.
Longstreet, who commanded the entire right, was to
send in D. H. Hill's division in a front attack on Casey
on the Williamsburg road, and support that attack by his
own division. Huger was to move on the Charles City
road, parallel to Hill, and make a flank attack synchro
nous with Hill's front attack. G. W. Smith, in charge
of the left wing, was to keep Sumner's corps, north of
the river, from reinforcing Keyes, and if not attacked
early, he was to assist the right wing. For various
reasons, not in the province of this writer to consider,
only a part of the plan was carried into effect. Huger
never made the flank attack, and in the first day's fight
only one of Longstreet's brigades got into close action,
although Hill's division was fighting Casey, Couch and
Kearny. On the left wing, the line of battle was never
formed until the head of Sumner's corps was in position
to receive it.

On the day appointed, D. H. Hill, after vainly waiting
from early morning until i o'clock for the flank move
ment and for the left wing, was ordered by General
Longstreet to attack Casey's works with his division of
four brigades. Garland and G. B. Anderson formed the
left of the attacking column, and Rodes and Rains the
right. "After more than two hours of very hard fight
ing," says Gen. G. W. Smith, "these four brigades,
unaided, captured Casey's earthworks." * Then, aided
after 4 o'clock by R. H. Anderson's brigade of Long-

* Battle of Seven Pines, p. 149.

64 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

street's corps,* they broke Couch's line and forced the
three divisions of Casey, Couch and Kearny back to their
third line, capturing eight pieces of artillery and
gathering from the field over 6,000 muskets.

General Casey, who sustained the first attack, says:
"To be brief, the rifle-pits were retained until they were
almost enveloped by the enemy, the troops with some
exceptions fighting with spirit and gallantry. The
troops then retreated to the second line, in possession of
General Couch's division. . . . On my arrival at the
second line, I succeeded in rallying a small portion of
my division, and with the assistance of General Kearny,
who had just arrived at the head of one of his brigades,
attempted to regain possession of my works, but it was
found impracticable. The troops of General Couch's
division were driven back, although reinforced by the
corps of General Heintzelman. The corps of Generals
Keyes and Heintzelman having retired to the third line
by direction of General Heintzelman, I there collected
what remained of my division. ' ' f

The Federal reports and many subsequent historical
writers speak persistently of the "overwhelming numbers"
of the Confederates engaged in the defeat of their left.
There is little difficulty in showing by the official reports
that this is a mistake. On the Federal side the divi
sions of Casey, Couch and Kearny were engaged. Gen
eral Heintzelman, the senior Federal officer on their left,
says: "Couch's, Casey's and Kearny 's divisions on the
field numbered but 18,500. "| Each of these division com
manders reports, without itemization, that he had engaged
"about 5,000" men. This, of course, would make the
total 15,000 men, as opposed to Heintzelman's 18,500.
Five thousand may be right for the strength of Kearny,
but it seems that there must be some mistake in the

* Kemper's brigade of Longstreet's was sent Hill, but came too
late for active service,
f Official Report.
; Official Report.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 65

reports of Casey and Couch. These two divisions made
up Keyes' corps, and it so happens that on the very morn
ing of the battle, May 3ist, Keyes sent in to the govern
ment his certified return of men present in his corps. He
reports as present, but sick, etc., 1,074, and as "present
for duty" in those two divisions on that day, 17,132; * his
two division commanders report, at i o'clock of the same
day, and with no march and no battle intervening, that
between them they had only 10,000 men. How on that
peaceful May morning 7, 132 men could, between morn
ing and i o'clock, disappear, "vanish into unsubstantial
air" and not be missed, is difficult to understand. But
grant that they did, and that Couch and Casey were
right, and that they and Kearny together had but 15,000
men, still were they not outnumbered.

General Hill had only four brigades that day in his
division, Ripley's being absent. In their official reports,
his brigadiers report their forces that morning as follows :
Anderson reports that he took into action 1,865; Gar
land, 2,065; Rodes, 2,200. Rains states no numbers;
nearest field returns, May 2ist, give him 1,830. Total,
Hill's division, 7,960. R. H. Anderson, of Longstreet's
division (same field return), 2,168. Total Confederate
force engaged on the right in the first day's battle,
10,128. So, taking the lowest estimate that the Federals
make, they were evidently not outnumbered, but out
numbered the Confederates by at least 5,000 men.

With the front attack of Garland and Anderson went
the Fourth, Fifth and Twenty-third North Carolina regi
ments. These moved at once into a nerve-testing con
flict. The Fourth was under command of Maj. Bryan
Grimes. Major Grimes, after speaking of the regiment's
wading through pools of water waist-deep, in which
many of the wounded were drowned, thus described the
advance: "The enemy also had a section of a battery
(two pieces), which was dealing destruction to my left

* Rebellion Records, Vol. XI, Part 3, p. 204.

No 9

70 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

needs, and he recovered. The North Carolina losses on
this portion of the field, so far as they can be made out,
were as follows: In the Sixteenth, 17 killed and 28
wounded; in the Sixth, 15 killed and 32 wounded. The
Twenty-second does not report its loss separately, but
Major Daves states it at 147.*

During General Smith's action, Guion's section of
Manly 's battery was active just in rear of Whiting's bri
gade, and one of his limbers bore to the rear the Confed
erate commander- in- chief, General Johnston, when he
was wounded just at nightfall. Leaving out the Twenty-
second, the total North Carolina loss at Seven Pines was,
as far as reported, 125 killed and 496 wounded.

The movement of great lines of battle, the fierce onset,
the bloody repulse, the bold strategy of generals, the
immortal courage of desperate men — these are the glo
rious side of battle. But there is a woeful side to which
attention is rarely directed. William R. Gorman, a tal
ented musician of the Fourth North Carolina, gives a
glimpse of the dark side of this stern passage at arms.
He writes: "How calm and still is everything since the
grand battle of Seven Pines! Nature smiles sweetly,
and the birds sing as enchantingly as though no deeds of
blood and carnage had been perpetrated near this now
peaceful spot. ... I went to the hospital and did all I
could to alleviate the horrible suffering, till late at night.
What sights I witnessed ! Piled in heaps lay amputated
arms and legs — an awful scene, while from the bloody
masses of flesh around the surgeons went up such pierc
ing cries that the blood almost chilled around the fount
ain of life. . . . Though chloroform was administered,
the pain was so intense that it had no effect, and the
poor wretches broke the stillness of night with cries so
heartrending that it seemed to me the very corpses
trembled. And such a sight when the surgeons' tasks
were done — arms and legs piled up like cord-wood! Our

* Regimental History.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY 71

regiment lost 375 men, and to-day cannot start 400 for

duty."*

After General Johnston's wound at Seven Pines, Gen
eral Lee was put in chief command of the Confederate
forces. Wishing to strike McClellan a decisive blow, and
thus relieve the pressure on Richmond, Lee began to
devise means to increase his army. Hence his attention
was at once directed to the fifteen North Carolina regi
ments already mentioned as raised by Governor Clark for
the defense of his own State against the Federal army at
New Bern, and then in camp in North Carolina, but not
yet armed. Major Gordon, who is thoroughly familiar
with the affairs of the adjutant-general's office at that
time, gives the following account of the negotiations for
these regiments:

On or about the night that General Martin received
his commission as brigadier-general, the governor of
North Carolina received a communication from the war
department of the Confederate States giving him in full
the plan of the campaign to crush McClellan 's army, and
asking the governor's co-operation with the North Caro
lina troops in camp, but not then turned over to the Con
federate government, and also attempting to reconcile
him to the moving of all the other troops in the State to
the State of Virginia. The statement above that the
war department would communicate the plans of one of
the most famous campaigns of the world more than a
month before a shot was fired, might, without explana
tion, seem incredible. The State of North Carolina had
at this time fifteen regiments, each nearly 1,000 strong,
and none of them turned over to the Confederate govern
ment. These troops were raised on the governor's call
for the defense of the State, and he could have kept them
for that service if so disposed. This was the only body
of reserve troops in the Confederacy, at least no other
State had anything approximating to it, so it was very
important for General Lee to receive this reinforcement.
Hence every plan was fully made known to the governor
of North Carolina. In brief, the plan, as told me by my

* Our Living and Our Dead.

68 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

the regiment was withdrawn. Its brave colonel, Champ
P. Davis, had, however, fallen in the action.

Colonel Fender's Sixth North Carolina regiment arrived
on the field somewhat in advance of Whiting's other
regiments. Colonel Fender was ordered to move for
ward, with the assurance that the rest of the brigade
would speedily support him. He advanced rapidly, and
his skirmishers drove back the first line of the enemy
from their position near Fair Oaks. He crossed the road
leading from Fair Oaks to Grapevine bridge, and had
moved some distance to the front when his attention was
called to a large force massed in column by company in
a field near the road, and also near the swamp where
Pettigrew and Hampton were wounded. In the fog of
the evening, the enemy had failed to make out Fender's
colors. At a glance Fender saw that the enemy was sit
uated so far to his left and rear as to make his capture
almost a certainty should their officers at once recognize
him and intervene between his command and the rest of
his brigade. So, without even replying to the officer
who pointed out the troops, and with the born soldier's
quickness of perception and promptitude of action, he
instantly ordered, "By the left flank, file left, double
quick!" In an instant his splendidly drilled and disci
plined regiment had changed direction, and was moving
in double time to place itself across the front of its foes.
The moment the line fairly attained its new bearing,
Colonel Fender commanded, * * By the right flank, charge ! ' '
Before the Federals realized the intent of the movement,
his men were pouring volley after volley into their un
formed ranks. " Under the suddenness and fury of the
attack," says Judge Montgomery, "the foe reeled and
staggered, while the glorious soldier withdrew his force
and rejoined his brigade, which was just coming up."*
In the general advance which followed, the Sixth regi
ment, entirely unprotected by the swamp that partly
* Memorial Address.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 69

covered the assault of the other troops, fought its way to
within eighty yards, says Major A very, of the enemy's
line, and there stubbornly held its own until after dark,
when it was ordered by the brigade commander to retire,
being the first of its brigade to enter the battle and the
last to be withdrawn.

During the progress of this battle, Colonel Fender's
coolness, quickness and readiness of resource so impressed
President Davis, who was on the field, that riding up to
Colonel Fender, he said, "I salute you, General Fender."
Colonel Fender afterward said to a friend, "My promo
tion on the field for good conduct realized the dream of
my life. ' '

When General Smith saw his brigades hotly engaged,
and some of them badly repulsed, he moved Hatton's
brigade and Colonel Lightfoot's Twenty-second North
Carolina regiment, which had been in reserve, into
action. General Smith accompanied these troops, and
he bears testimony to the courage of their attack: "The
troops moved across the field with alacrity, and the pre
cision of their movement in line of battle has been sel
dom equaled, even on the parade ground." Then, de
scribing their dashing advance to within a short distance
of the enemy's line of fire, he says: "Very seldom, if
ever, did any troops in their first battle go so close up to
a covered line under so strong a fire, and remain within
such a distance so long. " * Of the behavior of the
Twenty-second here, one of its officers says: "In all my
reading of veterans and coolness under fire, I have
never conceived of anything surpassing the, coolness of
our men on this field. ' ' In this action General Pettigrew
was desperately wounded. As he, thinking that he was
mortally wounded, refused to be moved from the field,
generously saying that others less severely wounded
needed more attention than he, he was taken prisoner.
His captors, however, ministered sympathetically to his

* Official Report

70 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

During General Smith's action, Guion's section of
Manly 's battery was active just in rear of Whiting's bri
gade, and one of his limbers bore to the rear the Confed
erate commander-in-chief, General Johnston, when he
was wounded just at nightfall. Leaving out the Twenty-
second, the total North Carolina loss at Seven Pines was,
as far as reported, 125 killed and 496 wounded.

* Regimental History.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY 71

regiment lost 375 men, and to-day cannot start 400 for
duty."*

* Our Living and Our Dead.

72 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

chief, was to concentrate everything that could be taken
out of North Carolina and elsewhere against General
McClellan's army, and crush it before Burnside could
move from New Bern. . . . The governor was informed
that the defense of his State would be an easy matter
after the defeat of McClellan's army, and would not be
overlooked. The governor and adjutant-general went
into the plan heart and soul, and did everything in their
power to make it a success; they, and they alone, knowing
what the Confederate government and General Lee
expected them and North Carolina to do. About this
time the State received a shipment of arms from Eng
land (2,400). . . . They were given to the troops now
waiting for them. The Confederate government now
came promptly to the assistance of the State in arming
the troops at Camp Man gum, and before the ist of June,
every one of them was armed and ready for service.
The troops serving in the State were gradually and
quietly withdrawn and sent to Virginia. . . . When the
struggle commenced at Richmond, General Lee was
fearful that Burnside would find out the defenseless con
dition of North Carolina and move forward. Every
night he telegraphed, 'Any movement of the enemy in
your front to-day ? ' " *

At the close of the Seven Days' battles only two regi
ments of infantry, the Fiftieth and the Fifty-first, were
left in the State, and the forces of the enemy on the coast
could, had they been apprised of the heavy movement of
troops, have swept without opposition over all of the
State. A people less brave and patriotic would never
have consented to incur such a risk with so strong an
enemy at its doors. The governor exposed his own cap
ital to save that of the Confederacy. He finally left only
one regiment of infantry, one of cavalry, and two or
three batteries of artillery between him and an army
then estimated to be about 20,000 strong. At the close
of this campaign North Carolina had forty regiments in
Virginia. The fifteen regiments sent to Virginia were
not sent back to the State after Malvern Hill, but Gen-

* Organization of the Troops.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 73

eral Martin was ordered home to organize new regiments
for its local defense.

Preceding and preliminary to the great approaching
battles around Richmond, occurred Jackson's remarkable
campaign of 1862 in the Shenandoah valley. Jackson's
matchless soldiership and almost inspired energy brought
new zeal to the Southerners, whose enthusiasm had been
somewhat chilled by the reverses in North Carolina and
in the Mississippi valley. Only to Kirkland's Twenty-
first North Carolina regiment and Wharton's battalion of
sharpshooters was accorded the honor of representing
North Carolina in "Jackson's foot-cavalry," and par
ticipating in his brilliant victories. The sharpshooters
were regular members of the Twenty-first regiment
until after the battle of Winchester, on the 25th of May.
Then two companies were detached and organized as
sharpshooters, and under the gallant Col. R. W. Wharton
did fine service to the close of the war.

On the approach to Winchester, the Twenty-first, then
in Trimble's brigade, was in advance, and at daylight of
the 25th was ordered to enter the town. Two of the
companies under Major Fulton had been detailed for
special service the night before, and did not succeed in
rejoining their regiment until the severest part of the
fighting was over. The other regiments of the brigade
followed closely behind Kirkland, who moved toward
the town in double-time. Just as he reached the suburbs
of the town, a Federal line rose from behind a stone wall
parallel to the road, and poured into the Carolinians a
fire as destructive as it was unexpected. The regiment
instantly charged the wall but failed to carry it, and
took refuge behind a wall almost parallel to the one that
sheltered its antagonists. The Twenty-first Georgia
regiment, however, seeing the situation of its comrades,
dashed hastily into the flank of the Federals, and,
assisted by Kirkland's men, drove them through the
town. In the midst of a wild ovation that the citizens

Nc 10

74 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

of Winchester gave Jackson's soldiers, and while every
form of edible was being thrust upon the hungry North
Carolinians, General Trimble ordered them to follow and
protect Latimer's battery wherever it went As this bat
tery was pressing the retreating enemy, and moving
rapidly oftentimes, the regiment was led a dance over
the twelve miles intervening between Winchester and
Martinsburg, where the industrious artillerymen finally
rested.

In the furious fire at the stone wall Colonel Kirkland
was wounded, Lieutenant-Colonel Pepper wounded so
seriously that he died in a few days, and Captains Hedg-
cock and Ligon killed. The total loss of the regiment
in the battle was 21 killed and 55 wounded.

At the battle of Cross Keys, on the 8th and gib. of
June, the Twenty-first was held in reserve to support
Courtney's battery, but the two companies of sharp
shooters, deployed as skirmishers, opened the action.
General Trimble says of the regiment: "The Twenty-
first North Carolina, left to support this battery, was
exposed to the effect of the terrific fire, but under cover
of the hill, happily escaped with few casualties. When
the battery was threatened with an infantry force, this
regiment was called and readily took its place to repel
the enemy's attack, and stood modestly waiting to do its
duty as gallantly as heretofore. ' '

From June 25th to June 28th, some of the regiments of
Gen. Robert Ransom's North Carolina brigade, in con
junction with Gen. A. R. Wright's Georgia brigade and
other troops, were involved in some sharp minor engage
ments with Gen. Philip Kearny's division of stout fight
ers on the Williamsburg road, in the neighborhood of
King's schoolhouse. The regiments taking most part in
these affairs were the Twenty-fifth, Colonel Rutledge;
the Forty-ninth, Colonel Ramseur; the Twenty-fourth,
Colonel Clark; the Thirty-fifth, Colonel Ransom, and the
Twenty-sixth, Col. Z. B.Vance. At the schoolhouse battle,

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 75

the Twenty-fifth was under fire for several hours and re
pelled all efforts to break through its lines. General
Ransom reports : * * The regiment behaved admirably, and
I am proud to bear witness to its unwavering gallantry. ' '
The Forty-eighth was thrown out to support Colonel
Doles' regiment of Georgians, and at French's house rose
and charged and drove back a superior force very hand
somely, losing, however, nearly 100 men. The North
Carolina losses in these three days were 26 killed and
85 wounded,

CHAPTER V.

THE GREAT STRUGGLE OF 1862 FOR RICHMOND— BAT
TLES OF MECHANICSVILLE, COLD HARBOR, FRAY-
SER'S FARM, MALVERN HILL — NORTH CAROLINA
TROOPS CONSPICUOUS IN ALL ENGAGEMENTS—
McCLELLAN'S UTTER DEFEAT BY LEE.

THE series of battles known as the Seven Days'
battles around Richmond resulted in McClellan's,
forced * ' change of base, ' ' in the relief of Richmond,
in the Confederate capture of 52 pieces of artillery,
10,000 prisoners and 27,000 stand of small-arms, and
stores great in amount and value. * To effect these results,
174 Confederate regiments of infantry were engaged. Of
this number, North Carolina contributed 36 regiments.
The total number of Confederate dead left by these
bloody combats in the swamps of the Chick ahominy was
3,279; the total number of wounded, 15,851. To this
ghastly list North Carolina contributed in killed, 650; in
wounded, 3,279.

To turn these numerical abstractions into the concrete,
this means that, in this array of 174 regiments, every
fifth regimental color swept by the storm of these bat
tles floated over North Carolina bayonets. Every fifth
man who dropped a weapon from hand palsied by death,
left a desolate home in North Carolina. Nearly every
fourth wounded man who was litter-borne from the field,
or who limped to the crude hospitals in the rear, wore a
North Carolina uniform. Every fifth bullet that helped
to raise the Union casualties to 15,849 was from a North
Carolina musket.

The first of these desperate encounters was at Mechan-

* General Lee's Official Report.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 77

icsville and Beaver Dam. In spite of a constantly erro
neous statement of numbers, this engagement was be
tween four brigades (not counting brigades present, but
not materially engaged) of Fitz John Porter, and five
brigades of A. P. Hill, assisted just before dusk by Rip-
ley's brigade of D. H. Hill's division. Gregg's and
Branch's brigades, of A. P. Hill's, took no part in the
assault on the fortified lines, being otherwise engaged.
The plan of the battle was for Jackson to strike the right
flank of the Federal intrenchments, while A. P. Hill
attacked in front. Jackson was, however, unavoidably
delayed, and A. P. Hill, not waiting for his co-operation,
attacked impetuously in front. Later in the war the
troops on both sides learned to have great respect for
intrenched positions; but, as has been said, "we were
lavish of blood in those early days, ' ' and an attack on a
battery or a strongly-fortified line was deemed especially
glorious. Pender's North Carolina brigade, made up of
the Sixteenth, Twenty-second, Thirty-fourth and Thirty-
eighth and two battalions of other troops, advanced, as the
division commander says, "gallantly in the face of a
murderous fire" to the right of Field's advanced brigade.
Under Pender's personal direction, Col. W. J. Hoke, of
the Thirty-eighth, and Col. R. H. Riddick, of the Thirty-
fourth North Carolina, joined in a desperate but "abortive
effort to force a crossing. ' ' In this daring advance the
Thirty-fourth was outstripped by the Thirty-eighth, and
that regiment alone tenaciously fought its way close up
to the Federal rifle-pits, furnishing a magnificent yet
fruitless exhibition of bravery. Of this attack Judge
Montgomery says : * ' Pender and his brave Carolinians
swept over the plain and down the bottom, under a mur
derous fire of artillery and musketry, to the brink of the
creek; nothing could live under that fire. President
Davis, who was on the field, seeing the charge and the
terrible repulse, ordered Gen. D. H. Hill to send one of
his brigades to Pender's assistance, and Ripley's was

78 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

sent."* Meantime, the Twenty-second North Carolina
had come "suddenly upon a regiment of the enemy just
across the run, and after some little parley, opened fire,
driving the enemy quickly away, but found it impossible
to cross. The loss of this regiment here was very heavy ;
among others, its brave colonel (Conner) received a severe
wound in the leg. "f

Ripley's arrival brought two more North Carolina regi
ments into the battle— the First, Colonel Stokes, and the
Third, Colonel Meares. These, with the Forty-fourth
and Forty-eighth Georgia, formed Ripley's brigade.
Two of Ripley's regiments, the First North Carolina and
the Forty-fourth Georgia, united with Fender on the
right, and the Third North Carolina and Forty-eighth
Georgia moved to a position in front of the enemy. All
moved forward. The two regiments directly in front
suffered little, comparatively, but Fender and the two
regiments on the right went indeed into a storm of lead.
The Georgians lost 335 men in a very short while. Colo
nel Brown thus describes the action of the First: "It
advanced to the attack in front of the splendid artillery
of the enemy, posted across the pond at Ellison's mill.
The slaughter was terrific, yet the regiment pressed for
ward in the face of this fire for more than half a mile, ad
vancing steadily to what seemed inevitable destruction,
till it reached the pond and took shelter in a skirt of
woods. "J In this movement Colonel Stokes was mortally
wounded, Lieu tenant- Colonel McDowell badly wounded,
and Major Skinner killed. Capts. J. A. Wright and
R. W. Rives and four lieutenants were also among the
slain. The loss among the men was 140. The Six
teenth regiment, through an error of its guide, became

* Memorial Address. It should be stated that General Hill, seeing
the waste of blood in the front attack, when Jackson's advance
would soon make the position untenable, sent this brigade only upon a
second order from General Lee, confirmed by Mr. Davis.

t Fender's Report

\ Regimental History.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 79

separated from its brigade and was called upon to support
another brigade. Always ready for a fight. Colonel
McElroy did his part with skill and courage, and the reg
iment suffered a loss of about 200 men. No better exam
ple of the hotness of the fire to which these regiments
were exposed can be found than in the losses of one of
the companies. Captain Flowers, of the Thirty-eighth
regiment, lost 27 men out of 32 taken into action.

Lieutenant Cathey, of the Sixteenth regiment, de
scribes the situation of the soldiers the night of the bat
tle. He says: "Our surroundings were deserts of solitary
horror. The owls, night-hawks and foxes had fled in
dismay ; not even a snake or a frog could be heard to
plunge into the lagoons which, crimsoned with the blood
of men, lay motionless in our front. Nothing could be
heard in the blackness of that night but the ghastly
moans of the wounded and dying. ' '

On retiring from Beaver Dam creek General Porter,
having, as he says, 30,000 men,* fortified in a naturally
strong position on the east bank of Po white creek, six
miles from Beaver Dam. Crowning every available prom
inence with batteries to sweep the roads, and also posting
batteries or sections of batteries between his brigades, he,
with Sykes' division of regulars, Morell's and McCall's
divisions, and later with Slocum's division sent to rein
force him, awaited the attack of the divisions of Jackson,
A. P. Hill, Longstreet, Whiting and D. H. Hill. The
battle that followed the meeting of these forces, known
as Games' Mill, or Cold Harbor, was one of the hottest
of the war.

As at Mechanicsville, A. P. Hill was the first to send
his troops into action, almost in the center of the field.
As a part of his force went nine North Carolina regi
ments — the Seventh, Eighteenth, Twenty-eighth, Thirty -

* Battles and Leaders, II, p. 337. ( NOTE. —General Webb
strangely says that "Porter had less than 18,000 infantry at Games'
Mill." — Peninsula Campaign, page 130.)

80 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

third and Thirty-seventh, of Branch's brigade; and the
Sixteenth, Twenty-second, Thirty-fourth and Thirty-
eighth, of Fender's brigade. The work before them was
enough to appal any but the stoutest hearts. General
Porter himself has put on record testimony to the grim-
ness of their attack. He says: "Dashing across the
intervening plains, floundering in the swamps, struggling
against the tangled brushwood, brigade after brigade
seemed almost to melt away before the concentrated fire
of our artillery and infantry ; yet others pressed on, fol
lowed by supports as dashing and as brave as their pre
decessors." In the repeated assaults of the afternoon,
the Sixteenth North Carolina, Colonel McElroy, and the
Twenty-second, Lieut. -Col. R. H. Gray, won enviable
reputation, as Gen. A. P. Hill reports, by carrying "the
crest of a hill, and were in the camp of the enemy, but
were driven back by overwhelming numbers. '' Toward
night, Longstreet, A. P. Hill and Whiting united in a
final charge on Porter's left, and in spite of the fact that
he had been reinforced by Slocum, broke through his
strong lines. Then, writes General Law, "We had our
innings. As the blue mass surged up the hill in our
front, the Confederate fire was poured in with terrible
effect. The target was a large one, the range short, and
scarcely a shot fired into that living mass could fail of its
errand. The debt of blood contracted but a few moments
before was paid back with interest.' * In addition to
the North Carolina troops in A. P. Hill's division, Whit
ing's charge brought into the battle the Sixth North Car
olina, under Col. I. E. Avery. They joined in the gen
eral charge, of which Whiting says: "Spite of these terri
ble obstacles, over ditch and breastworks, hill, batteries
and infantry, the division swept, routing the enemy
from his stronghold. Many pieces of artillery were
taken (14 in all), and nearly a whole regiment of
the enemy. . . . Lieutenant-Colonel Avery was wounded,
* Battles and Leadsrs, II, 363.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 81

the command devolving upon Maj. R. F. Webb, who
ably sustained his part. ' '

Meanwhile, on Porter's right stubborn work was doing.
There Porter had placed Sykes' regulars, the flower of
his corps, and they were commanded by a persistent
fighter. D. H. Hill, on the extreme Confederate left,
and General Jackson, between him and A. P. Hill, moved
their divisions against these lines. In Jackson's divi
sion, the only Carolinians were the Twenty-first, Colonel
Kirkland, and Wharton's sharpshooters. Of their part
in the battle General Trimble says: "The charge of the
Sixteenth Mississippi and Twenty-first North Carolina
(with sharpshooters attached), sustained from the first
movement without a falter, could not be surpassed for
intrepid bravery and high resolve. ' '

Anderson's and Garland's brigades of D. H. Hill's
division were made up entirely of North Carolinians,
Anderson having the Second, Fourth, Fourteenth and
Thirtieth; Garland, the Fifth, Twelfth, Thirteenth,
Twentieth and Twenty-third. To these two brigades,
stubborn fighters all, belongs the honor of breaking the
Federal right, and, as they think, thus making the first
opening in the Federal lines that bloody day. General
Hill says in his article in "Battles and Leaders:" "Brig.-
Gens. Samuel Garland and George B. Anderson, com
manding North Carolina brigades in my division, asked
permission to move forward to attack the right flank and
rear of the division of regulars. The only difficulty in
the way was a Federal battery with its infantry supports,
which could enfilade them in their advance. Two of
Elzey's regiments, which had got separated in crossing
the swamp, were sent by me, by way of my left flank, to
the rear of the battery to attack the infantry supports,
while Col. Alfred Iverson, of the Twentieth North Caro
lina, charged it in front. The battery was captured and
held long enough for the two brigades (Garland's and
Anderson's) to advance across the plain. 'The effect of

No 11

82 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

our appearance,' says General Garland, 'at this opportune
moment, cheering and charging, decided the fate of the
day. The enemy broke and retreated. ' ' Major Ratch-
ford, of General Hill's staff, writes: "A short time before
sunset, Generals Rodes, Anderson and Garland came to
the writer and asked for General Hill, he being on some
other part of the line. One of them said to me: 'Find
General Hill, and say that unless we get orders to the
contrary, we will throw our whole strength against one
part of the line for the purpose of breaking it. ' I at once
hunted him up, and he approved the plan. In a few
minutes a small gap was made, and the Federals gave
way on each side, as a sand dam will do when a small
break is made in it. As the yell of victory moved along
the lines, we could tell that the enemy were giving
way. This, I claim, was the first breach made in the
Federal line at Cold Harbor."* General Jackson had
this to say of the attack of these brigades: "In advancing
to the attack, Gen. D. H. Hill had to cross the swamp
densely covered with undergrowth and young timber.
On the further edge he encountered the enemy. The
contest was fierce and bloody. The Federals fell back
from the wood under protection of a fence, ditch and hill.
. . . Again pressing forward, the Federals fell back, but
only to select a position for more obstinate defense, when
at dark, under pressure of our batteries, ... of the
other concurring events of the field, and of the bold and
dashing charge of General Hill's infantry, in which the
troops of Brigadier- General Winder joined, the enemy
yielded the field and fled in disorder."

Reilly's battery, now attached to Whiting's division,
was of much service to its commander during this
engagement.

On June 29th, General Lee directed Col. L. S. Baker,
of the First North Carolina cavalry, to move down the
Charles City road, and, by a bold reconnoissance, find

* Manuscript Monograph on General Hill's Life.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 83

whether the enemy had formed a connecting line with
the Federal gunboats on the river. Colonel Baker
moved promptly, but found that the enemy had a heavy
cavalry force in front of his infantry. "Close action"
seemed the only way to get the desired information, and
he determined to charge the cavalry, and, if possible,
drive it in far enough to see what troops were in front of
him. This he did effectively, and found all of Hooker's
corps before him. General McClellan appeared on the
field a few moments after Baker had retired, and said to
Captain Ruffin, who had been captured, that the bold
charge had won his admiration.

By June soth, McClellan's retreating forces had
reached the intersection of the Long Bridge and Charles
City roads, just north of Malvern hill. There Long-
street, supported only by the division of A. P. Hill,
attacked the position held by the divisions of McCall and
Kearny, reinforced by the divisions of Sedgwick and
Hooker and a brigade of Slocum. This was a square
stand-up fight, with no intrenchments of any sort on
either side. It had been expected that General Huger
would engage Slocum, and that General Jackson would
attack the Federal right, while Longstreet pressed the
front. However, both Jackson and Huger found it
impracticable to reach the ground in time. Hence Long-
street alone struck the blow in which all were expected
to participate. On opening the battle, General Long-
street sent Branch's North Carolina brigade of A. P.
Hill's division to his right, to keep Hooker from falling
on his flank. General Branch said of the action of his
men: "On Monday, at Frayser's Farm, you were again
in the heat of the engagement from, its opening to its
close, driving the enemy before you for a great distance,
and capturing a battery."* Lieut. -Col. R. F. Hoke, of
the Thirty- third North Carolina, reported: "You then
halted, formed line of battle, and charged, by the double-

* Congratulatory address to his soldiers.

84 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

quick and with a yell, the enemy's batteries, which were
strongly supported by infantry across this field, a dis
tance of 500 yards. We, at the same time, were enfiladed
by grapeshot ; neither fire upon the flank or front at all
stopped the men, but on they pressed, and soon silenced
the fire." In this charge, Col. C. C. Lee was killed and
Colonel Lane wounded. The rest of A. P. Hill's division
did not go into action until very late in the afternoon.
Then Field, followed by Fender with his North Caroli
nians, pressed eagerly forward. A. P. Hill says: "Gen
eral Pender, moving up to support Field, found that he
had penetrated so far in advance that the enemy were
between himself and Field. A regiment of Federals,
moving across his front and exposing a flank, was scat
tered by a volley. Pender continued to move forward,
driving off a battery of rifled pieces." It was the
charge of Field and Pender that finally broke the obsti
nate line of McCall, to whose hard fighting that day
Longstreet pays this tribute: "He was more tenacious of
his battle than an)T one who came within my experience
during the war, if I except D. H. Hill at Sharpsburg. ' '

The failure of all his officers to join Longstreet in this
battle, in which it had been hoped to deliver a crushing
blow to McClellan, was a great disappointment to Gen
eral Lee. A united attack at Frayser's Farm would have
saved the costly effusion of blood at Malvern Hill.

The last battle of the "Great Retreat," Malvern Hill,
was, like later Gettysburg, one of those terrific shocks
of conflict in which, without apparent strategy, without
apparent remembrance of man's vulnerability, dauntless
soldiers were continuously hurled into the muzzles of as
splendidly served artillery as ever unlimbered on field of
battle. Presumably, such battles are at times military
necessities, yet in view of their destructiveness, it is not
surprising that a Confederate general recalling the
French officer's sarcastic comment on the English charge
at Balaklava, "It is magnificent, but it is not war,"

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 85

should have declared, "Malvern Hill was magnificent;
but it was not war, it was murder. ' ' The simple record
of the destruction wrought in one hour sickens and
depresses the mind.

The necessity for further retreat after Frayser's Farm
caused General McClellan to send General Porter "to
select and hold a position behind which the army and all
its trains could be withdrawn in safety. ' ' One glance
at the natural amphitheater formed by Malvern Hill,
with its plateau terminating in streams, ravines and
tangled woods, revealed to Porter's trained eye that
there was an ideal place for a defensive battle. The hill
commanded nearly all the roads. Porter says: "The
hill was flanked with ravines, enfiladed by our fire. The
ground in front was sloping, and over it our artillery and
infantry, themselves protected by the crest and ridges,
had clear sweep for their fire. In all directions, for sev
eral hundred yards, the land over which an attacking force
must advance was almost entirely clear of forest, and
was generally cultivated. "*

All day long on June soth, and far into the night,
regiments, brigades, divisions were, as they arrived,
posted under Porter's personal direction to take full
advantage of the crests and depressions. For the first
time in the Seven Days' battles, all of McClellan 's army
was concentrated on one field. Artillery, to do more
effective service here and at Gettysburg than in any
other battles of the four years, rumbled heavily into posi
tion in nature's own emplacements. As far as the eye
could see, battery after battery rose tier upon tier
around the curvature of the hill, the whole surmounted
by Tyler's long-range siege guns. Both armies were
worn by constant fighting by day and marching by night,
but both nerved themselves for the coming ordeal. With
a confidence born of previous successes against that same

* Battles and Leaders.

86 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

army, General Lee ordered an assault, and the Confed
erates prepared for the "red wrath of the fray."

The Federals, with calm reliance upon their impreg
nable position, waited their adversaries; none knows
better than the American soldier when he is, to use his
own vernacular, "fixed for fighting." Draper says:
"There were crouching cannon waiting for them (Con
federates), and ready to defend all the approaches. Shel
tered by ditches, fences, ravines, were swarms of
infantry. There were horsemen picturesquely careening
over the noontide sun-seared field. Tier after tier of
batteries were grimly visible upon the slope, which rose
in the form of an amphitheater. With a fan-shaped
sheet of fire they could sweep the incline, a sort of nat
ural glacis up which the assailants must advance. A
crown of cannon was on the brow of the hill. The first
line of batteries could only be reached by traversing an
open space of from 300 to 400 yards, exposed to grape and
canister from the artillery and musketry from the
infantry. If that were carried, another and still more
difficult remained in the rear. ' '

In the strained, tense hush that precedes a battle, when
the heart-throbs of even battle-tried soldiers communi
cate a restless quiver to their bayonet tips, many a North
Carolina soldier of only a few months' experience felt that
in vain would he throw himself against that hill grim
with the engines of death, and many a lad fresh
from the family hearth-stone — and there were many such
there that July day — knew that if he could acquit him
self nobly when all those guns opened, battle would
thereafter have few terrors for him. Yet all were ready
to follow their colors.

General Lee's order of battle was that when Ar-
mistead, who occupied the highest ground, should see that
the artillery made any break in the Federal front, he
should charge with a shout, and the other brigades, on
hearing his advance, should simultaneously attack. Per-

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 87

haps, if according to this order, all the Confederates had
assaulted Malvern hill in concert, the issue might have
been less disastrous to them. However, of the ten divi
sions present, only those of McLaws, D. R. Jones and
Huger, all under Magruder, on the right, and that of
D. H. Hill, in the center, dashed against those guns ; and
these two forces attacked separately.

Three of Armistead's regiments were ordered by him
to drive in the Federal skirmishers in his front. "In
their ardor," says General Armistead, "they went too
far." Wright's Georgia brigade advanced to support
Armistead, but the gallant little force was soon driven to
the shelter of a ravine, not, however, before the noise of
their battle and their shout of attack had produced con
fusion. Gen. D. H. Hill, hearing the noise of this attack,
thought it was the preconcerted battle-signal, and obey
ing his orders, moved his five brigades into action. This
division contained eleven North Carolina regiments, but
on the day of this battle the Fourth and Fifth were
absent on detail duty. In Garland's brigade were the
Twelfth, Colonel Wade; the Thirteenth, Colonel Scales;
the Twentieth, Maj. W. H. Toon; the Twenty- third,
Lieut. I. J. Young. In Anderson's brigade, commanded
at Malvern Hill by Colonel Tew, were the Second, Col
onel Tew ; the Fourteenth, Colonel Johnston ; the Thirti
eth, Colonel Parker. In Ripley's were the First and
Third North Carolina, the First under Lieut. -Col. W. P.
Bynum, of the Second, and the Third under Colonel
Meares. As Hill's men moved in, Magruder also ordered
an advance of his troops, but they were delayed and did
not get into close action until Hill's division had been
hurled back. The Comte de Paris, who was on General
McClellan's staff and had excellent opportunities for
seeing all that was going on, gives this account of the
charge of Hill's Carolinians, Georgians and Alabamians:

Hill advanced alone against the Federal position. . . .
He had therefore before him Morell's right, Couch's divi-

88 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

sion, reinforced by Caldwell's brigade . . . and finally
the left of Kearny. ... As soon as they [Hill's troops]
passed beyond the edge of the forest, they were received
by a fire from all the batteries at once, some posted on
the hills, others ranged midway, close to the Federal
infantry. The latter joined its musketry fire to the can
nonade when Hill's first line had come within range, and
threw it back in disorder on its reserves. While it was
reforming, new battalions marched up to the assault in
their turn. The remembrance of Cold Harbor doubles
the energies of Hill's soldiers. They try to pierce the
line, sometimes at one point, sometimes at another,
charging Kearny's left first and Couch's right . . ., and
afterward throwing themselves upon the left of Couch's
division. But here, also, after nearly reaching the Fed
eral position, they are repulsed. The conflict is carried
on with great fierceness on both sides, and for a moment
it seems as if the Confederates are at last to penetrate
the very center of their adversaries and of the formidable
artillery, which was but now dealing destruction in their
ranks. But Sumner, who commands on the right,
detaches Sickles' and Meagher's brigades successively to
Couch's assistance. During this time, Whiting on the
left and Huger on the right suffer Hill's soldiers to
become exhausted without supporting them. . . . At 7
o'clock, Hill reorganized the debris of his troops in the
woods . . . his tenacity and the courage of his soldiers
have only had the effect of causing him to sustain heavy
loss.

General Webb says of the same advance : * ' Garland in
front (with a North Carolina brigade) attacked the hill
with impetuous courage, but soon sent for reinforce
ments. The Sixth Georgia and the brigade of Toombs
of Jones' division went to his assistance. General Hill
in person accompanied the column. They approached the
crest in handsome order, but discipline was of no avail
to hold them there, much less to make them advance fur
ther. They soon retreated in disorder. Gordon had made
a gallant advance and some progress, as also had Ripley

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 89

and Colquitt's and Anderson's brigades."* The task
was, however, too great for their unaided strength, and
having done all that men dare do, they were driven back
with frightful loss— a loss, perhaps, of not less than 2,000
men.

Just as Hill drew off his shattered brigades, Magruder
ordered in his forces on Hill's right. The brigades of
Armistead, Wright, Mahone, G. T. Anderson, Cobb,
Kershaw, Semmes, Ransom, Barksdale and Lawton
threw themselves heavily, not all at once, but in succes
sion, against their courageous and impregnably posted
foes. Cobb's command included the Fifteenth North
Carolina under Colonel Dowd. Ransom's brigade was
solely a North Carolina one — the Twenty-fourth, Col
onel Clark; the Twenty-fifth, Colonel Hill; the Twenty-
sixth, Colonel Vance ; the Thirty- fifth, Colonel Ransom ;
the Forty-ninth, Colonel Ramseur. General Hill says of
General Magruder 's assault:

I never saw anything more grandly heroic than the
advance after sunset of the nine brigades under Magru-
der's orders. Unfortunately, they did not move together
and were beaten in detail. As each brigade emerged
from the woods, from fifty to one hundred guns opened
upon it, tearing great gaps in its ranks ; but the heroes
reeled on, and were shot down by the reserves at the
guns, which a few squads reached. . . . Not only did
the fourteen brigades which were engaged suffer, but the
inactive troops and those brought up as reserves, too late
to be of any use, met many casualties from the frightful
artillery fire which reached all parts of the woods, f

General Porter, whose activity contributed much to the
success of the Federal troops, bears this tribute to the
reckless bravery of the whole attacking force :

As if moved by a reckless disregard of life, equal to
that displayed at Games' Mill, with a determination to

* Peninsula Campaign, p. 160.
f Battles and Leaders, II, 394.
No 12

90 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

capture our army or destroy it by driving it into the
river, regiment after regiment rushed at our batteries;
but the artillery of both Morell and Couch mowed them
down with shrapnel, grape and canister, while our
infantry, withholding their fire until they were within
short range, scattered the remnants of their columns.
The havoc made by the rapidly-bursting shells from
our guns, arranged so as to sweep any position far and
near, was fearful to behold. Pressed to the extreme as
they were, the courage of our men was fully tried. The
safety of our army — the life of the Union — was felt to be
at stake.*

A portion of Ramseur's regiment slept upon the field
with a portion of Lawton's brigade and some other
troops, and during the night they heard the movement of
troops and wondered what it meant. In the morning, as
they surveyed the bloody field of the day before, the
enemy was gone. * ' The volcano was silent. " McClellan
had, against the protest of some of his generals, contin
ued his retreat to Harrison's landing.

Both armies were terribly demoralized by this sanguin
ary conclusion to a protracted and exhausting campaign.
On the day of Malvern Hill, General McClellan tele
graphed to the adjutant-general, "I need 50,000 men."f
Draper says: "Not even in the awful night that fol
lowed this awful battle was rest allotted to the national
army. In less than two hours after the roar of combat
had ceased, orders were given to resume the retreat and
march to Harrison's landing. At midnight the utterly
exhausted soldiers were groping their staggering way
along a road described as desperate, in all the confusion
of a fleeing and routed army. "J McClellan seemed not
to realize his advantage on that day's field.

On the Confederate side there was also much confu
sion. The army was too much paralyzed to make any

* Battles and Leaders, II, 418.
t Rebellion Records, i, XI, 3, 281.
\ Civil War in America, II, 414.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 91

effective pursuit of the Federals, and, after a few days of
rest, withdrew to the lines around Richmond.

As already seen, the North Carolina losses in these
seven days were : killed, 650; wounded, 3,279. Conspic
uous among the slain were the following field officers :
Cols. M. S. Stokes, Gaston Meares, R. P. Campbell,
C. C. Lee; Lieut. -Cols. Petway and F. J. Faison; Majs.
T. N. Grumpier, T. L. Skinner, B. R. Huske. These
were among the State's most gifted and gallant sons.
The losses among the company officers were also heavy.

During the progress of this great campaign, there was
little fighting in North Carolina, for most of her troops
were in Virginia, and the Federals around New Bern
did not show much further activity. Some skirmishing
occurred around Gatesville, Trenton, Young's cross
roads, Pollocksville and Clinton. On the 5th of June,
there was a collision of an hour's duration between the
Twenty-fourth Massachusetts regiment, a few cavalry
men, and two pieces of artillery on the Federal side,
and Col. G. B. Singeltary's Forty-fourth North Carolina
regiment at Tranter's creek, near Washington. During
this engagement Colonel Singeltary was killed. In these
various actions the Confederate losses were: killed, 8;
wounded, 17.

CHAPTER VI.

THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST POPE— CEDAR MOUNTAIN—
GORDONSVILLE — WARRENTON— BRISTOE STATION
—GROVETON— SECOND MANASSAS— CHANTILLY, OR
OX HILL— POPE DEFEATED AT ALL POINTS.

THE result of the battles around Richmond so weak
ened Federal confidence in General McClellan's
ability, that General Halleck was called from the
West and made commander-in-chief of their armies.
Previous, however, to his assumption of command, the
departments of the Rappahannock and the Shenandoah
were combined into one army, called the army of Vir
ginia, and Maj. -Gen. John Pope assigned to its command.
Pope had for corps commanders, Generals Sigel, Banks
and McDowell, and, as at first constituted, his army
numbered somewhat over 40,000 men.* As soon as this
army began to threaten Gordonsville, General Lee, as
Ropes remarks, "though the whole army of the Potomac
was within twenty-five miles of Richmond, did not hesi
tate, on July 1 3th, to despatch to Gordonsville his most
trusted lieutenant, the justly celebrated Stonewall Jack
son, with two divisions — his own (so-called), com
manded by Winder, and Swell's, comprising together
about 14,000 or 15,000 men." Then, when it became
clear that the peninsula was being evacuated, Jackson
was reinforced by the division of A. P. Hill. After
Hill's juncture, Jackson's force numbered between 20,000
and 25,000 men, and the commander sought opportunity
to strike a favorable blow.

The opportunity soon came. * * Having received infor
mation," reports Jackson, "that only a part of General
* The Army under Pope.— Ropes, p. 3.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 95

Pope's army was at Culpeper Court House, and hoping,
through the blessing of Providence, to be able to defeat
it before reinforcements should arrive there, Ewell's,
Hill's and Jackson's divisions were moved on the yth in
the direction of the enemy." On the gih he reached
Cedar mountain, about eight miles from Culpeper, and
found his old antagonist of the valley, Banks, fronting
him. Jackson had somewhat the advantage in numbers,
according to the estimates in "Battles and Leaders."
The tables there give "Pope's effective force on the field
from first to last" as 17,900, an estimate probably too
large; Jackson's "estimated strength on the field, at least
20,000."

Pope, who was waiting for Sigel to come up, states that
he did not intend for Banks to attack Jackson with his
corps, but, as the Confederates advanced, cautiously feel
ing their way, and themselves preparing to be the assail
ants, Banks threw the brigades of Prince, Geary, Greene
and Crawford, and a little later, Gordon, against them.
The attack came before Jackson's men had finished their
battle formation, and while there was still a wide gap
between two of their brigades. Jackson's line of battle,
commencing on the right, stood: Trimble, Forno (Hays),
Early, Taliaferro, Campbell (Garnett), and Winder's
brigade under Colonel Ronald in reserve. In the front
line, the Twenty-first regiment and Wharton's sharp
shooters were the only North Carolina troops, and they
were not engaged until toward the close of the struggle.
The front assault of Geary and Prince fell on the brigades
of Early and Taliaferro, and part of Campbell. While
Campbell's men were meeting the front attack, Craw
ford, who had been sent to their left, fell on their left
flank. Under this double attack, the left regiments
retreated in some confusion. General Garnett, who
hurried there, was wounded, as were Major Lane and
Colonel Cunningham. The double fire was severe, and
Campbell's whole brigade gave way. Crawford pushed

94 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

on until he struck Taliaferro's flank. This brigade was
already hotly engaged with Geary, and as Crawford's
men rushed steadily on, a part of Taliaferro's brigade,
after a gallant resistance, also fell back. Early, how
ever, manfully stood firm. Ronald moved up his reserves
to fill the gap left by Campbell and part of Taliaferro's
force, and the battle raged anew. Taliaferro had ener
getically rallied his men, but the battle was still in doubt
when Branch's North Carolina brigade hurried on the
field, and with a cheer, rushed against Crawford. The
Seventh regiment was detached, but the Thirty-third,
Twenty- eighth, Thirty-seventh and Eighteenth moved
into Campbell's position and drove back the enemy, who,
however, made a gallant resistance. General Taliaferro
says: "At this critical moment the First brigade and
Branch's brigade encountered the enemy, confused by
their severe conflict with the Second brigade, and drove
them back with terrible slaughter. ' ' Just as Taliaferro
resumed his place in line, Bayard's cavalry followed its
brave leader in a charge upon the Confederate line.
However, the fire of Branch and Taliaferro was too
galling, and the cavalry broke in disorder. Gordon's
Federal brigade now came into action, and gallantly led,
tried to break the Southern advance ; Gordon was, how
ever, only to waste blood, for he came too late. Archer
was now up to the front line, and Fender's North Caro
lina brigade struck Gordon's flank. Just at this time,
Thomas, Early, Forno and Trimble joined the left in a
general advance, and Banks' whole line was swept back
in the gathering darkness. The victory was largely due
to Branch's front and Fender's flank attack, and the
North Carolina soldiers felt proud of stopping an enemy
that had just broken the "Stonewall brigade. " Jackson
says: "At this critical moment, Branch's brigade, with
Winder's brigade farther to the left, met the Federal
forces, flushed with temporary triumph, and drove them
back with terrible slaughter through the woods." Gen.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 95

A. P. Hill gives even more credit to Branch. He says :
"Winder's brigade, immediately in front of Branch, be
ing hard pressed, broke, and many fugitives came back.
Without waiting for the formation of the entire line,
Branch was immediately ordered forward, and passing
through the broken brigade checked the pursuit, and in
turn drove them back and relieved Taliaferro's flank."
Latham's North Carolina battery was also engaged in
this battle.

The Union loss in this battle was 2,381 ; the Confeder
ate, 1,276. North Carolina's loss was 15 killed and 102
wounded. This small loss is due to the fact that the
Carolinians were under fire for so short a time. The
brigades of Taliaferro, Early and Thomas were exposed
during the whole encounter.

After the battle at Cedar mountain, General Jackson
moved his command to the vicinity of Gordonsville.
There General Lee, accompanying Longstreet's corps,
joined Jackson, and on the 2ist, the Confederate army
moved toward the Rappahannock, Then followed a
movement up that stream by both the Federals and Con
federates; the Federals moving up the north bank as
Lee's army moved up the south.

On the 22d of August, Trimble's brigade was stationed
near Welford's ford on the Hazel river, a tributary of
the Rappahannock, to protect the flank of the wagon
train. Bohlen's Federal brigade was thrown across the
Rappahannock at Freeman's ford in an effort to damage
or capture part of the train. Trimble, supported by
Hood, attacked Bohlen's force and drove it back across the
river. The Federals suffered considerable loss, General
Bohlen himself being among the slain. In this "sharp
conflict," as General Trimble denominates it, the
Twenty-first North Carolina, Lieutenant-Colonel Fulton,
attacked the center of the enemy, while Trimble's two
other regiments made a detour to the right. "After a
sharp conflict with the Twenty- first North Carolina,"

96 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

reports General Trimble, "the enemy were driven back
to the hills in the rear. ' ' There Bohlen made a brave
stand, but was not strong enough to hold his own against
the united Confederates. Trimble's report thus com
mends Colonel Fulton : " It is specially due Lieutenant-
Colonel Fulton, of the Twenty-first North Carolina, that
I should mention the conspicuous gallantry with which
he took the colors and led his regiment to the charge. ' '
This brigade was also under fire on the 24th, near War-
renton, and in the two days the Twenty-first and the
two attached companies of sharpshooters lost 5 killed
and n wounded.

There was heavy artillery firing at Warrenton Springs
on the 24th. There Latham's North Carolina battery,
with other batteries, was directed not to reply to the
enemy's batteries posted across the river, but to wait for
the appearance of his infantry passing up the river.
These orders were carried out, and some loss inflicted.

On the 25th, Jackson started on his daring raid to throw
his command between Washington City and the army of
General Pope, and to break up Federal railroad communi
cation with Washington. On the 26th he marched from
near Salem to Bristoe Station. "Learning," says his
official report, "that the enemy had collected at Manas-
sas Junction, a station about seven miles distant, stores
of great value, I deemed it important that no time should
be lost in securing them. Notwithstanding the darkness
of the night and the fatiguing march, which would be
since dawn over thirty miles before reaching the junc
tion, Brigadier- General Trimble volunteered to proceed
there forthwith with the Twenty-first North Carolina,
Lieut. -Col. S. Fulton commanding, and the Twenty-first
Georgia, Major Glover commanding — in all about 500
men — and capture the place. I accepted the gallant offer,
and gave him orders to move without delay. ' '

About 9 o'clock the two regiments started, "every man
setting out with cheerful alacrity to perform the serv-

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 97

ice."* On approaching Manassas, one regiment was
formed on the north side and one on the south side of
the railroad. In this order they moved on in the intense
darkness, watchwords and responses having been
arranged. On each side of the railroad the Federals had
a battery, consisting of four pieces, continuously firing
toward their foes. The following is General Trimble's
account of his success: "The position of the batteries on
either side of the railroad having been ascertained pretty
accurately, the word was given, 'Charge!' when both
regiments advanced rapidly and firmly, and in five min
utes both batteries were carried at the point of the bay
onet. Sending an officer to the north side of the railroad
to ascertain the success of the Georgia regiment, he
could not immediately find them, and cried out, 'Halloo,
Georgia, where are you?' The reply was, 'Here! all
right! We have taken a battery.' 'So have we,' was the
response, whereupon cheers rent the air. ' '

In addition to the 8 guns and 300 prisoners taken, 2,000
barrels of flour, 2,000 barrels of salted pork, 50,000
pounds of bacon, large supplies of ordnance, 2 trains of
over 100 cars freighted with every article necessary for
the outfit of a great army, large quantities of sutler's
stores and other valuable supplies fell into Trimble's
hands, f The next morning, the 27th, Trimble having
reported the accomplishment of his mission and asked
for aid in holding his captures, General Jackson sent the
divisions of A. P. Hill and Taliaferro to join him at
Manassas. Ewell, with Jackson's remaining division,
was left at Bristoe with orders to fall back if attacked in
force. As these two divisions moved up to Manassas,
Branch's Carolinians had a sharp encounter with one of
the Federal batteries and its supports, but soon dispersed
this force. Shortly after Hill's division arrived, Genera]

* Trimble's Report.

f Trimble's and Taliaferro's Official Reports, Rebellion Records,
XTT, 2.
ttc 13

98 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Taylor with his New Jersey brigade, supported a little
later by Scammon with an Ohio brigade of two regiments,
attacked the Confederates, presumably with the intention
of recapturing the stores. The Eighteenth North Caro
lina regiment was detached from Branch to guard the
captured supplies, and the rest of Branch's brigade joined
in the chase of Taylor's men, who had been scattered by
the brigades of Archer, Field and Fender. General
Taylor was mortally wounded, and his command driven
across Bull Run. The Confederates took 200 prisoners,
and inflicted, according to the itinerary of Taylor's bri
gade, "a very severe loss in killed, wounded and miss
ing."

The short supply of rations upon which Confederate
soldiers did hard marching and harder fighting is well
illustrated by this sentence from Gen. Samuel McGow-
an's report: "In the afternoon of that day, the brigade
returned to the junction (Manassas), where three days'
rations were issued from the vast supply of captured
stores ; and the men for a few hours rested and regaled
themselves upon delicacies unknown to our commissariat,
which they were in good condition to enjoy, having eaten
nothing for several days except roasting- ears taken by
order from the cornfields near the road, and what was
given by the generous citizens of the Salem valley to the
soldiers as they hurried along in their rapid march. ' '

General Jackson's position was now exceedingly haz
ardous. His three divisions were separated by a long
interval from Lee, and Pope was rapidly concentrating
his entire army to fall upon and destroy him before Lee
could succor him. McDowell, Sigel and Reynolds, hav
ing forces greatly outnumbering Jackson's command,
were already between him and the army under Lee.
McDowell felt, as Ropes states, "that if Jackson could
be kept isolated for twenty-four hours longer, he ought
to be overwhelmed, horse, foot and dragoons."*

* The Army under Pope, p. 67.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 99

Pope, thinking that Jackson would remain at Manassas,
wrote McDowell on the 27th, "If you will march promptly
and rapidly at the earliest dawn upon Manassas Junction,
we shall bag the whole crowd." Jackson, however, was
too active an antagonist "to bag" on demand. Burning
all the captured stores that his army could not use, he
withdrew from Manassas with the celerity and secrecy
that marked all his independent actions, and took posi
tion north of the Warrenton turnpike, on the battlefield
of First Manassas. Pope spent all the 28th in a search for
his missing foe. About sunset that night, Jackson dis
closed himself by fiercely striking, at Groveton, the flank
of King's division of McDowell's corps while on its
march to Centreville, where Pope then thought Jackson
was. This attack was made by the divisions of Ewell and
Taliaferro. It was gallantly met by Gibbon and Double-
day, both fine soldiers, and lasted until 9 o'clock. The
opposing forces fought, as Gibbon states, at a distance of
75 yards, and the engagement was a most sanguinary
one. Trimble's brigade, containing the Twenty-first
North Carolina and Wharton's battalion, took a conspic
uous part, and met with a brigade loss of 310 men. The
loss in the North Carolina commands was 26 killed and
37 wounded. Among the killed was Lieut. -Col. Saun-
ders Fulton, commanding the Twenty-first, who had
greatly distinguished himself by coolness and daring.

The next day began the two days of desperate fighting
at Second Manassas, or Bull Run. North Carolina had
eleven regiments and one battalion of infantry and two
batteries of artillery engaged in these battles: In Law's
brigade was the Sixth regiment, Maj. R. F. Webb; in
Trimble's, the Twenty-first and First battalion; in
Branch's brigade, the Seventh, Capt R. B. MacRae; the
Eighteenth, Lieutenant-Colonel Purdie; the Twenty-
eighth, Col. J. H. Lane; the Thirty- third, Lieut. -Col.
R. F. Hoke, and the Thirty-seventh, Lieut -Col. W. M.
Barbour; in Pender's brigade, the Sixteenth, Capt. L. W.

100 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Stowe; the Twenty-second, Maj. C. C. Cole; the Thirty-
fourth, Col. R. H.Riddick, and the Thirty-eighth, Cap
tain McLaughlin; Latham's battery, Lieut J. R. Potts,
and Reilly's battery, Capt. James Reilly.

On the morning of the 29th, Jackson was in position
along the line of an unfinished railroad, and Longstreet,
having passed Thoroughfare gap, was marching in haste
to reunite the two armies. Jackson's line extended from
near Groveton, on the Warrenton pike, almost to Sud-
ley's Springs. His own division held his right, Ewell
the center, and A. P. Hill the left. In Sigel's morning
attack on Jackson's right, an attack which made little
impression, no North Carolina troops were under fire.
However, in the afternoon, the Union forces, showing a
pertinacity and heroism rarely equaled, rushed contin
uously against Jackson's obstinate Southerners. The
puzzled Federals had been searching for Jackson, and
now that they had found him, they wanted to end the
search. In their repeated assaults, the Carolinians and
their comrades on the left found foes of their own mettle.
Hooker and Kearny and Reno were ordered to advance
simultaneously against Jackson's center and left. Grover,
of Hooker's division, however, led his five regiments into
battle ahead of Kearny, and made one of the most bril
liant charges of the war. He succeeded in crowding
into a gap between Gregg's and Thomas' brigades, and
reached the railroad. There he was fiercely driven back,
and lost 486 men in about twenty minutes. So close was
the fighting that bayonets and clubbed muskets were
actually used.* The dashing Kearny, aided by Stevens,
next fell on Hill's left. Branch's and Pender's North
Carolinians and Early 's Virginians had moved up to rein
force the front lines, and for some time the line of battle
swayed forward and backward. General Jackson had
ordered his brigade commanders not to advance much to
the front of the railroad, and so they never pressed their
* Grover's Report.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 101

advantages far. When Branch advanced, part of the
Seventh regiment under Capt. McLeod Turner was
deployed as skirmishers around Crenshaw's battery. The
Thirty-seventh regiment first became engaged. The
Eighteenth and Seventh marched to its aid. Col. R. F.
Hoke, with the Thirty-third, was further to the left, and
gallantly advanced into the open field and drove the
enemy from his front. The Twenty-eighth, under Col
onel Lane, fought determinedly in conjunction with
Field's left. Finally this brigade, Gregg's and Field's,
succeeded in freeing their front of the enemy. This
was done, however, only after prolonged and costly
effort. Fender, seeing that Thomas was in sore need of
support, moved his brigade against the enemy, who had
reached the railroad cut, and there, after a struggle,
forced back the foe occupying the portion of it in his
front, and drove him behind his batteries. He moved
alone, and after waiting in vain for support to attack the
batteries, retired unmolested to the railroad line. Dur
ing this battle, General Fender was knocked down by a
shell, but refused to leave the field. The official reports
of both sides bear testimony to the unyielding spirit with
which this contest was waged. Gen. A. P. Hill, to
whose division both Fender and Branch belonged, says :
"The evident intention of the enemy this day was to
turn our left and overwhelm Jackson's corps before Long-
street came up, and to accomplish this the most persist
ent and furious onsets were made by column after column
of infantry, accompanied by numerous batteries of artil
lery. Soon my reserves were all in, and up to 6 o'clock,
my division, assisted by the Louisiana brigade of General
Hays, commanded by Colonel Forno, with a heroic cour
age and obstinacy almost beyond parallel, had met and
repulsed six separate and distinct assaults. "

Mean while, Longstreet had reached the field and taken
position. At 6:30 o'clock, King's division, under Gen
eral Hatch, encountered Hood's Texas and Georgia bri-

102 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

gade and Law's brigade of North Carolinians, Alabami-
ans and Mississippians. The Southerners had made a
toilsome journey to help their comrades, and Longstreet
says they welcomed the opportunity. "Each," reports
Hood, the senior commander, "seemed to vie with the
other in efforts to plunge the deeper into the ranks of the
enemy."* Longstreet comments: "A fierce struggle of
thirty minutes gave them ad vantage, which they followed
through the dark to the base of the high ground held by
bayonets and batteries innumerable, as compared with
their limited ra?nks. Their task accomplished, they were
halted to wait the morrow. ' ' f

Law's men drove off three guns and captured one.
Law states in his report that this gun was fought until
its discharges blackened the faces of his advancing men.
"What higher praise," exclaims Ropes, "could be given,
either to the gunners or their antagonists? " J

That night, General Lee, knowing that the forces
would again join battle in the morning, readjusted his
entire line. All of Jackson's men were moved into their
original and strong position along the unfinished railroad,
and Longstreet's corps was aligned on Jackson's right.
Pope mistook these movements fora retreat, and tele
graphed, * ' The enemy is retiring toward the mountains. ' '
Little did he then anticipate how he was to be swept
across Bull Run by that "retreating army" next day.

On the morning of the 3oth, General Pope, seemingly
yet unaware that Longstreet was in position to strike his
left, massed the commands of Porter, King, Hooker,
Kearny, Ricketts, and Reynolds in a final effort to crush
Jackson. Not all the men ordered against Jackson
joined in the heavy assaults on his weakened lines. Still,
that afternoon enough pressed the attack home to make
it doubtful whether his three divisions could stand the

* Advance and Retreat, p. 34.

t Manassas to Appomattox, p. 184.

\ The Army under Pope, p. 108.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 103

strain, hence he sent to General Lee for another division.
Longstreet and Hood had, however, both gone ahead of
their troops, and they saw that the best way to relieve
the pressure on Jackson was by artillery. Straightway
Chapman's, then Reilly's North Carolina battery, and
then Boyce's came rolling into position and opened a
destructive enfilade fire on Jackson's assailants. "It was
a fire that no troops could live under for ten minutes," is
Longstreet 's characterization of the work done by these
batteries, soon added to by all of Col. S. D. Lee's guns.
The Federal lines crumbled into disorder from the double
fire, but again and again they stoutly reformed, only at
last to be discomfited. Jackson's troops were fighting
in almost the same positions as on the day before.
Branch's brigade was, however, so far to the left that it
was not in close action on the 3oth. The Carolinians in
Trimble's brigade, although not in the action of the day,
had a day of anxiety, as guards to Jackson's trains that
had been threatened by a cavalry attack. Fender was
kept on the left until Archer and Thomas were severely
pressed. Then his brigade and Brockenbrough's were
put in, and all together repulsed the assault.

When Longstreet saw the enemy's attack on Jackson
fairly broken, he ordered his whole corps to advance
on the right. This movement in such force was not
expected by Pope, and in spite of McDowell's efforts the
left was at once pushed back. For the possession of the
Henry house hill, so vital to the Federal retreat, both
sides fiercely contested, and the dead lay thick on its
sides. General Law reports that he united the Sixth
North Carolina with his other regiments in a charge on a
destructive battery near the Dogan house, and drove the
gunners from it. His whole brigade was active during
the afternoon's fight. Law also reports that Major Webb
handled his men with consummate ability. Jackson had
joined in the forward movement, and the Federal army
had been slowly driven off the entire field. In the

104 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

advance of Jackson, Archer's, Thomas' and Fender's
brigades acting in concert had rendered most effective
service. Latham's and Reilly's batteries contributed
their full share to this victory.

The Federal army retreated toward Fairfax, and Jack
son was sent in pursuit over the Little River road. Near
German town was fought, on the ist of September, what
the Confederates call the battle of Ox Hill. The Fed
erals name it Chantilly. As soon as Jackson overtook
the Federals, he deployed for attack, and the battle was
fought during a terrific storm. The brigades of Branch
and Brockenbrough were sent forward to develop the
enemy's force, and were soon hotly engaged, and Branch
was exposed to a heavy fire in front and on his flank.
General Hill, whose brigades were mainly engaged, says :
"Gregg, Fender, Thomas and Archer were successively
thrown in. The enemy obstinately contested the ground,
and it was not until the Federal generals, Kearny and
Stevens, had fallen in front of Thomas' brigade, that they
were driven from the ground. They did not retire far
until later in the night, when they entirely disappeared.
The brunt of this fight was borne by Branch, Gregg and
Fender."

Col. R. H. Riddick, whose power as a disciplinarian
and ability as a field officer had made the Thirty-fourth
regiment so efficient, was mortally wounded there, as
was Maj. Eli H. Miller, and Captain Stowe, commanding
the Sixteenth North Carolina. The fighting on both
the Confederate and the Federal side during this cam
paign was such as is done only by seasoned and disciplined
troops, commanded by officers of mettle and ambition.
In modern war, the range of the rifle has about broken
up personal conflict, and lines of battle do not often come
in close contact; but in these engagements around
Manassas, hand-to-hand fighting actually occurred. Gen
eral Grover reports that, in his charge on Jackson, bay
onet wounds were given ; on the right a Confederate col-

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 105

onel was struck in the head with a musket ; in front of
the "deep cut," Gen. Bradley Johnson saw men stand
ing in line and fighting with stones, and at least one man
was killed with these antiquated weapons. General Hood
states that after the night battle on the 28th he found
the Confederates and Federals so close and so intermin
gled "that commanders of both armies gave orders for
alignment, in some instances, to the troops of their
opponents. ' ' In some cases, volleys were exchanged at
such short range that "brave men in blue and brave men
in gray fell dead almost in one another's arms. " Gen
eral Johnson reports that he noticed "a Federal flag hold
its position for half an hour within ten yards of a flag of
one of the regiments (Confederate) in the cut, and go
down six or eight times, and that after the fight 100
dead men were lying twenty yards from the cut and some
of them within two feet of it." General Gregg's reply,
"I am out of ammunition, but I think I can hold my place
with my bayonets," breathes the spirit of Manassas.
The result of the campaign was most gratifying to the Con
federates. Pope, despite the fact that he unfortunately
entered upon his new command with the declaration, ' ' I
have come to you from the West, where we have always
seen the backs of our enemies, ' ' had been forced back
from Gordonsville to the Washington lines. His total
battle casualties had been 16,843,* and Lee had captured
from him thirty pieces of artillery and upward of 20,000
small- arms, f to say nothing of the stores at Manassas.

The North Carolina losses in the two days and one night
at Manassas were as follows: killed, 70; wounded, 448.
At Ox Hill, or Chantilly, they were : killed, 29 ; wounded,
*39-

* Official Records, Series i, XII, n, 262,139.
f Lee's Report.

Nc U

CHAPTER VII.

LEE'S MARYLAND CAMPAIGN— THE MARCH TO FRED
ERICK CITY— THE "LOST ORDER" — MOUNTAIN
BATTLES — CRAMPTON'S GAP — BOONSBORO — VIG
OROUS SKIRMISHING— THE SURRENDER OF HAR
PER'S FERRY BY THE FEDERALS — BATTLE OF
SHARPSBURG OR ANTIETAM— FIRST NORTH CARO
LINA CAVALRY WITH J. E. B. STUART IN PENN
SYLVANIA.

IMMEDIATELY after the Rappahannock campaign,
General Lee, desiring if possible "to inflict father
injury upon the enemy" before the season for active
operations passed, and believing that the best way to re
lieve Virginia was to threaten the North, decided to enter
Maryland. He took the step fully aware that his army
was poorly prepared for invasion. He knew, as he says,
"that his army was feeble in transportation, the troops
poorly supplied with clothing, and thousands of them des
titute of shoes, ' ' still he rightly felt that seasoned as his
men were by active service, and filled with enthusiasm
and confidence as they were by their successes, he could
rely on them for much self-denial and arduous campaign
ing. Moreover, the prospect "of shifting the burden of
military occupation from Confederate to Federal soil,"
and of keeping the Federals out of Southern territory,
at least until winter prohibited their re-entering, was
alluring. Accordingly, he ordered the divisions of D. H.
Hill and McLaws and Hampton's cavalry, which had been
left to protect Richmond, to join him. These forces
reported to the commander-in-chief near Chantilly on
the 2d of September. Between the 4th and the yth, the
entire Confederate army crossed the Potomac at the fords

106

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 107

near Leesburg, and encamped in the vicinity of Freder
ick City.

Of this army, thirty regiments of infantry, one battal
ion of infantry, one cavalry regiment, and four batteries
were from North Carolina. These were distributed as
follows : The Fifteenth regiment was in McLaws' divi
sion; Ransom's brigade of four regiments was under
Walker, as also were the Twenty-seventh, Forty-sixth and
Forty-eighth ; the Sixth was with Hood ; the Twenty-first
and the First battalion were in Ewell's division; Branch
with five regiments, and Fender with four, were under
A. P. Hill ; Garland with five, Anderson with four, and
Ripley with two regiments were in D. H. Hill's division.
The cavalry was under Stuart, and the batteries were
scattered.

It had been supposed that as the Confederates advanced,
the Federal garrisons at Harper's Ferry and Martinsburg
would be withdrawn. Although General McClellan ad
vised this, General Halleck prevented it. So, General
Jackson, General McLaws and General Walker were sent
to invest these places, and the rest of the army — Long-
street's and D. H. Hill's divisions — was ordered to cross
South mountain and move toward Boonsboro, where
the army was to be concentrated on the fall of Harper's
Ferry.

Meanwhile, General McClellan, Pope having been re
lieved of command, was advancing by slow stages toward
his adversaries, and cautiously trying to discover their
intentions. On the i3th he reached Frederick, just after
it had been evacuated by the Confederates. There he
received, says Longstreet, such a complete revelation of
his adversary's plans and purposes as no other com
mander, in the history of war, has ever received at a
time so momentous.* A copy of Lee's celebrated
order No. 191, frequently known as the "lost dispatch,"
was found by Private Mitchell, of the Twenty-seventh In-

* From Manassas to Appomattox.

108 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

diana regiment, and at once transmitted through Colonel
Colgrove to general headquarters. This ''tell-tale slip
of paper" revealed to General McClellan that Lee's army
was divided, that Harper's Ferry was to be invested; in
addition, it "gave him the scarcely less important infor
mation where the rest of the army, trains, rear guard,
cavalry and all were to march and to halt, and where the
detached commands were to join the main body. "* As
this important order was addressed to a North Carolina
general, D. H. Hill, it should be stated here that it was
neither received by him nor lost by him. General Hill's
division was at that time attached to General Jackson's
command, and hence, in accordance with military usage,
he received all his orders through General Jackson.
This fact seems to have been overlooked by some one at
General Lee's headquarters when this order was pre
pared, and a copy of it was started to General Hill, but
never reached him. By whom it was lost will probably
never be known. General Hill, in a letter to the editors
of Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, (Vol. II, p. 570,
note), says: "I went into Maryland under Jackson's com
mand. I was under his command when Lee's order was
issued. It was proper that I should receive that order
through Jackson, and not through Lee. I have now be
fore me the order received from Jackson. My adjutant-
general made affidavit twenty years ago that no order
was received at our office from General Lee. But an
order from Lee's office, directed to me, was lost and fell
into McClellan 's hands. Did the courier lose it? Did
Lee's own staff officers lose it? I do not know." The
copy that reached Hill was in Jackson's own handwriting,
So important did that officer consider the order that he
did not trust his adjutant to copy it, but made the copy
himself. With like care, General Hill preserved the

* The Antietam arid Fredericksburg, p. 22.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 109

order then, and preserved it until his death. Who lost
the order from General Lee is not known, but it is abso
lutely certain that General Hill did not lose it.

To relieve Harper's Ferry and to strike the divided
Confederates, it became necessary for McClellan to pass
through the gaps of South mountain, for the direct turn
pike by Knoxville was not suited to military purposes.
He accordingly put his army in motion "to cut the enemy
in two and beat him in detail. ' ' * Franklin and Couch
were to move through Crampton's gap, and their duty
was first to cut off, destroy, or capture McLaws' com
mand, and relieve Colonel Miles "at Harper's Ferry; if
too late to aid Miles, they were to turn toward Sharps-
burg to prevent the retreat of Longstreet and D. H. Hill,
who were to be attacked by the main body. All the rest
of McClellan's army set out, by way of Turner's gap and
Fox's gap, for Boonsboro. This main part of the army
was intended to crush Longstreet and D. H. Hill, and
then to join Franklin against Jackson, McLaws, and
Walker.

So unexpected was the movement, and so successfully
did the Federals mask the march of their army on the two
gaps, that General Stuart's cavalrymen, ever untiring and
daring, had not found out up to the time of attack on
these gaps that McClellan's whole army was before them.
When the cannon opened at Crampton's gap, General
McLaws, who heard it from Maryland heights, attached
no special significance to it. He says in his official re
port, "I felt no particular concern about it and

General Stuart, who was with me on the heights and had
just come in from above, told me that he did not believe
there was more than a brigade of the enemy. ' ' This * ' bri
gade" turned out to be Slocum's division of Franklin's
corps, and Smith's division of the same corps was soon
added. The gap at that time was held only by Colonel
Munford with two regiments of cavalry, Chew's battery,

* Order to Franklin, September

110 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

and a section of the Portsmouth naval battery, supported
by "two fragments of regiments" of Mahone's brigade,
under Colonel Parham. Colonel Munford reports that the
two infantry regiments numbered scarcely 300. This small
band made a most determined stand for three hours, for
it had been directed to hold the gap at all hazards, and
did not know that it was fighting Franklin's corps. The
action began about noon. Gen. Howell Cobb with
his brigade, consisting of the Fifteenth North Carolina
regiment and three Georgia regiments, left Brownsville,
two miles from the gap, about 5 o'clock, to reinforce
Munford. On their arrival they went promptly at their
enemies. Weight of numbers soon broke their thin line,
and left the gap to Franklin. Manly 's battery was en
gaged here all day, and General Semmes reports that it
"did good service in breaking the enemy's line" by its
deliberate and well-directed fire. Cobb's total force, as
stated by him,* "did not exceed 2,200," while Franklin's,
as given by him,f "hardly exceeded 6,500. " However,
the last "field returns" gave Franklin a force greatly in
excess of those figures. Semmes' and Wilcox's brigades,
that had been ordered up, did not reach the ground until
during the night. Cobb's brigade loss was 690. The
Fifteenth North Carolina lost 1 1 killed, 48 wounded, 1 24
captured or missing. McLaws ordered his brigades all
up that night and set them in battle order, but Franklin
did not press him the next morning.

While this action was going on, a conflict in which much
larger forces were engaged was in progress at Turner's
gap of South mountain. This action lasted from early
morning until after dark, and, first and last, many troops
took part ; but until afternoon it was a series of small
battles rather than a connected struggle. This was
due to the fact that the Confederates, in small force in the
morning, were trying to hold the gap, which was wide

* Official Report.

f Battles and Leaders, II, 595.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. Ill

and traversed by many roads. Hence their forces had to
be scattered. But the defense made by these scattered
brigades against odds was persistent and heroic. On the
1 3th, Stuart reported that his cavalry was followed by two
brigades of infantry, and asked D. H. Hill, whose forces
were closest to South mountain, to send a brigade to
check the Federals at the foot of the mountain. Owing
to long field service and poor equipment, Southern bri
gades were at that time very small. * So instead of one
brigade, Hill sent Garland's North Carolina brigade and
Colquitt's Georgia brigade. Colquitt's brigade was
posted by General Hill across the National turnpike.
The Twenty-third and Twenty- eighth Georgia were
placed behind a stone wall. Garland's North Carolina
brigade took position at Fox's gap, on the old Sharps-
burg road, and to the right of Colquitt. Garland had
five regiments, but the five amounted to a little less
than 1,000 men. "The Fifth regiment, Colonel Mc-
Rae, then Captain Garnett, was placed on the right
of the road, with the Twelfth, Captain Snow, as its sup
port. The Twenty-third, Colonel Christie, was posted
behind a low stone wall on the left of the Fifth ; then came
the Twentieth, Colonel Iverson, and the Thirteenth,
Lieutenant-Colonel Ruffin. From the nature of the
ground and the duty to be performed, the regiments
were not in contact, and the Thirteenth was 250 yards to
the left of the Twentieth. Fifty skirmishers of the Fifth
North Carolina soon encountered the Twenty-third Ohio,
deployed as skirmishers under Lieut. -Col. R. B. Hayes
(afterward President of the United States), and the
action began at 9 a. m. between Cox's division and Gar
land's brigade, f

Against Garland's 1,000 men, General Cox, of Reno's
corps, led the brigades of Scammon and Crook, stated by

* At the battle of Boonsboro, many of the regiments reported un
der 150 men to the regiment.

f General Hill, in Battles and Leaders, II, 563.

112 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Cox as "less than 3,000. " "The Thirteenth North Caro
lina, under Lieutenant- Colonel Ruffin, and the Twentieth,
under Col. A. Iverson, were furiously assailed on the left.
Both regiments were under tried and true soldiers, and
they received the assault calmly. Lieutenant Crome ran
up a section of artillery by hand, and opened with effect
upon the Twentieth North Carolina ; but the skirmishers
under Captain Atwell of that regiment killed the gallant
officer while he was serving as a gunner. The Federal
effort was to turn the left where the Thirteenth was
posted. ' ' * There General Garland, who had been urged
by Colonel Ruffin not to expose himself so needlessly, was
killed. "Upon the fall of Garland, Colonel McRae
assumed command, and ordered the two regiments on
the left to close in to the right. This order was not re
ceived, or it was found to be impossible of execution. The
main attack was on the Twenty- third North Carolina be
hind the stone wall. ' ' Its namesake, the Twenty- third
Ohio, seems to have been particularly zealous in this
attack. The Federals had a plunging fire upon this regi
ment from the crest of a hill, higher than the wall, and
only about 50 yards from it. The Twelfth North Caro
lina, only 72 men strong, could not offer much aid. It
was, says Minor, commanded by an inexperienced captain,
and under his order fell back and was thrown in some
disorder from a severe fire, but nearly half of its mem
bers attached themselves to the Thirteenth, and received
Colonel Ruffin 's commendation for bravery and "effi
cient aid. ' ' The fight in front of the wall was of the stub-
bornest nature. Some of the Ohio men broke through a
gap, and for a few seconds bayonets and clubbed muskets
were brought into play. Cox's numbers enabled him to
fall on both flanks of the Carolinians, and this, with an
assault < n their center, broke them in confusion. Gar
land's d ath at the most critical time had also a depress
ing effec t. Colonel Ruffin and part of his regiment were
* Gener U Hill, in Battles and Leaders.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 113

entirely surrounded at one time, but fought their way
out with great gallantry.

With the breaking of Garland's brigade, the enemy had
no one in his front. Colquitt's brigade could not be
moved from its important position, and Hill's other bri
gades had not come up. General Hill, in desperation, ran
two guns down from above, and, to give the appearance of
infantry support, formed behind them a dismounted line
of staff officers, teamsters, cooks and couriers. General
Cox, however, did not know that he had an open front,
and remained stationary. Half an hour later, Gen.
G. B. Anderson arrived with his small North Carolina
brigade. Anderson was sent to hold one of the two
roads to the right of the turnpike, and nearer than the
one on which Garland met his death. General Rosser
with one regiment of cavalry and a few pieces of artillery
occupied the other, and behaved gallantly during the
day. Anderson made a gallant effort to recover the
ground lost by Garland, but failed. Shortly after, Rodes'
brigade reached the field and was ordered to a command
ing position considerably to the left of Colquitt. Ripley
on arriving was directed to attach himself to Anderson's
left. Anderson, thus strengthened, moved the Second
and Fourth North Carolina forward to see what was in his
front, and the Fourth was fired into by a whole brigade,
which, however, did not follow the Fourth as it moved
back to its position. A skirmish line attack on Colquitt
was driven back. While waiting for reinforcements, all
Hill's available artillery was kept busy. General Cox,
from his article in "Battles and Leaders," evidently
thought that up to this time he had fought Hill's whole
division, whereas he had engaged only two brigades of it.

About 3:30 p. m., Col. G. T. Anderson's brigade and
Dray ton's brigade, of Longstreet's corps, arrived after an
exhausting march of fourteen miles from Hagerstown.
These brigades were sent to Ripley 's left, and took posi
tion in front of Cox. In some way, Ripley's brigade got
INC 15

114 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

out of line and marched backward and forward without
finding its position, and "did not fire a gun all day. "
General Hill now ordered his men forward. He had
already found from an early morning observation that
General McClellan's large army was advancing on the
pass, and while such an advance made his position haz
ardous, he was relieved to find McClellan in his front in
such force, for the Confederates had feared that the Fed
erals would cross nearer to Crampton's and strike
McLaws' rear before Harper's Ferry surrendered.
While Longstreet's brigades were reaching the top of the
mountains, the Federals were steadily marching heavy
columns up to push their way through. Reno's other
divisions, Willcox, Sturgis, Rodman, joined Cox and
formed on the Confederate right. The First corps under
Hooker, consisting of three divisions of 42 regiments of
infantry, 10 batteries and cavalry, formed on the Con
federate left to attack the position held by Rodes. Gib
bon, of this corps, advanced on the National turnpike
against Colquitt. Before the general advance in the
afternoon, the Federals had, according to General McClel
lan, 30,000 men; according to "Battles and Leaders of
the Civil War," 23,778 men on the field of battle. The
Confederates at no time during the day had over 9,000
men on the field, and at the time of the opening attack
on Rodes' position, Hill's division of less than 5,000
men had been reinforced by only the brigades of G. T.
Anderson and Drayton and Hood's two.

The general advance in the afternoon divided itself
into three separate actions — that on the Confederate
right, that on the extreme left, and that against Colquitt
near the center. The attack on the right was made by
Reno's corps. This fell on Anderson's and a portion of
Garland's North Carolinians, Drayton's South Carolinians
and Georgians, and less heavily on G. T. Anderson's
Georgians. Drayton's men were heavily attacked and
broken. The other brigades held their own, with Hood's

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 115

assistance, and while there were frequent advances and
retreats, remained on their line till withdrawn for
Sharpsburg. On the left, Rodes' gallant brigade of
1,200, attacked by the whole of Meade's division of
Hooker's corps, made one of the most memorable stands
of the war. Although fairly enveloped, he reformed and
fought repeatedly, his men perfectly controlled, until at
dusk Evans brought him relief enough to save him from
destruction. Hatch's division advanced in beautiful
order between Meade and Gibbon. As these brigades
moved forward at first, there was not a Confederate sol
dier to oppose them. The brigades of Kemper and of Gar-
nett from Longstreet arrived, jaded and worn, but just in
time to form in the face of Hatch. These two brigades,
together not numbering over 800 men,* fought Hatch's
men, numbering 3,500 men,f and held their own until
both sides, exhausted, fell asleep within 100 yards of
each other.

Gibbon made, just before dark, a furious attack on Col-
quitt's men posted across the pike. This assault was
especially directed against Colquitt's two brave regi
ments behind the stone fence. Gibbon lost 3 1 8 of his 1,500
men, but failed to move Colquitt from his advantageous
position.

During this day of scattered battles, many gallant offi
cers and men on both sides were killed or wounded. Of
the Federals, General Reno, commanding a corps, was
killed by the Twenty- third North Carolina. J General
Hatch was wounded, as were also Colonels Gallagher and
Wainwright, both commanding brigades. The death of
General Garland was a serious loss to the Confederates.
Daring to the point of recklessness, courteous, just and
upright, he had completely won the affection of his Caro
lina brigade, which followed him with the utmost loyalty
and confidence.

* Battles and Leaders, II, 575.
f Hatch's Report,
t McRae's Report.

116 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

That night General Lee determined to withdraw his
troops and concentrate on Sharpsburg. Maj. J. W.
Ratchford, of General Hill's staff, one of the bravest of
the brave, was sent in company with staff officers from
General Longstreet's and General Hood's commands to
give the requisite orders. So close were the contending
lines, that Major Ratchford says that in some places
they had to approach the lines on hands and knees and
give the orders in a whisper. The retirement to Sharps-
burg was made in good order and covered by the cavalry,
which during the Maryland campaign was kept busy.
The day before the battles just described, the First North
Carolina cavalry, Col. L. S. Baker, had taken part in a
sharp artillery and cavalry fight at Middletown. Colo
nel Baker's regiment held the rear, and, General Stuart
says, acted with conspicuous gallantry. General Hamp
ton says of the same battle that this regiment was ex
posed to a severe fire of artillery and musketry, which it
bore without flinching ; nor was there the slightest con
fusion in its ranks. The regiment had eight men
wounded, and Captain Siler lost a leg.

On the 1 5th, Harper's Ferry surrendered, and the
troops operating against it were free to hasten a junc
tion with Lee, now seriously endangered. Nothing but
the desperate resistance to the Federal advance at the
mountain gaps saved Lee, for this check to the move
ment of the Federals gave Jackson and his comrades time
to receive the surrender of Harper's Ferry, and then to
reach Sharpsburg early enough to participate in that
great battle. During the investment of this beautiful
place, the divisions of Jackson, McLaws and Walker had
co-operated. McLaws, on the north bank of the river,
seized Maryland heights and placed his artillery in posi
tion where it did execution. General Walker approached
on the Hillsboro road. At the foot of Loudon heights,
he sent Colonel Cooke with the Twenty-seventh North
Carolina to occupy the heights. Batteries were then

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 117

established, and on the i4th engaged in an artillery duel
with the enemy, in which Maj. F. L. Wiatt, of the Forty-
eighth North Carolina, was wounded, and one or two pri
vates were also struck. General Jackson moved by way
of the Winchester & Harper's Ferry railroad. On near-
ing the town, General Fender, in command of his own,
Archer's and Brockenbrough's brigades, was sent to seize
a crest overlooking the town, which was done with slight
loss. This eminence was that night crowned with artil
lery. Generals Branch and Gregg marched along the
river and occupied the plains in rear of the enemy's
works. E well's division was moved into position on
Schoolhouse hill, and other batteries were placed. On
the 1 5th, all the guns on both sides opened with much
noise and little destruction. Just as General Fender
prepared to move his infantry forward in assault, a white
flag was displayed, and General White, the commanding
officer, surrendered n,ooo men, 73 pieces of artillery,
13,000 small-arms, and other stores.*

After a brief rest, Jackson and Walker started to join
their commander. "By a severe night march," they
reached Sharpsburg about noon on the i6th. General
Walker says: "The thought of General Lee's perilous
situation, with the Potomac river on his rear, confronting
with his small force McClellan's vast army, had haunted
me through the long hours of the night's march, "f
A. P. Hill and McLaws followed Jackson, arriving during
the battle when they were sorely needed. When Jackson
and Walker reported for position, General Lee's ground
had been selected, and he had placed Longstreet on his
right and D. H. Hill to Longstreet's left. The line of
battle extended along a slight crest, parallel to the Antie-
tam river, and just in front of the village of Sharpsburg.
General Jackson was assigned to the extreme left, his
right connecting with Hill's left, and his line at first

* Jackson's Report.

f 'Sharpsburg," Battles and Leaders, II, 675.

118 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

being almost parallel to the Hagerstown turnpike. Gen
eral Walker was first placed on Longstreet's right, but
subsequently moved to reinforce the left.

The Confederate army had now been continuously en
gaged since early spring. It had not had the rest that a
large part of McClellan's army enjoyed while Pope was
engaging Lee. In this campaign its marches had been
long and its men so badly clothed and fed that the
straggling, even of good soldiers, was enormous. Hun
gry men may fight well, but they do not march well.
Moreover, many of Lee's men had been wounded more
than once during the year and their bodies were con
sequently frail, and hard service and hunger told fear
fully on these weakened men. Hence it was with largely-
depleted ranks that Lee faced McClellan at Sharpsburg.
The Federals, on the other hand, had moved slowly from
around Washington, had an abundant commissariat, and
were well clothed and in all respects well supplied.

On the afternoon of the i6th, Hooker crossed the Antie-
tam without opposition, and after a sharp assault on
Hood's brigades, which had been moved to D. H. Hill's
left before Jackson's arrival, bivouacked on that side of
the river. The Sixth North Carolina was engaged in
this attack on Hood. During the night Hood was with
drawn to allow his men, "who had been without food for
three days, except a half ration of beef for one day, and
green corn," to cook. The brigades of Trimble and
Law, of Jackson's corps, took Hood's place on the line,
Trimble connecting with Hill. During the night the
Federals were not idle. General Mansfield, with the
Twelfth corps, crossed and moved up behind Hooker.
This made five Federal divisions ready to fall on the
Confederate left in the morning.

Before daylight on the lyth, the reverberation of can
non along the sluggish Antietam ushered in the most
bloody one day's shock of battle yet seen on the western
continent Before merciful night intervened to stop

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 119

the fratricidal strife, 11,657 Federal soldiers lay dead or
wounded on the river slopes, and almost 10,000 South
erners lay near them. The choicest soldiers of two great
armies of countrymen had met, wrestled to sheer exhaus
tion for victory, and yet, as the day closed, the line of
battle stood nearly as it began.

As soon as it was light enough to see, Hooker moved
his three divisions against the Confederate left flank.
The attack fell first on Jackson, and Ripley, of D. H.
Hill's left, went to his aid, and fierce and bloody was the
encounter. ''The two lines," as Palfrey says, "almost
tore each other to pieces." The carnage was simply
frightful, and yet it was only beginning. Between 6
and 7 o'clock Mansfield pressed forward to support Hook
er. The Twenty-first North Carolina and the P^irst bat
talion, of E well's division, and the First and Third regi
ments of D. H. Hill's division were so far the only North
Carolina troops engaged. Hood is now sent for, and the
Sixth regiment, Major Webb, enters with him. G. T.
Anderson enters to brace the Confederate left. Double -
day's attack was driven back, Gibbon and Phelps suffer
ing terribly; the Confederates, however, were repulsed
in an effort to follow their advantage. Hofmann and
Ricketts, and subsequently Mansfield's brigades, moved
further toward the Confederate center, and this brought
into action the brigades of Colquitt and Garland, of D. H.
Hill's division. Garland's brigade was commanded by
Col. D. K. McRae, and included the Fifth, Twelfth, Thir
teenth, Twentieth and Twenty-third North Carolina regi
ments. The artillery, under Col. S. D. Lee and Major Fro-
bel, watched for its opportunity, moved for every com
manding position, and was most handsomely served. Dur
ing this time men had fallen as leaves fall. So thick
were men lying that General Hood found difficulty in
keeping his horse from stepping on wounded men. On
the Federal side, General Mansfield was killed; Generals
Hooker, Hartsuff, Crawford and many subordinates were

120 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

wounded. On the Confederate side, General Starke and
Colonel Douglass, commanding Lawton's brigade, had
been killed; Generals Lawton, D. R. Jones and Ripley
wounded. A third of the men of Lawton's, Hays' and
Trimble's brigades were reported killed or wounded. Of
Colquitt's field officers, 4 were killed, 5 wounded, and the
remaining one struck slightly. All of Jackson's and D. H.
Hill's troops engaged suffered proportionately.*

As Mansfield's men of the Twelfth corps deployed,
Hooker's corps, worn from its struggle with Jackson,
withdrew up the Hagerstown pike. General Long-street
says : "Walker, Hood and D. H. Hill attacked against the
Twelfth corps; worn by its fight against Jackson, it was
driven back as far as the post and rail fence on the east
open, where they were checked. They (the Confederates)
were outside of the line, their left in the air, and exposed
to the fire of a 3o-gun battery posted at long range on the
Hagerstown ridge by General Doubleday. Their left
was withdrawn and the line rectified, when Greene's bri
gade of the Twelfth resumed position in the northeast
angle of the wood, which it held until Sedgwick's divi
sion came in bold march. "

The Sixth Regiment History says of the part of that
command: "The enemy's guns in our front poured shot
and shell in us wThile we were exposed to a cross-fire from
his long-range guns, posted on the northeast side of An-
tietam creek. . . . Our line was called into action, and
moved to the front on the Snaketown road, and
between it and the Hagerstown pike. The front
line had made a noble stand, but they were being
pressed back. The enemy with fresh lines was
pushing forward when we met them. Here it was
that, for the first time in the war, I saw men fix
their bayonets in action, which they did at the com
mand of General Hood, who was riding up and down the
line. We broke their line and held our place for awhile,

* Manassas to Appomattox, p. 243.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 121

but the enemy was bringing up fresh columns and over
lapping our left, and we were forced back. The enemy
seemed to be overcoming us until our left was reinforced
by troops ordered from our right. They engaged the
enemy and drove them back of the Dunker church, and
our lines were re-established." The Twenty-first, com
manded by Capt. F. P. Miller, who was killed during the
battle, along with the Twenty-first Georgia, was posted
by Colonel Walker, commanding Trimble's brigade, be
hind a stone fence, and, says General Early, "concentrat
ing their fire upon a part of the enemy's line in front of
the latter [regiment], succeeded in breaking it. " Colonel
Thruston, of the Third North Carolina, gives this picture
of the part of Ripley's brigade in the action on the left:

The house being passed, the Third North Carolina in
fantry mounted over the fence and through the orchard,
when the order was given to change direction to the left
to meet the pressure upon General Jackson, near what is
known as the Dunker church. This change of front
was admirable, though executed under heavy fire of infan
try and artillery. Owing to this change, our line of bat
tle was 500 yards further to the left than it was in the
early morning, and brought us in close connection with
the troops of the right, and in the deadly embrace of the
enemy. I use the word embrace in its fullest meaning.
Here Colonel DeRosset fell, severely wounded and per
manently disabled, Captain Thruston taking command at
once. It was now about 7 130 a. m. Jackson's troops were
in the woods around, and west of the Dunker church
and north of the Sharpsburg-Hagerstown turnpike. As
we came up he advanced and drove the enemy back
across a cornfield and into a piece of woods east and
north of the church. Here the enemy, being reinforced
by Mansfield's corps, returned to the assault, and the
fighting became desperate for an hour. The two weak
divisions of Jackson and one brigade of D. H. Hill
fought and held in check the six* divisions of Hooker
and Mansfield; so tenaciously did their brave troops
cling to the earth, that when reinforced by Hood and two

* There were only five present.

N« 1«

122 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

brigades of D. H. Hill, they were still north of the pike
and contending for every inch of ground between it and
the cornfield in front. At the moment when their am
munition was absolutely exhausted and all had been used
from the boxes and pockets of dead comrades, the rein
forcements of Hill and Hood, above referred to, came up
and stayed the tide for a short time. Now Sumner with
his three divisions put in appearance, when our thin
lines were slowly pressed back by the weight of num
bers into the woods, and beyond the church to the edge
of a field to the south, through which the divisions of
Walker and McLaws were hurrying to our assistance.

Garland's brigade under Colonel McRae went into ac
tion with alacrity, but owing to an unfortunate blunder of
one of the captains, several of its regiments became
unsteady and fell back in much confusion. The Twenty-
third, General Hill reports, was kept intact, and moved to
the sunken road. Portions of this brigade were rallied
by Colonel McRae and Captain Garnett and others, and
again joined in the battle.

A little before ten, General Walker, having been or
dered from the right, pushed into the smoke and confu
sion of combat just behind Hood. Walker's division,
consisting of Walker's own brigade and Ransom's bri
gade, was, with the exception of two regiments, composed
of North Carolinians. His own brigade, under Manning
and then under Col. E. D. Hall, of the Forty-sixth North
Carolina, included the Twenty-seventh, Col. J. R. Cooke ;
the Forty-sixth, Colonel Hall, and the Forty-eighth,
Col. R. C. Hill, North Carolina regiments; and Ran
som's brigade comprised the Twenty-fourth, Col. J. L.
Harris; the Twenty-fifth, Col. H. M. Rutledge; the Thirty-
fifth, Col. M. W. Ransom, and the Forty-ninth, Lieut. -
Col. L. M. McAfee, North Carolina regiments. As Gen
eral Walker went in, he was notified that there was a gap
of a third of a mile to the left of General Hill, and he
detached the Twenty-seventh North Carolina and the
Third Arkansas, under Col. J. R. Cooke, of the Carolina

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 123

regiment, to fill this gap, and well did they carry out
their instructions. General McLaws' division from Har
per's Ferry entered coincidently with Walker at 10:30.*
The second stage of the battle has now been reached.
Hooker has retired and Mansfield has been brought to a
stand. Jackson, worn and exhausted, has retired. Hood's
brigade has been so cut to pieces that when its daunt
less commander was asked, "Where is your division?" he
answered, "Dead on the field." D. H. Hill's three bri
gades have been drawn in, and only a small force
guards the Confederate left. At this moment General
Sumner marched against the Confederates with the Sec
ond corps of three divisions. General Sumner, as quoted
by Longstreet, thus described the field when he ad
vanced: "On going on the field, I found that General
Hooker's corps had been dispersed and routed. I passed
him some distance in the rear, where he had been carried
wounded, but I saw nothing of his corps at all, as I was
advancing with my command on the field. There were
some troops lying down on the left which I took to belong
to Mansfield's command. In the meantime, General Mans
field had been killed, and a portion of his corps (formerly
Banks') had also been thrown into confusion." Sedg-
wick, of Sumner, was in the lead, and his three brigades
moved toward the Bunker church and left it a little to
their left. Just then there were not enough Confederates
in his front to stop a brigade, but Walker, as seen above,
was just arriving and McLaws was supporting him, and
Early made splendid use of his brigade. Walker at the
head of his six North Carolina regiments and two others,
"charged headlong," says Gen. J. D. Cox, who com
manded the extreme Federal left, "upon the left flank
of Sedgwick's lines, which were soon thrown into con
fusion; and McLaws, passing by Walker's left, also
threw his division diagonally upon the already broken
and retreating lines of Sumner. Taken at such disaci-

* Walker, in Battles and Leaders, II, p. 678.

124 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

vantage, these had never a chance, and in spite of the
heroic bravery of Sumner and Sedgwick, with most of
their officers (Sedgwick being severely wounded), the
division was driven off to the north with terrible
losses, carrying along in the rout part of Williams' men,
of the Twelfth corps."* Palfrey says: " Nearly 2,000
men were disabled in a moment. ' ' Then he adds, with
a candor rare among some Federal participants: "The
jubilant assertions of Confederate officers in regard to
the repulse of Sedgwick 's divisions are not more than
the facts warrant. They did 'drive the enemy before them
in magnificent style;' they did * sweep the woods with per
fect ease;' they did 'inflict great loss on the enemy;' they
did drive them 'not only through the woods, but (some of
them, at any rate) over a field in front of the woods, and
over two high fences beyond and into another body of
woods (i. e. , the east woods) over half a mile distant from
the commencement of the fight.' "f

In this rout of Sedgwick, the North Carolina regi
ments were destructive participants, Walker's division
containing them being, as stated by Cox, the first to
start the rout. On the right, Colonel Manning, com
manding a brigade, took the Forty-sixth and Forty-eighth
North Carolina and Thirteenth Virginia, "and dashed
forward in gallant style, crossed the open field beyond,
driving the enemy before them like sheep until, arriving
at a long line of strong post and rail fences, behind which
heavy masses of the enemy's infantry were lying, their
advance was checked ; these regiments, after suffering a
heavy loss, were compelled to fall back to the woods. ' ' J
General Walker, however, mistakes about this advance
being checked by Mansfield's men at this fence, so often
mentioned in reports of this battle ; for, as Lieut. W. F.
Beasley has shown, the Forty-eighth (and perhaps the

* Battles and Leaders, II, 644.

t Antietam and Frederick sburg, p. 91.

i Walker's Official Report

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 125

others) "not only reached this fence, but drove the enemy
from it, passed over and far beyond it (some 75 yards)
before Lieut. -Col. S. H. Walkup ordered the regiment to
fall back."* In the retirement of this regiment, Colonel
Manning, a native of Pitt county, was severely wounded,
and Col. E. D. Hall succeeded to the command of the
brigade. To the left, General Ransom's brigade of Caro
linians drove the enemy from the woods in its front, and
then, with grim determination, held, for the rest of the
day, that important position, called by General Walker
"the key of the battlefield," in defiance of several sharp,
later infantry attacks. Ransom's men endured a pro
longed fire from the enemy's batteries on the extreme
edge of the field. General Walker reports: "True to
their duty, for eight hours our brave men lay upon the
ground, taking advantage of such undulations and shal
low ravines as gave promise of partial shelter, while this
fearful storm raged a few feet above their heads, tearing
the trees asunder, and filling the air with shrieks and
explosions, realizing to the fullest the fearful sublimity
of battle." Colonel Ransom, of the Thirty-fifth regi
ment, left in command of the brigade by the temporary
absence on official duty of General Ransom, withstood a
serious attack and led his command in a hot pursuit.
The Twenty-seventh North Carolina and Third Arkansas
regiments, left to guard the gap in the lines already men
tioned, fought as an independent little brigade. Their
conduct was so conspicuously gallant that it received the
special commendation of the commander-in-chief, a corps
commander, and two division commanders.

"Thus, " comments Palfrey upon Sedgwick's defeat at
the end of the second stage of this great battle, "by 10
o'clock the successes of the morning were lost." The
disappearance of Sedgwick ended the serious fighting
on the left. But Sumner's remaining divisions, com
manded by French and Richardson, were already on the

* Our Living and Dead, I, 330.

126 CONFEDERA TE MILITARY HISTOR V.

march against the Confederate center. The center was
held by D. H. Hill. Three of his brigades had been
used since early morning in the battle on the left ; of
these, Ripley's, the first to be engaged, had retired with
Walker; Garland's had been badly broken; Colquitt's,
after the fall of most of its officers, was withdrawn, but
some of its men in desultory squads went back to active
work on the line. So Hill was left with only the Ala
bama brigade of Rodes and the North Carolina brigade
of G. B. Anderson to stand against the divisions of
French and Richardson. To his left, the Twenty-sev
enth North Carolina and Third Alabama of Walker's
brigade were still bravely in line. Against these two
brigades and some regimental fragments, Richardson and
French moved. "They came," says General Longstreet,
"in brave style, in full appreciation of the work in hand,
marched better than on drill, unfolded banners making
gay their gallant step." But these were no holiday sol
diers; they struck long and hard,* and in vastly superior
force.

So immovably, however, did the battle-tried North
Carolinians and Alabamians, aided later by R. H. An
derson's division,! die in piles on the sunken road in
which they fought, that they have made it immortal as
"Bloody Lane." Colonel Allan says: "After a most
gallant resistance, Hill was driven from the Bloody Lane.
Anderson was involved in the defeat, and it looked as if
the enemy was about to pierce the Confederate center.
The noble efforts of many brave men prevented this
result. The artillery was managed and served with a
skill never surpassed. Fragments of commands fought
with a splendid determination. As General Longstreet
says, the brave Col. J. R. Cooke (Twenty-seventh North
Carolina) showed front to the enemy when he no longer

* The losses in these two divisions in their attack on the center
were 2,915.
f Rebellion Records, Vol. XIX, p. 191, et seq.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 127

had a cartridge. Such instances of gallantry as Long-
street relates of his own staff did much to encourage our
men. The manner in which Longstreet, D. H. Hill and
other officers of high rank exposed themselves, contributed
to the result, and though, as General Longstreet says,
some ground was gained and held at this point by the Fed
erals, the attempt to break through the center failed."*

Without any disparagement of the gallantry of the
attackers, it must be said that their gaining the Bloody
Lane was not entirely the result of their righting, good
as that was. General Rodes, whose men were in most
excellent positions, having profited by their experience
as campaigners and piled rails in front of the sunken
road, ordered Colonel Lightfoot to turn his regiment to
the left so as to meet an enfilade fire. Lightfoot seems
to have misunderstood, and drew his men out of line and
told the next regiment that the order was intended also
for it. General Rodes was, at the time the movement
began, aiding a wounded comrade, and was at the same
time struck by a fragment of a shell. Before he could
correct the mistake, the enemy poured into the gap.
The withdrawal of these regiments, as unexpected to
their commanders as it probably was to their enemies,
gave their earnest assailants their first advantage.

While bravely discharging his duty in this part of the
field, Gen. George B. Anderson, of North Carolina, re
ceived a wound that proved mortal. It is stated that he
was the first officer in regular army service at the time to
resign his commission to join the Confederacy, and he
served his new government with zeal, ability and devo
tion. He was a man of winning manners, warm heart,
modest manliness and intense love of truth. No man in
service had gained more steadily the admiration and
respect of his own men and officers, and the confidence of
his superior officers.

There remains now only the final stage of this day of

* Southern Historical Society Papers, Vol. XIV, p. 114.

128 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

slaughter. This was the attack of Burnside's corps,
mainly directed by General Cox, as Burnside was in
command of one of the wings. To make this attack, the
corps thought it necessary to carry what has since been
known as Burnside's bridge across the Antietam, held by
two regiments and a part of a regiment from General
Toombs' brigade. No more gallant deed was done that
day than the defense of this bridge by those devoted
Georgia regiments. The enemy, however, found a ford,
and by attack from the men who crossed there and a
direct assault on the bridge carried it. This was fol
lowed by the attack of this corps on the Confederate
right, held by the division of D. R. Jones, in which there
were no North Carolina troops. Jones' men stood man
fully to their lines, but while his left baffled the efforts of
Burnside's men, his right was overlapped and broken.
At this crisis, A. P. Hill's division, after a hard march of
17 miles, deployed into battle line without a moment's
breathing spell, and their fearless onslaught decided the
day on the right. In his brigades were two purely North
Carolina ones, Branch's and Fender's. General Long-
street, to whose corps Jones belonged, thus describes the
close of the battle :

When General Lee found that General Jackson had left
six of his brigades under Gen. A. P. Hill to receive the
property and garrison surrendered at Harper's Ferry, he
sent orders for them to join him, and by magic spell had
them on the field to meet the final crisis.* He ordered
two of them, guided by Captain Latrobe, to guard against
approach of other forces that might come against him by
bridge No. 4, Pender's and Brockenbrough's, and threw
Branch's, Gregg's and Archer's against the forefront of
the battle, while Toombs', Kemper's and Garnett's
engaged against its right. . . . Pegram's and Crenshaw's
batteries were put in with A. P. Hill's three brigades. The
Washington artillery, vS. D. Lee's and Frobel's, found
places for part of their batteries, ammunition replenished.

* Thomas' brigade was, left behind to finish at Harper's Ferry, so
Hill had only five.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 129

D. H. Hill found opportunity to put in parts of his artillery
under Elliott, Boyce, Carter and Maurin. Toombs'
absent regiments returned as he made his way around to
the enemy's right, and joined the right of Gen. D. R.
Jones. The strong battle concentrating against General
Burnside seemed to spring from the earth as his march
bore him further from the river. Outflanked and stag
gered by the gallant attack of A. P. Hill's brigades, his
advance was arrested. . . . General Cox, reinforced by
his reserve under General Sturgis, handled well his left
against A. P. Hill ; but assailed in front and on his flank
by concentrating fires that were crushing, he found it
necessary to recover his lines and withdraw. A. P. Hill's
brigades, Toombs and Kemper, followed. They recov
ered Mclntosh's battery and the ground that had been
lost on the right, before the slow advancing night drop
ped her mantle upon this field of seldom equaled strife. "*

Gen. A. P. Hill reports of his brigades: "With a yell
of defiance, Archer charged them, retook Mclntosh's
guns, and drove them back pellmell. Branch and Gregg
with their old veterans sternly held their ground, and
pouring in destructive volleys, the tide of the enemy
surged back. ' '

Pender's brigade was not actively engaged. In Branch's,
General Lane says that the Twenty-eighth was detached,
and with the Eighteenth, was not seriously engaged.
The Thirty-third, Seventh and Thirty-seventh were the
regiments principally engaged. They fought well, and
assisted in driving back three separate and distinct col
umns of the enemy.

The artillery came in for a full share of fighting in this
campaign. Latham's, Manly's, and Re illy' s batteries did
hard service. Manly's was especially commended for
active and accurate service at Crampton's gap. At
Sharpsburg, Major Frobel, chief of artillery, highly ap
plauds Reilly's conduct of his guns. He reports: "I cannot
too highly applaud the conduct of both officers and men.
Captains Bachman and Reilly fought their batteries with

*Manassas to Appomattox, pp. 261, 262.
No 17

130 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

their usual determination and devotion to the cause. ' '
Captain Reilly's first lieutenant, J. A. Ramsey, who that
day fought his section for a time under the direct per
sonal orders of General Lee, is also commended for
gallant conduct.

In this brilliant close to a hard day's battle, North Caro
lina lost a gifted son in the death of General Branch.
His commander, Gen. A. P. Hill, said of him: "The
Confederacy has to mourn the loss of a gallant soldier
and accomplished gentleman, who fell in this battle at
the head of his brigade, Brig. -Gen. L. O'B. Branch, of
North Carolina. He was my senior brigadier, and one to
whom I could have intrusted the command of the division
with all confidence. ' ' For a time in this campaign he
did command the division. Just as his brigade had so
gloriously helped to shatter the columns of his old New
Bern adversary, General Burnside, he fell dead on the
field. General Branch had achieved high honors in civil
life. These he had given up to serve his country man
fully in the field, and he was rapidly working toward the
highest rank when he fell, as soldiers love to die — at the
head of a victorious command. Major Gordon, of the
adjutant-general's office, says that on the very day Gen
eral Branch was killed, he had been appointed major-gen
eral, but that the government, hearing of his death, never
issued his commission. Sutton says of his death : "No
country had a truer son, or nobler champion, no princi
ple a bolder defender than the noble and gallant soldier,
Gen. Lawrence O' Brian Branch."

General Lee lost about one-third of his army on this
field of blood. The next day, however, he remained on
the field, defiant and ready to meet any new attack Mc-
Clellan might order, but his enemy had suffered enough
and made no move. That night he quietly crossed the
Potomac "without loss or molestation." General Pen-
dleton, with the reserve artillery and about 600 infantry,
was left to guard the ford near Shepherdstown. General

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 131

Griffin headed some volunteers from four regiments,
crossed the river, and driving off Pendleton's infantry,
captured three or four pieces of artillery. The next
morning, some brigades from the divisions of Morell and
Sykes crossed the river. Their crossing and advance were
protected by numerously posted batteries on the Federal
side. Gen. A. P. Hill's division was ordered by General
Jackson to drive these forces across the Potomac. Hill
advanced with the brigades of Pender, Gregg and
Thomas, in his front line, Lane (Branch's brigade), Archer
and Brockenbrough in his second. The advance of these
brigades was made in the face of "a tremendous fire of
artillery. ' ' The infantry in front of Gregg and Thomas
was in small force and ''soon brushed away." Pender
met a sharp infantry fire. His Carolinians were not
retarded, however, and Archer's brigade and Lane, with
his North Carolinians, supporting them, the small force in
front was soon driven across the Potomac. These
brigades remained under artillery fire the rest of the day.
General Pender in his report pays a high compliment to
the Twenty-second regiment, commanded by Maj. C. C.
Cole. He says: "In the Twenty-second the list (for
good conduct) will be rather long, as it is upon it and its
commander that I usually call when any special or dan
gerous services are to be performed. ' ' There have been
many exaggerated statements made as to the Federal
losses in this battle. Their official reports itemized show
a total loss of only 363.

The total North Carolina losses in the invasion of
Maryland so far as they are officially reported were, killed,
335; wounded, 1,838. This official list, however, does
not include the casualties in the Fifth, Twelfth and Four
teenth regiments. The following field officers, or acting
field officers, were killed or mortally wounded: Gen.
L. O'B. Branch, Gen. G. B. Anderson, Col. C. C. Tew,
and Capts. W. T. Marsh and D. P. Latham, commanding
Fourth North Carolina. The following field officers, or

132 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

acting field officers, were wounded: Cols. Van H. Man
ning, R. T. Bennett, F. M. Parker, W. L. DeRosset;
Lieut -Cols. Sanders, W. A. Johnston, Thomas Ruffin
(three times); Majs. R. F. Webb and S. D. Thruston;
Captains (commanding regiments) S. McD. Tate and
E. A. Osborne.

In October, Gen. J. E. B. Stuart made a daring cavalry
expedition into Pennsylvania. In this expedition the
First North Carolina cavalry, Lieut. -Col. J. B. Gordon,
took part. General Hampton in his official report com
mends the regiment, and especially the squadron com
manded by Capt. W. H. H. Cowles, which had some
special duties assigned to it.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE FREDERICKSBURG CAMPAIGN— AFFAIRS IN NORTH
CAROLINA— SUPPLIES FOR TROOPS BROUGHT BY
THE ADVANCE— ENGAGEMENTS IN NORTH CARO
LINA—BATTLE NEAR GOLDSBORO— NORTH CARO
LINA TROOPS IN THE WESTERN ARMY— BATTLES
OF MURFREESBORO AND STONE RIVER.

THE last great battle of 1862 was fought on the
hills around Fredericksburg. There, seeing the
design of the Federal commander, General Lee con
centrated his army to await attack. General McClellan
had been displaced by the Federal authorities on the
8th of November, and General Burnside appointed
to succeed him as commander in the field. The new
leader, yielding to public pressure for some success
before the year closed, prepared to attack Lee in his
chosen position. Burnside had organized his army into
three grand divisions, under Sumner, Hooker and Frank
lin. The first weeks in December, these grand divisions
were stretched along the northern bank of the Rappa-
hannock, and were searching for ways to cross over for
an attack. On the southern side of the river, Lee's army
was posted on the hills and ridges just back of Freder
icksburg. His line extended parallel to the river, and
stretched from a point just across from Falmouth to
Hamilton's crossing, a distance of about three miles. His
left was under Longstreet, and his right under Jackson.
R. H. Anderson's division formed the extreme left of
Longstreet. His line reached from Taylor's hill to the
foot of Marye's hill. There, in the famous sunken road
behind a stone wall, Cobb's brigade of McLaws' division
was posted. On the left of Cobb and on the prolongation

133

134 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

of his line, the Twenty-fourth North Carolina stood.
General Ransom was in charge of a North Carolina divi
sion of eight regiments, and this was assigned place behind
McLaws on the reserve line, and immediately behind the
crest of Marye's and Willis' hills. The immediate care
of this important point was committed to General Ran
som. The eight regiments of this division formed two
brigades, one Ransom's own, the other Cooke's. To
Ransom's right was Pickett, and then Hood holding
Longstreet's right. In Hood's division there were three
North Carolina regiments. Jackson's troops were
massed along the line of the Fredericksburg & Poto
mac railroad. A. P. Hill held the front line without
much cover. Pender's North Carolina brigade, Lane's
North Carolina brigade, and Archer's mixed brigade were
on A. P. Hill's front line. They were supported by the
brigades of Thomas, Gregg and Brockenbrough, respect
ively. Taliaferro and Early formed a third line, and
D. H. Hill's division was in reserve. Marye's hill was
occupied by the Washington artillery; the reserve artil
lery was on its right and left. The division batteries of
Anderson, Ransom and McLaws, including Manly 's North
Carolina battery, were stationed along the line. On
Jackson's front, fourteen pieces of artillery, including a
section of Latham's battery, were posted under Lieuten
ant-Colonel Walker, and Stuart's horse artillery and cav
alry were on Jackson's right flank. North Carolina had
present in the army thus drawn up, thirty-two regiments
and one battalion of infantry, two regiments of cavalry,
and three batteries of artillery. Two division commanders
and six brigade commanders were also from the same
State.

General Burnside arranged to cross the river by pon
toon bridges. Franklin's grand division was not opposed,
and his men made the passage near Deep run without
difficulty. Sumner's grand division in front of the
town, however, was so harassed by Barksdale's Missis-

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 135

sippi sharpshooters that every effort to lay the bridges
was futile. Finally, regiments enough to attack Barks-
dale were sent over in boats under cover of a fearful can
nonade from 147 guns on Stafford hills. After Barks-
dale was withdrawn, the right grand division crossed
on the pontoon bridges. Burnside ordered Franklin's
grand division to attack the position held by Jackson.
Reynolds' corps was selected, and he advanced Meade's
division, supported on the right by Gibbon's division ; and
then, when Meade was fired upon on his left, Doubleday's
division was advanced to Meade's left. Meade's attack
fell first on Lane's brigade of North Carolinians. In the
general alignment, Lane's brigade did not join Archer's
brigade on his right by, Lane says, 600 yards. Into this
interval the enemy marched, thus turning Lane's right
flank and Archer's left. Lane's Thirty-seventh and
Twenty-eighth regiments, under Colonels Barbour and
Stowe, stationed on the left, made a resolute stand, but
were firmly pressed back. The Thirty-third, Colonel
Avery, checked the enemy for a few moments and even
essayed to charge, but found its effort unsupported. The
Eighteenth, Colonel Purdie, fell back firing until it
reached the woods. The Seventh, Lieutenant- Colonel
Hill, had been ordered across the railroad to support a
battery, and had acted with gallantry. It was now sent
for, but the brigade was pushed out of line before the
message was delivered. Thomas then moved his brigade
to Lane's support, and, with the Eighteenth and Seventh
formed on his left, pushed the enemy back across the
railroad. Lane's brigade had made a bold, stand and
gave ground only after what General Lee called * * a brave
and obstinate resistance." Gen. A. P. Hill reported that
the Twenty-eighth and Thirty-seventh "continued to
fight until their ammunition was exhausted and were
then quietly and steadily retired from the field."
Archer's left regiments were broken, and the enemy
pushed gallantly on to the second line. Three brigades

136 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

of Early's division were called to the front, and these
uniting their efforts to those of tne other troops, Meade's
men were driven back with great loss. Only one of
Early's three brigades contained any North Carolina
troops. That was Trimble's brigade, commanded by a
North Carolina colonel, R. F. Hoke. In this brigade
were the Twenty-first North Carolina and the First bat
talion. General Early says of the charge of this brigade:
''I ordered Hoke to advance to his [Archer's] support.
This was done in gallant style, and Hoke found the
enemy in possession of the trench (which had been occu
pied by General Archer's brigade). . . . Hoke attacked
the enemy vigorously and drove them from the woods
and trench to the railroad in front, in which there were
reserves. He followed up his attack and drove the
enemy from the railroad, which was a strong position,
some distance, capturing a considerable number of pris
oners. ' ' Colonel Scales says this charge made Colonel
Hoke a brigadier-general, although it nearly cost him his
life ; for his horse fell from a shell wound and threw his
rider. The animal, however, immediately rose and
dashed off, dragging Colonel Hoke, whose foot was
caught in the stirrup. He was rescued by Colonel Gates'
men. Colonel Gates said of the Twenty-first North Caro
lina: "The Tarheels moved them down in files." *

Fender's brigade, stationed to Lane's left, was not
exposed to so severe an ordeal as Lane's. When the
skirmishers and sharpshooters in his front became too
annoying, his Twenty-second regiment, Major Cole, drove
them away. Colonel McElroy, with the Sixteenth North
Carolina, was posted in advance of the line near the rail
road cut to support a battery. While there, and with his
left entirely unprotected, a brigade of Federals took him
unawares and captured an officer and fifteen men who
had been thrown out as flankers. General Law, of Hood's
division, saw the danger that the battery and regiment

* Scales' address in Fredericksburg.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 137

were in, and detaching- the Fifty-seventh and Fifty-fourth
North Carolina, both new regiments never under fire
before, he advanced with them, and joined by McElroy,
the three regiments dispersed the enemy. During the
engagement, a body of the enemy opened fire from the
woods bordering the run, upon the left of the advancing
line. "This was checked by a fire from the left of the
Fifty-seventh and Fifty-fourth, which changed front obli
quely to the left in order to face the woods." General
Law says in his report : * * The conduct of the Fifty-seventh
and Fifty-fourth North Carolina regiments was admirable.
I cannot speak too highly of their steady courage in
advancing, and the coolness with which they retired to
the line of railroad when ordered. Colonel Godwin, com
manding the Fifty- seventh, and Colonel McDowell, com
manding the Fifty-fourth, ably assisted by Lieut. -Col.
Hamilton C. Jones, Jr., and Kenneth M. Murchison,
handled their commands with great skill and coolness."
The Regimental History of the Fifty- fourth regiment says
it was hard to call the Fifty-fourth from its pursuit, and
that some of the men, after the regiment had handsomely
repulsed the enemy and followed him for a long distance,
were distressed because General Hood would not allow
them "to win some glory." By special order from corps
headquarters, a handsome compliment to these two regi
ments was read at dress parade.

The effort to break through Jackson's lines met a bloody
and disastrous repulse. Birney's division was sent to
cover the retreat of Meade and Gibbon, and Franklin's
grand division, nearly one-half of Burnside's army, did
no more considerable fighting on that field.

During the ensanguined battle on the Confederate right,
Sumner's grand division had been making desperate
attempts to carry Marye's hill, the salient point on the
Confederate left. The heroic defense of the Confederates
behind the stone wall will live perpetually. At the open
ing of the attack, this wall was held by the gallant brigade

Ncl8

138 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

of the gifted Gen. Thomas R. R. Cobb, whose fall on this
field of battle ended a brave and noble life, and by the
Twenty-fourth North Carolina regiment, Lieut. -Col. J. L.
Harris. As the attacks grew warmer, Gen. Robert Ran
som, who was specially charged with the keeping of this
point, sent in three more North Carolina regiments and a
part of a fifth. These fought "shoulder to shoulder' ' with
Cobb's men. Ransom's brigade supported the twenty
guns that so admirably helped to defend these hills.

The first Federal attack was made by French's division,
followed by Hancock's division. General Couch, who
commanded the army corps to which both these divisions
belonged, says of their charge in the face of "the sheet of
flame" that came from the stone wall: "As they charged,
the artillery fire would break their formation and they
would get mixed; then they would close up, go for
ward, receive the withering infantry fire, and those who
were able would run to the houses and fight as best they
could ; and then the next brigade coming up in succession
would do its duty, and melt like snow coming down on
warm ground. ' '* Before the first assault, General Ransom
had brought up Cooke's brigade to the crest of Marye's
hill, and during the assault Cooke took the Twenty-
seventh and Forty-sixth and part of the Fifteenth North
Carolina into the sunken road. The Forty-eighth North
Carolina, under Walkup, fought on top of the crest all day.
General Howard was next ordered by the Federal com
mander to assail the hill, but was hurled back as his prede
cessors were. General Ransom now moved the rest of
his division to the crest, and sent the Twenty-fifth North
Carolina to the front line; General Kershaw came up
with some of his regiments, and subsequently some of
Kemper's were ordered forward. The men in the rear
loaded guns, and the ranks interchanged, and in this way
an almost continuous fire blazed forth from the line of
the stone wall.

*Battles and Leaders, III, 113.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 139

After Howard, attacks were made by Sturgis' division,
supported by Getty's division. Then Griffin made the
brave endeavor. Humphreys next essayed to carry the
hill by the bayonet, and desperately did he try, but again
his men ' 'melted as snow. ' ' Dead men were lying in such
piles in some places that the living could hardly get by,
and yet the rash endeavor was kept up. So clearly did
those Federals who had stubbornly battled against the
position recognize that it was useless to continue such
assaults, that General Humphreys says they tried by
force to prevent his men from making the attempt. In,
it seems, sheer desperation, the Federal commander
ordered gallant men to die before the fire from that hill,
and silently * and sternly the men tried to carry out orders,
and left their bodies to freeze on the winter night that
followed their hopeless and crushed endeavors. General
Palfrey, the Union general and historian, thus concludes
his account of this battle: "The short winter's day came
to an end. Fifteen thousand men lay dead or wounded
along the banks of the Rappahannock, and the army of
the Potomac was no nearer Richmond than it was when
the sun arose. The Confederates were elated, and the
Federals were depressed. The Confederates had had a
day of such savage pleasure as seldom falls to the lot of
soldiers, a day on which they saw their opponents doing
just what they wished them to do, but what they did not
dare to hope they would do. The Federals had had a
day of hard and hopeless effort, and they had nothing to
cheer them but the consciousness of duty nobly done. ' '

According to Longstreet's recent figures, the Federals
had, not "present for duty," but actually available for
duty, 1 16,683, and used in the battle about 50,000. The Con
federates had available 78,000, and engaged less than
20,000. The total Federal losses were 12,653; the total
Confederate losses were: killed, 595; wounded, 4,074;

* General Couch says there was no cheering on the part of the men.

140 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

missing, 653. North Carolina losses were: killed, 173;
wounded, 1,294. It will thus be seen that just a little
less than a third of the killed and the wounded were
from North Carolina. General Cooke was among the
wounded.

During the interval between the battle of Seven Pines
and the battle of Fredericksburg, there were not many
important military events in North Carolina. The duty
of organizing new regiments still went on. The Fifty-
sixth, Col. P. F. Faison; the Fifty-seventh, Col. A. C.
Godwin; the Fifty-eighth, Col. J. B. Palmer; the Fifty-
ninth (cavalry), Col. D. D. Ferrebee; the Sixteenth, Col.
W. M. Hardy; the Sixty-first, Col. J. D. Radcliffe; the
Sixty-second, Col. R. G. A. Love; the Sixty-third (cav
alry), Col. J. H. McNeil; and the Sixty-fourth, Col.
L. M. Allen, were all organized during this time.

Major Gordon, in his article on the "Organization of
the North Carolina Troops, " states: "When the legisla
ture, in 1 86 1, directed General Martin to furnish clothing
for the North Carolina troops, there were then only about
thirty regiments in service. In less than a year that
number was more than doubled, and it became very plain
to General Martin that the resources of the State were
not adequate to the demands of the army. In August,
1862, he laid the matter before Governor Clark, and asked
permission to buy supplies abroad, also a ship to transport
them. The governor's term of service being near an end,
he declined to give any order, and requested that the mat
ter lie over till Governor Vance was inaugurated. Soon
after Governor Vance's inauguration, General Martin
brought the matter to his attention. The governor took
it under advisement for a few days. Soon his attention
was called to the subject again, and he requested General
Martin to come to the executive office that night and
meet two or three prominent men, when the matter would
be discussed on both sides." Then, atter stating how
some prominent men opposed the scheme and declared

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 141

that the governor and adjutant-general would make them
selves liable to impeachment if they followed out the plan,
and how General Martin contended for its adoption,
Major Gordon proceeds: "The governor reserved his
decision that night, but when asked for it next day, he
authorized General Martin to buy the ship and clothing
for the troops, and signed sufficient bonds for this purpose.
The next thing for the adjutant-general to do was to get
a man of ability and responsibility to be sent as agent to
England. The governor made no suggestion on this
point. On the recommendation of Major Hogg, Mr.
(John) White, of Warrenton, was selected as State agent
to go abroad to purchase the ship and supplies, and Col.
Tom Crossan was sent to command the ship, and well did
they perform this and every other duty intrusted to them
by the State. In due time the steamer Lord Clyde, after
ward named the Advance, arrived safely in Wilmington
with supplies for the troops. Governor Vance got a great
deal of credit forth is ; General Martin, who was the real
author of it, practically none. From this time forward
it is certain that the North Carolina troops were better
clothed than those of any other State."

In July of this year (1862), Lieut. A. B. Andrews, com
manding 41 men of the First North Carolina cavalry,
attacked three gunboats at Rainbow banks, near Wil-
liamston. His men fired upon the boats from the
banks until the shells from the boats made it impossible to
continue the firing. Colonel Baker says: "This was one
of the boldest and most successful attacks on gunboats
that I know of during the war. ' '

On September 6th a small expedition, under the com
mand of Col. S. D. Pool, arranged for an attack on the
Federal garrison at Washington, N. C. This town was held
by a force under Colonel Potter, of the First North Caro
lina Union cavalry. Colonel Pool's force consisted of two
companies from the Seventeenth regiment, two from the
Fifty-fifth under Capt. P. M. Mull, 50 men under Captain

142 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

MacRae from the Eighth, and 70 men of the Tenth artil
lery acting as infantry and commanded by Captain Man-
ney. This force dashed into Washington in the early
morning, surprised the garrison, and after a hot fight
withdrew, taking several captured guns. The gunboat
Picket, stationed there, was blown up just as her men
were called to quarters to fire on the Confederates, and
nineteen of her men were killed and wounded. The
Confederates inflicted in this action a loss of 44, and
suffered a loss of 13 killed and 57 wounded.

On the 26. of October, General Peck sent Colonel Spear,
with 1,700 men and some artillery, to Franklin, Va., on
the Blackwater, to attack the Confederates at that point,
and if possible to destroy a floating bridge there. The
place was defended by Col. J. K. Marshall, of the Fifty-
second North Carolina. Spear reached the river on the
3d, and a lively skirmish took place across the river. In
spite of the fact that General Peck reported his force as
having inflicted a loss of from 75 to 200, the Confederate
casualties were 2 wounded.

General Foster with 5,000 men left Washington, N. C.,
for Williamston, on the 2d of November. At Little creek
and at Rawls' mill, spirited resistance to his advance was
offered by the Confederates, and Foster lost 6 killed and
8 wounded. The Confederates, however, were not in
force enough to do more than retard Foster's movements.

Captain Newkirk, of the cavalry, and Captain Adams,
commanding a section of artillery, attacked and destroyed
the gunboat Ellis on the New river. According to Gen
eral Whiting's report, this affair was very creditable to
the officers and men engaged.

On December loth, Lieut. -Col. John C. Lamb, with
some companies from the Seventeenth regiment, a squad
ron of cavalry under Colonel Evans, and Moore's bat
tery, captured for a time the town of Plymouth, N. C.
Colonel Galloway gives the following account of the
adventure: "The plan was to capture the pickets and

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 143

take the place by surprise. We reached the picket station
just before day, captured all but one, who escaped, firing
his musket as he ran. This gave notice of our approach,
and when we reached Plymouth, a body of Federals were
seen formed across the main street ready to receive us.
The cavalry was ordered to charge these men, which was
done in good style and with a full allowance of the 'rebel
yell.' The enemy fired one volley and broke in all
directions. Some escaped to the gunboats in skiffs, some
hid, some took to the houses and fired from the windows.
Quite a lively cannonade ensued between the gunboats
and our battery. ' ' Captain Galloway and three privates
were wounded.

Two days before the battle of Fredericksburg, General
Foster left New Bern, N. C., with a force of 10,000 in
fantry, 6 batteries, having in all 40 pieces of artillery,
and 640 cavalry. * On the i jth, Foster had reached South
west creek, not far from Kinston. The Confederates had
destroyed the bridge, and Colonel Radcliffe's Sixty-first
North Carolina regiment was posted on the west side to
delay Foster's advance. The Ninth New Jersey and
Wessell's brigade crossed over the creek, and after an
engagement of about an hour, Gen. N. G. Evans, com
manding the Confederates, was obliged to withdraw. He
took position on the Neuse river, about two miles from
Kinston bridge. General Evans had, to oppose Foster's
10,000 men, the Seventh, Twenty-second, Twenty-third
and Holcombe legion, all South Carolina volunteers; in
addition, he had the Sixty-first North Carolina regiment,
Mallett's North Carolina battalion, and Boyce's South
Carolina, and Starr's and Bunting's North Carolina bat
teries — in all 2,014 men.

While Evans was moving from the creek to the river, a
fleet of small gunboats that had come up from New Bern
to attack the works at Kinston, under Commander Mur
ray, endeavored to get in reach of the works. Owing to

* Rebellion Records, XVIII, 54-

144 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

low water, only one of the boats, the Allison, came
into action, and Col. S. D. Pool's battalion of heavy artil
lery soon drove it back.

On the 1 4th, General Evans, with his South Carolina bri
gade on the left and the North Carolinians under Radcliffe
on the right, awaited Foster's attack. Foster sent in Wes-
sell's brigade and batteries, supporting Wessell's by
Amory's brigade and then by Stevenson's brigade. The
odds were, of course, too great for Evans, and after two
and a half hours of stubborn contention he was forced
back across the bridge, and followed so closely that at the
crossing 400 of his men were captured. Evans reformed
his broken lines, and was joined by the Forty-seventh
North Carolina regiment, which had just arrived, under
Col. S. H. Rogers.

General Foster sent a demand for the surrender of the
Confederates; but, of course, Evans promptly declined
compliance. General Evans retreated to Falling creek.
General Foster did not pursue, but recrossed the river and
continued toward Goldsboro. On arriving at White Hall,
eighteen miles from Goldsboro, General Foster found the
bridge burned and Gen. B. H. Robertson, of General
Evans' command, posted on the opposite bank of the river
ready for battle. General Robertson, having under
his command the Eleventh North Carolina, Colonel Lev-
enthorpe; the Thirty-first, Colonel Jordan; 600 dis
mounted cavalrymen from Ferrebee's and Evans' regi
ments; and a section of Moore's battery, under Lieut. N.
McClees, had been sent to burn the bridge and dispute
Foster's crossing should he attempt to rebuild the bridge.
General Foster sent forward the Ninth New Jersey regi
ment, followed by Amory's brigade, and eight batteries
took position on the river bank. A heavy artillery and
infantry fire commenced at 9:30 on the i6th. General
Robertson says in his report: "Owing to a range of hills
on the White Hall side, the enemy had the advantage of
position. The point occupied by his troops being narrow,

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 145

not more than one regiment at a time could engage him.
I therefore held Leventhorpe, Ferrebee and Evans in re
serve, leaving the artillery [two pieces], Thirty-first regi
ment, and two picked companies in front. The cannonad
ing from the enemy's batteries became so terrific that the
Thirty-first regiment withdrew from their position with
out instructions, but in good order. I immediately or
dered Colonel Leventhorpe forward. The alacrity with
which the order was obeyed by his men gave ample proof
of their gallant bearing, which they so nobly sustained
during the entire fight, which raged with intensity. . . .
The conduct of this regiment reflects the greatest credit
upon its accomplished and dauntless commander. ' '

The two guns of McClees were no match for the many
batteries across the Neuse, but he served them with cool
ness and gallantry. Captain Taylor, of Foster's signal
service, reported that the fire from the Eleventh was
"one of the severest musketry fires I have ever seen." *
Col. W. J. Martin, historian of the Eleventh regiment,
says of the conduct of his regiment: "Posted along the
river bank, from which another regiment had just been
driven back, it was pounded for several hours at short
range by a terrific storm of grape and canister, as well as
musketry ; but it never flinched, and gained a reputation
for endurance and courage which it proudly maintained
to the fateful end." The Eleventh regiment that thus
distinguished itself was the first regiment organized in
North Carolina, and while known as the First North
Carolina had fought the battle at Bethel. General Rob
ertson reported his loss at 10 killed, 42 wo,unded. The
Federal loss was 8 killed and 73 wounded.

After this brush with Robertson, Foster moved on
toward Goldsboro, his main object being to burn the rail
road bridge there. At and near the bridge were stationed
General Clingman, with the Eighth, Fifty-first and Fifty-
second North Carolina regiments, under Cols. H. M.

"""Rebellion Records, XVIII, 62.

Nc 18

146 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Shaw, W. A. Allen and J. K. Marshall; Companies B,
G and H, Tenth artillery, acting as infantry, and Company

F, Fortieth artillery, acting as infantry, tinder Lieut. -Col.
S. D. Pool; and Starr's battery. Other troops were in
the vicinity, but for reasons not now apparent, were not
moved to the bridge in time to assist the men engaged.
The Sixty-first regiment, Lieutenant-Colonel Devane,
arrived on the field during the engagement and reported
to its brigadier, General Clingman, in time to take part
in the afternoon action.

When General Foster reached a point near Goldsboro,
he ordered five regiments to move down the railroad track
and burn the bridge. A regiment was sent with them to
protect the flank. General Wessell's brigade was ad
vanced, to be in supporting distance of the advance. The
Federal regiments and artillery attacked promptly. All
the Federal artillery seems, according to Foster's report,
to have been engaged at the bridge. The attack fell
principally on the Fifty-first and Fifty-second regiments
on the southwest side of the bridge, and on Pool's four
companies on the north side of the bridge. Starr's two
pieces opened. The two regiments were unable to hold
their own, broke, were reformed again by General Cling
man, and then driven back to the county bridge. As
these regiments were in retreat, Lieut. George A.
Graham, of the Twenty-third New York battery, dashed
gallantly forward, and in spite of the efforts of Pool's men
to reach him with their rifles, set fire to the bridge. Gen.

G. W. Smith reported that as Clingman 's regiments fell
back, Gen. N. G. Evans arrived on the field with his
South Carolina brigade, and assumed command. By
his direction, the Fifty-first and Fifty-third, supported
by Evans' Holcombe legion, made a charge against
H. C. Lee's brigade, of which that officer said: "A por
tion of the enemy instantly, with loud cheers,
charged up the hill toward the battery, and bore
up steadily in the face of a well-directed and most

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 147

destructive fire. . . . The enemy, meanwhile, had been
staggered by the crushing fire of the batteries, and at
sight of my supporting regiments, broke and fled in dis
order to the woods. His retreat was covered by a heavy
fire from the battery on his right, which inflicted on my
command a loss of 3 killed and 19 wounded."

This "battery," as Colonel Lee calls it, was one gun of
Lieut. T. C. Fuller's section of Starr's; the other gun
was overturned. Lieutenant Fuller acted with great
coolness, and showed a soldier's aptitude for finding and
striking his enemy. General Clingman said of the deter
mined manner in which Fuller fought his solitary gun :
4 ' Lieutenant Fuller with the greatest gallantry continued
to reply until darkness put an end to the contest."
Captain Reinhardt's company of the Third regiment of
cavalry is warmly commended in the report of Colonel
Stevens.

After the afternoon engagement, General Foster with
drew his troops and returned to New Berne. The total
Federal losses during this expedition were 591 killed and
wounded. * The total Confederate loss, as reported by
General Smith, was 339. The North Carolina losses, with
the exception of the Sixty-first regiment, from which there
is no report, were 40 killed and 177 wounded.

During the operations mentioned above, North Carolina
was represented in the Western army by the following
regiments: Twenty-ninth, Col. R. B. Vance; Thirty-
ninth, Col. D. Coleman; Fifty-eighth, Col. J. B. Palmer;
Sixty-second, Col. R. G. A. Love; Sixty-fourth, Col. L.
M. Allen; Sixty-ninth (Thomas' legion), .Col. W. H.
Thomas; Fifth cavalry battalion, Maj. A. H. Baird;
Seventh cavalry battalion, Lieut. -Col. G. N. Folk, and
Lieutenant-Colonel Walker's cavalry battalion.

In September the Sixty-ninth regiment (Thomas'
legion) was ordered to Powell's valley. This regiment
was raised in the mountains of North Carolina and had

* Rebellion Records, XVIII, p. 60.

148 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

in it two companies of Cherokee Indians. On this march,
one of these Indian companies became engaged in a sharp
little battle with the Federals, and Lieutenant As-too-gah-
sto-ga, who is described by Major Stringfield of that reg
iment "as a splendid specimen of Indian manhood," led
a charge and was killed. "The Indians," says Major
Stringfield, "were furious at his death, and before they
could be restrained, scalped several of the Federal
wounded and dead, for which ample apology was made
at the time."*

In General Bragg' s battles at Murfreesboro and Stone's
river, North Carolina had engaged these regiments:
Twenty-ninth, Thirty-ninth and Sixtieth. Col. R. B.
Vance, after the death of Gen. J. E. Rains, commanded
the Second brigade of Stevenson's division. At Murfrees
boro, on the 3ist of December, the Twenty-ninth was
under fire for over five hours, captured one piece of artil
lery, and engaged in a gallant charge upon a brigade posted
in a cedar thicket. General McCown, the division com
mander, said of its colonel: "Colonel Vance bore himself
gallantly. ' ' The Thirty-ninth was temporarily serving
in Gen. Patton Anderson's brigade. General Anderson
thus mentions it in his report: "The adjutant of the
Thirty-ninth North Carolina, Lieut. I. S. Hyams, reported
to me on the battlefield that his regiment had become
detached . . . and was at that time out of ammunition
and under command of Capt. A. W. Bell, the field officers
having been killed or wounded. I supplied the needed
ammunition, and formed the regiment on the right of the
Twenty-seventh Mississippi. It participated creditably in
all our subsequent movements until it was detached. ' '

The Sixtieth regiment, Colonel McDowell, was in both
these battles. At Murfreesboro, it was at the opening of
the battle under a heavy fire of artillery, but advanced
without hesitation until thrown into some confusion by
the houses and fences ; but most of the companies were at

* Regimental History.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 149

once rallied, and moved against the enemy posted in the
cedars. The movement was successful, and the brigade
remained that night on the field. Colonel McDowell
makes this report of his regiment in the action at Stone's
river on the 26. of January: "On Friday, in the after
noon, we occupied Stone's river, and formed line of battle
in rear of Hanson's and Pillow's brigades to support them
in the advance. About 4 o'clock we were ordered to
advance, which we did in good order ; engaged the enemy,
and kept driving him before us until sunset, when it
became apparent that he was strongly reinforced and
flanking us, and we were ordered to fall back. ' ' The
North Carolina losses in these battles were 10 killed, 144
wounded.

CHAPTER IX.

NORTH CAROLINA IN THE BEGINNING OF 1863— GATH
ERING FRESH SUPPLIES — DEMONSTRATIONS BY
D. H. HILL AGAINST NEW BERN— FIGHTS AT DEEP
GULLY AND SANDY RIDGE— SIEGE OF WASHING
TON, N. C.— BLOUNT'S MILLS AND GUM SWAMP.

AT the opening of this year, the troops of North Caro
lina were disposed, so far as the records show, as
follows: Thirty- two regiments and one battalion
of infantry, two regiments of cavalry and three batteries
were with General Lee; under Gen. Kirby Smith, the
Fifty-eighth, Colonel Palmer, the Sixty-fourth, Colonel
Allen, and Fifth cavalry battalion, Capt. S. W. English,
were stationed at Big Creek gap, Tenn. ; the Sixty-
second regiment, Colonel Love, was guarding bridges
near Knoxville; the Seventh cavalry battalion was in
Carter county, Tenn. ; Walker's cavalry battalion was
in Monroe county, Tenn. ; the Twenty-ninth, Colonel
Vance, and the Thirty-ninth, Colonel Coleman, were in
Bragg's army. In the State, General Whiting was in
charge of the defenses of Wilmington, with 9,913 officers
and men. Gen. S. D. French, in charge of the department
of North Carolina, had his forces stationed as follows:
General Pettigrew's brigade at Magnolia; Gen. N. G.
Evans' South Carolina brigade at Kinston; General
Daniel's brigade, General Davis' brigade, Maj. J. C.Hask-
ell's four batteries, Colonel Bradford's four artillery com
panies, and Capt. J. B. Starr's light battery at Goldsboro;
the Forty-second regiment, Col. George C. Gibbs, and
Captain Dabney's heavy battery at Weldon ; the Seven
teenth regiment, Col. W. F. Martin, at Hamilton ; Gen.
B. H. Robertson and three regiments of cavalry at Kins-

150

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 151

ton ; Thomas' legion in the mountains. The field returns
for January show that the forces scattered over the
State aggregated 31,442 men.* This large number of
soldiers was collected in the State because it was thought
another strong expedition was about to descend upon
Wilmington, or some point on the coast. Upon the open
ing of the spring campaign, these troops were sent in all
directions.

After General Foster's return to New Bern from Golds-
boro, his force around New Bern showed little activity.
Some expeditions were occasionally sent out, resulting in
skirmishes or minor engagements. At Sandy Ridge, on
the 1 3th of February, the Fifty-eighth Pennsylvania in
fantry had a skirmish with a detachment from the Eighth
North Carolina regiment, in which 4 North Carolinians
were wounded. An expedition under Capt. Colin Rich
ardson, of the Third New York cavalry, engaged some
militia near Swan Quarter and Fairfield on the 4th of
May. In these two skirmishes the Federals lost 18 men.

During this spring, enormous supplies of meal and meat
for the maintenance of the Confederate armies were
drawn from North Carolina, and military operations in
Virginia and North Carolina were made to so shape
themselves as to facilitate the collection of these sup
plies. Shortly after General Longstreet was assigned to
command the department of Virginia and North Caro
lina, he learned "that there was a goodly supply of pro
duce along the east coast of Virginia and North Carolina,
inside the military lines of the Federal forces. To col
lect and transmit this to accessible points for the Con
federates, it was necessary to advance our divisions so as
to cover the country, and to hold the Federal forces in and
about their .fortified positions while our trains were at
work. To that end I moved with the troops in Virginia
across the Blackwater to close lines about the forts around
Suffolk, and ordered the troops along our line in North

* Rebellion Records, XVIII, 865.

152 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Carolina to a like advance. " * In a letter to General Lee,
General Longstreet stated to him his plans: 4<In arraying
our forces to protect supply trains in the eastern coun
ties of North Carolina, we had hoped to make a diversion
upon New Bern and surprise the garrison at Washing
ton. The high waters have washed away the bridges and
detained us a week, and it is probable the enemy has
discovered our movements.''!

So, in pursuance of this policy, while the Confederate
wagon trains were moving busily among the rich corn
counties east of the Chowan, Gen. D. H. Hill, who had
been assigned to command the troops in North Carolina
when it was thought that another great 'expedition was
about to invade the State, organized a demonstration
against New Bern, and, to still further confine the Fed
erals, shortly afterward laid siege to Washington. These
were the two towns containing large Federal garrisons.
At the same time, General Longstreet made a similar
movement against Suffolk. Gen. Junius Daniel's North
Carolina brigade, made up of these regiments : Thirty-
second, Colonel Brabble; Forty-third, Colonel Kenan;
Forty-fifth, Lieut. -Col. S. H. Boyd; Fifty-third, Colonel
Owens, and Second battalion, Lieut. -Col. H. L. Andrews,
moved toward New Bern by the lower Trent road ; the
cavalry under General Robertson was sent by the upper
Trent road, and General Pettigrew's brigade, with fif
teen guns under Major Haskell, was ordered to approach
the city near Barrington's Ferry, to bombard the gun
boats and Fort Anderson. General Pettigrew's brigade
consisted of the following North Carolina regiments:
Eleventh, Colonel Leventhorpe; Twenty-sixth, Colonel
Burgwyn; Forty-fourth, Colonel Singeltary; Forty-sev
enth, Colonel Faribault, and Fifty-second, Colonel
Marshall.

At Deep Gully, a few miles out from New Bern,

* From Manassas to Appomattox, p. 324.
t Rebellion Records, XVIII, 951.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 153

General Daniel found five companies and two field pieces
in strong position. With four companies, he at once
attacked and routed the Federals. This initiatory
success could not, however, be followed up, as General
Pettigrew, after every exertion, found it impossible to
carry out his orders. He was expected to take Fort
Anderson, to advance his guns to that point, a com
manding one, and then to drive away the gunboats
on the river, and if possible, shell the garrison.
General Pettigrew, however, found his artillery and
ammunition so worthless and unsuited to the work in
hand, that he made no progress in his attack. He had
only four guns of range enough to reach the boats.
These were 2o-potmd Parrotts of Confederate manu
facture. Of these, one burst, killing or wounding several
of the gunners, another broke down, and the shells from
the others "burst just outside the guns."* So rather
than sacrifice his men by storming the work with infan
try alone, General Pettigrew wisely decided to withdraw.
The Twenty- sixth regiment had been under orders since
daylight to assault Fort Anderson, when the artillery open
ed, and its youthful and gallant Col. H. K. Burgwyn and
his men withdrew with great reluctance after having been
under a heavy artillery fire for some hours. The Confed
erate losses in this demonstration were, so far as reported,
4 killed and 1 9 wounded.

Between this movement against New Bern and the
siege of Washington, only one or two skirmishes took
place. A few men from the Seventeenth regiment made
a demonstration against Plymouth. Col. John. E. Brown,
with three companies of the Forty- second regiment, at
tacked the post at Winfield, on the Chowan river, below
Gatesville ; after a brisk exchange of shots, he withdrew.

At Sandy Ridge, three companies of the Forty-ninth and
some of the Eighth regiment had a short skirmish on the
2oth, and lost i killed and 6 wounded.

* Pettigrew' s Report.
Nc 20

154 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Toward the last of March, General Hill sent General
Garnett to lay siege to Washington. It had been hoped,
as already seen, to surprise the town, but the rains de
layed and exposed the movement. General Lee advised
against an assault on the town on account of the loss it
might entail.* In a letter to General Beauregard, then
at Charleston and expecting to be reinforced from North
Carolina, General Hill describes the objects of his attack
on Washington : * ' For the last four weeks I have been
around Washington and New Bern with three objects in
view — to harass the Yankees, to get our supplies from the
low country, and to make a diversion in your favor» . . .
Washington was closely besieged for sixteen days, but
they succeeded in getting two supply boats into town,
furnishing about twenty days' rations to the garrison, I
then withdrew, "f This was done in accordance with his
instructions from General Longstreet. Longstreet
states these instructions as follows: "General Hill is
ordered and urged to be prompt in his operations. If he
finds that too much time will be consumed in reducing the
garrison at any point, he is to draw off as soon as he gets
out the supplies from the eastern counties. ' ' J

The reason for these instructions was, that now as the
spring was fairly opening there were loud calls for the
troops operating in North Carolina. General Lee was
trying to reinforce for his spring campaign. General
Beauregard was asking for aid at Charleston, and the Rich
mond authorities were anxious to strengthen the Western
armies. Hence the campaign in North Carolina was
again reduced to defensive issues, and the troops moved
to bigger fields.

During the siege at Washington there was some spir
ited fighting around the town, and General Pettigrew at
Blount's mills repulsed, after a sharp attack, a column

* Letter to Longstreet— Rebellion Records, XVIII, 966.
f Rebellion Records, XVIII, 1007.
\ Rebellion Records, XVIII, 959.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 155

under General Spinola as it was marching to the relief of
Washington.

On the 2 ad of May, Lee's Federal brigade, one regi
ment of Pennsylvania troops, seven pieces of artillery,
and three companies of cavalry, surprised the Fifty- sixth
and Twenty-fifth North Carolina regiments at Gum
Swamp, below Kinston. These regiments were broken
and scattered, and lost 165 prisoners; but rallied and sup
ported by some companies of the Forty-ninth regiment,
the Twenty-seventh regiment and other troops, attacked
the Federals and drove them back to New Bern, killing
their commander, Col. J. R, Jones,

CHAPTER X.

CHANCELLORSVILLE — BRANDY STATION — WINCHES
TER— BERRYVILLE — JORDAN SPRINGS — MIDDLE-
BURG— UPPERVILLE— FAIRFAX.

AFTER the battle at Fredericksburg, General Lee's
army went into winter quarters along the south
side of the Rappahannock, and the Federal army
made itself comfortable on the north side of the same
river. It was a rigorous winter, and many of the Confed
erates suffered severely from lack of proper uniforms and
shoes, and from want of proper food. In April, General
Hooker, who had succeeded Burnside in command of
the Federal army, began a demonstration against the
Confederate front and right, and under cover of this
movement, marched the Eleventh, Twelfth and Fifth
corps up the Rappahannock, crossed at Kelly's ford, and
concentrated at Chancellorsville on Thursday afternoon,
the 3oth of April. The Second corps crossed at United
States ford, and the Third was ordered to follow by the
same route. Four corps were thus massed on Lee's left
flank, and a fifth was nearly in position, with "scarcely
a man lost. ' ' The initial success was certainly with
Hooker, and a continuation of this vigorous offensive
would have "desperately compromised" the army of
Northern Virginia. But Hooker's energy seemed to
expend itself in the movement. "Lee had not been."
says Dodge, "unaware of what the Federals had been
doing, but he had been largely misled by the feint below
the town, and had so little anticipated Hooker's movement
by the right, that less than 3,000 of his cavalry were on
hand to observe the crossing of the Rappahannock and
the Rapidan. Stuart had not until Thursday fully gauged

156

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 157

the importance of this movement, and only on Thursday
night had Lee ascertained the facts, and been able to
mature his plans for parrying Hooker's thrust." *

On the night of the 29th, R. H. Anderson's division was
directed to proceed toward Chancellorsville and cover the
important roads leading to the Confederate rear. When
Anderson arrived at Chancellorsville about midnight, he
found two of his divisions — Mahone's and Posey's — al
ready there. These two brigades had been stationed at
Bark Hill ford (or United States ford). As the crossing
of the enemy flanked their position, they retired with a
view to check his advance on the Confederate flank, f
General Anderson took position at the intersection of the
mine and plank roads, near Tabernacle church, and began
to intrench himself. As Anderson withdrew from Chan
cellorsville to take this position, his rear guard was
attacked by Federal cavalry, but this was soon driven off
by Mahone's brigade. Up to this point no North Carolina
troops were on the field. By this time, General Lee was
satisfied that Hooker's objective point was his flank ; so
leaving Early's division, Barksdale's brigade and part of
the reserve artillery under Pendleton, to guard his lines
at Fredericksburg, he ordered McLaws to move toward
Anderson's position at midnight on the soth, and Jackson
to move at dawn. General Jackson reached Anderson's
"hasty works" at 8 o'clock, and at once prepared to ad
vance the whole Confederate force. Gen. R. F. Hoke's
North Carolina brigade of four regiments and one battal
ion remained with Early. With Jackson there moved
four North Carolina brigades and two regiments. Two
of these brigades, Lane's and Fender's, were in A. P.
Hill's division, commanded by General Rodes; the First
and Third regiments were in Colston's division.

Hooker's plan was to uncover Banks' ford so as to get
in easy communication with his troops left at Fredericks-

* Dodge: Lowell Institute Speech,
f Mahone's Report.

158 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

burg, and advance to the open ground beyond Chancellors-
ville. He had already lost a day, and the day was very
valuable to Lee. His troops moved forward, and Sykes
and Hancock ran against and engaged McLaws and
Anderson; and Slocum, commanding the Eleventh and
Twelfth corps on the plank road, also engaged the Confed
erates. Sykes for a while drove McLaws back, but
Anderson and Ramseur's Carolinians came to his support
and drove him back of Hancock, who advanced to
strengthen the fight. Hancock and Slocum then both
formed line. The position of each of these officers was
good, being free from the undergrowth of the wilderness,
and open enough for advantageous use of cavalry and
artillery. ' ' Suddenly, ' ' says Dodge, ' * every one concerned
was surprised by an order from Hooker to withdraw again
into the wilderness. Here may be said to have begun
the certain loss of the campaign. The proceeding was
absurd. . . . Hooker had come to the end of his mental
tether. The march had taxed his powers to their limit. ' ' *

When the Federals retired, they were followed by the
Confederate advance, but no more serious fighting took
place that day. During the night the Federals in
trenched themselves, as Hooker had, in spite of his num
bers, resolved to fight a defensive battle. "It was evi
dent," says General Lee in his report, "that a direct
attack on the enemy would be attended with great diffi
culty and loss, in view of the strength of his position and
his superiority of numbers. ' ' General Jackson was there
fore sent with his corps, on the 2d, to assail the Federal
right, held by General Howard with the Eleventh corps.
Although Jackson's men had just seen arduous service,
they set out with great cheerfulness, and by 5 p. m. had
reached the Federal right. "To cover Jackson's march,
Lee at intervals during the day tapped at the lines in
his front, principally where Hancock lay."

At 6 o'clock, General Jackson advanced. D. H. Hill's

* Colonel Dodge: Boston Speech.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 159

division, under Rodes, held the front line. On the left
of this division was Iverson with the Fifth, Twelfth,
Twentieth and Twenty-third North Carolina regiments.
In reserve just behind Rodes' right brigade (Colquitt's),
was Ramseur, with the Second, Fourth, Fourteenth and
Thirtieth North Carolina regiments. Trimble's division
under Colston composed the second line; in this were the
First and Third North Carolina regiments. A. P. Hill's
formed the third line. Two of his brigades, Lane's and
Fender's, were entirely composed of North Carolinians.

General Howard, in spite of repeated warnings, had not
strengthened his position, and when Jackson's troops
rushed fiercely upon his command, over half of which was
composed of Germans, his men were cooking supper and
amusing themselves.. Colonel Dodge, of the Federal army,
writes : "At 6 p. m. the order was given, and 22,000 of the
best infantry in existence closed rapidly down upon the
flank of 10,000 of the least hardened of the troops of the
army of the Potomac. . . . The fight was short, sharp,
deadly, but partial only. But the force on the right was
swept away like a cobweb by Jackson's mighty besom.
. . . Never was an army more completely surprised, more
absolutely overwhelmed. . . . Happily, night was ap
proaching and Jackson's troops had to be halted and
reformed, his three lines having become inextricably
mixed." *

With the exception of some of Schurz's regiments and
Buschbeck's brigade, which made a gallant stand in some
breastworks from which Doles drove it, there was no
severe fighting until Berry's division could be placed in
position. Then the lines were exposed to much hotter
fire. However, the North Carolinians, as well as their
comrades, had, although their success was marvelous,
no such arduous battling as came on the next day.
Col. H. A. Brown, in his Regimental History, says:
"We captured piles of fat knapsacks and piles of fatter

* Boston Speech.

160 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Dutchmen. Private Faw, of Company B, remarked that
the thick woods that we were passing through were like
a strainer, letting the lean and lesser Dutchmen through,
and holding the fat ones." Colonel Parker, of the Thir
tieth, says that* 'upon the attack, many of these surprised
Germans broke to the rear, shouting in terror the ominous
word, 'Shackson! Shackson!' "

During this rapid advance, the front lines, in the ardor
of the pursuit and by the entanglement of the wilderness,
became so mixed that it was necessary to halt for adjust
ment, and A. P. Hill's line was ordered forward to relieve
the two front lines. It was during this change in his lines
that General Jackson, one of the pillars of Lee's success,
was wounded by the relieving line. These troops, hav
ing just come into position, did not know that he was
reconnoitering in front. When Hill's regiments reached
the front, line of battle was formed. Lane's brigade was
in advance. His Thirty-third regiment was deployed in
front as skirmishers; the Seventh and Thirty-seventh
were on the right of the road, the Eighteenth and Twenty-
eighth on the left. Jackson meant to push his attack
immediately on with these fresh lines, but his fall and
the wounding of General Hill stopped the further
attack. During the night, when Sickles was pushing his
way back to his friends, the Eighteenth, Twenty-eighth
and portions of the Thirty-third North Carolina regi
ment distinguished themselves by effective work against
him, and won General Heth's hearty praise. During
Jackson's triumphant progress, Anderson hotly attacked
the Federal front, but there were no North Carolina
troops on his part of the field.

Before the renewal of combat, Sunday, May 3d, each of
the contestants formed new battle order. Hooker drew
Sickles back from Hazel Grove in the morning, and posted
the whole of Sickles' corps and Williams' division of the
Twelfth corps in works on a crest to the right of Fair-
view, and at right angles to the plank road. Fairview

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 161

was covered with artillery from the Third, Twelfth and
Eleventh corps. French of Couch's division was on the
right of Sickles, and Humphreys of Meade's corps was
near by. This new line was at right angles to Geary and
Hancock, who were still in front of Anderson and McLaws.

Stuart formed his lines with A. P. Hill's division in
front. Fender and Thomas were on the left of the plank
road, Fender's right resting on the road; Lane, McGowan
and Archer were on the right of the road and in the order
named from the left. Lane's left was on the road. Trim
ble's division, under Colston, composed the second line,
and Rodes the third. To aid the infantry attacks, thirty
pieces of artillery were placed on the eminence at Hazel
Grove, abandoned by Hooker's order. The whole line
moved forward shortly after daylight, with "Remember
Jackson" as a watchword. The breastworks, where the
night attack stopped, were carried after desperate effort.
The troops on the left of the plank road carried the next
line, and then the Federals took refuge in their third, and
strongly intrenched, line. The Confederates three times
ran over these works, and three times were they driven
back. French fell on their left flank, but they brought up
their reserves and renewed the fiery onslaught. How fierce
the fighting was may be gauged by the fact that 9,000
Federals fell here. * Dodge comments : * * No praise is too
high for the staunchness of the attack or the stubbornness
of the defense." Finally the Confederate left and right
joined and drove the Federals from their lines.

This general sketch of the battle has been necessary for
a proper understanding of the service of the -North Caro
lina brigades. Fender and Thomas attacked to the left
of the road. General Heth, commanding the division
after its senior commander's wound, says in his report:
"Generals Fender and Thomas, on the left, found the
enemy posted behind a breastwork of logs and brush
immediately in their front, at a distance of 150 yards.

* Dodge, in Boston Speech.
No 21

162 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

The breastworks were charged and carried, the men never
hesitating for a moment, driving the enemy before them
until a second line was reached, which was in like manner
broken. A third line of the enemy was now encountered.
After a desperate and prolonged fight, without supports
or a piece of artillery to aid them, but on their part sub
jected to heavy artillery fire of from ten to twelve pieces,
these gallant brigades fell back in order to the breast
works from which the enemy had been driven." These
they held for reinforcements, and joined in the fresh
assault that drove the Federals off the field. General Pen-
der says of his men: "I can truly say my brigade fought,
May 3d, with unsurpassed courage and determination. ' '
Fender lost 700 men in a few hours.

General Heth reports of Lane's assault: "Lane's bri
gade, supported by the Fortieth and Forty-seventh Vir
ginia regiments, and McGowan's brigade, advanced and
charged the enemy (behind his breastworks) who was sup
ported by twenty-nine pieces of artillery. I cannot con
ceive of any body of men ever being subjected to a more
galling fire than this force. The brigades of Lane,
McGowan and a portion of Heth's (Colonel Brockenbrough
commanding), notwithstanding, drove the enemy from
his works and held them for some time, but were finally
compelled to fall back, which was unavoidable from the
course that affairs had assumed on the right of the line. ' '
Their flank had been turned. General Lane justly felt
proud of his men: "I shall always feel proud of the
noble bearing of my brigade in the battle of Chancellors-
ville — the bloodiest in which it has ever taken a part —
where the Thirty-third discharged its duty so well as skir
mishers, and, with the Eighteenth and Twenty-eighth,
gallantly repulsed two night attacks made by vastly supe
rior numbers, and where the Seventh and Thirty-seventh
vied with each other as to who should first drive the
vandals from their works." His losses, 739 killed and
wounded, show hard struggling.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 163

Iverson's brigade went into action on the left of the
Confederate line and to the left of the plank road; Rodes'
brigade was on Iverson's right. Both of these were sup
porting brigades and in the third line. The Fifth regi
ment, the left regiment, became entangled in the dense
undergrowth and had to be moved to the right to get for
ward. This left the Twelfth on the flank. Lieut. -Col.
R. D. Johnston, of the Twenty- third, was that day in com
mand of the Twelfth and he deployed skirmishers on the
flank and the brigade moved on the enemy. Iverson
reached the front line as it was falling back from its
assault on the third Federal position. General Double-
day, of the Union army, says: "Then another front
attack was organized by the enemy, and Nicholls', Iver
son's and O'Neal's brigades charged over everything,
even up to Best's batteries at Fairview. " * This attack,
however, divided itself into two parts. A portion of
Iverson's brigade and a portion of Fender's and two reg
iments of O'Neal's, under the personal leadership of Fen
der, assailed the part of the enemy's battery and line rest
ing on the road. General Rodes said of this movement :
"The enemy was compelled to fall back, and pressing
on, Colonel Hall's two regiments (Fifth and Twenty-sixth
Alabama), together with the Twenty-third North Caro
lina, Colonel Christie, carried the heights in magnificent
style, planting their flags inside the works. ' ' f The rest of
Rodes', Iverson's and Fender's troops were repulsed, and
this exposing the three regiments Fender had in advance,
they, too, fell back. At this juncture the flank attack of
French, and later Humphreys, struck the Confederate
left. Iverson and Thomas hurried some troops there, and
Colston and Colquitt soon stopped the movement, and the
general Confederate advance followed. Iverson ' s brigade
loss was 370 men.

While these North Carolinians and others were striking

* Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, p. 48.
f Official Report.

164 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

so manfully on the left, Ramseur's Carolinians and Doles'
Georgians were warmly at work on the right. Ramseur,
as he had been on the front the day before, was on the
last line at the opening of the battle. As Ramseur went
in, the Thirtieth North Carolina, Colonel Parker, was
detached, with discretionary orders to support Pegram's
battery. When Ramseur reached the first line of works
from which the Federals had been driven, he found a
small part of one of the Confederate divisions so demoral
ized by the death of some of its officers, as to be lying
behind the works for protection. Ramseur, after futile
efforts to induce them to do their duty, marched his men
over them and over the works, and formed in face of a
murderous fire. * As soon as he had established his line,
Ramseur rushed forward without firing a gun and cap
tured the enemy's works. General Cox says: "This was
one of the few times during the war when the opposing
troops actually crossed bayonets, and where an inferior
force, in broad daylight, without firing a gun, captured
breastworks held by superior numbers and drove them out
at the point of the bayonet. ' ' General Ramseur says of
his regiments: "The Fourth North Carolina, Colonel
Grimes, and seven companies of the Second, Colonel Cox,
drove the enemy before them until they had taken the
last line of his works, which they held under a severe
direct and enfilading fire, repulsing several assaults on
this portion of our front. ' ' The Fourteenth and three
companies of the Second could not get as far as the other
part of the brigade, for they found no troops on their right
and the enemy was in force on that flank. Ramseur tried
in vain to get his right protected. Colonel Parker, how
ever, returning with the Thirtieth regiment to join him,
saw this flanking force, and always prompt and brave, he
charged and stayed its progress. Grimes and Cox had
now to be withdrawn until reinforcements came. But
for Colonel Bennett's coolness and Colonel Parker's
* General Cox's Memorial Address.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 165

charge, Grimes and Cox, after their handsome efforts,
would doubtlessly have been captured or severely cut up.

The First and Third North Carolina regiments were in
Colston's brigade and division. Colonel Warren was in
command of Colston's brigade. This brigade was,
however, under its fifth commander when Sunday's
battle ended. Colonel Warren fell severely wounded,
as did in turn his successors, Col. T. V. Williams,
Col. John A. McDowell, and Lieut. -Col. S. D. Thrus-
ton. Lieut. -Col. H. A. Brown, of the First North
Carolina, was fortunate enough to be the only unin
jured commander. This list of wounded officers proves
that the brigade fought unflinchingly. The Regi
mental History of the Third regiment gives this account
of the brigade's part in the action: "On Sunday, the 3d,
the regiment was formed on the right of the road, and
advancing, captured the first line of the enemy's works —
a barricade of huge logs with abatis in front. The por
tion of these works that crossed a ravine and swamp, and
which was favorable to the occupancy of the enemy, was
assaulted three times by the Confederates before it was
finally held. This regiment (also the brigade) partici
pated in the last two of these charges. It was then that
Gen. J. E. B. Stuart ordered the whole line forward.
The enemy's earthworks were carried by storm, and many
pieces of artillery which had occupied them were captured.
We were now in full view of the Chancellor house. . . .
Soon the Chancellor house was on fire and a glorious vic
tory perched on our banners. ' '

The Federals retreated toward the Rappahannock by
10 a. m., and General Lee halted his men to rest and
reform. It was his intention to follow Hooker for a
new attack when word from Fredericksburg made other
action necessary. General Sedgwick's corps had crossed
the Potomac, captured the heights intrusted to Early, and
was moving in Lee's rear to help the sorely beset Hooker.
General Lee sent first McLaws and then Anderson to

166 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

meet and check this advance. No force except Jackson's
corps was left in front of Hooker's vast army. "Here,
then," is Colonel Dodge's caustic comment upon his com
mander's allowing Lee to do this with impunity, "we
have the spectacle, happily rare in war, of a slender force
of 20,000 men, who had been continuously marching and
fighting for four days, penning in their defenses an army
of over 60,000, while its commander cries for aid to a lieu
tenant who is miles away and beset by a larger force than
he himself commands. And this slack-sinewed com
mander is the very same who initiated the campaign with
the watchword: 'Fight! Fight!! Fight!!!' and with the
motto: 'Celerity, audacity and resolution are everything
in war. ' '

McLaws took position at Salem church. Brooks and
Newton, of Sedgwick's corps, lost 1,500 men in an at
tempt to move him, but failed. General Lee then ordered
the rest of Anderson's division to reinforce McLaws, and
directed these forces and Early 's command to strike Sedg-
wick. This was done, and though a loss of 2,000 men
was inflicted, Sedgwick after holding his ground until
night crossed the river, and Lee's flank was clear. Sedg
wick's corps sustained a loss of 4,590 in these engage
ments.* In this last battle, Hoke's brigade was most
actively engaged in the charge against Howe. The main
assault was made upon Howe's left by the brigades of
Hoke and Hays. These two brigades, although attacking
with "an easy contempt of danger," were repulsed until
Gordon's brigade found opportunity to move down a
ravine and take Howe in flank. This compelled Howe's
hasty withdrawal. General Hoke was wounded in this
charge. His brigade lost first and last 230 men.

As Sedgwick was retreating toward the river, Manly 's
battery was called into play, and General Wilcox said :
"Captain Manly 's battery rendered valuable service in
shelling the retreating enemy near Banks ' ford. Twenty

* Rebellion Records, XXV, I, 191.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 167

of the enemy were wounded by this shelling and fell into
our hands the next day, and many were killed."

The total Federal killed and wounded in this series of
battles reached 12,216; they also lost 5,711 prisoners.*
The total Confederate loss in killed and wounded was
as follows: killed, 1,581; wounded, 8,700; total, 10,281.
North Carolina had fewer regiments than usual with
General Lee at this time. Both Ransom's and Cooke's
brigades were on other duty. There were present in
General Lee's army in these battles, 124 regiments and 5
battalions of infantry. North Carolina had present 24
regiments and i battalion. Nearly exactly, then, one-fifth
of the Confederate army was from North Carolina, and
one-fifth of the battle casualties would have been,
therefore, that State's fair share of loss. However, of the
total Confederate casualties — killed, 1,581; wounded,
8,700 — North Carolina lost in killed, 557; in wounded,
2,394.f Thus more than one-third of the killed, and
considerably over one-fourth of the wounded, were sons of
North Carolina. Of the 1 24 regiments in the army of
Northern Virginia, only three regiments J lost in this
battle over 200 men in killed and wounded, and all three
of these regiments were from North Carolina. Of the
same number of regiments, only twelve lost over 150 men,
and six of the twelve were from the same State. These
twelve and their losses are as follows: Thirty- seventh
North Carolina, 227; Second North Carolina, 214; Thir
teenth North Carolina, 209; Third North Carolina, 179;
Fiftieth Virginia, 170; Twenty-second North Carolina,
169; Seventh North Carolina, 164; Fourth Virginia, 163;
Cobb's legion, 157; Fourth North Carolina, 155; Fifth
Alabama, 154; Fourth Georgia, 150.

No words can ever make such undying attestation to
North Carolina heroism as is borne by these simple fig-

*Rebellion Records, XXV, I, pp. 185, 191.
f Official Report, Rebellion Records, XXV, I, 809.
\ These three are, of course, the three highest on the list of the
twelve.

168 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

ures. Among the killed were the following officers from
North Carolina: Cols. J. T. Purdie, J. C. S. McDowell;
Lieut. -Cols. C. C. Cole, J. L. Hill, and Maj. L. Odell.
In the list of wounded were Gens. R. F. Hoke, S. D.
Ramseur; Cols. T. M. Garrett, T. F. Toon, W. R. Cox,
A. M. Scales, W. M. Barbour, C. M, Avery, E. G. Hay-
wood; Lieut. -Cols. J. W. Lea, R. V. Cowan, W. H. A.
Speer, Forney George, J. B. Ashcraft; Majs. M. McR.
McLauchlin, W. G. Morris, W. L. Davidson, T. W. May-
hew; Adjt. Ives Smedes.

On June 9, 1863, at Fleetwood, near Brandy Station,
the greatest cavalry engagement of the war occurred.
The Union forces, numbering about 10,000 men, under
General Pleasanton, attacked General Stuart, command
ing the Confederate cavalry, which numbered nearly the
same as the Union horsemen. Stuart was caught be
tween the columns of Buford and Gregg, and drove back
each in turn in a magnificent battle, in which both sides
fought earnestly and courageously. General Hampton
led the First North Carolina in a flank attack, and as the
front attack succeeded, this regiment, under Colonel
Baker, followed in hot pursuit, took many prisoners, and
captured the colors of the Tenth New York regiment.
General Hampton commends a dashing feat performed
by a squadron under command of Capt. W. H. H. Cowles,
who, with Capt. W. R. Wood, "charged through the ranks
of the enemy, following him for some miles and return
ing around his columns in safety, with sixty prisoners. ' '
Captain Wood charged successfully an infantry force.
The Fifth, Fourth and Second cavalry were also engaged.
The Second regiment was severely engaged and lost its
brave colonel, Sol. Williams, of whom General Stuart
said: "He was as fearless as he was efficient." Maj.
Rufus Barringer, whose conduct is praised by General
Hampton, was severely wounded. The Union loss was
837; Confederate, 575.

The day after this battle, General Ewell started on his

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 169

campaign against General Milroy in the Shenandoah val
ley. General E well's corps embraced the divisions of
Rodes, Early and Johnson. In Rodes' division were
three North Carolina brigades, Iverson's, Daniel's and
Ramseur's; in Early's was Hoke's brigade, commanded
during this campaign (General Hoke being wounded) by
Col. I. E. Avery, of the Sixth North Carolina; in John
son's division were the First and Third regiments. Gen
eral Daniel's brigade had but recently been incorporated
into the army of Virginia, and was constituted as follows :
Thirty- second, Colonel Brabble; Forty- third, Colonel
Kenan; Forty-fifth, Lieut. -Col. S. H. Boyd; Fifty-third,
Colonel Owens, and Second battalion, Lieut. -Col. H. L.
Andrews.

General Rodes was sent to dislodge a force at Berry-
ville, and General Ewell marched directly for Winchester.
In the assault made by Early's troops on the fortifications
at Winchester, Hoke's brigade was in reserve and not
actively engaged. When the enemy evacuated Winches
ter and attacked General Steuart, of Johnson's division,
who had taken position at Jordan Springs to intercept the
retreat, the First and Third North Carolina regiments
and the two Virginia regiments making up the brigade,
became engaged in a brilliant night battle. These regi
ments were in position along a railroad cut, and were
largely outnumbered, but Milroy 's men could not move
them from their line, and about 1,000 surrendered to
General Steuart alone, who had been reinforced by the
brigades of Nicholls and Walker. The First" North Car
olina captured four stand of colors. Lieut. John A.
Morgan, of the same regiment, greatly distinguished him
self by serving gallantly a piece of artillery commanding
a bridge desired by the Federals. The losses in the two
regiments were only 9 killed, 28 wounded.

The brigades in General Rodes' division were engaged

Nc22

170 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

in a successful pursuit of the enemy at Berryville and
Martinsburg, but had no serious engagement until they
reached Gettysburg.

The weeks following Chancellorsville were busy weeks
with the cavalry. At Middleburg, General Robertson,
commanding the Fourth and Fifth North Carolina cav
alry, attacked a brigade of Pleasan ton's cavalry, and
more than held his own in a plucky fight. In this engage
ment, Maj. James H. McNeill was wounded. Again near
Middleburg, on the ipth of June, a sharp skirmish took
place, in which the First, Fourth and Fifth cavalry were
participants.

At Upperville, on the 2ist of June, the two cavalry
forces joined in severe saber-to-saber conflicts, and the
day was one of repeated and varying combat. The
First North Carolina had a hand-to-hand fight with the
First United States dragoons, and, Colonel Baker says,
broke them by the charge. The Fifth and Fourth were
heavily set upon in the rear, and Col. P. G. Evans se
verely wounded.

On the 27th, at Fairfax Court House, the First North
Carolina had, as General Stuart reported, "a spirited
encounter with and chase after a detachment of Federal
cavalry denominated Scott's Nine Hundred, killing,
wounding and capturing the greater portion, among them
several officers ; also horses, arms and equipments. The
First North Carolina cavalry lost its major in the first
onset — Maj. John H. Whitaker — an officer of distinction
and great value to us. ' ' The North Carolina losses in
these battles were, killed, 31; wounded, 103.

CHAPTER XL

THE CONFEDERATE INVASION OF PENNSYLVANIA-
BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG— NORTH CAROLINIANS
IN THE THREE DAYS— FIGHTING ON THE RETREAT
—THE POTOMAC RECROSSED BY LEE'S ARMY— CAV
ALRY FIGHTING IN VIRGINIA DURING THE INVA
SION OF PENNSYLVANIA.

AFTER General Hooker retreated from General
Lee's front at Chancellorsville, the Confederate
commander determined to transfer the scene of
hostilities beyond the Potomac. His army was put in
motion, and by the 2 yth of June, his advance corps, under
Ewell, was at Carlisle, Pa. , and his other two corps, under
Longstreet and A. P. Hill, were encamped near Cham-
bersburg. The further advance of the army was arrested
by intelligence that the Federal army had crossed the
Potomac and was approaching South mountain. "In
the absence of the cavalry," says General Lee, "it was
impossible to learn his intentions ; but to deter him from
advancing farther west and intercepting our communica
tion with Virginia, it was determined to concentrate the
army east of the mountains. "

Accordingly, A. P. Hill's corps was set in motion to
ward Gettysburg, and this corps was followed by Long-
street's a day later. General Ewell was directed to move
back from Carlisle, and to join the army either at Cash-
town or Gettysburg. Hill's advance division, Heth's,
reached Cashtown on the 2pth of June. From that point
General Heth sent Pettigrew's North Carolina brigade to
Gettysburg to procure supplies. When General Petti-
grew arrived at the outskirts of the town, he found it

171

172 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

occupied by the Federals, and, not knowing the force
there, he returned to Cashtown.

This was the first service of Pettigrew's brigade with
General Lee's army, but, notwithstanding this fact, it
was to render itself immortal by losing in this battle in
killed and wounded (not prisoners), 208 more men than
any other brigade in General Lee's entire army.* S win-
ton says of this brigade, as well as the rest of Heth's
division: "The division on the left of Pickett, under com
mand of General Pettigrew, was in considerable part made
up of North Carolina troops, comparatively green. ' ' f
While the expressions "in considerable part " and "com
paratively green " are somewhat indefinite, yet, taking
language in its usual sense, both are erroneous as applied
to this division. In the first place, the division was com
posed of seventeen regiments, only five of which were
from North Carolina. In the second place, if one bears
in mind that none of Lee's regiments was over two years
old, "comparatively green" fits no one of those five regi
ments. The Eleventh regiment, the "Bethel regiment,"
as it was known in North Carolina, was composed "in
considerable part" of the men who had made up the First
North Carolina regiment of volunteers, the oldest regi
ment in the Confederate service. After its reorganization
under the accomplished Leventhorpe, it had been severely
tested at Franklin, at White Hall, and at Blount's creek.
The Twenty- sixth regiment, commanded by as gallant a
soldier as ever wore epaulettes, Harry K. Burgwyn, saw
bloody service at New Bern, and took part, an honor
able part, in all the battles around Richmond. The
Fifty-second regiment, trained and commanded by an
educated soldier, the noble J. K. Marshall, was over a
year old in its organization and had been tried, and borne
itself bravely, in battle on the Black water, at Blount's
creek and at Goldsboro. The Forty-seventh regiment

* See Dr. Guild's Casualty List, Rebellion Records,
f Army of the Potomac, p. 350

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 173

also had been in service over a year, had for its officers
many men originally members of the First regiment, had
been under fire for three months in its campaigning in
North Carolina, and while it had been in no great pitched
battle, it was battle-tried. In like manner, the Fifty-
fifth was not a new regiment. It was organized in the
spring of 1862, had a dashing set of officers, and had
many times before been under severe fire.

The battle of the first day at Gettysburg was a clear
Confederate victory. Gen. A. P. Hill reached Cashtown
on the soth, with his former division, now commanded by
Fender, who was promoted to a major-generalship when
General Hill became corps commander. The next morn
ing, July ist, General Hill advanced Heth and Fender to
develop the force of the Federals. As Heth, who had
the van, approached Gettysburg, he found his adversaries
strongly posted on the northwestern approaches to the
town. Heth, little realizing that he was opening in front
of that obscure little town the greatest contest of modern
times, ordered his leading brigades under Davis and
Archer into action. Davis was north of the Chambers-
burg pike, and was supported by Brockenbrough, who was
just south of the pike. Archer, supported by Pettigrew,
was south of the pike. Both brigades faced Seminary
ridge. When the fighting began, only Buford's cavalry
held the ground for the Federals; but the First army
corps, under Reynolds' direction, was advancing rapidly
to the support of the cavalry, and Cutler and the "Iron
brigade," under Morrow of Wadsworth's division, soon
took position in front of Seminary hill.

Davis' brigade, which consisted that day of only the
Fifty-fifth North Carolina regiment, Colonel Connally,
and two Mississippi regiments, encountered Cutler's bri
gade. After a stubborn contest, waged until Davis' men
advanced within a few yards of their line, the Federals
were broken, and by General Wadsworth's order were
temporarily retired to Seminary hill. Archer was not so

174 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

fortunate as Davis. The "Iron brigade," advancing
through a wood that concealed it, swept unexpectedly
around Archer's right flank, captured him and many of
his men, and broke the brigade badly. Archer out of the
way, General Doubleday, who was directing operations
after General Reynolds was killed, turned all his atten
tion to Davis. The Federal reserves were ordered in, and
struck Davis in flank as he was, says General Double-
day, * 'pursuing Cutler's brigade toward town." This
reserve consisted of three regiments and 100 men of the
brigade guard. General Doubleday says this reserve
"went forward with great spirit, but was altogether too
weak to assail so large a force. " * A little search into
records would have shown General Doubleday that Gen
eral Davis, the only officer on the field, had but three
regiments f to meet his reserve three, and that they had
already lost very severely, while the Federal three and
brigade guard had not been under fire. This new attack
fell on Davis' front and flank just as he was preparing to
retire, and broke his line, leaving the arriving brigades
of Doubleday's division free to form line of battle. Gen
eral Heth reports that Colonel Connally and Maj. A. H.
Belo, of the North Carolina regiment, bore themselves
"with conspicuous gallantry. " Lieutenant-Colonel Smith
was killed.

The high spirit of Connally and his men is shown by
an incident narrated by Capt. C. M. Cooke of this regi
ment. Colonel Connally, while the regiment was advanc
ing, seized the battleflag and waved it encouragingly.
He was at once shot down. Major Belo, who was near
him, sprang to his side, inquiring whether he was much
hurt. " Yes, " answered the colonel, "but do not pay any
attention to me. Take the colors and keep ahead of the
Mississippians. "

After the re pulse of Davis, a lull in the battle occurred.

* Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, p. 132.
I One of his regiments was in Virginia.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 175

Heth reformed his lines, putting Archer's brigade on his
right next to the woods, then Pettigrew's brigade of four
North Carolina regiments on Archer's left, then Brock-
enbrough's Virginia brigade to Pettigrew's left. Davis
was placed on the extreme left as a reserve, and to collect
his stragglers. Pender's division was formed just behind
Heth; Lane's brigade of North Carolinians on the right,
then Perrin in the center, and Scales' North Carolinians
on the left. Thomas' brigade was retained by the corps
commander to meet a threatened advance from the left.
General Doubleday in his book on Gettysburg again gets
numbers wrong. He says: "As I had but four weak
infantry brigades at this time against eight large brigades
that were about to assail my lines, I would have been jus
tified in falling back. " * As just seen, the Confederates
sent in only six brigades. The six Confederate brigades
consisted of twenty-seven regiments. Doubleday 's four
brigades had only eighteen regiments, it is true, but he
had the assistance of Buford's two cavalry brigades and
horse artillery, and good service they did him by a dis
mounted fight, for they practically neutralized Archer's
gallant brigade. There is no reason to think that there
was any great disparity in the regimental strength of the
contestants ; hence any claim of excessive numbers on the
Confederate side is inadmissible. Moreover, the position
of the Federal troops, on the ridge and behind stone walls,
was worth several regiments.

On the Federal side, Biddle faced Pettigrew and part
of Stone's brigade, and Meredith fronted Brockenbrough.
Stone's men faced both north and west, and were in
formidable position on a ridge and behind a stone fence.
To his right was Cutler, and then Baxter and Paul.
These last two brigades, says General Hunt, "took post
behind the stone walls of a field." Baxter faced to the
west and Paul to the north. These, then, were the posts
of the six infantry brigades of the First corps, and formed
* Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, 1882, p. 134.

176 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

the left of the Federal line. Buford's cavalry was mainly
on the left. To their right, the Eleventh corps, under
General Howard, took post as it arrived on the field.
General Schurz's two brigades, tinder Schimmelfennig
and Krzyzanowski, were on Reynolds' immediate right,
and Barlow's two, tinder Gilsa and Ames, formed the
extreme Federal right.

While these troops were getting into battle order, Gen
eral E well's corps was arriving and arraying itself on the
Confederate left. Rodes' division, the first to reach the
field, formed on Heth's left; Iverson's North Carolina
brigade occupying his right, O'Neal his center, and Doles
his left. Daniel, with his North Carolina brigade, sup
ported Iverson, and had instruction to attack on his right
if opportunity arose. Ramseur's four North Carolina
regiments were held in reserve. When Early 's division
reported, it went into action with Gordon on the right,
next to Doles, Hays on his left, and Hoke's North Caro
lina brigade on the extreme Confederate left. Smith was
in reserve. Johnson's division did not arrive in time for
the afternoon battle.

General Doubleday, commenting on the converging
lines of A. P. Hill and Ewell, says: "It would of course
have been impossible to hold the line if Hill attacked on
the west and Ewell assailed me at the same time on the
north ; but I occupied the central position, and their con
verging columns did not strike together until the grand,
final advance at the close of the day, and therefore I was
able to resist several of their attacks before the last crash
came. " * As these early attacks of the Confederates
were not synchronous, it may facilitate an understanding
of the part taken by the North Carolina brigades to follow
them from the Confederate right to the left. On the
right, Pettigrew's brigade attacked Biddle's Federal bri
gade, posted just in front of the west face of Seminary
ridge. The attack began between two and three in the
* Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, p. 139.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 177

afternoon, and by 4 o'clock the brigade of Biddle was
broken and driven back to aline partly protected by rails,
just outside of the town. Capt Louis G. Young, of
Charleston, S. C., an aide-de-camp to General Pettigrew,
bears this testimony to the soldiership of the brigade :
"Opposite our left wing, composed of the Twenty- sixth
and Eleventh North Carolina troops, the Federals fought
desperately, inflicting so heavy a loss that too few were
left for a successful bayonet charge ; but our men pressed
on persistently until the enemy was driven back to his
intrenchments * just outside of the town, and from which
he was quickly driven by Fender's fine division. No
troops could have fought better than did Pettigrew's bri
gade on this day, and I will testify, on the experience of
many hard-fought battles, that I never saw any fight so
well. Its conduct was the admiration of all who witnessed
the engagement; and it was the generally-expressed
opinion that no brigade had done more effective service
and won greater fame for itself than this one. The pris
oners themselves testified that they, native to the soil or
which they were fighting, had fought with unusual deter*
mination, but that there was no withstanding such an
attack."! General Hill, in his official report, corrobo
rates Captain Young: "Pettigrew's brigade, under the
leadership of that gallant officer and accomplished scholar,
Brig. -Gen. J. Johnston Pettigrew (now lost to his coun
try), fought as well, and displayed as heroic courage as
it was ever my fortune to witness on a battlefield. . . .
The Eleventh North Carolina regiment, Col. C. Leven-
thorpe commanding, and the Twenty-sixth North Caro
lina regiment, Col. H. K. Burgwyn, Jr., commanding,
displayed conspicuous gallantry, of which I was an eye
witness. The Twenty-sixth North Carolina regiment lost
in this action more than half its numbers in killed and

* This refers to the line of rails on Seminary ridge, mentioned by
General Doubleday.

f Our Living and Dead.
Nc 28

178 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

wounded, among whom were Colonel Burgwyn, killed, and
Lieutenant-Colonel Lane, severely wounded. Colonel
Leventhorpe, of the Eleventh regiment, was wounded,
and Major Ross killed. The Fifty-second and Forty-sev
enth, on the right of the center, were subjected to a heavy
artillery fire, but suffered much less than the Eleventh and
Twenty-sixth North Carolina regiments. These regi
ments behaved to my entire satisfaction." Biddle's bri
gade being driven back, Pettigrew's men co-operated
with Brockenbrough's brigade in its attempts to dislodge
Meredith's "Iron brigade" under Morrow, that was tena
ciously holding its position. The two soon sent him back
to Biddle's new position on Seminary hill, but he had
been a gallant foeman, for he reports here a loss of 316
killed and wounded, out of a total of 496.

Fender's division moved up behind Heth's lines, now
commanded by General Pettigrew, as General Heth had
been wounded; and when Pender found Heth's men
"much exhausted and greatly reduced by several hours'
hard and successful fighting, ' ' he ordered his division to
take the front line and charge Seminary hill. General
Lane's brigade was so delayed by the dismounted Federal
cavalry on the right, that it did not get a fair opportu
nity to engage the enemy in front except a force posted in
a wood. Perrin and Scales pressed straight up the hill
in face of a close and accurate fire. Major Engelhard,
assistant adjutant-general, who made the official report
for Pender 's division> said of Scales' North Carolinians:
"General Scales on the left, with his left resting on the
turnpike, after passing the troops of General Heth, ad
vanced at a charge upon the flank of a brigade of the
enemy which was engaged with the extreme left of Gen
eral Heth's division, upon the opposite side of the road,
which soon caused the enemy to fall back." The Fed
erals, under General Doubleday's direction, had been very
actively putting artillery on the hill, and it now opened
murderously upon Scales, as he descended the hill to

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 179

charge up on the other side. Engelhard 's report contin
ues: "[The brigade] encountered a most terrific fire of
grape and shell on the left flank, and grape and musketry
in front, but still it pressed forward at double-quick until
the bottom was reached. . . . Here the fire was most
severe." The brigade halted at the foot of the hill to
make reply to the enemy's fire. General Fender rushed
up, urging the men to stop only to reform, and General
Scales, though badly wounded in the leg, ordered his
men to charge the hill. Led by Lieut. -Col. G. T. Gor
don, of the Thirty-fourth regiment, the men dashed for
the ridge, and attacking it concurrently with Ewell's
advance, drove the Federals through Gettysburg. As
they entered the town, the men of this brigade met their
comrades from Ramseur's North Carolina brigade, and
also from Hoke's brigade. These latter brigades entered
from the north side of the town.

During the progress of this battle on the right, Rodes'
division of Ewell's corps had been fiercely engaged. Bax
ter's Federal brigade repulsed O'Neal, and then moved
forward and took post behind a stone wall on the Mum-
masburg road. In that position Iverson, supported by
Daniel, attacked it. Iverson seems to have sent forward
his line of battle with no skirmishers in front, and reports
that his men rushed upon a "concealed stone wall."
General Doubleday thus states the disadvantage at which
Iverson's brave men were taken: "As his [Baxter's] men
lay down behind the [rock] fence, Iverson's brigade came
up very close, not knowing our troops were there. Bax
ter's men sprang to their feet and delivered a most deadly
volley at very short range, which left 500 of Iverson's
men dead and wounded, and so demoralized them that
all gave themselves up as prisoners. One regiment, how
ever, after stopping our firing by putting up a white flag,
slipped away and escaped. ' ' * There is a mixture of
truth and error in these statements. The men composing

* Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, p. 143.

180 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Iverson's line of battle did fall almost in their tracks.
General Rodes' expression, "His dead lay in a distinctly
marked line of battle, ' ' exactly describes the catastrophe.
As they stood there, too proud to retreat without orders
and too sorely smitten to advance, they did, as General
Rodes says, "fight and die like heroes. " When their left
was overpowered, many were captured, but no regiment
raised a white flag and slipped away under it. The
Twelfth regiment, under Lieutenant-Colonel Davis, which
is the regiment to which General Doubleday refers, so
far from slipping away, stood its ground under the terrific
fire until Ramseur's brigade came to its succor. It then
joined Ramseur, and had the satisfaction of assisting in
forcing the Federals from their position, and of capturing
more prisoners than it well knew what to do with. The
fire that was so destructive to Iverson and also to Daniel
was not from Baxter's men alone. Baxter was aided by
the batteries posted between his brigade and that of
Cutler, which was thrown forward on Iverson's flank, and
also by a more distant fire from Stone's men. So long
as Stone held his position, his line with that of Cutler
and Robinson's division constituted what is known as a
demi-bastion and curtain, and ' * every force, ' ' says Double-
day, "that entered the angle suffered severely. " Rodes,
in his report, speaks of it as a "murderous enfilade and
reverse fire, to which, in addition to the direct fire it
encountered, Daniel's brigade had been subject to from
the time it commenced its final advance. ' '

General Daniel's brigade of North Carolinians had fol
lowed Iverson into action, but when Iverson obliqued his
men somewhat to the left, the movement uncovered Dan
iel's front, and he went into direct action against Stone
and his reinforcements ; but sent Colonel Kenan with the
Forty-third and Colonel Owen with the Fifty-third, to aid
Iverson and his own left. Some of Stone's men were advan
tageously posted in a railroad cut, and were assisted by two
batteries of artillery. As Daniel surged forward, the action

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 181

was becoming more general. General Rodes' report gives
a succinct account of what followed. He says : * * The right
of this brigade coming upon the enemy strongly posted in
a railroad cut, was, under its able commander's orders,
thrown back skillfully, and the position of the whole bri
gade was altered so as to enable him to throw a portion
of his force across the railroad, enfilade it, and attack to
advantage. After this change General Daniel made a
most desperate, gallant and entirely successful charge
upon the enemy, driving him at all points, but suffering
terribly. The conduct of General Daniel and his brigade
in this most desperate engagement elicited the admiration
and praise of all who witnessed it. Just as his last effort
was made, Ramseur's brigade, which under my orders had
been so disposed as to support both Iverson and O'Neal,
was ordered forward, and was hurled by its commander,
with the skill and gallantry for which he is always con
spicuous, with irresistible force, upon the enemy just
where he had repulsed O'Neal and checked Iverson's
advance. . . . The Twelfth North Carolina regiment,
which had been held well in hand by Lieutenant- Colonel
Davis, and the shattered remnants of the other regiments
of Iverson's brigade, which had been rallied and organized
by Capt. D. P. Halsey, assistant adjutant-general of the
brigade, made, under his guidance, a dashing and effect
ive charge just in time to be of considerable service to
Ramseur and Daniel, and with them pressed closely after
the enemy. ' ' Davis' three regiments, including the Fifty-
fifth North Carolina, had also joined Daniel in his persist
ent endeavors.

The success of this part of the line had not been easily
won. Paul's brigade went to reinforce Baxter, and the
whole Federal First corps was now engaged. At one
time Daniel's line was brought to a halt on the railroad
cut, which was impassable at the point the men reached
it. The Forty-fifth regiment and the Second battalion,
gallantly supported by the Forty -third and Fifty-third,

182 CONFEDERA TE MILITARY HISTORY.

fought their way to this critical point. Then Colonel Brab
ble, bold and ready always, was ordered to take the Thirty-
second and, by a circuit, cross the cut and storm the bat
tery at the barn. This was handsomely done. At the same
time, the brigades of Pettigrew and Brockenbrough, as
already seen, threw their weight on the right of Daniel as
he advanced, and all the forces on his left also advanced.
This general attack crushed the opposition in its front,
and the Federal line swung back. Rodes followed the
enemy into Gettysburg. Two of his brigades, Doles' and
Ramseur's, became involved in skirmishes in the streets.

Only one other North Carolina brigade was in action
on this day. That was Hoke's brigade, commanded by
Col. I. E. Avery. It, as seen above, was on the extreme
Confederate left, just east of the Heidlersbarg road.
When the Eleventh corps was defeated, the brigades of
Hoke and Hays were sent in pursuit. General Howard
ordered Coster's brigade to advance and cover the retreat
of Schurz' division. This brigade formed behind a fence
on the hillside to the northeast of the town. Avery 's
men and Hays' Louisianians pressed toward Coster's
fence. Shells from the artillery on top of the ridge, fol
lowed by canister, admonished the Carolinians to move
quickly. Colonel Avery, cool and resolute, ordered the
brigade to double-quick up the slope and go over the
fence. The men dashed after him, and in a few moments
had displaced the Federal brigade and were hastening to
the town. The Sixth North Carolina captured two pieces
of artillery. Avery 's brigade was directed to the east of
the town and was halted at the foothills of Cemetery
ridge. There it was exposed to a rapid artillery fire from
the guns on that hill, but soon found shelter in a
depression.

That night thirteen Confederate brigades bivouacked in
or around the town of Gettysburg ; six of these were from
North Carolina. Sixteen Confederate brigades did all
the fighting on the first day at Gettysburg ; seven of these,

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 183

Daniel's, Hoke's, Iverson's, Lane's, Pettigrew's, Ram-
seur's and Scales', were from North Carolina. These bri
gades had been opposed principally to the Federal First
corps, Buford's cavalry and the artillery of both arms.
Their own losses and the losses of the First corps are suf
ficient evidence of soldierly bearing. The commander of
that corps, after Reynolds, says: "General Wadsworth
reported half his men as dead or wounded, and Rowley's
division suffered in the same proportion. Stone reported
that two-thirds of his brigade had fallen. Hardly a field
officer remained unhurt. General Robinson reported a
loss of 1,667, out of 2,500."

The second day at Gettysburg was nearly equal in
advantages to the contending armies, but the result
inspired the Confederates with the hope of triumph. On
the morning of the second day at Gettysburg and in the
early afternoon, no North Carolina troops were in the
assaulting forces. Four North Carolina batteries were
posted along the center and right of the Confederate
lines. These were Manly's, Reilly's, Latham's and
Capt. Joseph Graham's. They faithfully executed the
duties assigned them, and were under fire and engaged
as circumstances required.

In the late afternoon, Johnson's division was ordered to
assail Gulp's hill. One of his brigades, Walker's, was
detached, but his remaining three prepared for the attack.
Early 's and Rodes' divisions were to co-operate in this
movement up the rugged and mountainous acclivity,
strong by nature, and rendered more formidable by
intrenchments and abatis. Jones led off, followed by
Nicholls and Steuart. The First and Third North Caro
lina regiments were members of Steuart 's brigade.
These two regiments were veteran campaigners and
indomitable fighters. They crossed Rocky creek and
broke their way through the thick woods in spite of an
incessant artillery fire, and were soon within range of
Greene's and Wadsworth's muskets. If it had not been

184 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

so dark, they would have fared far worse. On they
pressed until Steuart's men captured Greene's works.
Colonel Brown, of the First regiment, says that Lieut.
Green Martin of that regiment was the first to enter the
works, and was mortally wounded a moment later. That
night they slept in the captured works, but their slumbers
were broken before day by fast-falling shells. They were
attacked by infantry, but repulsed the attack. Daniel's
brigade, which had marched nearly all night, now rein
forced Stewart. These two brigades then made a deter
mined charge against the Federal works in their front,
but were repulsed. Again they boldly charged, but the
position was too strong and defended by too many soldiers
for their weak numbers to be successful. They inflicted
a severe loss on the Federals. There in the lines of the
enemy these brigades and other troops remained until 12
o'clock that night, when they were ordered back to town.

It had been ordered that when Johnson engaged Gulp's
hill in the attack just described, Early and Rodes should
assault Cemetery hill. Rodes failed to get there in time,
but it was through no fault of that resolute, skillful and
energetic soldier, for he moved promptly on his orders,
but arrived just after the repulse of Early 's two brigades.

Early selected the brigades of Hays and Hoke (the lat
ter commanded by Col. I. E. Avery) "to dare the ven
ture of that bristling hill. ' ' These two brigades, under
the immediate command of General Hays, moved through
the wide ravine between Gulp's and Cemetery hills, up
the rugged ascent, and made, as General Longstreet de
clares, "as gallant a fight as was ever made." General
Hunt, of the Federal army, says of their advance : " A line
of infantry on the slopes was broken, and Weidrich's
Eleventh corps battery and Pickett's reserve batteries
near the brow of the hill were overrun ; but the excellent
position of Stevens' 12 -pounder sat the head of the ravine,
which enabled him to sweep it, the arrival of Carroll's
brigade sent unasked by Hancock, and the failure of

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 185

Rodes to co-operate with Early, caused the attack to mis
carry. The cannoneers of the two batteries so summarily
ousted, rallied and recovered their guns by a vigorous
attack — with pistols by those who had them, by others
with handspikes, rammers, stones, and even fence-rails —
the 'Dutchmen' showing that they were in no way in
ferior to their 'Yankee' comrades who had been taunt
ing them ever since Chancellorsville. After an hour's
desperate fighting, the enemy was driven out with heavy
loss, Avery being among the killed."* This gallant
officer, smitten unto death by a bullet through the neck,
and being unable to speak, drew from his pocket a slip of
paper, and in the darkness traced on it with dying fingers,
"Major Tate, tell father that I died with my face to the enemy."

The fighting over the guns was unusually fierce. In
reference to one of the captured batteries, Major Tate, in
a letter to Governor Vance, dated July 8, 1863, says:
"Seventy-five North Carolinians of the Sixth regiment,
and twelve Louisianians of Hays' brigade, scaled the wall
and planted the colors of the Sixth North Carolina regi
ment and Ninth Louisiana on the guns. The enemy stood
with a tenacity never before displayed, but with bayonet,
clubbed musket, sword and pistol, and rocks from the
wall, we cleared the heights and silenced the guns."
Their bravery was to go unrewarded, however. No sup
ports came to relieve their struggles for the guns and for
the hill. Not only Carroll, but also a Pennsylvania regi
ment and a force from Schurz' division joined their
enemies, and finding that they were about to be over
whelmed, they retreated. The lodgment here effected,
if followed up promptly, would have turned the whole
Federal line.

On the third day the Federals were entirely successful
in defense, but were made unable to assail. The result
of the second day's battle "induced the belief," says Gen
eral Lee in his official report, "that we should ultimately

*. Battles and Leaders, III, p. 312.

No 24

186 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

succeed, and it was accordingly determined to continue
the attack. ' ' General Lee's report continues : "The gen
eral plan was unchanged. Longstreet, reinforced by
Pickett's three brigades, . . . was ordered to attack the
next morning, and General Ewell was directed to assail
the enemy's right at the same time." General Long-
street, however, found that he needed some of his troops,
hence a change in the plan of assault became necessary.
It was finally decided that Pickett's division from Long-
street's corps, and Heth's division from Hill's corps, should
constitute the column of assault, and that this column
should be properly supported by a second line. It has
often been asserted, and there are still people ignorant
enough to believe the assertion, that to Heth's division,
commanded that day by General Pettigrew, was assigned
the duty of supporting Pickett's division. Others have
been found ignorant enough of their country's history to
assert that Pickett's attack failed because it was not sup
ported by Pettigrew. General Lee's official report ought
forever to dispose of these errors. He accurately sets
forth the true relations of all the attacking forces when
he says : * * General Longstreet ordered forward the column
of attack, consisting of Pickett's and Heth's divisions,
in two lines, Pickett on the right. Wilcox's brigade
marched in rear of Pickett's right, to guard the flank,
and Heth's was supported by Lane's and Scales' brigades
under General Trimble. ' ' Here, then, is given the front
line, Pickett and Heth ; the second, or supporting line,
Wilcox, Lane and Scales. Pettigrew was no more sup
porting Pickett than was Ewell, a mile or more away; all
three were ordered to make coincident attacks, as General
Lee states, and Pettigrew was ordered to dress his line on
Pickett. Pickett's assault failed for the same reason that
Pettigrew' s failed — because the men making it were flesh
and blood. Had they been disembodied spirits, they could
possibly have survived the artillery and musketry fire
from those heights.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 187

In the memorable charge of the last day at Gettysburg
there were forty-seven Confederate regiments engaged.
Nineteen of these were from Virginia, fifteen being in
Pickett's division and four in Heth's; fifteen regiments
were from North Carolina, three from Tennessee, seven
from Alabama, and three from Mississippi. The North
Carolina regiments were distributed as follows: Five in
General Scales' brigade, commanded by Colonel Low-
ranee; five in General Lane's brigade, four in General
Pettigrew's brigade, and one in General Davis' brigade.

To prepare the way for the assaulting column, 115 Con
federate guns had been massed in front of the left center
of the Federal position. These were replied to by 80
Federal guns massed in front of the point of attack. The
roar of these guns as they burst into deadly action fairly
shook the rocky hills, and was heard, it is said, fifty miles
away. ' * Strong battle was in the air, and the veterans of
both sides swelled their breasts to gather nerve and
strength to meet it. ' '

The Federals had strengthened their stronghold on the
ridge and concentrated their lines for the stern conflict
that they saw impending. Hancock held the portion of
their line that was to receive the severest shock. Webb's
brigade was behind a stone wall and breastworks. Hall
and Smyth were on his left and right, respectively, Wil-
liardto Smyth's right. Stannardwas ready to fall on the
flank of the Confederate right. The second line was
posted behind a crest. Howard's corps held its former
place, and Doubleday's men held lines to Gibbon's left.
All lay in readiness, screening themselves as best they
could from the fire of the artillery that was soon to cease
from want of ammunition. "We lay behind a slight rise
of ground," says an occupant of the second line, "just
sufficient to hide us from the view of the rebels. It was
awfully hot, and we were so close to the ground that not
a breath of air could reach us. ' ' A row of guns quivered
expectantly between the two lines.

188 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Pickett and Pettigrew mounted and spurred for their
commands. Officers with stern smiles and fixed faces
took their places to lead the long lines of eager men
toward their grimly waiting foes. Clouds of dust arose
from moving columns ; aides dashed from command to
command, bearing orders and rectifying alignments ; bay
onets were set, ammunition boxes were opened, battle-
flags tossed impatiently. Then the grand march against
stone walls, fortifications, a hill crowned with the engines
of death, was taken up with dauntless step. The lesson
taught by Malvern Hill and Fredericksburg was again
to be burned into unretentive memories. Two armies
watch with fiery excitement as the stately columns, soon
to moulder into dust, sweep over the intervening plain.
Gallantly the officers lead; superbly the men follow.
Now with blazes of pent-up destruction the silent guns
burst into life. Round shot, shells, canister, shrapnel
mingle in mad race to carry desolation to distant homes.
Men begin to fall. * ' Close on your colors, ' ' fiercely shout
the captains ; officers go down, their juniors rush forward ;
colors from death-loosened fingers strike the ground only
to be raised triumphantly by the nearest hand ; greater
gaps are rent, and instantly filled by the shrinking but
unfaltering lines. Brockenbrough's brigade is borne
down, Davis' line is staggered. Lane and Lowrance from
the second line rush forward with their sturdy Carolinians,
and without a halt Pettigrew 's men push closer. The
rifle shots from Gibbon's men now begin to find lodg
ment, and men sink by scores. In the wild roar of the
battle no words of command can be heard, but caps and
swords wave on the depleted ranks to still more desperate
attempts.

The Federal line was parallel to Pickett 's front, but
turned back at an angle in front of Pettigrew, hence his
men had further to go to reach the works. They
reached the Emmitsburg road, struggling then at close
quarters and pushing down the first fence. The sur-

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 189

vivors of the division clambered over the fence on the other
side of the road, and rushed for the works and guns. The
front Federal line was seriously broken, but the second
line rushed to the front and savagely engaged, while the
guns worked incessantly. Some of the men from differ
ent companies and regiments broke into the Federal lines
in a frenzied endeavor to plant their colors there. Let
an eye-witness, Captain Young, tell the sequel : * * Under
this fire from artillery and musketry, the brigade on our
left, reduced almost to a line of skirmishers, gave way.
Pettigrew's and Archer's brigades advanced a little
farther, and in perfect continuation of Pickett's line,
which arrived at the works before we did, only because
they jutted out in his front, and because he had to move
over a considerably shorter distance. The right of the
line formed by Archer's and Pettigrew's brigades rested
on the works, while the left was, of course, further re
moved, say 40 to 60 yards. [The Federal line, as seen
above, bent back here.] Subjected to a fire even more fatal
than that which had driven back the brigade on our left,
and the men listening in vain for the cheering commands
of officers who had, alas, fallen, our brigade gave way
likewise, and simultaneously with it, the whole line. ' ' *

The North Carolina losses in this battle were startling.
It has been erroneously said that they were "raw troops. "
If this were so, ambitious generals ought to ask only for
such "raw troops." Captain Young states that on the
morning of July ist, Pettigrew's brigade numbered from
2,800 to 3,000 men, and on the 4th only 835 were present
for duty. "All the field officers, save one, who was cap
tured, were killed or wounded, and the brigade was com
manded, after the repulse at Cemetery hill, by Major
Jones of the Twenty-sixth regiment, who had been struck,
on the ist, by a fragment of a shell, and was knocked
down and stunned on the 3d. On the ist, Captain Tuttle,
of the Twenty -sixth regiment, led into action 2 lieu-

* Our Living and Dead.

190 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

tenants and 84 men ; all of the officers and 83 of the men
were killed or wounded. Company C of the Eleventh
regiment lost 2 officers killed, and 34 out of 38 men.
Captain Bird, with the remaining four, participated in the
fight of the 3d." Every man in Company A of the
Thirty- eighth regiment was shot down except two, and
they were captured. The losses were equally great in
other companies, whose glorious records have not been so
painstakingly preserved.

The North Carolina soldiers feel that writers on the
great combat at Gettysburg have never placed a fair esti
mate upon their important services. Almost uniformly
Pickett's splendid charge has been glorified, and Petti-
grew's equally splendid one minimized or disparaged.
No North Carolina soldier desires to detract one scruple
from the fame of "Pickett and his Virginians," but he
does want "Pettigrew and his North Carolinians"
and other troops accorded their bloodily-won laurels.
Take as an example, a writer quoted by Captain Bond :
44 The right (Pickett) behaved gloriously ; the left (Petti-
grew) faltered and fled. Each body acted according to
its nature, for they were made of different stuff; the
one of common earth, the other of finest clay. Petti-
grew's men were North Carolinians, Pickett's were superb
Virginians. ' ' To show that on this field the North Caro
linians measured squarely up to every soldierly obliga
tion, it is necessary only to examine, first, what they
accomplished; second, to add the official casualty list.
Let us take these separately.

In the first day's entirely successful battle, sixteen
Confederate brigades followed their colors in action ; seven
of these, nearly one-half, were from North Carolina. In
the second day's battle, but two Confederate brigades
penetrated within the lines on Cemetery hill; one of
these was Hoke's North Carolina brigade. On the third
day, the unequivocal testimony of the commanders on the
field, and under the guns, is that they went as far and

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 191

remained as long as Pickett's line of battle, and that the
only reason they did not penetrate as solidly into the
enemy's works was that, as already explained, the Fed
eral works, beginning at Pettigrew's right, bent back.
Hence Pettigrew's men, being in line with Pickett's, had
farther to charge to enter those works. General Trimble,
a sternly courageous Marylander, says : * * They did get to
the road and drove the opposing line from it. The loss
here was fearful, and I knew that no troops could live
long to endure it. I was anxious to know how things
went on with the troops on our right, and taking a quick
but deliberate view of the field over which Pickett had
advanced, I perceived that the enemy's fire seemed to
slacken there, and men in squads were falling back on
the west side of the Emmitsburg road. By this I inferred
that Pickett's division had been repulsed, and if so, that
it would be a useless sacrifice of life to continue the contest.
I, therefore, did not attempt to rally the men who began
to give back at the fence. ' ' *

General Lane's testimony, the testimony of a gallant
Virginian, is the same. He says: "As soon as I could
dismount from my wounded, plunging horse, I ordered
Colonel [C. M.] Avery, in command of my left regiment,
to move to meet the force above referred to. when he
quickly replied, * My God, General, do you intend rushing
your men into such a place unsupported when the troops
on the right are falling back?' Seeing that it was useless
to sacrifice my brave men, I ordered my brigade back. ' ' f
The testimony of scores of others to the same facts is on
record.

In the Gettysburg cavalry fight, of which W. Brooke-
Rawle says, "for minutes which seemed like hours,
amid the clashing of sabers, the rattle of small-arms, the
frenzied imprecations, the demands to surrender, the
undaunted replies, and the appeals for mercy, the Con-

* Letter quoted in Moore's History, II, 256.
t Letter in same, p. 206.

192 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

federate column stood its ground," North Carolina had
also worthy representation in the enthusiastic charge of
its First cavalry regiment under Colonel Baker, and in
the meritorious services of the other regiments from that
State.

In the second place, it is a rule of war, to which there
are exceptions generally due to position, that the force that
incurs the most casualties in killed or wounded is the force
that stands most obstinately under fire and also inflicts
the most loss on its adversaries. Tried by this rule, the
soldiers from the North State have, according to Surgeon
Guild's official report,* much to show their bravery.

First, the total Confederate loss in killed and wounded
(not including "missing") was 15,301; the total North
Carolina loss in killed and wounded was 4,033, over one-
fourth of the total loss. Four hundred in killed and
wounded is considered a severe brigade loss. Only six
teen Confederate brigades lost over that number at Gettys
burg; four of these, one-fourth, were from North Caro
lina. The heaviest regimental loss at Gettysburg, 588
men, was incurred by the Twenty-sixth North Carolina
regiment. In the whole of General Lee's army, only eight
regiments lost as high as 200 men in killed and wounded;
three of these, the Eleventh, Twenty-sixth and Forty-
fifth, were from the same State. Only eighteen regi
ments had over 150 killed and wounded; seven of these
were likewise from North Carolina.

Second, in Pickett's grand charge on the right there
were fifteen regiments. The total number of killed and
wounded in these fifteen regiments was 1,364. In Heth's
division, commanded on the 3d by Pettigrew, there were
five North Carolina regiments. The killed and wounded
in these five regiments amounted in the two days that
they fought to 1,303. In other words, the killed and
wounded in five North Carolina regiments of Pettigrew 's
division lacked only 61 men of numbering as many as the

* Rebellion Records, XXVII, II, 338-346.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 193

killed and wounded in the whole fifteen of Pickett's
division. The five regiments just mentioned had 229
killed in their two days of fighting; Pickett's fifteen regi
ments had 224 killed. That is, these five regiments from
North Carolina had, during the battle, actually five more
men killed than Pickett's fifteen. Yet little has been
written of the modest daring of these men. Swinton goes
so far as to say that men who could die in this way were
only induced to charge by being told they were to
meet merely ' ' Pennsylvania militia, ' ' and that when they
saw Meade's banners, they broke in disorder, crying, "The
army of the Potomac ! ' ' Most of the men on the left, of
Pettigrew's and Trimble's divisions, had chased the army
of the Potomac too often to so suddenly make a god Pan
out of it.

During these days of blood, North Carolina lost many
of her most soldierly sons. Gen. W. D. Pender, the
State's senior officer on the field, was mortally wounded.
General Pender was graduated from West Point in 1854.
He served with distinction in many Indian campaigns,
and, after resigning from the United States army to serve
his native State, had, in every battle he entered, added
to his reputation as a cool, sagacious, intrepid and persist
ent fighter. No fitter eulogium can be framed than was
penned by the great commander whom he loved so well
and served so faithfully. General Lee said of his loss :
"General Pender has since died. This lamented officer
has borne a distinguished part in every engagement of
this army, and was wounded on several occasions while
leading his command with conspicuous gallantry and
ability. The confidence and admiration inspired by his
courage and capacity as an officer were only equaled by
the esteem and respect entertained by all with whom he
was associated for the noble qualities of his modest and
unassuming character. "

Next in rank to fall was Col. I. E. Avery, commanding
Hoke's brigade. Colonel Avery had been recommended

Nc 25

194 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

for promotion by Generals Fender, Hood, Law and Early,
and only his untimely death robbed him of his general's
commission. He had been mentioned for meritorious
conduct upon every field upon which his regiment was
engaged. During General Hoke's absence, from a
wound, Colonel Avery had commanded the brigade, and
as General Early reports, "worthily filled the absent
general's place. " Although a believer and enforcer of
discipline, Colonel Avery 's fairness, urbanity and upright
ness had drawn his men very close to him.

With him had gone other splendid soldiers. Among
them the "boy colonel" of the Twenty-sixth, the noble-
souled, lion-hearted Harry K. Burgwyn; the daring,
experienced and able Col. D. H. Christie; the accom
plished, polished and soldierly colonel of the Fifty-second,
J. K. Marshall; Lieut. -Col. H. L. Andrews, whose splendid
leadership had encouraged the Second battalion to fight
so grimly and lose so terribly; Lieut. -Col. M. T. Smith,
the Christian soldier whose quiet example of conscientious
discharge of duty left a lasting impression on the Fifty-
fifth regiment; Maj. E. A. Ross, a hard fighter and
earnest friend. Among the wounded field officers were
Cols. J. K. Connally, C. Leventhorpe, T. S. Kenan, S. D.
Lowe, F. M. Parker, R. T. Bennett; Lieut.-Cols. J. R.
Lane, S. H. Boyd, R. D. Johnston, M. A. Parks, and
W. J. Green, acting aide to General Pettigrew; Majs.
A. H. Belo, J. R. Winston, J. M. Hancock, H. G. Lewis,
D. W. Hurtt, C. C. Blacknall; Adjts. T. C. James and
J. B. Jordan, and perhaps others equally brave whom the
records do not mention. Several of these officers, like
the gallant colonel of the Forty-third, T. S. Kenan, had
not only the ill fortune to be wounded, but had added to
it the misfortune of spending the rest of the time covered
by the war in a Federal prison.

The day after the battle of Gettysburg, General Lee
remained in position to see whether the Federals desired
to attack him. General Meade showing no intention of

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 195

acting, the Confederate army withdrew on the night of
the 4th of July, but owing to delays incident to heavy
rains, General E well's corps did not leave its ground until
the 5th.

On the 6th, Buford 's cavalry, subsequently reinforced
by Kilpatrick, moved on Williamsport to destroy the Con
federate trains. This attack was met by Imboden's small
cavalry command, reinforced by the Fifty-fourth North
Carolina regiment of infantry, under Col. K. M. Murchi-
son, and the Thirty-first Virginia infantry. These two
regiments were returning from Richmond, where they had
been sent to escort prisoners. These forces completely
repulsed the Federal cavalry in a spirited fight. General
Buford says in his report : "Just before dark, Kilpatrick's
troops gave way, passing to my rear by the right, and
were closely followed by the enemy. ' ' After this, Buford
ordered his forces to withdraw. Colonel Murchison lost
2 men killed and 15 wounded.

At Hagerstown, on the same day, Stuart's cavalry and
portions of Iverson's North Carolina brigade were engaged
in a hot conflict with Kilpatrick's cavalry division. In
this engagement, the four North Carolina cavalry regi
ments that had followed Stuart in his long raid into Penn
sylvania, participating in the battles at Sykesville, Little
ton, Hanover, Hunterstown and Gettysburg, bore them
selves with their usual gallantry. These four were the
First, Colonel Baker; the Second, Lieut. -Col. C. M.
Andrews; the Fourth, Colonel Ferebee, and the Fifth,
commanded by Lieut. -Col. J. B. Gordon, of the First regi
ment, after the mortal wounding of its brave and soldierly
colonel, Peter G. Evans. Chambliss' brigade, to which
the Second cavalry belonged, although reduced to a skele
ton, made, in co-operation with General Robertson's two
regiments, the Fourth and Fifth, what General Stuart
called a "gallantly executed charge. " General Stuart

196 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

specially praised a repulse of the Federals by Colonel
Gordon, ''commanding a fragment of the Fifth North
Carolina cavalry. ' '

On the 8th, the First regiment of cavalry and the other
regiments of Hampton's brigade, commanded, after Gen
eral Hampton was wounded, by Col. L. S. Baker of the
First North Carolina, and Chambliss' brigade, had an ani
mated dismounted fight near Boonsboro. The North
Carolina losses in these cavalry operations, so far as
reported, were, killed, 9; wounded, 79. There is no
report from the First nor the Second regiment.

In the cavalry fight at Funkstown, the North Carolina
troops took part on the i6th of July, and Manly 's North
Carolina battery was engaged nearly all day, losing sev
eral men.

Pettigrew's North Carolinians formed the rear guard
when the Potomac was recrossed at Falling Waters on
the 1 4th of July. There a portion of the Sixth Michigan
cavalry regiment, not knowing in what force the Con
federates were present, charged the line. At the time of
this charge Pettigrew's men were resting, and many of
them were asleep after their exhausting marches through
the rain and mud. The small Federal force coming so
boldly upon them was mistaken for Confederate cavalry,
and allowed to come almost within the lines. They were,
of course, quickly routed with severe loss, but, in the short
struggle, Gen. J. J. Pettigrew, of North Carolina, was
mortally wounded. "At the beginning of the melee, "
says Captain Graham, "General Pettigrew's horse, fright
ened by the sudden and near discharge of musketry,
plunged and threw his rider. Rising in great pain, for he
was still suffering from his wound received at Seven
Pines, and his arm was in a sling from his injury of the
3d of July, Pettigrew beheld a Federal corporal near him
in the act of firing on his men. Drawing his pistol, he

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 197

was approaching this soldier with a view of engaging in
combat with him, when he fell to the ground, himself
pierced with a pistol ball. ' ' *

General Pettigrew graduated at the university of North
Carolina with brilliant honors, cultivated his mind in
America and Europe, and was easily one of the ablest
men in his State. He commenced his career as the colo
nel of the Twelfth, afterward the Twenty-second, regi
ment. His attainments as a man and his success as a
soldier won speedy recognition, and he was promoted to
command a brigade. His career as brigadier-general
showed his ample capacity for command. Few nobler
men ever died for any cause.

After the Confederate army crossed the Potomac, the
corps of Longstreet and A. P. Hill were stationed near
Culpeper Court House. General E well's corps operated
for awhile in the valley, then retired toward Madison
Court House. On the ist of August the Federal cavalry,
following him, crossed the Rappahannock at the station
and at Kelly's ford, and advanced toward Brandy Sta
tion. The progress of the enemy, says General Lee, was
gallantly resisted by General Stuart with Hampton's bri
gade, commanded by Col. L. S. Baker, who fell back
gradually to our lines about two miles south of Brandy.
Colonel Baker fought against great odds, and the engage
ment was most creditable to his efficiency and the bravery
of his veteran troopers. Colonel Baker was severely
wounded, losing an arm, and after he was wounded
would probably have been captured but for the ever dar
ing Capt. W. H. H. Cowles, who shouted to the men,
" Charge again and save our colonel." For his gallant
conduct in this campaign, Colonel Baker was promoted to
a brigadier-generalship.

In the fall of this year Col. James B. Gordon was also
promoted and assigned to a brigade, made up of the First,
Second, Fourth and Fifth North Carolina cavalry regi-

* New Bern Memorial Address.

198 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

ments. " About the same time," says Moore, "bold and
fearless James Bearing succeeded Beverly Robertson in
command of the Second North Carolina brigade. ' ' After
this memorable campaign in the North, Lee's army took
position along the Rapidan.

During the invasion of Pennsylvania, Gen. D. H. Hill,
commanding the department of North Carolina, was tem
porarily assigned to the defenses around Richmond. The
troops under his command took part in some minor
engagements during this time. On the 26th of June, Col
onel Spear, with a cavalry force numbering 1,050 men, *
moved from the White House to destroy the bridge over
the South Anna river. The bridge was defended by 125
men, commanded by Lieut. -Col. T. L. Hargrove, of the
Forty-fourth North Carolina regiment. Colonel Spear
says of Colonel Hargrove's battle, "He held the bridge
manfully for over an hour, when by a stratagem he found
me in his rear and his entire force captured. ' ' Colonel
Hargrove had 7 men killed and 13 wounded.

An expedition under General Getty was sent by the
Federals to destroy the bridges over the South Anna and
tear up the railroads in that vicinity. At the point
in danger, Cooke's North Carolina brigade met the
Federals and repulsed them successfully. General Cooke
states in his official report : "The principal point of attack
was the railroad bridge, where they were met by com
panies of Col. E. D. Hall's and William MacRae's regi
ments under Maj. A. C. McAlister, who repulsed them
repeatedly in handsome style. Col, John A. Baker's regi
ment [Third North Carolina cavalry] occupied the right
of our line and behaved very well. ' '

A raiding party under Gen. E. E. Potter, in July,
inflicted much damage on some of the towns in eastern
North Carolina. At Rocky Mount this force destroyed
the bridge over Tar river, and also mills, depots,
factories, and large quantities of flour and 800 bales

* Spear's Report, Rebellion Records, XXVII, p. 796.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 199

of cotton; at Tarboro some Confederate gunboats in
process of construction were burned ; at other places simi
lar damage was done. This party was frequently fired
upon by local troops, especially Whitford's battalion, and
a loss of 32 men was entailed upon it.

On the 28th of July, Gen. M. W. Ransom, with four
companies and a section of artillery, routed, at Jackson,
N. C., a cavalry force of 650 men under Colonel Spear.

CHAPTER XII.

DEFENSE OF CHARLESTON— NORTH CAROLINIANS IN
MISSISSIPPI— THE BATTLE OF CHICKAMAUGA— EAST
TENNESSEE CAMPAIGNING — NORTH CAROLINA
CAVALRY IN VIRGINIA— INFANTRY ENGAGEMENTS
AROUND RAPPAHANNOCK STATION— FIGHTS AT
KELLY'S FORD, BRISTOE AND PAYNE'S FARM.

ON the 1 6th of July, Clingman's brigade, consisting
of the following North Carolina regiments, the
Eighth, Colonel Shaw; the Thirty-first, Lieut. -
Col. C. W. Knight; the Fifty-first, Colonel McKethan;
the Sixty-first, Colonel Radcliffe, Lieutenant- Colonel
Devane and Major Harding, was ordered to South Caro
lina to assist in the defense of Charleston harbor. The
brigade arrived on the isth, and was at once assigned to
duty. The Fifty-first and Thirty-first became members
of the garrison at Fort Wagner. The Eighth and Sixty-
first went to James island. At Battery Wagner the gar
rison endured many hardships, suffering a constant can
nonade from land batteries and ironclads, and being
exposed to an alert sharpshooter force at all hours. In
addition, the water was bad, food insufficient, and the
heat in the pits and bombproofs almost intolerable.

"Battery Wagner was," says Lieutenant McKethan, "a
field work of sand, turf and palmetto logs, built across
Morris island. From north to south it varied from
twenty to seventy-five yards. Its bombproofs were capa
ble of holding from 800 to 1,000 men." Its armament
was far inferior in range to the guns of the Federals, and
"so we had to submit to the hail of iron sent upon us by
the superior and larger range guns, from sunrise to
sunset. ' '

200

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 201

At length came the i8th day of Jiily, made memorable
by a land and naval bombardment of unusual severity,
lasting eleven hours, and followed by a well sustained land
assault. The garrison, under command that day of Gen.
W. B. Taliaferro, consisted of the Charleston battalion,
assigned to the right of the defenses; the Fifty-first
North Carolina, posted at the center; the Thirty-first
North Carolina, commanded to hold the left of the work.
The artillery, four companies, was commanded by Lieut. -
Col. J. C. Simkins.

The Federal land batteries numbered about forty guns
and the ships added twenty more, making probably
sixty-four guns of all sorts turned against the fort and its
little garrison. General Seymour, of the Union army,
says: "From about noon until nightfall the fort was
subjected to such a weight of artillery as has probably
never before been turned upon a single point." Lieu
tenant McKethan of the Fifty-first North Carolina gives
the experience of his regiment inside the fort: "During
the bombardment we had concentrated upon our little
band forty-four guns and mortars from the land batter
ies, distant about 1,200 or 2,000 yards, and the heavy guns
from the Ironsides, five monitors and five gunboats. . . .
The sand was our only protection, but fortunately one shot
would fill up the hole made by another, or we should soon
have been annihilated. ' ' *

Near dusk the artillery fire slackened and the land
troops made ready for the assault. General Seymour com
manded the Federal division, made up of Strong's, Put
nam's and Stevenson's brigades. General Strong's bri
gade was in advance. His leading regiment was the Fifty-
fourth Massachusetts, a negro regiment commanded by
white officers. During the bombardment, the Confeder
ate troops had been partly protected in the bombproofs.
They now, although the shelling was still murderous,
sprang to their posts. Many of the guns of light weight

* Regimental History.

Nc 26

202 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

had been withdrawn from the walls and covered with
sandbags. They were, at sight of the infantry, run into
the embrasures, and cleared for action.

Shaw's negro regiment of 600 men advanced at a double-
quick, but broke at the ditch of Wagner under the with
ering fire of the Charleston battalion and the Fifty-first
North Carolina, and, says Major Johnson, "rushed like a
crowd of maniacs back to the rear. ' ' * Colonel Shaw was
killed; and as his men, with a few brave exceptions,
rushed back, they, General Seymour reported, "fell
harshly upon those in their rear." The other regiments
of Strong's brigade continued their forward movement,
but fell in heaps before the riflemen of the two Carolinas.
Two of General Strong's regiments had be^n affected by
the panic of the negro regiment, and soon the whole First
brigade was routed. General Strong was mortally
wounded.

Meantime Putnam's brigade, after some delay, was dar
ingly led by him against the left of the fort. This part
of Wagner had been assigned to the Thirty-first North
Carolina. That regiment, however, General Taliaferro
states in his report, could not be induced to occupy its
position, and hence Putnam, though exposed to a flank
fire from the other troops, met no severe fire in his front.
He and about a hundred or more of his most determined
followers effected a lodgment, and for more than an
hour held their place inside the fort, although their com
rades had been repulsed. General Taliaferro called for
volunteers to dislodge Putnam. Maj. J. R. McDonald of
the Fifty-first North Carolina, and Captain Ryan of the
Charleston battalion, both offered their services. Ryan's
company was accepted, but failed. Whenever, however,
any of Putnam's men showed themselves, the Fifty- first
North Carolina opened upon them. Colonel Putnam was
killed, and his force — approached in rear by some Georgi
ans who, with General Hagood, had crossed over during
* The Defense of Charleston Harbor, p. 104.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 203

the battle — was captured. General Taliaferro makes this
favorable report of the Fifty-first regiment: " Colonel
McKethan's regiment, the Fifty-first North Carolina
troops, redeemed the reputation of the Thirty-first.
They gallantly sought their position, under a heavy shell
ing, and maintained it during the action. Colonel
McKethan, Lieutenant-Colonel Hobson and Major
McDonald are the field officers of this regiment and
deserve special mention. ' ' The Confederate loss in this
battle was only 181; the Federal, 1,515.*

The two direct assaults upon Wagner having failed, the
Federals determined to besiege it by regular approaches.
Heavy Parrott guns and mortars were called into service,
and from the i8th of July to the 6th of September, when
it was evacuated, the troops serving in the fort had
arduous duties. Ludgwig, in his Regimental History of
the Eighth regiment describes the routine of duty there:
"The nature of the service on Morris island was such as
to render it necessary for the regiments composing the
army on that side of Charleston to perform duty there
alternately. While on the island the men were exposed
at all times to the enemy's fire, both from land and sea.
An attack had to be prepared for at any instant, day or
night. It was no place for rest. The battery, frequently
shelled, had to be repaired. The enemy's ever active
sharpshooters had to be watched. To expose one's self to
view meant to be shot at with attending consequences.
The men had to keep under cover of the battery or in
sandpits near by. Under such circumstances it was
necessary to relieve the men once about every seven or
eight days. . . There was no place for cooking. All the
rations had to be prepared and carried there. . . It was a
veritable target practice between the sharpshooters every
day, and any careless or reckless exposure meant work
for the ambulance corps." All of General Clingman's
regiments took their regular tours of duty at Wagner.

* Official Reports, Rebellion Records,

204 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

On the 28th of August, an infantry assault on the rifle-
pits in front of Wagner was bravely met and repulsed by
the two Confederate regiments there. General Taliaferro
reports: "Soon after dark he advanced upon the rifle-pits
in front of Wagner, but General Hagood's forces were,
fortunately, prepared to receive him. His mortar practice
ceased and his infantry assaulted fiercely, but the position
was held with courage and spirit, and success crowned the
efforts of the brave men of the Sixty-first North Carolina
and Fifty-fourth Georgia regiments, who constituted the
advance pickets and reserve." Circumstances in North
Carolina were such that, in November, Clingman's men
gladly received orders to leave the island and return to
their native State. The brigade loss during its service
in South Carolina was: killed, 76; wounded, 336.

Three North Carolina regiments served under J. E.
Johnston in Mississippi. These were the Twenty-ninth,
Lieut. -Col. W. B. Creasman, the Thirty-ninth and the
Sixtieth. On the Yazoo river, near Yazoo City, the
Twenty- ninth had, on the i3th of July, an all-day skirmish
with gunboats. In the same month, the Sixtieth regi
ment was engaged in actions of some severity before
Jackson. These regiments were greater sufferers from
the hardships of campaigning than they were from battle
casualties, as it was their lot not to be engaged during
this time in serious battle.

The "Great Battle of the West" was fought near
Chickamauga. There the Confederate army, under Gen
eral Bragg, gained, on the iQth and 2oth of September,
a great, but entirely barren victory. North Carolina was
not largely represented in this bitterly-contested field.
One corps commander, D. H. Hill, who had recently
been appointed lieutenant-general and assigned to the
command of the divisions of Breckinridge and Cleburne,
and five regiments — four of infantry and one of cavalry
—were the North Carolina participants in the two days of
bloodshed. These five regiments were as follows : The

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 205

Twenty-ninth, Col. W. B. Creasman; the Thirty-ninth,
Col. David Coleman ; the Fifty-eighth, Col. J. B. Palmer;
the Sixtieth, Lieut. -Col. J. M. Ray and Capt J. T.
Weaver, and the Sixth cavalry, Col. G. N. Folk.

How nobly these five regiments upheld the honor of
their State is so clearly set forth in a personal letter to
the author from Col. C. A. Cilley, a Federal staff officer
of the Second Minnesota regiment, that no further me
morial to their valor is needed. The testimony has the
added value of coming from a generous foe who stoutly
fought these regiments, and whose official position has
since put him in possession of all the facts bearing upon
the successes attained by the troops from different States.
This position was that of member of the State commis
sion appointed to examine and decide, conjointly with
and under direction of the National Park commission,
upon the achievements of all the troops engaged, and to
direct the erection of tablets to commemorate valiant
exploits. Colonel Cilley 's letter is as follows:

There were present at that battle the Sixth cavalry, the
Twenty-ninth, Thirty-ninth, Fifty-eighth, and Sixtieth
infantry. The fortunes of the day so ordered it that I
was personally aware of the conduct of all save the Thir
ty-ninth regiment. As to that, the published reports,
aided by the decision of the United States Park Commis
sion in a contest between the troops who claimed to have
captured a number of cannon also claimed by the Thirty-
ninth, must be the authority for whatsoever I say.

On the meeting of our State commission at the battle
field, October 25, 1893, we went over all available maps
and reports of the action and the territory with the two
members of the National commission then present, viz :
Lieutenant-General Stewart, late of the Confederate
States army, and Brevet Brigadier-General Boynton, late
Thirty-fifth Ohio. In marking, the next day, the loca
tion occupied by the North Carolina troops, we had their
full concurrence and approval.

As soon as General Bragg discovered that Rosecrans
had gained the main road from Lafayette to Chattanooga,

206 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

and was marching up the same toward the town he had
just been maneuvered out of, he sent Forrest, followed
up by infantry under Ector, to dislodge us. To meet
this attack, General Thomas detached Vanderveer's
brigade of his old division, in which General Boynton
commanded a brigade, and on the staff of which I was
serving — my regiment, the Second Minnesota, being in the
command. So two of the party which traversed the field
and marked the points reached by the North Carolina
troops had met them in actual conflict. It was agreed
that the Sixth cavalry gained an honorable position on
the right of the Confederate line, closely followed by the
Twenty-ninth infantry, who fought over substantially
the same ground.

Col. David Coleman, of the Thirty-ninth infantry, who
assumed command of McNair's brigade after that officer
was wounded on Sunday evening, reported that his regi
ment charged and captured a massed collection of nine
cannon in Dyer's field, during what was known as the
"great break" through the Federal lines, late on Sunday.
Other commanders, after the battle, put in a claim to this
capture, and asked the National commission to so credit
them on the memorial to be erected. We carefully col
lated all evidence on both sides, and at last General
Stewart directed us to put up a tablet setting forth the
exploit as Colonel Coleman reported it. This was the
only case in which both General Boynton and myself
were not personally cognizant of each achievement of
North Carolina troops as set forth in the tablet erected.

Next in order of time was the attack by Breckinridge
(of Hill's corps) upon the right. Brannan's division of
Thomas' corps had made a lodgment on the road to
Chattanooga at Kelly's field, when Breckinridge, who
had attained a position on the road between Brannan
and Chattanooga, charged with Stovall's brigade, in
which was the Sixtieth North Carolina infantry. Two
of our number were in the brigade which received that
attack, and had good reason for remembering it. Again
reports and maps were brought out, and one of the party
paced the distance. General Stewart collated the evi
dence and announced the decision. By his direction, an
oaken tablet, suitably inscribed, was put up on the side of
the State road, marking the spot where at noon on Sun
day, September 20, 1863, the Sixtieth regiment reached the

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 207

farthest point within the Federal lines attained by any
Southern troops in that famous charge.

Fourth and last. It remained only to ascertain the
facts as to the conduct of the Fifty-eighth North Carolina
infantry, a regiment until that battle never under fire.
We followed its course from where it entered the field to
the scene of its splendid achievement on Snodgrass hill.
Three of our State commissioners were survivors of that
regiment, and, under their guidance, we easily traced the
path from its first service, supporting batteries, across the
field just traversed by the Thirty-ninth, to the place
where, about the middle of the afternoon, this command,
hitherto unused to hostile shot, plunged into the bloodiest
struggle of the battle, and one of the deadliest conflicts
of the war. There it was, at the base and up the slopes
to the crest of the wooded hill, up which Longstreet had
hurled six divisions in an attempt to drive Thomas to
retreat, and so secure the coveted State road.

The slopes up which it toiled, the ravines in which it
fought, were again trodden by some of its old officers,
while General Boynton and myself identified the place
on the crest where the lines met. After the fullest ex
amination, a tablet, stating that that was the point where
the topmost wave of Southern battle broke nearer than
any other to the lines of Thomas' defense, was erected in
honor and in the name of the Fifty-eighth North Carolina.
Singularly enough, this was close to the place selected
by the Second Minnesota volunteers for its monument.
Both of these regiments lost one-half of their number in
killed and wounded, a percentage reached, so far as I am
aware, by no other body of troops in that engagement.

The affair of Snodgrass hill presents one of the most
desperate attacks and one of the most stubborn defenses
of the entire war. Other States which had soldiers there
have spent money in the erection of suitable monuments
to the valor of their sons. As I personally took word to
General Thomas on two or three occasions that the men
who held our line were out of cartridges, and took back
orders from him for them to repel assaults with the bay
onet, I know that the men of the Fifty-eighth had this
most dreaded of weapons to confront, and I am sure no
troops made a more distinguished record for heroism than
they.

208 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

In this battle, the Fifty-eighth lost nearly one-half of its
effective strength. The Thirty-ninth lost 14 killed and
86 wounded; the Sixtieth, 8 killed and 36 wounded.

In the East Tennessee campaign, the Sixty-second,
Sixty-fourth and Sixty-ninth (Thomas' legion) were en
gaged in the mountain fights in the summer and fall of
1863. Part of the time, Gen. Robert Ransom oper
ated in some of the same territory. Gen. A. E. Jackson
with Walker's battalion, portions of the Sixty-ninth
North Carolina, and other troops, including artillery,
routed and captured a Federal force, commanded by
Colonel Hayes of the One Hundredth Ohio regiment, at
Limestone bridge. After a reconnoissance made by
Maj. W. W. Stringfield, General Jackson ordered an
assault upon the blockhouse and brick buildings occu
pied by the Federals. Lieut. -Col. M. A. Haynes says in
his official report: "With a shout and a hurrah for the
'Bonnie Blue Flag/ the North Carolina boys made the
charge, and the enemy fled before them, as you and the
general well know. ' ' The artillery and the infantry
joining in a general attack, 314 prisoners surrendered
and many were killed and wounded. The North Caro
lina loss was 6 killed and 15 wounded. Shortly after
ward the Sixty-ninth regiment encountered a large cav
alry force under Foster. This cavalry had been sent
to intercept the Confederate retreat toward Virginia.
Colonel Love gallantly charged this force, and General
Williams coming to his aid, drove it from his front.

North Carolina cavalry were active in many of the en
gagements during the fall campaign in Virginia. At
Jack's shop, near Liberty mills, Orange county, Va. ,
on September 22, 1863, Hampton's division of cav
alry joined battle with Davies' and Custer's brigades of
Kilpatrick's cavalry division. Custer's brigade was
commanded by Colonel Stagg. Hampton's division was
composed of three brigades: Butler's, commanded by
Col. J. B. Gordon of the First North Carolina; Jones'

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 209

brigade, and Baker's North Carolina brigade (afterward
Gordon's), commanded by Colonel Ferebee of the Fourth
North Carolina. This brigade included these regiments :
The First, Second, Fourth and Fifth.

As the Confederates moved up the Madison pike
toward Gordonsville, the First North Carolina regiment
in advance encountered Davies' dismounted skirmishers
posted in some pines. Lieutenant Foard, of the advance
guard, bravely charged in to ascertain the forces of the
enemy, and, on his report, the First regiment was soon
dismounted, and sharpshooters from every company en
gaged, Major Cheek commanding in front. The fire from
the Federal sharpshooters was very accurate, and Capt.
A. B. Andrews, while gallantly performing his duty,
was shot through the body, and many others were shot
down. The action then became more general. Colonel
Ferebee, with a mixed force, charged through the line
of Federals moving to the Confederate rear, and the
Federals began to draw off. Soon, however, their lines
were re-established and their artillery opened. General
Stuart then ordered a general charge, and the Federal
force was driven off the field, and Colonel Stagg's rear
cut off and captured.

Gordon's cavalry brigade attacked, near James City,
on the loth, the front of a cavalry force while General
Stuart led Young's brigade to make a flank attack. The
Federals were driven into James City, but Stuart found
the cavalry and infantry there too strong for his force,
and he made no attack.

On the nth of October, the Fourth North Carolina
cavalry dispersed a cavalry force at Culpeper Court
House. In this charge, Colonel Ferebee and Adjutant
Morehead of the Fifth were wounded, and Lieutenants
Baker of the Second and Benton of the Fourth were
killed. On the same day, Gen. W. H. F. Lee with his
cavalry force and Johnston's North Carolina brigade,
commanded by Colonel Garrett of the Fifth regiment,

No 27

210 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

opposed the crossing of Buford's cavalry division at
Morton's and Raccoon fords. The brigades of Buford
that had crossed over were driven back. The Fifth,
Twenty-third and five companies of the Twelfth regi
ment, under Colonel Garrett, crossed at Raccoon ford,
and the Twentieth and five companies of the Twelfth
crossed at Morton's ford, and followed the Federals to
Stevensburg. These regiments succeeded in forcing the
enemy to retire. The loss in the brigade was 4 killed
and 38 wounded.

At Brandy Station, General Gordon reports: "Near
Bradford's house I sent the First North Carolina cavalry
to attack the enemy in rear while we were moving
on his flank. That command captured and killed 60 of
the enemy. Near Mr. Bott's house, the Fourth and
Fifth were charged in flank by the Eighteenth Pennsyl
vania cavalry, and broke in considerable confusion. The
brigade took no further active [part in the] operations
during the day. ' '

While making a reconnoissance toward Catlett's Sta
tion on the night of the i3th, General Stuart suddenly
found himself and command enveloped by a marching
corps of Federal infantry. His situation was extremely
critical, and a less resourceful commander would most
probably have been captured. He, however, concealed
his men in a body of woods so near the Federals that
he could hear their conversation. His troops having
"unbounded confidence in the resources of the major-
general commanding, remained quiet and determined
during the night. "* A few bold men ran the gauntlet of
the Federal lines to take word to General Lee of the per
ilous situation of his cavalry. At dawn a dense fog pre
vented a disclosure of Stuart's presence. "An army
corps," reports that officer, "halted on a hill just oppo
site to us, stacked arms, and went to making coffee.
This operation had considerably progressed when a sharp

* Gordon's Report.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 211

volley of musketry was heard on the Warrenton road. I
waited until it appeared more general, when, believing
that it was our attack in earnest, I opened seven guns
upon the enemy and rained a storm of canister and shell
upon the masses of men, muskets and coffee-pots.
Strange to say, the fire of our infantry ceased as soon as I
opened, and I soon found myself maintaining an unequal
contest with an army corps. ' ' The Federal batteries on
the hill were turned on Stuart, and he ordered Gordon's
brigade to cover his left flank. Unflinchingly the North
Carolinians carried out the order. During this action,
Gordon saw that a Federal regiment was about to reach
the road of the retreating line, and ordered the First
North Carolina cavalry to charge it. Though the First
was small in number, Col. Thomas Ruffin, commanding
it, led a dashing charge on the Federal bayonets and held
the regiment back from the road. Colonel Ruffin,
whom General Stuart described as a "model of worth,
devotion and heroism, ' ' lost his life in the attack. Gen
eral Gordon and Major Barringer were both wounded, but
continued on duty. Sheer hard fighting alone extricated
Stuart.

General Lee crossed the Rapidan early in October And
moved toward Culpeper Court House, "with a view of
bringing on an engagement with the Federal army. ' ' *
General Meade, however, retreated before Lee, and the
Confederate army moved on toward Bristoe Station.
Gen. A. P. Hill's corps reached that point first, and, on
the 1 4th, brought on an engagement with Warren's Sec
ond corps. This was almost entirely, on the Confederate
side, a North Carolina battle ; for the two brigades that
did nearly all the fighting were both from, that State.

Just before reaching Bristoe, General Heth, command
ing the advance division, was ordered to form line of battle
on the road from Greenwich. Accordingly Cooke's North
Carolina brigade was formed on the right of the road;

* Lee's Report.

212 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Kirkland's brigade, also North Carolinians, was formed
to Cooke's left, and Walker's brigade was directed to move
to Kirkland's left ; but Cooke and Kirkland, having formed,
were ordered forward before Walker could reach his post.
Davis was held in reserve. A Federal force was soon
discovered in Kirkland's front, but one of Poague's bat
teries caused it to retire, and General Heth was ordered
to cross Broad run to follow up Poague's success. It
was not known to the Confederate commander that the
Federals were in force across the run ; for their lines were
marching parallel to a railroad that concealed them from
sight. Cooke and Kirkland advanced, and no opportu
nity offered Walker to form on line with them. They
encountered General Warren's Second corps drawn up
along a line of railroad.

The Federal forces that these two brigades were or
dered to attack were posted in a low cut almost perfectly
sheltering the men, and behind an embankment forming
equally good protection. Hays' division, consisting of
the brigades of Smyth, Carroll and Owen, held the center.
On his right was Webb's division, made up of Heath's and
Mallon's brigades — Baxter not being present. Cald-
well's division was on Hays' left, but the Confederate
front was not long enough to reach his position, and only
his skirmishers were engaged. Miles' brigade of Cald-
well's division was supporting the artillery. The Fed
eral brigades most severely engaged were those of Heath,
Mallon and Owen.

Against these two divisions the two North Carolina
brigades, under the protest of General Cooke, gallantly
advanced. General Heth says of the Federal position :
"On seeing our advance, the enemy formed his line in
rear of the railroad embankment, his right resting on
Broad run and hidden by a railroad cut. In his rear, a
line of hills ascended to some 30 or 40 feet in height, giv
ing him an admirable position for his artillery. The rail
road cut and embankment gave him perfect protection

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 213

for his infantry." Two batteries of Ricketts — Brown
and Arnold — occupied these advantageous positions and
swept the slope down which the Confederates had to
advance.

As General Cooke marched to the attack, his Carolina
regiments were drawn up as follows: The Forty-sixth,
Colonel Hall, on the right; the Fifteenth, Col. William
MacRae, next ; the Twenty-seventh, Colonel Gilmer, next,
and on the left, the Forty-eighth, Colonel Walkup. Gen
eral Kirkland's North Carolinians were on Cooke 's left in
this order : The Eleventh, Lieutenant-Colonel Martin, and
the Fifty-second, Lieut. -Col. B. F. Little, were on the left ;
the Twenty-sixth, Colonel Lane, the Forty-fourth, Colo
nel Singeltary, and the Forty- seventh, Colonel Faribault,
on the right.

Cooke 's men, on the right, stepped to the front with
boldness and began the descent of the slope. Then for
the first time they saw the enemy's real line of battle;
but their orders were to break it if possible. The batter
ies speedily got their range and the infantry fire was
incessant. "As they fired up the hill," says Capt. J. A.
Graham, "every one of their shots told." Almost at
the first volley, General Cooke and Colonel Gilmer were
seriously wounded. Col. E. D. Hall succeeded to the
command of the brigade. Colonel Hall, seeing how rap
idly his command was falling, rushed to the center and
ordered the firing to cease and a charge to be made.
The Twenty-seventh led off, followed by the other regi
ments. "The point from which we started the charge,"
says Graham, "was distinctly marked; in some cases
ten men from each company lying dead or wounded on
that line."* When these determined men reached
within forty yards of the railroad, the Federals rose and
delivered a volley that so thinned the shattered ranks
that an order to fall back was given. In their exposed
condition, to fall back was almost as dangerous as to

* Regimental History.

214 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

proceed. Col. William MacRae's thoughtful bravery,
however, prevented much loss of life. He ordered his
regiment to fall back by companies, and so poured a con
tinuous return fire upon the hottest of the Federal front
fire. Cooke lost 526 men* in this action, which lasted
only about forty minutes. The Twenty-seventh regi
ment, which, says Colonel Hall, went further than any
other of his regiments, lost 204 out of 426 taken into
action.

Kirkland's brigade was not called upon to endure so
heavy a loss as Cooke 's, for a pine field protected in part
his advance, but his officers and men behaved with
equal gallantry. His men fought their way into the rail
road cut on the left of his line. The Eleventh and Fifty-
second drove the Federals out of the cut and occupied it
themselves. But they were exposed to a flank fire from
infantry and an enfilade fire from artillery, and reluc
tantly gave up their advantage. General Kirkland was
wounded, Colonel Martin was several times wounded,
and a loss of 270 inflicted upon the brigade.

General Warren in his official report bears testimony to
the fearlessness of the North Carolina men in their
attacks. He reports, "the enemy's line of battle boldly
moving forward, one part of our own steadily awaiting it
and another moving against it at double-quick. . . . The
enemy was gallantly led, as the wounding of three [two]
of his general officers in this attack shows, and even in
retiring many retired but sullenly. ' '

Why these two brigades were left to fight an entirely
unsupported battle against such odds seems never to
have been explained. The total Confederate loss around
Bristoe was 1,381. The total North Carolina loss, as
shown by the official reports, was 912. This was divided
as follows: killed, 133; wounded, 779.

A cavalry engagement, jocularly denominated by the
Confederate troopers, "the Buckland Races," occurred on

*Official Returns, Army Northern Virginia.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 215

the 1 8th. General Stuart, who was in front of Kilpat-
rick's division, received a note from General Fitzhugh
Lee stating that he was moving to join his commander,
and suggesting that Stuart with Hampton's division
should retire in the direction of Warrenton, drawing the
enemy after him. This being done, Lee was to come in
from Auburn and attack in flank and rear while Stuart
attacked in front. General Stuart's report tells the
sequel: "This plan proved highly successful. Kilpat-
rick followed me cautiously until I reached the point in
question, when the sound of artillery toward Buckland
indicating that Major-General Lee had arrived and com
menced the attack, I pressed upon them suddenly and
vigorously in front, with Gordon [North Carolina bri
gade] in the center and Young and Rosser on his flanks.
The enemy at first offered a stubborn resistance, but the
charge was made with such impetuosity, the First North
Carolina gallantly leading, that the enemy broke and the
rout was soon complete. I pursued them from within three
miles of Warrenton to Buckland, the horses going at full
speed the whole distance. ' ' General Stuart quotes from
a Northern writer, who speaks of Kilpatrick's retreat as
"the deplorable spectacle of the cavalry dashing hatless
and panic-stricken through the ranks of the infantry. ' '

In the operations around Rappahannock Station,
Hays' brigade occupied a tete-de-pont on the enemy's
side of the Rappahannock. Hoke's brigade, now com
manded during General Hoke's absence, from a severe
wound, by Col. A. C. Godwin, was ordered to cross the
river to reinforce Hays. There, on the yth of Novem
ber, these two brigades were completely surrounded by
the Federal First and Second corps, and a large part of
them forced to surrender in spite of the efforts of Hays
and of Godwin, a splendid officer, to extricate them. Gen
eral Early thus speaks of this unfortunate affair : "Hoke's
brigade had not at this time been captured, but they
were hopelessly cut off from the bridge without any

216 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

means of escape and with no chance of being reinforced ;
and while making preparations to defend the bridge and
prevent an increase of the disaster, I had the mortifi
cation to hear the final struggle of these devoted men,
and to be made painfully aware of their capture without
the possibility of being able to go to their relief. ' ' Eight
hundred and forty-seven men of this brigade were thus
made prisoners. Capt. Joseph Graham's North Carolina
battery, posted on the Confederate side of the river,
made continuous efforts to direct a successful fire upon
the assailants of its comrades across the river.

On this same date, the Federals succeeded in crossing
the Rappahannock at Kelly's ford notwithstanding the
efforts of Rodes' division, which was guarding several
fords along the river, to prevent it. The troops most
actively engaged at Kelly's ford were the Second North
Carolina, commanded at the opening of the affair by
Colonel Cox, then, upon that officer's being wounded,
by Lieutenant- Colonel Stallings, and the Thirtieth
North Carolina, Lieutenant-Colonel Sillers commanding.
Colonel Sillers also received a terrible wound. The North
Carolina losses in these engagements were: killed, 6;
wounded, 109.

The most serious infantry engagement during the No
vember movements was at Payne's farm, or Bartlett's
mill, on the 27th. The Federals unexpectedly attacked
Johnson's division. The main attack fell on Steuart's
and Walker's brigades. Here again, as at Bristoe, the
heaviest losses fell on North Carolina troops. The Third
North Carolina, Lieutenant-Colonel Brown, sustained the
heaviest loss in the division — 72 men. The First North
Carolina, Colonel Thruston, suffered next in casualties.
His regiment and the Fourth Virginia each lost 55 men.
The brigades of Hoke, Daniel and Ramseur were several
times under fire, but not seriously engaged. The total
North Carolina casualties in the infantry were: killed,
17; wounded, 138.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 217

Gordon's cavalry brigade had a skirmish at New Hope
church, and took part in a sharp action at Parker's store.
The Second North Carolina and a portion of the Fifth,
all tinder command of Captain Reese, made a successful
dismounted attack on the Federal skirmishers. In this
affair, Captain Reese and Lieutenant Copeland were
killed.

CHAPTER XIII.

NORTH CAROLINA EVENTS, 1863-64— FEDERAL TREAT
MENT OF THE EASTERN PART OF THE STATE-
MILITARY OPERATIONS IN THE STATE— RANSOM
RECOVERS SUFFOLK— VICTORY OF HOKE AND COOKE
AT PLYMOUTH— GALLANT FIGHTING OF THE AL-
BEMARLE— SPRING CAMPAIGN, 1864, IN VIRGINIA.

THERE were no large military operations in North
Carolina contemporaneous with the Bristoe and
Mine Run campaigns. Frequent expeditions
were sent out from New Bern by the Federals. These
were frequently fired upon by the militia, but, as the IO-CL!
troops were not regularly organized, the expeditions r^n-
erally came and went without much molestation. Whit-
ford's battalion was often active and useful in deterring
such raids. On December 3oth, near Greenville, there
was a brisk skirmish between Colonel McChesney, com
manding a Federal cavalry and artillery force, and Major
Moore, with some companies of the Third North Carolina
cavalry.

The close of 1863 was gloomy enough in eastern North
Carolina. Moore thus describes it: "The condition of
eastern North Carolina grew hourly more deplorable.
Frequent incursions of the enemy resulted in the destruc
tion of property of all kinds. Especially were horses and
mules objects of plunder. Pianos and other costly furni
ture were seized and sent North, while whole regiments
of 'bummers' wantonly defaced and ruined the fairest
homesteads in eager search for hidden treasures. The
'Buffaloes,' in gangs of a dozen men, infested the
swamps and made night hideous with their horrid visita
tions. They and their colored coadjutors, by all manner

218

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 219

of inducements, enticed from the farms such of the
negro men as were fitted for military duty. ... To the
infinite and undying credit of the colored race, though
the woods swarmed with negro men sent back on detailed
duty for the purpose of enlisting their comrades in the
Federal army, there were less acts of violence toward the
helpless old men, women and children than could have
been possibly expected under the circumstances."

In an effort to alleviate this state of affairs, a force of
some magnitude was sent to North Carolina at the open
ing of 1864. Gen. George E. Pickett, with a division of
troops, was sent to the State to co-operate with the forces
already there. The dispersion or capture of the Federal
garrison at New Bern seems to have been Pickett 's
objective. General Pickett had in his command Corse's
Virginia brigade; Gen. M. W. Ransom's brigade, com
posed of these North Carolina regiments: Twenty-fourth,
Colonel Clarke ; Twenty-fifth, Colonel Rutledge ; Thirty-
fifth, Colonel Jones; Forty-ninth, Colonel McAfee, and
Fifty-sixth, Colonel Faison; Clingman's North Carolina
brigade— the Eighth, Colonel Shaw; Thirty-first, Colonel
Jordan ; Fifty- first, Colonel McKethan, and Sixty-first, Col
onel Radcliffe; Hoke's Carolina brigade — Sixth, Colonel
Webb; Twenty-first, Colonel Rankin; Forty- third, Lieu
tenant-Colonel Lewis; Fifty-fourth, Colonel Murchison;
Fifty-seventh, Colonel Godwin, and Twenty-first Georgia.
In addition, he had four unbrigaded regiments, including
the Sixty-seventh North Carolina, Colonel Whitford, and
five regiments of cavalry, including the Third North Caro
lina, Colonel Baker, and the Sixth, Colonel Folk. The artil
lery under Pickett 's orders consisted of the Tenth North
Carolina regiment, Colonel Pool's command, Starr's
light artillery battalion, Robertson's heavy battery, all
of North Carolina, and several batteries from other States.
The field returns for February give his total effective
strength as 13,308.*
"^Rebellion Records, XXXIII, p. 1201.

220 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

In addition, General Whiting at Wilmington had 6,690
men. Whiting's infantry was largely made up of General
Martin's brigade — the Seventeenth North Carolina, Col
onel Martin; Forty-second North Carolina, Colonel
Brown ; Fiftieth North Carolina, Colonel Wortham ; Six
ty-sixth, Colonel Moore. He had 2,326 heavy artillery
men, 374 light artillerymen, and about 500 cavalrymen.
The total force then stationed in the State was 19,998.

Acting under General Lee's orders, General Pickett, on
the 2oth of January, set three columns in motion from
Kinston to attack New Bern. General Barton with his
own brigade, Kemper's brigade, part of Ransom's bri
gade, twelve pieces of artillery, and twelve companies of
cavalry, was directed to cross the Trent and take the
works of New Bern in reverse, and to prevent rein
forcements reaching the town. Colonel Bearing was sent
with a cavalry force to attack Fort Anderson, Barrington's
ferry. General Pickett, with Hoke's brigade, three regi
ments of Corse's brigade, the Eighth and Fifty-first regi
ments of Clingman's brigade, and ten pieces of artillery,
advanced on New Bern by the Dover road.

General Pickett, in his official report, states his plan of
operations as follows : * ' Barton with his cavalry was to
have cut the railroad and cross Brice's creek, taking the
forts on the banks of the Neuse, and pass across the rail
road bridge; effectually, should he only succeed in the
first, cutting off reinforcements. Bearing, by taking
Fort Anderson, would have a direct fire on the town and
an enfilading fire on the works in front of it. Commander
Wood, having secured the gunboats, would co-operate,
and I, with the party under my command, create a diver
sion, draw off the enemy, and if the chance offered, go in
the town."

Following out this plan, General Hoke, after a brisk
skirmish on Monday, February ist, drove in the enemy's
outpost at Batchelder's creek. The brigade of Hoke,
three regiments of Corse, and two of Clingman, crossed

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 221

the creek and advanced toward the town. The batteries
from the Federal works opened upon them, but no assault
was ordered. General Pickett reports : * 4 There was un
fortunately no co-operation, the other parties having failed
to attack, and I found we were making the fight single-
handed. " General Barton reported that he could not
cross Brice's creek to carry out his part of the plan. Gen
eral Pickett waited one day for him and then retired his
forces, and the expedition from which North Carolinians
had hoped much, came to an unsuccessful close. In the
engagement at Batchelder's creek, Col. H. M. Shaw, of
the Eighth North Carolina regiment, was killed. Gen
eral Clingman said of him that he was "equally remark
able for his attention to all the duties of his position, and
his courage on the field. ' ' The Confederate loss here
was about 45 killed and wounded.

Col. J. Taylor Wood, who was assigned the duty of
attacking the gunboats, was more successful. Colonel
Wood had six picked crews of fifteen men each from ships
about Wilmington, Richmond and Charleston. They
dropped down the river from Kinston in the darkness,
and with rifles and cutlasses assaulted and boarded the
gunboat Underwriter, lying just under the guns of the
forts. The men under Wood were exposed to a hot fire
on approaching the boat, and, after boarding, they became
at once engaged in a desperate hand-to-hand cutlass and
pistol fight with the Underwriter's crew. Wood finally
captured the vessel, but had to burn it. Few more dar
ing deeds than this were done during the war.

On the 28th of January, Gen. J. G. Martin,_commanding
the Forty-second regiment, Col. J. E. Brown; the Seven
teenth regiment, Lieutenant-Colonel Lamb; a cavalry
force under Colonel Jackson and Lieutenant-Colonel Jef
fords, four pieces of the Ellis battery of Moore's battal
ion (accompanied by the major), and Paris' battery, set
out from Wilmington to attack the garrison at Newport
barracks, near Shepherdsville. That post was defended

222 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

by the Ninth Vermont regiment, a Massachusetts heavy
battery, and two companies of cavalry.

On the 2d of February, General Martin made the attack
successfully and captured the barracks, several guns, 70
or 80 prisoners, and many stores. This whole affair was
well managed and well fought. Martin lost 7 men killed
and 14 wounded.

Gen. M. W. Ransom, on the pth of March, at the head
of his brigade and a cavalry force, drove the Federals
from Suffolk, capturing a piece of artillery and quarter
master stores of much value. Judge Roulhac says in his
Regimental History: "This was a most exciting little
affair, in which our troops met negro soldiers for the first
time. Quick work was made of their line of battle, and
their retreat was soon converted into a runaway. . . .
The firing of our artillery was excellent, every shot tak
ing effect upon the fleeing ebony horsemen. At a swift
run by sections, Branch's artillery kept shot and shell in
their midst as long as the fleeing cavalry could be
reached. ' '

The next important event in North Carolina was Gen.
R. F. Hoke's capture of the town of Plymouth. This
town had been very strongly fortified, especially on the
land side. Forts Williams, Gray, Amory, Battery Worth
and other defenses made an attack quite a formidable
matter. It was held by Gen. H. W. Wessells, command
ing a garrison of 2,834 men. General Hoke, who had
been selected to lead this important expedition because
the President knew "his energy and activity," designed
attacking Plymouth, and wished naval assistance. He
rode up the river to inquire of Commander Cooke, who
was building an ironclad at Edward's ferry on the
Roanoke, when he could get the co-operation of the boat.
At the first interview, Cooke said that it would be impos
sible for him to have the boat ready by the time suggested
by General Hoke. But when General Hoke explained
that he wanted to attack Plymouth, and that it was neces-

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 223

sary to have the co-operation of his boat, the brave
Cooke's fighting spirit rose, and he promised to take his
boat to Plymouth, finished or unfinished, and General
Hoke left him with that assurance. On the day set
by General Hoke, Commander Cooke, true to his
promise, started down the river, finishing his work
and drilling his men in gun practice as he went.
Maffitt says: "At early dawn on the i8th, steam was up;
ten portable forges, with numerous sledge hammers, were
placed on board, and thus equipped the never-failing
Cooke started. Naval history affords no such remarkable
evidence of patriotic zeal and individual perseverance. " *

This tribute to Cooke is a just one. No boat could have
been built under more difficulties than was the Albe-
marle, as Cooke named his new venture, and its construc
tion shows the difficulties under which the Confederates
waged a long war. It was designed by Gilbert Elliott.
The prow, which was used as a ram, was of oak sheathed
with iron ; its back was turtle-shaped and protected by
2 -inch iron. Cooke had ransacked the whole country
for iron, until, says Maffitt, he was known as the "Iron
monger captain." "The entire construction," continues
Maffitt, "was one of shreds and patches; the engine was
adapted from incongruous material, ingeniously dove
tailed and put together with a determined will that mas
tered doubt, but not without some natural anxiety as to
derangements that might occur from so heterogeneous a
combination. The Albemarle was built in an open corn
field, of unseasoned timber. A simple blacksmith shop
aided the mechanical part of her construction. ' '

Notwithstanding the difficulties of her construction, the
vessel was, when finished, a formidable fighting machine.
In the early hours of the igih of April, she dropped down
the river and passed the fort at Warren's neck, under a
furious fire. The protection from the shield was so com
plete that the shot from the guns at Warren sounded to

* Reminiscences of Confederate Navy.

224 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

those on board, says Elliott, "no louder than pebbles
against a barrel." In the rear of Fort Williams, the
Albemarle saw two Federal gunboats lashed together.
These were the Southfield and the Miami, under the bril
liant C. W. Flusser. Immediately the Albemarle dashed
nine feet of her prow into the Southfield, delivering at
the same time a broadside into the Miami, killing and
wounding many of her crew. Flusser was killed, and in
ten minutes the Southfield was at the bottom of the
river, the prow of the ram still clinging to her, and excit
ing for a few moments serious apprehensions for the
safety of the Albemarle. The vessel soon worked herself
free and followed the other retreating gunboats.

Maffitt thinks that this * 'brilliant naval success insured
the triumph of General Hoke," for it gave him, on the
water side, a vulnerable point of attack. General Hoke
had invested the town with his own brigade, the bri
gade of Ransom, and one of Pickett's under Terry.
When Cooke returned, his ship opened fire with its two
guns upon Fort Williams, the citadel of Plymouth.
General Hoke moved General Ransom's brigade around
to attack from the river side. Ransom's men gallantly
stormed the works, meeting not only the usual artillery
and infantry fire, but encountering hand-grenades thrown
from the works. On all sides the Confederate forces
closed in, and, after a struggle in which both sides fought
as only seasoned soldiers are apt to fight, the town with
its garrison of nearly 3,000 men and 25 pieces of artillery
was surrendered. The Confederate Congress passed a
vote of thanks to General Hoke and Commander James
W. Cooke and the officers and men under their command,
"for the brilliant victory over the enemy at Plymouth."
This gallant deed awakened great enthusiasm in the
State, for it was now hoped that North Carolina might be
cleared of invaders.

A few days later, the ram Albemarle, accompanied by
the little transport Cotton Plant, and the captured gun-

CONFEDERA TE MI LIT A R Y HIS TOR Y. 225

boat Bombshell, came down the river and met the vessels
searching for her. These were the "double-enders"
Mattabesett, Sassacus, Wyahising, Miami, and the
smaller ships Whitehead, Ceres, Commodore Hull and
Seymour. The Miami was armed with a torpedo and
watched carefully for an opportunity to explode it. These
steamers circled around the Albemarle, firing, and then
circling until again opposite the ram, and ready for a
second broadside. This plan of battle was carried into
effect, but the heavy shot rattled off from the sloping
decks of the Albemarle without doing much injury.
"This terrific grand waltz" continued for some time; the
ram taking the fire with stoical indifference. The little
Bombshell was speedily forced to drop out of the fight.
Then the Sassacus backed away and ran into the Albe
marle at a reported speed of ten knots. The ram was
materially jarred, but sent a shot through and through
the Sassacus, and soon another shot filled the Sassacus
with steam and drove her from the fight. The Wyalus-
ing signaled that she was sinking, and shortly afterward
the command "cease firing" was signaled. The 100-
pound Parrot ts and the 9-inch Dahlgrens had produced
little appreciable effect on the Albemarle, and she had
fairly discomfited her antagonists.

The fall of Plymouth led to the Federal evacuation of
Washington, N. C., on the 28th of April. On the evacu
ation, the town was burned by the Federal troops. Gen
eral Palmer, in an order condemning the atrocities com
mitted by his troops, used these words: "It is well known
that the army vandals did not even respect the charitable
institutions, but bursting open the doors of the Masonic
and Odd Fellows' lodge, pillaged them both and hawked
about the streets the regalia and jewels. And this, too,
by United States troops! It is well known that both
public and private stores were entered and plundered, and
that devastation and destruction ruled the hour." *

* Rebellion Records, XXXIII, p. 310.
No 29

226 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

General Hdke next moved against New Bern, and
Roman says: "General Hoke had already taken the
outworks at New Bern and demanded its surrender;
when in obedience to instructions from Richmond, Gen
eral Beauregard sent him a special messenger (Lieutenant
Chisolm, A. D. C.) with orders to repair forthwith to
Petersburg, no matter how far his operations might have
advanced against New Bern. . . . No time was lost in
carrying out the order. ' ' *

The effect that may be produced by the daring battle
of a small force was most clearly shown by the attack of
306 North Carolina horsemen upon Kilpatrick's cavalry
at Atlee's station near Richmond. On the 28th of Feb
ruary, General Kilpatrick was ordered by the Federal
government to take 3,000 cavalrymen and six pieces of
aitillery and make a dash upon Richmond, then but
slightly guarded. He was to be accompanied by Col.
Ulric Dahlgren, and the avowed object of the movement
was to liberate the Federal prisoners at Belle island, and
do such other damage as time and means would allow.

General Kilpatrick, acting upon his orders, moved so
rapidly and unexpectedly that on the ist of March he
reached the immediate neighborhood of Richmond with
out his movement being disclosed. By a feigned attack
at Ashland, Kilpatrick succeeded in throwing the Con
federates off his track, and captured the pickets and a
small force in the rifle-pits on the Brook pike. Then,
ascertaining that the Confederates were reinforcing in
his front, Kilpatrick felt that an attack would end "in a
bloody failure. " So he withdrew his command, destroyed
the bridges on the Virginia Central road, and went into
camp near Mechanicsville. However, from scouts and
spies, Kilpatrick learned that night that the entire avail
able Confederate force had been concentrated in front of
Brook pike, where he had attacked, and that no force of
Confederates was on the road from his camp to Richmond.

* Roman's Life of Beauregard, II, p. 199, Note.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 227

He says: "It was now 10 p. m. I at once determined to
make another attempt to enter the city. " His men were
ordered to set out. Just, however, as they started, Gen
eral Kilpatrick was informed by Colonel Sawyer, com
manding his Second brigade, that his pickets had been
driven in on the road from Hanover Court House. Kil-
patrick's report continues: "A few moments later he
(Sawyer) sent me word that the enemy was advancing in
force and rapidly driving in his people. I sent orders for
him to throw out a strong line of skirmishers, and if pos
sible charge the enemy and drive him back, as I intended
to make this last effort to release our prisoners. Heavy mus
ketry and carbine firing could now be heard, and a moment
later the enemy opened with a battery. I was forced to
recall my troops to resist this attack, which now became
serious. The enemy charged and drove back the Sev
enth Michigan, and considerable confusion ensued. The
night was intensely dark, cold and stormy. . . . Not
knowing the strength of the enemy, I abandoned all fur
ther ideas of releasing our prisoners. ' '

The force that brought about this commotion on that
dark, sleety night, and made Kilpatrick give up his last
chance of accomplishing his mission, was composed of a
small band of North Carolina cavalry. General Hampton
learned from citizens that a cavalry force was heading for
the Central railroad, and he reports: "As soon as I could
learn what direction the enemy had taken, I sent all the
mounted men from the North Carolina cavalry (Colonel
Cheek), and 53 from the Second (Major Andrews), with
Hart's battery to Mount Carmel church." -The next
morning General Hampton joined the command and
moved down to strike the enemy. At Atlee's station,
about midnight, General Hampton sent Colonel Cheek
to see what force the enemy had. Colonel Cheek took
200 of his regiment and 30 of the Second. He found
Sawyer's brigade lying down, many of them asleep.
Bringing a section of artillery, he endeavored to get the

228 CONFEDERA TE MI LIT A R Y HIS TOR I r.

pieces in position, but one mired so that it was useless.
Then dismounting 150 men under Captain Blair, Colonel
Cheek directed them to close in, and, at the sound of the
gun, to fire, shout and advance. The colonel waited with
a squadron to charge on the stampede. At the flash of
the signal gun, Blair's men rushed forward, firing and
shouting, and in the confusion that followed, Cheek
charged with his mounted men. The result was that the
brigade was badly broken and driven on the main body.
General Hampton reports: "Kilpatrick immediately
moved his division off at a gallop, leaving one of his
wagons with horses hitched to it and one caisson full of
ammunition." This bold deed, as seen, probably saved
the liberation of the prisoners at Belle island.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE WILDERNESS, 1864— GRANT MOVES ON RICHMOND
—THE OPENING BATTLES OF MAY— THE "BLOODY
ANGLE "—BATTLE OF DREWRY'S BLUFF— SERVICE
OF NORTH CAROLINA COMMANDS— HOKE'S DIVI
SION.

IN March, 1864, Gen. U. S. Grant was given the su
preme command of all the Federal forces in the field.
From that time on, the Federal armies were, as Gen
eral Grant says, "all ready to move for the accomplish
ment of a single object. They were acting as a unit so
far as such a thing was possible over such a vast field.
Lee, with the capital of the Confederacy, was the main
end to which all were working. ' ' * The cost in men and
money was not to be counted in the accomplishment of
that end. General Lee's army had been so worn by con
stant attrition, that at the beginning of this campaign
many Federal officers were of opinion that he could not
recruit it enough to make another year's campaign, f
This belief may account for the apparently reckless ex
penditure of blood in this year's operations against Lee.
Men were thrown against the Confederate works and
slaughtered, until at Cold Harbor, ordered to assault
again, "his immobile lines pronounced a silent, yet em
phatic verdict against further slaughter," J by refusing to
budge. Attrition seemed to be the grand strategy of this
campaign in which, according to the official returns pub
lished in the Rebellion Records, 88,387 Federals were
killed, wounded or captured from May to November § —

* General Grant, in Battles and Leaders.

f General Webb's article, "Through the Wilderness."

\ Swinton.

§ Vol. XXXVI, I, p. 195.

230 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

a loss probably greater than the numerical strength of the
army that inflicted it. The continued attacks by new Fed
eral troops, notwithstanding these startling losses, how
ever, produced a depressing effect on the Confederate
soldiers. They were often heard to say : * * It is of no use
to kill these fellows; they are like flies, kill one and
two come in its place. ' '

At midnight on May 3d, General Grant's army began
to cross the Rapidan, and move on the Germanna ford
road toward the Wilderness. General Webb, of that army,
gives this concrete illustration of the comparative
strength of the two armies: "His [Grant's] 118,000 men,
properly disposed for battle, would have covered a front
of twenty-one miles, two ranks deep, with one- third of
them held in reserve; while Lee, with his 62,000 men,
similarly disposed, would cover only twelve miles. Grant
had a train which he states in his 'Memoirs' would
have reached from the Rapidan to Richmond, or sixty
miles."*

This great army marched toward Richmond on the
Germanna road. Two parallel roads, the Orange turn
pike and the Orange plank road, cross the Germanna road,
nearly at right angles, not far from the famous Wilder
ness tavern. As General Grant's columns stretched out
along the Germanna road, General Lee moved the corps
of Ewell and A. P. Hill on the two parallel roads, to
strike the Federal flank. General Longstreet's corps at
the time of contact of these armies, May $th, was distant
a day's march. General Swell's corps, moving on the
turnpike, was diminished by the absence of Gen. R. D.
Johnston's North Carolina brigade, then stationed at
Hanover Court House, and by Hoke's North Carolina
brigade, just then ordered up from North Carolina. An
derson's division of Hill's corps also was not present at
the opening of the battle. "So," says Colonel Venable
of Lee's staff, "on May 5th, General Lee had less than
* Through the Wilderness.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 231

28,000 infantry in hand. " * The willingness of the great
Confederate commander to do battle against such odds
is an enduring tribute to the fighting qualities of his
followers.

In General Swell's corps were these North Carolina
troops: Daniel's brigade, composed of the Thirty-second,
Colonel Brabble; Forty-fifth, Colonel Boyd; Fifty-third,
Colonel Owens, and Second battalion, Major Hancock;
Ramseur's brigade, made up of the Second, Colonel Cox;
the Fourth, Colonel Grimes; the Fourteenth, Colonel
Bennett, and the Thirtieth, Colonel Parker; Johnston's
brigade (absent the first day), constituted as follows: Fifth,
Colonel Garrett; Twelfth, Colonel Coleman; Twentieth,
Colonel Toon ; Twenty- third, Colonel Blacknall ; and the
First, Colonel Brown, and Third, Colonel Thruston, in
Steuart's brigade.

E well's battle of the 5th was entirely distinct from
Hill's fight of the same day. As Ewell advanced — Jones'
brigade in front, followed by Battle's and Doles' on
Battle's right — Griffin's division of Warren's corps, com
posed of the brigades of Ayres, Bartlett and Barnes, fell
upon Jones and drove him back. Jones' men somewhat
disordered Battle's line as they gave way, but Doles held
steady on the right. General Daniel was sent to the aid
of Doles, who was hard pressed, and Gordon a little later
formed on Daniel's right. These North Carolinians and
Georgians gallantly dashed against Griffin's men, forced
Ayres across the pike, and restored the Confederate line.
Gordon being on the flank captured many prisoners.
Wadsworth's Federal division, supported on .the left by
Dennison's brigade, advanced through the dense thickets
to reinforce Griffin. He reached the firing line, says
Humphreys, just about the time that Daniel's and Gor
don's brigades got on the ground, with his left flank to
ward them. They "took instant advantage to attack,
and his front line being so entangled in the wood as not

* Richmond Address.

232 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

to admit of ready handling, its left fell back quickly and
in some confusion, and the enemy passing through the
opening thus made, took Dennison's brigade in flank, as
well as two brigades of the right, and after a short, sharp
engagement forced them also to retire." * McCandless'
brigade of Crawford's division was also engaged and
broken by these same brigades, assisted by a front fire.

During the busy work of Daniel and Gordon on the
flank, the Confederate front also had been seriously
struggling. Steuart's brigade, along with Battle's, en
gaged the right of Griffin, whose left had been turned by
Daniel and Gordon. In Steuart's attack, the First and
Third North Carolina regiments, forming his right, bore
an honorable part. They charged upon a line of infantry
supporting one of Griffin's batteries, drove it and cap
tured two howitzers. The Regimental History of the
Third regiment thus describes the capture: "Preceding
and up to the capture of the howitzers, the fighting was
desperate, muskets and their butt ends and bayonets being
used. . . . We recall that in a gully, which ran for more
than a brigade front, Confederates and Federals were so
nearly on even terms or at equal advantage, that they
were simultaneously demanding each other to surrender.
We, however, succeeded in establishing the superiority
of our claim and came off victors. " In the rest of Ewell's
hard fighting that afternoon, the North Carolinians were
not called upon to take part. Ramseur's brigade was in
reserve. The First North Carolina cavalry was on
Ewell's left. At nightfall, Ewell had resisted all assaults,
and at once fortified the line he held.

While Ewell's forces were thus engaged, Gen. A. P.
Hill's corps was battling with Getty and Hancock on the
lower road. The fact, however, that there are in the
official records so few reports from the officers engaged,
makes it difficult to fully ascertain the parts borne by the
North Carolina troops. There were four North Carolina

* The Virginia Campaign of 1864 and 1865.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 233

brigades and one regiment, the Fifty-fifth, Colonel Belo,
in Hill's corps: Kirkland's — the Eleventh, Colonel Mar
tin; Twenty- sixth, Lieutenant- Colonel Jones; Forty-
fourth, Colonel Singeltary; Forty-seventh, Colonel Fari-
bault; Fifty-second, Colonel Little; Cooke's brigade — the
Fifteenth, Lieutenant-Colonel Yarborough; Twenty-sev
enth, Colonel Gilmer; Forty-sixth, Colonel Saunders;
Forty-eighth, Colonel Walkup ; Lane's brigade — the Sev
enth, Colonel Davidson; Eighteenth, Colonel Barry;
Twenty-eighth, Colonel Speer; Thirty-third, Colonel
Avery; Thirty-seventh, Colonel Barbour; Scales' bri
gade — Thirteenth, Colonel Hyman; Sixteenth, Colonel
Stowe ; Twenty-second, Colonel Galloway ; Thirty-fourth,
Colonel Lowrance; Thirty-eighth, Colonel Ashford.
Cooke and Kirkland were in Heth's division, Scales and
Lane in Wilcox's division.

When Heth's division, the head of A. P. Hill's corps,
approached the Federal lines, General Meade ordered
Getty's division of Sedgwick's corps, supported by Han
cock's corps, to attack the Confederates and drive them
back to Parker's store, so that Hancock might connect
with Warren's left. Hancock formed the divisions of
Birney, Mott, Gibbon and Barlow on Getty's left. These
five divisions were resisted all the afternoon by Heth's
and Wilcox's divisions alone, Anderson, Hill's other
division commander, being still absent with his command.
The divisions of Getty, Birney, Mott, two brigades of
Hancock and two of Barlow were composed of seventy-
nine regiments. The two divisions that opposed them
numbered forty regiments. Of these forty regiments,
twenty, as seen above, were from North Carolina.

Heth's division was drawn up across the plank road.
Cooke's North Carolina brigade had two of its regiments,
the Fifteenth and Forty-sixth, on the right of the road,
and two, the Twenty-seventh and Forty-eighth, on the
left of the road. During a part of the engagement, Kirk-
land's men supported Cooke. Later it passed to the front

Nc 30

234 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

line and was heavily engaged. Both of these brigades
did steady, hard fighting during all the afternoon as they
met the heavy masses of the Second corps. How effective
their fire was is shown by a statement made by Col. W. J.
Martin of the Eleventh regiment. He says, in his Regi
mental History: "At one time, during the fighting on
the 5th, our regiment lay down behind a line of dead Fed
erals so thick as to form a partial breastwork, showing
how stubbornly they had fought and how severely they
had suffered. It was a novel experience, and seems
ghastly enough in the retrospect. " As the Federals con
tinued to multiply in Heth's front, Wilcox's division was
withdrawn from the flank and put in to relieve Heth.
This brought the brigades of Lane and Scales into the
thickest of the fight. Wilcox assigned Scales and Lane
to the right of the road, McGowan to the road and Thomas
to his left. "The two brigades on the right," says Hum
phreys "(Lane's and Scales'), passed through Heth's lines
and advanced at different times as far as the swamps, in
and near which they encountered Hancock's and Getty's
men with varying success, but were finally forced back
to Heth's position."* Lane says in his account of the
battle, that his men did not lose ground until they were
doubled in on both flanks. Davis' brigade, of which the
Fifty-fifth North Carolina formed a part, was posted be
hind a hill crest, and Colonel Cooke says in his Regi
mental History, "Our line never wavered. About 3:30
our skirmish line was driven in and the first line of the
Federal forces charged us, but they got no further than
the crest of the hill in front of us, and were repulsed with
great loss ; from then until sunset they charged us seven
times, but we repulsed every attack."

As these troops were to be relieved by Longstreet at
daylight, no attempt was made to readjust their tangled
lines that night. The jaded men sank to sleep just where
they had been fighting. The two armies were so close

* The Campaign of 1864 and 1865.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 235

to each other that many men from both sides were, while
searching- for water, captured by their opponents. The
failure to form fresh line of battle or to fortify during
the night came near working disaster, for the Federals
assaulted at dawn, and as a result much disorder was
created. Cooke's men, contrary to orders, had slightly
intrenched, and they, bravely assisted by Williams' North
Carolina battery, held their front intact. Just as the
men on each side of them began to be pressed beyond
their flanks, Longstreet's corps arrived and restored the
broken lines by an energetic onset. In this early morn
ing fight, the North Carolinians were heavy sufferers.
Lane says: "We opposed this force for a short time (the
Thirty- third fighting like heroes), but could not long
stand the terrible fire in our front and fbnk. ' ' Col. C. M.
Avery, of this regiment that Lane praises, was mortally
wounded while courageously passing up and down his line
and urging his men to stand firm.

During the morning attacks on Hill's position, and the
splendid fighting of Longstreet's men, who flanked Han
cock and doubled him up, repeated assaults were made on
E well's lines, but they were all repelled. His men had
intrenched themselves and were anxious to be attacked.
"Grant," comments General Webb of the Federal army,
"had been thoroughly defeated in his attempt to walk
past General Lee on the way to Richmond. ' ' *

Owing to the absence of official reports, no accurate
summary of North Carolina losses is possible. Lane
reports his loss as 43 killed, 229 wounded and 143 missing.
Captain Graham states that the loss in Cooke's brigade
was about 1,080. The total Federal loss in this battle
was 15,387.

On the yth, General Grant began to move his army to
ward Spottsylvania Court House. That night the race
of the two armies for Spottsylvania began. Warren was
pushed out of the way, and Lee's army occupied the cov-

* Battles and Leaders.

236 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

eted point. During the movements on the yth, Ramseur's
brigade was ordered to form on Daniel's right to prevent
a movement that Burnside was making to cut off the
Second corps. Ramseur reports: "Moving at a double-
quick, I arrived just in time to check a large flanking
party of the enemy, and by strengthening and extending
my skirmish line, I turned the enemy's line, and by a
dashing charge with my skirmishers, under the gallant
Maj. E. A. Osborne of the Fourth North Carolina regi
ment, drove not only the enemy's skirmishers, but his
line of battle back, capturing some prisoners, and the
knapsacks and shelter tents of an entire regiment. "

New lines were soon formed around the court house;
Longstreet's corps resting on the Po river, E well's in the
center, and A. P. Hill's on the right. The 9th of May
was a day of comparative rest from fighting. The Con
federates spent the day in intrenching, and made a most
formidable line around the town.

On the loth, Hancock's corps crossed the Po to ascertain
whether Lee was moving. This corps was afterward
ordered to return. As it was being withdrawn, Heth's
division, under directions from General Early, attacked
it. His attack especially fell upon the brigades of Brooke
and Brown, and General Humphreys states that their
loss was severe. General Early, in his account of this
affair, says: "Heth's division behaved very handsomely,
all of the brigades, Cooke's, Davis', Kirkland's and
Walker's, being engaged in the attack."* During this
retreat of the Federals, the woods in their rear took fire,
and their retreat, as well as the Confederate advance, was
through the burning forests. Many of the Union wounded
were burned to death.

But the day was to close with a sterner conflict. Han
cock had been recalled from across the Po to join in a
front attack on Lee's lines. The first assault was on
Longstreet's corps, and was disastrously repulsed. The

* Preface to Valley Campaign.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 237

Federals then, after as careful a reconnoissance as the
proximity of the lines permitted, decided that the
part of Lee's line held by Doles' brigade was vulnerable
to front assault. Accordingly a storming force was or
ganized. Colonel Upton, with three brigades of Sedg-
wick's corps, twelve regiments in all, led the storming
columns against the works held by Doles and his three
Georgia regiments. Upton was followed by Mott's divi
sion of Hancock's corps. This division numbered seven
teen regiments. The attack of the first line, made after
a violent artillery fire, was somewhat of a surprise to the
Confederates. Doles' three regiments, after a splendid
resistance, were overrun, and the assailants poured through
the gap thus made. But it was a death-trap into which
they had bravely plunged. Daniel's North Carolina bri
gade, withdrawing from its line, attacked Upton on one
flank. Gordon hurried forward Battle's Alabamians to
strike him in front. R. D. Johnston's North Carolinians
joined Daniel on the flank, and Steuart's North Caroli
nians and Virginians fired into the other flank, as did also
the Stonewall brigade. The Federals were forced out of
the works, leaving, says General Ewell, 100 dead men in
the works and many outside of them. Upton states his
loss at 1,000. Mott's division did not follow closely
Upton's lead, and it seems to have been more easily
repulsed. During the interim, squads of Confederates
slipped over the works and picked up muskets and am
munition, and all along the line many a soldier had sev
eral muskets. These they fired in rapid succession, and
as they were reloaded by comrades, the fire was incessant.
Many of Upton's men lay down outside the works to
await the approaching night in order that they might
retire in safety. The conduct of one of Gen. R. D.
Johnston's regiments drew from General Lee the follow
ing letter:

238 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY

Headquarters Army of Northern Virginia.

May n, 1864.

Sir: Yesterday evening the enemy penetrated a part
of our line and planted his colors upon the temporary
breastworks erected by our troops. He was immediately
repulsed, and among the brave men who met him, the
Twentieth North Carolina regiment, under Colonel [T. F.]
Toon, of the brigade commanded by Brig. -Gen. R. D.
Johnston, captured his flag. It was brought to me by
Maj. John S. Brooks, of that regiment, who received his
promotion for gallantry in the battle of Chancellorsville,
with the request that it be given to Governor Vance. I take
great pleasure in complying with the wish of the gallant
captors, and respectfully ask that it be granted, and that
these colors be presented to the State of North Carolina
as another evidence of the valor and devotion that have
made her name eminent in the armies of the Confederacy.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

Hon. Secretary of War, Richmond, Va. R' E- LEE>

"The next day was rainy and disagreeable, and no
serious fighting took place. There were movements,
however, along the Federal lines during the day that
indicated a withdrawal from the front of Longstreet's
corps. Late in the afternoon, under the impression that
General Grant had actually begun another flanking move
ment, General Lee ordered that all artillery on the left
and center that was 'difficult of access' should be with
drawn from the lines, and that everything should be in
readiness to move during the night if necessary. Under
this order, General Long, E well's chief of artillery, re
moved all but two batteries from the line of Gen. Edward
Johnson's division. Johnson's division held an elevated
point somewhat advanced from the general line, and known
as the salient, or "Bloody Angle," the breastworks there
making a considerable angle, with its point toward the
enemy. ... To provide against contingencies, a second
line had been laid off and partly constructed a short
distance in rear, so as to cut off this salient. " *

* General Law, in Battles and Leaders.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 239

Against this salient, thus stripped of its artillery, Gen
eral Grant was, on the rainy nth, preparing a grand
assault. Hancock was ordered to take three divisions of
the Second corps to join the Ninth corps in an assault at
4 o'clock on the morning of the i2th. Barlow's, Birney's
and Mott's divisions were massed during the night in front
of Johnson's position. Gibbon's division was moved up
as a reserve, but really joined in the assault. Russell's
and Getty's divisions were directed to be under arms and
ready to move wherever needed.

Johnson had heard the heavy movements of troops in
the night, and, promptly reporting it to General Ewell,
asked for the return of the artillery. Orders were issued
for the guns to be replaced at daylight, and Gordon was
directed to take position to aid any threatened point.

Owing to a heavy fog, General Hancock delayed his
advance until the first glimmer of the morning. Then,
with a rush, his serried columns, wedged almost into one
moving mass, dashed over the works, capturing Generals
Johnson and Steuart and over 2,000 men. The Confed
erate artillery was just galloping on the field, and was cap
tured before it could fire a shot. The infantry, however,
struggled desperately for the works. General Hancock
says in his report: "The interior of the intrenchments
presented a terrible and ghastly spectacle of dead, most
of whom were killed by our men with the bayonet, when
they penetrated the works. So thickly lay the dead at
this point that at many places the bodies were touching
and piled upon each other. ' ' Almost all of the First and
Third North Carolina regiments were among the cap
tured. Col. S. D. Thruston of the Third was wounded,
and Col. H. A. Brown of the First regiment was also
"wounded, captured and recaptured three times." Col
onel Brown says of the Federal assault: "The terrific
onslaught of this vast multitude was irresistible, there
being a rectangular mass of 20,000 Federal troops. . . .
The portion of the works assaulted by this formidable

240 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

'column was little more than 400 yards wide. The clash
of arms and the murderous fire around this bloody angle
are indescribable. ' '

The Federals found that it was easier to get within the
Confederate lines than it was to stay there. As soon as
they were fairly inside, they began to extend their lines
on both flanks, and at the same time to move forward.
By a singular coincidence it fell to the lot of North Caro
lina troops to attack them on three sides. The first fresh
troops that they encountered in front were R. D. Johns
ton's North Carolinians of Gordon's division. The im
pact was too strong for Johnston. That gallant officer
was wounded, and his men, though struggling heroically,
driven back. Gordon, however, threw forward his other
brigades, and by hard fighting drove the Federals back
toward the place of their entrance.

On Gordon's right, the extension of the Federal left
encountered Lane ' s North Carolina brigade. * ' They were
checked by General Lane," says Colonel Venable, "who,
throwing his left flank back from the trenches, confronted
their advance."* General Lane, in his report, tells how
this was done : " In the best of spirits, the brigade wel
comed the furious assault which soon followed, with pro
longed cheers and death-dealing volleys. . . . It is impos
sible for me to speak in too high terms of my command
in repulsing this terrible attack of the enemy — men could
not fight better, nor officers behave more gallantly;
the latter, regardless of danger, would frequently pass
along the line and cheer the men in their glorious work.
We justly claim for this brigade alone the honor of not
only stemming, but of rolling back this 'tide of Fed
eral victory which came surging furiously to our right. ' "

On the other side of the angle, similar bravery was
shown. General E well's report clearly shows the service
of the North Carolinians there. He says: "Their main
effort was evidently against Rodes' position to the left of

* Richmond Address.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 241

the angle, and here the fighting was of the most desper
ate character. General Rodes moved Daniel's brigade
(all North Carolinians) from its works to meet the enemy.
General Kershaw extended so as to allow Ramseur (North
Carolina brigade) to be withdrawn, and as Daniel's right
was unprotected, Ramseur was sent in there. He retook
the works to Daniel's right along his whole brigade front
by a charge of unsurpassed gallantry, but the salient
was still held by the enemy, and a most deadly fire poured
on his right flank." Davis and McGowan then went in,
and these brigades held their ground until 3 o'clock, when
all were withdrawn to the new line behind the salient.
General Daniel was mortally wounded, and General Ram
seur seriously, but the latter courageously remained
on the field. General Ramseur in his report thus de
scribes the part his brigade took in this most gallant
movement: "Major-General Rodes ordered me to check
the enemy's advance and drive him back. To do this, I
formed my brigade in a line parallel to the two lines of
works (which the enemy had taken and were holding) in
the following order : On the right, Thirtieth North Caro
lina, Colonel Parker; on the left, Fourteenth North Caro
lina, Colonel Bennett; right center, Second North Caro
lina, Colonel Cox; left center, Fourth North Carolina,
Colonel Grimes. This formation was made under a severe
fire. Before ordering the charge, I cautioned the men
to keep the alignment, not to fire, to move slowly until
the command 'Charge!' and then to move forward on the
run, shouting 'Charge!' and not to pause'until both lines
of works were ours. . . . Two lines of Yankees were
driven pellmell out and over both lines of our original
works, with great loss. This was done without any assist
ance on my immediate right. The enemy still held the
breastworks on my right, enfilading my line with a de
structive fire, at the same time heavily assaulting my right
front. In this extremity, Colonel Bennett, Fourteenth
North Carolina, offered to take his regiment from left to

No 31

242 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

right, under a severe fire, and drive back the growing
masses of the enemy on my right. This bold and hazard
ous offer was accepted as a forlorn hope. It was success
fully executed ; the enemy was driven from my immediate
right, and the works were held, notwithstanding the
enemy still enfiladed my line from a part of our works in
front of Harris' brigade, which he held unto the last.
For this all honor is due Colonel Bennett and the gallant
officers and men of his regiment. To Colonels Parker,
Cox, Grimes and Bennett, to the gallant officers and pa
triotic men of my little brigade, the country owes much
for the successful charge, which I verily believe turned
the fortune of the day at that point in our favor."

"Hancock," says General Law, "had been reinforced
by the divisions of Russell and Wheaton, and about half
of Warren's corps as the battle progressed." All day
long the men contended like fiends for the works over
which both Federal and Confederate flags were waving.
Two extracts from official reports will show the fierceness
of the fighting. Brigadier-General Grant, of the Vermont
brigade, says: "It was not only a desperate struggle, but
it was literally a hand-to-hand struggle. Nothing but the
piled up logs and breastworks separated the combatants.
Our men would reach over the logs and fire into the
forces of the enemy, would stab over with their bayonets ;
many were shot or stabbed through the crevices between
the logs. ... It was there that the somewhat celebrated
tree was cut down by bullets, there that the bush and logs
were cut to pieces and whipped into basket stuff."

General McGowan, on the Confederate side, says: "Our
men lay on one side of the breastworks, the enemy on
the other, and in many instances men were pulled over.
The trenches in the 'bloody angle' had to be cleared of
the dead more than once."

General Grant in his report sums up this attack in the
brief sentence, "But the resistance was so obstinate that
the advantage gained did not prove decisive. " General

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 243

Humphreys states from Federal records that Grant's loss
in this sanguinary assault was 6,820. There are no official
returns of the Confederate losses. General Lane states
the loss in his brigade at 470. General Daniel's death
was a great blow to his State and to the army. His mas
terly handling of his men at Gettysburg, his hard fighting
in the Wilderness, and his skillful management at Spott-
sylvania, showed his great worth as a soldier. His care
for his men, and his affectionate interest in their comfort
and happiness, showed that he was more than a mere sol
dier. His largeness of heart and generous nature had
been proved in countless ways. In his fall, North Caro
lina lost a son whom its people not only honored but thor
oughly esteemed.

The captured angle, rendered useless by the second
line, was abandoned on the i4th. Attacks by the Feder
als on that day and again on the i8th were repulsed. On
the 1 9th, Ewell's corps was directed to cross the Ni, and
threaten Grant's communication. Ewell became right
heavily engaged, and Ramseur's brigade again rendered
conspicuously brave service.

While this active campaign was being waged above
Richmond, another army, in which North Carolina was
largely represented, fought, under General Beauregard's
able direction, the battle of Drewry's Bluff on the south
side of the Confederate capital. Of the four division com
manders under Beauregard, three of them, Gens. Robert
Ransom, Hoke and Whiting, were citizens of North Car
olina. The following North Carolina troops were part of
that organization: Hoke's old brigade under Col. W. G.
Lewis, made up of these regiments — Sixth, Colonel Webb ;
Twenty-first, Lieutenant-Colonel Rankin; Fifty-fourth,
Colonel Murchison ; Fifty-seventh, Colonel Godwin ; First
North Carolina battalion, Colonel Wharton ; Clingman's
brigade, composed of these regiments — Eighth, Colonel
Whitson ; Thirty-first, Colonel Jordan ; Fifty-first, Colonel
McKethan; Sixty-first, Colonel Radcliffe; Ransom's bri-

244 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

— Twenty-fourth, Colonel Clarke; Twenty-fifth, Col
onel Rutledge ; Thirty-fifth, Colonel Jones ; Forty-ninth,
Colonel McAfee; Fifty-sixth, Colonel Faison; Martin's
brigade — Seventeenth, Lieutenant-Colonel Lamb ; Forty-
second, Colonel Brown; Sixty-sixth, Colonel Moore. The
following cavalry regiments were present : Third, Colonel
Baker; Fourth, Colonel Ferebee; Sixth, Colonel Folk.
Miller's and Cumming's batteries also participated in the
campaign.

General Butler, commanding an army estimated at
36,000 men, was to advance on Richmond from the south
James side, intrench as he came, and ultimately join
General Grant. The united armies were then to crush
Lee and take Richmond. When Butler's initiatory move
ments began, there were few Confederate troops in his
front. But General Hoke's division was hurried there,
thus stopping his brilliant campaign in North Carolina.
General Whiting's force was moved up, and General
Ransom's division placed under General Beauregard's
direction. Scattered troops were also hastily sent to
Beauregard. That able soldier soon organized them into
an effective command, and took the offensive from Gen
eral Butler by moving against the latter's works. Gen
eral Hoke's division reached Petersburg on the loth of
May. General Beauregard at once placed Hoke in charge
of the advance column of six brigades, with orders to
proceed at once toward Drewry's bluff and effect a junc
tion with General Ransom's division. General Whiting
arrived at Petersburg on the i3th, and General Beaure
gard, after explaining to him his plans, set out, escorted
by a regiment of Colquitt's brigade and Colonel Baker's
Third North Carolina cavalry, to assume command in
front. General Beauregard estimated his strength at
25,000 men.

On the 1 3th of May, General Terry assaulted the Con
federate lines near Wooldridge's hill. Gen. M. W.
Ransom's brigade, on the extreme Confederate right, was

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 245

engaged in his repulse. As Terry advanced, the Confed
erate skirmishers, tinder the dashing Capt. Cicero A. Dur
ham, made a most stubborn resistance, and did some
gallant fighting, in which Durham was mortally wounded.
The first assault of the Federals was disastrously repulsed.
As the Federal charge was broken, "the Forty-ninth and
Twenty- fifth North Carolina regiments," says Judge
Roulhac, "leaped over the works and poured a destructive
volley into the ranks of the flanking party. ' ' While the
Federals were preparing for a second attack, the Confed
erate forces were withdrawn to an inner line. During
this engagement, Gen. M. W. Ransom was severely
wounded, and Colonel Rutledge succeeded to the com
mand of the brigade.

On the i6th, General Beauregard, putting Ransom's
division on his left, next to Drewry's bluff, Hoke's on his
right, Colquitt in reserve, ordered an attack at daylight.
The attack was to begin by Ransom's turning the Fed
eral right. Whiting's division, then at Walthall Junction,
and almost directly in rear of Butler, was, as soon as the
Federal front was broken, to strike Butler's flank and
rear. Each division was accompanied by a battalion of
artillery and a small cavalry force. From this admirably
conceived plan, General Beauregard expected to destroy
or capture Butler's army.

The Confederate troops took position by bright moon
light. Just after dawn a fog, so dense that a horseman
could not be seen at fifteen paces, settled down and greatly
retarded operations. General Ransom's left was con
fronted by Generals Weitzel's and Brooks' Federal divi
sions. General Hoke faced Terry's and Turner's divisions.
The Federals occupied a line of works that the Confeder
ates had constructed. In front of a good part of the Fed
eral line, telegraph wires had been stretched near the
ground.

General Ransom moved out of the trenches before day,
and formed line of battle with Gracie, supported by

246 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Terry on his left, and Hoke's old brigade, commanded by
Colonel Lewis, supported by Fry on the right. He struck
Heckman's brigade on the extreme right, and carried
his line of works by storm, forcing Heckman back in con
fusion toward the center. In this attack, the North Car
olina brigade acted with the utmost bravery, and lost
some most gallant officers and men. Soon after the
engagement opened, the Twenty-fourth regiment, Colonel
Clarke, and the Forty-ninth, Major Davis then in com
mand (Colonel McAfee being wrounded and Lieutenant-
Colonel Fleming being in charge of the skirmish line),
were ordered to the right flank of Johnson's brigade, and
shared nobly in the hard fighting done by that brigade,
materially helping Johnson to clear his front and cap
ture the works in front of him. The confusion caused by
the fog and the additional derangement of lines conse
quent upon an attack, caused General Ransom to halt and
reform his battle front. The cavalry under Colonel Don-
ovant was dismounted and actively employed as skirmish
ers on the left of Ransom's line, and the artillery was
engaged all the morning. General Beauregard says of
this action that General Ransom's troops behaved with
"acknowledged gallantry."

On the right, General Hoke, of whom General Beaure
gard says, "he handled his command with that resolution
and judgment for which he was conspicuous," formed his
line with Hagood and Johnson on his left, and Clingman
(North Carolina) and Corse on his right. At dawn he
threw out skirmishers, and opened his artillery. The
infantry attack began with an advance of Hagood' s and
Johnson's brigades. They went in with determination
and success. Hagood 's brigade captured five pieces of
artillery and a number of prisoners, and the two brigades
occupied the enemy's works. But the enemy attacked
Hoke's front with fierceness. Especially on Johnson's
right was the fighting continuous, Generals Terry and
Turner struggling tenaciously to hold their ground.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 247

General Clingman's and General Corse's brigades were
sent to Johnson's right. A spirited attack by them failed
to entirely carry the intrenchments before them. Gen
eral Butler, however, withdrew his forces to the line of
Proctor's creek.

All day the Confederate commander anxiously expected
General Whiting to make the flank attack ordered, and
from which it was hoped so much would result. For
reasons stated at some length in General Whiting's report,
he failed to carry out the part assigned, and the defeat of
General Butler was not so complete as the Confederate
commander had hoped to make it. This battle, however,
resulted in what General Grant styled "the bottling up"
of Butler's forces in defensive works, and shattered all
expectations of active co-operation on Butler's part in the
advance on Richmond.

During the day General Bearing, commanding General
Whiting's cavalry, forced his way by Ames' men,
reported to General Beauregard, and returned that after
noon with many prisoners. The boldness of the move
ment won warm praise from Bearing's superiors.

An assault on part of Butler's advanced lines of in
trenchments and rifle-pits took place on the 2oth of May
at Hewlett's house. Those held by Ames were captured
and retained ; but Terry was fortunate enough to regain
from the Confederates those that he at first lost to them.
In this action, the young and chivalrous Lieut. -Col. J. C.
Lamb, of the Seventeenth North Carolina, was mortally
wounded. The North Carolina losses in this series of
actions were, killed, 99; wounded, 574.

After the battle at Brewry's bluff, Lewis' brigade
(Hoke's) was ordered to join General Lee, and the Forty-
third regiment that had been acting with it took its old
place in Baniel's brigade. This brigade was now com
manded by Gen. Bryan Grimes, he having been promoted
on General Baniel's death.

General Hoke, to whom a permanent division, composed

248 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

of Martin's and Clingman's North Carolina brigades and
Colquitt's and Hagood's brigades, had been assigned,
also reported to General Lee at Cold Harbor just in time
to be of the utmost service to him.

Commenting on the services that had just been rendered
by General Hoke's command, and also upon its record at
Cold Harbor, Colonel Burgwyn says:

In the spring of 1864 the Confederate authorities de
cided to anticipate the pending campaign by the capture
of some of the towns held by the enemy in eastern North
Carolina. Brig. -Gen. R. F. Hoke was selected to com
mand the expedition. He took with him his own, Ran
som's, Terry's Virginia brigade, the Forty-third North
Carolina regiment, of which your distinguished citizen,
Thomas S. Kenan, was colonel, and several batteries of
artillery, assisted by the ram Albemarle operating in the
Roanoke river.

Capturing Plymouth (April 20, 1864), after one of the
most brilliant of assaults, with some 2,500 prisoners and
large supplies of provisions and munitions of war, Gen
eral Hoke marched to Washington, forced the evacuation
of the place, and promptly invested New Bern, which was
to be assaulted the next day with every prospect of suc
cess, when telegrams from President Davis, Secretary of
War Seddon, Generals Lee and Beauregard ordered him
to withdraw from New Bern with all haste, and interpose
his troops between Butler and Richmond. Moving with
out a moment's delay, General Hoke reached Petersburg
in advance of Butler; but so close was the race, that as
Hoke's troops filed into the works protecting Petersburg,
the advance of Butler's army appeared in view, making
for the same point. This march of General Hoke's troops
stands at West Point as the most rapid movement of
troops on record. Appointed a major-general for his
distinguished services as above, Hoke with his division,
of which Clingman's brigade was part, helped to win
the victory of Drewry's Bluff. Transferred to the north
bank of the James, they saved the day at Cold Harbor.
Hurried again to the southern side of the Tames, they
reached the works defending Petersburg just in time to
save the cty on the memorable attack, June 17, 1864.*

* Memorial Address on Clingman.

CHAPTER XV.

SERVICES OF THE NORTH CAROLINA CAVALRY
ALONG THE RAPIDAN— BATTLE OF YELLOW TAV
ERN—THE SECOND COLD HARBOR BATTLE — EAR-
LY'S LYNCHBURG AND MARYLAND CAMPAIGNS -
BATTLES IN THE VALLEY OF VIRGINIA— ACTIVITY
OF THE CONFEDERATE CAVALRY.

WHEN the spring campaign opened, the North Caro
lina cavalry brigade, commanded by Gen. James
B. Gordon, was transferred from Hampton's to
W. H. F. Lee's division, and, a little later., Colonel Ba
ker's Third North Carolina cavalry took the place of the
Fourth North Carolina in that brigade.

At the opening of Grant's campaign, the First North
Carolina was on picket duty along the Rapidan, and
Colonel Cheek and Major Cowles were of signal service
in reporting hostile movements. This regiment cap
tured over 400 prisoners in a short time. When Sheri
dan, with a force estimated at from 10,000 to 12,000 men,
started on his Richmond raid, General Stuart had only
three available brigades for detachment to meet this for
midable cavalcade. Taking Wickham's and Lomax's
brigades under his personal command, General Stuart
sought, by forced marches, to interpose between Sheri
dan and Richmond. He left Gordon's North Carolina
brigade to retire before Sheridan, and harass him as
much as such a pitifully inadequate number could harass
so great a force as Sheridan commanded. Gordon's un
flinching horsemen were involved in almost daily skir
mishes with the Federals, and daily lost men he could ill
spare from his thinning ranks. Among these was the

249

Nc 32

250 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

vigilant and resourceful colonel of the First regiment,
W. H. Cheek, who was wounded.

At Yellow tavern, on the nth of May, Stuart in front
of Sheridan attacked with his two brigades, while Gordon
assailed the Federals in the rear. Stuart made a mas
terly fight, as the severe Federal losses show, but, in the
action, both he and General Gordon fell mortally wound
ed. No loss since the incomparable Jackson's death was
so hurtful to General Lee's strategic power as Stuart's
fall.

General Gordon, trained under Stuart, and sharing his
dash and reckless courage, was a model cavalry offi
cer. Undaunted by difficulties and perils, equal to great
physical hardships, undismayed by reverses, his men had
implicit confidence in him, even as he had unwavering
trust in his cavalry leader.

Following Yellow tavern, came Hampton's great fight
at Trevilian station, and sharp combats at Todd's tavern,
White house, Haws' shop, Hanover and Ashland. In
these, General Barringer says the cavalry was more and
more following Forrest's example, and fighting on foot.
The saber was giving place to the more deadly short rifle.
The First, Second and Fifth were all active and daring in
their service in these trying days.

In June, Colonel Barringer was commissioned brigadier-
general and assumed command of Gordon's brigade, and
Lieutenant-Colonel Cowles became commander of the
First regiment, as Colonel Cheek was away wounded.

When General Grant found that he could not success
fully break through the Confederate lines at Spottsylvania,
he again renewed what the soldiers called his ''sidling"
movement toward Richmond. Again General Lee made
a counter move, and took position around Cold Harbor.
On the way to the new position some brisk fighting
occurred.

At Jericho ford, Lane's North Carolinians and Mc-
Gowan's South Carolinians became entangled in a river-

CONFEDERA TE MILITARY HISTORY. 251

side fight with the Federal line posted on a crest. Lane
sustained a loss of n killed and 79 wounded. This
same brigade had sharp skirmishes at Starr's farm on
Totopotomoy creek, and at Turkey ridge. In the latter,
General Lane was wounded by a sharpshooter, and during
his enforced absence, first Col. J. D. Barry and then
General Conner commanded his brigade.

The next important battle was at Cold Harbor, where
General Grant made two prolonged assaults upon the
Confederate lines. In these, according to General Hum
phreys' figures, he lost 9,948.* The Confederate losses
are reported at 1,500, a figure that is perhaps too small,
but as Lee's men fought behind intrenchments, their
losses were comparatively light. General McMahon,
of the Federal army, utters the opinion of most mili
tary men when he says: "In the opinion of a majority
of its survivors, the battle of Cold Harbor should never
have been fought." He then adds: "It was the dreary,
dismal, bloody, ineffective close of the lieutenant-gen
eral's first campaign with the army of the Potomac, and
corresponded in all its essential features with what had
preceded it. " f

General Lee's army was posted as follows: Hoke's
division was on his right, near Cold Harbor. Then came
Kershaw, Pickett and Field, of Longstreet's corps.
Ewell's corps under Early, and Early's division under
Ramseur, occupied the center, A. P. Hill holding the left.
There were present in the army thus posted, so far as may
be made out from the meager reports, the following
North Carolina troops: Martin's, Clingman's, Daniel's
(now commanded by Brig. -Gen. Bryan Grimes), Ram-
seur's (now under Brig.-Gen. W. R. Cox), Johnston's,
Cooke's, Kirkland's (now under MacRae), Lane's, Scales',
and Hoke's (under Lewis and later Godwin) brigades,
and the remnants of the First and Third regiments sub-
Campaign of 1864 and 1865.
f Battles and Leaders.

252 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

sequently assigned to General Cox's brigade. Then op
erating on the flanks was Gordon's gallant brigade of cav
alry, the First, Second and Fifth, commanded after Gor
don's death by General Barringer. Of the batteries
present, the records show only Planner's, Ramsey's,
and Williams', but Manly 's also was there. The reports
from the artillery all through the war are very unsatis
factory in detail, and those faithful men are rarely men
tioned except for some unusually brilliant service such
as that of Williams' battery in the Wilderness.

Forty- three regiments of infantry, three of cavalry and
four batteries of artillery were then North Carolina's
representatives in this disastrous repulse of Grant's army.

On the ist of June, the Sixth corps and most of the
Eighteenth corps were directed by General Grant to
move directly against the Confederate right, held by
General Hoke's and General Kershaw's divisions. Gen
eral Hoke's division contained Martin's and Clingman's
North Carolina brigades. The Federals made the
assault with vigor and without reserves. This attack was
everywhere repulsed except at Hoke's extreme left and
Kershaw's right. Clingman held Hoke's left, and it
has been stated that his brigade and that of Wo fiord's, of
Kershaw's division, were both broken. General Cling
man in a letter to the Richmond papers, dated June 5,
1864, denied the allegation. He says: "This attack
was repeatedly and signally repulsed with great loss to
the enemy on my entire front. Near our left where
they came in columns their dead were much thicker than
I have ever seen them on any battlefield. . . . There
was, however, at the beginning of the engagement a bri
gade from another State than my own, stationed on our
left. This brigade did give way, and while the contest
was going on in our front, the enemy in large force occu
pied the ground on our left flank and rear. After we had
repulsed the last attack in front, and the men were cheer
ing along the line, the Eighth regiment, which formed my

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 253

left, was suddenly attacked on its left flank and rear.
The woods there being thick and the smoke dense, the
enemy had approached within a few yards and opened a
heavy fire on the rear of the Eighth as well as its left.
... It, by facing in two directions, attempted to hold its
position, and thus lost about two-thirds of its numbers."
He further states that the Sixty-first regiment came to
the aid of the Eighth, and that his brigade, assisted by
the Twenty-seventh Georgia, drove back the Federal
flank attack, and still held its entire front of the works.

The part of the line captured on Clingman's left was
held by the Federals and the Confederates intrenched
behind it. The loss of the two attacking corps was 2,200
men.

That afternoon General Lee telegraphed to the secre
tary of war : * ' This afternoon the enemy attacked Gen
eral Heth and were handsomely repulsed by Cooke's and
Kirkland's brigades."

On the afternoon of the 2d, the divisions of Gordon,
Rodes and Heth were ordered to move down the front
of the Confederate line in an effort to break the Federal
flank. "This movement brought on sharp fighting,"
says Humphreys, "but did not accomplish what was de
signed. ' ' General Early reports that his men took sev
eral hundred prisoners. Early intrenched on his front,
and thus the new lines were almost at right angles.
Hill's corps and Breckinridge's men were moved to
Hoke's right to meet the massing of Federal troops on
that flank.

On the morning of the 3d, General Grant ordered an
assault by his entire army. The Confederates nerved
themselves for stern work all along the line. The Fed
erals advanced in many lines. Captain Lawhorn says:
"One line would fire and fall down, another step over
and fall down, each line getting nearer us until they got
within 60 or 75 yards of our lines, but finding themselves
cut to pieces so badly they fell back. ' * The account of

^64 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

this assault as given by Federal officers taking part in it
show the terribly destructive fire of the Southern muskets.
General Humphreys says: "The assaulting was done
by the Second, Sixth and Eighteenth corps. Promptly
at the hour these corps advanced to the attack under
heavy musketry and artillery fire, and carried the ene
my's advanced rifle-pits. But then the fire became still
hotter, and cross-fires of artillery swept through the
ranks, from the right of Smith to the left of Hancock.
Notwithstanding this destructive fire, the troops went for
ward close up to the main line of intrenchments, but not
being able to carry them, quickly put themselves under
cover. ' '

General McMahon says : * ' The time of actual advance
was not over eight minutes. In that little period more
men fell bleeding as they advanced than in any other like
period of time throughout the war. A strange and ter
rible feature of this battle was that as the three gallant
corps moved on, each was enfiladed while receiving the
full force of the enemy's direct fire in front. " The total
number of Grant's killed and wounded, again using
Humphreys' figures, was 5,600, and he adds, "It is prob
able, indeed, that the numbers were considerably larger. "

These great battles had brought to their graves many
gallant spirits among the North Carolina troops. Gen
erals Daniel and Gordon, Cols. J. H. Wood, C. L. An
drews, Edmund Brabble, C. C. Blacknall, C. M. Avery,
W. M. Barbour, John G. Jones, A. D. Moore, W. H. A.
Speer, J. R. Murchison, Majs. J. J. Iredell, J. A. Rog
ers, and perhaps other field officers whose name sought
to be recorded, gave up their lives for the cause they
loved. Deaths and consequent promotions brought, of
course, changes in the brigade and regimental commands.
General Ramseur became a major-general. Bryan
Grimes, W. R. Cox, William MacRae, gallant soldiers,
all received worthily-won commissions as brigadier-gen
erals.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 255

The great "Overland campaign" was ended, and
Grant was still no nearer Richmond than McClellan had
been in 1862. In a few days he moved his army toward
Petersburg. "The object of crossing the James was to
carry out the plan with which the army of the Potomac
began the campaign, that is, to destroy the lines of sup
ply to the Confederate depot, Richmond, on the south
side of the James, as close to that city as practicable, after
those on the north side had been rendered useless."* If
Petersburg could be captured, but one railroad leading
into the city of Richmond would be in Confederate
hands.

Just after the disappearance of the Union army from
Lee's front at Cold Harbor, General Hoke's division was
sent back to Petersburg to assist General Beauregard in
the defenses around that city. It arrived just in time to
be of most signal service.

On the r 3th of June, General Early, commanding
E well's corps, was directed to take his command and
move to the valley of Virginia, to meet Hunter. The
North Carolina troops that followed Early up and down
the valley, and shared in all the hardships of a campaign
that had its full share of successes and reverses, were as
follows: The Thirty-second, Fifty-third, Forty-third,
Forty-fifth regiments and Second battalion, of Gen. Bryan
Grimes' brigade; the First, Second, Third, Fourth,
Fourteenth and Twenty-third regiments and First bat
talion, of Gen. R. D. Johnston's brigade; the Sixth,
Twenty-first, Fifty-fourth, and Fifty-seventh regiments,
of Gen. A. C. Godwin's brigade (General Lewis', com
manded, after his wounding, by Godwin). Gen. Robert
Ransom was sent to command the cavalry in the valley.
The Sixtieth North Carolina cavalry was in Wharton's
command.

Early 's corps was engaged in skirmishes at Lynchburg
and Martinsburg, demonstrated against Harper's Ferry,

* Campaign of 1864 and 1865.

256 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

and on the pth of June fought the battle of Monocacy.
At Monocacy the Federals were commanded by Gen.
Lew Wallace, since famous as the author of Ben Hur.
General Rodes' division, including the brigades of Grimes
and Cox, was posted on the right of Ramseur, who was
in front of Wallace. McCausland, followed by Gordon's
division, crossed the Monocacy and struck the Federal
flank, and with the aid of artillery threw it in confusion
and drove Wallace from his position. Ramseur then
crossed, as did Rodes, and followed up the advantage.
The brigades of Johnston and Lewis were in Ramseur's
command. The Confederates captured between 600 and
700 prisoners, and lost about 700.

Early then marched to Rockville, and by the nth was
in sight of Fort Stevens, one of the works of the Wash
ington defenses. Grimes' skirmishers were in front, and
doubtless were nearer Washington than any other Con
federate troops during the war. The defenses were too
strong for Early's command to attack. The spires of
the city were in plain view, and the presence of Confed
erate troops so near created quite a panic in the capital.
After a consultation with his division commanders, Gen
eral Early determined to spend the i2th in front of the
city, and then to retire that night. During the afternoon
a reconnoitering force from the city was driven back by
Rodes' advance guard.

On the morning of the lyth, the Confederates recrossed
the Shenandoah. On the i8th, the Federals, following
Early's retirement, through Snicker's gap, made a dash
at Parker's ford. On the iQth, Col. W. A. Owens was
killed in a skirmish. Rodes' division, however, drove
the Federal advance back. In this skirmish, Col. Joseph
H. Wood, commanding the Fourth regiment, was killed.
On the 2oth, Ramseur's division, while moving, was
assailed in flank by Averell, then advancing in line of
battle. The division was thrown into much confusion
and hastily fell back. Jackson's cavalry, however, made

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 257

a vigorous charge, and Ramseur rallied his men in time
to prevent Averell from reaching V/inchester. General
Lewis was wounded in this affair. At the battle of
Kernstown, it fell to Rodes' lot to follow the enemy's
flight for some miles, but most of the North Carolinians
had little fighting there.

The morning of the i9th of September found General
Early's forces much divided. Rodes was at Stephen-
son's depot, Breckinridge and Gordon at Bunker Hill,
and Ramseur at Winchester. Sheridan, now in command
of the Federal Valley army, determined to take advan
tage of this dispersion, and bore down in full force on
Ramseur, before it was fully light. Johnston's North
Carolina brigade seems to have had an advanced position,
and was the first to encounter Sheridan. Gen. Bradley
Johnson gives this graphic picture of what followed:
"By daylight, the ipth of September, a scared cavalry
man of my own command nearly rode over me as I lay
asleep on the grass, and reported that the Yankees were
advancing with a heavy force of infantry, artillery and
cavalry up the Berryville road. Johnston and I were
responsible for keeping Sheridan out of Winchester, and
protecting the Confederate line of retreat and commu
nication up the valley. In two minutes the command
was mounted and moving at a trot across the open fields
to the Berryville road to Johnston's assistance. There
was not a fence nor a bush nor a tree to obscure the
view. We could see the crest of a hill covered with a
cloud of cavalry, and in front of them, 500 yards for
ward was a thin gray line moving off in retreat solidly and
with perfect coolness and self-possession. A regiment of
cavalry would deploy into line, and then their bugles
would sound 'the charge,' and they'd swoop down on
the 'thin gray line' of North Carolina. The instant the
Yankee bugles sounded, North Carolina would halt, face
by the rear rank, wait until the horse got within 100
yards, and then fire deliberately and coolly as if firing

No S3

258 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

volleys on brigade drill. The cavalry would break and
scamper back, and North Carolina would 'about face/
and continue her march in retreat as solemnly and with
as much dignity as if marching in review." Johnston's
brigade, on reaching the rest of the division, united with
it in forming line at right angles to the pike west of Win
chester. Then this division, numbering only 2,560 men,
had, aided by Nelson's artillery and the cavalry, the
disagreeable duty of righting Sheridan's force, number
ing, according to the official returns quoted by General
Early, about 53,000 men, from daylight until 10 o'clock,
when Rodes and Gordon arrived. Of course, Ramseur
could not have held his position had the Federals been
aware that his division was there alone. Rodes and
Gordon came in on Ramseur's left, and were at once
thrown on the flank of the attacking columns, and for
awhile drove everything before them. In the charge,
General Rodes, one of the most promising officers and
accomplished soldiers in Lee's army, was killed, as was
also Brigadier-General Godwin, an earnest and conscien
tious soldier. Late in the afternoon, however, the Fed
eral cavalry in heavy force broke through Early 's left
flank and rear. This, with a second front attack, threw
Early's army into confusion, and it retired to Fisher's
Hill. Ramseur's division, which General Early says
maintained its organization, covered the retreat. The
total Federal loss was, according to official returns, 5,018.
The Confederate killed and wounded are reported at
1,707.* Among the wounded were Colonel Cobb and
Colonel Thruston.

General Ramseur succeeded Rodes in command of his
veteran division, and Pegram took charge of Early's old
division that Ramseur had been commanding. General
Breckinridge's command was sent to southwestern Vir
ginia.

On withdrawing from Fisher's Hill, Cox's brigade hand-

* Rebellion Records, XLIII, 557.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 259

somely repulsed the portion of the Federal army that
was pressing the rear. At Cedar creek, General Ker-
shaw's command returned to General Early.

Sheridan having fallen back, Early moved forward
again to Fisher's Hill. Then by a flank movement, Gor
don, Pegram and Ramseur moved all night, and at dawn
attacked Sheridan's left flank and rear on Cedar creek.
Wharton and Kershaw, with all the artillery, made the
front attack. At the opening of the battle, Sheridan was
returning to his army after a trip to Washington. The
Federal army was surprised and routed. But no organ
ized pursuit was made. General Sheridan gives the fol
lowing account of the condition of his army: "At Mill
creek my escort fell behind, and we were going ahead at
a regular pace when just as we made the crest of the rise
beyond the stream, there burst upon our view the appall
ing spectacle of a panic-stricken army — hundreds of
slightly- wounded men, throngs of others unhurt, but
utterly demoralized, and wagons by the score, all press
ing to the rear in hopeless confusion, telling only too
plainly that a disaster had occurred -at the front. On
accosting some of the fugitives, they assured me that the
army was broken up, in full retreat, and that all was
lost."

Sheridan's return and the delay of Confederate pursuit
gave the Federals opportunity to recover and reorganize.
Learning that the Confederate force was not so strong
as anticipated, Sheridan prepared for offensive work.
About 3 o'clock, he set a new battle in order against
Early. Ramseur 's men were posted behind a rock fence.
Grimes and Cox repelled all attacks on them, but the left
of Early 's line gave way in disorder. General Grimes
says that up to that time no serious break occurred on the
left, and that his men had been kept well in hand and
fought successfully. The rout of the left, however,
affected the right, and that also gave way. In rallying
his men, and exposing himself daringly, General Ram-

260 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

seur was mortally wounded. Gen. Bryan Grimes suc
ceeded to the command of the division. Early lost all
the captures he had made except 1,300 prisoners that
were brought off the field. The Federal loss in this
battle, including prisoners, was 5,665. There seems to
be no report of Confederate losses. General Early states
in his "Early in the Valley" that his loss was 1,860 casu
alties, and 1,000 prisoners.

The death of General Ramseur removed a soldier who
had risen rapidly and deservedly. A graduate of West
Point, he had entered the army in charge of a battery
that made itself an honored name. Then transferred to
command the Forty-ninth regiment, he so impressed the
Confederate commanders that promotion to command a
brigade and then a division soon followed. General
Early in his book on the Valley campaign bears this
tribute to his merits : * ' He was a most gallant and ener
getic officer, whom no disaster appalled, but his energy
and courage seemed to gain'new strength in the midst of
confusion and disorder. He fell at his post fighting like
a lion at bay, and his native State has reason to be proud
of his memory. "

Shortly after this battle, the North Carolina troops
were returned to General Lee, and took their part in
the dreary service in the trenches around Petersburg.

During the movement of General Lee's army from
Cold Harbor, and for a month thereafter, the cavalry was
given little rest. On the yth of June, Barringer's bri
gade, now composed of the First, Second, Third and
Fifth regiments, was stationed along the fords of the
Chickahominy, and was engaged in skirmishes at Malvern
hill, Herring creek and the Rocks. When the Federals
made an effort to destroy the Weldon railroad, just below
Petersburg, Barringer's troopers had a hot fight. The
First, Second and Third regiments were dismounted, and
with McGregor's guns poured a volley into Barlow's
division. This produced a momentary panic, and Colonel

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 261

Baker, of the Third regiment, rushed upon the Federals
and captured many prisoners. The Federals, however,
rallied, and in turn captured Colonel Baker.

The famous Kautz-Wilson raid for the destruction of
the southward railroads was the occasion of severe cavalry
activity and battles. At "Blacks and Whites," Gen.
W. H. F. Lee managed to get between the two Federal
columns on the 23d of June. General Bearing was in the
lead. His brigade, a small one, included the Fourth and
Sixth North Carolina cavalry. This brigade was about
to be overpowered when Barringer's brigade galloped to
its relief. Major Cowles dismounted the First regiment
and sent that to the guns. Maj. W. P. Roberts, of the
Second regiment, reached the Federal rear, and the bat
tle was sharp for some hours. At nightfall the Federals
retired. Col. C. M. Andrews, one of North Carolina's
best cavalry officers, was killed.

At Staunton river bridge, guarded by Junior and
Senior reserves and disabled soldiers, Kautz's attack
was repulsed, Lee's cavalry attacking his rear. Col.
H. E. Coleman, of the Twelfth North Carolina regiment,
rendered gallant service in assisting the raw troops in
the repulse of the cavalry division at this bridge. He
was at home wounded and volunteered his services. So
freely did he expose himself, that he was again wounded,
but did not then leave the field. This raiding party
before it reached Meade lost all its artillery, wagon
trains, and hundreds of prisoners.

CHAPTER XVJ.

AROUND PETERSBURG— BEAUREGARD'S MASTERLY
DEFENSE— LEE'S ARMY IN PLACE AND GRANT IS
FOILED— THE ATTEMPT OF GRANT TO BLOW UP
THE FORTIFICATIONS— BATTLE OF THE "CRATER"
—THE DREARY TRENCHES— REAMS' STATION— THE
FORT HARRISON ASSAULT— THE CAVALRY.

AFTER being foiled at Cold Harbor, General Grant
determined to change his base to the south side of
the James, and break the Confederate communica
tions with the South. This plan had been previously
proposed by McClellan, but rejected. Its danger to
the Confederacy is shown by General Lee's assuring
Richmond friends, some time before, that the people of
that city might go to their beds without misgivings so
long as the Federals assailed the capital from the north
and east, and left undisturbed his communications with
the Carolinas. Those sources of supply and reinforce
ment were now to be attempted.

From June 4th to nth Grant's army was engaged
in its mobilization on the banks of the Chickahominy.
Wilson's well-organized cavalry corps and Warren's infan
try corps were to threaten Richmond directly, and thus
mask the movement on Petersburg. By midnight of the
1 6th of June, the army with all its artillery and trains
was over the James. General Smith's corps was given
the right of way over all other troops. On the i4th he
reported to General Butler at Bermuda Hundred. But
ler directed him to attack Petersburg at daylight. His
corps was strengthened for the attack by the addition of
Kautz' cavalry and Hinks' negro division. These addi
tions gave Smith, according to General Humphreys, chief

262

CONFEDERA TE MILITARY HISTORY. 263

of staff of the army of the Potomac, 16, 100 men. Hancock's
corps immediately followed Smith, and in his attack ren
dered him material assistance by relieving his men in the
captured works.

At the opening of the assaults on Beauregard's works
around Petersburg, the men holding those works num
bered only 5,400. These were gradually, by the arrival
of Ransom's brigade and Hoke's division, and a few
other troops, increased to 11,000 effectives. General
Grant continually added to the two corps in front until,
according to Colonel Roman's figures, at least 90,000 men
were pressing daily against Beauregard. Colonel Roman
says: "With such fearful and almost incredible odds
against him, General Beauregard, from the i$th to the
1 8th of June, maintained a successful barrier to the
Federal advance — a feat of war almost without a prece
dent, in which the courage and the endurance of the
troops, no less than the skill with which the commander
used his small resources, were fully as conspicuous as
the good fortune that lent itself to such a result. ' ' *

General Badeau, in his military history of General
Grant, offers this explanation of the failure of the great
army to dispatch Beauregard: "Then, indeed, when all
their exertions had proved fruitless, when, having out
marched and out-maneuvered Lee, the soldiers found
themselves again obliged to assault intrenched positions
— then they seemed in some degree to lose heart, and
for the first time since the campaign began, their attacks
were lacking in vigor. ' '

As Smith moved forward, on the isth, his first opposi
tion came from a slight redan and works held by Graham's
battery and a small dismounted cavalry force under Dear-
ing, "a young brigadier of high and daring spirit, and
of much experience in war. ' ' Bearing made a resolute
fight to delay Smith as long as possible, and then sul
lenly withdrew inside the main works. At this time Gen-

* Life of Beauregard, vol. II, p. 227.

264 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

eral Beauregard had only Wise's brigade, 2,400 strong,
and Bearing's cavalry, within the lines. Smith's attack
met a heavy loss, but carried the line of redans from
No. 5 to No. 9. Had this attack been more vigorously
pushed, Petersburg must have fallen.

On the 1 6th, Ransom's brigade arrived at Petersburg.
Judge Roulhac in his Regimental History says: "After
marching all night of the i5th, we reached Petersburg
about 8 o'clock in the morning, and were hurried to
our fortifications on Avery's farm. At a run we suc
ceeded in getting to the works before the enemy reached
them. Through a storm of shot and shell we gained
them, just in time to meet their charge and drive them
back. In the afternoon we were hurried to Swift creek, and
with the Fifty-sixth North Carolina, under Maj. John W.
Graham, and Gracie's brigade, drove back the Federal
cavalry which had attempted to cut our communications
with Richmond."

Martin's and Clingman's brigades, of Hoke's division,
also reached Petersburg on the i6th after forced marches,
and were ready for their share of hard fighting on the
1 6th. From the extreme right of the Confederate line
held by Wise, to the left held by Hoke, was about five
miles, so the men in gray had an attenuated line in these
works. The engineers estimated that 25,000 were neces
sary to properly man these works. General Beaure
gard' s number on the morning of the i6th was, he states,
10,000 men of all arms. Hancock and Smith were joined
by Burnside's corps about noon on the i6th, making an
aggregate force of over 53,000 men. Warren's corps,
17,000 strong, reached Petersburg that night. Hancock,
in command until General Meade's arrival, assaulted all
along the front in the afternoon of the i6th, and the North
Carolina brigades had a day of arduous battle. The artil
lery also had a day of incessant activity. After an after
noon of desperate struggling, Birney's division effected a
lodgment. The contest ended only with darkness.

CONFEDERA TE MILITAR Y HISTOR K - 265 •

With the same disparity in numbers, another day of
strife, attack and recoil, noise and bloodshed began on
the i yth. At dawn, Potter carried a portion of the Con
federate line, where the Federals found the exhausted
Confederates asleep with their guns in their hands.
Willcox's assault was, however, without success. Ledlie's
attack was partly successful, but his losses were great
and his success short, for he was driven out and many
prisoners taken. At midnight, the lines were still in
Confederate hands. But General Beauregard, not know
ing that Longstreet's corps was near at hand, ordered
withdrawal to a new and shorter line that his engineers
had constructed. New fires were lighted along the old
line, and the withdrawal was effected without Federal
knowledge. The men at once fortified the new line, using
bayonets, knives and even tin cans as dirt removers.
On the 1 8th, Longstreet's advanced division got in place,
and all assaults were repulsed with loss. These repeated
assaults cost Grant's army 8,150 men. Grant learned, as
McCabe aptly quotes, that Petersburg "could not be
taken by the collar. ' '

With the coming of the rest of Lee's army, other North
Carolina troops went into the trenches, as follows:
Cooke's brigade, MacRae's brigade, Lane's brigade,
Scales' brigade, and Williams' and Cummings' batteries.
The four brigades in the valley were not recalled until
the beginning of winter.

Then followed the dreary, suffering, starving months
in the trenches around Petersburg. Soldiers have never
been called upon to endure more than the Confederate
soldiers were there forced to stand, and to stand with a
full knowledge that their distant homes were being ruth
lessly desolated, and that the pangs of hunger were press
ing cruelly upon their unprotected families. What Cap
tain Elliott says of Martin's North Carolina brigade was,
changing only the numbers, true of every brigade that
there lived in the ground, walked in the wet ditches, ate

Nc 84

266 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

in the ditches, slept in dirt-covered pits. He says: "At
the beginning of the siege, June 2oth, the report of Mar
tin's brigade, occupying Colquitt's salient, showed 2,200
men for duty. In September, when they were relieved,
the total force was 700 living skeletons. Occupying the
sharp salient, the work was enfiladed on both flanks by
direct fire, and the mortar shells came incessantly down
from above. Every man was detailed every night, either
on guard duty or to labor with pick and spade repair
ing works knocked down during the day. There was no
shelter that summer from sun or rain. No food could be
cooked there, but the scanty provisions were brought
in bags on the shoulders of men from the cook yards
some miles distant. The rations 'consisted of one pound
of pork and three pounds of meal for three days —
no coffee, no sugar, no vegetables, no tobacco, no grog
— nothing but the bread and meat. No wonder that the
list of officers was reduced to three captains and a few
lieutenants, with but one staff officer (spared through
God's mercy) to this brigade of 700 skeletons. But every
feeble body contained an unbroken spirit, and after the
fall months came, those who had not fallen into their
graves or been disabled, returned to their colors, and
saw them wave in victory in their last fight at Benton-
ville. T'

Scarcely more than 100 yards from the salient held by
Elliott's South Carolina brigade, which had Ransom's
North Carolina brigade on its left, Burnside constructed a
line of rifle-pits. Colonel Pleasants, a mining engineer,
secured Burnside 's approval of a plan to run a mine under
the Elliott salient, blow it and its defenders in the air,
attack by a heavy column in the confusion, and take the
Confederate works. The mine was painstakingly exca
vated, charged with 8,000 pounds of powder, tamped
with 8,000 sandbags, and on the 28th of July was ready
to be sprung.

At that time, only the divisions of Hoke, Johnson and

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 267

Mahone were in the trenches. The mine was under
Johnson's portion of the fortifications. Wise was on
Elliott's right, Ransom's brigade under Colonel McAfee
(Ransom being wounded) on his left. Hill's corps, and
most of Longstreet's, had been sent north of the James
to counteract Hancock and Sheridan, who were demon
strating against Richmond in order to draw Lee's forces
from the trenches, and thus insure the success of the
attack that was to follow the destruction and confusion
wrought by the explosion of the mine.

All the siege and field artillery was to support the
attack. Then, says McCabe, "Ledlie was to push through
the breach straight for Cemetery hill. Willcox was to fol
low, and after passing the breach, deploy on the left and
seize the Jerusalem plank road. Potter was to pass to
the right and protect his flank, while Ferrero's negro
division, should Ledlie effect a lodgment on Cemetery
hill, was to push beyond that point and immediately
assault the town. ' '

The Confederates had detected the mining and had
thrown up intrenchments at the gorge of the salient and
traversed their works.

At daylight on the 3oth, the mine was fired. First a
slight quake, then an erupted mass of earth, and a roar
appalling followed. Next came a hail of stone, earth,
wood, and mangled bodies, and a ragged chasm marked
the place where the salient had stood. Two hundred
and seventy-eight South Carolina officers and men,
together with part of Pegram's battery, were mangled to
death in the upheaval and subsidence. Then every gun
on the Federal line opened, and an unenthusiastic line of
Ledlie 's division made unopposed headway toward the
destroyed works. These men filed into the crater and
filled it with a confused mass of disorganized troops.
Their commander was not with them. The coming of a
tangible enemy, however, aroused the Confederates, who
had been thrown in consternation by the eruption. Gen-

268 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

eral Elliott rushed to the breach, calling to his men to
drive back the assailants. He was wounded, and Colonel
McMaster took his brigade, sent to division commanders
for reinforcements, and soon had his men firing into the
excavation, or crater, where Ledlie'smen huddled. This
excavation was 135 feet in length, 97 broad, and 30
deep.* Potter's, Willcox's and Ferrero's divisions of
Burnside's corps pushed after Ledlie, and then Ord was
directed to join in the effort to break through the lines.

Meanwhile, Haskell's guns had been rushed up at a gal
lop and began to open ; Planner's North Carolina battery
from the Gee house, and Larrikins' mortars on Plan
ner's left. Wright's battery of Coit's battalion was also
nobly served. These guns and a few regiments saved
the day by repulsing all efforts to advance heavily from
the crater. The shells bursting in the massed troops did
great execution. Colonel McAfee sent the Twenty-first
North Carolina regiment to McMaster, and this, with the
Twenty-sixth South Carolina, formed in a ravine on the
left and rear of the breach. The Twenty-fourth and
Forty-ninth North Carolina regiments, also of Ransom's
brigade, closed in on Elliott's brigade, continuing his
line. These regiments in front and the two in rear met
and drove back the charge along the trenches, says Gen
eral Johnson. "Two companies of the Forty-ninth North
Carolina, posted in the covered way near the main line,
poured a heavy volley on the flank of the enemy in rear,
and our men of the Seventeenth North Carolina and
Forty-ninth Carolina . . . drove back the charge along
the trenches."

On the right, Wise's men joined Elliott in grim resist
ance. The Sixty- first North Carolina regiment, sent by
General Hoke to reinforce the troops engaged at the
breach, arrived at the same time with two brigades of
Mahone's division. These reinforcements began to
form in rear of Pe gram's salient to charge the Federals

* Johnson's Report.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 269

in the breach. While Mahone was still forming, the
Federals advanced on him. "He," says General John
son, "met their advance by a charge, in which the Twen
ty-fifth and Forty-ninth North Carolina regiments, and
the Twenty-sixth and part of the Seventeenth South
Carolina . . . gallantly joined, moving upon the left of
General Mahone 's line. The enemy was driven from
three-quarters of the trench cavalier and most of the
works on the left of the crater, with moderate loss to our
forces. . . . During this time a large number of the ene
my's troops, black and white, abandoned the breach and
fled precipitately to the rear. ' ' Three separate attempts
were made before the Union soldiers were entirely dis
lodged. This charge, which General Johnson says gave
him entire possession of the crater and adjacent lines,
was made by Sanders' brigade, of Mahone's division, and
by the Sixty-first North Carolina, Colonel Radcliffe, and
the Seventeenth South Carolina.* Ransom's front had
been more than once assailed during the day, but no suc
cess attended such assaults. The only result of this
novel warfare undertaken by General Burnside was the
loss of 3,500 lives on the Federal side.

On the 1 6th of August, Hancock's corps being engaged
in a demonstration in force to prevent aid going to Early,
Birney took a part of the Confederate line at Fussell's
mill. Lane's brigade, led by Colonel Barbour (General
Lane absent, wounded) , recaptured the intrenchments on
the Darbytown road, in the presence of General Lee.
General Clingman's brigade took part in Mahone's and
Heth's attack on Warren's corps on the ipth. In this
engagement, General Clingman was so seriously wounded
that he was never again able to join his brigade.

Hancock's corps marched for the Weldon railroad on
the 22d of August. That officer was to destroy the road to
Rowanty creek. His force consisted of his first division,
commanded by General Miles, his second division, under

* Johnson's Report

270 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY,

General Gibbon, and Gregg's cavalry. By the 24th, Han
cock had destroyed the road nearly to Reams' Station.
This road was vital to the comfort of the Confederates.
So A. P. Hill was directed to stop its destruction.

Hill took with him the North Carolina brigades of
Scales, Lane, Cooke, MacRae, and in addition, McGowan's
and Anderson's brigades, and two of Mahone's. On
Hill's approach, Hancock formed behind some old in-
trenchments constructed in June. General Gibbon was
posted in the left half of these, and General Miles occupied
the right half. Gregg's force was on the flank, and seems
to have been partly dismounted and intrenched.

The first attack of Hill, about 2 o'clock, seems to
have been made only by the brigades of McGowan and
Scales. They were repulsed. At 5 o'clock, General
Hill sent forward three North Carolina brigades, Cooke's,
Lane's (under General Conner) and MacRae 's, to make
a second attempt. Captain Graham in his Regimental
History states that the combined strength of the three
brigades was only 1,750. These brigades dashed forward
with great spirit upon Miles' line. Miles' men made, in
part, a good resistance. They were, however, forced to
give way in confusion. General Cooke stated that the
first colors planted on the captured works were those of
the Twenty-seventh North Carolina in the hands of
Sergt. Roscoe Richards. Gibbon's division was ordered
to retake the works, but failed signally. Hampton, dis
mounting his men, attacked on the left and forced Gregg's
cavalry back to a new line that Hancock established.

This was one of the most brilliant events toward the
close of that gloomy summer. General Hill's loss in killed
and wounded was 720. He captured 12 stand of colors,
9 guns, and 3,100 stand of arms. General Lee, in a let
ter to Governor Vance, dated August 29th, writes: "I
have been frequently called upon to mention the services
of North Carolina troops in this army, but their gallantry
and conduct were never more deserving of admiration

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 271

than in the engagement at Reams' Station on the 25th
instant. The brigades of Cooke, MacRae and Lane, the
last under the temporary command of General Conner,
advanced . . . and carried the enemy's works with
a steady courage that elicited the warm commendation of
their corps and division commanders, and the admiration
of the army."

On the 3oth of September, Clingman's brigade was
engaged in the desperate attempt to recapture Fort Har
rison, and lost in that unfortunate assault more men than
it had lost in weeks in the trenches.

Lane's and MacRae 's brigades formed a part of A. P.
Hill's force in his attack on Warren at Jones' farm on
September 3oth. There Major Wooten's skirmish line
greatly distinguished itself, and the two brigades made
many captures. On the Qth, Hoke and Field, supported
by Lane and Gary's cavalry, dispersed a large cavalry
force under Kautz and captured all his guns.

In all the movements around Petersburg, the cavalry
under Hampton and Dearing, both full of fight and dash,
was untiringly engaged. Many changes had occurred in
the old North Carolina brigade. Gen. Rufus Barringer
commanded the brigade, Colonel Cheek the First regi
ment, Col. W. P. Roberts the Second, Colonel Baker
(until his capture) the Third, Maj. J. H. McNeill the
Fifth. Bearing's independent brigade included the
Fourth under Colonel Ferebee, and the Sixteenth battal
ion under Lieut. -Col. J. T. Kennedy.

The brigade of Barringer was engaged at Fisher's,
White Oak swamp and White's tavern. At White Oak
swamp, after General Chambliss was killed, Gen. W. H.
F. Lee formed a new line with the First and Second
regiments and made good his battle. On the 2ist of
August, all four of Barringer 's regiments were engaged
with Mahone on the Weldon road. After a preliminary
success, the cavalry was forced to follow the retirement
of the infantry.

272 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

At Reams' Station, Gen. W. H. F. Lee was about sick
and General Barringer commanded his division, Col.
W. H. Cheek commanding Barringer's brigade. The
whole command was actively engaged, and materially
aided in the victory gained. At McDowell Junction, on
the 27th of September, at .Jones' farm, Gravelly run
and Hargrove's house, the brigade was engaged with
varying success, but with continuous pugnacity.

In November Hampton made his "cattle raid," and
dashing in at Grant's depot, City Point, drove off over
2,000 head of cattle. This raid was admirably planned
and as admirably executed. On the return the North
Carolina brigade had a brisk rear-guard action at Belcher's
mill.

On the 8th of December, when the North Carolina
Senior and Junior reserves so admirably defended the
Weldon railroad bridge near Belfield, the pursuit was
conducted by General Barringer, and he states that two
squadrons of the First regiment, commanded by Captain
Dewey, made a splendid mounted charge. General Bar
ringer puts the losses in his brigade for this campaign as
follows : Killed, 99 ; wounded, 378 ; missing and captured,
127; total, 604,

CHAPTER XVII.

THE NORTH CAROLINA REGIMENTS IN TENNESSEE
AND GEORGIA CAMPAIGNS, 1864— EVENTS IN NORTH
CAROLINA — FORT FISHER — THE CLOSE OF THE
FOURTH YEAR— NORTH CAROLINA TROOPS IN
ARMY NORTHERN VIRGINIA, 1865— BATTLES NEAR
PETERSBURG — HATCHER'S RUN — FORT STEDMAN
— APPOMATTOX.

THE limits of this sketch of the North Carolina troops
forbid a detailed account of the services of the four
regiments in the Tennessee and Georgia campaigns.
These regiments were, so far as official reports seem to
show, the Twenty-ninth, Lieut. -Col. B. S, Proffitt; the
Thirty-ninth, Col. D. Coleman; the Fifty-eighth, Maj.
T. F. Dula, and the Sixtieth, Col. J. B. Palmer. For
awhile Colonel Palmer was in command of Reynolds' bri
gade. During his absence, that regiment was com
manded by Lieut. -Col. J. T. Weaver, whose gallant life
was given up for his State.

Through all the trying marches, hungry days and
nights, stubborn fighting and nerve-testing vicissitudes,
these noble men kept close to their colors, and illustrated
by their patient endurance and cheerful obedience that
they were of the heroic clay from which soldiers are made.

After Hoke's division was recalled from New Bern to
engage with Beauregard's army at Drewry's bluff, there
were no military operations, except of minor importance,
in North Carolina, until the first attack on Fort Fisher.

Colonel Lamb, the heroic defender of the fort, thus
describes his works: "At this time Fort Fisher extended
across the peninsula 682 yards, a continuous work, mount
ing twenty heavy guns, and having two mortars and four

273

No 85

274 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

pieces of light artillery. The sea face was 1,898 yards in
length, consisting of batteries connected by a heavy cur
tain and ending in the mound battery 60 feet high, mount
ing in all twenty-four heavy guns, including one
i7o-pound Blakely rifled gun and one i3o-pound Arm
strong rifled gun. At the extreme end of the point was
Battery Buchanan with four heavy guns. "

General Whiting and Colonel Lamb had both expended
much labor and ingenuity in perfecting the defenses of
this fort. Wilmington was the port into which the block
ade runners were bringing so large a portion of the sup
plies necessary for the Confederacy that General Lee
said if Fort Fisher fell he could not subsist his army.
This thought nerved Lamb to prolonged resistance.

The garrison, when the Federal fleet arrived on Decem
ber 2oth, consisted of five companies of the Thirty-sixth
North Carolina (artillery) regiment. General Whiting, in
command of the department, entered the fort as soon as
it was threatened. Major Reilly, of the Tenth regiment
(artillery) , with two of his companies also reported there.
Colonel Lamb states that the total effective force on
December 25th was 1,431, consisting 'of 921 regulars,
about 450 Junior reserves, and 60 sailors and marines.

The " powder-ship" Louisiana, loaded with 250 tons of
powder, was headed for the fort, and exploded on the
night of the 23d. This explosion, however, proved harm
less. Then, on the 24th, the fleet approached for bom
bardment. Colonel Lamb thus tells his experience under
that fire: "The fleet, consisting of the Ironsides, four
monitors and forty- five wooden steam frigates, com
menced a terrific bombardment. . . . For five hours a
tremendous hail of shot and shell was poured upon
the works with but little effect. At 5 130 the fleet with
drew. . . . Some 10,000 shot and shell were fired by the
fleet. The fort being obliged to husband its ammuni
tion, fired only 672 projectiles. . . . Only 23 men were
wounded. ' '

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 275

General Butler determined to make a second attempt.
So on Christmas day at 10:30 a. m., the flest, reinforced
by one more monitor and some additional wooden steam
ers, began another bombardment. Colonel Lamb tells
the result: "At 5 :3o p. m., a most terrific enfilading fire
against the land face and palisade commenced, unparal
leled in severity. Admiral Porter reported it at 130 shot
and shell per minute, more than two every second. The
men were required to protect themselves behind the trav
erses ; the extra men were sent to the bombproof s with
orders to rally to the ramparts as soon as the firing
ceased. As soon as this fire commenced, a line of skir
mishers advanced toward the works. When the firing
ceased, the guns were manned and opened with grape
and canister, and the palisade was manned by two vet
erans and Junior reserves. No assault was made. Our
casualties for the day, were, killed 5, wounded 33. In the
afternoon both of the 7 -inch Brooke rifles exploded. . . .
five other guns were disabled by the enemy. . . . There
were only 3,600 shot and shell exclusive of grape and
shrapnel in the works. . . . Except when special orders
were given the guns were only fired every half hour. In
the two days, the frigates Minnesota and Colorado fired
3,551 shot and shell, almost as many as were in all the
batteries of Fort Fisher."

With this second experience, General Butler retired,
and the fort had a respite until January. The expedition
had been fitted out elaborately and was unusually strong.
Captain Self ridge, who commanded one of Butler's ships,
says: "The navy department was able to concentrate
before Fort Fisher a larger force than had ever before
assembled under one command in the history of the
American navy — a total of nearly sixty vessels. ' ' The
total number of guns and howitzers, according to
the computation of the editors of "Battles and Leaders,"
was over 600, and the total weight of projectiles at a
single discharge of all the guns was over 22 tons. The

276 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

retirement of this great armament without accomplish
ing anything was a great disappointment to the Federal
authorities. Captain Selfridge says: "Words cannot
express the bitter feeling and chagrin of the navy."

When it became evident to the Confederate govern
ment that Fisher was to be attacked, General Hoke's
division was ordered to its relief, reaching Wilmington
on the 24th of December, and the advanced regiments
arrived at Fisher on the same day. Butler, having
landed a force on the ocean side, the Seventeenth North
Carolina was withdrawn from the fort on the 25th and
ordered to attack. As General Butler withdrew his men,
only a skirmish occurred. General Bragg was in chief
command in the State. Evidently not expecting a sec
ond attack, he withdrew Hoke from Sugar Loaf, and the
division went into camp near Wilmington, sixteen miles
from Fisher.

But General Terry, with about the same force that
General Butler had commanded, except that it was rein
forced by two negro brigades, was ordered to retrieve the
first reverse. On the i4th of January, Terry landed
8,500 men without opposition, and that night, moving
across the peninsula, constructed a line of field works
from the ocean to Cape Fear river, thereby cutting off
all land communication between the fort and General
Bragg's command. No effort of any importance seems
to have been made by the commanding general to assist
the doomed fort. After the first bombardment, five
companies of the Thirty-sixth regiment (artillery)
returned from Georgia and took their old place in the gar
rison. The total force there, after the return of these
men, was about 1,900.

"All day and all night on the i3th and i4th [of Janu
ary]," says Colonel Lamb, "the fleet kept up a ceaseless
and terrific bombardment. ... It was impossible to
repair damage at night. No meals could be prepared
for the exhausted garrison ; the dead could not be buried

FRONT opWILMINGTON.N

in Februarv,1865

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 277

without new casualties. Fully 200 had been killed dur
ing these two days, and only three or four of the land
guns remained serviceable. ' '

Then the land forces approached nearer and nearer by
pits and shelter, and the assault began. Most desper
ately did General Whiting, Colonel Lamb, and all their
officers and men fight for the important fort ; frequently
did they signal for the aid they sorely needed. General
Whiting and Colonel Lamb were both severely wounded.
On the 1 5th, after exhausting every energy, the fort was
surrendered. The Federal loss is stated at 1,445. Tne
garrison lost about 500. Few more gallant defenses
against such odds are recorded. General Whiting died
shortly after in a Northern prison.

The winter around Petersburg was the worst one of
the four years of the war, to the North Carolina troops, as
well as to all of Lee's army. The gloom of despondency
was fast settling upon the army that had defied so many
perils. It was now known that there was not meat enough
in the Southern Confederacy for the armies it had in the
field; that there was not in Virginia either meat or
bread enough for the armies within her limits ; that meat
must be obtained from abroad.

But by heavy drafts upon North Carolina, food was
sent to the armies in Virginia, and by February of 1865,
their condition was somewhat improved. Reserve depots
were established at Lynchburg, Danville and Greensboro.
Even then new difficulties appeared, for the railroads
were so poorly equipped that they could not haul rations
as fast as the armies consumed them. Wagons had to
make regular trips to supplement the worn-out trains.

At the opening of the spring campaign, the following
North Carolina troops were present in the army of
Northern Virginia: In Gen. Bryan Grimes' division
were the First North Carolina, Maj. L. C. Latham; the
Second, Maj. J. T. Scales; the Third, Maj. W. T. En-
nett; the Fourth, Capt. J. B. Forcum; the Fourteenth,

278 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Lieut-Col. W. A. Johnston; the Thirtieth, Capt. D. C.
Allen; all of Gen.W. R. Cox's brigade; the Thirty-second,
Capt. P. C. Shurord; the Forty-third, Capt. W. J. Cobb;
the Forty-fifth, Col. J. R. Winston; the Fifty- third, Capt.
T. E. Ashcraft, and the Second North Carolina battalion,
all of Grimes' old brigade, commanded by Col. D. G.
Cowand. In other divisions — Walker's, Heth's, Wilcox's
and Johnson's — were the Fifth, Col. J. W. Lea; the
Twelfth, Capt. Plato Durham; the Twentieth, Lieut.
A. F. Lawhon; the Twenty-third, Capt. A. D. Pe-ace;
the First battalion, Lieut. R. W. Woodruff; all of
Gen. R. D. Johnston's brigade; the Sixth, Capt.
J. H. Dickey; the Twenty-first, Capt. J. H. Miller; the
Fifty- f ourth ; the Fifty- seventh, Capt. John Beard; all of
General Lewis' brigade; the Eleventh, Col. W. J. Mar
tin; the Twenty-sixth, Lieut. -Col. J. T. Adams; the
Forty-fourth, Maj. C. M. Stedman; the Forty-seventh;
the Fifty-second, Lieut. -Col. Eric Erson, of Gen. Wil
liam MacRae's brigade; the Fifteenth, Col. W. H. Yar-
borough; the Twenty-seventh, Lieut. -Col. J. C. Webb;
the Forty-sixth, Col. W. L. Saunders; the Forty-eighth,
Col. S. H. Walkup; the Fifty-fifth, Capt. W. A. Whit-
ted; all of Gen. J. R. Cooke's brigade; the Eighteenth,
Maj. T. J. Wooten; the Twenty-eighth, Capt. J. T. Line-
barger; the Thirty-third, Col. R. V. Cowan; the Thirty-
seventh, Maj. J. L. Bost; all of Gen. J. H. Lane's brigade;
the Thirteenth, Lieut. -Col. E. B. Withers; the Sixteenth,
Col. W. A. Stowe; the Twenty-second, Col. T. D. Gal
loway; the Thirty-fourth, Lieut. -Col. G. M. Norment;
the Thirty-eighth, Col. John Ashford; all of General
Scales' brigade; the Twenty-fourth; the Twenty-fifth,
Col. H. M. Rutledge; the Thirty-fifth, Maj. R. E.
Petty; the Forty-ninth, Maj. C. Q. Petty; the Fifty-
sixth, Col. P. F. Faison; all of Gen. M. W. Ransom's
brigade. The First, Second, Third and Fifth North
Carolina cavalry, composed Gen. Rufus Barringer's
brigade; the Fourth and Sixteenth battalion , Gen. W. P.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 279

Roberts' brigade. * The following batteries are reported :
Capt. H. G. Planner's, Capt John Ramsey's, Capt. A. B.
Williams' and Capt. Guion's.

To break up the wagon trains that were thought to aid
in supplying the Confederate army, General Grant
ordered the Second and Fifth corps to move on Hatcher's
run. Portions of the Sixth and Ninth corps were after
ward sent to reinforce the Second and Fifth. February
6th, General Lee, being apprised of this threat to his right,
arranged for parts of Gordon's and Hill's corps to meet
it. The Federal corps, on establishing line, promptly
intrenched. That afternoon Pegram led an attack on
the new line and broke General Warren's front. That
was afterward restored, and the success, in which
Cooke's and MacRae's brigades shared, was without
fruit, and resulted in Pegram's death.

In the brilliant attack on Fort Stedman, Grimes' divi
sion and other North Carolina troops bore their full share
of deadly battle. At Rives' salient, on the day of evac
uation of Petersburg, at Southerland's Station, at Sailor's
creek, on to Appomattox, the North Carolina infantry
were as a wall of fire to the great commander whose
peerless worth they reverenced. At Chamberlin's run,
so glorious to the North Carolina cavalry under Generals
Barringer and Roberts, and in all that hopeless cam
paign, the Carolina horsemen measured to the full their
soldierly duty. At almost every fortified line on the
south side of the James, the guns of Carolina's batteries
had added to the destruction worked. But all their
matchless heroism, combined with that of their dauntless
comrades from sister States, could no longer delay the
hour of humiliation. And at Appomattox, on the pth of
April, the remnant of as peerless an army as ever stepped
under banners surrendered.

* The commanders of these regiments as given in the records are
generally those in charge at the surrender. It is regretted that not
all are given.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE LAST BATTLES IN NORTH CAROLINA— GEN. J. G.
MARTIN'S COMMAND — BATTLES WITH KIRK AND
THE FEDERAL 'MARAUDERS — THE ARMY UNDER
GEN. JOE JOHNSTON -EVACUATION OF FORTS-
FIGHT AT TOWN CREEK— ENGAGEMENT AT KINS-
TON — BATTLE AT AVERASBORO — JOHNSTON RE
PULSES SHERMAN AT BENTONVILLE — JOHNSTON
FALLS BACK TO DURHAM— SURRENDER.

IT remains now only to consider the final campaign in
North Carolina. Toward the close of 1864, Gen.
J. G. Martin had been recalled from the Virginia
army and placed in command of the Western department
of North Carolina, with headquarters at Asheville. Under
his command were, according to Martin's return, March
loth, the following troops : Col. J. B. Palmer's brigade,
embracing the Sixty- second, Sixty-fourth and Sixty-ninth
(?) North Carolina regiments; Macbeth's light artillery;
Erwin's battalion of Senior reserves; Thomas' legion
(Love's regiment), McKamy's battalion, Indian battalion,
and Barr's battery — a total force of 2,910. It is not clear
why in this report General Martin seems to count one
regiment twice.

These regiments of active, hardy mountaineers were
mainly employed in repelling the numerous raids through
the mountains by Federal mixed forces, and in meeting
detachments from Col. George W. Kirk's notorious regi
ment of Union North Carolinians. This regiment was a
constant menace to that section and was restlessly ener
getic. In July, 1864, it surprised and captured Camp
Vance, near Morgan ton. Into this camp about 200 Jun
ior reserves had been assembled to be mustered into the
Confederate service. Only one company had arms, and

BEXTONVILLE

BENTONVILLE

•5T3 Confederate Assault March 19
,-- -^ Subsequent Position
MW Federal Line;,
/ Federal tf&pj

•€f»t«:

' 'VA^y.. •-

AXTil^ASBORO, N.

fou|ht March 16^,1865.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 281

the surprise was so complete that this company could not
fire a shot. Kirk made off with his captures. At Wind
ing Stairs a few regular and local troops overtook and
attacked him, but he made good his escape with his pris
oners. In this engagement Col. W. W. Avery was mor
tally, and Col. Calvin Houk, seriously wounded.

To meet the raiders, and, in many cases, marauders
of that section, General Martin directed Maj. A. C.
Avery, of Hood's staff, then at home on account of family
reasons, to organize a new battalion to operate against
them. This little battalion, composed of Capt. John
Carson's company, of McDowell, Capt. N. A. Miller's
company, of Caldwell, and Capt. W. L. Twitty's company,
of Rutherford county, rendered most faithful service in
keeping deserters and marauders out of their counties.
In March, Colonel Kirk entered Haywood county, but
Colonel Love, of the Sixty-ninth regiment, met him at
Balsam Grove and drove him back. On March 5, 1865,
Colonel Kirk encamped on the headwaters of the Saco
with part of his command. The next morning Lieuten
ant-Colonel Stringfield, also of the Sixty-ninth regiment,
attacked him with some Indian and white companies of
the Thomas legion. During the time of Stoneman's
raid into the mountains, all the troops there were more
or less engaged. Near Morganton a little field piece
served by Lieut. George West and some soldiers on fur
lough, and supported by Captain T witty, of Avery 's bat
talion and Maj. T. G. Walton of the militia, bravely held
in check for some hours one of Stoneman's detachments.

At Waynesville, on the 8th of May, occurred the last
engagement on North Carolina soil. There, Col. J. R.
Love, with a force of about 500 men of the Thomas legion,
routed a regiment of Union cavalry.

After the fall of Fort Fisher, the Federal government
sent General Schofield's corps to New Bern. General
Terry's corps at Fisher was ordered to capture Wilming
ton, effect a junction with Schofield, and move up toward

No 86

282 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Goldsboro to reinforce Sherman, who was then marching
for North Carolina.

The shattered fragment of the Western army had again
been placed under Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, and the sol
diers gave their old commander an enthusiastic welcome.
General Hardee, commanding most of the forces in Sher
man's front from upper South Carolina to Averasboro,
showed fight whenever circumstances allowed, but his
force could do little more than harass Sherman's march.
General Johnston, as soon as he reached his command,
determined to take the initiative, and if possible deliver
battle before the Federals could unite. All the force
under Bragg at Wilmington was ordered to join Hardee,
and Johnston hoped, with a united army, small but
entirely pugnacious, to fight his foes in detail.

With this general plan in mind, it is necessary to notice
the troops with which he purposed to carry it out. Com
ing from the South under Generals Hardee, Cheatham
and S. D. Lee, were the veteran fragments of Cle-
burne's, Cheatham's, Loring's, Taliaferro's, £). H. Hill's,
Walthall's and Stevenson's divisions of infantry, and
Hampton's consolidated cavalry. Hoke's division con
sisted of four very small but veteran brigades. Major
Manly 's and Major Rhett's artillery battalions accom
panied Hardee's corps. In addition, the following troops
were found in North Carolina ; four regiments of Junior
reserves under Cols. C. W. Broadfoot, J. H. Anderson,
J. W. Hinsdale and Charles M. Hall — all under General
Baker. At Fort Caswell, the First North Carolina battal
ion, Col. T. M. Jones; the Third North Carolina battal
ion, Capt. J. G. Moore, and the Sampson artillery were
stationed. At Fort Campbell there were three com
panies of North Carolina troops under Lieut. J. D. Taylor.
Fort Holmes was garrisoned by eight companies of the
Fortieth regiment and one company of the Third battalion ;
that post was commanded by Col. J. J. Hedrick. At
Smithville, a post of which Maj. James Reilly had been

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 283

the commander, two companies of the Tenth North Caro
lina battalion and one light battery constituted the garri
son. At Magnolia there was a small post under Col.
George Jackson. Parts of all these garrisons joined
Johnston's army.

The union of all these forces would give General John
ston an effective strength of only about 36,000. A larger
number than this is reported on the parole list of the sur
render, but this comes from the fact that many soldiers
never in Johnston's army were paroled in different parts
of the State.

Before he received his concentration orders, General
Hoke, at Wilmington, had been engaged in some minor
actions. Moore says: " General Hoke had posted Lieut.
Alfred M. Darden with 70 of the survivors of the Third
North Carolina battalion, on the summit of Sugar Loaf.
This battery and the guns at Fort Anderson, just across
the river, kept the enemy's gunboats at bay. Brig. -Gen.
W. W. Kirkland, of Orange, with his brigade, held the
intrenched camp. He had highly distinguished himself
as colonel of the Twenty-first North Carolina volunteers.
At the foot of the hill were posted the Junior and Senior
reserves, under Col. J. K. Connally. Across the Tele
graph road, upon their left, was Battery A, Third North
Carolina battalion, Capt. A. J. Ellis. Next was the
brigade of General Clingman, and still further the Geor
gia brigade of General Colquitt. For tedious weeks the
great guns of the mighty fleet, close in upon the left
flank, and the sharpshooters in front, made no impres
sion upon General Hoke and his men."

General Schofield, however, came to reinforce his lieu
tenant, and the landing of his forces made necessary the
evacuation of Forts Caswell, Holmes, Campbell, Fender
and Anderson. The garrisons from these forts and
part of Hagood's brigade became engaged at Town
creek, and for some time gallantly defied all efforts to
push them aside. By the yth of March, Hoke was near

284 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Kinston and part of the Southern army was at Smithfield.
On that date Gen. D. H. Hill was ordered to take his
own division and Pettus' brigade of Stevenson's division
and move to Hoke's position for battle. Clayton's divi
sion of Lee's corps and the Junior reserves under Baker
soon after reported to General Hill. On the 8th, Gener
als Hoke and Hill engaged the corps of General Cox,
stated by him to be 13,056. The battle was fought near
Kinston, and its opening was fortunate for the Confeder
ates. Upham's brigade was broken and this initial suc
cess was about to be followed up vigorously, when an
order from the commanding general diverted a part of
the force engaged. The Federals retained their works,
and the Confederates retired to effect the purposed junc
tion. The Federal loss was 1,257.

Hardee at Averasboro, on the i5th of March, was called
upon to make a stand against Sherman until Hoke and
Hill could get up from Kinston. Bravely Hardee 's men
met the issue and gained the time.

General Johnston, determined to strike Sherman before
Schofield's arrival, concentrated his army at the ham
let of Bentonville. There, on the iQth, he inflicted a
signal repulse on Sherman. Davis was the first to feel
the weight of the Confederate battle. Carlin advanced
two brigades against the Confederate front and recoiled
in disorder. Buell's brigade was next broken by Bate,
and then Stewart and Hill continued the success toward
the center. Brigade after brigade of Davis' was crushed,
and but for a gallant charge by Fearing, the center
would have been entirely disrupted. Morgan tried in
vain to break Hoke's front. Toward 5 o'clock a gen
eral advance was ordered by the Confederate front, and
was also continued until dark. It was successful in front
of Cogswell and at other points, but did not result in driv
ing off Sherman. The Junior reserves, of North Carolina,
"the unripe wheat" of the State, made themselves promi
nent for gallantry on this field.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 285

How reduced the Confederate army was by this time is
shown by a statement in Gen. D. H. Hill's report. He
commanded that day Lee's corps, and states that his
whole corps numbered 2,687 men!

Sherman was unwilling to attack after the repulse at
Bentonville, but quietly waited for his other corps to join
him, knowing that Johnston must retreat, as his num
bers would never again enable him to join a pitched
battle. General Johnston, after retreating as far as Dur
ham, realized that further resistance was useless and sur
rendered his army.

What Judge Roulhac, of the Forty-ninth regiment, says
of his comrades applies to all the youth who in 1861
marched to obey the call of their State: " How splen
did and great they were in their modest, patient, earnest
love of country ! How strong they were in their young
manhood, and pure they were in their faith, and con
stant they were to their principles ! How they bore suf
fering and hardship, and how their lives were ready at
the call of duty ! What magnificent courage, what unsul
lied patriotism! Suffering they bore, duty they per
formed, and death they faced and met, all for love of the
dear old home land ; all this for the glory and honor of
North Carolina.

"As they were faithful unto thee, guard thou their
names and fame, grand old mother of us all. If thy sons
in the coming times shall learn the lesson of the heroism
their lives inspired and their deeds declared, then not
one drop of blood was shed in vain. "

BIOGRAPHICAL.

287

MAJOR-GENERALS AND BRIGADIER-GENERALS, PRO-
VISIONAL ARMY OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES,
ACCREDITED TO NORTH CAROLINA.

Brigadier-General George Burgwyn Anderson, the
oldest son of William E. Anderson and his wife, Eliza
Burgwyn, was born near Hillsboro, Orange county, N. C. ,
April, 1831. At an early age he entered the State uni
versity at Chapel Hill, and on graduation divided first
honors with three others of his class. He was appointed to
the United States military academy when seventeen years
old, and was graduated tenth in a class of forty- three in
1852, with a commission in the Second dragoons. After
a few months at the cavalry school at Carlisle he was
detailed to assist in the survey of a railroad route in Cali
fornia, after that duty rejoining his regiment at Fort
Chadbourne, Tex. Having been promoted first lieuten
ant in 1855, he commanded his troop in the march from
Texas across the plains to Fort Riley, Kan. ; accompanied
his regiment as adjutant in the Utah expedition of 1858,
and remained in that territory until 1859, when he was
ordered on recruiting service at Louisville, Ky. There
he was married in November following to Mildred
Ewing, of that city. When the crisis of 1861 arrived he
promptly resigned, being, it is said, the first North Caro
linian in the old army to take this step, and offered for
the defense of his State the sword which he had worn
with honor, and which descended to him from his uncle,
Capt. John H. K. Burgwyn, U. S. A., who was killed at
Puebla de Taos during the Mexican war. Anderson was
at this time a magnificent specimen of manhood, full six
feet, erect, broad-shouldered, round-limbed, with a deep,
musical voice, and a smile wonderfully gentle and win
ning. Being commissioned colonel of the Fourth regi-

289

Nc 37

290 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

ment by Governor Ellis, he rapidly completed its organ
ization, and soon after the battle of July 2ist, reached
Manassas Junction, where he was appointed post com
mandant and charged with the construction of the defens
ive works. He remained in command here until March,
1862, and meanwhile was strongly recommended for
promotion to brigadier-general by Gens. D. H. Hill and
J. E. Johnston, but this was for some reason withheld
until forced by the unsurpassed gallantry of his regiment
at the battle of Williamsburg. It is sufficient evidence
of the magnificent training and discipline of his men to
record that out of 520 rank and file which the regiment
carried into action, 462 were killed or wounded, and out
of 27 commissioned officers, all but one were killed or
wounded. This was not a foredoomed forlorn hope or a
charge of a "Light Brigade," but surpassed any such
recorded in history, both in loss and achievement, for
they went in to win and did win. During this fight Col
onel Anderson seized the colors of the Twenty-seventh
Georgia and dashed forward leading the charge, and
though his men, cheering wildly as they followed, lost
scores at every step, their courage was irresistible, and
Anderson planted the colors on the stubbornly-defended
breastworks. This was witnessed by President Davis,
who at once promoted Anderson to brigadier-general.
His brigade included the Second, Fourth, Fourteenth
and Thirtieth North Carolina regiments. During the
bloody Seven Days' fighting which followed, he was con
spicuous for skill in detecting the weak points of the
enemy and boldness and persistence in attack. While
leading a desperate charge at Malvern Hill he was
severely wounded. His next serious engagement was at
South Mountain, Md., where his brigade, with the
others of D. H. Hill's division, held back half of McClel-
lan's army till nightfall. Three days later at Sharps-
burg, on September 17, 1862, he was for the last time dis
tinguished in battle. During an assault of the enemy,

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 291

in which a large part of Hill's division fell back through
a mistake in conveying orders, General Anderson and
his men nobly held their line, until he was struck by a
ball in his foot near the ankle, which brought him to the
ground. It was a most painful injury, and he suffered
great agony in being carried to Richmond and thence to
Raleigh, where finally an amputation was made. He
sank under the operation, and died on the morning of
October 16, 1862. He was a man of spotless purity of
life, integrity and honor, as well as dauntless courage.
His ennobling influence upon the North Carolina soldiery
can hardly be overestimated.

Brigadier-General Lawrence S. Baker, distinguished
as a cavalry officer in the service of the Confederate
States, was born in Gates county, N. C., in May, 1830.
His family is an old and honorable one, founded in
America by Lawrence Baker, who came to Virginia from
England early in the seventeenth century and became a
member of the house of burgesses. His descendant, Gen.
Lawrence Baker, of North Carolina, was a leader in the
movement for independence, served in the Revolutionary
war, and was one of the two representatives of North
Carolina in the Continental Congress. His son, John B.
Baker, M. D. , father of Gen. L. S. Baker, was a well-
known physician and prominent citizen of North Caro
lina, in the legislature of which he sat as a member from
Gates county. General Baker received his early educa
tion in his native State and at Norfolk academy, and then
entered the United States military academy at West
Point, where he was graduated in the class of 1851. At
his graduation he was promoted second lieutenant of the
Third cavalry, and by meritorious and gallant service he
had passed the grade of first lieutenant, and had been
promoted captain, when he resigned after his State had
announced its adherence to the Confederacy, in order that
he might tender his services for the defense of North

292 CONFEDERA TE MILITARY HISTORY.

Carolina. He was commissioned lieutenant-colonel, Con
federate States cavalry, to date from March 16, 1861, and
on May 8th was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the Ninth
North Carolina regiment, afterward known as the First
North Carolina cavalry. With this command he joined
the cavalry brigade of Gen. J. E. B. Stuart, in 1861, and
on March i, 1862, he was promoted colonel of his regi
ment. During the opening of the Seven Days' battles
which followed, he served upon the right wing of the
army, and on June 2pth commanded the Confederate
cavalry in the affair on the Charles City road, which was,
in fact, a reconnoissance in which the Federal cavalry
were driven back until reinforced by heavy bodies of
infantry, when Colonel Baker was compelled to retire.
After this campaign the cavalry division was organized
and Colonel Baker and his regiment were assigned to the
brigade of Gen. Wade Hampton. With the active and
heroic work of this brigade through the campaigns of
Manassas and Sharpsburg, Colonel Baker was gallantly
identified. He fought with his regiment at Frederick
City, Md. , and in defense of the South Mountain passes ;
took part in the battle of Sharpsburg, and subse
quently skirmished with the enemy at Williamsport.
During the many cavalry affairs that preceded and fol
lowed the battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville,
he rendered valuable service. Particularly at the battle
of Fleetwood Hill, preceding the movement into Penn
sylvania, he displayed his soldierly qualities. Here, on
June 9, 1863, in command of his regiment and supported
by the Jeff Davis legion, he charged upon the enemy,
and after what may truly be said to have been in point of
the number of men who crossed sabers, the most impor
tant hand-to-hand contest of cavalry in the war, drove the
Federals from their position. At Upperville he was
again distinguished, and it was to his regiment that
Hampton turned in the moment of greatest peril, draw
ing his saber and crying, "First North Carolina, follow

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 293

me!" The regiment participated in Stuart's Pennsyl
vania raid, and reaching the field of Gettysburg on July
3d, engaged in the desperate hand-to-hand cavalry fight
on the right of the army. In this bloody action Hamp
ton was twice wounded, and Colonel Baker was given
command of the brigade during the subsequent impor
tant work of protecting the retreat of the army, including
fighting about Hagerstown and Falling Waters. After
the army had crossed into Virginia, Colonel Baker was
assigned the duty of picketing the Potomac from Falling
Waters to Hedgesville, and had frequent skirmishes with
the enemy until withdrawn to the line of the Rappahan-
nock. Here, on July 3ist, the Federal cavalry crossed
the river in force and advanced toward Brandy Station,
stubbornly resisted by Hampton's brigade of cavalry
under command of Colonel Baker, General Stuart also
being at the front. In his report of this affair, Gen.
R. E. Lee wrote: "Hampton's brigade behaved with its
usual gallantry and was very skillfully handled by Col
onel Baker. Our loss was small, but among our wounded,
I regret to say, are those brave officers, Colonel Baker,
commanding the brigade; Colonel Young, of Cobb's
legion, and Colonel Black, of the First South Carolina
cavalry." On the same day General Lee recommended
Colonel Baker for promotion to the rank of brigadier-
general, which was promptly confirmed, and in the sub
sequent reorganization of the cavalry he was assigned to
the command of a brigade composed exclusively of
North Carolina regiments, the First, Second, Fourth and
Fifth. But the wound he had received at Brandy Sta
tion was a serious one — the bones of his arm being com
pletely shattered, and the use of it lost to him, in conse
quence of which he was unable to continue his service
with the cavalry. When General Wade Hampton
became chief of the cavalry in the spring of 1864, he
desired General Baker to accept division command under
him with promotion to major-general, but the disability

294 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

prevented, and he was assigned by the war department
to the responsible command of the Second military dis
trict of South Carolina, in which capacity he had the
duties of a major-general, in charge of the forces
at Goldsboro, Kinston, Wilmington, Plymouth and
Weldon, and was particularly intrusted with the pro
tection of the Weldon railroad. Later he was called to
confront Sherman's advance in the vicinity of Savannah
and Augusta, Ga., and then being recalled to North
Carolina by Bragg, he commanded in the final campaign
the First brigade of Junior reserves, in Hoke's division
of Hardee's corps. He surrendered at Raleigh, after the
capitulation of Johnston, and then, having spent all his
life, so far, in military employment, was confronted by
the difficult task of finding a place in civil life in a
country ravaged by war. He lived at New Bern for
awhile, and near Norfolk, Va., carried on a trucking busi
ness, after which he returned to North Carolina, and was
engaged in insurance until 1877. At the latter date he
was offered the position of agent of the Seaboard
Air Line railroad at Suffolk, Va. , a position he has since
occupied. General Baker is held in warm remembrance
by Confederates everywhere, particularly in Virginia and
North Carolina, where his bravery and devotion are most
intimately known. He maintains a membership in Tom
Smith camp, United Confederate Veterans, at Suffolk,
and keeps alive his comradeship with the survivors of
the great struggle. In 1855 he was married to Elizabeth
E., daughter of Dr. Alex. Henderson, of North Carolina,
and they have three children living: Alexander Baker,
sheriff of Nansemond county, Va. ; Stuart A. Baker, of
Richmond, and Elizabeth E. Baker.

Brigadier- General Rufus Barringer was born in Cab-
arrus county, N. C., December 2, 1821. He was of
sturdy German stock, a grandson of John Paul Barringer,
who was born in Wurtemburg, June 4, 1721, and emi-

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 295

grated to this country, arriving at Philadelphia, in the
ship Phoenix, September 30, 1 743. John Paul or Paulus
Barringer, as he was called, married Catharine, daughter
of Caleb Blackwelder and Polly Decker of Germany. Of
their ten children by this (second) marriage, the eldest,
Paul Barringer, was prominent in the service of the State
and was commissioned a brigadier-general during the war
of 1812. During his infancy his grandfather Black-
welder, and his father Paulus Barringer, a captain in the
colonial militia and a conspicuous member of the com
mittee of safety, were taken prisoners by the tories and
carried to Cheraw, S. C. Paul Barringer married Eliza
beth, daughter of Jean Armstrong and Matthew Brandon,
who was with Joseph Graham and Colonel Locke in the
repulse of the British near Charlotte, and also served
with Col. John Brandon at Ramseur's mill. Gen. Rufus
Barringer, son of the above, was born in 1821, and was
graduated at North Carolina university in 1842. He
studied law with his brother Moreau, then with Chief-
Justice Pearson, settling in Concord. A Whig in politics,
in 1848 he served in the lower house of the State legisla
ture, and here was in advance of his time in advocating
a progressive system of internal improvements. The
following session he was elected to the State senate. He
then devoted himself to his practice until he was made in
1860 a Whig elector in behalf of Bell and Everett. He
was tenacious of his principles, and not to be swerved
from duty by any amount of ridicule or opposition ; was
devotedly attached to the Union and the Constitution,
and with rare discernment saw that the consequence of
secession would be war, the fiercest and bloodiest of
modern times, and he was so outspoken with his convic
tions that he was once caricatured in the streets of Char
lotte. However, when he saw that war was inevitable, his
duty to his State came uppermost, and even before the
final ordinance of secession was passed he urged the legisla
ture, then in session, to arm the State and warn the

296 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

people that they must now prepare for war. He himself
was among the first to volunteer. He raised in Cabarrus
county a company of cavalry, of which he was chosen
captain and which became Company F, First North Caro
lina cavalry, his commission bearing date May 16, 1861.
He was promoted to major, August 26, 1863, and three
months later to lieutenant-colonel. In June, 1864, he
was commissioned brigadier-general, and succeeded to
the command of the North Carolina cavalry brigade, con
sisting of the First, Second, Third and Fifth regiments.
General Barringer was in seventy-six actions and was
thrice wounded, most severely at Brandy Station. He
had two horses killed under him at other engagements.
He was conspicuous at the battles of Willis' Church,
Brandy Station, Auburn Mills; Buckland Races, where
he led the charge; Davis' Farm, where he was com
mander; and he was in command of a division at Reams'
Station. His brigade was distinguished at Chamberlain
Run, March 31, 1865, when it forded a stream one hun
dred yards wide, saddle-girth deep, under a galling fire,
and drove back a division of Federal cavalry, this being
the last decisive Confederate victory on Virginia soil.
On April 3, 1865, at Namozine church, he was taken
prisoner by a party of "Jesse scouts" disguised as Con
federates, Colonel Young and Captain Rowland among
them, and sent to City Point along with General Ewell.
President Lincoln, then at City Point, was at Colonel
Bowers' tent and asked that General Barringer be pre
sented to him, jocosely adding, "You know I have never
seen a real live rebel general in uniform. ' ' The Presi
dent greeted him warmly, and was pleased to recall
acquaintanceship with his elder brother, D. M. Barringer,
with whom he served in Congress. General Barringer
was then sent on to the old Capitol prison, and afterward
transferred to Fort Delaware, where he was detained till
August, 1865. While there, he had the opportunity of
ascertaining the current of public sentiment in regard to

Brig. -Gen. JOHN R. COOKE.
Brig.-Gen. GABRIEL J. RAINS.
Brig. -Gen. LAWRENCE S BAKER.
Brig.-Gen. ROBERT D. JOHNSTON.

Brig.-Gen. W. G. LEWIS.
Brig.-Gen. GEO. B. ANDERSON.
Brig.-Gen. W. \V. KIRKLAND.
Brig.-Gen. RUFUS B^RRINGER.

Maj.-Gen. BRYAN GRIMES.
Brig.-Gen. JAS. G. MARTIN.
Brig.-Gen. THOS. L. CLINGMAN.
Brig.-Gen. JUNIUS DANIEL.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 297

the results of the war, and as he had foreseen that war
would follow secession, he now realized that the con
querors decreed free suffrage, and believed the wisest
action of the South would be to accept the consequences.
With his accustomed directness and fearlessness of
action, he advocated the acceptance of the reconstruction
acts of 1867, and urged his fellow citizens to the policy
he believed best suited to the country. Of course he
suffered from the violent animosity incident to political
differences, yet the appreciation of his home people was
shown by his election in 1875 to the State constitutional
convention, as a Republican from a Democratic county,
and though defeated for lieutenant-governor in 1880, his
own Democratic county gave him a majority of its votes.
In 1865 General Barringer removed to Charlotte, and
resumed the practice of law till 1884; at first in partner
ship with Judge Osborne. After his retirement from the
bar he devoted himself to his farming interests, striving
to imbue the farmer with ambition for improvement in
himself and his circumstances. For this purpose he often
had recourse to the press, the last week of his life con
tributing to the papers an article protesting against the
farmers' desertion of their homes for the towns. He had
abiding faith in the power of the press and in its influ
ence for good. Among his latest pleasures were talking
with the old veterans and contributing to the history of the
war. In 1881 he wrote a series of cavalry sketches
describing the battles of Five Forks and Chamberlain
Run, Namozine Church, and other notable engagements,
which are preserved to-day among the most interesting
and valuable historical data of the war; and again he
made valuable contributions to "The War Between the
States," published by John A. Sloane. He was ever
interested in history, and zealous of the fame of North
Carolina. He wrote sketches of "The Dutch Side," a
history of the "Battle of Ramseur's Mill," "A History
of the North Carolina Railroad," etc. On November 19,

Nc 38

298 CONFEDERA TE MILITARY HISTORY.

1894, came a plea from Judge Clark for a history of the
Ninth regiment, State troops (First North Carolina cav
alry), saying, "You are very busy, and that is one reason
you are selected. Only busy men have the energy and
talent to do this work. Your record as a soldier satisfies
me that you will not decline the post of duty. ' ' Already
confined to bed, he called for books and papers, and with
the zeal and haste of one impressed with the importance
of the work and the shortness of time, he put on the fin
ishing touches not many days before the end. It was a
labor of love. The purpose of his thought, which never
seemed to weaken, was the uplifting of his fellow men,
the prosperity of his beloved church, and care for his old
comrades. One of his last injunctions to his son was,
* ' Remember Company F ; see that not one of them ever
suffers want. They ever loved me, they were ever
faithful to me, and Paul, always stand by our Confeder
ate soldiers, and North Carolina. Let her never be
traduced." He died February 3, 1895, leaving a wife
and three sons; the eldest, Dr. Paul Barringer, now
chairman of the university of Virginia; the youngest,
Osmond Long Barringer, with his mother in Charlotte.
His first wife was Eugenia Morrison, sister of Mrs. T. J.
(Stonewall) Jackson ; the second Rosalie Chunn, of Ashe-
ville; the surviving one Margaret Long of Orange county.

Brigadier- General Lawrence O' Brian Branch was born
in Halifax county, N. C., November 28, 1820. Five
years later his mother died, and his father, who had
removed to Tennessee, died in 1827. He was then
brought back to his native State by his guardian, Gov.
John Branch, and was taken to Washington when the
governor was appointed secretary of the navy in 1829.
At the national capital the boy studied under various
preceptors, one of them being Salmon P. Chase, after
ward secretary of the treasury. He was graduated with
first honors at Princeton in 1838, after which he resided

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 299

eight years in Florida, practicing law and in the early
part of 1841 participating in the Seminole war. In 1844
he married the daughter of Gen. W. A. Blount, of Wash
ington, N. C., and soon afterward made his home at
Raleigh. In 1852 he was an elector on the Pierce ticket;
in the same year became president of the Raleigh & Gas-
ton railroad, and in 1855 was elected to Congress, where
he served until the war began. Upon the resignation of
Howell Cobb he was tendered, but declined, the position
of secretary of the treasury. Returning from Congress
March 4, 1861, he advocated immediate secession, and in
April enlisted as a private in the Raleigh rifles. On May
2oth he accepted the office of State quartermaster-general,
but resigned it for service in the field, and in Septem
ber following was elected colonel of the Thirty-third regi
ment North Carolina troops. On January 17, 1862, he
was promoted to brigadier-general in the provisional
army of the Confederate States, his command including
the Seventh, Eighteenth, Twenty-eighth, Thirty-third
and Thirty-seventh regiments. At New Bern, March
14, 1862, he was in his first battle, commanding the
forces which disputed the advance of Burnside. Retir
ing to Kinston, he was ordered to Virginia and his bri
gade was attached to A. P. Hill's famous light division.
It was the first in the fight at Slash church (Hanover
Court House), also the first to cross the Chickahominy
and attack the Federals, beginning the Seven Days'
battles, in which the brigade fought at Mechanicsville,
Cold Harbor, Frayser's Farm, and Malvern Hill, winning
imperishable fame, at a cost of five colonels and 1,250
men killed and wounded, out of a total strength of 3,000.
General Branch bore himself throughout this bloody
campaign with undaunted courage and the coolness of a
veteran commander. Soon followed the battles of Cedar
Run, Second Manassas, Fairfax Court House and Har
per's Ferry. Hurrying from the latter victory on the
morning of September i;th, he reached the field of

300 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Sharpsburg with his brigade about 2 130 in the afternoon,
just in time to meet an advance of the enemy which had
broken the line of Jones' division and captured a bat
tery. "With a yell of defiance," A. P. Hill reported,
"Archer charged them, retook Mclntosh's guns, and
drove them back pellmell. Branch and Gregg, with
their old veterans, sternly held their ground, and pour
ing in destructive volleys, the tide of the enemy surged
back, and breaking in confusion, passed out of sight.
The three brigades of my division actively engaged did
not number over 2,000 men, and these, with the help of
my splendid batteries, drove back Burn side's corps of
1 5, ooo men. " Soon after, as Hill and the three briga
diers were consulting, some sharpshooter sent a bullet
into the group, which crashed through the brain of Gen
eral Branch, and he fell, dying, into the arms of his staff-
officer, Major Engelhard. In noticing this sad event,
General Hill wrote: "The Confederacy has to mourn the
loss of a gallant soldier and accomplished gentleman.
He was my senior brigadier, and one to whom I could
have intrusted the command of the division, with all
confidence." General Branch left one son, W. A. B.
Branch, who has served in Congress from the First
district.

Brigadier-General Thomas Lanier Clingman was born
at Huntsville, N. C., July 27, 1812, son of Jacob and
Jane (Poindexter) Clingman. His grandfather, Alexan
der Clingman, a native of Germany, emigrated to Penn
sylvania, served in the continental army, was captured
in General Lincoln's surrender, and after the war made
his home in Yadkin, now Surry county, becoming allied
by marriage with the Patillo family. Young Clingman
was graduated by the university of North Carolina, and
began the practice of law at Hillsboro, where in
1835 he was elected to the legislature as a Whig, begin
ning a career of national prominence in politics. Remov-

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 301

ing to Asheville in 1836, he won considerable fame in a
public discussion, concerning a proposed railroad, with
Colonel Memminger, of South Carolina, and was elected
to the State senate. He speedily assumed leadership in
the Whig party, and in 1843 was elected to Congress,
where he served in the lower house until 1858, contin
uously with the exception of the twenty-ninth Congress.
In 1858 he was appointed United States senator to suc
ceed Asa Biggs, and at the end of this term was elected.
He took part in many famous debates in Congress, and
attained a position of leadership in national affairs. His
speech on the causes of the defeat of Henry Clay led to a
duel with William L. Yancey, of Alabama. On January
21, 1861, he withdrew from Congress with the other
Southern members, and in May was selected to bear
assurances to the Confederate Congress that North Caro
lina would enter the Confederacy. Volunteering for the
military service, though nearly fifty years of age, he was
elected colonel of the Twenty-fifth infantry, and eight
months later was promoted brigadier-general. His prin
cipal services were in command at the defense of Golds-
boro; at Sullivan's island and Battery Wagner during
the attack on Charleston; the attack on New Bern in
February, 1864; the defeat of Butler at Drewry's bluff,
May, 1864; the battle of Cold Harbor, where he was
wounded ; the repulse of the Federal attack on Peters
burg, June i yth, and the battle on the Weldon railroad,
August i pth. In the latter fight he was severely
wounded, and was unable to rejoin his command until a
few days before the surrender at Greensboro. After the
war he was a delegate to the national Democratic con
vention of 1864. In the department of science he was
quite as distinguished as in law, statecraft and war. He
explored the mountains of North Carolina, establishing
the fact that they contained the loftiest peaks of the
Appalachian range, one of the chief of which, measured
by him in 1855, now bears his name; opened the mica

302 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

mines of Mitchell and Yancey counties ; made known the
existence of corundum, zircon, rubies and other gems in
the State ; furnished valuable evidence of the depth of
the atmosphere by his observations on the August
meteor of 1860, and affirmed long before the days of
Edison that sound might in some way be transmitted
with the speed of electricity. He published several vol
umes, including his public addresses. In later years
the unselfish services which had brought him fame left
him unprovided with the comforts of life, and the close
of his days was a pathetic illustration of how the world
may forget. He died at Morgantown, November 3, 1897.

Brigadier-General John R. Cooke was born at Jefferson
barracks, Mo., in 1833, the son of Philip St. George
Cooke, then first lieutenant First dragoons, U. S. A.
It is an interesting fact that while the son and his
sister's husband, J. E. B. Stuart, fought for Virginia in
the war of the Confederacy, the father, a native of Fred
erick county, Va. , remained in the United States army,
and attained the rank of major-general, finally being
retired after fifty years' service. Young Cooke was edu
cated at Harvard college as a civil engineer, but in 1855
was commissioned second lieutenant, Eighth infantry,
after which he served in Texas, New Mexico and Ari
zona. When Virginia seceded he promptly resigned his
commission, reported to General Holmes at Fredericks-
burg as first lieutenant, and after the battle of Manassas
raised a company of light artillery, which did splendid
service along the Potomac. In February, 1862, he was
promoted major, and assigned as chief of artillery to the
department of North Carolina. In April, at the reorgan
ization, he was elected colonel of the Twenty-seventh
North Carolina regiment. On being ordered to Virginia
his regiment was attached to A. P. Hill's division, and
was first in battle at Seven Pines. After the battle of
Sharpsburg, in which he won the admiration of the

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 303

whole army, he was promoted to brigadier-general,
and put in command of a brigade of North
Carolinians, the Fifteenth, Twenty-seventh, Forty-
sixth, Forty-eighth and Fifty-ninth regiments. At
Fredericksburg he supported General Cobb, holding the
famous stone wall, and all through the war, until its
close, he and his brigade were in the thickest of the
fray. He was wounded seven times, at Sharpsburg,
Fredericksburg, Bristoe Station, and in the Wilderness
campaign. No officer bore a more enviable reputation
than General Cooke for prompt obedience to orders, skill in
handling his men, splendid dash in the charge, or heroic,
patient, stubborn courage in the defense. After the close
of hostilities General Cooke entered mercantile life at
Richmond, and during his subsequent life was prominent
in the affairs of the city and State. He served several
years as a member of the city committee of the Demo
cratic party, was a director of the chamber of commerce,
and president of the board of directors of the State peni
tentiary. During the years of peace and reconciliation,
the estrangement in his family which had followed his
espousal of the Southern cause, was fully healed; but
he remained loyal to his old comrades. He was promi
nent as a founder and manager of the Soldiers' Home at
Richmond, was one of the first commanders of the Lee
camp, Confederate veterans, and acted as chief of staff
at the laying of the cornerstone of the Lee monument,
and at its unveiling. He married Nannie G. Patton, of
Fredericksburg, daughter of Dr. William F. Patton,
surgeon U. S. N., and they had eight children. General
Cooke 's death occurred April 10, 1891.

Brigadier-General William Ruffin Cox was born March
u, 1832, at Scotland Neck, Halifax county, N. C. He is
of English and Scotch- Irish descent, and his ancestors
were early and prominent colonists in the new world.
The father of General Cox died when the latter was four

304 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

years old, and later his mother moved to Nashville,
Tenn. , where he was educated and graduated in letters
at the Franklin college, and in law at the famous Leb
anon law school. He formed a partnership in the legal
practice with a prominent member of the Nashville bar,
and was active in his profession until 1857, when he
removed to North Carolina and engaged in agriculture
in Edgecomb county. Removing to Raleigh in 1859, he
was nominated for the legislature on the Democratic
ticket, and though leading the same, was defeated by
thirteen votes. Upon the outbreak of the war in
1 86 1, he contributed liberally to the equipment of the
" Ellis artillery" company, and was employed in organ
izing a company of infantry when he was commissioned,
by Governor Ellis, major of the Second regiment, North
Carolina State troops, commanded by Col. C. C. Tew.
Upon the death of the gallant colonel at Sharpsburg,
Judge W. P. Bynum became colonel and Cox lieutenant-
colonel, and soon afterward Bynum resigned and Cox
took command of the regiment, and was promoted to col
onel in March, 1863. In the battle of Chancellorsville,
where his brigade suffered great loss, he was three times
wounded In his official report General Ramseur gave
unusual and prominent attention to "the manly and chiv
alrous Cox of the Second North Carolina, the accom
plished gentleman, splendid soldier and warm friend,
who, though wounded three times, remained with his
regiment until exhausted. In common with the entire
command, I regret his absence from the field, where he
loves to be." He was able to rejoin his command after
the return from Pennsylvania and take part in the Wil
derness and Spottsylvania battles of 1864. He took a
conspicuous part with Ramseur 's brigade in the battle of
May 1 2th, for which Generals Lee and Ewell gave their
thanks upon the field. After this battle he, though the
junior colonel, was promoted to the command of the bri
gade, composed of the Second, Fourth, Fourteenth and

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 305

Thirtieth regiments, to which were attached those of the
First and Third regiments who escaped from the wreck
of Steuart's brigade of Johnson's division. After the
battle of Cold Harbor he served with Early 's corps in the
relief of Lynchbttrg, the expedition through Maryland to
Washington, including the battle of Monocacy, and the
Shenandoah battles of the fall of 1864. He then
returned to the heroic army of Northern Virginia in the
trenches before Petersburg, participated in the gallant
and desperate effort of Gordon's corps to break the
enemy's line at Fort Stedman, and during the retreat
rounded out his reputation for good soldiership. It has
been related by Governor Vance that on one occasion
during the retreat to the west, when General Lee was
endeavoring to form a line from disorganized troops, his
heart was gladdened by the appearance of a small but
orderly brigade, marching with precision. He called
out to an aide: "What troops are those?" " Cox's North
Carolina brigade, ' ' was the reply. Then it was that, tak
ing off his hat and bowing his head with knightly cour
tesy, he said, "God bless gallant old North Carolina."
Cox led the division at the last charge at Appomattox,
and had ordered his brigade to cover the retreat, when he
was recalled to the rear. It was the brigade of General
Cox, marching in the rear, which faced about, and with
the steadiness of veterans on parade, poured such a sud
den and deadly volley into the overwhelming numbers
of the Federals that they temporarily abandoned the
attempt to capture the command. General Cox was with
his men to the bitter end. Eleven wounds had not
sufficed to retire him from the service. Subsequently
he resumed his law practice, and became president of the
Chatham railroad. For six years he held the office of
solicitor of the metropolitan district; was chairman of
the Democratic State executive committee for five years;
was delegate for the State-at-large in the national con
vention of 1876, and in January, 1877, was appointed cir-

Nc 39

306 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

cuit judge of the Sixth judicial district. This office he
resigned to enter Congress, where he served with dis
tinction for six years. Intending to retire from politics,
General Cox returned to his estate in Edgecomb and
resumed the pursuit of agriculture, and was thus
employed when, without his knowledge, his name was
agreed upon and he was elected as secretary of the
United States Senate, to succeed Gen. Anson G. McCook.
This position he has since filled to the entire satisfaction
of that great body, also giving much personal attention
to his agricultural interests. General Cox was married
in 1857 to a daughter of James S. Battle, and after her
death in 1880, to a daughter of Rt. Rev. T. B. Lyman,
bishop of North Carolina.

Brigadier-General Junius Daniel was born at Halifax,
N. C., June 27, 1828. He was the youngest son of J. R.
J. Daniel, attorney-general of North Carolina and repre
sentative in Congress, and a cousin of Judge Daniel of
the Superior and Supreme courts of the State. He was
appointed to the United States military academy by
President Polk as a cadet-at-large, and was graduated in
1851 and promoted to second lieutenant in the fall of
that year. After a year or two of service at Newport
barracks, Kentucky, he was ordered to New Mexico,
where he served in garrison at Forts Filmore, Albu
querque and Stanton, and in skirmishes with the Indians
until 1857, when he was promoted first lieutenant, Third
infantry. In 1858 he resigned to take charge of his
father's plantation in Louisiana. In October, 1860, he
married Ellen, daughter of John J. Long, of Northamp
ton county, N. C. When his State had decided to enter
the Confederacy, Lieutenant Daniel offered his experience
and soldierly ability, and upon the organization of the
Fourteenth infantry regiment at Garysburg was elected
colonel, and commissioned June 3, 1861. His regiment
was an ideal one in its composition, representing the best

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 307

families of the State, and he gave it a splendid training
for the stern warfare which was to follow. He was also
elected colonel of the Forty-third regiment, but declined,
and was tendered the colonelship of the Second cavalry,
which he refused in favor of Col. Sol Williams. After
rendering valuable service in the organization of North
Carolina troops, he went into the Seven Days' campaign
before Richmond in command as senior colonel of a bri
gade composed of the Forty-third, Fiftieth and Forty-
fifth infantry, and Burroughs' battalion of cavalry. He
behaved gallantly under fire at Malvern Hill and nar
rowly escaped injury, his horse being killed under him.
Early in September he was commissioned brigadier-gen
eral, and the Thirty-second, Forty-third, Forty-fifth,
Fifty- third regiments and Second battalion were put
under his command. With this brigade he remained
near Drewry's bluff until December, 1862, when he was
ordered to North Carolina to meet the Federal invasion.
Just before the Pennsylvania campaign he and his men
were transferred to Rodes' division, Ewell's corps, army
of Northern Virginia, with which they took part in the
battle of Gettysburg. He was distinguished for cool
ness and intrepid conduct during the fierce fighting of
the first day of that historic struggle, in which his bri
gade suffered the severest loss of any in the corps, but
displayed wonderful discipline and drove the enemy
before them. They were again in hard fighting on the
second day, and lay under fire during the third. His last
battle was at the t4 bloody angle" on the Spottsylvania
lines, May 12, 1864, when, cheering his men forward to
drive Hancock from the position the Federals had gained,
he fell mortally wounded. On the next day he died,
after sending a loving message to his wife. He was
a thorough soldier, calm, resolute and unpretending.
Before his untimely death he had been recommended by
General Lee for promotion to major-general.

308 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Brigadier-General Richard C. Gatlin was a native of
North Carolina, and was appointed from that State to the
United States military academy, where he was graduated
in 1832, in the same class with Generals Ewell, Archer
and Humphrey Marshall. He received a lieutenancy in
the Seventh infantry, and served on frontier duty in
Indian Territory, in the Florida war, 1839-42, and was
subsequently stationed in Louisiana until 1845, when he
joined the army of occupation in Texas, and was pro
moted to captain. He participated in the war with Mex
ico, being engaged in the defense of Fort Brown in May,
1 846; was wounded in storming the enemy's works at
Monterey, and received the brevet of major. In 1847 he
was tendered the commission of colonel, First North
Carolina volunteers, but declined it. Subsequently he
served in Missouri and Louisiana, took part in the Semi-
nole war of 1849-50, and was on frontier duty in Kansas,
Indian Territory, Arkansas and Dakota until he marched
with Johnston to Utah. In 1 860 he shared the march to
New Mexico; was stationed at Fort Craig, and was
promoted major of Fifth infantry in February, 1861.
While on a visit to Fort Smith, Ark., on April 23, 1861,
he was captured by the forces of the State, and released
on parole, after which he resigned his commission and
tendered his services to his native State. He was
appointed adjutant-general of the State, with the
rank of major-general of militia, and received the com
mission of colonel of infantry, in the regular army of
the Confederate States. Subsequently he was given
command of the Southern department, coast defense, with
headquarters at Wilmington, and being promoted briga
dier-general in August, 1 86 1, was assigned to command
of the department of North Carolina and the coast
defenses of the State. Very soon afterward Fort Hat-
teras was taken by the Federals, and he made energetic
preparations for the defense of New Bern. He located
his headquarters at Goldsboro in September, Gen.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 309

J. R. Anderson having charge under him of coast
defenses, and organized troops and prepared for
resisting invasion. Upon his suggestion an additional
coast district was formed and Gen. D. H. Hill put in
command. The exigencies of the service in other quar
ters prevented the sending of reinforcements, which he
repeatedly called for, and in March, 1862, New Bern
fell into the hands of the enemy. He was at this time
suffering from a severe illness, and on this account, on
March 19, 1862, was relieved from duty. In his final
report he stated that "we failed to make timely efforts
to maintain the ascendency on Pamlico sound, and thus
admitted Burnside's fleet without a contest; we failed
to put a proper force on Roanoke island, and thus lost
the key to our interior coast, and we failed to furnish
General Branch with a reasonable force, and thus lost
the important town of New Bern. What I claim is that
these failures do not by right rest with me." Being
advanced in years, he resigned in September, 1862, but
subsequently served as adjutant and inspector-general of
the State. After the close of hostilities he engaged in
farming in Sebastian county, Ark., until 1881, and then
made his residence at Fort Smith. He died at Mount
Nebo, September 8, 1896, at the age of eighty-seven
years and eight months.

Major-General Jeremy Francis Gilmer was born in
Guilford county, N. C., February 23, 1818. He was
graduated at the United States military academy in 1839,
number four in the class of which General Halleck was
third. Receiving a second lieutenancy of engineers, he
served in the military academy as assistant professor of
engineering till June, 1840, and then as assistant engineer
in building Fort Schuyler, New York harbor, until 1844,
after which he was assistant to the chief engineer at
Washington, D. C. , until 1846, with promotion to first
lieutenant in 1845. During the Mexican war he was

310 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

chief engineer of the army of the West in New Mexico,
constructing Fort Marcy at Santa Fe. He afterward
served at Washington, and was superintending engineer
of the repairs to various forts and the building of Forts
Jackson and Pulaski, Georgia, and of the improvement of
the Savannah river. In consideration of his continuous
service of fourteen years, he was promoted captain, July
i, 1853. After this, as a member of various commissions
of engineers, he was continually engaged in fortification
work, and the improvement of rivers throughout the
South until 1858. From that time he was in charge of
the construction of defenses at the entrance of San Fran
cisco bay until June 29, 1861, when he resigned to join
the Confederate States army. He was commissioned
lieu tenant- colonel, corps of engineers, C. S. A., in Sep
tember, 1 86 1, and was assigned to duty as chief engineer
of Department No. 2, on the staff of Gen. Albert Sidney
Johnston. He was present at Fort Henry at its sur
render, and rode to the front with General Johnston at
the opening of the battle of Shiloh. Here he was
severely wounded late on the second day. Subse
quently he was promoted to brigadier-general, and
on August 4, 1862, was made chief engineer of the
department of Northern Virginia. October 4, 1862, he
became chief of the engineer bureau of the Confederate
States war department. In 1863 he was promoted
major-general and assigned to duty as second in com
mand, in the department of South Carolina, Georgia and
Florida, in which capacity he rendered valuable services
in the defense of Charleston, and fortified Atlanta.
Subsequently he resumed his duties as chief engineer,
and so continued until the evacuation of Richmond.
After the war he engaged in railroad and other enter
prises in Georgia, and from 1867 to 1883 was president
and engineer of the Savannah gaslight company. He
died December i, 1883.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 311

Brigadier-General Archibald C. Godwin, though a
native of Norfolk county, Va. , was associated throughout
the war with the troops of North Carolina. Being
engaged in business in the latter State at the beginning
of hostilities, he entered the Confederate service there
and at first received a staff appointment. Afterward he
was commissioned colonel of the Fifty-seventh infantry,
with which he served in the vicinity of Richmond, Va. ,
during the Maryland campaign. His first battle was at
Fredericksburg, where his regiment formed a part of
E. M. Law's brigade, Hood's division. On December
1 3th, during the fighting on Hood's right, a considerable
force of the enemy defiled from the bank of Deep run,
and advanced upon Latimer's battery, driving in the
pickets and occupying the railroad cut. The Fifty-
seventh, supported by the Fifty-fourth, was ordered for
ward, and the Federals were driven back and pursued
some distance, after which the two regiments held the
railroad until dark. General Hood reported that it was
with much pleasure that he called attention to the gal
lant bearing of both officers and men of the Fifty-seventh,
Colonel Godwin commanding, in their charge on a
superior force of the enemy posted in a strong position.
In the Gettysburg campaign his regiment was attached
to Hoke's brigade, Early's division, Ewell's corps. He
participated in the defeat of Milroy at Winchester, and
the first day's battle at Gettysburg. Here Col. I. E.
Avery, commanding the brigade, was mortally wounded,
and was succeeded by Colonel Godwin, who retained
command during the retreat. He was in command of
three regiments of the brigade, the Sixth, Fifty-fourth
and Fifty-seventh, during the disastrous affair at Rap-
pahannock Station, November 7, 1863, and was sent
across the river to occupy a tete-du-pont, in support of
Hays' brigade. They were soon assailed by overwhelm
ing numbers. Hays gave way, and Godwin soon found
himself cut off from the bridge and completely sur-

312 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

rounded. General Early reported that Colonel Godwin
continued to struggle, forming successive lines as he was
pushed back, and did not for a moment dream of sur
render ; but on the contrary, when his men had dwindled
to sixty or seventy, the rest having been captured, killed
or wounded, or lost in the darkness, and he was com
pletely surrounded by the enemy, who were in fact
mixed up with his men, some one cried out that Colonel
Godwin's order was for them to surrender, and he imme
diately called for the man who made the declaration, and
threatened to blow his brains out if he could find him,
declaring his purpose to fight to the last moment, and
calling upon his men to stand by him. He was literally
overpowered by force of numbers, and taken with his
arms in his hands. These facts, said Early, were learned
from Captain Adams, of Godwin's staff, who managed to
make his escape after being captured, by swimming the
river almost naked. They were in accordance with the
character of Colonel Godwin, and General Early asked
that a special effort be made to secure the exchange of
the gallant officer. After returning to the army he was
promoted brigadier-general in August, 1864, and
assigned to the command of his old brigade, now mus
tering about 800 men. He participated in the Shenan-
doah campaign under Early, until he fell, nobly doing
his duty, in the fatal battle of Winchester, September 19,
1864.

Brigadier- General James B. Gordon was born Novem
ber 2, 1822, at Wilkesboro, Wilkes county, N. C., where his
ancestors had made their home for four generations
since the coming of John George Gordon from Scotland
about the year 1724. In childhood he attended the
school of Peter S. Ney, in Iredell county, afterward
studied at Emory and Henry college, Va., and then
engaged in mercantile business at his native town. He
was. a leader in local politics and sat in the legislature in

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 313

1850. At the first organization of troops in 1861 he
became a lieutenant in the Wilkes county guards, which
became Company B of the First regiment, State troops,
with Gordon as captain. Soon afterward he was com
missioned major of the First cavalry, and went to the
front in Virginia, where the regiment under command of
Col. Robert Ransom was assigned to the brigade of Gen.
J. E. B. Stuart. On November 26, 1861, he gallantly
led the charge in the first encounter of his regiment
with the Federal cavalry, which was also the first
engagement of Stuart's brigade with the same arm of the
enemy, and was entirely successful. Thereafter he was
among the foremost in every fight, and was frequently
commended for bravery in the reports of Stuart. In the
spring of 1862 he was promoted lieutenant- colonel of his
regiment, which was assigned to Wade Hampton's bri
gade. He commanded the detachment which took part
in Hampton's raid on Dumfries in December, and in the
spring of 1863 was commissioned colonel. In the fight
at Hagerstown during the retreat from Gettysburg, a
charge of the enemy was gallantly met and repulsed by
Gordon with a fragment of the Fifth cavalry, "that
officer exhibiting under my eye individual prowess deserv
ing special commendation," Stuart reported. In Sep
tember, 1863, he was promoted brigadier-general and
assigned to command of the North Carolina cavalry bri
gade, with which he defeated the enemy at Bethsaida
church October loth, and at Culpeper Court House,
and took a prominent part in the fight at Auburn, where
Colonel Ruffin was killed and he was painfully wounded,
but "continued, by his brave example and marked ability,
to control the field, ' ' and two days after commanded in
a fight on Bull run. He led the center in the "Buck-
land races," driving Kilpatrick before him, and during
the Mine Run campaign took an active part, his horse
being shot under him at Parker's store. In the memor
able campaign of May, 1864, Gordon's outposts were the

Nc 40

314 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

first to meet the enemy as he crossed the Rapidan, and
he fought against Grant's army until the battle lines
were drawn at Spottsylvania, when the cavalry hastened
to cut off Sheridan's raid upon Richmond. On the nth
Stuart fell at Yellow Tavern, and Gordon, having
defeated the enemy at Ground Squirrel church on the
loth, sustained the attack of Sheridan's corps in force at
Meadow bridge in sight of Richmond, May i2th. He
fought with reckless daring, inspiring his men to such
exertions that they held the enemy in check until rein
forcements could come up. The capital was saved, but
the gallant Gordon was borne from the field mortally
wounded. On May i8th he died in hospital at Richmond,
deeply lamented by the army.

Major- General Bryan Grimes was born at Grimesland,
Pitt county, N. C., November 2, 1828, the youngest son
of Bryan and Nancy Grimes. He was graduated at the
university of North Carolina in 1848, then made his
home upon a plantation in Pitt county, and in April,
1851, was married to Elizabeth Hilliard, daughter of Dr.
Thomas Davis, of Franklin county. This lady died a few
years later, and in 1860 he traveled in Europe, but
returned home soon after the national election. He hast
ened to the scene of conflict at Fort Sumter as soon as he
heard of the bombardment, and then visited Pensacola
and New Orleans, returning to take a seat in the conven
tion of his State which adopted the ordinance of secession.
In the latter part of May he resigned his seat in this body
and accepted appointment as major of the Fourth
infantry regiment, in organization at Garysburg under
Col. George B. Anderson. He reached Virginia after
the battle of First Manassas; May i, 1862, was promoted
lieutenant-colonel, and thereafter commanded his regi
ment with promotion to colonel June ipth. At Seven
Pines every officer of the regiment but himself, and 462
out of 520 men, were killed or wounded. His horse's

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 315

head was blown off by a shell, and the animal fell upon
him, but he waved his sword and shouted, "Forward!"
and when released from his painful position, seized the
regimental flag and led his men in their successful
charge. At Mechanicsville the remnant of the command
was again distinguished. At this time General Ander
son declared, "Colonel Grimes and his regiment are the
keystone of my brigade. ' ' He was disabled by typhoid
fever until the Maryland campaign, and as he went into
that his leg was so injured by the kick of a horse that
amputation was considered^ necessary ; but nevertheless
he took the field at Sharpsburg, and another horse was
killed under him, the third of the seven which he thus
lost during his career. General Anderson was mortally
wounded in this battle, and in November Grimes was
assigned to temporary command of the brigade, which
he led at the battle of Fredericksburg. At Chancellors-
ville he and his regiment were distinguished on all three
days of battle, on the third driving the enemy from their
breastworks at the point of the bayonet, but at the cost
of many lives. In this fight the gallant colonel again
narrowly escaped death. In the Pennsylvania cam
paign he and his men were in the advance of E well's
corps, and on picket eight miles from Harrisburg ; and at
Gettysburg on the first day they were the first to enter
the village and drive the enemy to the heights beyond,
only pausing in obedience to orders. During the retreat
from Pennsylvania he served efficiently on the rear
guard. At Spottsylvania Court House, after General
Ramseur was wounded, he led the brigade in an impet
uous charge which recovered much of the ground gained
by Hancock at the "bloody angle," in recognition of
which General Lee told the brigade "they deserved the
thanks of the country — they had saved his army. " Gen
eral Daniel having been mortally wounded in this fight,
Colonel Grimes was put in command of his brigade. On
May 1 9th, after he had made an effective fight in a flank

316 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

movement upon the enemy, General Rodes declared:
"You have saved E well's corps, and shall be promoted,
and your commission shall bear date from this day."
This promise was fulfilled early in June, and soon after
ward he took his men to the Shenandoah valley, and
joined in the movement through Maryland to Washington.
In the fall campaign in the valley, though in impaired
health, he did his duty gallantly and desperately
against the overwhelming numbers of the Federals, and
had many remarkable escapes from death or capture.
When Ramseur fell at Cedar Creek, he took command of
the division, which he held until the end, being pro
moted major-general in February, 1865. In spite of
their terrible reverses, he infused such spirit in his men
that they were able to rout 4,000 Federal cavalry at
Rude's hill, November 226.. In the spring of 1865 he
fought in the Petersburg trenches, and participated with
great gallantry in the fight at Fort Stedman, in which
he rode, a captured horse, and was a conspicuous target to
the enemy, but still seemed to bear a charmed life.
When his line was broken April 2d, he rushed down his
line on foot, and seizing a musket joined in the fire upon
the enemy, until his troops, encouraged by his coolness,
were able to recover the greater part of their lines. Dur
ing the retreat from Petersburg he was almost constantly
in battle; at Sailor's Creek saved himself by riding his
horse through the stream and up the precipitous banks
amid a shower of bullets, and on the next day led his
division in a splendid charge which captured the guns
taken from Mahone and many Federal prisoners, winning
the compliments of General Lee. Bushrod Johnson's
division was now added to his command, and on April
9th the other two divisions of the corps, Evans' and
Walker's, were put under his command, he having vol
unteered to make the attack to clear the road toward
Lynchburg. He was successful in driving the enemy
.from his front, but after receiving repeated orders to

Brig.-Gen. WM. McRAE. Brig.-Gen. L. O'B. BRANCH.

Maj.-Gen. W. I). FENDER. Brig.-Gen. ROBERT B. VANCE. Maj.-Gen. ROBT. F. HOKE.

Brig.-Gen. WM. P. ROBERTS. Brig.-Gen. A. C. GODWIN. Maj.-Gen. W. H. C. WHITING.

Maj.-Gen. MATT. W. RANSOM. Brig.-Gen. THOS. F. TOON.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 317

withdraw fell back to his original line, and was then
informed of the proposed surrender. At first refusing
to submit to this, he was about to call upon his men to cut
their way out, when General Gordon reminded him of
the interpretation which might be put upon such action
during a truce, and he was compelled by his sense of
honor to acquiesce. As an estimate of his character as a
soldier, the words of Gen. D. H. Hill in March, 1863, are
exact and comprehensive : "He has been in many pitched
battles and has behaved most gallantly in them all. His
gallantry, ripe experience, admirable training, intelli
gence and moral worth constitute strong claims for pro
motion." After the close of hostilities he returned to his
plantation. He had married in 1863, Charlotte Emily,
daughter of Hon. John B. Bryan, of Raleigh, and sev
eral children were born to them. His life went on in
quiet and honor until August 14, 1880, when he was shot
by an assassin and almost instantly killed.

Major-General Robert F. Hoke was born at Lincoln-
ton, N. C., May 27, 1837, and was educated at the Ken
tucky military institute. He entered the military serv
ice of the State in April, 1861, as a member of Company
K, of the First regiment, was immediately commissioned
second lieutenant, and as captain was commended for
"coolness, judgment and efficiency" in D. H. Hill's
report of the battle of Big Bethel. In September he
became major of this regiment. At the reorganization
he was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of the Thirty-
third regiment, Col. C. M. Avery. He had command of
five companies at the battle of New Bern, March 14,
1862, and was distinguished for gallantry. The colonel
being captured here, he subsequently had command of
the regiment, and in that capacity participated with
Branch's brigade in the Virginia battles of Hanover
Court House, Mechanicsville, Games' Mill, Frayser's
Farm and Malvern Hill. With promotion to colonel he

318 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

took part in the campaigns of Second Manassas and
Sharpsburg. On the return of Colonel Avery to his
regiment, Colonel Hoke was assigned to the command of
the Twenty-first regiment of Trimble's brigade, Early 's
division. This brigade he commanded in the battle of
Fredericksburg, and won the unstinted praises of Early
and Jackson by the prompt and vigorous manner in
which he drove back Meade's troops after they had
broken the Confederate right. He pursued the enemy,
capturing 300 prisoners, until he found himself exposed
to a flank attack, when he retired in good order, leav
ing part of his command to hold the railroad cut from
which the Federals had been ousted. In January follow
ing he was promoted brigadier-general and assigned to
the command of Trimble's brigade, including the Sixth,
Twenty-first, Fifty-fourth, Fifty-seventh North Carolina
regiments and the First battalion. During the battle of
Chancellorsville he fought at Fredericksburg, where he
was wounded May 4th, so seriously as to prevent his par
ticipation in the Pennsylvania and Rappahannock cam
paigns. In January, 1864, he reported to General Pickett
at Petersburg, where his brigade was sent, and for
warded to North Carolina. In the latter part of the
month he organized the movement against New Bern
from Kinston. At the head of one column he successfully
surprised and captured the enemy's outposts, and
defeated the troops which were thrown against him, but
on account of the delay of the other column, was unable
to reduce the post. On April i ;th, in command of the
Confederate forces, he attacked the Federal forts at
Plymouth, and vigorously pushed the assaults, aided by
the ram Albemarle against the enemy's gunboats, until
the garrison of 3,000 men was surrendered April 2oth.
For this brilliant achievement, which was of great value
in moral effect at this critical period in the war, Congress
voted him a resolution of thanks, and he was promoted
major-general, the commission bearing the date of his vie-

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 319

tory. General Lee wrote to President Davis: "I am very
glad of General Hoke's promotion, though sorry to lose
him, unless he can be sent to me with a division. ' ' Now,
Petersburg and Richmond being threatened by Butler,
he was called to that field, and joining Beauregard May
loth, was put in command of the six brigades sent for
ward to Drewry's bluff. Upon the further organization
of the hastily-collected army he had charge of one of the
three divisions, the front line being composed of his divi
sion and Ransom's. In the battle of May i6th he
handled his command with resolution and judgment, one
of his brigades, Hagood's, capturing five pieces of artil
lery. At Cold Harbor he held one of the most important
parts of the Confederate line with his division, repelling
repeated furious assaults, and again before Petersburg
fought in the battles of June. From the Petersburg
trenches he moved in December with his division to Wil
mington to confront Butler, who was frightened away
from Fort Fisher by part of his command. After the
landing of the second expedition under Terry, he
advanced his two brigades and drove in the enemy's
pickets, and according to the accounts of the Federal
officers, might have relieved Fort Fisher had he not been
ordered back by General Bragg. He subsequently
opposed the advance of Cox from New Bern. On March
8th, while wading a swamp, his column was suddenly
met by a fire from the enemy, when he displayed his
presence of mind by ordering his officers to "make all
the men cheer. ' ' By his coolness, what might have been
a disaster to his own division was converted into a defeat
of the enemy. Moving on Bragg' s right flank he vigor
ously assailed the enemy on the loth, and on the ipth, in
the battle of Bentonville, his division sustained gallantly
and hurled back the heaviest attack of the Federals. On
the 2oth, Sherman's whole army being up, the attacks
were renewed, mainly on Hoke's division, but were
repulsed on every occasion. His services and those of

320 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

his men at this famous battle are among the most illus
trious examples of Confederate generalship and valor in
the whole course of the war. As General Hampton has
said : * * Bragg, by reason of his rank, was in command of
this division, but it was really Hoke's division, and Hoke
directed the fighting." On May ist General Hoke
issued a farewell address to his division, in the course of
which he said : * * You are paroled prisoners, not slaves.
The love of liberty which led you into the contest burns
as brightly in your hearts as ever. Cherish it. Asso
ciate it with the history of your past. Transmit it to
your children. Teach them the rights of freemen and
teach them to maintain them. Teach them the proudest
day in all your proud career was that on which you
enlisted as Southern soldiers." Upon the return of
peace he devoted himself to the development of the
material resources of the State, becoming the principal
owner of the Chapel Hill iron mine, and obtaining a
large interest in the Cranberry iron mine, in Mitchell
county.

Brigadier-General Robert D. Johnston, of North Caro
lina, at the time of the secession of his State, was second
lieutenant in the Beattie's Ford rifles, State troops. He
entered the Confederate service as captain of Company K,
Twenty- third North Carolina infantry, July 15, 1861.
His regiment was on the peninsula during 1861 and the
spring of 1862, and participated in the battle of Williams-
burg. On May 21, 1862, he was promoted to the rank of
lieutenant-colonel. He was wounded at Seven Pines
while gallantly leading his men, and at South Mountain
and Sharpsburg fought with conspicuous bravery in
Garland's brigade. In describing the fighting on his
part of the field near the center of the Confederate line
at Sharpsburg, Gen. D. H. Hill reported the fact that
the Twenty- third North Carolina was brought off by "the
gallant Lieutenant-Colonel Johnston" and put in posi-

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 321

tion in the sunken road, and he especially commended
Johnston among the officers distinguished on that bloody
field. At Chancellorsville, when Major Rowe, leading
the Twelfth North Carolina, was killed, Lieutenant-Col
onel Johnston took command of that regiment. This
regiment and the Twenty-third were both in Rodes' gal
lant division, which was in the front of Jackson's brilliant
flank attack. In this battle the North Carolinians under
Johnston captured a stand of the enemy's colors. After
Gettysburg Johnston was promoted to the rank of brig
adier-general, to date September i, 1863, and assigned to
the command of his brigade, formerly led by Samuel
Garland and D. K. McRae. It was composed of the
Fifth, Twelfth, Twentieth and Twenty-third regiments
and Second battalion of North Carolina infantry. This
command fought under its gallant leader in the battles of
the Wilderness and Spot tsyl van ia, at which latter battle
General Johnston received a severe wound. He was
again in command during the valley campaign under
Early, participating in the series of severe battles which
ended with that of Cedar Creek, a victory in the morn
ing, a defeat in the afternoon. He was with his men in
the subsequent weary winter, watching and fighting in
the trenches around Petersburg, and was included in
the surrender at Appomattox. After the close of hostil
ities General Johnston practiced law at Charlotte for
twenty years from 1867 as a partner of Col. H. C. Jones.

Brigadier-General W. W. Kirkland, as colonel of the
Eleventh North Carolina volunteers, known later as the
Twenty-first regiment, reached the field in Virginia in
time to participate in the affair at Mitchell's ford on Bull
run, with Bonham's brigade, on July 18, 1861. On the
memorable 2ist of July he was field oificer of the day for
the brigade, and at 2:30 a. m. brought to General Bon-
ham information of the approach of the enemy toward
the stone bridge. His regiment manfully sustained a

Nc 41

322 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

heavy fire through the day, and at 3 p. m. assisted in the
pursuit of the enemy. Subsequently he was assigned to
the brigade of Col. Jubal A. Early, and later to that of
General Trimble, and with General E well's division par
ticipated in the Shenandoah valley campaign of 1862.
Trimble's command opened the attack on Winchester,
May 25th, and Kirkland and his regiment gallantly
dashed into the western part of the town, driving in the
pickets, and was for a time exposed to murderous fire
from a Federal regiment posted behind a stone wall, in
which Colonel Kirkland was wounded, and a large num
ber of officers and privates were killed or disabled. His
wound kept him from service with his regiment until the
Gettysburg campaign, when he resumed command, the
brigade then being under command of Gen. R. F. Hoke,
and temporarily under Col. I. E. Avery, and participated
in the desperate fighting of July ist and 2d. In August,
1863, he was promoted to brigadier-general, and on Sep
tember yth was assigned to command of General Petti-
grew's old brigade of Heth's division, A. P. Hill's corps,
consisting of the Eleventh, Twenty-sixth, Forty-fourth,
Forty-seventh and Fifty-second North Carolina regi
ments. With this command he took a gallant part in the
battle of Bristoe, October i/j.th, where the North Caro
linians suffered heavily in a hasty attack upon largely
superior forces of the enemy, and he fell severely
wounded. His gallantry was commended in the reports
of Heth and Hill. But he was incapacitated from fur
ther active duty for nearly a year, General MacRae
taking his place until August, 1864, when he was
assigned to the command of the North Carolina brigade
of Hoke's division, formerly commanded by General Mar
tin. He served with Longstreet north of the James river,
before Richmond, participating in the attack on Fort
Harrison and other engagements. His brigade was one
of the best disciplined on the line, and was compli
mented by General Lee for the fine appearance of its

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 323

camp and defenses. Being transferred to Wilmington
late in December, he advanced to the relief of Fort
Fisher, and with two regiments held in check the advance
of Butler's forces, by his spirited action persuading that
commander that a large body of Confederates was before
him. Butler abandoned the attack, but it was renewed
under Gilmore, when Kirkland again at the front skir
mished with the enemy near Sugar Loaf, but was with
drawn by Bragg. During the retreat to Wilmington he
commanded the rear guard, was engaged at Northeast
river, and subsequently took a prominent and dashing
part in the fighting at Wise's Fork against the enemy
under Gen. J. D. Cox. At Bentonville the steadfastness
of Kirkland and his brigade contributed materially to the
failure of Sherman's attempt to break the Confederate
line. It is related that during the battle, Johnston in
quired who was responsible for heavy firing then going
on at the moment, and was told that the enemy was at
tacking Kirkland's brigade. Turning to Hardee, John
ston said, * * I am glad of it. I would rather they would
attack Kirkland than any one else. ' ' The military career
of this gallant officer ended with the surrender at Greens
boro.

Brigadier- General James H. Lane was born at Matthews
Court House, Va., the son of Col. Walter G. and Mary
A. H. (Barkwell) Lane. He was one of the two "star
graduates" of his class at the Virginia military institute,
and afterward pursued a scientific course at the university
of Virginia. After serving on the hydrographic survey of
York river, he was appointed assistant professor of math
ematics and tactics at the Virginia military institute, and
later professor of those branches at the Florida State
seminary. At the time of the formation of the Confed
erate States government he was professor of natural
philosophy in the North Carolina military institute at
Charlotte. With the other officers of the college he

324 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

offered his services to the State He acted as drill-
master and adjutant in the first camp of instruction near
Raleigh, where he was elected major of the First North
Carolina volunteers, Col. D. H. Hill. His first service
was on the Virginia peninsula, where on July 8th, with a
detachment composed of the Buncombe riflemen and
one gun of the Richmond howitzers, he attacked and
chased a marauding party across New Market bridge in
full view of Old Point and Hampton, becoming respons
ible, as Colonel Hill publicly declared at the time, for
the subsequent affair at Big Bethel. In that encounter
he served in the salient before which Major Winthrop
was killed. His regiment here earned the title of the
4 'Bethel" regiment, and he was dubbed the "Little
Major" and elected lieutenant-colonel when Hill was
promoted. Not long afterward he was elected colonel of
the Twenty-eighth North Carolina regiment, which he re
organized for the war, before the passage of the conscript
acts. He was then again unanimously elected colonel,
and at inspection near Kinston his command was compli
mented by General Holmes for being the first of the
twelve months' regiments to re-enlist for the war. He
commanded his regiment at Hanover Court House when
it was cut off by the overwhelming force under Fitz
John Porter, and was praised by Generals Lee and Branch
for the gallantry of the fight and the masterly extrica
tion from disaster. At Cold Harbor he was wounded at
the same time that the noble Campbell fell in front of his
regiment, colors in hand, and at Frayser's Farm he received
an ugly and painful wound in the face while charging a
battery, but refused to leave the field. At Sharpsburg,
when the brigade under Branch was hastening to the left,
Lane and his regiment were detached by A. P. Hill and
sent into the fight to support a battery and drive back
the enemy. About dark Lane received an order from
Branch to join the brigade, and when coming up met
Major Engelhard, who, in response to an inquiry as to

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 325

where General Branch could be found, replied in a voice
choked with emotion: "He has just been shot; there he
goes on that stretcher, dead, and you are in command of
the brigade." Two days after, Lane's brigade, with
Gregg's and Archer's, constituted the rear guard of the
army in crossing the Potomac. The brigade hailed with
delight Lane's promotion to brigadier-general, which
occurred November T, 1862, christened him their "Little
General," and presented him a fine sash, sword, saddle
and bridle. He was at this time twenty-seven years old.
In his last battle under Stonewall Jackson, Chancellors-
ville, he and his North Carolinians fought with gallantry
and devotion. At Gettysburg he participated in the first
shock of battle on July ist, and on the 3d his brigade
and Scales' formed the division which Trimble led up
Cemetery hill. In this bloody sacrifice half his men
were killed or wounded, and his horse was killed under
him. Subsequently he was in command of the light
division until the i2th, when it was consolidated with
Heth's. During 1864 he was in battle from the Rapidan
to Cold Harbor. At Spottsylvania Court House, at the
critical moment when Hancock, having overrun the
famous angle and captured Johnson's division, was about
to advance through this break in the Confederate line,
Lane's brigade, stationed immediately on the right of
the angle, rapidly drew back to an unfinished earthwork,
in which he flung two of his regiments, while the other
three were posted behind them to load and pass up rifles
to the front line. Thus a terrible fire was opened upon
the Federals, which checked their triumph and permitted
Gordon's and other divisions to arrive in time to hold
the line. At Cold Harbor General Lane received a pain
ful wound in the groin which disabled him for some
time, but he was with his brigade at Appomattox. After
the surrender he made his way, penniless, to his child
hood home, and found his parents ruined in fortune and
crushed in spirit by the loss of two brave sons, members

326 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

of their brother's staff. He worked here until he could
borrow $150 to assist him in search of other employ
ment. Since then he has been prominently associated
with educational work in the South, serving eight years
as commandant of cadets and professor of natural phi
losophy in the Virginia agricultural and mechanical col
lege ; for a short time as professor of mathematics in the
school of mines of the Missouri State university, and for
a long time with the Alabama agricultural and mechan
ical college, first acting as commandant, as well as pro
fessor of civil engineering and drawing, the chair he still
holds. He has received the degrees of Ph. D. , from the
university of West Virginia, and LL. D., from Trinity
college, North Carolina. At the first interment of Pres
ident Davis he was one of the three guards of honor.
General Lane married Charlotte Randolph Meade, of
Richmond, who died several years ago, leaving four
daughters.

Brigadier- General Collett Leventhorpe was born May
15, 1815, at Exmouth, Devonshire, England, where his
parents were then temporarily residing. He was
descended from an ancient and knightly family of Leven
thorpe hall, Yorkshire, who settled in Hertfordshire dur
ing the reign of Richard II, and were created baronets by
James I. One ancestor was an executor of Henry V,
and another married Dorothy, sister of Jane Seymour,
third wife of Henry VIII. General Leventhorpe derived
his Christian name from his mother, Mary Collett, a
descendant of a brother of the first lord of Suffield. He
was educated at Winchester college, and at the age of
seventeen was commissioned ensign in the Fourteenth
regiment of foot, by William IV. He was promoted
captain of grenadiers, served three years in Ireland,
several years in the West Indies, and a year in Canada.
In 1842 he disposed of his commission, returned to Eng
land, and thence came to the United States and settled in

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 327

North Carolina, where his high character and many
accomplishments soon made him popular and prominent
In 1849 he married Louisa, second daughter of Gen.
Edmund Bryan, of Rutherfordton, N. C., and during
the following years he became thoroughly identified
with the interests of his adopted State. When North
Carolina joined in the Confederate movement he offered
her his military services, and upon the organization of
the Thirty-fourth regiment was unanimously chosen its
first colonel, in November, 1861. He soon brought his
regiment to such a remarkable state of discipline and
training, that in the latter part of December he was
given command of a brigade, including the Thirty-third,
Thirty-fourth, Thirty- seventh and part of a new regi
ment, at Raleigh. April 2, 1862, he was elected colonel of
the Eleventh, formerly First or "Bethel" regiment, and
at Wilmington was put in charge of a brigade, composed
of his regiment and the Forty-third and Fifty-first, and
Moore's horse artillery, to which two more regiments
were added later. He remained in command of the dis
trict of Wilmington until September, when General
Clingman was assigned, but on account of the prevalence
of yellow fever, Colonel Leventhorpe was left in charge
until he was ordered with his brigade to the Blackwater,
where he was on duty some time, defending a line of
twenty-six miles. His admirable disposition of troops
and active defensive operations prevented any Federal
success in that quarter. General Pryor relieved him in
December, but kept Leventhorpe in command in the
field. Early in January, 1863, returning into North Car
olina, he fought the battle of White Hall, and won a bril
liant victory. At this time his regiment was reported as
the best drilled in the service, and received many com
pliments. In all drilling contests the Eleventh North
Carolina was barred, a tribute to its superiority. He
participated in the siege of Washington in the spring of
1863, defeating an attack by the enemy April pth, at

328 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Blotmt's mill. Then with his regiment he joined the
army of Northern Virginia, and fought at Gettysburg in
Pettigrew's brigade of Heth's division. In the fierce
battle of the first day he was a conspicuous figure and fell
severely wounded, and thus was prevented from taking
part in the desperate charge of the 3d of July, in which
his regiment was among the bravest of the heroes of
Pettigrew's division. During the retreat he was cap
tured, and it became necessary to cauterize his wound
with nitric acid, an operation to which he submitted,
without recourse to anesthetics. After an imprisonment
of nearly nine months he was exchanged from Point
Lookout. He then accepted from General Vance a com
mission as brigadier-general of State troops, and com
mand of a large body of Confederate troops. He cleared
the enemy from the Roanoke river, and defended that
important line of communication, the Weldon railroad.
In February, 1865, ne was commissioned brigadier-gen
eral in the Confederate army, and in this rank he served
with Johnston's army until the surrender. After the
close of hostilities he devoted himself to various business
enterprises, made several journeys to England, resided in
New York for some time, but finally returned to the
valley of the Yadkin, where he remained until his death,
December i, 1889. General Leventhorpe was a notably
handsome man, nearly six and a half feet in height, erect
and stately in bearing, and gentle as well as brave. He
was faithfully devoted to the South, and the rank he
attained, considering his natural aversion to self-aggran
dizement, does not adequately measure the value of his
services.

Brigadier- General William G. Lewis, of North Caro
lina, began his service in the Confederate army as third
lieutenant of Company A, First North Carolina infantry,
April 21, 1 86 1. By the close of the year he had shown such
efficiency as an officer that we find him on January 17,

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 329

1862, major of the Thirty- third North Carolina, and be
fore the active campaign of 1862 had fairly begun, lieu
tenant-colonel of the Forty-third North Carolina infantry,
April 25, 1862. In the Gettysburg campaign this regi
ment was in the brigade of Gen. Junius Daniel, of Rodes'
division and Ewell's corps. On June 10, 1863, Ewell's
corps left Brandy Station, and two days later reached
Cedarville, whence Ewell sent Rodes and Jenkins to
capture Martinsburg, while he with Early 's and Edward
Johnson's divisions marched directly upon Winchester.
On June i4th Ewell captured Winchester and Rodes cap
tured Martinsburg. The valley was thus cleared of Fed
eral troops, 4,000 of whom were captured. Immense
supplies were the spoils of the Confederates, who marched
on and crossed the Potomac. In his report of the battle
of Gettysburg, Gen. Junius Daniel, after giving an account
of the part acted by his brigade, makes special mention
of Lieut. -Col. W. G. Lewis among others, and adds,
"These officers all acted with bravery and coolness, as did
all my officers and men whose conduct came under my
observation, but the above were more conspicuous than
the rest. " Lewis participated with credit in the siege
and capture of Plymouth, N. C., in April, 1864, winning
promotion to colonel, and then, being ordered to Peters
burg, won the rank of brigadier-general in Beaure-
gard's campaign against Butler. Here he was in com
mand of Hoke's old brigade, the Sixth, Twenty-first,
Fifty-fourth and Fifty-seventh North Carolina regi
ments and First battalion, which was . assigned to the
division of Gen. Robert Ransom. The latter, in his
report of the battle of Drewry's bluff, May i6th, said that
after they had gained the enemy's outer works, and were
in confusion in the midst of a dense fog, a sudden assault
was delivered by the Federals, driving back the left of
Hoke's division. Though ammunition was almost ex
hausted, "Colonel Lewis was ordered to throw the only
regiment he had in hand at double-quick" to the point

Nc 42

330 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

of danger, "which was handsomely done, and he engaged
the enemy long enough to allow Colquitt's brigade, of the
reserve, to arrive. " In command of his brigade, assigned
to Ramseur's division, General Lewis participated in
Early's victorious march down the Shenandoah valley
and through Maryland to Washington, and in the hard
battles with Sheridan in the valley, during the remainder
of 1864, and then returning to Richmond and Petersburg
was on duty there until the retreat westward. In a des
perate fight of the rear guard at Farmville, April yth, he
was severely wounded and taken prisoner. This gallant
officer participated in thirty-seven battles and heavy
skirmishes. His life since the war has been one of activity
and honor. He has served as State engineer thirteen
years, and at present is chief engineer of the Albany &
Raleigh railroad, with his residence at Goldsboro.

Brigadier-General William MacRae was born at Wil
mington, N. C., September 9, 1834, the son of Gen.
Alexander MacRae, whose wife was the daughter of
Zilpah McClammy. His family was descended from the
clan MacRae, of Rosshire, Scotland, whose valor is
recorded in the history of many famous wars, from the
Crusades to Waterloo. He was educated for the profes
sion of civil engineering, in which he was occupied at
Monroe when the crisis arrived between the North and
South. He at once enlisted as a private in the Monroe
light infantry, and was elected captain when it became
Company B, Fifteenth infantry. In April, 1862, he was
promoted lieutenant-colonel ; in February, 1863, colonel,
and in 1864 was commissioned brigadier-general. In the
peninsular campaign in Virginia and at Second Manassas
his regiment was a part of Howell Cobb's brigade, first
under the division command of Magruder and later of
McLaws. At Sharpsburg he commanded the brigade,
reduced to 250 men, repelled three assaults of the enemy,
and fell back when he had but 50 men left and the am-

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 331

munition was exhausted. At Fredericksburg he fought
with his regiment at Marye's hill. Immediately after
this battle the Fifteenth was transferred to J. R. Cooke's
North Carolina brigade, with which he served in his native
State and southeast Virginia until after the Pennsylvania
campaign. Rejoining the army of Northern Virginia,
he was distinguished for valor at the battle of Bristoe
Station. After General Kirkland was wounded at Cold
Harbor, 1864, Colonel MacRae, with the temporary rank
of brigadier-general, was assigned to the command of that
brigade, General Pettigrew's old command, and he proved
a fit leader for the heroes which composed it. He was
identified with the record of Hill's Third army corps dur
ing the Richmond campaign, among the bravest of the
brave. At Reams' Station, August 25, 1864, the brigade
under his command, in line with Lane and Cooke, advanced
at double-quick without firing a gun, drove Hancock's
corps from its intrenchments in their front, and captured
a Federal battery which was fought with valor equal to
that of its assailants. It may be said that the success of
this assault was largely due to the keenness of General
MacRae in selecting the moment to strike without wait
ing for orders. At Burgess' Mill, October 27, 1864, he
displayed remarkable coolness and gallantry. Having
advanced against the enemy, broken his line and captured
a battery, he was left unsupported while the Federals
closed about him. In this predicament he drew back his
flanks and kept up a desperate fight, holding the enemy
at bay until night approached, when he cut his way back
through the Federal lines partly formed in his rear. He
was with the army to the end at Appomattox, and then
returned to his native State, penniless, but enshrined in
the hearts of his countrymen. He had not gained high
rank speedily during his service, but his ability, as well
as his modesty, was recognized by General Lee as well
as by the people, and it was generally understood that a
major-general's commission would in a measure have

332 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

rewarded his services if the war had not come to a sudden
close. In civil life, during the years of peace which fol
lowed, he was conspicuous as general superintendent of
the Wilmington & Manchester railroad, later of the
Macon & Brunswick, and finally of the State road of
Georgia, now known as the Western & Atlantic, His
intense application to the duties of these positions wrecked
his strength, and he died at Augusta, Ga., February n,
1882, at the age of forty-seven years.

Brigadier-General James Green Martin was born at
Elizabeth City, N. C., February 14, 1819. He was gradu
ated at the United States military academy in 1840, num
ber fourteen in the class of which Richard S. Ewell was
thirteenth, and George H. Thomas twelfth. With promo
tion to a lieutenancy in the artillery, he served mainly on
the northern coast, on the Maine frontier, and in the coast
survey, until he went into the war with Mexico, where
he participated in the battles of Monterey, Vera Cruz,
Cerro Gordo, Contreras and Churubusco, in the latter
losing his right arm. He had previously been promoted
captain of staff, and was breve tted major. At the out
break of the war of 1861, he was on staff duty at Fort
Riley. Resigning June 14, 1861, he offered his services
to North Carolina, was commissioned captain of cavalry,
C. S. A. , and appointed adjutant-general of the State, a
position in which he rendered valuable service in the
organization and equipment of troops. At his sugges
tion, blockade-running ships were first employed to bring
supplies from Europe. On September 28, 1861, he was
appointed commander-in-chief of the State forces, with
the rank of major-general of militia. With due appreci
ation of the gravity of the struggle, he raised 12,000 more
men than his State's quota, which were found of great
service when hastily called into the field in Virginia when
McClellan made his advance from Yorktown. After
General Martin had completed this work he applied for

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 333

duty in the field, and in May, 1862, was promoted briga
dier-general in the provisional army, Confederate States.
In August, 1862, he was given command of the district
of North Carolina, with headquarters at Kinston. In the
fall of 1863 he was directed to organize a brigade from
the troops at his disposal and take the field. With this
brigade, composed of the Seventeenth, Forty-second,
Fiftieth and Sixty-sixth regiments, he went into camp
near Wilmington and soon had as well-drilled and equip
ped a command as the Confederate army possessed.
When Pickett made his demonstration against New Bern
in February, 1864, Martin successfully attacked and
drove the Federals from Newport. When the campaign
of 1864 opened in Virginia he was called to Petersburg,
and reaching there May i4th, was first in the field under
Whiting. D. H. Hill was in command of the division
May 2oth, and Martin and his brigade won distinction by
their gallant charge, driving the enemy from the works
in their front. After this battle of Howlett's House, his
men carried him around on their shoulders, shouting:
' 'Three cheers for Old One Wing," much to the surprise
of the gallant officer, whose stern discipline had not been
calculated to inspire affection. After this Martin was
the object of the warm admiration of his men. The bri
gade now was assigned to Hoke's division, and rein
forced Lee at Turkey ridge, where they gallantly repulsed
the enemy's assaults on June 3d, and for about ten days
afterward were engaged in a sharpshooting fight along
the line. Lee, believing Grant would make another
attack, informed Martin that he held the key to the Con
federate position, and asked if his troops, comparatively
new, could be relied upon. Martin promptly responded
that his men were as good as veterans, but that he
thought he should be transferred to the south of the
James, as he believed Grant would attack Richmond
from the rear. This opinion was soon verified, and
Martin's brigade being hastily transferred to Petersburg,

334 CONFEDERA TE MILITARY HISTORY.

marched out where there was not a Confederate line be
tween that city and the enemy. In the famous battles
of June before Petersburg, Martin and his brigade dis
played courage, discipline and fortitude unsurpassed by
any. During the siege which followed, General Martin's
health gave way under the strain and exposure, and he
was transferred to the command of the district of Western
North Carolina, with headquarters at Asheville, his field
of service at the close of the war. After he had left the
army of Northern Virginia, General Lee one day highly
complimented his old brigade for faithful obedience to
orders, and when reminded by General Kirkland that the
praise was largely due to his predecessor, replied:
"General Martin is one to whom North Carolina owes a
debt she can never repay." The gallant brigade was
almost continuously under fire, was never driven from
a position, and never failed in an attack. After the close
of hostilities General Martin found himself bereft of the
considerable property he had previously held, and man
fully took up the study of law, a profession in which he
met with success, practicing at Asheville during the re
mainder of his life. He died October 4, 1878.

Major-General William Dorsey Fender was born in
Edgecomb county, N. C., February 6, 1834, at the country
home of his father, James Fender, a descendant of Edwin
Fender, who settled near Norfolk in the reign of Charles
II. The mother of General Fender was Sarah Routh,
daughter of William Routh, of Tidewater, Va. He was
graduated at the United States military academy in 1854,
the class of Custis Lee, Stephen D. Lee and J. E. B.
Stuart. His first commissions were in the artillery, but
in 1855 ne secured a transfer to the First dragoons, and
in 1858 was promoted first lieutenant. He had an active
career in the old army, in New Mexico, California,
Washington and Oregon, fighting the Apaches at Amalgre
mountain, Four lakes and Spokane plains. He served

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 335

as adjutant of his regiment during the latter months of
1860, and was then ordered on recruiting service at Car
lisle, Pa. On March 3, 1859, he had married Mary
Frances, daughter of Hon. Augustine H. Shepperd, of
Salem, and after reaching Washington they made a visit
to their native State. Here he observed the situation
and determined to go with North Carolina, consequently
resigning his commission and accepting that of captain
of artillery in the Confederate army. His first service
was in charge of the recruiting depot at Baltimore,
whence he returned to North Carolina, and made ready
for service the First, or Bethel, regiment. On May i6th,
being post commandant at Garysburg, he was elected
colonel of the Third infantry. He was with this com
mand at Suffolk until in August, 1861, when he took com
mand of Fisher's famous Sixth regiment at Manassas.
At Seven Pines, while advancing into action, he suddenly
found himself menaced on the flank and rear by a Federal
command, but in a flash gave the order, "By the left
flank, file right, double-quick," his splendidly-drilled
regiment responding as if on parade, and before the
enemy could complete his formation assailed with such
vigor that all danger was past. A brigade joining in the
attack was repulsed and Colonel Pender reformed its ranks
with great coolness. President Davis, who witnessed his
conduct, said to him on the field, "General Pender, I
salute you," and three days later he was put in command
of Pettigrew's brigade. His commission as brigadier-
general was dated from this day, June 3d. At Beaver
Dam he led two desperate assaults ordered against the
Federal works, in which his men suffered great slaughter,
but bore themselves as heroes. He fought next day at
Cold Harbor, then at Frayser's Farm, and at Cedar Run,
by a skillful and energetic flank movement, saved the day.
At Second Manassas he exposed himself almost recklessly,
fighting like Ney. At Chantilly he led the movement,
and was again wounded. At Winchester, Harper's Ferry

336 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

and Sharpsburg he was a heroic figure, and at Fredericks-
burg, where he was wounded, he and his brigade received
great praise for coolness and steadiness under heavy fire.
At Chancellorsville, General Jackson, after receiving his
fatal wound, recognized in the darkness the gallant Pen-
der near him, and said, "You must hold your ground,
General Fender, you must hold your ground, sir." This
last command of Stonewall Jackson's was obeyed, and
more, for in General Lee's report of the next day's fight,
it is recorded that ' ' General Fender led his brigade to
the attack under a destructive fire, bearing the colors of
a regiment in his own hands up to and over the intrench-
ments, with the most distinguished gallantry." After
the wounding of A. P. Hill, Pender took command of
the " Light division," and was himself wounded in the
battle. General Lee recommended his permanent as
signment to this position, as "an excellent officer, atten
tive, industrious and brave; has been conspicuous in
every battle, and I believe wounded in almost all of
them." He was promoted major-general May 27, 1863.
At this time he was just twenty-nine years of age, and
very attractive as well as soldierly in appearance. His
height was about five feet ten, his carriage graceful,
complexion a clear olive, head faultless in shape, eyes
large and lustrous. His manner was both dignified and
modest. So reserved was he that Jackson knew him only
by his gallantry in battle, the discipline of his troops and
the orderliness of his camps, after Pender had fought
under him in half a dozen battles. Pender 's first battle
as a major-general was Gettysburg, and unhappily it was
his last. On July ist his division drove the enemy from
Seminary ridge. On the second day, while riding down
his line to order an assault on Cemetery hill, he was
struck by a fragment of shell and mortally wounded.
He lived to be carried to Staunton on the retreat, where
his leg was amputated July i8th, an operation which he
survived only a few hours. His body was interred at

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 337

Tarboro, in Calvary churchyard. His wife and three
sons survived him, Samuel Turner, William D. and
Stephen Lee Fender. Gen. G. C. Wharton has related,
that in a conversation with A. P. Hill and himself, Gen
eral Lee said: "I ought not to have fought the battle
at Gettysburg; it was a mistake. But the stakes were
so great I was compelled to play ; for had we succeeded,
Harrisburg, Baltimore and Washington were in our
hands; and we would have succeeded had Fender lived. "
It is a tradition that Lee regarded him as the officer who
should take the place of Stonewall Jackson. However
that may be, General Lee wrote in his official report:
"The loss of Major-General Fender is severely felt by the
army and the country. He served with this army from
the beginning of the war, and took a distinguished part
in all its engagements. Wounded on several occasions,
he never left his command in action until he received the
injury that resulted in his death. His promise and use
fulness as an officer were only equaled by the purity and
excellence of his private life." Gen. A. P. Hill wrote:
"No man fell during this bloody battle of Gettysburg
more regretted than he, nor around whose youthful
brow were clustered brighter rays of glory."

Brigadier-General James Johnston Pettigrew was born
on the shores of Lake Scuppernong, in Tyrrell county,
N. C., July 4, 1828, at"Bonarva," the home of his father,
Ebenezer Pettigrew, representative in Congress. The
family was founded in America by James, youngest
son of James Pettigrew, an officer of King William's
army, rewarded by a grant of land for gallantrv at the
battle of the Boyne. Charles, son of the founder, was
chosen the first bishop of North Carolina. Young Petti
grew was graduated at the State university in 1847, with
such distinction that President Polk, who attended the
commencement, accompanied by Commodore Maury,
offered the young student one of the assistant professor-

Nc 43

338 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

ships in the observatory at Washington. He held this
position until 1848, when he began study for the profes
sion of law, which he completed under his distinguished
relative, James L. Pettigrew, of South Carolina. After
traveling in Europe two years he entered upon the prac
tice of his profession at Charleston, and in 1856 was
elected to the South Carolina legislature. In 1859 he
again visited Europe and sought to enter the Sardinian
service during the Italian war, but was prevented by the
early close of that struggle. Returning, he took an active
part in the military organization of Charleston, and be
came colonel of the First regiment of rifles of that city.
During the early operations in Charleston harbor, he was
in command at Castle Pinckney, and later on Morris island.
On account of some disagreement about the admission of
his regiment to the Confederate service, he went to Rich
mond and enlisted in the Hampton legion, but in May,
1 86 1, received a commission as colonel of the Twenty-
second North Carolina infantry. With this regiment he
was engaged in constructing and guarding batteries at
Evansport, on the Potomac, until the spring of 1862. He
was then, without solicitation and over his objections,
promoted brigadier-general, and assigned to a brigade
which he led to the peninsula. At the battle of Seven
Pines, July ist, in which his brigade lost heavily, he was
severely wounded in the shoulder, and while lying uncon
scious on the field was captured. He was confined as a
prisoner two months, during which he asked that his
rank might be reduced so that he could be more easily
exchanged. But without this sacrifice he returned to the
service, and while yet an invalid was assigned to command
at Petersburg, and a new brigade of North Carolinians was
formed for him. He operated with much skill and gal
lantry in North Carolina in the fall of 1862 and spring of
1863, defended Richmond against Stoneman's raid, and
then accompanied Lee to Pennsylvania, his brigade form
ing a part of Heth's division, A. P. Hill's corps. The

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 339

conduct of his men on the first day of the battle of Gettys
burg was magnificent, and their loss was terrible. Gen
eral Heth being wounded, Pettigrew took command of
the shattered division, and on the third day led it in the
immortal charge against the Federal position on Ceme
tery hill. A remnant of his brave men gained the Fed
eral lines, but were crushed back by sheer weight of lead
and iron. At Gettysburg his brigade suffered the great
est loss in killed and wounded of any brigade in the army,
over i , i oo out of a total of 3, ooo. Though painfully wound
ed in the hand, Pettigrew kept the field, and was on duty
during the painful retreat which followed. On the morn
ing of July 1 4th, Heth's division reached the Potomac at
Falling Waters, and while Pettigrew was receiving or
ders from Heth to remain there in command of the rear
guard, a body of about forty Federal cavalrymen, who
had been allowed to approach under the error that they
were Confederates, dashed recklessly into the Confeder
ate troops, demanding surrender. General Pettigrew's
horse took fright and threw him to the ground. Rising
he drew his pistol, and was about to take part in the
skirmish, when he was shot and mortally wounded. He
was borne tenderly across the river and to a hospitable
home at Bunker Hill, Va. , where he yielded his life with
Christian resignation, July 17, 1863.

Brigadier-General Gabriel J. Rains was born in Craven
county, N. C., June, 1803, the son of Gabriel M. Rains,
and was educated at West Point, with graduation in the
class of 1827, of which Leonidas Polk was a member.
He was given a lieutenancy in the Seventh infantry, and
during his service in the West, mainly in Indian Ter
ritory, won promotion to captain by the close of 1837.
Participating in the Florida war against the Seminole
Indians, he defeated a large body of the savages near
Fort King, April 28, 1840, but was so severely wounded
that an announcement of his death was widely published.

340 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

He received the brevet of major for his gallantry on this
field. Returning to duty, he served at the Louisiana and
Florida posts and in the military occupation of Texas.
At Fort Brown in 1846 he gave the deciding vote in
the council of officers against capitulation to General
Ampudia and took an active part in the defense. He
was at the battle of Resaca de la Palma, and immedi
ately after was detailed on recruiting service, in which
he was quite successful. In March, 1851, he was pro
moted to major, and in the following year was sent by
sea to California. On the Pacific coast he made a fine
reputation as an Indian fighter, and in 1860 was promot
ed to lieutenant-colonel. Upon the organization of the
Confederate States he resigned from the United States
service and was commissioned colonel of infantry in the
regular army. In September he was commissioned briga
dier-general and assigned by General Magruder to com
mand of one of the brigades on the Yorktown, Va. ,
lines. Soon afterward he was given charge of the first
division of Magruder 's army, the second being under
General McLaws. He took a prominent part in the de
fense of Yorktown, and in command of a brigade of Ala
bama and Georgia regiments participated in the battles
of Williamsburg and Seven Pines. In the latter con
flict he made an opportune flank movement under great
difficulties through a swamp and attacked the enemy.
He was subsequently put in charge of the bureau of con
scription at Richmond, and during his service in this
capacity he began the organization of a plan of torpedo
protection for the Southern harbors, which he subse
quently put in successful operation at Charleston, Mobile,
Savannah and other ports, also invented an explosive
sub-terra shell, which was an effective weapon of defense.
He was appointed chief of the torpedo bureau, June 17,
1864. At the close of the war he made his home at
Augusta, Ga., and subsequently removed to South
Carolina. From 1877 to 1880 he was connected with the

Maj.-Gen. ROBERT RANSOM, JR. Brig'.-Gen. R. C. GATLIN.

Maj.-Gen. S. D. KAMSEUR. Brip:.-Gen. JAMES H. LANE. Brig.-Gen. C. LEVENTHORPK.

Brig.-Gen. J. J. PETTIGREVV. Maj.-Gen. JAS. B. GORDON. Maj.-Gen. J. F. GILMER.

Brig.-Gen. WILLIAM R. Cox. Brig.-Gen. ALFRED M. SCALES.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 341

quartermaster's department, United States army, at
Charleston. He died at Aiken, S. C., August 6, 1881.

Major-General Stephen Dodson Ramseur was born
May 31, 1837, at Lincolnton, N. C., son of Jacob A. and
Lucy M. Ramseur. Among his ancestors was John Wil-
fong, a revolutionary hero, who fought valiantly at
King's Mountain and Eutaw Springs. He was educated
at the United States military academy, with graduation
in 1860, and was promoted to lieutenant in the Fourth
artillery. His brief service in the United States army
was rendered at Fortress Monroe and Washington,
D. C., and was ended by his resignation April 6, 1861, to
enter the service of the Confederate States government.
He was offered the command of the Ellis light artillery,
of Raleigh, was commissioned major of State troops,
and was ordered to Smithfield, Va. He served at
Yorktown, during the siege by McClellan, in command
of artillery. Subsequently he was elected colonel of the
Forty-ninth regiment of North Carolina infantry, of
Robert Ransom's brigade, in which rank he won distinc
tion during the Seven Days' battles, and was severely
wounded in the fatal charge at Malvern Hill. On Octo
ber 27, 1862, General Lee recommended his promotion to
brigadier-general as successor to the lamented George
B. Anderson, of D. H. Hill's division. With this rank
he was able to take the field after the battle of Freder-
icksburg. At Chancellorsville he led the advance of the
division, then under Rodes, and in the fight on Sunday
was conspicuous for determined valor. -General Lee,
writing to Governor Vance, June 4th, said of his brigade :
"I consider its brigade and regimental commanders as
among the best ofa their respective grades in the army,
and in the battle of Chancellorsville, where the brigade
was much distinguished and suffered severely, General
Ramseur was among those whose conduct was especially
commended to my notice by Lieutenant-General Jack-

342 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

son, in a message sent to me after he was wounded. ' '
At Gettysburg he rendered invaluable service at the crit
ical period on the first day when Iverson was repulsed,
turned the enemy's flank and gained possession of the
town. His skill and gallantry were commended by
Rodes and Ewell. During the terrific fighting of May,
1864, he, with his brigade of heroes led by Parker,
Grimes, Bennett and Cox, rendered services which re
ceived the thanks of Ewell and Lee upon the field. At
first in reserve, he moved at double-quick on May yth to
meet the advance of Burnside, who sought to cut off the
Second corps, and drove back the enemy's line of battle
half a mile. On the night of the same day by another
rapid movement he saved Humphreys' right flank from
a similar attack. Immediately after Hancock's success
ful attack on the morning of May i2th at the "bloody
angle," he was ordered to drive the enemy out of the
works. He instructed his men to keep the alignment,
move forward slowly without firing until the order
"Charge," and then not to stop till the works were
cleared. Before he was able to give the word "Charge"
his horse was shot under him and a ball tore through his
arm, but Grimes gave the order for him at the right
time, and the brigade swept everything before it, and
held the works under a murderous fire, both direct and
enfilade, during the whole day. General Ewell alluded
to this movement in his official report as "a charge of
unsurpassed gallantry." Though painfully wounded,
Ramseur refused to leave the field, and on the ipth led
an attack on the enemy's flank. On the 2yth he was
assigned to the command of the division of General
Early, with the rank of major-general. After the battle
of Cold Harbor, his division was the first to reach Lynch-
burg to relieve the siege, attacked the retreating enemy
at Liberty, and following him to Harper's Ferry took
part in the expedition through Maryland, the battle at
Monocacy, and the demonstration against the United

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 343

States capital. On the return to the Shenandoah valley
he suffered a reverse at Winchester in July, though as
General Rodes testified, "he acted most heroically, and
as usual exposed himself recklessly. " He patiently sub
mitted to adverse criticism, and continued to fight with
devotion. At the September battle of Winchester he
bore the brunt of Sheridan's attack without wavering,
withdrew his division in order, and repulsed the enemy's
pursuit near Kernstown. At the battle of Cedar Creek,
October ipth, his division had an effective part in the
initial defeat of the enemy, and after the main army had
fallen back, Ramseur succeeded in retaining with him
two or three hundred men of his division, and Major
Goggin, of Kershaw's staff, about the same number of
Conner's brigade, and "these men, aided by several
pieces of artillery, held the enemy's whole force on our
left in check for one hour and a half, until Ramseur was
shot down mortally 'wounded, and their artillery ammu
nition was exhausted." These words are quoted from
General Early, who also wrote: "Major-General Ram
seur fell into the hands of the enemy mortally wounded,
and in him not only my command, but the country
suffered a heavy loss. He was a most gallant and ener
getic officer whom no disaster appalled, but his courage
and energy seemed to gain new strength in the midst of
confusion and disorder. He fell at his post fighting like
a lion at bay, and his native State has reason to be proud
of his memory." He died on the day following the bat
tle, with these last words: "Bear this message to my
precious wife — I die a Christian and hope to meet her in
heaven." He had been married in October, of the pre
vious year, to Ellen E. Richmond, of Milton, and on the
day before the fatal battle had been informed of the birth
of a daughter.

Brigadier-General Matthew Whittaker Ransom was
born in Warren county, N. C., in 1826. His father was

344 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Robert Ransom, who was descended from a colonial
Virginia family of Gloucester county. His mother was
Priscilla West Coffield Whittaker, whose lineage is traced
to Alexander Whittaker, the English clergyman who
baptized Pocahontas. He was graduated at Chapel Hill,
the State university, in 1847, and was soon afterward
admitted to the practice of law. The remarkable ability
which he at once displayed led to his election five years
later as attorney-general of the State. This office he
resigned in 1855 to return to general practice. Three
years later he was called upon to represent his district
in the legislature, and was re-elected twice, serving
until 1 86 1. In the latter year he was sent by North
Carolina as a peace commissioner to the provisional con
gress at Montgomery. At the organization of the First
regiment of infantry, at Warrenton, June 3, 1861, he
was commissioned lieutenant-colonel. Subsequently he
was appointed colonel of the Thirty-fifth regiment, of
Robert Ransom's brigade. With this command he partici
pated in the Seven Days' battles before Richmond, and
was particularly distinguished in the repulse of a night
attack June 25th, and in the attack on Malvern hill,
where his regiment suffered severely and he was twice
wounded, so that he had to be carried from the field.
He was again on duty with his regiment in the Maryland
campaign, and during part of the battle of Sharpsburg
had temporary command of the brigade, repelling a Fed
eral assault, and pursuing the enemy and inflicting such
punishment that no further attack was made in that quar
ter during the day. After the battle of Fredericksburg
he served at Wilmington and other points in North Caro
lina, and being promoted brigadier-general took com
mand of the brigade formerly led by Robert Ransom.
He held the Suffolk line during the Gettysburg campaign,
and in the latter part of July defeated the enemy's ad
vance toward Weldon. He continued to serve in North
Carolina during 1863, participated in the capture of Ply-

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 345

mouth, defeated the enemy at Suffolk March 9, 1864,
and then fought with Beauregard before Petersburg,
with Longstreet on the north side of the James, and in
Bushrod Johnson's division on the Crater line. During
the latter part of 1864 he was in command of this divi
sion, comprising his own brigade and those of Wise, Gra-
cie and Wallace. In the famous assault upon the Fed
eral works on Hare's hill, March 25, 1865, he command
ed two brigades, whose service was particularly compli
mented by General Lee. He was again in battle at Five
Forks, and finally surrendered with Lee at Appomattox.
After the close of hostilities he resumed the practice of
law and engaged in planting, until 1872, when he was
elected to the United States Senate, where he served by
re-election a continuous period of twenty-four years. As
a member of this exalted body he rendered efficient serv
ice to his State, and while retaining the affections of the
people of whom he was part, gained the respect and
admiration of the representatives of the whole nation.
As a forcible and elegant public speaker and a wise coun
cilor he held a high position during his public career in
the Democratic party. In the second administration of
President Cleveland he served as minister to Mexico,
succeeding ex- Governor Gray, of Indiana.

Major-General Robert Ransom was born at Bridle
Creek, Warren county, N. C., February 12, 1828, the
second son of Robert Ransom, his elder brother being
the soldier and statesman, Matthew W. Ransom. He
was graduated at the United States military academy in
1850, and promoted to a lieutenancy in the dragoons.
As a cadet and officer he was distinguished for splen
did horsemanship and the practical qualities of a
soldier. He was on duty at the Carlisle cavalry school
until March, 1851, when he led a detachment of troops
to Fort Leavenworth, Kan., thence accompanying the
command of Col. E. V. Sumner to New Mexico. Dur-

No 44

346 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

ing the succeeding four years he was engaged in scouting
through that territory, Arizona, Texas, Colorado, and
Utah, until in the fall of 1854 he was detailed as instruct
or of cavalry at West Point, under Col. R. E. Lee, super
intendent. With promotion to first lieutenant he joined
the new First cavalry in 1855, and served nearly two
years as adjutant of the regiment; at Fort Leavenworth,
in the Sioux expedition, and in the quelling of the Kan
sas disturbances. In 1859 he took part in the march to
the Arkansas river, and remained on the frontier, with
promotion to captain January 31, 1861. On May 24th,
when informed of the secession of his State, he resigned,
and on July 4th reached his native State. He was com
missioned captain of cavalry, C. S. A. , and the Ninth of
the first ten regiments of State troops was organized
under his direction near Ridgeway. Of this regiment,
thereafter known as the First North Carolina cavalry,
he was the first colonel. He started with his regiment
to Virginia, October 13, 1861, and in November com
manded at Vienna, in the first encounter of the cavalry of
the opposing armies. On March 6, 1862, he was pro
moted brigadier-general for the express purpose of organ
izing the cavalry of Generals Johnston and Beauregard
in the West and Southwest, but New Bern having fallen,
his destination was changed, and he was engaged for a
time in holding in check the enemy in eastern North
Carolina. In June, 1862, in command of a brigade of six
North Carolina regiments, he was temporarily attached
to Huger's division. His troops, though mainly new to
battle, were distinguished both at the opening and the
close of the bloody Seven Days' struggle. In the Mary
land campaign he commanded a brigade composed of the
Twenty-fourth, Twenty-fifth, Thirty- fifth and Forty-ninth
regiments, Walker's division, Longstreet's corps; partici
pated in the reduction of Harper's Ferry, and was distin
guished at Sharpsburg. In his report of the latter battle
General Walker wrote: "To Brigadier- General Ran-

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 347

som's coolness, judgment and skill we are in a great
degree indebted for the successful maintenance of our
position on the left, which, to have been permanently
gained by the enemy, would in all probability have
been to us the loss of the battle." At the battle
of Fredericksburg he was in command of the divi
sion, and had immediate charge of the position on
Marye's and Willis' hills, where the severest fighting of
the battle occurred. He subsequently served with his
division in North Carolina in defense of the Weldon rail
road, until May, 1863, when he was promoted major-gen
eral and given charge of the district including the Appo-
mattox and Black water. He was in command at Rich
mond until July of that year, when he was for some time
disabled by illness. In October, 1863, he took command
in east Tennessee and drove the Federals as far south as
Knoxville, and remained in that department in command
of cavalry under Longstreet and Buckner, until April,
1864, when he was ordered to Richmond, with the inten
tion of assigning him to command of the Trans- Missis
sippi department. But the condition at the Confederate
capital compelled his retention there, where he met
Butler's operations at Bermuda Hundred and Sheridan's
and Kautz's raids with the handful of men at his disposal.
He commanded Beauregard's left wing at the battle of
Drewry's Bluff, May i6th, and gallantly stormed the
enemy's breastworks, playing a prominent part in the
44 corking up" of Butler's army. In June he took com
mand of Early's cavalry in the movement against Hunter
and the expedition through Maryland against Washington.
In August he was relieved on account of illness, in Sep
tember served as president of a court of inquiry connected
with Morgan's operations in Kentucky, in November
was assigned to command at Charleston, but was soon
compelled by illness to abandon that post. He surren
dered to General Howard at Warrenton, May 2, 1865. In
the trying times following the close of hostilities he

348 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

found employment as express agent and city marshal at
Wilmington, subsequently engaged in farming until 1878,
and then accepted a position as civil engineer in charge
of river and harbor improvements by the national gov
ernment, making his home at New Bern. General Ran
som was married in 1856 to Minnie Huntt, of Washing
ton, who died in 1881, leaving eight children. In 1884
he married Katherine DeWitt Lumpkin, of Columbus,
Ga.

Brigadier-General William Paul Roberts was born in
Gates county, N. C., July n, 1841. Before he was twenty
years old he entered the Confederate service as a non
commissioned officer in the Nineteenth North Carolina
regiment, or Second cavalry, Col. S. B. Spuill. He was
promoted third lieutenant August 30, 1861; first lieu
tenant September 13, 1862; captain November 19, 1863,
and though the junior captain, soon attained the rank of
major. He served with distinction during the operations
of the regiment in North Carolina, until transferred to
Virginia in the fall of 1862. He then served on the Rap-
pahannock line, at Fredericksburg, in the Suffolk cam
paign, and in the famous battle of Brandy Station, where
the gallant Col. Sol Williams was killed. After partici
pating in the fighting of the spring of 1864, in the North
Carolina brigade of W. H. F. Lee's division, Roberts
was promoted to colonel of the regiment. At Reams'
Station, August 25th, with his regiment dismounted he
made a gallant charge upon the enenw's rifle-pits, carry
ing them handsomely and capturing a number of prison
ers. February 21, 1865, he was promoted brigadier-gen
eral, and General Lee's gauntlets were presented him by
the great chieftain as a mark of personal recognition of
the young hero's distinguished gallantry. With his
command, mainly composed of North Carolinians, he
fought with valor at Five Forks, and during the retreat
to Appomattox. After the close of hostilities he address-

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 349

ed himself with the same activity and courage to the re-
establishment of the State and the restoration of its
prosperity. In 1875 he represented Gates county in the
convention, and in 1876-77 served in the legislature. In
1880 and 1884 he was elected auditor of State, an office
the duties of which he discharged with notable ability
for a period of eight years.

Brigadier-General Alfred Moore Scales was born No
vember 26, 1827, in Rockingham county, son of Dr. Rob
ert H. Scales. He was educated at the Caldwell institute
and Chapel Hill, and after teaching for a time, studied
law with Judge Settle and later with Judge Battle. He
was elected county solicitor in 1852, and was a member
of the house of commons in 1852-53. In 1854 he made a
creditable race as the Democratic candidate for Congress
in a Whig district. Again being elected to the legislature,
he served as chairman of the finance committee. In
1857 he was elected to Congress over his former oppo
nent, but was defeated for re-election. From 1858 until
the spring of 1861 he held the office of clerk and master
of the court of equity of Rockingham county. In 1860
he was an elector on the Breckinridge ticket, and in 1861
was a candidate for the convention, favoring the calling
of the same, though he did not propose immediate seces
sion. Soon after the call for troops from Washington he
volunteered as a private in the North Carolina service,
but was at once elected captain of his company, H of
the Thirteenth, and succeeded General Fender as colonel
in the following October. He was engaged in the skir
mishes at Yorktown, the battle of Williamsburg and the
Seven Days' campaign about Richmond, Fredericksburg
and Chancellorsville. In the latter engagement he con
tinued on the field, though shot through the thigh, until
loss of blood forced him to a halt. It was to his regi
ment that General Fender said : "I have nothing to say
to you but to hold you all up as models in duty, courage

350 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

and daring." In his official report Fender referred to
Colonel Scales as "a man as gallant as is to be found in
the service." While at home, recovering from his
wound, he was promoted to brigadier-general June 13,
1863, and on his return was assigned to the command
of Fender's old brigade. In the first day's fight at Get
tysburg he fought with great gallantry, and fell severely
wounded by a fragment of shell on Seminary ridge,
where every field officer of his brigade was killed or
wounded save one, and his brigade, already sadly reduced
by its terrible sacrifices at Chancellorsville, lost in all
nearly 550 men. With General Fender at his side he
was carried back to Virginia in an ambulance, and being
left at Winchester, recovered. He took part in the cam
paigns of the army of Northern Virginia during 1864, in
command of his brigade, and was faithful to the end,
though at home on sick furlough at the time of the sur
render. He subsequently resumed the practice of law,
a profession in which he gained very high distinction.
In 1874 he was elected to the Forty-fourth Congress, and
his career in this capacity met with such general approval
that he was re-elected to the four succeeding Con
gresses. He was then in 1884, chosen governor of North
Carolina by a majority of over twenty thousand
votes. Upon the expiration of his term as governor he
retired permanently from political life, repeatedly refus
ing to be returned to Congress. In 1888 he was elected
president of the Piedmont bank at Greensboro, and con
tinued as its president until he died, in February, 1892.
At the time of his death at Greensboro all business houses
closed and the city turned out en masse to attend his
funeral. He was greatly beloved and respected by all
who knew him, and his home life was particularly pleas
ant and charming. He was survived by his wife, Kate
Henderson Scales, and his daughter, Mrs. John N.
Wynne, who now reside at Danville, Va.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 351

Brigadier- General Robert B. Vance was born in Bun
combe county, N. C. , April 28, 1828, and received the
old-field school education of his day. He was elected
clerk of the court of pleas and quarter sessions for his
native county in 1848, and after a term of eight years,
declined re-election and devoted himself to mercantile
pursuits until the outbreak of war. He then organized
a company, the Buncombe Life Guards, of which he was
elected captain. This company was assigned to the
Twenty-ninth regiment of infantry, and he was unani
mously elected as its first colonel. The command left
Camp Vance, in Buncombe county, October 28, 1861, for
Raleigh, and in the latter part of November was sent to
the field in east Tennessee. There the regiment served
mainly in garrison duty on the railroad until February,
1862, when it was concentrated at Cumberland gap, in
the defense of which it took part until the evacuation in
June. Under the command of General Stevenson, Colonel
Vance and his regiment took part in the assault and
defeat of the enemy at Tazewell in August, after which
Colonel Vance, in command of his own and other regi
ments, held a position at Baptist gap until the Federals
retreated, when the army under Kirby Smith advanced
into Kentucky as far as Frankfort, thence returning
through Cumberland gap in October, marching about
500 miles in forty days. At the battle of Murfreesboro,
December 3ist, after the death of the brigade commander
Gen. J. E. Rains, who was shot through the heart as the
brigade charged the enemy, Colonel Vance took com
mand of the brigade, and as Major-General McCown
reported, "bore himself gallantly." After Bragg had
fallen back to Shelbyville, Colonel Vance was taken with
typhoid fever, and while in this condition his regiment
was ordered to Jackson, Miss., and he never afterward
was in command of it. While sick he received his com
mission as brigadier-general, issued in June, 1863. On
returning to duty he was assigned to service in western

352 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

North Carolina, in which region he was captured Jan
uary 14, 1864, at Cosby creek, which ended his military
career. He experienced the life of the prison camps at
Nashville, Louisville, Camp Chase and Fort Delaware.
While at the latter place he was appointed to act with
General Beale in buying clothing for Confederate prison
ers of war, which occupied his attention until he was
paroled March 14, 1865. Since the return of peace he
has had a conspicuous career in the Congress of the
United States, as representative of the Eighth district,
elected first in 1872, and continuously thereafter tip to
and including 1882. He declined renomination in 1884,
but took an active part in the Democratic campaign of
that year, and in the following spring was appointed
assistant commissioner of patents by President Cleve
land. He also attained prominence in the masonic order
as grand-master for his State, in the Methodist church
as delegate to general conferences and the ecumenical
conference in London in 1881, and as a lecturer and
author.

Major-General William Henry Chase Whiting was born
at Biloxi, Miss., March 22, 1824, of Northern parentage.
His father, Levi Whiting, a native of Massachusetts, was
for forty years an officer of the United States army, from
1812 to 1853, and at his death was lieutenant-colonel of
the First artillery . He was educated at the Boston high
school, at Georgetown college, D. C., and at the United
States military institute, being graduated with promo
tion to second lieutenant of engineers at the head of
the famous class of 1845. He served as an officer of
the engineer corps on the gulf coast until 1853, on the
Pacific coast until 1856, and then in Florida, Georgia and
North Carolina, being engaged in the improvements of
Savannah river when he resigned in February, 1861,
having at that time attained the rank of captain. Offer
ing his services to Georgia, he was appointed major of

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 353

engineers, and the same rank was given him in the Con
federate States army. He was sent to inspect the works
at Charleston harbor, and under Beauregard rendered
valuable service, not only as engineer in fortifying Mor
ris island, but as acting assistant adjutant and inspector
general in stationing the troops on that island. Soon
afterward he was appointed inspector-general in charge
of the defenses of North Carolina, and after the coast
defenses were safely in the hands of the State, he joined
Gen. J. E. Johnston at Harper's Ferry as chief of staff.
He was in charge of the blowing up of the arsenal at
Harper's Ferry, which Johnston pronounced a masterly
piece of work, and made the arrangements for moving
the army to reinforce Beauregard at Manassas Junction.
His service at the glorious victory of July 2ist was grate
fully mentioned in the official report of General Johnston,
and President Davis promoted him on the field to the
rank of brigadier-general of volunteers. He was assigned
to the command of the brigade of the lamented General
Bee, his classmate at West Point, with which and Hood's
brigade he handsomely dislodged Franklin's Federal divi
sion during the retreat from Yorktown. At Seven Pines
he was in command of G. W. Smith's division, and by
vigorous fighting prevented the junction of Sumner with
Keyes. It is related by Major Fairly of his staff that
Whiting suggested to General Lee the stratagem of rein
forcing Jackson in the valley, to keep back reinforce
ments for McClellan while Jackson should move rapidly
and strike the Federal flank, and that Whiting volun
teered to take his brigade and Hood's and move to Staun-
ton. Thence he returned at the head of Jackson's corpx
and in the battle of Gaines' Mill skillfully handled the
two brigades under E. M. Law and Hood, driving the
enemy from their fortified line, winning the battle. In
November, 1862, he was assigned to the district of Cape

354 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Fear, N. C. , where it was his duty, during the remainder
of the war, to keep open the port of Wilmington, of vital
importance to the Confederate cause. Aided by Col. Wil
liam Lamb he provided batteries for defense with consum
mate skill, and in letter after letter implored troops
sufficient to repel the attack which must soon be expected.
He was promoted major- general, tardily, in February, 1863.
A year later J. E. Johnston wrote him that he made a vain
effort to have him commissioned lieutenant-general and
assigned as second in command to himself. "The reason
for putting aside the recommendation," Johnston said,
"was an odd one to me. It was that you were too val
uable in your present place. ' ' But it is a remarkable fact
that while Whiting was esteemed too valuable at Wilming
ton for promotion, as soon as the port was threatened by
the vast Federal armada Bragg was given command over
him, and the gallant officer, without orders, went into the
fort, and refusing to relieve Lamb of command, assumed
the duty of counseling him and righting as a volunteer.
The garrison, who almost worshiped him, easily repulsed
the first attack of the enemy. Again at the opening of the
second attack he came to the fort, and said to Lamb: "I
have come to share your fate, my boy. You are to be
sacrificed. ' ' After two days and nights of a terrific bom
bardment, by the side of which all previous artillery fight
ing in the world's history was child's play, Whiting and
Lamb could still rally a little band which repelled the
attack of the United States naval troops. Then calling his
men to meet another column, Whiting joined in a hand-
to-hand fight with the enemy, and fell with two wounds
in the act of tearing down a Federal flag. The garrison
did not surrender, but were forced from the fort and
finally captured on the shore. General Whiting was car
ried as a prisoner of war to Governor's island, N. Y.,
where he died March 10, 1865.

ADDITIONAL

BIOGRAPHICAL

SKETCHES

355

Nc46

ADDITIONAL SKETCHES ILLUSTRATING THE SERVICES
OF OFFICERS AND PRIVATES AND PATRIOTIC CITI
ZENS OF NORTH CAROLINA.

John O. Alexander, one of the most prosperous farmers
of Mecklenburg county, of which he is a native, was born
February 27, 1832, the son of Almerean and Nancy
(Ormond) Alexander. When he was four years old his
father died, and he and his only brother, Samuel D. ,
were called upon early in life to devote themselves
exclusively to the work of providing for their mother and
five sisters, a work of love which they heartily performed.
In 1858 he married Jane E., daughter of William Lee,
by whom he has now four children living. His first en
listment in the Confederate service was in the fall of
1861, as a private in the company of Capt. Jack Harrison,
which he accompanied to New Bern, participating in the
fight there as color-bearer. Going thence to High Point
he re-enlisted in Company I, of the Thirty-seventh regi
ment, Col. L. O'B. Branch, afterward Lane's brigade,
with which he was subsequently identified in all of its
campaigns. From the spring of 1862 he served as quar
termaster-sergeant of the regiment, and during the last
two years of the war also performed the duties of forage-
master of Lane's brigade. His service, faithfully and
intelligently performed, with hardly a day's intermission
throughout three years, contributed in no slight degree
to the efficiency and good record of his regiment and bri
gade. Since then he has given his attention exclusively
to farming, and is well known throughout his county for
his success in this industry. He is a member of Mecklen
burg camp, chairman of the county road commission,
and in various channels active and enterprising as a citizen.

Richard B. Alexander, an enterprising and philan
thropic citizen of Charlotte, was born in that city April
24, 1840, one of four brothers who served in the war
of the Confederacy. Their parents were Frank Alex
ander, a native of Mecklenburg county and a soldier of
the war of 1812, and Adeline, daughter of John Gilmer,

356

R. B. ALEXANDER

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 357

of the same county. The oldest brother, John D., served
as a private in the western army tinder Gen. J. E. John
ston, was wounded near Atlanta in 1864, and is now
farming in Jasper county, Miss. The other three were
members of the Bethel or Eleventh regiment, North
Carolina troops — James F., who died in 1895, a lieuten
ant in Company E ; Charles W. , now a resident of Bir
mingham, Ala. , a lieutenant of Company A, and later, on
account of disability, an enrolling officer. Richard B.
enlisted in March, 1862, in Company A, Eleventh regi
ment, as a sergeant, and was promoted later to orderly-
sergeant and finally to second lieutenant. He took part
in the battles of White Hall, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg,
the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, the rest of the campaign to
the James, and numerous engagements about Petersburg
until, with his whole command, he was captured on the
Petersburg lines, April 2, 1865. He was subsequently
held as a prisoner of war at Johnson's island until June
15, 1865. He was wounded seriously at the battle of
Gettysburg, and in consequence disabled for four months.
After the return of peace he promptly accepted the situ
ation, became as earnest a supporter of the Union as he
had been of the Confederacy, and set about the work of
providing for his own welfare and that of his fellowmen.
After farming six years in Cabarrus and Mecklenburg
counties he made his home at Charlotte and began a suc
cessful career as a merchant. In 1895, impressed by the
wants of the homeless and friendless children of the city,
he built and put in operation the Alexander rescue home,
and in 1896 founded the Groveton school for poor chil
dren, which he supports unaided. Both these institutions
are prospering and doing a wonderful amount of good in
the community. On September 19, 1861, Mr. Alexander
was married to Amanda, daughter of Albert Wilson, of
Mecklenburg, who died in 1865, leaving one child, now
Mrs. Banna Sarratt. In 1866 he married Jane Wilson,
sister of his first wife.

George M. Allen, of Raleigh, is one of three Wake
county brothers who were members of Manly's battery.
William B. served as commissary-sergeant of the com
mand, and Sidney F. as a private, both throughout the
entire war. George M. was born March 9, 1835, an^
entered the Confederate service as a private in the bat-

358 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

tery then known as Ramseur's, from the fact that Gen.
S. D. Ramseur began his illustrious Confederate career
as its commander, and later as Manly 's battery, or Com
pany A, First regiment light artillery. He served with
this command on the Virginia peninsula in the spring
of 1 86 1, being under fire for several weeks on the York-
town line, then at Williamsburg and Seven Pines, and
during the Seven Days' battles on the York River railroad
at the right of the Confederate line. He was again in
battle at Sharpsburg, and fought during the three days'
battle at Gettysburg, where the battery opened the fight
on the Confederate right ; at Fredericks burg, Chancellors-
ville, the Wilderness, Spottsylvania ; and during the long
siege of Petersburg and the retreat to Appomattox was
in almost constant service. At Appomattox the company
was disbanded and the men scattered to their homes.
He returned to Wake county, and after farming for two
years found employment for several years as section-
master on the Raleigh & Gaston railroad. In 1872 he
went into business at Forestville, and in 1875 removed to
Raleigh, where he is now a respected citizen. After
two years' service in a subordinate capacity he embarked
in the foundry and machine manufacturing industry, in
which he has been notably successful. By his marriage
in 1878 to Mrs. Helen Harris (nee Pair) he has one
daughter, Helen P.

John Nathaniel Anderson, of Rural Hall, Forsyth
county, a veteran of the Thirty-third regiment, North
Carolina troops, was in Confederate service throughout
the war, but though in several great battles was so unfor
tunate as to be a large part of the time an inmate of
Northern prison camps. He was born September 16,
1837, in Forsyth county, and in the spring of 1861
enlisted in Company I of the Thirty-third regiment, of
which he was elected second lieutenant, and a year later
promoted to first lieutenant His first battle was under
General Branch at New Bern, in March, 1862, and being
captured there he was conveyed to Governor's island,
N. Y., and thence transferred to Johnson's island, Lake
Erie. Finally, being exchanged at Vicksburg, Miss. , he
was able to regain his command in time to participate in
the battle of Fredericksburg. In his next battle, Chan-
cellorsville, he was crippled by a wound in the knee,

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 859

and was sent to Richmond, whence upon recovery he
started to join his regiment in the Pennsylvania campaign
and met the army at Hagerstown on the retreat. He
was in the fight on the Potomac in which General Petti-
grew was killed, and in the following May fought in the
Wilderness battles until shot through the thigh. Upon re
covery he took part in the battles before Petersburg and
was again captured, and taken to Johnson's island, where
he was held until after the close of hostilities. Since then
he has been an influential citizen to his native county,
serving fourteen years as member of the board of educa
tion. By his marriage in 1871 to Miss F. J. Kiser he has
four children living: Marietta, Lelia Roberta, Charles
Wesley and James Kiser.

Captain Alexander Boyd Andrews, a gallant Confed
erate soldier, who in later years has attained great prom
inence in railroad and industrial affairs, was born near
Franklinton, N. C., July 23, 1841, the son of William J.
Andrews, a merchant of Henderson. The mother of the
latter was a daughter of Col. Jonas Johnston, a revolu
tionary hero who was wounded at Moore's creek, and
died from wounds received at the battle of Stono, in June,
1779. The wife of William J. Andrews was Virginia,
daughter of Col. John Hawkins, of Franklin county, and
granddaughter of Alexander Boyd, of Mecklenburg
county, Va. The subject of this sketch and his brothers
and sisters, lost both their parents at an early age and were
reared by Colonel Hawkins. In 1859 he was given the
position of general superintendent, purchasing agent and
paymaster, by his kinsman, Gen. Philip B. Hawkins,
who had a large railroad contract in South Carolina, but
he forsook these duties to enlist in the spring of 1861 as
a private in the First North Carolina cavalry regiment,
commanded by Col. Robert Ransom, afterward major-
general. He was soon promoted lieutenant and rose
rapidly to the rank of captain of Company B, during his
first year's service. He accompanied this splendid regi
men to Virginia, and fought under Stuart and Hampton
in many brilliant encounters with the enemy until on
September 22, 1863, in a bloody fight at Jack's shop, near
Gordonsville, a Federal bullet tore its way through his
left lung and injured the spine in its exit from his body.
The wound was considered mortal, and the adjutant of

3GO CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

the regiment, writing to the Fayetteville Observer soon
afterward, apparently paid a tribute to the dead, in these
words: "While cheering on his men the gallant Captain
Andrews fell, shot through the lungs. No braver man
or better man has fallen during the war. He was uni
versally beloved." Captain Andrews was removed to
the hospital at Gordonsville where, by indomitable cour
age, he managed to improve the slight chance of recovery
which remained to him. But the weary months of suffer
ing and convalescence which followed did not permit him
to return to the field. Twice he made the attempt to
rejoin his comrades during the terrible struggle of 1864,
but his strength was unequal to the task. Yet, after
Lee's surrender, he made his way to Johnston's army,
and was paroled with the veterans of that command in
April, 1865. He then at once gave his attention to the
work of material reconstruction and development. He
established a ferry at Gaston to supply the place of the
bridge destroyed by war, and in 1867 became superin
tendent of the Raleigh & Gaston railroad, under Dr.
W. J. Hawkins, president. Here he had duties of
construction as well as maintenance, and assisted in the
building of many miles of the Raleigh & Augusta air
line. In 1875 ne became superintendent of the North
Carolina railroad, then leased by the Richmond & Dan
ville company, and in addition to his duties as superin
tendent acted as assistant to the president of the Rich
mond & Danville system, and in 1886 became third vice-
president of the company. He had an important part in
the development of this great system, and when the lines
were acquired by the Southern railroad company in 1894,
he was elected second vice-president of the new company.
About a year later he became first vice-president of this
famous railroad system, one of the greatest in the world.
Largely through his energy and administrative power
the Western North Carolina railroad was pushed to com
pletion after it had practically been abandoned about 1880.
He became president of this road and united it with the
system now known as the Southern. He has also served
as president of several of the minor lines included in the
system, and in addition to these multifarious duties has
been active in the promotion of industrial enterprises,
has served as a director of various financial institutions,
acted as a vice-president of the World's Columbian

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 361

exposition, and has not neglected his duties as a citizen
of Raleigh, where he has served many years as a member
of the board of aldermen. Throughout the two admin
istrations of Governor Jarvis he served on the governor's
staff with the rank of colonel. In September, 1869, Col
onel Andrews was married to Julia, daughter of Col.
William Johnston, of Charlotte, and they have five
children.

Captain William M. Andrews, of Burlington, entered
the Confederate service as a private in Company E, Capt.
Thomas Ruffin, Jr., of the Thirteenth regiment, North
Carolina troops, of the famous brigade commanded suc
cessively by Garland, Fender and Scales. The regi
ment, first known as the Third volunteers, served in all
the famous campaigns of the army of Northern Virginia,
and Private Andrews, by his gallant and intelligent per
formance of duty, won promotion to second lieutenant
after the battle of Seven Pines, to first lieutenant after the
Seven Days' fight, and was acting captain, in which
rank he served to the close of the war, frequently being
in command of two or more companies. He was on duty
near Suffolk in 1861; in the spring of 1862 took part in
the defense of Yorktown, and during the remainder
of 1862 fought at Seven Pines, Mechanicsville, Cold
Harbor, Mai vern Hill, South Mountain, Sharpsburg and
Fredericksburg. At Chancellorsville he lost thirty-five
men of his company in the battle of May 3d, and at Get
tysburg took a conspicuous part with his regiment in the
fighting of the first and third days, including the famous
assault of the North Carolinians on Cemetery hill. On
the retreat he was in battle at Hagerstown and Falling
Waters. In 1864 he was a participant in the deadly
struggles at the Wilderness, Spottsylvania Court House,
Hanover Court House and Cold Harbor, and fought at
Fort Harrison and on the Petersburg lines during the
siege. Five Forks, Farmville and Appomattox, of sad
but proud memory, were his last encounters with the
enemy of those days, fellow patriots of to-day. Captain
Andrews was born in Orange county in 1835, son of
Green Andrews, a farmer. At the outbreak of war he
was in railroad service as a baggagemaster, and when he
returned to his home in 1865 he returned to railroad
employment, serving as clerk at Raleigh four years, then

362 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

as agent at Graham three years, and seven years as a
passenger conductor. After four years in the internal
revenue service he engaged in business as a contractor
and builder, in which he has met with notable success.

James T. Anthony, of Charlotte, N. C., a veteran of
the Fifteenth Virginia infantry, was born in Hanover
county, Va., May 12, 1843. His father was James
Anthony, son of a revolutionary soldier of Virginia and
of Scotch-Irish descent ; his mother, Louisa Timberlake,
of a Virginia family of French origin. He left his farm
home early in 1861, enlisting May i3th in Company D
of the Fifteenth Virginia regiment, with which he served
as a private and non-commissioned officer until the close
of the war. His first battle was Williamsburg, and in
rapid succession followed the engagements at Savage
Station, White Oak Swamp, Malvern Hill, Harper's
Ferry, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, and the Suffolk
campaign, all under the corps command of Longstreet,
and at the last in the brigade of General Corse. In the
fall of 1863 and following winter he took part in the
East Tennessee campaign, one of the severest of the
war, in which he fought at Bean's Station and Bull's
Gap, but suffered most from the inclement weather.
One of his worst experiences was the forced march from
Bull's Gap to Bristol, a distance of 90 miles, marching
barefooted in the snow and wading the ice-cold rivers,
with the mercury at zero. With Pickett's command he
took part in the capture of the blockhouses at New
Bern, and subsequently fought at Drewry's bluff against
Butler. In this battle his regiment was on the extreme
right, a very exposed position, and lost half its number
in killed and wounded. It is related by Gen. A. L.
Phillips, of Virginia, then an officer of Company D,
Fifteenth regiment, that two days before this battle the
company was on the picket line, and Private Anthony
and two comrades, sheltered behind a pine stump, found
themselves confronted by three Yankees about 75 yards
cistant, behind a rail fence. A miniature battle at
once ensued, and in the first exchange of volleys two on
each side were put out of action. Anthony was left
to fight on his side against the surviving enemy, and
they exchanged twenty-five rounds with the accuracy of
sharpshooters before Anthony's opponent was disabled.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 363

Later he fought on the Cold Harbor line against Grant
and participated in the recapture of the Hewlett house
fortifications. There, while at a vidette post he was cap
tured, September 24, 1864, and imprisoned at Point
Lookout until April 12, 1865. After the close of hostili
ties Mr. Anthony resided at Richmond until 1877, then
making his home permanently at Charlotte, where he is
a prominent merchant. He is conspicuous in industrial
circles as former president of the Alpha cotton mills and
president of the Cotton and Spinners' association. He is
a member of Mecklenburg camp, and has been active in
the organization of State troops. In 1882 he reorgan
ized the Hornet's Nest Riflemen, of which he was cap
tain two years, and was then made colonel of the Fourth
regiment, a rank he held for ten years. Colonel Anthony
was married in 1868 to Clara V. Flanhardt, of Rich
mond, and they have eleven children living.

Lieutenant Thomas Munroe Argo, a prominent attor
ney of Raleigh, N. C., is a native of McMinnville, Tenn.,
born in 1844. He was educated at Chapel Hill, and
immediately upon his graduation by the university, in the
spring of 1863, enlisted in the First North Carolina bat
talion of heavy artillery, and was commissioned second
lieutenant by Governor Vance. During his service he
engaged in several skirmishes on the coast and took part
in the heroic defense of Fort Fisher. In the famous fight
with the Federal fleet in January, 1865, he endured all
the sufferings of the gallant command of Colonel Lamb.
The blood was forced from his ears and nose by the ter
rible concussions of the bombardment, and he was struck
and slightly wounded by a fragment of shell. With the
survivors of the fight he was captured, and from then
until the latter part of March, 1865, was a prisoner of war
at Governor's island, N. Y. Though paroled he was
was not exchanged before the close of hostilities. He
then entered upon the study of law at Chapel Hill, under
William A. Battle, and being admitted to the practice in
1867, embarked in his professional career at Chapel
Hill. He took an active part in politics in the recon
struction period, and being elected to the legislature in
1868 from Orange county, served one term as a member
of the judiciary committee. In 1872 he removed to Ral
eigh, where he has subsequently resided. From 1886 to

364 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

1891 he ably discharged the duties of solicitor of the met
ropolitan district, comprising the counties of Wake,
Wayne, Johnson and Harriett.

Colonel John Ashford, of the Thirty-eighth regiment,
North Carolina troops, was born in North Carolina, Sep
tember 6, 1837. He entered the Confederate service as
captain of the "Sampson Plowboys," a volunteer com
pany he had organized in Sampson county, which became
Company D of the Thirty-eighth regiment, organized at
Camp Mangum, January 17, 1862, under Col. William J.
Hoke. The regiment served in North Carolina until
April, when it was ordered into Virginia and was first in
line of battle near Fredericksburg. In Fender's brigade
it participated in the Seven Days' battles before Rich
mond. At Cedar mountain Captain Ashford was in com
mand of his regiment, and was commended by General
Fender. On August 2ist he was promoted major. The
battle of Second Manassas followed, and in his report
General Fender wrote that "Capt. John Ashford, com
manding the Thirty-eighth, behaved with great coolness
and bravery. I had the misfortune to lose him on
account of a wound in the leg. ' ' After the battle of
Fredericksburg he was promoted lieutenant-colonel, and
in this rank at Chancellorsville he again won the especial
commendation of his general and the admiration of his
men. He was in command of the regiment while Col
onel Hoke was in charge of the brigade, and in the ter
rible slaughter of July ist at Gettysburg, in which his
brigade was reduced to a mere squad, he was among the
wounded. He was again on duty in the great battles of
the Wilderness and Spottsylvania, serving as colonel, to
which rank he was promoted when Colonel Hoke was
assigned to other duty on account of his wounds, received
at Gettysburg. He led his gallant regiment to the end,
participating in the battles at Reams' Station and the
Davis house, the fighting on the Petersburg lines, and
the battles at Sutherland's farm, April 2d, and Farm-
ville, April 7, 1865. His later life and his death were thus
referred to in the message of Gov. A. M. Scales of Jan
uary, 1889: "Within a few days past, the State has sus
tained a great loss in the death of a distinguished citizen
and his two sons, under circumstances of peculiar horror.
Col. John Ashford, at the call of his State, entered her

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 365

service, and fought through the late war to Appomattox,
with a gallantry and daring second to none in that
struggle. As a citizen he was no less distinguished than
as a soldier, devoting all the energies of his life to repair
ing the waste places of the land and restoring the State
to prosperity and happiness. His death is a calamity to
the whole State."

Lieutenant James W. Atkinson, of Fayetteville, was
born at that city, the son of John W. and Sarah (Gur-
gains) Atkinson. His father did honor to his native State
on the battlefields of two wars, serving in the Mexican
war in the company of Capt. Robert Mitchell, and in the
Confederate war with the Fifth regiment, State troops,
from the time of his enlistment in April, 1861, until he
was killed in 1864 at the battle of Cedar Creek. Lieu
tenant Atkinson enlisted in 1861 as a private in the com
pany of Capt. Robert Wooten, which became Company
G of the Thirty-third regiment, Lane's brigade, A. P.
Hill's division. In March, 1862, he was promoted ser
geant, and on May 9, 1864, was appointed color-bearer of
his regiment. At the close of the service he held the
rank of first lieutenant. He participated in many impor
tant battles, beginning with that at New Bern, March
14, 1862, and including the Seven Days' campaign before
Richmond, Cedar Run, Sharpsburg, Chancellorsville,
the Wilderness, Spottsylvania Court House, Hanover
Court House, Cold Harbor and the battles about Peters
burg. He was slightly wounded at Cold Harbor, 1862,
was shot through both hands at Sharpsburg on May 3,
1863, was shot through the hip at Chancellorsville, was
wounded in the leg at James' farm, near Petersburg,
and again at Reams' Station, while carrying the flag of
his regiment. At Hanover Court House he was captured
but made his escape the following night. He was sur
rendered at Appomattox and from there walked to his
home at Fayetteville. Since 1869 he has been engaged
in the transportation business and as local manager for
the Standard oil company. During one term he has served
as deputy United States marshal. He is esteemed by
his surviving comrades as a gallant and deserving soldier,
and by the community generally as a valuable citizen.
He has seven children living: Mary A., Herbert C.,
John A., Sarah K., Jane Augusta, Mattie and Hollie Lee.

366 CONFEDERA TE MILITAR Y HIS TOR Y.

Colonel John Wilder Atkinson of Wilmington, was
born in Lunenburg county, Va., in 1830, the son of
Rev. Thomas Atkinson, whose grandfather, a native of
England, settled upon the plantation known as Mansfield,
near Petersburg, in colonial times. Thomas Atkinson
married in 1828, became rector of Grace church, Balti
more, and in 1853 was chosen bishop of North Carolina,
an office which he filled with great distinction and use
fulness until his death, January 4, 1881. Colonel Atkin
son was reared and educated at Baltimore, and in 1852
was married to a daughter of Robert A. Mayo, of Rich
mond, Va. In 1 86 1 he entered the service of the Con
federate States as captain of a volunteer company which
was assigned, as Company A, to the Fifteenth Virginia
infantry. With this regiment he took part in the action
at Big Bethel in 1861, and at the battle of Seven Pines
served on the staff of General McLaws, who took occa
sion to mention his services in official report. He was
then promoted major and transferred to the Nineteenth
Virginia regiment of artillery. To this the Tenth Vir
ginia artillery was added in 1863, and he was promoted
to colonel of the consolidated command. He took part
in the Seven Days' campaign before Richmond, and sub
sequently remained on duty in the Richmond defenses,
where he was toward the last in frequent and arduous
service combating the Federal raids and defending the
city against regular siege. He took a prominent part in
the defeat of the raider Dahlgren, and buried the body of
that bloodily-disposed warrior. For some time he was
in command of the defenses about the Confederate cap
ital. His last battle was at Sailor's creek, where he was
captured. Thence he was taken to Johnson's island,
but was soon released without taking the oath, through
the influence of his kinsman, Gen. Winfield Scott. Since
1866 Colonel Atkinson has made his home at Wilmington,
where he is a popular citizen and successful business man.

Major Alphonso Calhoun Avery, justice of the supreme
court of North Carolina, was born at Morganton, Sep
tember ii, 1837. He took first honors at Chapel Hill,
read law with Chief Justice Pearson, and was subse
quently engaged in the practice of his profession until
the spring of 1861, when he entered the military service
of the State as first lieutenant of the second company

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 367

organized in Burke county, of which his brother, I. E.
Avery, was captain. This became Company E, Sixth
North Carolina regiment, with which he went to the
front in Virginia, and was complimented for gallantry at
the second battle of Manassas. In 1862 he was promoted
captain, and later was commissioned major and assistant
adjutant-general, in which capacity he was assigned to
the staff of Maj.-Gen. D. H. Hill, whom he accompanied
during the Chick amauga campaign, and afterward served
on the staffs of Breckinridge, Hindman and Hood.
Later in the course of the war he was given command of
a battalion in North Carolina, but was captured by
Stoneman's forces near Salisbury, and was held as a
prisoner of war until August, 1865. His civil career
since has been one of the most honorable prominence.
In 1866 he was elected to the State senate, and two years
later was returned but not permitted to take his seat, on
account of the reconstruction provisions. In 1875 ^e
represented Burke county in the constitutional conven
tion, and rendered valuable services; in 1876 was an
elector on the Democratic presidential ticket, and in 1878
was elected judge of the superior court for the Eighth
judicial district. After ten years' service in this capacity
he was elevated to the bench of the supreme court of the
State, where his talent and learning and ability as a jurist
have been of great service to the commonwealth. He
was married in 1861 to Susan W., daughter of Rev. R. H.
Morrison, granddaughter of Gen. Joseph Graham, and
sister of the widow of Gen. Stonewall Jackson. She died
in 1886, leaving children of whom three survive, Isaac
Erwin, Susan W., and Alphonso C. December 31, 1888,
Judge Avery was married to Sallie Love, daughter of
Col. W. H. Thomas, by whom he has a son, Lenoir, and
two daughters. Judge Avery is a son of Isaac Thomas
Avery, born in 1785, several times a member of the leg
islature, and an influential man of his period, whose wife
was Harriet, daughter of Col. W. W. Erwin. Isaac
Thomas was the son of Waightstill Avery, born in 1741,
a descendant of Christopher Avery, who emigrated from
England to Massachusetts in 1631. He studied law in
Maryland and came to North Carolina in 1769, served in
the provincial congresses of 1775 an(^ J776, was chosen
attorney-general in 1777, and made his home at Swan
Ponds, Burke county, in 1781. Three elder brothers of

368 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Judge Avery were distinguished in the Confederate serv
ice. Col. William Waightstill Avery, the eldest, born
May 25, 1816, was graduated at the university of North
Carolina, studied law with Judge Gaston, and began a
political career of considerable prominence as a State
rights Democrat. He often represented his county in
the legislature, was chairman of the North Carolina del
egation in the national conventions of 1856 and 1860, and
was a member of the provisional congress of the Confed
erate States. He lost his life in 1864 in the Confederate
service. An incursion into the State had been made
from Tennessee by a party led by Colonel Kirk, who had
been successful in capturing a body of recruits in camp,
and Colonel Avery, hastily gathering a body of militia,
started in pursuit. In attacking Kirk's force in a strong
position in the mountains, he was mortally wounded, and
died on July 3, 1864. Col. Clark Moulton Avery, next
in age, born October 3, 1819, was graduated at the State
university, and was elected to the convention of 1861.
He went into the military service as captain of the first
company organized in Burke county in 1861, which was
assigned to the First regiment of volunteers. He served
as captain at the battle of Big Bethel, and after the dis-
bandment of his regiment, was commissioned lieutenant-
colonel of the Thirty- third regiment. When his colonel,
L. O'B. Branch, was promoted to brigadier-general,
Avery became colonel in 1862. At New Bern in the
same year he was captured, with about half his com
mand, and imprisoned at Johnson's island, Ohio, until the
following October. Subsequently he commanded his
regiment, and took part in the battle of Gettysburg with
great credit, commanding Lane's brigade on the third
day, and again on the retreat, during which his regiment
was engaged in severe fighting. After surviving the
terrible carnage of the Wilderness in May, 1864, he was
fatally wounded on the i2th near Spottsylvania Court
House, while rallying his men to the defense of the
Confederate lines, broken by Hancock at the "bloody
angle. ' ' His left arm and right leg were both shattered.
He lived through the amputation of the first, but died
upon the removal of the second, June 19, 1864. By his
marriage to Elizabeth Tilghman Walton he left four
children. The third brother was Col. Isaac Erwin
Avery, of the Sixth regiment, who fell at Gettysburg.
His career is noted in another connection.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 369

Henry T. Bahnson, of Salem, N. C., was born March
4, 1845. He is the son of Rt. Rev. G. F. Bahnson,
bishop of Southern province of Moravian church, and was
educated at Nazareth hall and college, Bethlehem, Pa.
In December, 1862, he volunteered as a private in Com
pany G, Second North Carolina battalion of infantry.
With this command he participated in the battle of Get
tysburg, where he was captured. He was imprisoned in
Baltimore city jail and at Point Lookout, Md., until Jan
uary, 1864, when he was exchanged. He was in all the
battles in which his battalion was engaged, from the Rap-
idan to the James. In November, 1864, he was trans
ferred to Company B, First North Carolina battalion of
sharpshooters, and served in that command to the sur
render at Appomattox. During the last fighting he was
appointed captain of the sharpshooters of General Grimes'
brigade, but as this promotion came too late in the war
for him to receive a commission, he claims that it does
not invalidate his boast of being the only private who
survived. After the war closed he studied medicine at
the university of Pennsylvania, where he graduated in
1867. He then spent two years in study in Germany
and Holland, after which he returned to his old home in
Salem, N. C. , where he is now engaged in the practice
of his profession.

Lieutenant William Hall. Bailey, a merchant and
prominent citizen of Mocksville, N. C. , was born at that
place June 22, 1843, and enlisted in the Confederate
service March 26, 1862, as a private in Company F of the
Forty-second regiment, under Col. John E. Brown. He
served in North Carolina with this command and partici
pated in various skirmishes, as well as taking part in the
famous victory at Plymouth under General Hoke, and
then with Martin's brigade went to the assistance of the
army of Northern Virginia in its fight against Grant.
He took part in the defeat of Butler at Bermuda Hun
dred, the repulse of Grant at Cold Harbor and the subse
quent check given the Federal advance against Peters
burg, and served on the Petersburg lines and on the north
side of the James until ordered to Wilmington and Fort
Fisher. After the fall of the latter stronghold, he par
ticipated in the operations against Sherman and Schofield,
fighting at Kinston and Bentonville, and finally sharing

370 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

the surrender of the army at Greensboro. His faithful
and gallant service led to his early promotion to orderly-
sergeant and later to second lieutenant of his com
pany. After the close of hostilities he engaged in
farming until 1870, when he embarked in a mercantile
career at Mocksville, in which he has met with deserved
success.

John B. Baker, of Goldsboro, a veteran well remem
bered by the comrades of the Twenty-seventh regiment,
North Carolina troops, is a native of Wayne county, born
in 1842. He enlisted in the service of the State April
15, 1 86 1, as a private in the Goldsboro Rifles, which
became Company A of the Twenty-seventh regiment,
and was at the front with this command until near the
close of the war. He participated in the battles of New
Bern, Malvern Hill, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Bris-
toe Station, the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Second Cold
Harbor, White Oak Swamp and Reams' Station, and the
fighting around Petersburg and Richmond during the
siege until about a month before the surrender of the
army, when he was captured in a fight on the rail
road near Petersburg, and sent to Hart's island, N. Y.
He remained a prisoner of war until the conclusion
of hostilities. Since then he has been a citizen of
Wayne county, except two years which he spent in
Texas.

Joseph Henry Baker, M. D., of Tarboro, formerly
of the medical service of the Confederate States army,
was born in Edgecombe county in December, 1831. He
was educated at Louisburg and in the university at
Chapel Hill, and was graduated in medicine at the uni
versity of Pennsylvania in 1854. Embarking then in the
practice of his profession at Tarboro, he was thus
occupied until, in April, 1861, he enlisted in the State
military service, and accompanied the Edgecombe Guards
as surgeon to their first rendezvous. At Raleigh the
company was assigned to the First regiment of volun
teers, and he was commissioned first assistant surgeon.
In this capacity he was at the famous engagement at Big
Bethel on the Virginia peninsula, and continued with
the regiment until it was disbanded, when he was
assigned to the hospital at Tarboro, as surgeon in

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 371

charge. He remained on duty there until the close of
the war, also being present at the battle of Plymouth.
Subsequently resuming his practice at Tarboro, he has
had a very successful career in his profession. He has
also taken an active part in public affairs, as an alderman
of his city, as mayor two terms (and is also present
mayor), as a delegate to the constitutional convention of
1868, and as a member of the house of commons, in
which body his father and grandfather also served in
their day as representative of Edgecombe county. Edge-
combe county has been represented in the State legislature
by four generations of the Baker family. By his marriage
in 1855 to Susan A. Foxhall, who died in 1873, he has
four children : Frank S. , Dr. Julian M. , Thomas A. , and
Joseph H., Jr. In 1874 he married Ida, daughter of
ex-Gov. Charles Manly, and they have two children,
Ida H. and William M.

Captain Virginius Ballard, a well-known business man
of Durham, entered the Confederate service early in 1861
as a private in Hedrick's artillery. With this command
he served for a short time at Wilmington, and then, on
account of his superior business capacity, was trans
ferred to important duties in the quartermaster's depart
ment at Weldon, and a few months later removed to
Raleigh. During the remainder of the war he discharged
the duties of paymaster, and by his efficient and faithful
services won the approbation of his superiors in com
mand. For a considerable time he held the rank of cap
tain of the City battalion of Raleigh, and moved with his
company to Wilmington just before the fall of Fort
Fisher. Subsequently he was ordered back to Raleigh.
Captain Ballard is a native of Northampton county and
son of Jethro Ballard, a leading business man. He was
educated at St. Timothy's hall, near Baltimore, and then
embarked in a commercial career as bookkeeper. After
his removal to Durham he became chief clerk of W. T.
Blackwell, and as trustee settled the affairs of Colonel
Blackwell with entire satisfaction to all concerned. Sub
sequently he was trustee for the settlement of the estate
of B. L. Duke. He has also held the position of treasurer
of Trinity college, is secretary of the board of trustees of
that institution, and manager of the Durham electric light
company.

Nc 47

372 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Captain Calvin Barnes, of Wilson, N. C., was born at
that place in 1839, and educated at Chapel Hill, where
he was graduated in 1861. In April, 1861, he enlisted in
Company B of the Second regiment, North Carolina
State troops, and went into service as second lieutenant
of his company. He was promoted first lieutenant, and
then captain of Company A during his first year's service.
In the spring of 1862 the regiment went to Goldsboro,
N. C. They were taken to Wilmington and soon after
his command became Company H of the Fortieth regi
ment, heavy artillery, and he continued in the rank of
captain. He was assigned to duty at Fort Anderson, on
Cape Fear river, until the summer of 1863, and after
ward was detailed successively to Fort Johnson, Smith's
island and Reeves' point, where his company built forti
fications and served on garrison duty. During the at
tacks on Fort Fisher he was on scouting duty at the point
opposite, and he was subsequently on scouting duty for
General Hebert, rendering valuable and dangerous serv
ice, at times within the enemy's lines. During the retreat
to Goldsboro he acted as major of his command, and in
that rank took part in the battles of Kinston and Benton-
ville. His four years' service was ended by the surren
der of Johnston's army, at Greensboro, N. C., but he did
not participate in that event and has never given his
parole. In 1865, Captain Barnes was married to Mrs. Mary

A. Sterett (nee Bensell), and engaged in farming in Wil
son county. Since 1875 he has resided at Wilson, and
for twenty-five years has held the office of magistrate.
He has three children living: Kate, James D. and Allie

B. A brother of the foregoing, John Barnes, enlisted in
Company H of the Fortieth regiment in 1864, and sur
rendered at Bentonville.

Lieutenant Frank W. Barnes, in recent years a pros
perous citizen of Wilson, N. C., did faithful service
throughout the war as an officer of the Fourth North
Carolina cavalry. He was born in that part of Edge-
combe which is now Wilson county, in 1844, and in
August, 1862, at eighteen years of age, enlisted in the
Fifty-ninth regiment, or Fourth cavalry, Col. Dennis R.
Ferrebee, Robertson's brigade. He first served as
orderly-sergeant of his company, and eighteen months
later was promoted second lieutenant of Company H.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 373

During his career with this gallant command he took
part in the engagement at Little Washington, N. C.,
and in Virginia next was in the fights at Brandy
Station, Middleburg, Upperville and Paris. During the
battle of Gettysburg he was detailed to take charge of
prisoners. Subsequently he took part in the cavalry
affairs near Gordonsville, at Stevensburg, and the en
gagements about Petersburg, with the brigade com
manded by General Dearing and finally by General Rob
erts. His health giving way he was in hospital at Wilson
in April, 1865, and was captured there, but escaped a
few hours later en route to Goldsboro. Since the close
of hostilities he has been engaged in the management of
his agricultural interests in Wilson county, and the con
duct of the First national bank of Wilson, of which he
was vice-president in 1874, president from 1875 to 1897,
and since then again vice-president. In 1869 Mr. Barnes
was married to Mattie Bynum, and they have three chil
dren living: Elizabeth, wife of Floyd S. Davis; Alice B.,
wife of Dr. E. K. Wright, and Robert Barnes.

John Daniel Barries, of Concord, editor of the Concord
Standard, was born in Cabarrus county, September 16,
1844, the son of David Barries, and descendant of Ger
man ancestors who came to North Carolina from Penn
sylvania about the time of the revolution. He was
reared upon the farm and educated in the North Caro
lina college. He enlisted in July, 1862, as a private in
Captain Cannon's company, which became Company F,
Fifty-seventh regiment, State troops, and was promoted
to corporal in 1863, and to color-bearer of the regiment
in 1864. He was identified with the record of Law's
brigade, Hood's division, Longs treet's corps, and was
distinguished for gallantry. Among the battles in which
he participated were Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville,
Lynchburg, Monocacy, Strasburg, Cedar Creek and
Hatcher's Run. While with the skirmish line driving
the Federals from Charlestown to Harper's Ferry, he had
his most enjoyable experience in warfare. He was
slightly wounded at Winchester by a shell, receiving a
bayonet wound at Rappahannock bridge, and a gunshot
wound in the left shoulder at Petersburg. Three times
he was a prisoner of war, first for about three weeks at Fort
Delaware, after his capture at Fredericksburg; next at

374 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Point Lookout four months after the disaster at Rappa-
hannock bridge, and finally fell into the enemy's hands
while lying wounded at Richmond, in April, 1865, and
was held until July. He is now one of the prominent men
of his county and quite successful in the field of journalism.

Colonel John Decatur Barry, Eighteenth regiment,
North Carolina troops, was born at Wilmington, Jan
uary 21, 1839. His father was John A. Barry, a native
of Philadelphia, a graduate of the United States naval
academy, and in later life a member of the firm of Barry
& Bryant, at Wilmington; and his mother was Mary,
daughter of Gen. James Owen. Colonel Barry was grad
uated with honor at the university of North Carolina in
1859, and in November, 1861, enlisted as a private in the
Wilmington Rifle Guards, at Coosawhatchie. At the
reorganization in May, 1862, at Kinston, he was elected
captain of Company I, and soon after the battle of Fred-
ericksburg he was promoted to major for gallantry and
efficiency. Following the next great battle, Chancellors-
ville, where Colonel Purdy was killed, he was promoted
to the command of the regiment. As captain he partici
pated in the engagements at Hanover Court House, the
Seven Days before Richmond, Cedar Run, Second Ma-
nassas and Fredericksburg ; as major in the battle of
Chancellorsville, and as colonel of the Eighteenth he was
distinguished at Gettysburg, Mine Run, the Wilderness,
Spottsylvania Court House, South Anna River, Fussell's
Mill, Gravelly Run, Games' Mill, Jones House, Hatcher's
Run, served in the defense of Petersburg, and after its
evacuation surrendered with Lee at Appomattox. He
never received a commission as brigadier-general though
recommended for that richly-deserved promotion. After
the close of hostilities he was editor and proprietor of
the Wilmington Dispatch, one of the leading Democratic
papers at Wilmington, until his death, March 24, 1867.
In 1863 Colonel Barry was married to Miss Fannie Jones,
of Hampton, Va., a sister of Pembroke Jones of the United
States navy, and Tom Jones of the old United States army.

Alexander N. Basket, of Henderson, a veteran of the
engineer corps of the Confederate States army, was born
in Vance county in 1827, son of Pleasant Basket, a sol
dier of the war of 1812. He was educated in the schools

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 375

of the county and was occupied in farming until the
beginning of the war of the Confederacy. He enlisted
in the spring of 1861 and was assigned to duty in the
quartermaster department, where he served for a period
of about nine months. In March, 1862, he became a
member of the Second regiment of engineers, C. S. A.
His command, under Captain James, was stationed on
the North Carolina coast and was engaged in the erec
tion of fortifications at Fort Fisher, Wrightsville and
various other points. In this duty he continued through
out the four years' struggle and finally was surrendered
at Chesterfield, S. C., then being under the command of
General Bragg. He attained the rank of sergeant of his
company and frequently was in charge of important
duties. At Wilmington he participated in the battle
which preceded its evacuation. Returning to his home
after the conclusion of hostilities, he found his property
in a devastated condition, but he bravely entered upon the
work of repairing the damages of war, and is now one of
the most successful farmers of his county. He is a mem
ber of Wyatt camp, United Confederate Veterans. He was
married in 1857 to Dinah T. Burroughs, who died in 1894.
His only living child, Joseph H. Basket, who resides with
his father, was married in 1889 to Lucy J. Burroughs.

Lieutenant Dossey Battle, of Rocky Mount, promi
nently known as an attorney, is a native of Edgecombe
county, born in 1842. He was educated in the State
university at Chapel Hill, but abandoned his studies,
after completing three years of the course, to enlist in the
Confederate cause. On June 8, 1861, he became a pri
vate in Company B of the Second North Carolina volun
teer infantry, afterward numbered as the Twelfth regi
ment of State troops. While with this command he was
promoted to sergeant of Company H in January, 1863,
and sergeant-major of the regiment in March following.
In August of that year he was transferred to the Seventh
regiment and commissioned second lieutenant of Com
pany A. On August 25, 1864, he was promoted first lieu
tenant of Company I, acted adjutant of one regiment for
several months, and was then detailed for duty as aide-
de-camp to Gen. W. G. Lewis, commanding Hoke's old
brigade, and in that capacity was paroled at Appomattox.
During his service he participated in all the battles of

376 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

the army of Northern Virginia except South Mountain
and Sharpsburg, the list in which he took part including
the famous names of the Seven Days', Fredericksburg,
Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, and Spott-
sylvania Court House. He was slightly wounded at
Chancellorsville, on the night when Gen. Stonewall
Jackson received his fatal hurt. Returning to Rocky
Mount after the close of hostilities, Lieutenant Battle
began the study of law at Chapel Hill in 1866, and being
admitted to the superior court bar in January, 1868, em
barked in the practice. In 1875 he purchased a half
interest in the Tarboro Southerner, and removing to
that place, in 1877, edited that journal, also continuing
his practice until 1894, when he returned to Rocky
Mount, where he has subsequently resided and devoted
himself to the legal profession. While connected with
journalism he was for two years, 1879-80, president of
the North Carolina press association. He has always
been active in political affairs as a Democrat. He is the
author and secured the passage of the law forbidding
cruelty to animals, not before on the statute books of the
State. In September, 1898, he was nominated by accla
mation for the judgeship of the First criminal circuit of
North Carolina, by the Democratic convention, which
met in Fayetteville, and was elected in November follow
ing by a majority of 2, 759. He was commissioned by the
governor and qualified before Associate Justice Clark of
the supreme court, on November soth, and at once
entered upon the duties of the office, holding his first
court at Halifax on December 5th. The counties com
posing the First criminal circuit are Mecklenburg, Robe-
son, New Hanover, Cumberland, Craven, Wilson, Nash,
Edgecombe, Halifax and Warren.

Lieutenant Richard Henry Battle, of Raleigh, was
born at Louisburg, N. C., December 3, 1835. He was
graduated with honors at Chapel Hill in 1854, served there
four years as an instructor in Greek and mathematics,
and in 1858 began his career as a lawyer at Wadesboro.
In the winter of 1861-62 he aided in the organization of a
company for the Forty-third North Carolina infantry
regiment, of which he was elected first lieutenant. With
his regiment, in Daniel's brigade, he was under fire at
Malvern hill, and afterward served at Drewry's bluff

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 377

until September, 1862, when, being acting quartermaster,
he resigned on account of failing health, and became
the private secretary of Gov. Z. B. Vance. He was
associated with the famous war governor in this capacity
for two years, and was then appointed auditor of State in
1864. After the fall of the Confederate government he
resumed his practice of law, making his home at Raleigh,
where he has been for many years prominent in his pro
fession and influential in public affairs.

J. B. Beal, a prominent manufacturer at Gastonia, was
born in Lincoln county, N. C., in 1843, the son of Chris
topher Beal. At the outbreak of the war of the Confed
eracy he volunteered for military service, but, having
recently sustained an injury which crippled one of his
arms, he was at that time rejected. Still desirous of
serving for the cause, he succeeded in enlisting early in
the year 1862 as a private in Company D, Twenty-third
regiment North Carolina troops. With this command
he served in Virginia until, on account of his disability
which still existed, he was detailed for hospital duty, and
ten months later was honorably discharged. After re
maining at home a large part of the year he returned to
the Twenty -third regiment and became a private in Com
pany B. He participated in the Shenandoah Valley cam
paign of 1864 and served on the Petersburg lines a short
time. Then he was detached and assigned to duty in the
hospital at Danville, where he remained until the close
of hostilities. After his return to North Carolina he
embarked in an active and industrious career which has
brought him notable success and aided materially in the
development of the manufacturing industries of his State.
He was the organizer of the Beal manufacturing company,
and with other enterprising citizens under the firm style of
Beal & Hinson, is the manager of the Gaston iron works.
He has other manufacturing interests and is a director of
the Modena cotton mills. By his marriage in 1869 to Sarah
Hallman, he has three children, Mary Ida, wife of B. E.
Long ; Dora E. , wife of J. S. Barnwell ; and John Lawrence.

Marsden Bellamy, for many years a leading lawyer
and county attorney at Wilmington, was born at that
city, January 14, 1843, the son °f Dr. John D. Bellamy,
a prominent physician and citizen. He was educated at

378 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Chapel Hill, but left the university in July, 1861, to
enter the service of his State. He was first a member
of the Scotland Neck cavalry, an independent company
of cavalry, which had many interesting and dangerous
experiences and brisk skirmishes with the enemy in
northeast North Carolina and southeast Virginia. After
about a year of this service he was appointed commissary
sergeant of the Third North Carolina cavalry, a position
he held for about six months. He was then appointed
assistant paymaster in the Confederate States navy, and
in this capacity served until the close of hostilities, first
at Richmond, but mainly at Charleston, S. C., which he
left upon the evacuation. Subsequently he was at Rich
mond, accompanied the army to Appomattox Court House
and thence made his way to Danville and on to Haw River,
N. C. , escaping the surrender. Afterward he resumed his
studies at Chapel Hill, was graduated in law in 1866, and
was admitted to the practice in January, 1867.

William James Harriss Bellamy, M. D., a distinguished
physician of Wilmington, was born at that city in 1844,
the son of Dr. John D. Bellamy and his wife, Eliza M.,
daughter of Dr. William J. Harriss. He entered the
university at Chapel Hill in 1860, but abandoned his
studies in the summer of 1861 to enlist as a private in
Company I of the Eighteenth North Carolina infantry,
with which he served in Virginia, participating in the
battles of Hanover Court House, Williamsburg and the
Seven Days' campaign, receiving slight wounds in the
shoulder and knee at Games' Mill. In the latter part of
August, 1862, his year's enlistment having expired, he
enlisted in the Confederate navy, but a day later fur
nished a substitute and returned to Chapel Hill. After
studying half a session, he organized a company of
mounted men for home defense in Brunswick county, and,
reporting to General Bragg, was assigned to coast duty,
in which he served with the rank of captain until the
close of hostilities, surrendering near Raleigh after the
capitulation of General Johnston. Then, being about
twenty-one years of age, he entered upon the study of
medicine at New York city, and was graduated at the
university of New York in March, 1868, immediately
after which he began his long and successful professional
career at Wilmington. While in college he was a mem-

CONFEDERA TE MILITARY HISTORY. 379

her of the "Aylette" quiz class and received his diploma.
He was also a member of Professor Loomis' private class
in physical diagnosis in Bellevue hospital. He served on
the board of State medical examiners from 1884 to 1890,
and has held the offices of president and secretary of the
county medical society. In 1869 he was married to Mary
W. Russell, of Wilmington, and they have six children.
He has been a member of the North Carolina medical
society since 1870, and has been, since its organization,
on the board of regents of the Wilmington city hospital.
He has been State medical examiner for the Knights of
Honor for fourteen years and grand dictator of same
for 1878 and 1879. He is examiner for several large life
insurance companies.

Captain David N. Bennett, of Norwood, a survivor of
the gallant Fourteenth regiment, was born in Chester
field county, son of Archie E. and Mary Crawford Ben
nett. His mother's father, David Crawford, was a soldier
of the war of 1812, and her grandfather, Jackson, held
the rank of general in the revolutionary army. With
such a patriotic strain in his blood it is not a matter of
surprise that young Bennett was among the early volun
teers for the war of the Confederacy, though but sixteen
years of age. His enlistment was in the Anson Guards,
Capt. C. E. Smith, a volunteer organization which be
came Company C of the Fourteenth regiment, State
troops, of which Junius Daniel was the first colonel.
When the latter was succeeded by W. P. Roberts,
R. Tyler Bennett became lieutenant-colonel. He enlisted
as a private and in 1862 was elected sergeant, and in
1863 appointed ordnance-sergeant, but after serving in
that capacity five months, he voluntarily resigned, feel
ing that it was his duty to stay with the men in the ranks
as a private soldier. He was distinguished for bravery
on many fields. During the service in southeastern Vir
ginia, when the regiment was in line of battle under
heavy fire, and the men were ordered to lie down and
two volunteers were called for to go forward and draw
the enemy's fire, he and William A. Maner were the dar
ing men who stepped forward. His courage was men
tioned in orders ?.nd he was recommended for promotion.
At Seven Pines, through the Seven Days' campaign, the
Maryland campaign, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville,

380 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Gettysburg, Kelly's ford, and the campaigns of 1864, he
shared the glorious record of his regiment. In 1864,
near Charleston, he was shot through the hip and left on
the battlefield to die, but fortunately recovered. After
the close of the war he was elected to the captaincy of
his old company. Since the close of hostilities he has
been engaged in mercantile pursuits and in farming. As
a magistrate he was one of the first Democrats elected to
office in his county after the war, and in 1883, 1885 and
1887 he was elected to the legislature of the State. In
1894 he was appointed a director of the State peniten
tiary, an office which he held for three years. Captain
Bennett was married in 1866 to Agnes C., daughter of
Benjamin I. Dunlap, and has six children, John T.,
Crawford D., Burt E., Mary E., Irene L., and David N.
Bennett.

Captain Frank Bennett, a prosperous farmer of Anson
county, was born at Paris, N. C., in December, 1839.
His father, Lemuel Dunn Bennett, was the son of Wil
liam Bennett, a native of North Carolina; his mother,
Jane Little, was the daughter of William Little, a native
of England. Captain Bennett was reared in his native
county, completed his education at King's mountain mil
itary school, Yorkville, S. C. , and then engaged in farm
ing with his home at Paris, but soon answered the call of
his State in the spring of 1861, for armed forces to
defend her soil and maintain the Confederate Union.
He enlisted in May, 1861, as orderly-sergeant of Com
pany A, Twenty-third North Carolina regiment, and was
promoted captain of his company May 2, 1862. From
that date he led his men through all the battles of Early 's
brigade, participating in the famous campaigns of the
army of Northern Virginia with credit to himself and
the State which he and his brave comrades represented.
He was wounded four times, first in the right knee at the
battle of Seven Pines. At Hatcher's run he was yet
more severely wounded, losing his left arm. The list
of battles in which he bore an honorable part would be
a long one; conspicuous in the list are the bloody
struggles of Chancellorsville (where he was wounded in the
right leg) and the Wilderness (wounded in the left leg).
Finally surrendered at Appomattox he came immediately
to his home, and resumed the occupations of peace, sor-

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 381

rowing for the fall of the government for which he
fought, but realizing that he could now best serve it by
making the wilderness which war had left bloom again
as the rose. His exertions have been amply rewarded in
the prosperity of his region and his own handsome estate.
On June 8, 1876, Captain Bennett was married in Baker
county, Ga. , to Elizabeth Curry, a relative of Dr. J. L. M.
Curry, and their home has been blessed with two chil
dren, Frank and Lizzie Curry Bennett.

William H. Bernard, editor of the Wilmington Star,
conspicuous among the newspapers of North Carolina,
was born at Petersburg, Va., in January, 1837, and was
reared and educated at Richmond. He is the son of
Peter D. Bernard, a native of Goochland county, Va.,
who was a journalist of Richmond ; and is the grandson
of a soldier of the revolution, who died from wounds
received at Brandy wine. In 1855 Mr. Bernard went to
Texas, but three years later returned to Virginia, and in
1859 was married to Maggie Stedman of Fayetteville,
N. C. Then, making his home at Helena, Ark., he re
mained there until March, 1861, when he came to Fay
etteville and enlisted in Company H, First regiment
North Carolina volunteers. With this regiment, famous
for fighting the first battle of the war, he was in the
engagement at Big Bethel, and, after its disbandment,
he was debarred from further service on account of
physical disability. He was subsequently connected with
the Presbyterian and the Daily Telegraph at Fayetteville,
and in 1865 was one of the founders of the Wilmington
Dispatch, which he left soon afterward to establish the
Wilmington Star in 1867. Mr. Bernard is a man of
influence in public affairs and is a member of the Demo
cratic State committee.

William G. Berryhill, of Charlotte, a veteran of the
Bethel regiment and the Forty-seventh North Carolina,
was born in Charlotte in 1842. His father, Jefferson J.
Berryhill, was killed in a railway collision in 1863, while
returning from a visit to his son, then stationed between
Petersburg and Richmond. He entered the Confederate
service as a private in the Charlotte Grays, which became
Company C of the First regiment, under Col. D. H.
Hill. He accompanied his regiment to the Virginia pen-

382 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

insula and shared its six months' service, including the
famous first battle of Big Bethel, and, after his return
home, re-enlisted in Company K of the Forty-fifth regi
ment, in which he had the rank of sergeant. He was
with this regiment throughout its service in North Caro
lina and Virginia, participating in a number of engage
ments, among them the famous ones of the Wilderness
and Spottsylvania, with the army under Lee, and Win
chester and Fisher's Hill under Early in the Shenandoah
valley. He was wounded in the right hand at Spottsyl
vania, and at Fisher's hill, September 22, 1864, was cap
tured by the Federals. Until March, 1865, he was a pris
oner of war at Point Lookout, Md., and after his return
to Confederate territory he had no opportunity for
further military service. Since then he has been engaged
in business at Charlotte, with much success financially,
and is a highly respected citizen. He is held in warm
regard by his comrades of the Mecklenburg camp,
United Confederate Veterans, and has served two terms
as an alderman of the city. By his marriage in November,
1867, to Amanda J. Roark, of Shelby, he has one son,
William Montrose Berryhill.

Lieutenant James W. Biddle, of New Bern, a veteran
of the famous First North Carolina cavalry, was born in
Craven county, N. C., in 1840, and was educated in the
schools of his county and at Wake Forest college. In
April, 1 86 1, he enlisted in the cavalry company of Capt.
Thomas Rufnn, which was mustered in as Company H
of the First cavalry, under Col. Robert Ransom. He
served in the ranks until the spring of 1864, when he was
elected second lieutenant, in which rank he commanded
his company near the close of the war. He was identi
fied with the history of his regiment throughout its entire
career, taking part in the first cavalry fight at Dranes-
ville, the Seven Days' campaign before Richmond, the
several engagements at Brandy Station, including the
famous battle of June 9, 1863, Upperville, the fierce cav
alry fight on the third day at Gettysburg, the cavalry
actions during the bloody struggle in the Wilderness and
about Spottsylvania, the various battles about Petersburg
and during the retreat to Appomattox, and many other
engagements in which his regiment was conspicuous.
Escaping with the cavalry from the field of Appomattox

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 383

he was paroled in May at Louisburg, N. C. Subse
quently, with the exception of two years in Georgia, he
was engaged in farming in Craven county until 1889,
when he was appointed clerk in the sheriff's office at
New Bern. From 1890 until December, 1896, he held the
office of register of deeds of the county, and since then
has been teller of the Farmers and Merchants' bank. His
brother, Samuel S. Biddlo, inspired by the same patriotic
devotion, served as captain in the Sixty-first North Caro
lina infantry through the war, and died in 1868.

William DeWitt Biggers, of Lexington, N. C. , was born
in Rowan county, November 20, 1842, and entered the
Confederate service early in 1 86 1 as a private in Company
B of the Fourth regiment, with which Gen. George B.
Anderson went out as colonel in July. The regiment
reported to General Beauregard at Manassas Junction,
Va., after the first battle there, and in the spring of 1862
served in the defense of Yorktown, after the evacuation
of that point fighting against the Federal advance at
Seven Pines. In the latter famous encounter, Corporal
Biggers was severely wounded in the left hip, which dis
abled him for further service as a soldier, and he was
honorably discharged. Since the close of this honorable
military career he has occupied the office of deputy clerk
of the superior court of Davidson county for about ten
years, and for many years has been prominently associ
ated with the business development of his city as cashier
of the bank of Lexington.

Captain John D. Biggs, Sixty-'first North Carolina reg
iment, now prominent in the lumber industry at Wil-
liamston, was born in Martin county in 1839. On Novem
ber 4, 1 86 1, he enlisted in Company H of the Sixty-first
regiment, and was made first sergeant. On May i, 1862,
he was elected first lieutenant, and on May 30, 1864, was
promoted captain of his company. During 1862 and 1863
he served with the troops engaged in the defense of
North Carolina, going into battle during Foster's raid in
October, 1862, and at Kinston in November of the same
year. In Clingman's brigade of Hoke's division he took
part in the battle of Drewry's Bluff in May, 1864, at Cold
Harbor, in the fighting about Petersburg up to and includ
ing the battle of the Crater, the battle of Fort Harrison,

384 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

October, 1864, and then returning to North Carolina par
ticipated in the operations about Fort Fisher and Wil
mington, fought at Kinston in March, 1865, and at the
battle of Bentonville was severely wounded by a minie
ball in the right thigh, disabling him for two months.
Upon his recovery the war was at an end, and he soon
afterward engaged in mercantile pursuits, which occupied
him until 1890, when he embarked in the lumber busi
ness. He is now secretary and treasurer of the Dennis
Simmons lumber company. He has served as commis
sioner of his county, and is a director of the insane
asylum. In 1871 Captain Biggs was married to Fanny,
daughter of John Alexander, of Terrell county, and they
have five children, Dennis S., Patty A., wife of A.
Crawford, John D. , Harry and Carrie A.

Noah Biggs, a worthy citizen of Scotland Neck, Va. , is
one of four brothers who entered the military service of
the Confederate States, one of whom was killed at the
first battle of Manassas. He was born near Williams-
ton, June 9, 1842, and was educated in the old field
schools. On May 20, 1861, he enlisted in a volunteer
company which at a later date became Company A,
Seventeenth regiment, State troops. In August follow
ing, the entire command was captured by the Federal
invasion at Hatteras island, but this disaster he fortun
ately escaped by being absent on furlough. He then
joined the Scotland Neck mounted riflemen, afterward
Company G, Third North Carolina cavalry, and served
with this command until 1863, when he was transferred
to Company H, Sixty-first infantry, of which his brother,
John D. Biggs, was captain. He was connected with
this regiment during the remainder of the war. In Vir
ginia he participated in the fighting of Clingman's bri
gade of Hoke's division, at Bermuda Hundred, Second
Cold Harbor, Fort Harrison, the battle of the Crater, and
other operations about Petersburg, including many
months in the trenches, and then in North Carolina was
in the engagement at Wilmington, at Kinston and the
battle of Bentonville, and was surrendered with the army
of General Johnston. Soon after the return of peace he
embarked in mercantile life as a clerk at Scotland Neck,
rising in 1869 to the position of proprietor of a store of
his own, and for fifteen years he conducted a very sue-

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 385

cessful business. His recent years have been given to
retirement and to beneficent deeds that have crowned his
life with the affectionate regard of his fellow men. He
is one of the founders and a trustee of the Baptist orphan
asylum at Thomasville. Since 1883 he has been a mem
ber of the board of trustees of Wake Forest college.
He was married, April 22, 1873, to Mary Lawrence, of
Halifax county, and they have one daughter, Annie.

James Cooke Birdsong, of Raleigh, State librarian from
1885 to 1893, rendered his military service in a regiment
of Virginia, of which State he is a native, born in South
ampton county in 1842. He enlisted April 20, 1861, as
a private in Company B, Twelfth Virginia regiment,
Mahone's brigade, and served as a private until the end
of the war. He was in battle at Seven Pines and Second
Manassas, and was then in hospital until the first of 1862.
At Chancellorsville he was captured and thence taken to
the Old Capitol prison, but paroled twenty days later and
exchanged in September, 1863. In the battle of Cold
Harbor, 1864, he was shot in the right shoulder and dis
abled until early in 1865. Other battles in which he par
ticipated were Brandy Station, Hatcher's Run, Burgess'
Mill and Farmville. Finall)7 he was paroled at Appomat-
tox. He has resided at Raleigh since 1866, engaged in
the printing business when not in official service. From
1876 to 1897 he filled the position of examiner of State
printing. In 1893 he published a volume of " Brief
Sketches" of the North Carolina troops, compiled by him
under the direction of the general assembly.

George Bishop, of New Bern, was born at that city in
August, 1824, the son of Samuel Bishop, a native of
Craven county, born in 1792, who served with the North
Carolina troops in the war of 1812. Beginning in 1850,
Mr. Bishop was engaged in wood manufacture at New
Bern. In 1847 he married Eliza B. Good, of that
city, who died in 1849, and in December, 1851, he was
married to Eliza Jane Kilpatrick, of Suffolk, Va. His
business was diverted in 1860 to the manufacture of war
supplies for the State, such as ambulances and camp
fixtures, and in addition to this service he became a mem
ber of the Athens Guards, organized at New Bern, which
was mustered in under the command of Col. Henry J. B.

386 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Clark. After six months' service he was detailed to
manufacture camp and ordnance material, and was so
engaged at New Bern until the battle there, in which he
took part with his regiment. He was subsequently
engaged in the manufacture of wood canteens for the
army until December, 1863, when he contracted to furnish
supplies for the Atlantic & North Carolina railroad at
Goldsboro. Since December, 1865, he has been a resident
of New Bern. By his second marriage he has eight
children living: Edward K., Julia A., wife of J. W. Small-
wood, Eliza J., wife of Green Bryan, Susan Caroline and
Mary Virginia (twins, born September 10, 1862), Robert
Hoke, Samuel Cooper, William Herbert.

Colonel Charles Christopher Blacknall was born in
Granville county, N. C., December 4, 1830. Through
his grandfather, Thomas Blacknall, the boy soldier of the
revolution, and his great-great-grandfather, the Rev.
John Blacknall, one of the first Episcopal clergymen to
officiate in North Carolina, his line has been traced back
through fifteen generations of English gentlemen to the
Blacknalls of Wing, Buckinghamshire, whose armorial
bearings were old when Columbus sailed to discover the
new world. The Blacknalls have ever been quick to
draw the sword in defense of liberty. In the revolution
the family sent its two male members, mere lads, into the
patriot ranks. With eleven members of military age it
sent fourteen into the Confederate service, and gave five
lives for Southern independence. In 1851 Colonel Black-
nail married Miss Virginia Spencer. He had prepared
himself for the law, but, although an effective speaker,
and by nature fitted to succeed in intellectual rather
than practical pursuits, by some perversity of circum
stance he became a merchant instead of a lawyer. Tak
ing deep interest in the political contest that ended in
war, and fully convinced that the safety of the South lay
in separation from the North, he was necessarily and log
ically a secessionist. When the war came on he devoted
himself to the defense of the South with an ardor not
surpassed by any of his contemporaries, and which flagged
not while he lived. In May, 1861, he raised, and was
elected captain of the Granville Riflemen, which became
Company G of the Thirteenth, afterward known as the
Twenty-third North Carolina volunteers. In June, 1862,

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 387

he was promoted to major, and in August, 1863, to col
onel. On the retreat in the Peninsular campaign he dis
tinguished himself at great peril by saving from capture
a part of his company occupying rifle-pits near the enemy.
At Seven Pines he was thrice wounded and his horse was
killed, falling on him, he having gone into battle mounted,
rather than be kept inactive by a severe abscess on the
knee. His regiment led the van in the famous flanking
march at Chancellorsville, on which he displayed charac
teristic gallantry and steadiness by charging, with a hand
ful of men, some suddenly unmasked Federal guns which
had struck down the head of the column. In the impet
uous onset of that evening and the next morning he con
tributed his full share to the Chancellorsville victory, but
in a flank attack made by the enemy in overwhelming
force, toward the close of the battle, he was surrounded
and captured in a redoubt which, with a few men, he had
just carried. Exchange liberated him just in time for the
Gettysburg campaign. On the first day of the great bat
tle his regiment bore the focal fire that nearly annihilated
Iverson's devoted brigade, which, unable to advance, lit
erally died where it stood, not a man going to the rear.
In the heat of the action Major Blacknall was severely
wounded through the mouth and neck. He was captured
on the retreat through the mountains, and escaped, but
owing to his wounds was again taken. When lots were
cast at Fort McHenry to select a Confederate officer to be
hanged in retaliation for a Federal about to be executed as
a spy in Richmond, Colonel Blacknall drew the fatal num
ber, but for reasons unknown his life was spared. While
spending the winter of 1863-64 amid the hunger, cold and
misery of the bleak prison on Johnson's island, Lake Erie,
he was elected an officer to lead the forlorn hope in an
assault with brick-bats on the guards, but the plan was
betrayed, the guards heavily reinforced, and the escape of
the i, 800 officers to Canada rendered impossible. Again
in 1864, as in 1863, he was exchanged just in time to take
part in the most desperate fighting of the campaign, the
prolonged death grapple which attended Grant's move
ment to Lee's right flank in May and June. Colonel
Blacknall afterward led his regiment in Early's Shen-
andoah Valley campaign, taking effective part in the
numberless battles and skirmishes of the noted march on
Washington, a member of his original company having,

Nc 48

388 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

it is said, fallen nearest of all Confederate soldiers to the
Federal capital. Sheridan's advance on Winchester,
September 19, 1864, found Colonel Blacknall with his
depleted regiment picketing the Berryville pike. Al
though his videttes were captured and his bivouac ridden
down at dawn by a division of cavalry, he formed a square
and fought his way back to his supports, receiving his
death wound on the way. Too severely wounded to be
brought off in the retreat, he was left in Winchester and
died a prisoner in the enemy's hands. Colonel Black-
nail's war career, the salient points of which alone have
been outlined, was as picturesque and eventful as that of
any other North Carolinian. To courage, the birthright
of the Confederate soldier, he added a command of faculty,
and sureness of thinking and acting in danger and
emergency, possessed by few, and it is certain that no
other officer of like rank in the Confederate service had
in larger degree the confidence and affection of the men.

Richard D. Blacknall, of Durham, a veteran of the
artillery of the Confederate States army, was born in
Orange county, N. C., in 1846, a son of Richard Black
nall, M. D., who was a native of Granville county. The
families of both his father, and his mother, Harriet
Russell, are among the oldest in the State. The Black-
nails settled in North Carolina in the early part of the
eighteenth century, and were represented in the revolu
tionary war, two of them participating in the battle of
Yorktown; and the Russell family was founded in Gran
ville county by his great-grandfather, who acquired a
large tract of land under a patent from King George III.
In 1864, at the age of seventeen years, Mr. Blacknall
enlisted as a private in Moseley's battery of light artillery
and served at Fort Caswell, at the mouth of Cape Fear
river, from April of that year until January 16, 1865.
After the fall of Fort Fisher he was one of the garrison
which defended Fort Anderson until the ammunition
was exhausted, and he subsequently retreated toward
Fayetteville. During this campaign he took part in the
battle of Town Creek, where his battery was severely
handled. The battery was ordered to Danville, Va. , and
soon afterward was returned to North Carolina and
attached to the reserve artillery of Johnston's army. He
was paroled at Greensboro, in the rank of corporal, to

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 389

which he had been promoted in the fall of 1864. After this
Mr. Blacknall engaged in business, and in 1873 embarked
in the drug trade, in which he has had a very successful
career. He has taken a leading part in municipal affairs,
serving as alderman and acting mayor. In 1881 he was
married to Sadie Fuller, daughter of R. H. J. Blount.

Jacob Henry Blakemore, of Mount Airy, N. C., is a
native of Virginia, born at Mount Crawford, August 12,
1832. In 1859 he removed to Augusta, Ga., and there
enlisted in April, 1861, as a private in the celebrated
Letcher Guards. On being mustered into the Confeder
ate service he took part in the Peninsular campaign and
the Seven Days' battles before Richmond, in the com
mand of General Longstreet, and subsequently fought
at Savage Station and Fredericksburg. After the latter
battle he was transferred to the band of the Fifty-third
Georgia regiment, as a musician, and served in that
capacity in the campaigns of the army of Northern Vir
ginia, until the spring of 1864 he joined Breathed' s bat
talion of Stuart's horse artillery, and was assigned to
duty as chief bugler of the battalion. In this position he
was with this famous body of fighters in the thick of the
conflict of 1864 and 1865 until his command was disbanded
after the surrender, at Staunton, Va. Not long after
ward he made his home at Mount Airy, where he has
ever since been quite successfully engaged in the busi
ness of photography.

Merritt E. Blalock, commander of the camp of United
Confederate Veterans at Norwood, was born at that place
in June, 1841. His father was David Blalock; his
mother Elizabeth, daughter of William Swearingen, a
soldier of the war of 1812. He was educated in the
schools of Stanley county, and reared upon his father's
farm, which he left early in 1862 to enlist in the month
of February as a private in Company I, Fifty-second regi
ment, State troops. With the service of this command
he was identified during the remainder of the war, being
on duty mainly in North Carolina. During the campaign
of 1864 he was with his regiment, a part of Kirkland's
brigade of North Carolinians, in the desperate struggle
of the Wilderness and Spottsylvania Court House, and
on the loth of May lost his right thumb in battle.

390 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

At Reams' Station, Burgess' Mill, Goldsboro and many
other actions, he fully upheld the honor of his State as
one of the gallant and self-sacrificing private soldiers who
made the fame of her soldiers pre-eminent. At Burgess'
Mill he was nearly captured by the enemy, but,
though surrounded, he followed his flag out, and fortu
nately escaped, while his comrades on each side fell dead
upon the field. With the surrender at Appomattox his
service came to an end, and since then he has been
engaged quite successfully in business as a merchant, in
the conduct of his extensive agricultural interests, and of
late years as the proprietor of a roller flouring mill. His
estimation by his surviving comrades of the Confederacy
is shown by his rank in the camp of Stanley veterans.
By his marriage in 1868 to Nancy Lee, in 1871 to Hettie
R. Staton, and in 1892 to Estelle B. Cowan, he has the
following children: Walter J., Uriah B., Gaston D.,
Ada, Ethel, Carl B., Merritt E. Jr., and Cowan B. Estelle
Balfour (Cowan) Blalock is the mother of the last-named
child, Cowan Balfour Blalock. She is the great-great-
granddaughter of Gen. Hardy Griffin, who rendered
military services in the revolutionary war of 1776. Gen
eral Griffin was a member of the first general assembly
of North Carolina. He represented Wake county for
sixteen consecutive years. Mrs. Blalock is also the great-
great-granddaughter of Col. Andrew Balfour, who repre
sented Randolph county in the first general assembly of
North Carolina. He was the only member of that assembly
who could translate French communications received by
that body. Colonel Balfour was educated in Edinburgh,
Scotland, and was fitted to be of great benefit to his
adopted home, North Carolina. In his death North
Carolina lost a loyal citizen. He possessed the best
library then in that section of the country. His wife
was a Miss Elizabeth Dayton, of Rhode Island. After
Colonel Balfour's death, President Washington appointed
her postmistress at Salisbury, which position she held for
years.

Captain William M. Blanton, of Marion, a gallant Con
federate veteran, was born in Rutherford county, N. C. ,
the son of Charles Blanton, for a considerable time sheriff
of Cleveland county. In the latter county Captain Blan
ton was educated, and in 1856 was elected to the State

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 391

legislature. In March, 1859, he was married to Jose
phine Seltzer, of Iredell county, and he now has three
children living, Josephus, John P. and Albert. In 1862
he enlisted as a private in Company F of the Fifty-sixth
regiment, North Carolina troops. His service of fourteen
months with this command was rendered in eastern
North Carolina, and during that period he encountered
the enemy in various minor affairs and in the engage
ment at Gum swamp. He was then transferred to the
Thirty-eighth regiment, with the rank of lieutenant, and
joining this command at Orange Court House, Va., was
soon after promoted to captain of the company. The
Thirty-eighth regiment was part of the brigade of Gen.
Alfred M. Scales, Wilcox's division, A. P. Hill's corps,
and took a prominent part in the campaign from the
Rapidan to the James, including the battles of the Wil
derness and Spottsylvania Court House. Throughout
this struggle Captain Blanton displayed admirable quali
ties as a soldier and officer, and throughout the long
weary defense of the Petersburg lines he served faith
fully and courageously. After the evacuation of Peters
burg he took part in the engagement at Farmville and
various skirmishes, and finally was paroled at Appomat-
tox in command of his company. His military record
worthily supplements that of his grandfather, Burrell
Blanton, who was a gallant soldier of the revolution.
Since the war Captain Blanton has been engaged with
much success in mercantile pursuits at Marion. He has
taken a prominent part in municipal affairs, and in 1888
was elected to the legislature from McDowell county.

Levi Blount, of Plymouth, born in Washington county
in 1840, was a faithful Confederate soldier in the Third
North Carolina cavalry, and since the close of that hon
orable service has been distinguished in various official
positions in his county. He enlisted as a private in Sep
tember, 1862, in Company K, Third cavalry, and from
that time fought in the ranks, except during part of
1863-64, when he served as courier to Col. A. M. Waddell,
commander of the regiment. He participated in a con
siderable number of engagements with his gallant regi
ment, including the fights around Suffolk, Malvern Hill,
1864, the battles about Petersburg in October, 1864,
Bellefield, Smithfield and Franklin, Va. ; and in North

392 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Carolina was engaged near Plymouth and at Washington.
After the close of hostilities he resided at New Bern a
year, after which he embarked in business at Plymouth,
his home since then. He served as town constable of
Plymouth four years from 1878, and in December, 1881,
was wounded while suppressing a negro riot. For more
than a year he served as deputy sheriff, and subsequently
was elected to the board of county commissioners. He
was two years agent of the Norfolk & Southern railroad,
and meanwhile was appointed sheriff of the county to fill
a vacancy. He was afterward twice elected to this
office, and served in all nearly seven years, proving to be
a popular and efficient officer. Mr. Blount was married
in 1868 to Sarah A. Newberry, and they have one child,
Loulie May, wife of W. H. Hampton.

William A. Blount, M. D., of Washington, N. C., sur
geon of the First North Carolina cavalry, was born at
Washington in 1839, son of Thomas H. Blount, a native of
Beaufort county, who served in the war of 1812. He was
graduated in medicine at the university of New York in
1860, and practiced his profession in Pitt county until
January, 1862, when he became assistant surgeon, at
tached to Rodman's company, with which he served until
captured at New Bern, where he had remained in charge
of the wounded. He was paroled and sent to Washing
ton in charge of his patients and exchanged just after the
Seven Days' campaign before Richmond. After a short
service at the conscript camp at Raleigh, he asked for
duty in the field, and was assigned as assistant surgeon
of the First North Carolina cavalry regiment, and in the
spring of 1863 was promoted surgeon. He was with his
regiment under fire at Hanover Junction, Brandy Sta
tion, South Mountain, Sharpsburg, Harper's Ferry,
Gettysburg, Yellow Tavern, the demonstration before
Washington, D. C., Winchester, Reams' Station, Five
Forks, Sailor's creek and Appomattox. Since those
heroic and exciting days he has been quietly engaged in
his professional duties at Washington, where he is highly
regarded by all.

Lieutenant Duncan A. Blue, of Southern Pines, a vet
eran of Ransom's brigade, was born in Moore county in
1841, the son of Daniel Blue, and a member of a family

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 393

which came to North Carolina from Argyle, Scotland,
about the year 1808. He was reared upon the farm of
his parents and educated in the schools of the vicinity,
and thus his life passed quietly until the secession of
North Carolina, and the defense of the South, which
became necessary, called him to scenes of war. He
enlisted as a private in Company C, Thirty-fifth regiment,
State troops, under Capt. J. M. Kelly, was made orderly-
sergeant of his regiment, and subsequently promoted to
second lieutenant, but was captured by the enemy before
he received his commission. His record was that of his
regiment and Ransom's brigade, first in the fight at New
Bern, then in the carnage of the Seven Days before Rich
mond, in the thick of the terrible fighting at Sharpsburg
and Fredericksburg, and in these and the many other
engagements of his command he bore himself as a true
soldier of North Carolina. In the battle of Petersburg,
June 17, 1864, he was captured, and subsequently he was
imprisoned at Point Lookout and Elmira, N. Y., until
released on account of sickness in October, 1864. He
was never able to rejoin his regiment. Since the war he
has been engaged in the turpentine industry, and is now
a prosperous and influential citizen. By his marriage in
1874 to Sarah E. Wicker, he has the following children:
Cattie, Lawrence, Maggie, Walter, Lulu, Myrtle, Carrie,
Carson, Lalan, Shelton, and Bernice.

Gabriel J. Boney, of Wilmington, a survivor of the
campaigns of 1864-65 in North Carolina, was born in Du-
plin county in 1845, and was there reared and educated.
When eighteen years of age, in March, 1864, he enlisted
in Company H of the Fortieth regiment, North Carolina
troops, and was on duty until the war was practically
ended, completing his service in a northern prison camp.
He was in the fight with the Federal gunboats at Fort
Anderson; and at Town Creek, having been promoted
corporal, was in command of twenty men on the line.
His last fight was at Bentonville, where the North Caro
lina soldiers in the State made their last demonstration
of heroic valor. Being captured by the enemy, March
19, 1865, he was transported to Point Lookout, Md., and
confined until June 4th. After he reached home again
he gave his attention to mercantile pursuits in his native
county until 1873, when he removed to Wilmington.

394 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

There he was engaged in the commission business until
1884, when he entered the milling trade, in which he has
attained much prominence and gratifying success. He
is influential in municipal affairs and has held the office
of alderman four years. A brother, William J. Boney,
served one year as lieutenant of Company E, Thirtieth
regiment, and subsequently was engaged in saltmaking
for the Confederate government.

Lieutenant Macon Bonner, commander of Bryan Grimes
camp, United Confederate Veterans, at Washington,
N. C., was born at that city in 1836, the son of Richard H.
Bonner, of Scotch descent, who was a soldier of 1812, a
member of the constitutional convention of 1835, and a
magistrate for many years in Beaufort county. Command
er Bonner was educated at Mt. Holly college and Prince
ton, N. J., and in September, 1861, entered the Confeder
ate service as first lieutenant of Company A, Thirty-first
North Carolina regiment. Early in 1862 he was transferred
with his company to the heavy artillery, and stationed at
Fort Hill, near Washington, and later at Fort Fisher,
where they remained until December, 1863, when they
were ordered to Fort Holmes on Bald Head island. In the
fall of 1864 his company and several others were sent to
Augusta, Ga. , and later to Savannah, to meet the inva
sion of General Sherman, with whose forces he was en
gaged in several skirmishes. After the evacuation of
Savannah he was taken sick and disabled for a few weeks,
but was with his command again at Fort Holmes until
the fall of Fort Fisher, when he was stationed at Fort
Anderson, and participated in the fight with the enemy.
At the evacuation of this fort he was captured, and con
fined at the Old Capitol prison and Fort Delaware, until
June 30, 1865. Since then he has resided at Washington,
where he served as postmaster, by appointment of Presi
dent Cleveland, for four years from April, 1885.

Captain Thomas D. Boone, of Winton, a gallant officer
of the First regiment, North Carolina State troops, was
born in Northampton county, October 12, 1840. He was
educated at Wake Forest college, with graduation in 1859,
and then entered upon the profession of teaching. At
the beginning of the war of the Confederacy he was thus
engaged in Mississippi, but he promptly abandoned this

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 395

vocation to enter the military service of his State, and
returning to North Carolina, enlisted May 5, 1861, in the
company of Capt. J. M. Harrell, of Hertford county,
which became Company F, First regiment of infantry,
Col. M. S. Stokes commanding. Becoming first sergeant
of his company, he was successively promoted second lieu
tenant, first lieutenant and captain. With his regi
ment he participated in the Seven Days' battles around
Richmond, in one of which Colonel Stokes was killed,
and bore an honorable part in the famous engagements
of South Mountain, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Chan-
cellorsville, Winchester, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, and
in fact all the battles of his command up to its surrender
at Appomattox, when he was one of the remnant of the
army with Lee. He was wounded by a piece of shell at
Chancellorsville, and during Early 's Valley campaign of
1864 was wounded in the side by a minie ball at Win
chester. On the close of hostilities he resumed his occu
pation of teaching, and continued in it until in 1886 he
was elected clerk of the superior court of Hertford
county, a position he has held by repeated elections ever
since. By his marriage, in 1864, to Margaret Vann, he
has four children, John V., Willie H., Sallie S., and
Lucy A. Captain Boone has published a history of his
company, a composition of rare interest, covering the
famous campaigns of the army of Northern Virginia and
Early's command in the valley, which is a faithful pic
ture of the valor and endurance of the soldiery of North
Carolina, and a valuable contribution to war literature.

Lieutenant William H. Borden, of Goldsboro, a patri
otic citizen who gave four years' service to the cause of
the Confederate States, is a native of Goldsboro, born in
1841, and enlisted there in April, 1861, in a volunteer
company which became Company E of the Twenty-
seventh regiment, North Carolina State troops. After
one year's service in this command, on the Virginia pen
insula, he was appointed adjutant of the Fiftieth regi
ment. He held this position for two years, participating
in the service of his regiment, and then resigned his
adjutancy and was commissioned first lieutenant of Com
pany E of the same regiment. In this rank he partici
pated in the North Carolina campaign against Sherman,
fought at the battle of Bentonville, and surrendered at

396 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

High Point, when further conflict was in vain. Since
the war he has resided at Goldsboro, where he is success
fully engaged in business as furniture manufacturer.
James C. Borden, a brother of the foregoing, held the
rank of captain in the First North Carolina cavalry,
served throughout the war with that famous command,
and surviving the perils of battle, died at his home in
1885.

McDowell Boyd, of Pinnacle, N. C. , is a native of Pitt
county, born April 20, 1846. On account of his youth he
did not enter the Confederate service in the field until
the last year of the war, though he was previously on
duty as a drill-master at Weldon and Goldsboro. Then,
enlisting as a private in Company H of the Sixteenth
battalion, in the cavalry brigade of Gen. W. P. Roberts,
he joined the army of Northern Virginia at Orange Court
House and fought under Fitzhugh Lee during the cam
paigns of 1864, participating in the fights at Belfield,
Reams' Station and other noted combats. Toward the
close of the war, while at home to obtain a fresh horse,
he was cut off from the army by the Federals. He then
reported to General Whitford and served with his com
mand in eastern North Carolina until the surrender.
He was paroled at Swift Creek, and returned to his home,
and in 1875 removed to Pinnacle, where he has since
resided, prospering in his occupation as a farmer, also as
a manufacturer of tobacco, his business during the past
few years. He has served as deputy sheriff of Surry
county, and now holds the position of gauger for Stokes
county in the United States internal revenue service.
In 1866 he was married to Annie Bernard.

Robert H. Bradley, marshal and librarian of the su
preme court of North Carolina, was born in Edgecombe
county in 1840. He enlisted April 18, 1861, in the
Edgecombe Guards, Capt. J. L. Bridgers, which later was
assigned as Company A to the First North Carolina regi
ment. He was associated with this regiment during its
six months' service, in which time it was so fortu
nate as to demonstrate in the first battle of the war, at
Big Bethel, on the Virginia peninsula, the daring and
staying qualities of the North Carolina soldier. In this
affair Private Bradley was one of the five who were vol-

CONFEDERATE MILITARY PI I STORY. 397

unteers from Company A to advance between the lines
of battle and fire a house which had been used as a shel
ter by the enemy. In making this attempt Henry L.
Wyatt, one of the five, was killed by a volley from the
enemy, being the first Confederate soldier killed in line
of battle in the great war. After the disbandment of
the Bethel regiment Mr. Bradley was assigned to duty
as a guard at the Salisbury prison, but was at once de
tailed for service in the office of the Southern express
company at Raleigh, where he remained until April,
1865. This assignment was made on account of his disa
bility, caused by an accidental wound in the left arm.
After the close of hostilities he became a merchant at
Raleigh until 1879, when he was appointed to the posi
tion of marshal and librarian of the supreme court, which
he has held for more than two decades.

Captain John Goldsmith Bragaw, of Washington,
N. C. , is one of the many men of Northern birth, includ
ing some officers of great prominence, who were loyally
devoted to the South during the great war. He was
born on Long Island, N. Y., in 1838, and made his home
at Washington in 1858. In the summer of 1862, at Golds-
boro, he entered the military service, and, being incapaci
tated for duty in the field, was assigned to the quarter
master's department. In the following year he was
commissioned assistant commissary by Governor Vance,
with the rank of captain, and stationed below Kinston,
but not long afterward he resigned this rank and re
turned to his former duties at Goldsboro. There he
remained until the close of hostilities. In February, 1865,
he was married at Greenville to Anne C., daughter of
Henry C. Hoyt, and after a visit to New York they made
their home at Washington. They have six children liv
ing: William, Stephen C., Annie T., Henry C., John
G., and Richard. Captain Bragaw is a son of William
Bragaw, a native of Long Island, born in 1790, died in
1879, who served with the rank of major in the war of
1812.

Alpheus Branch, born in Halifax county, N. C., May 7,
1843, died at his home in Wilson, January 3, 1893, was
in his lifetime one of the most prominent business men
of that part of the State, enterprising, liberal, broad-

398 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

minded, and financially very successful. His father,
Capt. S. Warren Branch, a prosperous planter, was a
leader in political affairs in the ante-war period. The
son, whose life is here briefly described, was educated
at the academy of Dr. Charles F. Deems, at the Homer
school and Trinity college. The latter institution he left
at the age of seventeen years to enlist in the military
service of the State. Throughout the war he served with
gallantry in the Scotland Neck cavalry. After the close
of the great struggle he maintained an interest in military
matters as an honorary member of the Wilson light
infantry. On returning to the affairs of civil life in 1865
he was united in marriage to Nannie, the daughter of
Gen. Joshua Barnes, of Wilson county, who yet survives.
He was engaged in agriculture for three years, and then
established at Wilson the mercantile house of Branch
& Co., which became widely known as remarkably suc
cessful in business, and its name as a synonym for com
mercial integrity. He was also the senior partner in a
house at Spring Hope, was very influential in the estab
lishment of the Wilson cotton mills in 1883, of which he
was president and principal stockholder; was a stock
holder and member of the auditing committee of the Wil
mington & Weldon railroad, and was the founder and
president of the banking house which bore his name.
These institutions, under his management, were con
ducted for the best interests of his fellow citizens and for
the promotion of the growth of the town in which he was
interested. At his death he provided that the bank and
the mill should continue in the hands of trustees in the
same liberal policy. In business he was active, untiring
and indomitable; in social life courtly, hospitable and
gentle. There have been few, if any, more noble types
of the manhood that was represented in the ranks of the
armies of the Confederacy.

Lieutenant Seth Bridgman, a prominent citizen of
Washington, N. C., born in Hyde county in 1841, served
during the war of the Confederacy among the troops for
State defense. He became a resident of Washington in
1858, and there, in April, 1861, enlisted as a member of
the Washington Grays. He went with this company to
Portsmouth, N. C., and was there taken sick, requiring
that he should be left behind when the command was

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 399

ordered to Hatter as. In this way it happened that he
escaped the capture which befell most of his company.
Subsequently with the remnant of the Grays he returned
to Washington and was at once attached to the company
of Capt. W. B. Rodman. Sickness again disabled him,
and upon his recovery he joined the company of Captain
Whitehurst, which was assigned to the Fortieth regiment,
heavy artillery. This regiment he entered as a private,
and continuing in the service until just before the fall of
Fort Fisher, when he was granted a furlough of sixty
days, he rose to the rank of second lieutenant. It was
not his fortune to participate in many battles, the engage
ment at New Bern and skirmishes about Fort Fisher
constituting his main experiences. Since the war Mr.
Bridgman has been for some time prominent in business
and financial circles as president of the Bank of Washing
ton. In 1865 he was married to Mary E. Carrow, and
they have five children living: Margaret A., wife of
Doane Herring, Anne H., Hattie G., Celia R., and
Henry P. Bridgman.

Colonel John Luther Bridgers, a distinguished North
Carolina soldier, was born in Edgecombe county, Novem
ber 28, 1822. He was graduated with distinction at the
university of North Carolina, and licensed to practice law,
in which he was actively engaged at Tarboro, also man
aging his agricultural interests, until the outbreak of
war. He was a man of noble character; strong but
gentle, his firmness mixed with mercy ; and was success
ful in his enterprises without injustice to his fellows. As
member of the legislature and solicitor for Greene
county he attained prominence early in his career. At
the crisis in 1861 he was regarded as one of the strong
men of the State, was one of Governor Ellis' councillors
of State and intimate friend, and was sent as commis
sioner to the Montgomery conference. At the organiza
tion of the Edgecombe Guards in 1859 he had been unan
imously chosen captain, and his command was the first
to tender its services to the governor. Early in 1861 it
went into camp at Raleigh, and was assigned as Company
A to the First regiment, North Carolina volunteers, Col.
D. H. Hill. Captain Bridgers accompanied the regiment
to Virginia, and on June n, 1861, took a conspicuous
part in the battle of Big Bethel, his company suffering

400 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

greater loss than all the other troops combined, and
furnishing the first martyr of the war, Private Henry L.
Wyatt. Captain Bridgers gallantly led his company in
a charge upon the enemy, driving the Zouaves from the
advanced howitzer battery. Colonel Hill reported: "It
is impossible to overestimate this service. It decided
the action in our favor," and General Magruder also
alluded in the most complimentary terms to the daring
gallantry of Captain Bridgers at the critical period of the
battle. Subsequently Captain Bridgers was promoted to
lieutenant-colonel of the Tenth artillery, commanded by
Col. J. A. J. Bradford, and after the latter officer was
captured by the Federals at Fort Macon, Bridgers suc
ceeded to the command, and occupied the fort until fail
ing health compelled him to resign. In the latter part
of 1863 he declined, on account of ill health, the promo
tion of brigadier -general in cavalry. Afterward, when
his health permitted, he was on duty upon the staff of
Gen. D. H. Hill, when the latter was in command in
eastern North Carolina. He was also associated with his
brother, R. R. Bridgers, at the request of the govern
ment, in the management of the High Shoals iron fur
naces, nail and rolling mills, which were the second in
importance in the South, and did much government
work. At the close of hostilities he resumed his profes
sional work until forced to retire to his farm on account
of sickness. He died January 22, 1884, after a long
illness.

Captain Benjamin F. Briggs, of Wilson, N. C., was born
in Wayne county in 1836, and was there reared and edu
cated. As a young man he held a station of much promi
nence in his community, and resigned the office of clerk of
the superior court to enter the Confederate service in the
summer of 1862. He enlisted as a private in Company
A of the Fifty-fifth regiment, was at once appointed first
sergeant, soon afterward promoted third lieutenant, then
passed through the grades of second and first lieutenant,
and after the battle of Gettysburg was promoted captain
of his company. Among the engagements in which he
participated were those of the Suffolk campaign, three
days of battle of Gettysburg, Falling Waters, the Wil
derness, Spottsylvania Court House, and the subsequent
fighting from the Rapidan to the James, after which he

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 401

was on duty in the trenches about Petersburg until the
evacuation. He then resigned, expecting to enter the
cavalry, but the speedy termination of the war made that
impossible. He was slightly wounded at Gettysburg and
at the Wilderness. Returning to Wilson county, he was
elected clerk of the county court in 1866, and in 1867
sheriff of the county, an office which, by re-election, he
held for six years. He is now proprietor of the Briggs
hotel, at Wilson, and an influential citizen. In 1859 he
was married to Nannie J. , daughter of Jonathan Barnes,
who died in 1895, leaving one child, Roscoe G. In
December, 1897, he married Elizabeth K., daughter of
Col. Boland B. Barrow, of Edgecombe county.

Joseph L. Britt, of Enfield, was born in Edgecombe
county, N. C., March 16, 1842, and in 1860 removed with
his parents to Halifax county, where he enlisted in April,
1 86 1, in the Enfield Blues, which became Company I of
the First regiment of volunteers. He accompanied this
command to Yorktown, Va. , and was present at the bat
tle of Big Bethel, which was fought mainly by the First
regiment of the Confederate side. On the next day one
of his brothers was accidentally killed at Yorktown, this
being the only fatality among the six brothers, all of
whom served honorably in the Confederate ranks. After
the First regiment disbanded at the end of its six
months' enlistment, Private Britt re-enlisted in Company
F, Thirty-sixth regiment, heavy artillery, and soon after
ward was promoted to a non-commissioned officer, in
which capacity he continued until the close of hostilities.
He was in battle at New Bern, and was one of the
heroic garrison of Fort Fisher under Colonel Lamb, tak
ing part in the defense of the fort against the two attacks
in the winter of 1864-65. At the last, battle he was
wounded by a shot through the thigh and captured by
the enemy. He was in hospital at Hampton, Va. , until
his recovery, and was then confined at Fort Delaware
until June 29, 1865, when he was finally paroled. After
farming for twelve years following the war, he estab
lished himself in business as a merchant, and has contin
ued in that occupation, first for a few years at Tarboro,
and since then at Enfield. Mr. Britt was married in 1869
to Emma, daughter of L. H. Morris, of Halifax county.
She died a few years later, and in 1881 he married

402 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Josephine Hawkins, of the same county. They have
seven children living: Normalena, Arthur Lawrence,
Joseph Burchmans, Maurice, Francis, Mary Louise and
Josephine Clara.

Major Marcus L. Brittain, of Murphy, was born in
Macon county, N. C., in 1827, the son of Benjamin S.
Brittain, a native of Buncombe county, who, after his
marriage to Celia Vance, removed with his family to
Macon county, and thence in 1842 to Cherokee county,
which he represented several terms in the State legisla
ture, and also represented as a soldier in the first year of
the Confederate war, at the close of that time being hon
orably discharged on account of age and illness, from
which he died soon afterward. Major Brittain, after
becoming of age, was first engaged in iron manufactur
ing on Hanging Dog creek, being one of the first to util
ize the mineral wealth of the county ; later entered upon
a business career as a merchant at Valley Town, now
Andrews, and removed to Murphy in 1860, where he
abandoned his business interests in 1862 to enlist in the
State military service. He was soon afterward commis
sioned by Governor Vance as major of the Forty-seventh
North Carolina battalion, with which he served in a num
ber of engagements, the most important of which was at
Murphy in 1864, where with about 100 men he attacked
an invading force of 1,500, and though obliged to retreat
with some loss, captured about 25 prisoners. Soon after
this affair he was captured by the enemy and sent to
Knoxville, where the Federal authorities meditated his
execution. Information that it was decided upon reached
his friends at Murphy, and thereupon two citizens,
Pleasant Henry and Edmond Dewees, both Union men,
hastened to Knoxville on foot, 80 miles over the
mountain, and by their intercession, saved his life. At
that place he and his fellow prisoners were confined in an
old jail without heat, and many of them died from the
hardships of their imprisonment. Later he was trans
ferred to Camp Morton, Ind. , where, personally, he was
in a more comfortable condition on account of being
detailed for special duty, but was the unwilling witness of
suffering among his comrades which was most harrow
ing. When released, after the close of hostilities, he
returned home and engaged in farming until 1882, when

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 403

he removed to Murphy and resumed mercantile pursuits,
from which he has only recently retired. By his mar
riage in 1852 to Sarah C., daughter of David H. Hen-
nesa, a farmer of Valley River, he has eight children
living.

Captain David G. Broadhurst, ex-mayor of Goldsboro,
and a veteran of the Twentieth regiment, was born in
Wayne county in 1844. He enlisted April 27, 1861, in
the volunteer organization which became Company E of
the Tenth volunteers, after the reorganization, Twentieth
regiment, North Carolina troops. He served as a private
until the fall of 1862, when he was transferred to Company
K of the same regiment, and commissioned second
lieutenant. Promotion speedily followed to first lieuten
ant, and in the following March he was elected captain.
He was a gallant participant in the Seven Days' battles,
fought at South Mountain and Sharpsburg, and on the
field of victory at Chancellorsville suffered the loss of his
right hand. This severe wound put an end to his mil
itary career and he resigned in the summer following.
Since the war he has resided in Wayne county, where he
held the office of superintendent of public instruction
from 1887 to 1893, and served two years as mayor of
Goldsboro. His brother, William G. Broadhurst, now
living in Wayne county, served throughout the war as a
private, first in the Twentieth regiment and later in the
First cavalry.

Robert Hall Brooks, of Raleigh, since February, 1898,
superintendent of the North Carolina Soldiers' home,
was one of the heroic youth of the State who left their
collegiate studies to encounter the perils of battle. He
was born in October^ 1841, at Wake Forest, the son of
William Tell Brooks, then professor of Latin and Greek
at the college, and had advanced in his studies into the
sophomore year when the call of his State drew him from
his books to the field. He enlisted as a private in the
Ellis light artillery, afterward known as Manly's battery,
in April, 1861; in February, 1862, was promoted to cor
poral, and after the battle of Fredericksburg was given
the rank of sergeant. He was actively engaged during
the siege of Yorktown by the Federal forces, fired the
first shot at Dam No. i on the peninsula, and participated

Nc 49

404 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

in the affairs at Warwick island, Fort Magruder, and the
battles of Williamsburg, Seven Pines, Savage Station,
White Oak Swamp and Malvern Hill, during the hard-
fought campaign before Richmond between Johnston and
Lee and McClellan. While lying sick at Warrenton,
Va., in October, 1862, he was captured and paroled, and
being exchanged in the following month, took part in
the battle of Fredericksburg. During 1864 and 1865 he
was in numerous artillery engagements, including the
great battles of Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wil
derness, Spottsylvania (where he was slightly wounded),
Cold Harbor and the affair at the Dunn house. In
November, 1864, he was sent with a squad to western
North Carolina for the purpose of recruiting the horses
of Cabell's battalion of artillery, and was still on this
detail when the war came to an end. He then busied
himself with farming at his home for nine years, and
after a few years of service on the Raleigh & Gaston rail
road, engaged in mercantile pursuits at Raleigh until
1891, when he was appointed deputy sheriff, the position
he held until December, 1896. Mr. Brooks was married
in 1866 to Annie'; Seawell, and they have four children:
William T., Nellie Lewis, Henry Seawell and John
Brewer Brooks.

Lieutenant Alexander Davidson Brown, now a promi
nent merchant of Wilmington, though a native of Scot
land, born in 1837, earnestly supported the cause of the
State during the great war, and for four years wore the
Confederate gray. He came to America in 1857, and for
three years resided at Boston, not becoming a citizen of
Wilmington until 1860. He enlisted in April, 1861, as a
private in the artillery company of Capt. James D. Cum-
mings, later known as Battery C, of the Thirteenth bat
talion. In this gallant command he was successively
promoted to corporal, junior second lieutenant and senior
second lieutenant. During his military career he par
ticipated in the fighting at New Bern and on the Peters
burg lines in numerous engagements, took part in the
righting on the retreat from Petersburg, and at Appo-
mattox Court House previous to the surrender. After
his return to Wilmington he embarked in the dry goods
trade in 1867, and in this line of business has made a
successful career. He has served as director of the State

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 405

penitentiary four years, and is recognized as a leading
and influential citizen. In 1868 he was married to Eliza
beth, daughter of Thomas Emanuel, and they have two
children, Rachel F., wife of F. D. Alexander of Char
lotte, and Maggie F. Brown.

Captain John D. Brown, a soldier of the Confederacy,
in these latter days enjoying comfort and prosperity as
a farmer of Mecklenburg county, N. C., was born in
Robeson county, November 17, 1840, the son of Archibald
S. Brown, a lawyer of prominence in his time. When
nineteen years of age he moved with his parents to
Mecklenburg county, and there entered Davidson col
lege, of which he was a student at the beginning of the
war era. He left his studies to enlist as a private in the
company of Capt. W. B. Lynch, and upon its disband-
ment became a member of Company I, Fifth North Caro
lina cavalry. He was with this command as private
and sergeant until early in 1863, when he was elected
third lieutenant of Company C, Thirty-seventh regiment.
In 1864 he was promoted to captain of his company.
Among the battles in which he participated were those of
White Hall Bridge, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, the
Wilderness, Spottsylvania Court House, and the fighting
in the trenches and in the vicinity of Petersburg. He
was once wounded and twice captured. At Spottsylvania
he first fell into the hands of the enemy, but was
exchanged sixty days later. Finally, on the right of the
line at Petersburg, a few days before the evacuation, he
was made prisoner, and thence was carried to Johnson's
island, Lake Erie, where he was held until the following
June. Subsequently he became a farmer in Mecklen
burg, met with success, increased his land holdings to
some seven or eight farms, and for ten years conducted
a good retail business at Davidson, where he now resides.
By his marriage in 1864 to Mary Johnson he has ten
children living.

Captain Daniel O. Bryan, of Jonesboro, N. C. , a gal
lant veteran of the Second cavalry, was born in 1835,
son of Winship Bryan and his wife Nancy Mclver. He is
of old North Carolina lineage, of Irish and Scotch origin.
He was educated in the common schools and in early
manhood was engaged in agriculture. Previous to the

406 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

war he served as deputy sheriff of the county in the years
1858 to 1860. In the summer of 1861 he enlisted in the
cavalry troop of Capt. Jesse L. Bryan, which became
Company I, of the Nineteenth regiment State troops or
Second cavalry, and was mustered in as second lieuten
ant. In 1862 he was promoted to first lieutenant, and in
1864 to captain. In 1862, under the command of Col.
S. B. Spruill, the regiment participated in numerous skir
mishes about New Bern, picketing the south side of the
Neuse river until the fall, when under the command of
Col. Sol Williams it was called into Virginia and joined to
Stuart's cavalry. It was on picket duty at Warrenton and
on the Rappahanncck, was engaged as skirmishers and
sharpshooters at Fredericksburg, fought with Stoneman's
raiders, and was particularly distinguished in the battle
of Brandy Station in June, 1863, when Colonel Williams
was killed. In the fight at Upperville, soon afterward,
Lieutenant Cole of Company I was killed and Lieutenant
Bryan was badly wounded. The next important fight
was at Hanover, Pa., and it did creditable work in the
cavalry fight at Gettysburg. Subsequently it was iden
tified with the gallant record of Gordon's brigade, later
commanded by Barringer, until the end of the war.
Captain Bryan was on the skirmish line fighting, at Ap-
pomattox, when a courier rode up to bring them news of
the surrender, but he, like many other cavalrymen, did
not participate in that event, but cut his way out and
never gave his parole. Reaching home May 12, 1865, he
immediately went to farming, the occupation which he
has ever since followed. He is an influential man in his
county, has served as county commissioner by election in
1888 and 1890, and for one term was chairman of the
board. In 1868 he was married to Anna E. Gardner, of
Carbonton, and they have two children: Eiva and
Marshal.

Captain Edward K. Bryan, of New Bern, is a native
of that city, born in 1835, of an honorable North Caro
lina lineage running back to the colonial period. His
greatgrandfather, William Bryan, a native of Craven
county, served in the revolutionary war for independence
with the rank of brigadier-general. Captain Bryan was
reared and educated at New Bern, and during Presi
dent Buchanan's administration, held the office of deputy

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 407

collector of customs for Pamlico district, but resigned
after the election of Mr. Lincoln. In 1859 he was mar
ried to Mary Moore, of the same city. The advent of the
crisis in national affairs found him second lieutenant of
the Beauregard Rifles, and ready to serve in defense of
the State. He held the same rank after the Rifles were
mustered in as Company I of the Second regiment, North
Carolina troops. He served with his regiment in Vir
ginia from just after the first battle of Manassas, took
part in the severe skirmish on the Williamsburg road
preceding the Seven Days' battles, fought through that
campaign, and at Boonsboro, Sharpsburg and Fredericks-
burg. He was then appointed adjutant of the Thirty-first
regiment, which changed his field of duty to South Caro
lina. He took part in the famous defense of Charleston,
including the defense of Battery Wagner and the battle
on James island, was in the fight at Fort McAllister, near
Savannah, and was then ordered back to Virginia, where
he fought at Second Cold Harbor and received a severe
wound that disabled him for several months. After his
recovery he took part in the battle of Bentonville, and
finally surrendered May i. 1865, at Bush Hill, near High
Point. With the exception of five years' residence at
Charlotte, following 1865, he has been a resident of New
Bern since the close of the war, and has met with marked
business success as a cotton broker. He has served as
chairman of the board of education of Craven county four
years, and has been a frequent participant in the various
local and State conventions of his party. Captain Bryan
has four children living : Florence, wife of James W.
Waters, Edward K. Jr., William P. M., and Mary C.,
wife of C. S. Hollister. His brother, William G. Bryan,
Jr., was orderly- serge ant in the Second regiment, and
received wounds at Fredericksburg which caused his
death a month later.

Major James A. Bryan, president of the National
bank of New Bern since 1888, was born in the city
of New Bern in September, 1839. He graduated at
Princeton college, N. J., in June, 1860, after which,
returning to his native city, he entered upon the study
of the law. Upon the breaking out of hostilities, a
few months later, between the North and the South, he
became a member of a local company of cavalry, known

408 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

as the Neuse cavalry, and in April, 1861, was commis
sioned by Governor Ellis second lieutenant of artillery in
the State service of North Carolina, and assigned to duty
with Col. John D. Whitford, chief of ordnance at New
Bern, N. C. Upon the transfer of the State forces to
the Confederate government in August of the same year,
he was commissioned second lieutenant of artillery in the
Confederate army by President Davis, and assigned to
duty at New Bern as ordnance officer of the district
of Pamlico and placed upon the staff of Gen. L. O'B.
Branch, as ordnance officer of his brigade, with whose
command, after the fall of New Bern, in March, 1862,
he joined the army of Northern Virginia, and on July i,
1862, was promoted to the rank of first lieutenant of artil
lery. Acting as aide-de-camp to General Branch he took
part in the battle of Hanover Court House, the battles
before Richmond, Second Manassas, Cedar Run, Ox Hill,
Harper's Ferry and Sharpsburg, in which latter battle
General Branch was killed. Upon the death of General
Branch, Gen. James B. Lane succeeded to the command
of the brigade, upon whose staff he served through the
battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg,
the Wilderness and Spottsylvania Court House. On Sep
tember 20, 1864, he was commissioned captain, under act
No. 155, for military service with volunteers, but shortly
before the surrender he resigned this rank and was com
missioned by Governor Vance major and chief quarter
master of the State of North Carolina. After the decision
of the Federal authorities not to parole Governor Vance
and his staff, upon the advice of the governor he took a
parole as captain C. S. A. While at Greensboro, before
the arrival of the Federal troops, General Johnston turned
over to him, as representative of the State, all the artil
lery, horses, mules, wagons and stores of his army, which,
with the exception of the artillery, by the direction of
Governor Vance, he distributed among the farmers. He
was twice promoted for gallantry on the field, the second
time, when advanced from first lieutenant to captain, the
examination which officers of the ordnance corps were
usually required to pass before obtaining promotion, was
waived as a special distinction in his favor. After the
close of the war he was engaged in the lumber business,
and afterward in farming in Craven county until elected
to his present position. He has had an honorable official

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 409

career for twenty- two years, as a member of the board of
commissioners of his county, being for twenty years of
the time chairman of the board.

John Ruffin Buchanan was born May 10, 1830, in Gran-
ville county, N. C. ; enlisted May 12, 1862, as a private in
Company A, Forty-fourth regiment, North Carolina
troops; was promoted sergeant in 1863, served in Petti-
grew 's brigade in eastern North Carolina and engaged in
several skirmishes around New Bern, Washington and
other places. The Forty-fourth regiment was transferred
to Virginia in the fall of 1862 and served around Rich
mond until June, 1863. When General Lee started on
the Gettysburg campaign, the Forty-fourth was detached
at Hanover Junction to guard bridges on the South
Anna and protect the supplies at Hanover Court House.
On June 26, 1863, Company A, sixty-two men, and fifteen
men from Captain Bingham's company, under command
of Col. T. L. Hargrove, were stationed at the bridge of the
Chesapeake & Ohio railroad over the South Anna river,
when they were attacked by General Speer, with
between 1,200 and 1,500 cavalry. Then occurred one of
the most stubborn fights of the war, when this handful of
Carolina soldiers held their ground for more than three
hours, and would never have yielded, but General Speer
divided his forces and made a detour to the right and
crossed the river and attacked them in the rear. Just
as the column dismounted to make the charge, Sergeant
Buchanan shot one of the commanding officers off his
horse. The Yankees then charged and a hand-to-hand
fight ensued around a little cabin, on the porch of which
Colonel Hargrove was standing, fighting with several
Yankees at one time. One gigantic trooper, with drawn
sword, was rushing on him when Joe Cash, a mere boy
sixteen years old, pierced him with his bayonet, and as
he fell another trooper shot Joe, and he fell across the
man he had just killed. Before he fell a Yankee called
on him to surrender, and though he saw they were over
whelmed by numbers, he replied, "I'll never do it, till my
colonel tells me, ' ' and fought on until he was killed. By
this time the Yankees had surrounded the handful of
Confederates and Sergeant Buchanan was shot through
the breast just over the heart. The fight continued
hand to hand until the Yankees were afraid to fire their

410 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

carbines for fear of killing their own men, and resorted
to their pistols and clubbed carbines, and forced the Con
federates down by sheer weight of numbers. Nearly
every man on the Confederate side was either killed or
wounded, while they inflicted as great or greater loss on
the enemy. When the fight was over the Yankees gath
ered up their own dead and wounded and such of the
North Carolinians as could be moved, and started on their
retreat. They put Sergeant Buchanan and such others
as they considered mortally wounded in a negro cabin
near by and left them there to die. The next day all
except Sergeant Buchanan were moved to Richmond,
and he was left to die, but a noble lady, Mrs. Rosa Winston,
living in the vicinity, had him removed to the hospital
at South Anna male academy, where, under the skillful
ministration of Drs. Meredith and McKinne, he was
nursed back to life and enabled to go home, where he
remained in a disabled condition for several months.
Upon his return to the regiment he was detailed for light
duty at Lynchburg, but after several months' service his
suffering was such that he wras furloughed for six months,
and before the expiration of his furlough the Confederacy
had ended. Mr. Buchanan is a highly-respected citizen
of Granville county, superintendent of the home for the
aged and infirm, and a member of Maurice Thomas
Smith camp, U. C. V. In 1854 he married Miss Nancy
A. Pittard, by whom he has five children living, Luther
T. , a successful teacher, William R., Robert Hill, James
P. and Mrs. Bettie F. Knott.

Captain Benjamin Hickman Bunn, of Rocky Mount, a
well-known lawyer and public man, was born in Nash
county, N. C., October 19, 1844, the son of Redman and
Mary Hickman (Bryan) Bunn. His father was a grand
son of Benjamin Bunn, who removed from Virginia to
North Carolina soon after the revolutionary war. At the
age of seventeen years, July 20, 1861, he enlisted in
Company I, Thirtieth North Carolina infantry, and was
at once appointed orderly-sergeant. In September, 1862,
he was elected junior second lieutenant of Company A,
Forty-seventh infantry, and was subsequently promoted
to second and then to first lieutenant. Eighteen months
prior to the close of the struggle he was put in command
of the Fourth company of sharpshooters of General Mac-

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 411

Rae's brigade, a service in which he was distinguished
both for personal valor and efficiency as an officer. He
took part in the battle at Gettysburg during the three
days' righting, and was slightly wounded; was in the
Bristoe Station campaign, and at the Wilderness opened
the fighting on the plank road with his sharpshooters.
For fourteen nights during the campaign which followed,
including the Spottsylvania battles, he commanded the
guard. At Second Cold Harbor, and the fighting about
Richmond, including the battle of Reams' Station, he
and his company were in the thick of the fray. Finally,
in the engagement at Burgess' Mill, March 25, 1865, he
received a severe wound which compelled him to go to
hospital at Richmond. When advised that Petersburg
was evacuated he rose from his bed, walked to Danville,
and reached home on the day of Lee's surrender. A
few months later he began the reading of law at Golds-
boro, and being admitted to practice in 1866, embarked
in the profession at Rocky Mount. He has gained wide
fame as a jurist, also as a State and national legislator ;
was a member of the constitutional convention of 1875,
served in the general assembly as chairman of the joint
committee on the code, was an elector on the Democratic
presidential ticket of 1884, and in 1888 was elected to the
United States Congress, where his services gave such sat
isfaction that he was re-elected in 1890 and 1892. In the
Fifty-second and Fifty-third congresses he was chairman
of the committe on claims. In 1871 he was married to
Harriet A., daughter of Dr. James J. Phillips, to whom
have been born nine children. Two brothers of the
foregoing served in the Confederate armies: William H.,
the eldest, a graduate of the university of North Caro
lina, who left the practice of law at Wilson to enlist,
became captain of a company of cavalry, and was killed
at Burgess' Mill, October 27, 1864; and Elias, who left the
university to become adjutant of the Twelfth regiment,
and was killed at Hanover Court House, May 27, 1862.

Thomas O. Bunting, deputy United States marshal of
the eastern district of North Carolina, is a native of
Sampson county, born in 1845. He received his youthful
education at the famous school of Dr. Wilson in Ala-
mance county. In May, 1861, though only about sixteen
years of age, he enlisted in the Twentieth North Carolina

412 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

infantry, but in July following withdrew and entered the
university of North Carolina, where he studied one year.
Returning to the Confederate service he became a private
in Company C of the Sixty-third regiment, of Fifth cav
alry, and shared the subsequent gallant career of this
command, taking part in the engagements at White Hall
and Goldsboro, N. C., in 1862, and then, in Virginia,
under the leadership of Baker, Gordon, Barringer, Hamp
ton and Stuart, meeting the enemy on many a glorious
field. In the long list of battles in which he participated
are the names of Brandy Station, Upperville, Gettys
burg, Hagerstown, Jack's Shop, the Buckland races,
Mine Run, Spottsylvania Court House, Trevilian Sta
tion, Yellow Tavern, the Wilderness, Reams' Station,
Belfield, Five Forks, Chamberlain Run, and besides
these were the daring achievement known as Hampton's
cattle raid and numerous minor encounters with the
enemy. In the spring of 1865 he was sergeant of his
company, now much reduced in numbers. On April 3d,
at Namozine church, he was captured by the Federals,
and being confined at Point Lookout was held there until
June 28th. Throughoiit this gallant career he was once
seriously wounded, receiving a shot through the ankle
on the Ground Squirrel road near Petersburg, which
disabled him for three months. When he returned to
North Carolina he, like many other veterans, first made
a crop, and then removed to Wilmington, where he has
ever since resided. From 1883 to 1895 he was assistant
tax collector for the city. He has also served twelve
years as deputy United States marshal. In 1868 he was
married to Louise Smith, of Smithville, who died in 1885,
leaving five children: Thomas, William S., John H.,
Richard C. and Mildred Louise.

John Henry Burgess, a prominent business man of
Elizabeth City, had an adventurous career in the Con
federate service as a soldier and scout. Born at Eliza
beth City, February 27, 1843, he enlisted among the
early volunteers, in May, 1861, as corporal of Company
I, Seventeenth regiment, and was at a later date pro
moted to sergeant. He was among the troops stationed
at Oregon inlet at the time of the first Federal invasion
of the coast, and after the fall of Fort Hatteras, fell back
to Roanoke island and was stationed at Fort Bartow.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 413

Here they were attacked by the fleet and army of Burn-
side's expedition and compelled to surrender. Soon
afterward he was paroled, but was not exchanged until
the fall of 1862, when he went on duty at Weldon as
provost guard and remained until the spring of 1863.
Subsequently he joined the signal corps commanded by
Maj. James F. Milligan, and was stationed on the lower
James river, successively at Brandford, Brandon, Swan's
Point and Mount Pleasant, and at Fort Clifton on the
Petersburg lines. His service on this line of signalmen
was of great importance to the defense of Richmond and
was frequently attended with danger. With eleven com
rades under the command of Sergeant Averett, he was
engaged on scouting duty in the rear of Grant's army
during May, 1864, obtaining valuable information for
General Lee. He was finally with the army on the
retreat from Petersburg and was surrendered at Appo-
mattox. Soon after the close of hostilities he embarked
in the mercantile business, in which he is still engaged.
By his marriage in 1866 to Martha R. Newbold, he has
seven children living: Henrietta Louise, wife of C. R.
Bell, of Baltimore ; John Henry, Jr. , and William Fred
erick Martin, both in business at Norfolk ; Nancy New-
bold, Creighton Newbold, Joseph Warren and Arthur
Earl.

Colonel Harry King Burgwyn, who succeeded Gov.
Zebulon B. Vance in command of the Twenty-sixth regi
ment, North Carolina troops, was a native of North Caro
lina, born in affluence and of distinguished ancestry.
Before he was of the proper age to become a cadet at West
Point he was offered an appointment there, where he
studied for some time ; in 1 85 9 was graduated at the uni
versity of North Carolina in special studies, and then
matriculated at the Virginia military institute, where he
remained until the beginning of the Confederate war.
He shared the services of the cadets as drill-master at
Richmond in the spring of 1861, and in June following
was put in command of the camp of instruction at Crab
Tree creek near Raleigh. Here he served with great
efficiency until, on August 27th, he was elected lieuten
ant-colonel of the Twenty-sixth regiment. In his first
battle he won the admiration and love of his men. On
the retreat from New Bern in crossing Brice's creek, he

414 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

saw every man of his command safely across before he
embarked; bore himself with conspicuous gallantry in
the Seven Days' battles before Richmond, and upon the
election of Colonel Vance as governor in August, 1862,
was promoted colonel. During the campaign in
North Carolina, at Rawles' Mill, in Martin county, he
met and defeated his old instructor at West Point, Gen-
eral Foster. A bright military career appeared to be
opening before the young soldier and patriot, then in his
twenty-first year, when he joined the army of Northern
Virginia, in Pettigrew's brigade. He participated in the
Pennsylvania cainpaign and led his regiment in the
charge upon the enemy on the first day of the battle of
Gettysburg. They were met by a terrible fire, and the
color-bearer fell, when Colonel Burgwyn seized the flag
and rushed to the front cheering on his men. Turning
slightly to the left to see how they were behaving, a
ball entered his left side and passed through both his
lungs. He fell with the colors wrapped about him, and
with his last breath sent a message to his commander:
"Tell the general my men never failed me at a single
point." He was laid to rest where he fell, but in 1867
his body was reinterred in the beautiful Oakwood cem
etery at Raleigh.

Charles Manly Busbee, of Raleigh, N. C., conspicuous
in the affairs of his city and State, and widely known
throughout the United States for his able services as the
supreme officer of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows,
served faithfully in 1863-65 as one of the boy soldiers of
the Confederacy. He was born at Raleigh, October 23,
1845, son °f Perrin Busbee, an able lawyer and popular
leader in Wake county in his day, and grandson of Johnson
Busbee, who for thirty years presided over the county
court of Wake. He was in the midst of a course of study
at Hampden-Sidney college, Virginia, when, in October,
1863, he enlisted in the Fifth North Carolina infantry as
a private, but was soon appointed sergeant-major, the
capacity in which he subsequently served. During the
retreat to Appomattox he was acting adjutant of his regi
ment. He participated in the battles of the army of
Northern Virginia at Kelly's ford, the Wilderness and
Spottsylvania Court House until, on the morning of May
1 2th, he shared the fate of many of Johnson's brigade of

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 415

Rodes' division in becoming a prisoner of war. He was
confined at Fort Delaware until in August, 1864, when
he had the misfortune to be one of the 600 Confederate
officers who, in retaliation for the placing of Federal
prisoners in Charleston, were stationed on Morris island,
exposed to the fire of the contending forces and the more
deadly unhealthiness of the situation. He was paroled
at Fort Pulaski in the following December, and until he
was exchanged in March, 1865, he acted as private sec
retary to Governor Vance. Then rejoining his regi
ment, at that time guarding the ferries of the Staunton
river, Va., he had a week's experience in the
trenches before Petersburg, and finally participated in
the fighting on the retreat to Appomattox, where he was
surrendered. After the close of hostilities he studied a
few months in the university of North Carolina, and then
read law, gaining admission to the bar in 1867. He was
reading clerk of the North Carolina senate in the winter
of 1866-67, was elected county solicitor of Wake county in
1867, was elected to the State senate in 1874, and was
elected to the house in 1884, and in 1886 was appointed
one of the three commissioners to refund the State debt
connected with the construction bonds of the North Caro
lina railroad. From 1874 he was a prominent member of
the sovereign grand lodge of Odd Fellows, and in 1890
received the honor of election as grand sire of the order
in America. Meanwhile he has gained distinction in his
profession, and has given to its requirements the main
part of his active career. He is now engaged in the active
practice of his profession.

Lieutenant Fabius H. Busbee, conspicuous in the legal
profession of the North Carolina capital, was born at
Raleigh, March 4, 1848. Though but thirteen years of
age at the beginning of the great struggle which drew so
heavily upon the youth of the State, it was his privilege
before the close of the war to share the military service
of his Confederate comrades and engage in one of the
famous battles of that heroic era. In February, 1865, he
enlisted as a private in the Third regiment, Junior
reserves, also known as the Seventy-first North Carolina
infantry, and a few days later was promoted second lieu
tenant of Company E. He served in this rank until the
close of hostilities, and was under fire at Southwest

416 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY

creek, near Kinston, and in the battle of Bentonville,
where the Junior reserves formed part of the gallant
command of General Hoke. At the end of this service
Lieutenant Busbee returned to Raleigh, and in 1868 was
graduated at the State university. He was admitted to
the practice of law in January, 1869, and at once em
barked in the work of the profession in which he has
made an honorable and successful career.

Edward Gale Butler, of Raleigh, bursar of the Agri
cultural and Mechanical college of North Carolina and
assistant instructor in English, had a gallant career as a
soldier of the Twelfth regiment of infantry. He is a
native of Virginia, born at Norfolk, February 26, 1841,
but was reared at Granville, N. C., from the age of two
years. He entered the service with a company organized
there by Capt Henry E. Coleman, which became Com
pany B of the Twelfth regiment. With this command
he served in Virginia from May, 1861, with Garland's
brigade, fought through the sanguinary Seven Days'
campaign, and was captured at Malvern hill. He was
held as a prisoner at Fort Delaware five weeks and then
exchanged. For this experience he was revenged in full
measure. During the retreat from Gettysburg he took
prisoner a captain and two other men from an Illinois
regiment; and on the night before the evacuation of
Petersburg, with three or four men he recaptured Fort
Mahone, taking prisoner 95 Federals, including four com
missioned officers, whom he turned over to the proper
authorities and received a receipt therefor. At Sailor's
creek Sergeant Butler was again captured, and was held
at Johnson's island until the following June. Return
ing to Granville, now Vance county, he followed farming
and teaching school until August, 1897, when he accepted
his present position.

John Gray Bynum, a prominent attorney residing at
Greensboro, N. C. , formerly judge of the Tenth judicial
district of North Carolina, was born at Gilbert Town, in
Rutherford county, N. C., February 15, 1846, which was
Fergusson's headquarters two nights before the battle
of King's Mountain. At the age of seventeen years
Judge Bynum entered the Confederate service as a pri
vate in Company I of the Seventh regiment, North Caro-

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 417

lina troops, enlisting in June, 1863, from Yadkin county,
where he lived at that time. He was with his regiment
in the fall campaign which followed the battle of Gettys
burg, was in battle at Bristoe Station, and at Mine Run
was on exhausting duty and under fire for about three
weeks. The exposure to the inclement weather during
this service brought on pneumonia, and he was sent
home. He was examined and declared unfit for service,
but he nevertheless became a member of the Junior
reserves, and going to Camp Vance, was appointed adju
tant of the First battalion of this organization. Going
with his command to Wrightsville, his poor condition for
service on the line caused his appointment as purser's
clerk on the blockade-runner Advance. He welcomed
the adventurous career which this appointment opened,
but he was destined not long to enjoy it, for the vessel
was captured in a trip from Wilmington to Nova Scotia,
and he was taken to New York and thrown into Ludlow
street jail. When his health was utterly broken by this
confinement and his weight was reduced to sixty-six
pounds, he was turned out into the streets of New York.
He at once found passage to Halifax as a stowaway on
the Cunard liner Asia, and then shipped back to Wil
mington through the blockade, arriving just before the
fall of Fort Fisher. Reaching home again, he took to his
bed and was not able to leave it for eight months. After
his recovery the Confederate States had passed into his
tory, and he turned his attention to a civil career, taking
up the study of law. Being admitted to the bar he
practiced at Morgan town until 1889, also taking an active
part in political affairs and serving from 1878 to 1880 in
the State senate, and in 1882 as clerk of the special com
mittee of the United States Senate which investigated the
internal revenue matters of the district. .In 1885 he was
appointed judge of the superior court of the Tenth dis
trict to fill an unexpired term, and in 1890 was elected
for a full term, serving until 1895. He then removed to
Greensboro, becoming a member of the law firm of
Bynum, Bynum & Taylor.

Lieutenant William Calder, a prominent business man
of Wilmington, was born at that city, May 5, 1844, of an
old Carolina family, his great-great-grandfather having
served as sergeant-major in the war of the revolution.

418 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

In 1859 he entered the military academy at Hillsboro,
and left there in May, 1861, having been appointed drill-
master by Governor Ellis, and assigned to the camp of
instruction at Raleigh. Upon the organization of the
first ten regiments of State troops he was commissioned
junior second lieutenant of the Third regiment. In this
rank he served as drill-master at Garysburg about four
months, then being transferred to the Second regiment
of infantry as second lieutenant of Company K. With
this command he participated in the Seven Days' cam
paign about Richmond, and at Malvern hill was wounded
in the left thigh, causing his disability until after the
battle of Sharpsburg. He was in battle at Fredericks-
burg, Chancellorsville, and most of the engagements of
Jackson's and E well's corps, and during the three days'
righting at Gettysburg was in command of the sharp
shooters of Ramseur's brigade. On the return to Orange
Court House he was appointed adjutant of the First
North Carolina battalion, heavy artillery, and subse
quently was on duty with this command at Fort Caswell,
until that post was evacuated; was in battle at Fort
Anderson, Town Creek and Kinston, and at the battle of
Bentonville served as acting assistant adjutant-general
on the staff of Colonel Nethercutt, commanding the bri
gade of Junior reserves. From that time until the end
of hostilities he was with his artillery battalion in out
post duty on upper Cape Fear river. Then, returning to
Wilmington, he began his civil career in the service of
the Wilmington & Manchester railroad ; was four or five
years connected with the newspapers Dispatch and Star,
and later as bookkeeper entered upon a commercial
career. In 1873 he became a partner in the wholesale
house of Kerchner & Calder Brothers, since 1886 known
as Calder Brothers. He has been enterprising and active
as a citizen as well as in the line of business, and ren
dered valuable service from 1881 to 1897 as a member of
the board of audit and finance of the municipal govern
ment. In 1872 he was married to Alice L., daughter of
Dr. John H. Boatright, of Columbia, S. C., and they
have four children: Mary F., Milton, Robert E. and
Hugh C. A brother of the foregoing, Robert Edward
Calder, served in the Second North Carolina infantry
until his left eye was destroyed by a wound at Mal
vern hill. He afterward became professor in the

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 419

Hillsboro military academy until the close of the war,
subsequently going into business with his brother. He
died in 1888, leaving two children: Phila L., wife of
Joseph K. Nye, of New Bedford, Mass., and Edwin Keith
Calder.

W. H. Call, of Washington, N. C., since the war
mainly engaged as a minister of the Methodist church, is
a native of Davy county, born at Mocksville in 1842. He
was educated at the university of North Carolina, where
he left his studies in June, 1862, to enlist in the Confed
erate service. He became a private in the Seventh Con
federate cavalry, composed of North Carolinians and
Georgians. In the latter part of 1864 the North Carolini
ans in this command were transferred to the Sixteenth
North Carolina battalion, and Mr. Call, who had up to
this time served as orderly-sergeant, was appointed
ordnance-sergeant During his service he participated
in the engagements at White Oak road, Va., Burgess'
Mill, Five Forks, Port Walthall Junction, Suffolk,
Reams' Station, and in the trenches at Petersburg.
After the close of hostilities he returned to his studies at
Chapel Hill, and upon completing his education, entered
the ministry of the Methodist church as a member of the
North Carolina conference. He was actively devoted to
this calling, residing at various stations until 1884, when
he made his home permanently at Washington. Mr.
Call was married in 1871 to Maggie, daughter of John
A. Arthur, late of Washington.

Lieutenant Francis Hawkes Cameron, of Raleigh, was
born at Hillsboro, June i, 1839. In l855 he entered the
United States service, and was stationed at Brooklyn,
N. Y. , in the coast survey when Fort Sumter was bom
barded. Declining a commission in the" Federal army
he ran the blockade and landed at Savannah, reported
at Montgomery, Ala., and was commissioned a lieuten
ant in the regular army of the Confederate States. He
served under General Bragg at Pensacola, and while
there took part in the perilous duty of blockading the
channel under the guns of the Federal forts. Compelled
to return home in June by violent illness, he subse
quently was on duty with Commodore Tattnall on the
South Carolina and Georgia coast, serving on the Hun-
Nc 50

420 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

tress, the flagship Savannah and the Fingal, as lieuten
ant of marines, and fighting in the battle of Port Royal
and other engagements. Early in 1862 his command,
First battalion of marines, was ordered to Virginia,
where he took part in the repulse of the Federal fleet at
Drewry's bluff, and was in the Seven Days' campaign.
He was commissioned first lieutenant of marines in the
winter of 1862-63, an^ remaining on the James river took
a conspicuous part in the defeat of Butler at Drewry's
bluff in 1864, commanding the left wing of the Confed
erate skirmish line. He was in command of Camp Beale
for several months, fought in the rear guard during the
retreat of 1865, escaped the disaster at Sailor's creek,
and was in battle on the last day at Appomattox.
Since the close of his Confederate service he has been
prominently connected with insurance business in North
Carolina. He has also taken a patriotic interest in the
organization of the military of the State, serving in
1877-78 as captain of Company A, First regiment State
guards; from 1879 to 1891 as inspector-general with the
rank of colonel, and from 1893 to 1897 as adjutant-general
of the State, with the rank of brigadier-general. Colonel
Cameron is a descendant of Rev. John Cameron, who
came to Virginia from Scotland after the battle of Culloden
and settled near Petersburg. His son, William Cam
eron, grandfather of Colonel Cameron, made his home in
Orange county, N. C., about 1825.

Colonel John Lucas Cantwell, of Wilmington, a vet
eran of two wars, was born at Charleston, S. C. , Decem
ber 29, 1828. From 1844 he resided at Columbia, S. C.,
until the beginning of the Mexican war, when he enlisted
as a private in the Richland Rifle Guards, Capt. William
D. DeSaussure, which became Company H of the Pal
metto regiment, Col. Pierce M. Butler. Mustered in at
Charleston, December, 1846, he served in Mexico with
General Scott, participating in the siege of Vera Cruz
and the battles of Contreras, Churubusco, Molino del
Rey, Chapultepec, and other engagements, until dis
charged at the City of Mexico on account of disabilities
due to three wounds received at Churubusco. He left
the Mexican capital in the same wagon-train with Gen
erals Quitman and Shields, November i, 1847, and re
turned to his parental home at Charleston. He now

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 421

receives a pension as a Mexican veteran from the United
States government. Subsequently he was at New
Orleans three years, and in 1851 made his home at Wil
mington, where in 1853 he was one of the founders of
the Wilmington light infantry, organized in January of
that year. He served as first sergeant, lieutenant, and
captain, and in April, 1855, was elected colonel of the
Thirtieth militia regiment. At the outbreak of the Con
federate war he was also clerk of the United States court
for the Cape Fear district, and a magistrate for the county.
In April, 1861, as commander of the only organized regi
ment in the State, he was ordered to take possession of
Forts Caswell and Johnson, and in the performance of
that duty he selected the following companies for his
command: The Wilmington light infantry, Capt. W. L.
DeRosset; the German volunteers, Capt. C. Cornehlson;
the Rifle Guards, Capt. Oliver Pendleton Meares, and
Capt. John J. Hedrick's company, the Cape Fear artil
lery, under Lieut. James M. Stevenson. The Cape Fear
Riflemen, Capt. M. M. Hankins, was left in Wilmington.
Colonel Cantwell seized the forts April i6th, and re
mained in command at Fort Caswell until July, after
which he served with his former Company, then Company
G, Eighteenth regiment, at Coosawhatchie, S. C. ; with
the Seventh regiment at New Bern; raised and com
manded the Railroad Bridge Guard, which was on duty
from Roanoke river, Va. , to Livingston creek, near the
Sotvth Carolina line ; was colonel of the Fifty-first regi
ment about one year, and in November, 1863, joined the
army of Northern Virginia as captain of the Cape Fear
Riflemen, Company F, Third North Carolina regiment.
With this command he participated in the fighting of
the Wilderness and Spottsylvania Court House until
captured with Johnson's division, May 12, 1864. He
was confined at Fort Delaware until August 20,
1864, and then was one of the 600 Confederate officers
placed under fire on Morris island and starved at Fort
Pulaski. Returned to Fort Delaware in March, he
was held there until May 27, 1865. He was one
of the original members of the association of officers
of the Third regiment, afterward the Third North
Carolina infantry association, organized February. 1866,
which is claimed to be the first organization of Southern
veterans.

422 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Captain Thomas Capehart, now a prominent citizen of
Kittrell, is one of the survivors of the First or Bethel
regiment. He was born at Murfreesboro, N. C., August
27, 1840, and was reared there until seven years of age,
when upon the death of his parents he made his home
with an uncle in Bertie county. He was educated at
Raleigh, at the Wilson school in Alamance county, and
at Chapel Hill, where he was a student in the spring of
1 86 1. Leaving his studies, however, in that stirring
epoch, he enlisted as a private in a volunteer company
known first as the Dixie Rebels, and later as Company
M, First North Carolina volunteers. He was soon pro
moted to corporal, then to sergeant, and finally to lieuten
ant two weeks before the battle of Big Bethel, in which
the regiment was distinguished. After the disbandment
of the First he returned home and organized a company
for light artillery service, for which he furnished part of
the uniforms, and the churches contributed their bells for
cannon. The company was attached to the Third battal
ion of artillery, commanded by John Wheeler Moore, but
was disbanded four or five months later for want of equip
ment. After this Captain Capehart was out of the service
until November, 1864, when he was appointed by Gov
ernor Vance captain of cavalry in the State troops, the
capacity in which he served until the close of hostilities.
With the return of peace he engaged in farming, and
since making his home at Kittrell, in 1867, he has also
conducted a mercantile business there. He is now one
of the leading business men of his town and section. By
his marriage, in 1862, to Amelia Tucker, of Northampton
county, he has eight children living: Emily Southall,
Lucy Goode, Kate Tucker, Thomas Tucker, Cullen,
Junius Long, Anthony Ashburn, Joseph Tudor and
Tucker Stanley.

James Carmichael, rector of St. John's Episcopal
church, Wilmington, was devoted to the Confederate
cause during the great struggle, in which others of his
family also participated. His father, Dr. George F. Car
michael, born at Fredericksburg, Va., in 1807, was in
charge of a portion of the hospitals at Danville; his
brother, Spotswood W. Carmichael, was on hospital duty
at Newnan, Ga., Lynchburg and Chapin's Bluff, Va. ;
and another brother, Charles Carter Carmichael, served

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 423

as a lieutenant in the Thirtieth Virginia regiment through
out the war, participating in the famous Confederate
charge on Cemetery hill at Gettysburg. James Carmi-
chael was born at Fredericksburg in 1835, and was edu
cated at Concord academy, Hanover academy and the
university of Virginia, after which he entered upon the
study of law with Judge W. S. Barton, of Fredericks-
burg, and was admitted to the bar in 1858. Then deter
mining to devote his life to the Christian ministry, he
began a course of study at the Alexandria theological
seminary, from which he was compelled to retire by the
advance of the invading armies in 1861. In May of that
year he was commissioned chaplain of the Thirtieth
Virginia infantry, and he was with this command in the
field of duty until the spring of 1862, when he was disa
bled by lung trouble and was sent on furlough to Greens
boro, N. C. There he remained unfit for duty until
November following, when, at the request of Dr. James
L. Cabell, post surgeon at Danville, he was assigned as
post chaplain at the latter place. In this capacity he
served until July 3, 1865. Subsequently Dr. Carmichael
was in charge of St. James' church, near Louisville, Ky.,
until the fall of 1868, then at Grace church, Memphis,
until 1878. After a briefer service at Port Deposit, Md.,
he assumed his present duties at Wilmington in 1883.
Dr. Carmichael is chaplain of Cape Fear camp of Wil
mington, and was recently made an honorary member of
Camp 171, Confederate veterans, of Washington, D. C.

Samuel Carmon, a popular railroad man of Wilming
ton, is a survivor of a patriotic North Carolina family, for
two generations connected with the soldierly career of
the Fayetteville light infantry. His father, Joshua Car
mon, a native of Fayetteville, served with this command
in the war of 1812, and in civil life was noted for his
faithful service during fifty years as bookkeeper of the
Bank of Cape Fear, at his native city. An older son of
the latter, Joshua Carmon, Jr., served in the Mexican
war, and as a private in General Lane's brigade in the
Confederate war, was badly wounded at the battle of
New Bern, and has since died. Samuel Carmon, born at
Fayetteville in 1841, and there reared and educated, went
on duty for the State as a private in the Fayetteville
light infantry in April, 1861, and with the Bethel regi-

424 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

merit, of which his command was Company H, served in
the famous first encounter at Big Bethel on the Virginia
peninsula. When the Bethel regiment was disbanded he
re-enlisted in Company E, Fifty-sixth regiment, and
served as a sergeant until the four years' struggle came
to an end. He was one of the valorous fighters who
achieved the capture of Plymouth, and was also in battle
at Little Washington, Kinston and Gum Swamp, N. C. ;
fought under Beauregard at Bermuda Hundred and in
defense of Petersburg, and in the breastworks around
Richmond; at the battle of the Crater, at Jerusalem
plank road, at the lead works toward Weldon, and
shared the suffering and fighting of the army of Northern
Virginia until just before the evacuation of Petersburg,
when he was permitted to go home on a furlough. He
was wounded at Plymouth and again slightly at Gum
Swamp. Since the war he has resided at Wilmington,
and has had an honorable career in the railroad service,
now holding the position of a conductor on the Atlantic
coast line.

Julian Shakespeare Carr, of Durham, N. C., a gallant
soldier of the Confederacy, and now one of the most
prominent business men of the South, was born October
12, 1845, at Chapel Hill. His father, John Wesley Carr,
a prosperous business man of that town, is well remem
bered by many prominent people of the South who were
students at the North Carolina university during the
period of his commercial career. John Wesley Carr
married Eliza Pannel Bullock, a member of the well-
known Bullock family of Greenville county. Her broth
er, Col. Robert Bullock, formerly represented a Florida
district in the United States Congress. Of the children
of this marriage, besides Julian Carr, there are living,
Dr. Albert Gallatin Carr, of Durham, N. C. ; Robert
Emmett Carr, associate editor of the Durham Globe;
Mary Ella, wife of William A. Guthrie, of Durham;
Lizzie, wife of Rev. J. T. Harris, of Durham ; and Emma,
wife of Prof. J. F. Heitman of Trinity college. Julian
S. Carr was reared in the quiet village of Chapel Hill
under the influence of pious and exemplary Methodist
parents, and received his education amid the favorable
facilities of his native place until the outbreak of the war.
Though under sixteen years of age when his State

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 425

seceded, he became at a later date a member of a cav
alry company, which was assigned to the Third North
Carolina cavalry regiment, of Barringer's brigade. With
this gallant command he did service in Virginia, particu
larly amid the active and desperate campaigns of 1864-65,
and won the esteem of his comrades by manly and sol
dierly behavior. Since the close of hostilities he has
been a warm and patriotic friend of the Confederate
soldier, and the regard which his comrades have for him
is evidenced by his long tenure of the office of president
of the North Carolina Veterans association. No man like
wise is more patriotic and loyal to the union of the States.
It is due to his patriotic impulse and generosity that the
coat-of-arms of North Carolina now appears among those
of the other thirteen original States in the old Independ
ence hall at Philadelphia. Observing the omission of
the insignia of his State, while on a visit to that historic
spot, he promptly secured the permission of the gov
ernor, and at his own expense placed the shield of North
Carolina in its appropriate place. In November, 1886,
he served as chief marshal at the Fayetteville centennial
celebration by the State of North Carolina of the adoption
of the Constitution of the United States, and the success
of that event was largely due to his efforts, assisted by
a corps of aides selected by him from the ablest and most
prominent citizens of the State. After the close of the
war Mr. Carr attended the university at Chapel Hill for
a short time, then became a partner of his father in
business, and three years later removed to Little Rock,
Ark., returning in 1870 to North Carolina and becoming
interested in the manufacture of tobacco, in which his
career has been pre-eminently successful. He purchased
a one-third interest in the manufacturing business of
W. T. Blackwell & Co., the firm then being com
posed of W. T. Blackwell and J. R. Day, 'at Durham.
The business of this famous house had then just begun to
grow, and its progress has continued from that day until
the Blackwell Durham corporation, as now organized,
has a capital stock of $4,000,000, on which it pays good
semi-annual dividends. While taking a leading part in
the development of this great business, Mr. Carr has also
been active in other lines, and the extent of his business
enterprises can best be briefly described by reference to
the following list of corporations and companies with

426 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

which he has been connected: He is president of Black-
well's Durham tobacco company; First national bank
of Durham ; Commonwealth Cotton manufacturing com
pany, Durham; Golden Belt manufacturing company,
Durham ; Jule Carr home loan fund, Durham ; Durham
electric lighting company; North Carolina bessemer
company, McDowell county; Atlantic hotel company,
Morehead City; vice-president Lynchburg & Durham
railroad company; Durham cotton manufacturing com
pany ; Durham Bull fertilizer company, Durham ; North
Carolina steel and iron company, Greensboro ; Kerr bag
machine company, Concord; Durham & Clarksville rail
road; the executive committee of the National tobacco
association of the United States. This represents but one
side of his character. He is not only one of the wealthiest
men in the State, but is one of the most influential, hon
ored and loved ; generous to all worthy enterprises, and
a popular leader among public-spirited men. He is not
only a liberal promoter of industrial enterprises, but a
strong supporter of religious, educational and charitable
institutions. He has been the patron of many a poor and
struggling man; has given home and assistance to the
maimed and Confederate soldier ; has rendered substan
tial aid to the university, Wake Forest college, Trinity
college, and other institutions of learning, and in many
ways has made his great wealth minister to the good of
humanity. He is a member of the board of trustees of
the Methodist female seminary at Durham; of the
Greensboro female college association; trustee of the
university of North Carolina, of Trinity college, and of
the Davenport female college; Kittrell's normal school;
the American university at Washington, and the Oxford
orphan asylum. In political affairs Mr. Carr has not
sought office, but has taken the part of a public-spirited
man desirous to do his patriotic duty. He has twice
represented the State in national convention of the Dem
ocratic party, and was one of the committee to frame the
platform upon which Mr. Cleveland was elected in 1884.
He is a member of the association of Young Men's Dem
ocratic clubs, and the State Democratic committee. He
has also served on the governor's staff as paymaster-
general with the rank of colonel. At the age of twenty-
five years Mr. Carr was married to Nannie G., youngest
daughter of Col. D. C. Parrish, of Durham. They have

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 427

five children living, two daughters, Alida and Lallah,
and three sons, Julian, Marvin and Claiborne. His family
residence at Durham is one of the handsomest in the
State, and his home life is one of ideal happiness.

Captain Obed William Carr, of Greensboro, a veteran
of the Forty-sixth regiment, was born in Duplin county,
March 12, 1833. He was graduated at Trinity college in
1859, and remained at that institution as a tutor until
March, 1862, when he entered the Confederate service
as captain of a company which he had organized, and
which was assigned to the Forty-sixth regiment as Com
pany G. From the camp of instruction at Goldsboro the
regiment was ordered to Virginia, arriving at Richmond
just after the battle of Seven Pines. It was on duty at
Drewry's bluff, and during the Seven Days' battles was
on the extreme right of the Confederate line, next the
river, at Malvern hill. Remaining at Drewry's bluff
until the Maryland campaign, he took part in the capture
of 13,000 Federal soldiers at Harper's Ferry, supporting
a battery stationed on Loudoun heights, and was in the
heat of the fight at Sharpsburg, coming out of battle
with all his officers disabled and only sixteen men left
on duty out of forty-eight. His health failed after this
campaign, and in October he was granted a leave of
absence. Rejoining his regiment, January ist, at Peters
burg, he was on duty in North Carolina during the spring,
participating in skirmishes at Gum Swamp and else
where ; was stationed at Richmond during the Pennsyl
vania campaign, and served in the army of Northern
Virginia until he was compelled to resign by failing
health in December, 1863. Captain Carr then engaged
in teaching until the close of hostilities, with the excep
tion of two weeks' service at Kinston in the fall of 1864.
From 1866 to 1878 he was a member of the faculty of
Trinity college ; subsequently he has been engaged in the
insurance business at Greensboro. He was State senator
for the Twenty-fifth district, embracing the counties of
Moore and Randolph, in 1881, and was for several years
secretary and treasurer of the chamber of commerce at
Greensboro, N. C. He is at present on the board of direc
tors of the Greensboro female college association, trustee
of Trinity college, Durham, N. C., and president of the
Randleman manufacturing company at Randleman, N. C.

428 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Major Daniel T. Carraway, for many years a well-
known business man of New Bern, was born in Craven
county in 1833, of an old North Carolina family. His
maternal grandfather, Zadok Parris, was a soldier of the
revolution, Mr. Carraway rendered valuable and faith
ful service throughout the four years of war which at
tended the career of the Southern Confederacy, in the
commissary department. The work of a commissary
officer of the Confederate army was attended by many
embarrassments and difficulties, but it is greatly to his
credit that notwithstanding all these he made a record of
which he may well be proud, and ministered efficiently
to the maintenance of the armies in the field. In April,
1861, he was appointed commissary of subsistence for
State troops and stationed at New Bern, and acted in
this capacity until November, when the Confederate
States government took charge. In January, 1862, he
was appointed brigade commissary with the rank of
major, for the brigade of General Branch, and just after
the Seven Days' campaign was detailed as commissary for
Gen. A. P. Hill's division of the army of Northern Vir
ginia. With the exception of a period, December, 1862,
to June, 1863, when he was commissary for the brigade,
then under General Lane, he continued to discharge the
duties of division commissary, under General Pender and
General Wilcox successively, until the surrender of the
army at Appomattox, when he was present. Returning
to North Carolina he found his family at Graham, and
soon went into business at Raleigh, and a few months
later at Wilmington, but after September, 1866, was a
resident and influential citizen of New Bern, and held for
some years prior to his death the position of superintend
ent of the cotton and grain exchange. He died at his
residence in the city of New Bern, November 26, 1898,
in the sixty- sixth year of his age.

Owen Judson Carroll, a well-known citizen of the State
capital, appointed in 1894 United States marshal for the
eastern district of North Carolina, was born in Duplin
county in 1845, the grandson of John Carroll, of Mary
land, who served in the continental army. He entered
the Confederate service May i, 1862, as a private in Com
pany B, Tenth regiment, heavy artillery, and was en
rolled with this command until April, 1864, when he was

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 429

transferred to Company D, Southerland's battery, light
artillery. During the entire years 1863-64 he was detailed
for duty in the provost marshal's office at Wilmington,
acting as clerk for the court-martials of the army. Going
into active service in January, 1865, he took part in the
famous defense of Fort Fisher, and in March served with
the artillery in the battles of Kinston and Bentonville.
He was paroled with the army at Greensboro in May,
1865, and then returned to his home in Duplin county,
whence he went to Poughkeepsie, N. Y., and completed
a business education, remaining for some time afterward
as an instructor in the Eastman college. Returning to
Duplin county in 1868 he married Mary A., daughter of
Jesse B. Southerland, and in January, 1869, opened an
academy at Magnolia, which he conducted until 1871.
He was subsequently engaged in mercantile pursuits,
traveling throughout the South for wholesale houses, and
making his home at New York from 1885 until 1893,
when he removed to Raleigh. In January, 1894, he was
appointed to the office of United States marshal.

Edward W. Carson, a veteran of the Forty-ninth regi
ment, North Carolina troops, was born in Gaston county
in 1838, son of Andrew Carson, who died in 1847. He
was reared and educated in his native county, and in the
spring of 1862 enlisted as a private in Company H of the
Forty-ninth regiment, which was organized with Ste
phen D. Ramseur as colonel early in that year. With
this famous regiment, drilled by Ramseur and inspired
by his heroic spirit, Carson served as private and corporal
until the end of the war. In Robert Ransom's brigade
he fought in the Seven Days' battles before Richmond,
going into the Malvern Hill fight between sundown and
dark, and remaining on the ground until near noon the
following day; and in the Maryland campaign, partici
pating in the capture of Harper's Ferry and fighting at
Sharpsburg, where his regiment made a gallant charge
upon the enemy and did great execution in the Federal
ranks. Here he was hit by a spent ball and disabled for
a few days, and subsequently was furloughed for sixty
days on account of poor health. He rejoined his regi
ment at Wilmington, N. C. , and took part in numerous
skirmishes along the line of the Weldon railroad. He
was then on duty near Richmond; in January, 1864, took

430 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

part in the New Bern expedition and the defeat of the
enemy at Batchelder's creek; in March participated in
the attack on Suffolk, and in May fought under Beaure-
gard in the defense of Petersburg. From this time he
remained on the Petersburg lines, was stationed to the
left of the Crater, and participated in the capture of Fort
Steadman in March, 1865. On the retreat from this
battle he carried back Lieutenant Rankin, who had been
severely wounded and who soon afterward died in hos
pital. At Five Forks he was in the thick of the fight and
narrowly escaped capture. After his parole at Appomat-
tox he returned to his native county, penniless but with
a brave heart, and ever since has been engaged in farm
ing, now being one of the most prosperous farmers of his
county. He is a member of the Presbyterian church, and
has been a ruling elder in the same for a number of years.

Lieutenant Benjamin H. Cathey, of Bryson City, was
born in Jackson county, N. C., January 4, 1836. During
the crisis of 1 860-61 he was a supporter of the old Union
until his State decided to ally herself with the Confeder
ate States, when he was among the first to enlist for the
war which followed, going out in May, 1861, with the
first company from his native county, to enter upon a
career of four years' uninterrupted service. He was pro
moted to the rank of first lieutenant and was distin
guished for coolness and bravery in battle. In the cam
paigns of the army of Northern Virginia he served under
Generals Pender and A. P. Hill for two years, from
Seven Pines to Shepherdstown, and then under Johnston
and Hood was identified with the army of Tennessee.
At Chickamauga he seized the flag after the color-bearer
had been shot down, and cheered his men forward in a
desperate charge in the face of a terrible fire from the
enemy. After the close of the war, returning to North
Carolina, he refused to take the oath of allegiance until
his State was relieved from the incubus of foreign ad
venturers, and was restored to self-government. This
accomplished, he at once devoted himself with entire
loyalty to the best interests of the reunited Union. He
is an active member of the United Confederate Veterans,
has served as adjutant of the camp at Bryson, and is now
aide-de-camp to General DeRosset, with the rank of
major.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 431

John L. Cathey, a veteran of the Sixtieth regiment,
North Carolina troops, now clerk of the superior court of
Buncombe county, was born in Macon county in 1832.
His parents, Thomas and Mary Ann (Ingram) Cathey,
were of North Carolina nativity, his mother being a
granddaughter of Solomon Ingram, who moved from
Ashe county to Cherokee before the Indians were re
moved. His family made their home in Cherokee
county when he was a child, and thence removed to
Beaver Dam creek and later to Haywood county. In
April, 1862, he left the farm and its peaceful duties to
enlist in the cause of the Confederacy, becoming a mem
ber of a company of the Sixth battalion, and marching
to Greenville, Tenn. , where he was mustered in as a pri
vate in Company I of the Sixtieth regiment, North Caro
lina State troops. He fought in the battle of Murfrees-
boro ; under Gen. Joe Johnston marched to the relief of
Vicksburg; after the fall of that post joined in the gal
lant stand made at Jackson against the victorious hosts
of the United States army, and then, returning to Chat
tanooga, took part in the bloody battle of Chickamauga,
where his valor won for him a place on the official roll of
honor. But for this distinguished honor he paid, as sol
diers do, with blood. In the fight of Sunday, September
2oth, he was severely wounded in the right leg, and on
the next day, while lying in a thicket, on the field, his
leg was amputated. Thus maimed he was carried to
Ringgold, and thence to Coweta county, Ga., where he
was in hospital until December 20, 1863. A few days
later he reached home, where for a long time his wound
disabled him, and afterward in his crippled condition the
straggle for existence was beset with much discourage
ment. By shoemaking, and finally, with the aid of his
eldest son, by farming, he maintained himself and family,
and in 1890 removed to Asheville, where he has twice
been elected to the office of clerk of the superior court.
He has taken an active part in political affairs in the
Democratic party, and was one of the organizers of the
Vance camp, Confederate veterans. By his first mar
riage, in 1856, to Louisa L. Hyatt, a native of Missouri,
who died in 1878, he has eight children. His second
wife, Barbara Elizabeth Luthen, to whom he was mar
ried in 1890, died in 1897,

432 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

James Nettleton Caudle, prominent as a business man
at Randleman, Randolph county, was born in Orange
county, N. C., February 7, 1833. Since 1849 he has
made his home at Randleman, and there was a member
of the company of the State militia for five years prior to
the war, holding the rank of first lieutenant. He entered
the regular service in North Carolina in the fall of 1863,
and took part in the defense of the State during the inva
sion by Sherman's army, acting as a courier under Gen
eral Johnston. Since the close of hostilities he has been
engaged for the greater part of the time in agricultural
pursuits, but for three years past has been a merchant
at Randleman. For thirty years he has served his com
munity as magistrate.

Isham Johnson Cheatham, of Franklinton, who served
the Confederate States as a member of the Forty-fourth
regiment, North Carolina State troops, was "born in
Granville county, January 22, 1830. He was educated
at Henderson, and then became engaged in business at
Townsville, whence he was called by the Southern war
for independence. In the spring of 1862 he volunteered
as a private in Company A, of the Forty-fourth regi
ment, and was soon promoted to the rank of quarter
master-sergeant. In this office he served the regiment
until the end of the war, performing the important duties
of his position with intelligent devotion to the wel
fare of his comrades. He was in battle with his regiment
at the South Anna bridge, at Mine Run and Bristoe
Station, at the Wilderness and Spottsylvania Court
House, and in all the battles around Richmond, after
the Confederate capital was beleaguered by the United
States army under Grant. After the surrender at Appo-
mattox he returned to Townsville, and for a few years
was occupied in farming. Since 1868 he has been
engaged in railroad work, first as station agent at Little
ton for eighteen months, and then as agent at Frank
linton. In 1858 he was married to Mary Eliza Hunt, of
Townsville, and they have eight children living : Fannie
B., Richard I., Sue A., Kate W., Edwin J., Jane R.,
Mattie G. , and James B. The eldest son, Richard I. , is
assistant general freight agent at Atlanta, for the Sea
board Air Line railroad, and the other two sons are also
in railroad service.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 433

Colonel William H. Cheek, who made a splendid record
as colonel of the First North Carolina cavalry, and who
for gallantry was recommended by General Lee for pro
motion to the rank of brigadier-general, was born in
Warren county, N. C., March 18, 1835. After graduat
ing at Randolph-Macon college, in 1854, he studied law
under William Eaton, Jr., of Warrenton and was admit
ted to the bar in June, 1856. In the following August he
was elected commonwealth's attorney, which position he
held until he was elected in 1860 to the legislature of
North Carolina. When it became evident, in 1861, that
the country was drifting into war, he resigned his seat
in the legislature in order to raise a company for the
defense of his native State. He had had some experi
ence in military affairs, having been orderly-sergeant of
the Warren Horse Guards, a company organized in the
spring of 1859. In April, 1861, the Horse Guards were
ordered to take possession of Fort Macon, but that
important post had been occupied by the State troops
before the arrival of that company, which accordingly
returned home. The legislature, of which Mr. Cheek
was a member, having passed a bill to raise ten regi
ments of State troops to serve during the war, he re
cruited Company E, First North Carolina cavalry. His
commission as captain of that company was dated May
1 6, 1 86 1. Robert Ransom, afterward brigadier-general,
was the first colonel of this regiment, which was in 1862
assigned to Hampton's brigade, and on the promotion of
that officer to Baker's, Gordon's and Barringer's bri
gades successively, being in the last-named brigade at
the time of the surrender at Appomattox. Captain
Cheek participated in more than 150 cavalry combats, the
most important being the cavalry engagements of the
Maryland campaign, Brandy Station, - the Gettysburg
campaign, Williamsport, Spottsylvania Court House,
Chamberlain Run and Five Forks. In September, 1863,
he was commissioned lieutenant-colonel, and one month
later, upon the death of Colonel Ruffin, he was promoted
to colonel. In 1864, during the Kilpatrick and Dahlgren
raid, when near Lee's Station the Federals broke
through the lines and Richmond was in great danger,
Colonel Cheek, under instructions of General Hampton,
with about 100 raen attacked a brigade of the enemy at
2 o'clock in the morning. The Federals were stampeded

434 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

and scattered, thinking that the whole Confederate cav
alry was upon them. After the fight at Chamberlain
Run, March 31, 1865, General Lee recommended that
Colonel Cheek be commissioned brigadier-general for
gallantry. As the surrender occurred a few days later,
there was not time for this recommendation to be atced
upon. At Five Forks, April ist, he had a thrilling
experience. Falling into the hands of two Federal sol
diers, he shot one and escaped from the other. On the
morning of April 6th, General Lee sent him with a bugler
and orderly to find a certain regiment. While on this
errand they met three Federal scouts wearing Confeder
ate uniforms. Being thrown off their guard, they were
captured and carried as prisoners to General Sheridan's
headquarters. One of Colonel Cheek's captors was a
Major Young. After he had been feasted at Sheridan's
headquarters by some of the prominent Union officers,
Major Young told him that one of his men would mail a
letter for him to his wife. The letter was written and
mailed according to promise, reaching its destination in
due time. Colonel Cheek was sent to the Old Capitol
prison in Washington, were he was at the time of the
assassination of Lincoln. The arrival of a Federal regi
ment, sent for their protection, saved them from being
put to death by an angry mob. He was next sent to
Johnson's island, where he was held until August, 1865.
At that time he was released and allowed to return home.
He at once took charge of his father's plantation, then
went to Norfolk, Va. , and engaged in the commission
business. In 1882 he moved to Henderson, N. C., where
he has since been engaged in the practice of law. He
was married in 1864 to Miss Alice M. Jones, of Warren
county, Va. They have six children.

Colonel Daniel Harvey Christie, the circumstances of
whose death inspired the well-known poem, "The Dying
Soldier," was born in Frederick county, Va., March 28,
1833, the only son of Robert W. and Sarah Christie. In
youth he displayed great talent as a singer and teacher
of music. Removing to southeastern Virginia, he was
married, in 1855, to Lizzie A. Norfleet, and went into busi
ness at Norfolk, but lost all in the commercial disasters
of 1857. He then removed to Henderson, N. C., and
established the Henderson military institute, which he

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 435

conducted with much success until the separation of his
adopted State from the Union, when he tendered his
services to North Carolina. He assisted materially in
the organization of troops, and in July was elected major
of the Thirteenth, afterward the Twenty-third regiment.
A few days after the battle of Williamsburg he was
elected colonel. He commanded his regiment in the
battle of Seven Pines, and was severely wounded in this
fight, where his regiment was left in command of a lieu
tenant on account of the casualties among the officers.
At Mechanicsville he was again in battle, and at Cold
Harbor was a second time wounded, and disabled for two
months. At South mountain, September i4th, he and
his regiment were distinguished in the heroic check of
McClellan's army, and at Sharpsburg he fought through
out the day. Subsequently he commanded the brigade
for a time. At Chancellorsville he was commended for
gallantry and recommended for promotion to brigadier-
general. At Gettysburg his brigade was sacrificed in the
bloody fight of the first day, and in the midst of the car
nage Colonel Christie was conspicuous for the coolness
with which he exposed himself, encouraging his men to
stand fast. Only one lieutenant and sixteen privates of
the Twenty-third escaped death, wounds or capture in
this fearful conflict, and the gallant colonel fell with a
mortal wound. He died at Winchester at the residence
of a Mrs. Smith, who tenderly nursed him until the end
came, July 17, 1863. Mrs. Christie, with her three chil
dren, was called to him by telegraph, but was unable to
arrive until two days after his death. His last words
inspired the pathetic poem beginning: "I am dying; is
she coming? Throw the window open wide." Mrs.
Christie was a guest of honor at the laying of the corner
stone of the Confederate monument at Raleigh in 1894.
One son is living, Harvey L. Christie^ a lawyer of St.
Louis, Mo.

James Beverly Clifton, a prominent physician of Louis-
burg, N. C., was distinguished during the Confederate
war for the faithful and skillful manner in which he
filled responsible positions in the medical department of
the Southern army. He was born in Franklin county,
April 27, 1836, was educated at the Louisburg academy
and the university of Virginia, and was graduated in

No 51

436 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

medicine at the university of New York in 1857. When
the war began he was engaged in the practice at Louis-
burg, but he promptly entered the service as surgeon of
the Fifteenth regiment. After about six months' service
with that command he was assigned to the hospital at
Williamsburg, Va. , subsequently was stationed at York-
town, and then at Jamestown island, where he remained
until the evacuation of the peninsula. During about a
year following he was on duty at Richmond, until the
spring of 1863, when he was assigned to Semmes' Geor
gia brigade of Longstreet's corps. From that time until
the close of the war he was associated with Longstreet's
corps, attached to various brigades, and experienced the
important and arduous service of that famous command.
In the list of engagements in which he was on duty are
the names of Games' Mill, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg,
Chickamauga, Knoxville, the Wilderness, Spottsylvania
Court House and Cedar Creek, October 19, 1864. Re
turning to Louisburg after the end of the war he resumed
the practice of his profession, and has ever since contin
ued in it, adding to his repute as a physician and win
ning the love and esteem of the community. In Novem
ber, 1867, he married Ann R. Smith, of Granville county,
who died in 1885. In June, 1890, he wedded Mrs. Lucy
D. Clifton, sister of A. B. Andrews, of Raleigh. His
children living are William Thomas, Mary Grey, Fan
nie Neal, Maurice Smith, Lucy Birdie and Kate Davis.
The eldest son is engaged in business at Waco, Tex. , and
the eldest daughter is the wife of John W. King, a pros
perous merchant of Louisburg.

John T. Clifton, since the war a leading citizen of
Franklin county, was born in that county, December 9,
1839, and was educated at Louisburg and Goldsboro.
Preparing himself for the profession of pharmacy, he
embarked in the drug business and was so occupied when
the war broke out, but he answered the call of his State
as a true and loyal citizen. In August, 1861, he became
associated in an independent capacity with the Franklin
Rifles, Company L of the Fifteenth regiment, State
troops, of which his brother, Dr. J. B. Clifton, was sur
geon. He continued with this command until October,
1862, in the meantime participating in the gallant fight
of the Fifteenth at Dam No. i on the Virginia peninsula.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 437

Finally returning home on account of poor health, he
was unfit for duty for a considerable period. In Febru
ary, 1864, though still infirm in health, he enlisted as a
private in Company A, Fifth North Carolina cavalry,
with which he was in battle at Yellow Tavern, and in all
the succeeding engagements of his regiment, except
Reams' Station, until he was captured, April 2, 1865, at
Williams' Station, on the Southside railroad. The Fed
eral troops then taking possession of Petersburg, he was
taken as a prisoner to the fair-ground hospital and
assigned to duty there as a hospital nurse for the Confed
erate wounded, until he was paroled June 20, 1865. Then
returning to Louisburg, Mr. Clifton engaged in farming
and milling, in which he has successfully continued until
the present, also in merchandise until 1882. He began
an official career of valuable public service in 1885, as a
member of the State legislature, and was re-elected to
that body in 1888. In the same year he served the
unexpired term of his brother as county treasurer. In
1 896 he was elected register of deeds of the county.

Thaddeus L. Clinton, of Gastonia, N. C. , was born in
York county, S. C., the son of Robert A. Clinton, a native
of that State. His great-grandfather, Peter Clinton, was
a captain in the patriot army of the revolution. He was
a resident of Gaston county at the beginning of the Con
federate era, and in April, 1861, enlisted in the first com
pany from that county. At Garysburg, this was assigned
to the Twenty-third North Carolina regiment as Com
pany H. He accompanied his regiment to Virginia, was
in camp at Manassas Junction until the spring of 1862,
and participated in the defense of Yorktown and the
retreat to Richmond. He fought at Seven Pines, and
in the Seven Days' campaign under Robert E. Lee,
during which he was under fire every -day. He was an
active participant in the battles of Mechanicsville and
Malvern Hill. His brigade, commanded by Gen. Sam
uel Garland, in the division of D. H. Hill, was conspic
uous in the bloody struggle before Richmond and won
new honors in the Maryland campaign, where Private
Clinton was one of the little band of heroes who held
South mountain against the army of McClellan and
fought against enormous odds. At the December battle
of Fredericksburg his regiment was held in reserve, but

438 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

at Chancellorsville, in the early May days of 1863, he was
in the heat of battle and suffered a severe wound in the
left leg, which necessitated its amputation on the field.
Thus terribly crippled, he was carried to hospital at
Richmond and subsequently was honorably discharged.
During his service he gained promotion to the rank of
corporal. After his return to North Carolina he worked
as a shoemaker for ten or twelve years, afterward con
ducted a store until 1893, and is also a farmer. He was
married in 1890 to Clarice I. Smith, and they have two
children, Roland Smith and Foster S. G. Clinton.

Lieutenant William Henry Harrison Cobb, M. D., of
Goldsboro, a veteran of the Confederate States service,
was born in Wayne county in 1841, and prepared for col
lege at the famous Bingham's school in Orange county.
He was graduated in medicine at the university of Penn
sylvania, March 14, 1861, and then returning to his native
State, enlisted for her defense, April i6th, as a private in
the Goldsboro Rifles. After about a month's service at
Fort Macon he joined the Second regiment, North Caro
lina troops, Col. Charles C. Tew, and was at once ap
pointed sergeant-major. On October i4th following,
he was commissioned second lieutenant of Company D,
and on February 20, 1863, was transferred to the medical
service, and commissioned assistant surgeon, provisional
army, in which capacity he remained with his regiment
until nearly the end of the struggle. About two weeks
before the surrender he was transferred to the Twentieth
regiment, Benning's Georgia brigade, Longstreet's
corps, with which he was paroled at Appomattox. While
an officer of the line he was under fire of gunboats on
Potomac creek, and at Fort Fisher in 1862, and partici
pated in the Seven Days' battles before Richmond, and
Fredericksburg. After the Seven Days' battles he was
detailed to care for the wounded at Richmond, and
before he could return to the army was disabled for sev
eral weeks with typhoid fever. After his appointment as
assistant surgeon he was under fire in the performance
of his duties at Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wil
derness, Spottsylvania, Second Cold Harbor, Winchester
and Cedar Creek, on the Petersburg lines, and the retreat
to Appomattox. Surgeon Cobb had three brothers
equally devoted to the Southern cause, and their united

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 439

record is one not often equaled in patriotic devotion and
usefulness. John P., now living at Brooksville, Fla.,
was a gallant officer of the Second regiment, served as
colonel during the last year of the war, and lost a leg at
Winchester September 19, 1864; Rev. N. B. Cobb, now
residing in Sampson county, was a chaplain and colpor
teur in the army of Northern Virginia, and Bryan W.
Cobb, now residing in Fender county, held the rank of
major in the Second regiment. Dr. W. H. H, Cobb is
ex-president of the Medical society of the State of North
Carolina, a member of the State board of medical
examiners and State medical examiner for the Royal
Arcanum.

Captain Robert E. Cochrane, of Charlotte, a veteran of
Barringer's cavalry brigade, was born in Cabarrus
county, January 26, 1836, the son of Maj. Robert C. and
Statira (McKinley) Cochrane. His father, of Scotch-
Irish descent, was an officer of the State militia, and died
in 1846, his wife preceding him by a year. Left an
orphan at the age of ten years, young Cochrane was
reared, according to the provisions of his father's will,
by Rev. John Hunter, and educated primarily in the
school of the latter. In 1856 he was graduated at Ers-
kine college, South Carolina, and in 1858 he made his
home at Charlotte, where two years later he embarked in
business as the proprietor of a hardware store. This he
left early in 1862 and enlisted as a private in a cavalry
company organized at Charlotte, of which he was
appointed quartermaster- sergeant. When the company
was assigned to the Fifth North Carolina cavalry he was
appointed quartermaster of the regiment, with the rank
of captain, the capacity in which he mainly served. But
for a considerable time, toward the close of the war, he
acted as quartermaster of Barringer's cavalry brigade,
composed of the First, Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth
regiments. He was with his regiment, faithful and
efficient in service, throughout its gallant career and
contributed to the high repute in which this famous body
of North Carolina troopers was held. Since the war he
has resided at Charlotte and given his attention chiefly
to insurance. He is a member of the public school board,
president of the Charlotte sash, door and blind manufactur
ing company, and secretary and treasurer of the Mechan-

440 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

ics' perpetual building and loan company. He is a faith
ful comrade of Mecklenburg camp. Captain Cochrane
was married in October, 1860, to Susan Elizabeth Orr,
and they have three children living.

Captain Kinchin Wesley Coghill, of Henderson, who
was severely wounded at the battle of Sharpsburg while
carrying the colors of the Twenty-third regiment, was
born in Franklin county in 1837, the son of Capt. James
O. Coghill. Three of his brothers were in Company G,
of the Twenty-third regiment, Joseph W. and James
Norfleet, who died of disease contracted in the first Ma-
nassas campaign; and Jonathan F., who served in the
corps of sharpshooters until the close of the war. Mr.
Coghill entered the Confederate service as corporal of
Company G, Capt. C. C. Blacknall, Twenty-third regi
ment, North Carolina troops, Col. D. H. Chrisjtie, and
with his command participated in the first battle of
Manassas. Subsequently, in Garland's brigade, he
served at Yorktown, Williamsburg, the Seven Days'
battles before Richmond, Second Manassas, South
Mountain and Sharpsburg. He was promoted to ser
geant at Richmond, and after the battle of Seven Pines
served as color-bearer of his regiment. At Sharpsburg
he was severely wounded, and after lying for some time
in hospital was sent to his home for recovery. Though
in a weak and enfeebled condition he rejoined his regi
ment in time to participate in the Gettysburg campaign.
On the return of the army to Virginia he was appointed
to a clerkship in the quartermaster's department at Hen
derson, and while there he served for a time as captain of
a company of disabled soldiers. He was finally paroled
with Johnston's army at Greensboro. Still maintaining
his comradeship, he is a valued member of Wyatt camp,
United Confederate Veterans. Since the war Captain
Coghill has been engaged in contracting and building,
and has erected a great part of the handsome residences
and business houses of Henderson and Rocky Mount.
He is also prominent in church work, and is the author
of a Sunday-school record and class-book which is in
extensive use. He was married in 1865 to Miss Fannie
Lassiter, a daughter of Ridick and Lovier Lassiter.
They have been blessed with nine children and twelve
grandchildren.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 441

D. K. Collins, of Bryson City, a veteran of Thomas'
legion, was born in Hay wood county, N. C., in 1844, the
son of Robert and Elizabeth (Beck) Collins. His father,
though over military age, entered the Confederate serv
ice from Jackson county in 1863, in command of two
companies of Cherokee Indians, but died after six
months of patriotic duty. Mr. Collins was reared and
educated in Jackson county, and enlisted in 1863 as
a private in Company F, First regiment of Thomas'
legion, later known as the Sixty- fifth regiment North
Carolina troops. With this command he served in south
west Virginia and in the Shenandoah valley under Gen
eral Early, and participated in sixteen battles, among
them Winchester, Cedar Creek, Kernstown, Piedmont,
Berry ville and Snicker's Gap. At Cedar Creek, fighting
as a sharpshooter, he was upon the field after the retreat
of the Confederate troops and was attacked by a Federal
cavalryman. His last shot killed the latter's horse and
the two men then engaged in a desperate hand-to-hand
struggle, which was finally ended by the arrival of an
armed comrade of his antagonist, and Collins was forced
to surrender. Three clays later, at Winchester, he
escaped during the confusion caused by a night attack of
Mosby's men. He was afterward captured near Ashe-
ville, but easily made his escape. After the close of hos
tilities Mr. Collins attended school two years, was in Col
orado a year, and another year with Captain Conley in
Alabama, and then embarked in business as a merchant
at the site of the present town of Bryson City, becoming
the pioneer business man of that thriving place in 1871.
He has been very successful in this enterprise and is also
one of the leading farmers of the county. By his mar
riage in 1867 to Mattie Frank of Macon county, who died
in 1883, he has three children. In 1890 he was married
to Ellen Sheffer, of Huntsville, Ala.

Major George P. Collins, of Hillsboro, was born in New
York, of North Carolina parentage, and was reared in
Washington county. His father, Josiah Collins, was a
native of Edenton and proprietor of a large plantation.
The family in America is descended from Josiah Collins,
of England, who came to America in 1773, established
the first rope- walk in this country, and gained such dis
tinction as a patriot that he was offered the position of

442 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

secretary of the treasury in the cabinet of President
Washington. Major Collins was educated at Harvard
college and the university of Virginia, and then took
charge of his father's plantation. During the early part
of the war of the Confederacy he served as an officer of
militia in the vicinity of Roanoke island. In the spring
of 1862 he brought a body of twenty volunteers into the
Confederate service and was assigned to Company G of
the Seventeenth regiment, North Carolina troops, as
second lieutenant. With this command he served at
Drewry's bluff, after the Seven Days' campaign before
Richmond, and continued in the rank of second lieuten
ant until after General Pettigrew, who had been wounded
and captured at Seven Pines, returned to the service and
assumed brigade command. He was then, in August,
1862, assigned to duty on his staff as quartermaster, and
three months later was promoted major, to date from
his enlistment, and made chief quartermaster of the bri
gade. He continued to perform the duties of this posi
tion with great ability and fidelity until the close of the
war, on the staff of Pettigrew and his successors, Gener
als Kirkland and McRae. After the close of hostilities
Major Collins was engaged in the management of an
extensive plantation in northwestern Mississippi, his
family remaining part of each year at Hillsboro, where
he was a frequent visitor and finally made his permanent
home in 1883. By his marriage in 1860 to Annie Cam
eron, he has seven children living: Annie, wife of W. L.
Wall ; Rebecca Anderson, wife of Frank Wood ; George
K., civil engineer; Henrietta Page, Mary Arthur, Alice
Ruffin and Paul Cameron Collins. The father of Mrs.
Collins was Paul Carrington Cameron, of Hillsboro,
whose period of activity belonged to the ante-Confeder
ate era rather than to that epoch of stress and storm.
He was born in 1808, son of Judge Duncan Cameron, and
was a splendid representative of the Scotch families whose
sturdy virtues have contributed so much to the position
North Carolina now holds in the galaxy of States. He
was educated at the military school of Captain Partridge,
in Connecticut, the university of North Carolina, and
Trinity college, Connecticut, being graduated at the
latter in 1829; studied law and was admitted to the bar,
but never practiced, instead devoting his great mental
equipments to the study and elevation of agriculture.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 443

He was president of the first agricultural society organ
ized in the State, and successfully conducted on his plan
tations the labor of nearly 2,000 slaves. An enthusiastic
friend of the development of transportation and manu
facturing, he undertook a large contract in the building
of the North Carolina railroad; served as director of
other roads, and invested heavily in cotton manufactor
ies. In politics he was a Whig until secession and ever
afterward a Democrat, but never accepted office except
one term in the State senate. He is linked with the
Confederate era by his service as successor of Colonel
Fisher as president of the North Carolina railroad, and
his revival for a time of the military school at Hillsboro,
which Col. C. C. Tew abandoned to enter the army. As
a friend of education he built enduring monuments as
the firm friend of the St. Mary's school for girls at
Raleigh, which his father, Judge Duncan Cameron,
founded, and the unfailing supporter of the State uni
versity in the darkest hours of its history. Of this insti
tution his grandfather, Richard Bennehan, was one of
the founders; his father and uncle were trustees, and
he was "a friend and counselor under Swain, a father
and guide under Battle." His name is particularly asso
ciated with that grand monument, the Memorial hall,
upon the dedication of which he delivered the commence
ment oration in the seventy-seventh year of his age. His
wife was Anne, daughter of Chief- Justice Thomas Ruffin.
His death occurred January 6, 1891.

Captain Robert T. Conley, a famous Confederate sol
dier of western North Carolina, up to sixteen years of
age attended school in Hay wood county, and at the
beginning of hostilities volunteered as a private in the
first military company which left his county. He was
soon afterward elected first lieutenant, and in 1864 was
promoted captain. He served in several campaigns and
was mentioned for gallantry and efficiency in the general
orders of his commanding officers; was with General
Ransom in the East Tennessee campaign of 1863, with
General Early in the Shenandoah Valley campaign of
1864 in command of sharpshooters, won distinction under
the most unfavorable circumstances, and after the return
of Thomas' legion to western North Carolina in Novem
ber, 1864, took part in many skirmishes. On May 2, 1865,

444 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

he led in what is believed to be the last fight with the
Federal troops east of the Mississippi. The Federals under
General Bartlett, disregarding the terms of the capitu
lation of Lee and Johnston, had plundered the people of
the county, and under a pretended truce were continuing
their pillage when Captain Conley, with 25 men, assailed
a party of 200 or more of the marauders with such spirit
that they were glad to arrange honorable terms of peace.
This gallant soldier removed to Alabama not long after
ward, and carried on a successful business at Talladega
until his death, December 18, 1892. His widow and
six children survive.

Captain Jonas Cook, of Mount Pleasant, a veteran of
Clingman's brigade, was born in Gaston county, February
28, 1842, son of Matthew Cook and his wife, Mary M.
Costner. His father emigrated to this country early in
the 3o's from Baden, Germany, where the name was
written Koch. He was educated in North Carolina col
lege at Mount Pleasant, and at the beginning of hostili
ties in 1 86 1 was employed in the office of the clerk of the
county court for the county of Cabarrus. This position
he promptly resigned and took an active part in the
organization of a volunteer company, the Cabarrus Pha
lanx, of which he was elected second lieutenant, although
but nineteen years of age. The company was organized
in August, 1 86 1, enlisting for three years or the war,
and became Company H of the Eighth regiment, North
Carolina State troops. In February, 1863, he was pro
moted to first lieutenant, and in January, 1864, to captain
of his company. His first service was on Roanoke island
in 1861-62, chiefly on heavy artillery duty, and he was
there surrendered after participating in the battle of
February, 1862. In August following he was exchanged
and then returned to the service. Among the important
engagements in which he participated were the first bat
tle of Goldsboro, three encounters with the enemy during
the siege of Charleston, S. C., the siege and capture of
Plymouth, N. C., and the fighting about Drewry's bluff,
Va. At Plymouth, while his command was charging the
Federal's strongest works, a shell from the gunboats ex
ploded in the ranks of his company, killing and wounding
1 8 men; Captain Cook was knocked insensible for awhile
by a piece of the shell, receiving a severe contusion on

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 445

left shoulder and side of his head and a wound in the ear.
After his wound was dressed, he returned to his com
mand to join in the final assault and capture of the
enemy. On two days of the fighting about Drewry's
bluff he had command of the skirmish line in front of his
regiment. He was wounded three times, by a piece of
shell at Battery Wagner, in 1863; at Plymouth, as has
been stated, and through the right arm in an heroic
effort to dislodge the enemy and save the lives of his
men at Bermuda Hundred. His service in the army
finally ended at High Point, upon the surrender of Gen
eral Johnston. Since the war Captain Cook has been
engaged in trade as a merchant, and has prospered in
his business. He has served many years as postmaster,
and for some time as chairman of the board of magis
trates. He served one term as commissioner for the
county of Cabamis. By his marriage, in 1868, to Mar
tha Regina, daughter of Col. John Shimpoch, he has
eight children: Mary J. C., John M., Walter M., Lelia
R., Winona, Anna M., Agnes W. and Carl M.

Captain Charles Mather Cooke, of Louisburg, one of
the prominent citizens of North Carolina, a successful
lawyer and political leader, was born March 10, 1844, in
Franklin county, the son of Capt. Jones Cooke and his
wife Jane A. Kingsbury. His father was born in the
same county in 1786, held important civil office, and won
his military title in the war of 1812, adding to the excel
lent patriotic record of his family, which gave six soldiers
to the continental army during the revolution. The
mother of Mr. Cooke was the daughter of Darius Kings-
bury and Esther Mather, the latter being a descendant of
a brother of Cotton Mather, the distinguished Puritan
divine of New England. Mr. Cooke was educated at
Louisburg academy and Wake Forest college, but left
the latter institution in the second year of his course to
volunteer as a private in the Confederate army. In the
winter of 1861 he was enrolled as a private in Company
I of the Fifty-fifth regiment, North Carolina State
troops, and soon afterward he was promoted to lieuten
ant. In this rank he fought in the engagements of the
army of Northern Virginia, under the brigade command
of Gen. Joseph R. Davis, and subsequently commanded
his company, until June, 1864, when he became adjutant

446 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

of the regiment. In the latter capacity he served until
the surrender at Appomattox. He was identified with
the gallant record of his regiment throughout, and par
ticipated in some of the deadliest conflicts of the war.
At Petersburg, March 31, 1865, he was shot in the leg
and badly wounded, forcing him to the use of crutches
during the following year. Being paroled at Richmond,
after the surrender he returned to his father's farm in
Franklin county, where he soon entered upon the study
of law, with the result that he was admitted to practice
in 1867-68. In 1874 he was elected to the State senate;
in 1877-78 held by appointment the office of solicitor
of the Sixth judicial district; in 1878 was elected to the
house of representatives, where he served as chairman
of the judiciary committee, and upon re-election in 1880
he became speaker of the house. From 1884 to 1888 he
was a director of the State penitentiary but resigned to
again accept a seat in the house, and served as chairman
of the committee on internal improvements and on the
railroad commission committee. In 1894 he received the
Democratic nomination for representative of the Fourth
congressional district, but was defeated by a combination
of Republicans and Populists. Then, being appointed
by Governor Carr to fill the unexpired term of Octavius
Coke, deceased, as secretary of State, he held that office
until January, 1897. He has also rendered valuable serv
ice as a trustee of the State university and of Wake For
est college. In professional life, meanwhile, he has
attained high rank as a lawyer. Throughout the State
he is popular as an eloquent and convincing political
speaker. In February, 1868, Mr. Cooke was married to
Miss Bettie Person, and they have seven children living,
Percival H., Charles M. Jr., Francis N., Frederick K.,
Wilbur C., Edwin W. and Lizzie K. The eldest son is
practicing law at Louisburg, the second is superintendent
of cotton mills at Bessemer City, and Francis is a cadet
at West Point.

Captain James Wallace Cooke, Confederate States
navy, was born at Beaufort, N. C., August 13, 1812, the
son of Thomas and Esther Cooke. His father, a mer
chant, was lost at sea in a hurricane, three years later,
while on his return from a trip to New York, and in the
following year the mother died, leaving two children,

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 447

James and Harriet, to be reared by their uncle, Col.
Henry M. Cooke, first collector of customs of the port of
Beaufort. At sixteen years of age young Cooke was
appointed a midshipman in the United States nav}r,
beginning his service on the training ship Guerriere
April i, 1828. He was promoted to lieutenant February
25, 1841, and served on the Macedonian, Constitution,
Ontario, John Adams, German town and Decatur ; at the
naval observatory and in command of the Relief. While
stationed at Norfolk he was married, July 5, 1848, to
Mary E. A. Watts, of Portsmouth. One son was born to
them, who died in 1882, leaving two sons now residing at
Portsmouth. Lieutenant Cooke promptly resigned his
commission when the war broke out, and was appointed
lieutenant in the Virginia navy, and soon afterward
transferred to the Confederate navy. His first duty was
in connection with the fortification of the James, after
which he was transferred to the Potomac. In the fall of
1 86 1 he was given command of the Ellis, a mail steam
tug, with which he sailed to Roanoke island under Com
modore Lynch. He fought his boat in the battle of Feb
ruary yth until his ammunition was exhausted, and in
the subsequent desperate fight near Elizabeth City
refused to surrender after his boat had been boarded and
he had received a musket wound in the arm and bayonet
thrust in the leg, the crew finally being taken by main
force. After his exchange he was promoted commander
and in 1863 was ordered to the Roanoke river to super
intend the construction of the ironclad Albemarle. In
the spring of 1864 he was assigned the duty with this
ram of clearing away the Federal vessels before Ply
mouth, in co-operation with the land attack under Gen
eral Hoke. Starting down the river before his boat was
entirely completed, he was enabled by high water to run
over the obstructions and torpedoes in' the river. He
passed the batteries without injury, encountered two Fed
eral steamers, the Miami and the Southfield, under Cap
tain Flusser, fought them at such close range that a shell
with a io- second fuse, fired by Captain Flusser, rebounded
from the iron sides of the Albemarle and killed the gal
lant officer who pulled the lanyard, sunk one and drove
the other down stream, and thus made it possible for
the forces under General Hoke to assault and carry the
Federal works. For this service Cooke and his men

448 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

received the thanks of the Confederate Congress. On
May 5, 1864, he left Roanoke river with the Albemarle
and two tenders, and entered Albemarle sound, intend
ing if possible to regain control of the two sounds and
Roanoke island and Hatteras. Soon after reaching the
sound he was met by the Federal squadron, consisting
of seven heavily- armed vessels, all under the command
of Capt. Melancthon Smith. At 2 o'clock in the after
noon this squadron advanced in double line, and moving
past in turn the gunboats delivered their heaviest shot
at close range. The Albemarle responded effectively,
but her boats were soon shot away, her smokestack rid
dled, and her after-gun broken off. This terrible contest
of seven against one continued without intermission until
5 o'clock, when the commander of the Sassacus conceived
the idea of running down the ram, and struck her with a
full head of steam abaft her starboard beam. The Albe-
marle's after-deck was forced several feet below the
water, but the calm voice of her gallant commander was
heard: "Stand to your guns, and if we must sink let us
go down like brave men." In retaliation Cooke sent a
shot through one of the boilers of the Sassacus, badly
scalding nineteen of her men. The conflict continued
with unabated, fury until night put an end to the battle.
The smokestack of the Albemarle had lost its capacity,
and the boat lay helpless until Cooke made use of the
bacon and lard on board to get up steam, when he
brought the ram back to Albemarle, having suffered lit
tle injury and inflicted heavy loss upon his assailants.
He was promoted captain in July, 1864, and put in com
mand of all the naval forces in eastern North Carolina.
After the close of hostilities he lived at Portsmouth until
he passed away June 21, 1869. He was as bold and gal
lant a sailor as ever walked the quarter-deck.

Captain John A. Cooper, president of the First national
bank at Statesville, was born in Davidson county, N. C.,
in 1839, son of William W. Cooper. He entered the
Confederate service in 1861 as a private in the Eleventh
regiment, North Carolina volunteers, organized at Dan
ville, Va. He was made sergeant-major of the regiment
at the organization, the rank in which he served during
its period of enlistment. He participated in the battle
of Blackburn's Ford, July 18, 1861, under General Beau-

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 449

regard, and in the glorious victory of the 2ist, and was
subsequently stationed at Thoroughfare gap, and in win
ter quarters at Manassas Junction and on the Rappahan-
nock. At the reorganization in the spring of 1862 the
company with which he entered became Company B, of
the First North Carolina battalion, of which he was
elected first lieutenant, and soon after promoted to cap
tain. He marched with Ewell to reinforce Jackson in
the Shenandoah valley, and shared the gallant record of
Trimble's brigade in the famous campaign which fol
lowed, participating in the battles of Front Royal, Win
chester, Cross Keys and Port Republic. Then being
transferred rapidly to the left of Lee's army before
Richmond, he took part in the fighting of his brigade in
the Seven Days' campaign. With Jackson's corps he
was in the battle of Cedar Mountain, the raid to Manas
sas Junction, the battle of Second Manassas, the capture
of Harper's Ferry, and Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg and
Chancellorsville. During the Pennsylvania campaign,
when Swell's corps reached Carlisle, Captain Cooper was
appointed provost marshal at that place. After the bat
tle of Gettysburg and the retreat to Virginia he served in
North Carolina, and was in command of a picked com
pany of 200 men in the gallant and victorious assault upon
the Federal forts at Plymouth. After this he served as
assistant adjutant-general on the staff of Major-General
Hoke, the position which he occupied during the remain
der of the war, on duty at Petersburg and Drewry's
bluff, and in North Carolina again during the siege of
Fort Fisher, and in the campaign against Sherman. He
took part in the battle of Bentonville, and was surren
dered at Greensboro. During this conspicuous career he
was wounded several times, but not seriously. Previous
to the war Captain Cooper had been engaged in cotton
manufacture, and on his return he became a partner of
his brother as a merchant, and later rebuilt the cotton fac
tory that the Federal raiders had burned. In 1868 he
retired from manufacturing, and after residing at the
family homestead five years began a mercantile career
which continued with much success until 1892. He then
removed to Statesville and became president of the First
national bank. He is also president of the Iredell
tobacco company and a member of the grocery firm of
Cooper & Gill. As a county official he has served

450 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

eighteen years as commissioner of Wilkes county and for
some time as chairman of the board of Iredell. By his
marriage in 1868 to Julia Tomlin, he has two children,
A. D. Cooper, and a daughter, Mattie.

Captain James C. Cooper, Jr., a Confederate veteran
of Henderson, N. C., was born in Granville county in
1841, a son of Alexander Cooper. The latter, who was
a son of James Cooper, a native of Scotland, was a pros
perous planter, and was in the Confederate service as a
member of the Senior reserves. Captain Cooper was
educated at the Hillsboro military academy, and in the
spring of 1861 enlisted in the Granville Grays, which was
assigned as Company I to the Second regiment, North
Carolina troops. On May 5, 1861, he was transferred to
the Eighth regiment and promoted to lieutenant. While
a member of this command he was captured at Roanoke
island and after a short imprisonment on board a Federal
steamship was paroled, and in September, 1861, was
exchanged. In December, 1862, he was commissioned
as captain commissary of the Second North Carolina cav
alry, commanded by Col. Sol Williams, and he served
with this regiment until after the Gettysburg campaign.
Returning then to his lieutenancy in the Eighth regi
ment he was appointed, after the battle of Cold Harbor,
assistant inspector-general of Clingman's brigade, in
which capacity he served until the close of the war.
With the Second cavalry he was in battle at Brandy Sta
tion, Hanover, Carlisle and Gettysburg; in 1-864 met the
advancing army at Cold Harbor, and subsequently
shared the services of Clingman's brigade at Drewry's
bluff, Petersburg, Wilmington, Kinston and Bentonville,
finally being paroled at High Point, N. C. After the
conclusion of hostilities Captain Cooper was engaged
in the cotton and commission business at New York
city for twelve years or more, and then entered the to
bacco trade, first at Oxford, N. C., and since 1885 at
Henderson.

D. W. Corl, of Greensboro, was born in Rowan county
January 6, 1837, and made his home at Greensboro prior
to the war. He was in the service of the Confederacy
from the first, but was not in the field during the early
part of the war, being engaged in the very necessary

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 451

duty of providing arms for the soldiers. Having become
an experienced and skillful mechanic, he was on detailed
duty until the latter part of 1863 as a gunsmith in the
Confederate armory, after which, desirous of meeting the
enemy in battle, he became a member of the Rowan
Rifles, Company K of the Fourth regiment, North
Carolina troops. He was with his command in the fierce
battles of the Wilderness and Spottsylvania, and acquitted
himself as a true soldier in that fiery trial. He was
wounded at Spottsylvania in the foot, and was sent to
hospital and upon his recovery was detailed by order of
the secretary of war for duty in the arsenal at Salisbury,
where he remained until the struggle came to an end.
In the spring of 1866 he came to Greensboro, of which
he has ever since been a resident, engaged in the
peaceful work of his craft, and in the manufacture of
carriages.

Captain William C. Coughenour was born in Salisbury,
N. C., in 1836, and there was raised and educated. He
was a conductor on the Western North Carolina railroad
when the war began. In April, 1861, he entered the
service with the Rowan Rifle Guards, one of the old com
panies of which he had for some time been a member,
and which became Company K, Fourth North Carolina
infantry. He went in as a private and a month later,
May 30, 1 86 1, he was elected first lieutenant. On May
31, 1862, he was made captain, and was appointed inspec
tor-general of Ramseur's brigade in August, 1863. Early
in February, 1865, he was transferred to Gen. W. P. Rob
erts' cavalry brigade and served in this command until
the close of the war. On April 4, 1865, a few days before
the surrender, he was wounded at Amelia Court House,
Va. Once before, during his long and faithful service,
he had been slightly wounded. This was at Seven
Pines, but the wound received there did not prevent his
being in the next engagements of his command during
the famous Seven Days before Richmond. The other
battles in which he participated were Fredericksburg,
Chancellor sville, Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Gettysburg,
and in Early 's Valley campaign of 1864, Harper's Ferry,
Jack's Shop, Winchester, Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek,
also in the last fights around Petersburg, Five Forks and
Sailor's Creek. After the war he returned home to enjoy

Nc 52

452 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

the reward of a faithful soldier in the love and esteem of
his countrymen. He has served two terms (four years)
as mayor of Salisbury, one of the leading towns of his
native State.

Captain Pulaski Cowper, of Raleigh, was born in Hert
ford county, N. C. , February 5, 1832. As a student of
law he was associated with Hon. Thomas Bragg, of
Jackson, and when Bragg was elected governor of the
State in 1855, he accompanied him to Raleigh and served
as private secretary during his two terms of office. Sub
sequently he was engaged in farming in Beaufort county
until the summer of 1861, when he became private sec
retary to Gov. H. T. Clark, and when the latter was suc
ceeded by Governor Vance, Mr. Cowper entered the
military service. He was detailed about four months on
an army court, sitting at Richmond, and was then
ordered to North Carolina to report upon the operation
of the conscript law. He subsequently served as chief
of a bureau at Raleigh, with the rank of first lieutenant,
and was promoted to captain while on this duty. About
two months before the close of the war he removed his
bureau to Greensboro and there surrendered with Gen
eral Johnston. Since 1871 he has been prominently con
nected with the insurance business of the State. Cap
tain Cowper was married in 1857 to Mary B., daughter of
Gen. Bryan Grimes, and they have four children living.

Burton Craige, deceased, a statesman of the Confeder
ate era, was born in Rowan county, March 13, 1811, son
of David Craige and Mary Foster, his wife. His grand
father, David Craige, was a lieutenant in the command
of Col. William Temple Cole, in the war of the revolu
tion. His ancestors, adherents of Prince Charles in Scot
land, came to Rowan county after the battle of Culloden.
Burton Craige was graduated at the university of North
Carolina in 1829, and then edited the Western North
Carolinian and read law until his admission to the bar in
1832. At the same time he was first elected to the legis
lature. In 1836 he was married to Elizabeth Phifer,
daughter of Col. James Erwin, and granddaughter of
Gen. Matthew Locke, a member of the provincial con
gress of 1775, and of Col. Martin Phifer, of the Light
Horse of the revolution. Soon after his marriage, being

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 453

in feeble health, he visited Europe and was treated by
the famous physician, Sir Astley Cooper. After his
return he devoted himself to his profession and speedily
won high honors and became widely known as a lawyer
and as a leader in affairs of State. He was elected to
Congress in. 1853, and was returned successively until the
formation of the Confederate States. He then resigned
his seat and cast his lot with the South. He represented
Rowan county in the North Carolina convention of 1861,
and on May 2oth offered the ordinance of secession which
was adopted. By the same convention he was elected a
representative in the Congress of the Confederate States,
and he continued to sit in that historic body until the
collapse of the government. In this capacity he was a
firm supporter of the administration of President Davis,
of whom he was a warm personal friend. He was in
politics a devoted disciple of the strictest school of State
rights. His retirement from public affairs after the close
of the war was not more thorough than was agreeable to
him, and he buried his aspirations for public honors in
the same grave which entombed the government which
he had so enthusiastically and consistently supported.
He did not complain because the government placed a
solemn ban upon his citizenship, and kept it there almost
until his death. He died December 30, 1875.

Major James A. Craige, eldest son of the foregoing,
was educated at the Charlotteville military institute and
Davidson college, and was prepared for the United
States military academy by Gen. D. H. Hill. He entered
West Point in 1860, but at the first call of the Confed
eracy resigned and made his way home. Reaching Salis
bury he was offered a captaincy in Colonel Fisher's regi
ment, the Sixth, State troops, and he aided in drilling
that regiment and others at Garysburg. He went to the
front in time to participate in the engagements of Black
burn's Ford and First Manassas. Subsequently he was
commissioned major of the Fifty- seventh regiment, with
which he served during the rest of the war. At the
battle of Winchester, September 19, 1864, he was severely
wounded, and was brought home by his father and Drs.
Magill, of Hagerstown, Md., and Boyle, of Richmond.
Under skillful care he recovered, and when Salisbury
fell into the hands of Stoneman's raiders, he mounted a

454 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

horse, crutches in hand, and took part in the hopeless
fight at the river bridge. Immediately afterward he set
out with some friends for the Trans- Mississippi, but
retraced his steps on hearing of Johnston's surrender.
After the war he returned to his father's plantation to
take charge of the negroes, who wanted to work under
"Marse Jim," and becoming fond of farm life he has
ever since been engaged in planting. He is now a resi
dent of Maury county, Tenn.

Captain Kerr Craige, second son of Burton Craige,
was educated at Chapel Hill, but left the university when
a boy of eighteen, and enlisted May 20, 1861, as a private
in the First North Carolina cavalry. He was promoted
to captain of Company I, was tendered the position of
adjutant by Colonel Ruffin, just before the latter's
death, and served for some time as aide-de-camp on the
staff of Gen. James B. Gordon, his brigade commander.
After a gallant career he was captured at Namozine
church, April 3, 1865, and subsequently held as a pris
oner at Johnson's island until the following July. Then
returning to Salisbury he read law, was admitted to the
bar in 1867, and after his father's death, succeeded him
in the practice, at the same office. He has served as
reading clerk of the North Carolina house of representa
tives and as member of that body ; as collector of revenue
for the Fifth district, as director of the North Carolina
railroad, as trustee of the State university, and as third
assistant postmaster-general during the second adminis
tration of President Cleveland. His wife is Josephine,
daughter of Gen. L. O'B. Branch.

Captain Frank B. Craige, youngest son of Burton
Craige, was a student at the Hillsboro military institute
when, at the age of sixteen years, he enlisted in Company
I, Thirty-third regiment, State troops, under Col. Moul-
ton Avery. He was elected lieutenant, and was promoted
to captain. He went to the front in time to participate in
the battle of the Wilderness, and in his first encounter
with the enemy was hit by a bullet, knocked down and
stunned, and was carried from the field as dead ; but for
tunately the buckle of his belt kept him from serious
injury, and he went through the hard service of his com
mand at Spottsylvania Court House and all the remainder

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 455

of the struggle. He was captured in Battery Gregg, in
April, 1865, and was sent to Washington, where among
his fellow prisoners he recognized his brother Kerr.
For fear of being separated they kept their relationship
a secret, and they were both sent to Johnson's island.
After the close of hostilities he took charge of some plan
tations of his mother's, in Tennessee, and has since then
resided there, being married in 1875, to Fannie, daughter
of Archibald Williams.

John Samuel Cranor, of Wilkesboro, United States
commissioner for the Western district of North Carolina
by appointment of President Cleveland, in June, 1894,
was one of the boy soldiers of the Confederacy. He was
born April 26, 1847, at Rockford, Surry county, but
from the age of ten years was reared at Wilkesboro. In
1864, at the age of seventeen years, he enlisted in Com
pany B, intended to be assigned to the First battalion,
North Carolina reserves, and was stationed at Camp Vance
for instruction. Here he was captured by Col. George
W. Kirk, of the United States army, and was conveyed
as a prisoner of war to a prison camp at Chicago, where
he was held for twelve months. When he and his com
rades were made prisoners several attempts were made
by the Confederate troops to rescue them, but in vain.
In one of these fights, the gallant Colonel Avery was
killed. In his Northern prison camp young Cranor
experienced many hardships and much brutal treatment,
and witnessed the death of many gallant Confederates
from exposure to the inclement climate. On being
paroled, after the close of hostilities, he returned to
Wilkesboro, and prepared for the profession of law, which
he entered in 1868, with a license to practice from the
supreme court. Since then he has been. engaged in the
practice, also serving in various official capacities. He
held the office of register of deeds from 1884 to 1886, and
in 1893-95 he served in the State senate, his popularity
being attested by election with a majority of 745 in a
district usually as strongly in opposition.

Captain James R. Crawford, commander of Charles F.
Fisher camp, United Confederate Veterans, at Salisbury,
was born at that city March 12, 1836, son of William D.
and Christine E. (Mull) Crawford, North Carolinians of

456 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Scotch descent. He left the farm in the spring of 1861
as a private in the first company which left Rowan
county, commanded by Capt. Francis M. W. McNeely,
which was mustered in as Company K of the Fourth
regiment, State troops, under Col. (afterward gen
eral) George B. Anderson. He was first on duty at Fort
Caswell, and being detailed as sentinel his second night
there, earned promotion to corporal by his vigilance. In
June, 1862, he was commissioned second lieutenant by
Governor Vance, and came home to organize a company,
which became Company B, Forty-second regiment, Col.
John E. Brown commanding. At Shepardsville, N. C. ,
he was promoted to captain of this company. With the
Fourth regiment he was at Manassas during the fall and
winter of 1861-62, and was under fire at Seven Pines,
and as an officer of the Forty-second he participated in
its entire career, ending at the battle of Bentonville and
the surrender by General Johnston. In the brigade
commanded by General Kirkland and General Martin
successively he took part in the fighting around Peters
burg and at Cold Harbor, and in the final operations in
North Carolina, and on every occasion the regiment per
formed its duty with gallantry and steadiness. Since the
war Captain Crawford has been engaged in farming, is
influential in his community and popular with his surviv
ing comrades of the Confederacy. In 1868 he was mar
ried to Sally E. Heilig, and they have seven children:
Mary Lee, Nora, Hallie, Katie, Sallie, James and
William.

Preston Cumming, of Wilmington, N. C. , a survivor of
the Cape Fear artillery, was born in Greensboro county
in 1843, whence he enlisted in October, 1861, as a private
in the artillery company commanded by his brother
James D. Cumming, and known as the Cumming's bat
tery or Cape Fear artillery. During his service he was
promoted to sergeant, participated in the fighting on the
Petersburg lines several months, and the battles of
Washington, Kinston and Bentonville, N. C., and finally
surrendered with Johnston at Greensboro. Since then
he has made his home at Wilmington. A third brother,
William A. Gumming, served as a captain in the Third
North Carolina regiment.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 457

Lieutenant James Dalrymple, of Jonesboro, a lieuten
ant and gallant soldier of the Fiftieth North Carolina, is
a native of Moore county, born in March, 1835. He is the
son of John Dalrymple and Ann McFarland, whose par
ents came to North Carolina from Scotland about 1775.
Like other North Carolinians of Scotch descent he was a
stalwart and daring soldier during the great war, and in
the years of peace that have followed has prospered and
gained a leading position among his fellows. He was
educated in the common schools, and bred to the work of
his father's farm, and then engaged in school teaching,
finding employment in this profession in his native State
and in Louisiana and Texas. Being in Louisiana when
the war began he returned to North Carolina and enlisted
as a private in Company F, Fiftieth regiment, State
troops. In 1862 he was promoted to lieutenant. During
his service he was identified with the excellent record of
his regiment and Daniel's brigade, to which it belonged,
in the Seven Days' campaign about Richmond, the cam
paign in eastern North Carolina, and finally in the cam
paign under Gen. J. E. Johnston in the spring of 1865.
Though participating in many hard-fought battles he was
never wounded. He was surrendered with the army
under Johnston, and then returned to Jonesboro in May,
1865. After teaching school for five years he engaged in
mercantile pursuits, in which he continued with much
success for a period of twenty-two years. He has served
for a considerable period as magistrate. By his marriage
in 1860 to Margaret S., daughter of N. R. Bryan, he has
four children : Palmer, John N. , Annie and Myrta.

Captain George David Darsey, of Charlotte, N. C., is a
native of Georgia, and served during the great war with
a Georgia regiment. His father, Edward Darsey, son of
George and Malinda Darsey, natives of Maryland, was a
planter of Columbia county, Ga., and married Martha,
daughter of David Stanford, a soldier of the war of 1812,
and afterward judge of the inferior court of Columbia
county. These parents gave three sons to the Confed
erate service, Francis Marion, a sergeant of Company K,
Sixteenth Georgia infantry, killed at the battle of South
Mountain, September 14, 1862; Thomas Edward, private
in a Georgia cavalry command, now residing in his
native county, and the subject of this notice, who was

458 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

born July 7, 1839, and on July 25, 1861, left home with
his brother Francis, and enlisted at Richmond, July 3ist,
as a private in the same company. His gallant service
soon won promotion through the lieutenancies to cap
tain of Company K. He took part in the early battle of
Dam No. i on the Virginia peninsula, and the famous
engagements at Malvem hill, Fredericksburg, Chancel-
lorsville, Gettysburg and the Wilderness; during the
battles of South Mountain and Sharpsburg being detailed
in the commissary department. In the battle of the
Wilderness he received a severe wound which put a stop
to his military service and disabled him more or less for
fourteen years. After the close of hostilities he resided
in his native county, occupied as a planter and serving
from 1866 to 1880 as receiver of tax returns, and thence
until 1892 as ordinary. In 1893 he removed to Charlotte.
He is a member of the Confederate survivors' association
of Augusta. In 1870 he was married to Anna V. Hall,
of Warren county, Ga., and they have three children:
James Edward, a prosperous business man of Charlotte,
Mary C. , and Henry Francis.

Graham Daves, third son of John P. Daves, of New
Bern, N. C., and Elizabeth B. Graham, his wife, was
born in New Bern the i6th of July, 1836. His father
died when Major Daves was but two years old. His
childhood and youth were passed in New Bern, where
his early education was had at the New Bern academy.
In the autumn of 1851 he was placed as a cadet of the
Maryland military academy at Oxford, Md., where he
remained for nearly two years, and in 1853 was entered
as a freshman at Trinity college, Hartford, Conn., where
he was graduated in July, 1857. After his graduation
Major Daves read law with Hon. Richmond M. Pearson,
afterward chief justice of North Carolina, and on Jan
uary i, 1859, was appointed private secretary to Hon.
John W. Ellis, governor of North Carolina, his brother-
in-law. This position he held until the outbreak of the
war between the States. Governor Ellis having died
July 7, 1 86 1, Major Daves joined the army as first lieu
tenant of the Twelfth volunteers, Col. J. Johnston Petti-
grew, afterward known as the Twenty-second regiment,
North Carolina troops, of which he was appointed adjut
ant, July 24, 1 86 1. With this regiment he served until

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 459

April, 1862, being on duty at different times at Raleigh,
Richmond, Brook's Station, Va., but most of the time at
Evansport, Va. , now called Quantico, where the regiment
was employed in erecting, and a portion of it in manning
after their completion, and serving the heavy batteries
that so long blockaded the Potomac river at that point.
The regiment was in a brigade during the time, with
troops from other States, under Gens. Isaac R. Trimble
and Samuel G. French. On the ist of April, 1862, Gen
eral French having been assigned to the command at Wil
mington, N. C., Lieutenant Daves was detached from
the infantry, transferred to the general staff and placed
on duty with General French as assistant adjutant-gen
eral with rank of captain. In this capacity he served
until July following, when the command was ordered to
Petersburg, Va. On November 5, 1862, he was promoted
major and was in active service in Virginia until June,
1863, when he was ordered to Mississippi, where he
served as assistant adjutant-general of a division in the
command of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston in the campaigns
in that State previous, and subsequent to, the surrender
of Vicksburg. Returning to Virginia, Major Daves
resigned his commission November 16, 1863, and report
ing to the bureau of conscription, was enrolled as a pri
vate and assigned to duty in the conscript office, Ral
eigh, N. C., where he remained until July, 1864. On
the yth of that month he was promoted and commis
sioned first lieutenant and aide-de-camp to Lieut. -Gen.
Theophilus Holmes, and remained on duty with him until
March, 1865, when he was temporarily transferred by
General Holmes to the division of Maj.-Gen. Robert F.
Hoke, then in Hardee's corps, with which he served until
the surrender of Gen. Joe Johnston's army to General
Sherman near Greensboro, N. C. , at which time he was
paroled, his parole bearing date of April 26, 1865. Re
turning to his home, he has been occupied at different
times since in mercantile pursuits, and as a railway
official in Wilmington, Charleston and elsewhere, and
has devoted much time to the study and writing of the
colonial and revolutionary history of North Carolina.
He married in November, 1862, Alice DeRosset, daugh
ter of Armand J. DeRosset, M. D., of Wilmington, N. C.
Mrs. Daves died, without issue, September 2, 1897.
Major Daves' present residence (1898) is New Bern, N. C,

460 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Theodore F. Davidson, a prominent lawyer and public
man of North Carolina, is a descendant of a Scotch-Irish
family which has been conspicuous in the history of the
commonwealth from colonial times. William Davidson
came to the State with his parents from Pennsylvania as
early as 1748, served during the revolutionary war as a
major of militia, represented Rutherford county in the
general assembly of 1791, and was prominent in the
organization of Buncombe county, of which he was a
member of the first court and a representative in the
senate. One of his sons, William Mitchell Davidson, born
in 1773, married Elizabeth, daughter of Capt. David
Vance, a hero of the continental army and an ancestor of
Gov. Z. B. Vance and Gen. R. B. Vance. One of the nine
children of these parents was Allen T. Davidson, born in
Hay wood county in 1819, who was prominent as an
attorney, banker and railroad director and representative
in the Confederate States Congress. By his marriage to
Adeline Howell he had eight children, of whom the
eldest is Theodore F. Davidson, the subject of this notice.
The latter was born in Hay wood county, March 30, 1845,
was prepared for college in the school of Col. Stephen
Lee, and had been appointed a cadet at the United States
naval academy when the beginning of hostilities in 1861
enlisted his patriotic activity. On April 16, 1861, at the
age of sixteen years, he became a private in the Bun
combe Rifles, W. W. McDowell captain, that being the
first company organized in the State west of the Blue
ridge. The company was assigned to the First regi
ment, and after the disbandment of this command he
enlisted in Company C, Thirty-ninth regiment, Col.
David Coleman, with which he served in the western
army. He was made sergeant-major and held that posi
tion until after the battle of Murfreesboro, when he was
commissioned as aide to Gen. Robert B. Vance, in com
mand of the military district of western North Carolina.
Subsequently he served as assistant adjutant-general on
the staff of his brigade, successively commanded by Col.
John B. Palmer and Gen. James G. Martin, until the
close of the war. He participated with gallantry in the
campaigns of Cumberland Gap, Bragg' s Kentucky cam
paign, East Tennessee and Chickamauga. A portion of
the brigade to which he belonged, about May i, 1865,
fired the last hostile guns of the war east of the Missis-

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 461

sippi. After the close of hostilities he resumed his
studies under Colonel Lee, and then began the reading of
law and was admitted to practice two years later. He
formed a law partnership with his father in 1868, and,
after the dissolution of that partnership in 1882, was asso
ciated with James G. Martin. In 1867 he was elected
solicitor of Clay county. Taking an active part in polit
ical affairs, he was chairman for his county and congres
sional district in the Democratic organization for ten
years, from 1872, and in 1878 and 1880 was elected to the
State senate, where he was accorded a position of leader
ship. In 1879 he was appointed director for the State-at-
large of the Western North Carolina railroad, and in 1881
director of the Western North Carolina insane asylum.
His prominence as a jurist led in 1882 to his appointment
as judge of the criminal court of Buncombe, and in 1884
he was called upon to relinquish this position to accept
the office of attorney-general of the State, to which he
was elected by a handsome majority and re-elected in
1888, declining a renomination in 1892. In 1895 he was
elected mayor of Asheville for one year, but resigned in
about eight months. Since then he has been practicing
law.

Major David S. Davis, of Goldsboro, was born in
Lenoir county in 1840, the son of James Davis, a native
of that county and a soldier of the war of 1812. He was
educated at Goldsboro and enlisted there in the spring
of 1 86 1 in the First North Carolina cavalry, in which he
served one year as a sergeant. He then organized a com
pany of partisan rangers, of which he was commissioned
captain by the secretary of war, July 23, 1862. With
this independent command he served in eastern North
Carolina until August, 1862, when he was attached to the
Eighth battalion under Maj. J. H. Nethercutt. In
December, 1863, this and the Tenth battalion were con
solidated in the Sixty-sixth regiment, under Col. A. D.
Moore. On July 14, 1864, he was commissioned major of
this regiment, and in March, 1865, was recommended for
promotion to lieutenant-colonel. During his career he
participated in the skirmish of October 15, 1862, near
New Bern, in November near Ten Mile house in the same
vicinity, the battle of Kinston, December, 1862, skir
mish at Sand Ridge, January, 1863, and, going into Vir-

462 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

ginia in May, 1864, took part in the battles at Walthall
Junction, Bermuda Hundred and Cold Harbor; served in
the trenches before Petersburg until September 3oth,
under fire of the enemy's mortars, fought in the battle of
Fort Harrison, and then was sent to Wilmington; was
under fire at Fort Gatlin, took part in an encounter at
Fort Fisher, and several skirmishes following, the battle
at Cobb house, near Kinston, at Wise's fork, at the battle
of Bentonville and subsequent skirmishes, up to the sur
render, when he was present. From June, 1864, until the
end, he was in command of the Sixty-sixth regiment.
In 1872 Major Davis was married to Anna Lightner,
widow of his brother, Dr. John Davis.

John Dixon Davis, commander of James W. Cooke
camp, U. C. V., of Beaufort, who has had a long and honor
able career as a county and Federal official at that city, also
rendered faithful service in his youth as a soldier of the
Confederacy. He was born in Carteret county, July 4,
1845, and there enlisted October 16, 1861, as a private in
Company G, Fortieth regiment, North Carolina heavy
artillery. After a year's service, in which he participated
in the battle of New Bern, he was honorably discharged
on account of physical disability, and was not able to do
further service until January, 1864, when he went to
Columbus, Ga. , and enlisted in Company C, in one of the
battalions organized from the men stationed at that point.
There he was detailed in the arsenal iron works, except
when ordered out on active duty. With this command he
participated in the battle of Ezra Church, near Atlanta,
under Gen. S. D. Lee; was in skirmishing at Macon
when Sherman was on his fiery "marching through
Georgia;" served at Savannah under Hardee, and at
Girard, Ala., near Columbus, took part in the defense of
that city against Wilson's raiders. He was captured in
this last battle, sent to Macon and paroled. Subsequently
he resided at Morehead City until July, 1868, when he
was elected sheriff of Carteret county, an office which he
filled with much efficiency for six terms. From 1879 he
was in mercantile business until July, 1884, when he
was elected clerk of the superior court of the county.
This he resigned in his third term to accept the position
of collector of customs. By his marriage in 1868 to
Narcissa E. Webb, he has five children living: Lena C.,

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 463

wife of Robert Lee Humber, Lucy McLean, Maud D.,
Marion L. and Charles W. Mrs. Davis is the author of
the beautiful poem entitled "The Soldier True Who Wore
the Gray," published in the Baltimorean, September,
1884. George W. Davis, a brother of the foregoing, born
in Carteret county in 1832, enlisted at the outbreak of
the war as lieutenant of Company H, Tenth artillery,
and resigning in October, 1861, re-enlisted in Company
G, Fortieth heavy artillery, in which he served a year
as second lieutenant. Then resigning he engaged in
blockade running until he was captured in June, 1863.
He was offered by his captors his freedom and a large
sum of money if he would pilot the Federal gunboats over
the bar for their contemplated attack on Fort Sumter,
but indignantly declined the proposition and suffered
imprisonment at Fort Warren until July, 1865. He con
tinued subsequently in the merchant marine, and was
drowned in the Gulf of Mexico in 1893.

Junius Davis, a prominent attorney of Wilmington, is
a native of that city, born June 17, 1845. He was in
school at Bingham's institute in Alamance county when
North Carolina decided to cast her lot with the Confed
erate States, and in the spring of 1863, being nearly
eighteen years of age, he left his books to enter the mil
itary service. As a private in Battery C, Third battalion,
North Carolina artillery, Capt. J. G. Moore, he served
until the close of the war, for nearly a year in the bat
teries about Petersburg, fighting in the battles of Drewry 's
Bluff and Bermuda Hundred, and on the Richmond lines,
where he took part in the battle of Fort Harrison. In
the last day's fight at Petersburg he was slightly wounded,
but continued on duty during the retreat until captured
in the fighting on the evening preceding the surrender
of the army. Returning then to his old home he took up
the study of law, and was admitted to the practice in 1868.
During the three decades which have followed he has
attained notable distinction in his profession.

Marcellus L. Davis, of Charlotte, a veteran of the First
North Carolina cavalry, was born in Mecklenburg county,
March 7, 1843, son of James H. Davis, who was a captain
of militia previous to 1 86 1 . His mother was Jane Delilah
Lee. The fact that his father was a Davis and his mother

464 CONFEDERA TE MILITARY HISTORY.

a Lee once secured him generous entertainment at the
home of a farmer while on a foraging expedition, the fact
being ingeniously stated by one of his comrades to the
previously inhospitable citizen. He was educated at the
Charlotte military institute, under President D. H. Hill,
and in the spring of 1861 accompanied the cadet corps to
the Fisher camp of instruction at Raleigh. While there
he sought to enlist in Colonel Hill's regiment, the First,
but, under the ruling of that officer, that the cadets must
obtain the permission of their parents, was prevented by
his mother's message to "Come right home." Subse
quently he was permitted to join the regiment in Vir
ginia, after the battle of Big Bethel, and remained there
with a squad of cadets until they were called back to
Raleigh for drill duty. Subsequently, after aiding in the
organization of an infantry company at his home, he
enlisted in the First cavalry, with whom he served dur
ing the remainder of the war in all its marches, skir
mishes, campaigns and battles. The regiment was one
of the best of the splendid army, and gave to the Confed
erate service four generals, Ransom, Baker, Gordon and
Barringer. Since those stirring scenes passed into his
tory he has been equally active in the pursuits of peace.
He has been engaged in farming and in manufacturing
with much success, and since 1895 has resided at Char
lotte. He is a prominent member of Mecklenburg camp
and quartermaster of the Second brigade, North Carolina
division, United Confederate Veterans. In 1865 he was
married to Julia J. , daughter of Samuel A. Davis, and
sister of Lieut. -Col. James T. Davis, of the Forty-ninth
North Carolina infantry, who was killed in the battle of
Hare's Hill, Petersburg.

Colonel William S. Davis, of the Twelfth North Caro
lina regiment, was born in Warren county, N. C. , Janu
ary 9, 1840, and was graduated at Randolph- Macon
college, Va, in 1859, receiving the highest grade ever
given at that institution under the old curriculum. He
subsequently attended the university of Virginia till the
war broke out, when he came home and enlisted in May,
1 86 1, in the Warren Rifles, or Company C, Second North
Carolina infantry. He was elected first lieutenant, and
in the spring of 1862 promoted captain. A year later he
became lieutenant-colonel of his regiment, and com-

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 465

raanded it with great ability in several famous battles,
including Gettysburg. In the latter fight, having but a
remnant of 175 men at his command, he charged the
enemy successfully, and was afterward complimented by
General Rodes in the presence of the entire brigade.
Subsequently he was recommended for promotion to
brigadier-general. Among the battles in which he par
ticipated were Hanover Court Hotise, Cold Harbor, Mal-
vern Hill, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg,
Spottsylvania Court House, the Wilderness, Winchester,
Monocacy and Strasburg. In the latter fight, command
ing Hoke's brigade, he lost his left arm and was disabled
for further service until February, 1865, when he
reported to his command at Petersburg, and was not
again on active duty in the field. In 1885, after various
employment, he entered the ministry of the Methodist
church, and served faithfully in that sacred calling until
September, 1897, when, on duty in the pulpit, he sus
tained a stroke of paralysis which compelled him to retire
from the ministry. He then made his home at Warren
Plains, N. C. In 1863 he was married to Bettie Jones, of
Warren county, and they have reared a family of ten
children.

Captain William H. Day, a prominent attorney of
Raleigh, N. C. , was born at Twilight, Halifax county,
August 25, 1844, and was educated at Oaks, Orange
county, and at the university of North Carolina. He
abandoned his college studies on April 20, 1861, to enter
the service of the South, enlisting in the Second regiment
of State troops, afterward known upon reorganization as
the Twelfth regiment. He enlisted as a private and
soon afterward accompanied his regiment to Virginia,
where the command was attached to M ah one's brigade in
the vicinity of Norfolk until the spring of 1862. He was
then elected second lieutenant of Company K, which he
had taken part in organizing. Early in 1863 he was
promoted first lieutenant, and November 27, 1863, cap
tain of Company K. With his regiment, in Garland's
brigade, he passed through the bloody struggle of the
Seven Days before Richmond, took part in the heroic
struggle on South mountain where Garland was killed,
and continued in the ranks of this fighting regiment
through the famous battles of Sharpsburg, Fredericks-

466 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

burg, Gettysburg, Mine Run, and the Wilderness. On
May 12, 1864, he had the misfortune to be one of the
many captured at Spottsylvania Court House, the begin
ning of a tedious and painful experience as a prisoner of
war. After four or five months at Point Lookout he was
transferred to Fort Delaware, and thence was sent with
the unfortunate six hundred officers who were held under
fire of the batteries on Morris island in August, 1864.
Subsequently he was detained at Fort Pulaski and Fort
Delaware until his release, June 17, 1865.

Alfred Washington Dean, a resident of Surry county,
N. C., since 1867, and now a prosperous merchant of
Mount Airy, was born in Patrick county, Va., Septem
ber 20, 1842. He entered the Confederate States service
in the summer of 1861 as a private in the Twenty-ninth
Virginia infantry regiment, and was first in battle at
Prestonburg or Middle Creek, Ky., January 10, 1862.
During the years of campaigning which followed he was a
participant in many battles and skirmishes, including
Blountsville, Tenn., Bachelor's Creek, N. C., Drewry's
Bluff, Spottsylvania Court House and Cold Harbor, in
the last battle receiving a slight wound. On June 16,
1864, he crossed the James river to the Bermuda Hun
dred line, and was on duty there until February, 1865.
On account of his long service on General Pickett's divi
sion guard he was not a participant in many pitched
battles. During the retreat from Petersburg he was in
battle for the last time April 6, 1865, and escaping from
Appomattox Court House, he went to Carroll county,
Va., and remained until 1867, when he came to Surry
county, N. C. Throughout his active and devoted
career as a soldier he had the good fortune never to be
captured, or sent to hospital or to be seriously wounded.

Henderson Randolph DeLoatch, a Confederate veteran
of Jackson, N. C., was born in Northampton county.
September 9, 1836. He enlisted in April, 1861, in Com,
pany A of the Fifteenth regiment, State troops, as a
private, and accompanied that command to Virginia,
where the regiment was assigned to the brigade of Gen-
Howell Cobb. He participated in the battles of Dam
No. i, on the peninsula, Seven Pines, Malvern Hill,
South Mountain and Sharpsburg, Md. ; fought on Marye's

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 467

hill, at Frederick sburg, and at Bristoe Station in the fall
of 1863 was severely wounded in the foot. This injury
necessitated his transfer to the cavalry, and he was sub
sequently a participant in all the engagements of Com
pany H, Second North Carolina cavalry, until the close
of the war. In one of the minor engagements in North
Carolina near the close of the war he was in immediate
command of the line of battle. On eight occasions during
his service he was struck by bullets, but never danger
ously hurt. Two of his brothers were in the service, both
of whom lost their lives, one dying from wounds received
at the Wilderness, and the other from disease. Since the
war Mr. DeLoatch has been mainly engaged in farming
and mercantile business. After filling minor official
positions he was elected register of deeds for a term of
two years in 1882, and in 1896 he was elected to the same
position. He was married in 1874 to Maria Drake, who
also lost two brothers in the Confederate service, and they
have six children: Maria Randolph, Mary Julia, Daisy
Dean, Junius Ramsey, Janie Drake and Rennie Peele.

Captain Armand Lamar DeRosset, of Wilmington,
N. C., experienced a varied service as a soldier of the
Confederate States, took part in a number of famous
battles, and did not escape without the suffering which
fell so liberally to the lot of the Southern armies. He
was born at Wilmington in 1842, a son of Dr. A. J.
DeRosset and a brother of William L. DeRosset, colonel
C. S. A., and conspicuous in the organization of Confed
erate veterans ; was educated at New York and in Trinity
college, Hartford, Conn., and on April 15, 1861, entered
the service as a private in the Wilmington light infantry.
After this organization became Company C of the
Eighteenth infantry regiment, he remained with it three
months, then being promoted to a lieutenancy in the
Third regiment. In July, 1863, he was detached from
the latter command, by order of the war department, and
ordered to report to General Winder at City Point. As
provost-marshal he served six months at Wilmington, and
then, being promoted captain, was ordered to Fayetteville,
where he took command of Company B, Second North
Carolina battalion, known as the Arsenal Guard. Upon
his request for active service he was ordered to Virginia
and given command of the battalion. But the defenses

468 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

of Wilmington now being seriously threatened he was
transferred to Fort Caswell, where he was on duty until
the fort was evacuated. Reporting to General Hoke he
and his battalion were ordered to Wilmington, and after
the fall of that city, he was sent with his battalion and
Moseley's artillery to Elizabethtown to protect the flank
of Hardee's army from the gunboats on the river. Pro
ceeding to Fayetteville in the same duty, he joined
Hardee's corps and took part in the battle of Averasboro,
March 16, 1865. Here he received a severe wound in
the breast, and, being left in the field hospital, was cap
tured and paroled by the Federal troops. During his
service in the army of Northern Virginia with the Third
regiment he was in the battles of Mechanicsville, Cold
Harbor, Malvern Hill, Chantilly, Sharpsburg and Fred-
ericksburg (May, 1863). At Mechanicsville he was
knocked down and badly bruised by a grapeshot, which
struck his pistol on his right hip, and at Sharpsburg he
received a wound in the arm. Since the war Captain
DeRosset has resided at Wilmington> where he is a val
ued citizen. He was married in May, 1866, to Tallulah,
daughter of James H. Low, of New Orleans, and they
have six children: Louise, Anne, wife of J. W. Harris
of Cartersville, Ga., Armand L. Jr., Tallulah, Madeline,
and James Low, now in the banking business in New York.

Colonel William L. DeRosset, commander of the North
Carolina division, United Confederate Veterans, with
the rank of major-general, was born at Wilmington in
1832, the eldest son of Dr. Armand J. and Eliza DeRosset.
He was prepared for college at St. Timothy's hall, Md.,
and during 1849 and 1850 was a student in the university
at Chapel Hill. Subsequently he was with his father
for a time at New York and then indulged a natural bent
for mechanics in the Lawrence machine shops, Massa
chusetts. Returning to Wilmington, he was mainly con
nected, for several years, with the mercantile firm of
DeRosset & Brown, of which he became a member in
1860. In 1855 he became lieutenant of the Wilmington
light infantry, and in the following year was elected
captain. In this command, under orders from the gov
ernor, he occupied Fort Caswell with other companies,
in April, 1861, and about two weeks later was ordered to
occupy Federal Point, the site of Fort Fisher, where there

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 469

was then a two-gun battery. Here he was on duty for
several months. At the organization of the troops for serv
ice during the war, he was commissioned major and
assigned to the Third regiment, of which Gaston Meares
was colonel and R. H. Cowan lieutenant-colonel. At the
reorganization in May, 1862, Cowan having been elected
colonel of the Eighteenth regiment, DeRosset was pro
moted to lieutenant-colonel. In this rank he served in
Ripley's brigade in the campaign before Richmond, par
ticipating with credit in the battles of Mechanicsville,
Games' Mill and Malvern Hill. In the latter engagement
the gallant Meares was instantly killed by a fragment of
shell, and DeRosset assumed command of the regiment,
soon afterward being promoted to colonel. He partici
pated in the Maryland campaign, in command of Ripley's
brigade, but not actively engaged, at South mountain ;
and at Sharpsburg commanded his noble regiment, which
lost in the carnage of that day 330 killed and wounded out
of 5 20 taken into the fight, including 23 out of 27 officers,
seven of whom were killed or died from their wounds.
Colonel DeRosset was among the wounded, a minie ball
passing through the lower part of his body, nearly caus
ing his death and disabling him for service in the field.
Gen. D. H. Hill, in recounting the severe losses of his
division, reported: "Colonel DeRosset, Third North
Carolina, received a severe wound which I fear will for
ever deprive the South of his valuable services." After
many months of suffering he finally gave up hope of
resuming his command, and resigned his commission as
colonel in the summer of 1863. But in January, 1865,
he accepted the appointment of colonel in the invalid
corps, from President Davis, and was surrendered with
the army in North Carolina at Greensboro. While the
fear expressed by General Hill was practically realized,
so far as military duty was concerned, happily it is true
that the Sharpsburg bullet has not deprived the South of
the valuable services of this true and loyal hearted gentle
man in the years of peace which have followed the great
struggle. In the midst of business pursuits he has lived
the life of a gentleman of high character and noble
ideals. He has been very prominent in the work of
organization of the veterans' association, maintaining in
this way a close touch with the Confederate soldiers of
the entire South, and at the Houston reunion he was

470 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

elected commander of the division comprising his State.
The family of Colonel DeRosset was a unit in the support
of the cause, from 1861 to 1865. His father was a mem
ber of the committee of safety of Wilmington, and aided
as best he could the soldiers in the field. His mother,
whose memory is blessed, was president of the Soldiers'
aid society of Wilmington throughout the war, and
revealed a remarkable administrative ability in providing
relief for the boys who wore the gray. Under her direc
tion, and that of her able lieutenant, Mrs. Alfred Martin,
the ladies would daily gather at the city hall and labor
unweariedly for the comfort of their sons and their com
rades. When Hoke's footsore and hungry veterans came
to Wilmington, the women provided them food and hos
pitality, and during the harrowing scenes of hospital life
which followed, she was the leader in deeds of mercy.
When all was over she was the first to urge the organiza
tion of the Ladies' memorial association, in which she
never accepted office, but faithfully devoted her talents
as long as she lived. Four other of her sons, younger
brothers of Colonel DeRosset, were in the Confederate
service: Dr. M. John DeRosset, who left a position as
surgeon in Bellevue hospital. New York, and offers of
position in a New York regiment to volunteer for the
South, served with Jackson in the Valley in 1862, and
afterward was one of the surgeons in charge of the Baptist
college hospital, Richmond; Capt. A. L. DeRosset,
Third North Carolina regiment, who was several times
wounded and finally was left for dead on the field of
Averasboro, but fortunately recovered; Louis H. De
Rosset, who was detailed in the ordnance and quarter
master's department and was sent to Nassau on duty
connected with the latter, and Thomas C. DeRosset, who
left school to join the Junior reserves, was detailed for
duty at the Fayetteville arsenal, and died in 1878 from
sunstroke while in command of the Whiting Rifles attend
ing memorial services at Oakdale cemetery. A sister of
Colonel DeRosset also experienced the bitterness of war
in the loss of her husband, Col. Gaston Meares.

Thomas Byron Douthit, a leading citizen of Salem,
N. C., born in Forsyth county in 1839, entered the Con
federate service in the spring of 1861 as a member of
Company E of the Eleventh regiment, Col. W. W, Kirk-

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 471

land. After participating in the first battle of Manassas
with this command, he was transferred at the reorganiza
tion, in 1862, to the First battalion, North Carolina
sharpshooters, which was formed from this regiment.
This command had an adventurous and famous career,
full of hard fighting, and took part in all the great battles
of the army of Northern Virginia. It was identified with
the career of E well's corps, and was attached to the same
brigade all the way through, though under different com
manders. In the battles of Stonewall Jackson in the val
ley and in the Second Manassas campaign, in the fighting
before Richmond, on the Rappahannock, in Maryland and
Pennsylvania he was in the thick of the fight, and he was
with the ragged and starving band of heroes who surren
dered at Appomattox, April 9, 1865. Since then he has
lived a life of honorable social and business activity at
Salem, where he first became a citizen in 1857. He has
been honored by his fellow citizens with the office of
mayor, and for four years was postmaster of the city.
He has been and is now serving as magistrate.

Henry D. Duckworth, a veteran of the Eleventh regi
ment, North Carolina troops, was born in Burke county,
August 15, 1846. His father, John A. Duckworth, was
also in the military service of the Confederate States.
Mr. Duckworth was reared from the age of ten years at
Charlotte, which has since been his home. He was much
under military age at the opening of hostilities between
the South and North, but in March, 1861, he entered the
volunteer organization known as the Charlotte Grays,
which became Company A of the First, or Bethel regi
ment, later known as the Eleventh. He served with
this command throughout the war, participating in num
erous engagements, prominent among which were the
battles of White Hall, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Spott-
sylvania Court House, Cold Harbor and Ream's Station.
It was the fortune of his command to be almost invari
ably opposed in battle to the commands of General Burn-
side or Hancock, and their gallant combats turned some
times in favor of one side, sometimes of the other. At
Reams' Station, his brigade, under General Heth, very
nearly effected the capture of Hancock. He was wounded
in the first day's battle at Gettysburg, and April i, 1865,
was captured on the Petersburg lines. He was subse-

472 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

quently imprisoned at Fort Delaware until June, 1865.
During the past eight years Mr. Duckworth has been
connected with the office of the tax collector of his county,
for three years as deputy. He is a member of Mecklen
burg camp. By his marriage in 1878 to Mary E. Severs,
he has four children living.

Brodie L. Duke, of Durham, one of the most famous
business men of the South, is a native of Orange county
and son of Washington Duke, with whom he was associ
ated in the management of a tobacco manufacturing
establishment, which, in its special lines, is the greatest
in the world. Washington Duke was the son of Taylor
Duke, a native of Orange county, and began life as a
farmer, in which occupation his business capacity was
manifested by his progress from renter to proprietor of
a farm of three hundred acres previous to the war. He
enlisted as a private in the Confederate service in 1863,
served at Camp Holmes and Charleston, S. C., and then
was transferred to Richmond, where he was on duty at
Battery Brook and won promotion to the rank of orderly-
sergeant by his skill as an artilleryman. Upon the evac
uation of Richmond he was captured and confined in
Libby prison until the close of hostilities, when, being
given transportation to New Bern, he walked the remain
ing distance to his home, 1 34 miles. Meanwhile, Brodie L. ,
the eldest son, had been left in charge of Major Gee, com
mandant at the Salisbury prison, and he had become a
member of a company of boys who were assigned to duty
as guards. Just before Stoneman's raid they removed
the prisoners to South Carolina and remained there until
the close of the war. Brodie L. Duke served as orderly
to Major Gee, and when the latter was on trial before
the United States court, accused of cruelty to prisoners,
his testimony had great influence in bringing about ac
quittal. When young Duke returned to Durham after
the surrender of the army, he was penniless and home
less. Walking six miles into the country, he was given
a change of raiment by his aunt and then went to work
for an uncle, receiving as his share of the profits of one
year's labor on the farm six barrels of corn and three
barrels of flour. In the meantime his father had re
turned from Federal prison and the family was again
united, In addition to farming, the elder Duke,

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 473

aided by his sons, began the manufacture of smoking
tobacco in 1865, using a log cabin as a factory. Their
business increased, and in 1869 B. L. Duke removed to
Durham and established a factory in a vacant house.
His father joined him in 1874, but their operations were
distinct until 1878, when they formed the firm of W.
Duke, Sons & Co. The business rapidly increased in
volume, and imposing buildings were erected to accommo
date it. Before the institution was merged into the
American tobacco company it was doing an annual busi
ness of over four and a half million dollars, with nine
hundred employes at Durham and five hundred at New
York. B. L. Duke, in addition to this manufacturing
business, has large interests in real estate throughout the
South and in various cotton factories. He established
and built up the prosperous town of North Durham, and
in various ways devotes his talents and wealth to the
good of his community and the advancement of the State.

Henry V. Dunstan, M. D., a prominent physician of
Windsor, was born in Bertie county, September 2, 1842.
He was educated at the Wake Forest college and the
university of Virginia, and in medicine at the Virginia
medical college, where he received his professional degree
in 1862. He then immediately devoted his professional
attainments to the service of the Confederacy, joining
the army in June, 1862, and being assigned to hospital
duty at Richmond, with the rank of assistant surgeon.
About a year later he was ordered on field duty and
attached to the Eighth Georgia cavalry, a command with
which he was connected during the remainder of the war.
In the performance of his duty as surgeon he was with
his command in the military operations about Peters
burg during 1864-65, a period of service perhaps the most
trying of any in the whole course of the great war; and
when finally the Confederate capital was given up and
the President and his cabinet started for a more central
point, he accompanied the Georgia cavalry regiment
which acted as escort to the presidential party. The
story of the journey has often been told and is familiar.
After the party was scattered and the President captured
Surgeon Dunstan surrendered himself at Macon and was
paroled. Thence he returned to Murfreesboro, N. C.,
where his people were then living, and remained there

474 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

until 1867, when he made his home at Windsor, in his
native county, and began the long professional career to
which his life has been devoted. He is highly regarded by
his people, both professionally and socially. Since the
establishment of the office of superintendent of the county
board of health he has been serving the public in that capa
city. Dr. Dunstan was married in 1869 to Mary E. Miller,
of Bertie county, who died in 1890, leaving two sons, Henry
V. Jr., and Frederick Miller. By his second marriage,
in 1894, to Bessie Tayloe, he has one son, Thomas E.

Oren Osborn Eidson, of Elkin, N. C., is a native of
Iredell county, where he was reared and educated.
Early in 1861 he enlisted in a volunteer company organ
ized in Iredell, which became Company A of the Seventh
regiment, North Carolina troops, with which he joined
the brigade of General Branch and participated in the
battle of New Bern before going into Virginia and becom
ing a part of the army of Northern Virginia. In May,
1862, he went with his regiment to Gordonsville, Va.,
thence returning to Hanover Court House and, after the
battle there, participating in the Seven Days' campaign
before Richmond and the folio wing engagements of 1862:
Cedar Run, Second Manassas, Harper's Ferry, Sharps-
burg and Fredericksburg. At Chancellorsville he was
within 50 yards of Gen. Stonewall Jackson when the
latter received his fatal wound, and at Gettysburg his
regiment was distinguished among the immortal assail
ants of the Federal line on Cemetery hill. He also went
through the campaign from the Rapidan to the James in
1864, and was with his command throughout the siege of
Petersburg. On the day before the evacuation, his regi
ment was sent on special duty to Greensboro, where he
first learned of the surrender at Appomattox. Mr. Eid
son served first as a private in the line, later as orderly-
sergeant in the ambulance corps, and finally in the com
missary and medical departments. After the close of
hostilities he resided in his native county until 1873,
when he became a citizen of Elkin. For twelve years he
has served efficiently as deputy sheriff.

Lieutenant Jesse T. Ellington, sheriff of Johnston
county, N. C. , is remembered by his comrades as a gal
lant private and officer of the Fiftieth regiment, Kirk-

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY, 475

land's brigade, Hoke's division. He was born in Clayton
county in 1842, and was educated at Wake Forest col
lege, which he left after two and a half years' study, in
February, 1862, to enlist in Company C of the Fiftieth.
He served as a private until December following, when
he was elected first lieutenant. In Gen. Junius Daniel's
brigade he took part in the battle of Malvern Hill, in
Virginia, and later in the war participated in the engage
ments at Little Washington, N. C., Savannah, Ga., Salke-
hatchie river, S. C., Averasboro and Bentonville, N. C.
After the surrender at Greensboro he returned to his
native county, and taught school for two years, then
engaged in farming, his present occupation. He has
been prominent and influential in this county, and was
elected in 1881 as its representative in the legislature.
In 1884 he was appointed sheriff, an office he has ever
since filled, except two years, 1886-87, with much
credit. By his marriage in 1867 to Delia Smith, who
died in 1882, he has four children: John W. , Jessie D. ,
Henter D. and Lucille. In 1885 he married Sallie Wil
liamson, of Suffolk, Va. , and they have three sons: Doug
las D. , Kenneth R. and Eric L. A brother of the fore
going, Joseph C. Ellington, for four years State librarian
of North Carolina, served also in the Fiftieth regiment,
as third lieutenant of Company C.

Captain Andrew J. Ellis, M. D., of Garysburg, N. C.,
was born in Northampton county in 1834, and received
his academic education in the university of North Caro
lina at Chapel Hill, and was educated professionally at
the tmiversity of Pennsylvania, where he was graduated
in 1858. He then began the active practice of medicine
at Garysburg, in which he has continued for forty years,
with the exception of his service as an. officer of the
Confederate States army. When North Carolina had
united her fortunes with the Confederacy he gave himself
manfully to her support, and organized a company for
light artillery service, with which he was mustered in as
captain February 10, 1862. In this capacity he was on
duty in North Carolina during the remainder of the war,
participating in the various defensive operations of the
earlier period, and in the winter of 1864-65, being stationed
in the vicinity of Wilmington, taking part in the defense
of that city and the operations against the Federal army

476 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

which attacked Fort Fisher. His final battle was at Ben-
ton ville, and soon after he was surrendered with the army
by General Johnston. Dr. Ellis is prominent as a physi
cian and holds a position of honor in the community,
fairly earned by his long and illustrious professional
career and upright life. By his first marriage, in 1859,
to Sarah J. Ramsey, of Northampton county, he has one
daughter living, Mrs. John H. "Weaver, of Texas; and by
his second marriage in 1885 to Margaret Bell Fitzhugh,
he has a daughter, Margaret Bell.

Thomas Leyburn Emry, of Weldon, N. C., widely
known as an enterprising citizen and a leader in the
development of the resources of the State, was born at
Petersburg, Va., December 18, 1842. In boyhood it was
his misfortune to be left an orphan and penniless, and in
consequence his youth was a struggle against adverse
circumstances. But however bitter this may have been
at the time, this trial but served to develop and strengthen
those rugged qualities of self-reliance and manly activity
which have brought him success in life. Learning the
trade of a tinner, he removed to Halifax, N. C., in 1859,
to follow that business. But in December, 1860, his
adventurous and generous nature was appealed to by the
bold action of South Carolina in declaring her secession
from the Union, and going to that State he enlisted as
a private in the Sixth South Carolina regiment. While
in the ranks of this command he witnessed the bombard
ment and reduction of Fort Sumter. In July, 1861,
accompanying his regiment to Virginia, he reached the
field of Manassas just as the shattered Federal army was
fairly started on its flight to Washington, and subse
quently at Dranesville, he realized the varying fortunes
of war by sharing in the discomfiture of his command.
In the fall of 1861 he obtained a transfer to the Second
regiment, North Carolina volunteers, afterward Twelfth,
State troops, under Col. Sol Williams, in order that he
might rejoin the Halifax light infantry company, to
which he had belonged before the war. With this regi
ment he was in the Seven Days' campaign before Rich
mond, and at Malvern Hill, by his intrepid conduct, won
honor and promotion. He was thus commended in the
general orders of Col. B. O. Wade, commanding the regi
ment : * * It is gratifying to know that the bravery of some

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 477

was without precedent. The noble daring of Private
T. L. Emry won the admiration of all his command, he
having seized the flag and rushed through a shower of
bullets to the brow of the hill, and there stood defiantly
waving it in the enemy's face until it and staff were
completely riddled with bullets." He was also men
tioned with praise in the orders of the brigade com
mander, the gallant Samuel Garland. During the re
mainder of the war, Mr. Emry, having been incapacitated
by wounds, was detailed on light duty of various kinds,
but he continued on duty until the close. Returning to
Halifax in 1865 he embarked in mercantile business,
and in 1869 he removed to Wei don, where he has ever
since been one of the foremost citizens. From 1876 until
1891, with the exception of one term, he was kept by his
fellow citizens in the office of mayor, an expression of
confidence and popularity not often witnessed. From
1886 to 1889 he served upon the board of county commis
sioners, and he then accepted his party's nomination for
the State senate and overcame the adverse majority and
took his seat for one term. For fifteen years he devoted
his talents to the public good as president of the Roanoke
Tar river agricultural society, which was very suc
cessful under his management. In the spring of 1889
he conceived the project of utilizing the great water
power at the rapids of the Roanoke and building there a
manufacturing town, and entering into this enterprise with
his characteristic energy, he has had the satisfaction of
seeing the town of Roanoke Rapids grow to a population
of 1,200 in three years from its foundation, with various
industrial plants, including two mammoth cotton mills.
It promises to become the Lowell of the South. Of this
new city Mr. Emry was the first mayor. In the associa
tion of Confederate veterans he is an active and devoted
member, and is commander of W. A. Johnston camp at
Weldon. By his marriage in 1866 to Emma J. Spiers, of
Virginia, he has one son, Charles Ransom Emry.

Captain John R. Erwin, of Charlotte, first commander
of Mecklenburg camp, United Confederate Veterans,
was born in York county, S. C., August i, 1838, the son
of William L. and Anna (Williamson) Erwin, natives of
that State. From the age of twelve years he was reared
in Mecklenburg county, upon his father's farm, and his

478 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

old-field school education was supplemented by study at
Ebenezer academy in his native State. At seventeen
years he began mercantile life as a clerk at Charlotte,
and in 1859 he sought a fresh field for enterprise in
Texas, but was called thence in 1861 by the prospect of
war. He enlisted in April, 1861, in the Ranaleburg
Rifles, was elected first lieutenant, and after reaching
Garysburg was appointed adjutant of the camp of in
struction and offered the rank of major of the Third regi
ment, to which the Rifles were assigned as Company B.
Declining this honor he remained with his company
during the period of enlistment. In May, 1862, he was
elected captain of Company F, Fifth North Carolina cav
alry, and with this gallant command was identified during
the remainder of the war. While with the Third he
participated in the fighting at Yorktown, Va. , and as a
cavalry officer took part in the many engagements of his
regiment, notably those at Brandy Station, Culpeper,
Warrenton Court House, Warrenton Junction, the Wil
derness, Yellow Tavern, Second Cold Harbor, White
Oak Swamp, Second Malvern Hill, Reams' Station,
Belfield, all his regiment's fights, in fact, except during
the Gettysburg campaign, when he was disabled by
illness. From March 31, 1865, he was in command of the
Fifth, in the battles of Chamberlain Run, where he took
part in the last defeat of the Federals, Five Forks and
Namozine church. Since the close of hostilities Captain
Erwin has resided in Mecklenburg county and has had
an honorable career as a public official. He served as
chief of police of Charlotte from 1873 to 1875; from that
date until 1886 as clerk of the superior court ; chairman
of the finance committee from 1886 to 1892, then as a
member of the State legislature; from 1893 to 1895 as
private secretary of S. B. Alexander, member of Con
gress ; chairman of the board of county commissioners in
1895 and 1896; chairman of the building committee of
the new courthouse in 1897. He was married in 1867 to
Jennie, daughter of Maj. Z. A. Grier, and after her death
in 1878, he married Sallie, daughter of Col. W. M. Grier.
He has five children living.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 479

Captain E. Everett, a prominent citizen of Swain
county, was born in Tennessee in 1830 of North Caro
lina ancestry. His parents were Signer and Catherine
(Walker) Everett, natives of Tennessee, whither their
parents removed from the old North State at an early
day. His father, who returned to North Carolina in
1866 and died in 1898 at the age of ninety- two years,
served in the cavalry company of Captain Hollins, in the
Confederate army, though much over military age; par
ticipated in the battles of Fishing Creek, Murfreesboro
and many others, and being captured in east Tennessee,
late in the war, was held a prisoner until the close of
hostilities. Captain Everett was reared upon a farm in
east Tennessee, in 1852 was married to Mary Cave, and
in 1858 went to the California gold-fields by the ocean
route and spent two years profitably in that region.
Returning to Tennessee for a visit he was swept into the
Confederate army by the popular enthusiasm of 1861,
which he fully shared, and became a member of the Third
regiment of Tennessee volunteers. Having assisted in
raising Company E of this command, he was commis
sioned lieutenant, and in this rank at once went to the
front in Virginia, and was in the fight at Newtown under
Johnston, and at First Manassas. In May, 1863, with
the rank of captain, he was detailed for enlistment serv
ice in Blount county, and in August, 1863, he became
captain of a company of Thomas' legion, with which he
served to the end. On May i, 1865, having been sent to
Knoxville with a dispatch for General Sheridan from
Gen. J. E. Johnston, he was made a prisoner on the
same street of the town where he had been mustered in,
May i, 1 86 1. After this he was held in military prison
until the hostilities were considered closed by the Fed
eral authorities. He removed to North Carolina in the
same year and has resided there ever since. At the
organization of Swain county in 1871, he was elected the
first sheriff and retained in office until he declined fur
ther service, five years later. In 1875 he was a member
of the constitutional convention. He has had an active
career in politics, and has been a delegate to many State
conventions of his party. For many years he was a
leading merchant of his city, but of late has confined
his attention to agricultural pursuits. He has one son
living, John H., his successor as a merchant.

480 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

E. G. Everitt, of Mount Airy, a veteran of the First
regiment, who bears upon his body the insignia of suffer
ing in the army of the Confederacy, and in his heart true
devotion to the cause, was born in Isle of Wight county,
Va., March 5, 1836, and entered the service from Halifax
county, N. C. He enlisted at Gaston in January, 1862,
as a private in Company K of the First regiment, North
Carolina troops, Col. M. S. Stokes, and in the following
spring was at the front before Richmond among the
heroes who met the army of McClellan at Seven Pines,
and under the leadership of the great Robert E. Lee,
pounded back the invaders to the cover of their gun
boats. At Games' Mill he received his first wound, a
painful one in the left thigh. Afterward he fought at
Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and Win
chester. In the latter fight he was again wounded, but
this did not prevent his going on with the army to the
field of Gettysburg, where among the terrible losses of the
army it was his misfortune to be hit on the thigh, break
ing the bone from the knee to the hip. His wound was
so severe that he was left on the field, and after
that he was in the Federal hospitals and a prisoner
at Point Lookout until released a short time before
the surrender at Appomattox. Subsequently he resided
in Halifax county, N. C., until 1886, and in 1893, after
various places of residence, he made his home at Mount
Airy.

Captain William T. Faircloth, of Goldsboro, elected
chief justice of the supreme court of North Carolina in
1894, was born in Edgecombe county, January 8, 1829.
His parents were of English descent and his father was
a farmer, the vocation to which he was reared. Enter
ing Wake Forest college in youth, he defrayed his ex
penses by teaching, and was graduated with distinction
in 1854. He read law with Judge Pearson, was licensed
to practice, located at Snow Hill, Greene county, and in
the next month was elected county solicitor. Soon after
ward he removed to Goldsboro and practiced there until
the spring of 1861, when he enlisted in Company C of
the Second regiment, State troops, Col. C. C. Tew.
Entering the service as a private, he was soon elected
first lieutenant, and in December, 1861, upon the recom
mendation of Colonel Tew, was appointed quartermaster

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY 481

of the regiment with the rank of captain of cavalry.
During the latter part of the war he also discharged the
duties of brigade quartermaster. He was with his regi
ment through the Seven Days' campaign before Rich
mond, at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg,
the Wilderness and Spottsylvania Court House, the Val
ley campaign under Early, including the demonstration
against Washington, in the siege of Petersburg and the
retreat to Appomattox, where he was surrendered. Then
returning to Goldsboro he resumed his practice as a law
yer, and in August, 1865, was a delegate to the provisional
State convention. In the same year he was elected to
the legislature, and was chosen State solicitor of the
superior courts for the Third judicial district, an office
which he held until all offices were vacated in 1868. In
1875 he was a delegate to the State constitutional con
vention, and in November, 1875, was appointed to fill the
vacancy on the supreme bench occasioned by the second
resignation of Judge Settle, his term expiring January
i, 1879. In 1884 he canvassed the State as the Repub
lican nominee for lieutenant-governor, and in 1888 was
the candidate of his party for justice of the supreme
court. In 1894 he was elected to the honored position
of chief justice. In addition to his prominent official
duties and his busy career as a lawyer he has been a
director of the Wilmington & Weldon and Atlantic &
North Carolina railroads. In 1867 he was married to
Evaline E., daughter of Council Wooten, of Mosely
Hall, Lenoir county.

Lieutenant William T. Farly, of Milton, a veteran of
the famous Thirteenth North Carolina infantry, enlisted
April 24, 1 86 1, as a private in Company C, when the
regiment, as one of the ten original regiments of North
Carolina, was known as the Third, and "was promoted
through the grades of corporal and orderly-sergeant to
first lieutenant. He was identified with the career of his
regiment under the gallant colonels, W. D. Fender, A. M.
Scales and Joseph Hyman, throughout the four years'
struggle, taking part in all the long list of famous battles
which belong upon its banner, including Williamsburg,
Seven Pines, Frayser's Farm, Games' Mill, Malvern
Hill, Cold Harbor, South Mountain, Sharpsburg, Fred
ericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Falling Waters,

482 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Spottsylvania Court House, Second Cold Harbor, Peters
burg, Ream's Station, Burgess' Mill, Farmville and
Appomattox. At Gettysburg, in the first day's battle,
every member of his company was killed or wounded
except him and one comrade, and such was the fatality
throughout the regiment that he, as orderly-sergeant, was
its ranking officer. During the subsequent retreat he
was captured at Falling Waters, and for two months
afterward he was held as a prisoner at Point Lookout.
Upon the close of this faithful career as a soldier, Lieu
tenant . Farly returned to his native town of Caswell and
soon embarked in the business of a contractor and
builder, in which he has met with success. He is also a
member of the firm of Farly & Ferguson, furniture
dealers and undertakers. Mr. Farly was born Septem
ber 1 8, 1839, son of Abner B. and Anna Owen Farly,
and in July, 1866, he married Mary Elizabeth Covington,
by whom he has four children living. His son, W. H.
Farly, is in business at Danville, Va.

Captain Owen Fennell, of Wilmington, N. C. , formerly
of the First regiment, North Carolina troops, was born
in New Hanover county in 1832, and was reared at Wil
mington, where his father became a resident five years
later. He entered the Confederate service as junior sec
ond lieutenant of Company C, First regiment, under Col.
M. S. Stokes, in June, 1863. The regiment did good
service during the Seven Days' campaign around Rich
mond and the Maryland campaign, and Lieutenant Fen
nell shared its marching and fighting until just after the
battle of Sharpsburg, when he was made acting assistant
commissary of subsistence, with the rank of captain. He
continued in this duty until the office was abolished after
the Gettysburg campaign. Returning home in Septem
ber, 1863, he was appointed quartermaster of the re
serve forces by Governor Vance. Three or four months
later he accepted the appointment of treasurer of New
Hanover county from the county court, and held that
position until the close of the war. In 1872 he was
elected county treasurer, and in 1893 city treasurer, each
for a term of two years. Two brothers of the foregoing
were also in the service : Hardy L. Fennell, first lieuten
ant of Company C, First regiment, who was wounded in
the Seven Days' battles and died a year later, and John

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 483

Gaston Fennell, now residing in Texas, who served six
months as a private in the same company, was honorably
discharged on account of disability, and subsequently
served in the Third cavalry until the surrender.

Garland Sevier Ferguson, a prominent attorney of
Waynesville, was born at Crabtree, N. C. , May 6, 1843.
He is the son of William Ferguson, the latter of Robert
Ferguson, who was born in County Tyrone, Ireland, and
was brought to America when four years old by his par
ents, who, after settling in York, S. C. , removed to west
ern North Carolina, where Robert, at the age of eleven
years, carried water to the American soldiers during the
battle of King's Mountain. His mother was Ruth,
daughter of Nathan Gibson, of a colonial family of
Scotch-Irish extraction, and a second cousin of Andrew
Jackson. She was also related to the noted families of
Davidsons and Vances through her mother, a Branch,
and her grandmother, a Penland. Mr. Ferguson was
reared in Highland county, and when eighteen years of
age enlisted, June 29, 1861, as a private in the Hay wood
Highlanders, which became Company F of the Twenty-
fifth regiment, North Carolina troops. His regiment
went to the front in Virginia in the spring of 1862, in the
brigade of General Ransom, and he first met the enemy
on the old Seven Pines battleground during the Seven
Days' battles, his regiment being on that day, June 25th,
i, 100 strong. He participated in the following battles:
Frayser's Farm, Savage Station, Malvern Hill, Sharps-
burg and Fredericksburg, and the other engagements of
his regiment; was in the assault and capture of Ply
mouth, April, 1864; was wounded at Dre wry' s bluff in
the fight against Butler, Mayi4th; returned to duty in
June and fought at Petersburg, June i6th and iyth, then
was in the battle on the Weldon railroad, August 2ist,
and then served in the Petersburg trenches through the
succeeding fall and winter. He led his company in the
memorable charge which cleared the line of Federals after
the mine explosion at the Crater. On March 25, 1865, in
the sortie of Gordon's corps against Fort Steadman, he
received a severe wound which kept him in hospital until
some time after the closing acts of the great war drama.
During his service he was promoted to second sergeant
June, 1 86 1, then to orderly-sergeant, and in July, 1864, to

No 54

484 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

lieutenant. Returning home he was elected clerk of the
superior court at Waynesville in 1865, and re-elected in
1868, but resigned in 1872, and having been admitted to
the bar, entered upon his career as a lawyer, in which he
has been eminently successful. He was elected to the
State senate in 1876, and in 1878 and 1882 was elected
solicitor of his judicial district. He is the present com
mander of Pink Welch camp, United Confederate Veter
ans, of which he was one of the organizers. Lieutenant
Ferguson has seven children by his marriage in 1866 to
Sarah, daughter of James H. Norwood, of North Caro
lina, who was murdered in 1851, while Indian agent at
Pine Bluff, Mo.

James T. Ferrell, of Durham, a veteran of Fisher's
regiment of heroes of First Manassas, was born in Wake
county in 1841, the son of William Ferrell, a farmer.
He enlisted in Company C of the Sixth regiment, North
Carolina troops, in March, 1862, joining his command at
Richmond. About two months later he had his intro
duction to war in the fiercely fought battle of Seven
Pines. A few weeks later he participated in the battle
of Games' Mill, and soon afterward fought at Malvern
hill. During the Maryland campaign of that year he
was in battle at Boonesboro and Sharpsburg. Thus, in
six months after his enlistment, he had done the duty of
a brave soldier in a number of the most famous battles of
history, in which the fighting qualities of a North Caro
lina volunteer were abundantly demonstrated. He was
at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, and while with
his regiment storming the heights of Gettysburg received
a severe wound which disabled him for a considerable
time. Rejoining his regiment, he fought in the Shen-
andoah Valley campaign and in the engagements about
Richmond, during which he was taken prisoner by the
enemy and held until July, 1865. After his return home
Mr. Ferrell was engaged in farming for several years and
then removed to Durham and entered the employment
of Duke & Co. He held an important position in the
shipping department of this establishment until the close
of 1897, when he resigned and engaged in the mercantile
business. By his marriage in 1860 to Frances Turner he
has four children living, William L., John W., Martha,
wife of William Warren, and James A. Ferrell.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 485

Colonel Charles F. Fisher, Colonel Isaac Erwin A very
and Colonel Samuel McDowell Tate were three brave
North Carolina officers who successively commanded the
gallant Sixth regiment. It is fitting that their names be
associated in history, as their lives were during those
days of carnage and suffering. Col. Charles F. Fisher,
the first commander of the Sixth regiment, North Caro
lina troops, was, during the formation of the first regi
ments in the State, president of the North Carolina rail
road. When the military institute at Charlotte was
abandoned by most of the cadets, who volunteered in
various commands, he brought a number of men from
along his own road and the Western, quartered them in
the barracks and secured their drilling by the cadets who
still remained. Soon afterward all were removed to
company shops, and the work rapidly progressed until
the Sixth regiment was organized in June, with Fisher
as colonel, and mustered in for the war. On being mob
ilized the regiment acted as escort at the funeral of Gov
ernor Ellis at Raleigh, was reviewed and addressed by
President Davis at Richmond, and proceeded to Win
chester, where it was assigned to General Bee's brigade,
of Gen. J. E. Johnston's army in the Shenandoah valley.
They reached Manassas Junction on the morning of the
famous battle and marched hurriedly to the front, where
the rattle of musketry and boom of cannon were already
heard, going into their first battle in front of the Henry
house, and were immediately under a destructive fire.
After the enemy had recovered the ridge at this place
and Rickett's battery, the Sixth joined in the superb
Confederate charge which finally swept back the Fed
erals. In this movement General Bee and Colonels Bar-
tow and Fisher were killed. Colonel Fisher led his gal
lant men in the charge and fell 50 yards in advance of
his line. Col. W. D. Fender, not long afterward, took
command of the regiment, and upon his promotion, fol
lowing the battle of Seven Pines, Isaac E. Avery, up to
this time captain of Company E, was promoted lieuten
ant-colonel.

Colonel Isaac Erwin Avery was born December 20,
1828, at the Avery home near Morganton. He was the
son of Isaac T. Avery and grandson of Waightstill Avery,
a descendant of a Massachusetts family whose ancestors
came over in 1631. Cols. W. W. Avery, C. M. Avery

486 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

and Judge A. C. Avery were his brothers. After receiv
ing his education at Chapel Hill, he had been engaged in
the management of a stock farm, and as an associate of
Colonels Fisher and Tate in railroad construction. He
entered the Sixth regiment at its organization as captain
of Company E; was the first to call out "Let us charge,"
at First Manassas, was wounded there, and in command
of the regiment was again wounded at Games' Mill, in
the campaign before Richmond. Being for some time
disabled, the command devolved upon Maj. Robert F.
Webb. Promoted colonel he had command of Hoke's
brigade, including his regiment, at the battle of Gettys
burg, and fell mortally wounded in the attack upon Cem
etery hill on the second day. The Sixth entered the
enemy's works and held them for a brief space, but the
gallant leader of the brigade, while his men were ascend
ing the hill, was shot down in an attempt to save his old
regiment from an enfilading fire. His wound was in the
neck, rendering him speechless. In his hand was found
a bloody scroll, upon which he had written with evident
effort: "Colonel Tate, tell my father that I fell with my
face to the enemy. ' ' General Early reported that the
place of the gallant Hoke was worthily filled that day by
Colonel Avery. "In his death the Confederacy lost a
good and brave soldier. ' '

Colonel Samuel McDowell Tate, the last of this patri
otic trio, was born at Morgan ton, September 6, 1830,
son of David Tate, a member of the legislature ; and a
great-grandson of David Tate, one of four brothers who
came to North Carolina from Pennsylvania about 1790.
He was a delegate to the national convention at Charles
ton in 1860, and a prominent man before the events of
the war. He went out with the Sixth as captain of Com
pany D, and was promoted major after the battle of
Seven Pines. He was severely wounded at Sharpsburg,
as lieutenant-colonel commanding, led the regiment up
Cemetery hill, on July 2d, at Gettysburg, and after that
was in command until the close of the war. He was sub
sequently wounded at Rappahannock bridge and at Cedar
creek, and yet more severely in the battle of Fort Stead-
man, March 25, 1865, which compelled his return to his
home. Immediately after the close of hostilities he was
elected president of the Western North Carolina railroad,
with which he was prominently identified for several

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 487

years, though removed from this office by Governor Hoi-
den. He was elected to the legislature in 1874, 1880,
1882 and 1884; in 1886 was appointed examiner of national
banks in the South Atlantic States, and afterward was
elected treasurer of the State. He has been an earnest
worker in the Democratic party and a delegate to every
national convention of his party, except that of 1872,
from and including 1860.

Lieutenant John Martin Fleming, of Raleigh, a native
of Wake county, rendered his Confederate service in the
Trans- Mississippi department. Two brothers repre
sented his family in the North Carolina troops : Jasper
Fleming, now living at Milton, who served as adjutant
of the old Fourth infantry regiment, and Dr. James R.
Fleming, of Dunn, N. C., who was an assistant surgeon
in Early 's division of the army of Northern Virginia.
John Martin Fleming was born in 1836, and after receiv
ing a preparatory education entered Randolph- Macon col
lege, Virginia, leaving there in 1856 to matriculate in
the university of North Carolina, where he was graduated
in 1859. He removed to Clark county, Ark., in 1860,
and was there engaged in farming when the Confederate
States government began its struggle for a place among
the nations of the earth. He entered the military serv
ice in the spring of 1862 as a private in an independent
command, which became part of the Thirty-third Arkan
sas infantry, Col. H. L. Grinstead, of Shaver's brigade,
Parsons' division, Hindrnan's corps, of the army under
Gen. T. H. Holmes. Soon after his enlistment he was
elected second lieutenant of Company E of his regiment,
the rank in which he served until honorably discharged
on account of disability in March, 1865, just before the
end of hostilities. During his military -career he took
part in a number of skirmishes and the engagements at
Boston mountain and near Fayetteville, Ark. He was
never paroled and never took the oath. Lieutenant
Fleming remained in Arkansas until 1870, when he
returned to his native county and engaged in farming
and the conduct of a village store. He served as a mag
istrate from 1874 to 1883, and was then elected deputy
warden of the State penitentiary, a position he held for
ten years. In 1893 he was elected warden of the insti-
ttition for a term of four years. Since his connection

488 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

with the penitentiary he has been a resident of Raleigh.
In 1859 he was married to Nannie, daughter of Dr John
McKay, and they have three children living : Nora Belle,
John Martin and Nannie McKay.

Colonel George W. Flowers, of Taylorsville, a native
of Alexander county, born in 1842, of North Carolinian
parentage, had a noteworthy career in the Confederate
States service, identified with that of the Thirty-eighth
regiment, which he commanded toward the close of the
war. He entered the service early in 1862 as second lieu
tenant of the Rocky Face Rangers, a volunteer company
of Alexander county ; on the reorganization was elected
captain, subsequently became major, and in the summer
of 1864 was promoted lieutenant-colonel. The Thirty-
eighth, under command of Col. W. J. Hoke, served in
North Carolina until the latter part of April, 1862, when
it was assigned to Maxcy Gregg's brigade of the army of
Northern Virginia, and ordered to Milford Station and
later to Fredericksburg. Then being transferred to
Fender's brigade, it took part in the battles between Lee
and McClellan before Richmond, beginning at Mechan-
icsville, where Captain Flowers was severely wounded in
a charge upon a Federal battery. Upon his recovery he
resumed command of his company and participated in
the battles of Cedar Run, Manassas Junction, Second
Manassas, Ox Hill, Harper's Ferry, Sharpsburg, Shep-
herdstown, Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. At the
beginning of the movement to Pennsylvania he was
taken sick and was thus disabled until after Gettysburg,
during which period he was for a short time in command
at Staunton. Rejoining his regiment at Hagerstown,
he took part in the engagement at Falling Waters, and
in the spring of 1864 was again badly wounded in the
battle of the Wilderness. He was sent to hospital at
Richmond and thence to Danville, and a few weeks
later to his home, but was able to join his regiment again
in the trenches before Petersburg, where he was on duty
until the evacuation. He was surrendered at Appomat-
tox as the commanding officer of the gallant old Thirty-
eighth. On returning home he engaged in farming for a
time, and then entered the mercantile business, in which
his career has been a marked success. By his marriage in
1870 to Sallie J, Haynes he has eight children : Robert

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 489

L., a graduate of the United States naval academy, and
now professor of mathematics at Trinity college, Dur
ham ; Charles E. , a merchant in Montana ; William W. ,
superintendent of public schools at Durham ; John M. ,
Horace, Frederick, Claude and Estella.

George A. Foote, of Warrenton, a prominent member
of the medical profession of North Carolina, and distin
guished in the service of the Confederate States, was
born in Warren county in 1835. After pursuing aca
demical and collegiate studies at Warrenton and at Rich
mond college, he was educated professionally at the
Jefferson medical college, Philadelphia. He was a stu
dent at the latter institution when the secession of the
Southern States began, and ardently sympathizing with
their cause he returned home and went to Charleston,
S. C., to offer his services, before the fall of Fort Sum-
ter. After that event he enlisted at Warrenton as a pri
vate in one of the first companies of volunteers, but was at
once ordered before the board of examiners, and was com
missioned as a surgeon. In this capacity he was assigned
to Gen. W. W. Kirkland's command, with whom he
served from the first battle of Manassas until his health
gave way in 1863. Finding the fatigues of army life
beyond his strength, he secured an assignment to the
navy and became surgeon of the ironclad Raleigh, which
was lost off the coast at Wilmington. He was then
transferred to the ram Albemarle and shared the famous
career of that vessel to the last, being on board when she
was blown up and sunk by Lieutenant Gushing. This
disaster leaving the troops at Plymouth in a dangerous
situation, surrounded by the enemy, he was ordered by
Gen. L. S. Baker to take command there and extricate
the garrison from their perilous position. This he suc
ceeded in doing without the loss of a man, and was
warmly complimented by General Baker in special order
No. 41, for the skill and gallantry with which this duty
was performed. Subsequently he was ordered to Wil
mington and Fort Fisher, and put in charge at hospitals.
Upon the capture of Fort Fisher, in January, 1865, after
a terrific bombardment, he was taken prisoner, and sent
to Governor's island, New York harbor, where he was
held until a few days before the surrender of General
Lee, when he was exchanged and permitted to return to

490 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

his home. Since that momentous period he has been
engaged in the practice of his profession at Warrenton,
held in the highest esteem by the people of his commu
nity, and honored wherever he is known. Though twice
offered professorships in medical institutions he has pre
ferred the active life of a practicing physician. He has
held the positions of president of the State medical
association and member of the State board of medical
examiners, and is a member of the State historical
society of Texas and a member or corresponding mem
ber of various scientific societies. He is also a valued
comrade of John White camp, United Confederate
Veterans, at Warrenton. By his marriage in 1863
to Sallie J. McDowell, of Edenton, Dr. Foote has four
children living: George M., Helen N., George A. and
Gaston S.

Henry A. Foote, of Warrenton, lawyer, journalist and
Confederate veteran, was born in Warren county, Novem
ber 20, 1845. He was one of the younger soldiers of the
great war, and did not enjoy as long a service as was
permitted to others, but the patriotic record of his family
was fully maintained by his four elder brothers, all of
whom wore the gray and devoted themselves unselfishly
to the cause of Southern independence. He enlisted in
December, 1863, in Company F of the First engineer
regiment, and from that time until the close of the
struggle served as commissary-sergeant of his company.
During his service he was with the army in the trenches
about Petersburg, Va. , and participated in the battle of
the Crater, in which a bloody repulse was given to the
attempt of Grant's army to break the line of gray. He
was with the army in the retreat to Appomattox and par
ticipated in the surrender. Then returning home he
began preparation for his civil career and entered Wake
Forest college, whsre he was graduated in 1868 with the
first honors of his class. He then adopted law as his pro
fession and established himself in the practice at Warren
ton, where he is still devoted to the career of a lawyer.
He has held the office of State's attorney for the county
for fourteen years, and during the first administration of
President Cleveland was deputy collector of internal
revenue for the Fourth district. Since 1872 he has
been editor and proprietor of the Warrenton Gazette,

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 491

a record in journalism which has but one equal in the
State. In John White camp, United Confederate
Veterans, he holds the rank of adjutant. By his
marriage, in 1876, to Minnie C. Young, of Wilson, Mr.
Foote has five charming daughters, and one son, Thomas
James.

Josiah C. Fowler, M. D., a prominent physician of
Wake Forest, N. C. , formerly of the medical service of
the Confederate States army, was born in Wake county
April 8, 1830. His medical examination was obtained at
the university of Pennsylvania, a popular professional
school with the young men of the South in ante-war
times, and he was graduated there in 1854. During the
next few years he was engaged in the practice of his pro
fession in Franklin county, N. C., which he abandoned
at the call to arms, and was called by a company from
his owntown to come to Raleigh. In the summer of 1861
he was appointed assistant surgeon of the Seventeenth
North Carolina regiment. In this capacity he served
until January, 1865, when ill health compelled his resig
nation. During the war he was with his regiment in its
North Carolina service, and was under fire also at the
great battle of Gettysburg, at the Wilderness and Spott-
sylvania Court House, at Cold Harbor and Ream's Sta
tion, and during the siege of Petersburg, faithfully min
istering to his men and sharing their dangers and priva
tions. After the close of the war and the recovery of his
health he resumed his professional career in Franklin
county, and remained there for fifteen years. Since
then he has resided at Wake Forest, where he is esteemed
as a professional man of unusual ability and reputation,
and is valued as a citizen. By his marriage, in 1866, to
Mary H. Hart, of Franklin county, he has one son living,
Pettigrew Fowler, and two daughters, Rosa C. , wife of
J. L. Allen, and Columbia C., wife of W. W. Holding,
and all reside in the vicinity of Wake Forest.

Lieutenant William Graves Foy, a prominent business
man of Mount Airy, N. C. , was born in Surry county,
March 26, 1845. His career in the service of the Confed
erate States, which was marked by bravery and devotion
and suffering, was rendered in the Twenty-first regiment,
originally the Eleventh, commanded by Col. (after-

492 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

ward general) W. W. Kirkland. He enlisted on May 21,
1861, in Company E of this regiment, and in 1862 was
transferred to Company C. His gallant conduct brought
him promotion to lieutenant, and after the battle of
Gettysburg he was appointed adjutant of the regiment.
He reached the field of Manassas just before the famous
victory of July 21, 1861, and participated in the pursuit
of the routed enemy, and in the following spring fought
in Trimble's brigade in Stonewall Jackson's Shenandoah
Valley campaign, and then in the Seven Days' battles
before Richmond with Jackson's corps. After partici
pating in the second battle of Manassas, he was detailed
for some time as a drill-master for recruits, but was
again in the fight at Fredericksburg, and in the follow
ing battles of Chancellorsville, Winchester, and Gettys
burg, where he was wounded in the foot. After the
return to Virginia he was with the forces detailed for the
North Carolina campaign, and thence was recalled to
Petersburg, where he took part in the battle of Drewry's
Bluff and the defeat of Butler, and from the Cold Har
bor lines, went with Ramseur to the Shenandoah valley
again. He marched with Early through Maryland and to
the gates of Washington city, and later fought against
Sheridan at Winchester and Cedar creek, in the latter
fight receiving a wound in the face which destroyed his
left eye, and put an end to his service for the Con
federacy.

Captain Joseph G. Freeland, Sixth regiment North
Carolina State troops, was born in Alamance county,
January 16, 1838, the son of George J. Freeland, a
planter, who served sixteen years as register of deeds.
The father of the latter was Joseph Freeland, of the same
county, then a part of Orange, whose brother was killed
by a mob of Tories during the revolutionary war while in
the discharge of his duties as county sheriff. Captain
Freeland was a student in a high school in Guilford
county at the beginning of the Confederate war, but
promptly left his books, and in May, 1861, enlisted as a
private in Company F of the Sixth North Carolina regi
ment. His services, which extended throughout the four
years of conflict, were marked by soldierly behavior
under all circumstances, and he steadily rose through the
various grades to the rank of captain. During two years

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 493

he was detailed with the sharpshooters of the Second corps.
Four times he was found by the bullets of the enemy,
but not seriously injured. Among his battles were First
Manassas, Seven Pines, the Seven Days' fighting before
Richmond, Second Manassas, Harper's Ferry, Sharps-
burg, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Winchester,
Gettysburg, Brandy Station, Drewry's Bluff, Hatcher's
Run and other battles about Petersburg. On March 25,
1865, he was captured before Petersburg, and subsequently
was imprisoned at Point Lookout until July, 1865. On
returning to his native State he farmed in Alamance and
Mecklenburg counties until 1874, when he removed to
Charlotte and engaged in business as a merchant. In
1893 he was appointed to his present position as janitor
of the government building at Charlotte. Captain Free-
land was married in 1866 to Nannie Whitfield, and after
her death he was wedded in 1890 to Mrs. Fannie Steele,
nee Black, of Florida. One son, Joseph E., was grad
uated at the Baltimore dental college, and died in that
city in 1894. Three brothers of Captain Freeland were
in the Confederate service, Thomas L., color-bearer of
the Forty-ninth North Carolina regiment; George J., a
private in the Forty-ninth North Carolina, and William
B., who was in Fitzhugh Lee's cavalry and was wounded
at Fort Fisher, when the latter was captured.

James Calhoun Freeman, an influential citizen of
Bertie county, is one of four brothers who served in the
Confederate armies, one of them giving his life for the
cause. He was born in the county where he now resides,
October 5, 1831, and when he had grown to manhood, he
there engaged in farming, which has been his life occu
pation. In April, 1862, obedient to the call of his State,
he left his home and enlisted as a private in Company F,
Fourth North Carolina cavalry, and was at once appointed
orderly- sergeant of the company. He was with his
command in its campaigns in North Carolina, in the
fights at Franklin, Whitehall and the siege of Little
Washington, and then going into Virginia and joining
Stuart's cavalry, participated in the cavalry fighting at
Brandy Station and other encounters on the Rappahan-
nock. After this he rode into Pennsylvania with Stuart
and took a hand in the famous cavalry battle at Gettys
burg. On the retreat from that memorable field, while

494 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

on duty guarding the wagon train of Ewell's corps, he
was captured by the enemy at South mountain, Md., and
was not again permitted to join his regiment of gallant
troopers. As a prisoner of war he was carried first to Fort
McHenry, thence to Fort Delaware and later to Point
Lookout, and was not released until February, 1865,
when he was paroled. * * His innate love of his native
State, his fealty toward the Southern cause and the well-
being of the Southern people, together with the ill treat
ment and cruelties of life experienced for nearly two
years as a prisoner of war, made it almost impossible for
him to realize for a long time that he was a reconstructed
Reb. " Mr. Freeman is a popular and enterprising cit
izen, and has had the honor of serving his county thirteen
years as a member of the board of county commissioners.
By his marriage, in 1857, to Margaret E. Redditt, he has
eight children: William J., Mollie H., wife of R. J.
Shield; Joseph W., Louise J., Maggie E., Leon H.,
Laura C. and Annie M., wife of C. C. Sessoms.

William George Freeman, M. D., of Murfreesboro, a
veteran of the cavalry corps of the army of Northern
Virginia, was born in Bertie county, N. C., August 19,
1840. He was educated at Wake Forest, and then pur
sued the study of medicine at the university of Virginia
and the university of Pennsylvania, being graduated at
the latter institution in 1861. Sacrificing for the time
his professional ambition on the altar of his State, he
enlisted in the spring of 1862 as a private in the Sussex
Light Dragoons, a cavalry organization which became
Company H, Thirteenth Virginia cavalry, Col. J. H.
Chambliss commanding. He served as a trooper, in all
the operations of his regiment, in W. H. F. Lee's bri
gade of Stuart's cavalry, until the spring of 1864. Dur
ing this period he was wounded in a skirmish with a Fed
eral scouting party between Suffolk and Petersburg,
which disabled him about one month, and at the battle
of Upperville he was taken prisoner, but fortunately was
exchanged after a short confinement at the Old Capitol
prison. In the spring of 1864 he went before the med
ical examining board and was commissioned assistant
surgeon, and assigned to the general hospital at Peters
burg. Thence, in the fall of 1864, he was transferred to
Danville, where many of the sick and wounded were

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 495

taken to avoid the Federal shells at Petersburg. He
remained at Danville on duty until June, 1865, and then
joined his parents at Norfolk. In January, 1866, he began
the practice of medicine at Union, Hertford county,
removed to Harrellsville in 1868, and since 1874 has
made his home at Murfreesboro, N. C., where he is
yet a successful practitioner and an esteemed citizen.
By his marriage, in 1869, to Lucy Tyner Boone, of
Northampton county, he has one son, George King Free
man.

Thomas C. Fuller, a distinguished lawyer and justice
of the United States court of private land claims, was
born at Fayetteville, N. C. , and was educated at Chapel
Hill. After leaving the latter institution he read law
with Chief-Justice Pearson, and began the practice at
Fayetteville upon his admission to the bar in 1856. He
was one of those who opposed secession until the fall of
Fort Sumter, when he promptly offered his services to
the State of North Carolina. In April, 1861, he became
a member of Company F, First regiment, North Carolina
infantry, Col. D. H. Hill, and as a private served during
the career of this regiment, including the battle of Big
Bethel. When the command was disbanded he and Col.
J. B. Starr organized a company of light artillery at Fay
etteville and vicinity, which was subsequently known as
Starr's battery; Starr being elected captain and Fuller
senior first lieutenant. The government not being pre
pared to equip the company with light artillery, it was
ordered to Fort Fisher, and was there on duty with heavy
artillery until October, 1862, when it was transferred to
Kinston. The company served later on the interior line
before New Bern. During his association with this com
pany Lieutenant Fuller participated in several engage
ments with gunboats on the coast, and in the fighting
at Kinston and Goldsboro. In November, 1863, he was
elected to the Confederate States Congress, where he
took his seat in May, 1864, and served until the evacua
tion of Richmond. Though the youngest member of
that famous body, he was influential and active in the
discharge of his duties. When the Confederate govern
ment had ceased to be, he resumed his professional work
at Fayetteville, and at the first election in 1865 was elected
to the United States Congress by the Cape Fear district,

496 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

but the State was not then admitted to representation.
At the next election he was again a candidate, but his
opponent received the certificate, under military author
ity. In 1872 he was a candidate for presidential elector
on the Greeley ticket and made an extensive canvass.
Subsequently, though active in political affairs, he was
not a candidate for office, and in the spring of 1873
removed to Raleigh, where he formed a law partnership
with Senator A. S. Merrimon and Capt. S. A. Ashe,
which continued unbroken until Captain Ashe entered
the field of journalism, and Senator Merrimon was
elected to the supreme court. He was then associated
with George H. Snow until, upon the establishment of
the court of private land claims, to pass upon titles
based on Spanish and Mexican grants, he was appointed
a justice of that court in June, 1891, upon the suggestion
of Senator Ransom and the recommendation of the bar
of the State. Judge Fuller is a son of Thomas Fuller, a
native of Franklin county, whose wife was Catherine
Raboteau, of Huguenot descent. In 1856 he married
Caroline D., daughter of Williamson Whitehead, of Fay-
etteville, and they have six children surviving.

Henry S. Furman, of Franklinton, a survivor of the
Fifty-fifth North Carolina infantry, was born at the town
where he now resides, May 9, 1832. After receiving his
education he entered business life as a traveling sales
man and was so occupied when his State seceded and
the war between the North and South inaugurated.
Feeling the obligations of a patriotic citizen, he volun
teered in 1862 as a private in Company I of the Fifty-
fifth regiment, the command with which he was associ
ated during the remainder of the four years' struggle.
After about six months' service in the line, his business
experience and training were availed of by his regiment
and he was promoted to the rank of quartermaster- ser
geant, in which capacity he rendered faithful and efficient
service. He was with his regiment throughout its well-
known career, and was present at the famous battle of
Gettysburg and the fighting during the siege of Richmond
and Petersburg, and finally was surrendered at Appo-
mattox. Returning then to Franklinton he conducted
a general store a few years, after which he embarked in
the drug trade, in which he has been quite successful.

CONFEDERA TE MILITARY HISTORY. 497

He was appointed postmaster at Franklinton in 1867 and
held that office for fifteen years, also being reappointed
in Cleveland's first administration. By his marriage, in
1857, to Annie E. Winston, of Franklinton, he has four
children living : Henry Otis, a traveling salesman ; Luna
Glenn, wife of Capt. R. I. Cheatham, an official of the
Seaboard Air Line railroad at Atlanta; Eula Lee and
Theodore Hubert.

John Q. Gant, a prominent manufacturer of Alamance
county, N. C., was born in 1847, a son of Jesse Gant, a
worthy citizen of that county, which he served in differ
ent capacities for fifty years. He left school in July,

1864, to enlist in the Confederate service and became a
member of Company C, Fortieth regiment, North Caro
lina troops. His command was in the heavy artillery
service, and he was first in duty with it at Fort Holmes,
near Wilmington. After General Bragg assumed com
mand in that department his command was ordered from
Fort Holmes to Augusta, Ga. , and at the latter place
was engaged in fortifying against the advance of Sher
man's army. Subsequently, being ordered to Savannah,
he was with the troops which met Sherman on the
Georgia Central railroad and contested his advance to
the seaboard. After the evacuation of Savannah he was
ordered to Charleston, and about the ist of January,

1865, was ordered back to Fort Holmes, and resumed
charge of the heavy guns of the fort. While at Fort
Holmes he witnessed the bombardment of Fort Fisher
and subsequently participated in the defense of Fort
Anderson. At this post he had the unpleasant experi
ence of being knocked down and covered with debris by
the explosion of a shell. The Confederate forces were
compelled to abandon Fort Anderson, after which he was
in the two days' fight at Town Creek, then falling back
through Wilmington to Sugar Loaf. Under command
of General Hoke he fought at Jackson's Mill, near Kins-
ton, N. C., defeating the Federal column from New
Bern and capturing 1,500 prisoners. His last battle was
at Bentonville, N. C. , after which his command was
ordered to Smithfield and thence to Greensboro, where
he was paroled. In 1869 Mr. Gant entered the employ
ment of the Alamance cotton mill, and six years later
embarked in business as a merchant at Burlington. In

498 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

1880 he removed to Altamahaw, on Haw river, and
engaged in cotton manufacturing, and is now part
ner and sole manager of the Altamahaw cotton mill.
Mr. Gant was married, in 1879, to Corinna Morehead,
daughter of Col. Joseph Erwin, of Morganton, N. C.,
and to them have been born eight sons and two daughters.

Captain George H. Gardin, a prominent citizen and
Confederate soldier of McDowell county, of which he is
a native, was born in 1843, the son of Henry Gardin. He
enlisted in the Confederate service on May i, 1861, as a
private in Company B, Twenty-second regiment, North
Carolina troops. From the ranks he gradually rose by
promotion, on account of gallant and faithful service,
until in the fall of 1862 he became captain of his com
pany, the rank in which he served until the surrender of
the army of Northern Virginia. During 1861 he served
at Evansville, on the Potomac river; in the spring of 1862
was on duty at Yorktown, and after the retreat of Ma-
gruder participated in the battle of Seven Pines. During
the campaign before Richmond under General Lee, in
June, 1862, he was captured at Fair Oaks and thence
carried to Washington city, where he was held as a pris
oner for six weeks. After being exchanged he rejoined
his company at Winchester in the Shenandoah valley and
next met the enemy at Fredericksburg. He fought
with Jackson at Chancellorsville, being not far from the
general at the time he was wounded, and at Gettysburg
participated in the gallant charges of his regiment on the
first and third days of the battle. During the bloody
struggles of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania Court House
and Cold Harbor, he was identified with the gallant
record of General Scales' North Carolina brigade. He
served on the Petersburg lines throughout the fall and win
ter of 1864, and in the spring of 1865 participated in the
battle of Five Forks and the skirmishes of the retreat to
Appomattox, where he was paroled. Upon his return
to North Carolina he engaged in farming, which is still
his occupation. He has had a prominent official career
in the county, serving, from 1874, two years as treas
urer; in 1881 as representative in the legislature; in the
same office again in 1885, and from 1890 to 1897 as sher
iff of the county. He was married in 1866 to Ellen F.r
daughter of Alexander Tate. She died in 1894, leaving

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 499

seven children: Anna Laura, wife of G. W. Connally;
Martha H., wife of Maj. A. Connally; Alice, wife of
George C. Connally ; Jennie V. , wife of George Carson ;
Rebecca, wife of Dr. J. O. Simmons; Etta and Maude.

McDuffie Geddie, of Fayetteville, N. C., was born in
Cumberland county, January 23, 1843. His father, John
Geddie, and his grandfather, of the same name, were
natives of Cumberland county, of Irish descent; his
mother, Janet, was the daughter of Abram Gainey, also
a native of Cumberland. His occupation was that of a
farmer, when the State seceded and her sons were called
upon to defend the State and uphold the Confederacy.
He enlisted in 1862 in the company of Captain Sloan,
Company I, Fifty-first regiment, North Carolina State
troops, as a private, and his subsequent service was ren
dered mainly in North Carolina and in Clingman's bri
gade in Virginia. He participated in a number of bat
tles and skirmishes as a true and valiant soldier. Called
to Virginia for the defense of Richmond and Petersburg,
in May, 1864, he had hardly met the enemy when, in the
fighting near Drewry's bluff, on the i6th, he was cap
tured on the picket line, which ended his service on the
field. He was subsequently confined at Point Lookout,
Md., until paroled in March, 1865. At the time of his
capture he had risen by virtue of bravery and meritori
ous conduct from private to the rank of orderly-sergeant
of his company. Since the war he has been engaged in
farming, has been fortunate in his undertakings, and is
one of the influential men of Cumberland county. In
1895 he was elected for a term of four years as sheriff of
the county, an honor well deserved. Mr. Geddie was
married, in December, 1866, to Mary C. Williams. Their
children are Ida J., Hattie O., Crosby, Jasper, Lusie,
Isabella and Blanche.

Captain John Eli Gilmer, a prominent wholesale mer
chant of Winston, N. C. , born in Guilford county, Au
gust 4, 1841, served with distinction as an officer of the
Twenty-first regiment, North Carolina troops. He
entered the service of the State with the volunteer
organization, known as the Guilford Dixie Boys, in the
spring of 1861, and his company, being assigned to the
Eleventh regiment of volunteers, then the title of Col-

Nc 55

500 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

onel Kirkland's command, he went to the front in Vir
ginia and had his first experience in battle at First Ma-
nassas. When E well's division marched to support
Stonewall Jackson in the Shenandoah valley, he accom
panied his regiment and shared the famous fighting of
Trimble's brigade at Front Royal, Winchester, Strasburg
and Cross Keys. He was with Jackson when he crossed
Virginia and struck McClellan's right flank, making pos
sible the victories of the Seven Days before Richmond,
and contimied under the leadership of that great com
mander at Second Manassas, Harper's Ferry and Sharps-
burg. After this battle he was promoted to captain
of his company, having previously held the rank of
first lieutenant. At the battle of Fredericksburg he was
severely wounded in the side by a grapeshot, and in con
sequence was disabled and at home for twelve months.
On having apparently recovered he served with Hoke at
Plymouth and New Bern, and with Early in the Shen
andoah Valley campaign of 1864, but after the battle of
Winchester was honorably discharged on account of the
disability caused by his wound. After the war he resided
at Greensboro until 1873, and since then at Winston,
where he is one of the leaders in business.

Samuel Jefferson Ginnings, a leading merchant of
Wilkesboro, who rendered his Confederate service as a
member of the First regiment, North Carolina troops,
was born in Surry county, January 3, 1827. His resi
dence at Wilkesboro dates from 1852, where he was
engaged in business until the first alarm of war, when
he went to Charleston and heard the first gun fired at
Fort Sumter. He was interested in the organization of
the First regiment, enlisted as a member of Company B,
and later was appointed regimental commissary. He
accompanied the command to Virginia and took part in
the Seven Days' campaign before Richmond, in which
Colonel Stokes was killed. Here he was captured, and
being taken to Fort Delaware was confined for several
weeks. After he rejoined his regiment he was taken
sick with fever and was disabled for some time. Then,
joining his command again, he took part in the battle of
Fredericksburg and the subsequent service of his regi
ment, holding the position of sutler. At the battle of
the Wilderness, in May, 1864, he was shot through the

CONFEDERA TE MILITARY HISTORY. 501

right leg, a serious wound which prevented further active
service, although he was with Cox's brigade during the
Shenandoah Valley campaign of that year, and was on
the Petersburg lines during the siege, acting in the com
missary department, until just before the evacuation,
when he made his way to Danville and thence to his
home. He has since been engaged in mercantile pur
suits, except four years of service as sheriff of the county.

John J. Gormley, who has been a citizen and identified
with important enterprises at Charlotte since the great
war, was born at Norfolk, Va., July 17, 1845. He is the
son of John Gormley, who was born on the ocean while
his parents were coming to America from Ireland,
became a merchant at Norfolk and married Hannah,
daughter of Rev. James Mitchell, of the Baptist min
istry. He was educated in the Norfolk military acad
emy, but left his books before he was sixteen years of
age to enlist in Company D, Fourth battalion of Virginia
artillery, commanded by Capt. Frank Huger, son of Gen
eral Huger. With this organization he took part in the
battles of Seven Pines, Frayser's Farm, Malvern Hill,
Second Manassas, White Sulphur Springs, Harper's
Ferry and Sharpsburg, in the latter engagement receiving
a wound that prevented further duty on the field. After
his recovery he was assigned to the commissary and
quartermaster's department in North Carolina and sta
tioned at Charlotte, where he remained after the war
came to an end. For more than twenty years afterward
he was engaged in railroad work, beginning as a freight
conductor on the Wilmington, Charlotte & Rutherford
road, advancing to the positions of passenger conductor
and master of transportation on the Charlotte & South
Carolina, and finally serving as superintendent of the
Atlantic, Tennessee & Ohio road. Upon the establish
ment of the Ada cotton mills, in 1885, he was appointed
secretary and treasurer, a position he held for nine years.
In 1896 he accepted his present position, cashier of the
Charlotte machine company. He is a member of the
Mecklenburg camp, U. C. V. November 16, 1870, he
married Sarah E., daughter of Hon. William F. David
son, of Charlotte, and granddaughter of William David
son, first member of Congress from the Charlotte district.
They have five children.

502 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Major John W. Graham, of Hillsboro, a distinguished
jurist, was born in Orange county, N. C., July 22, 1838.
His father was a well-known North Carolina statesman,
William A. Graham, United States senator and secretary
of the navy; and his mother was Susan, daughter of
John Washington, of Virginia, and a lineal descendant of
Lawrence Washington. Major Graham was educated at
Wilson's academy, studied at Georgetown during his
father's service in the cabinet, and in 1857 was gradu
ated at the university of North Carolina. He remained
at that institution until 1860, serving as an instructor in
Latin and mathematics, and taking the degrees of A. M.
and LL. B. He had hardly entered upon the practice
of law when he answered the call of his State and
entered the military service on April 20, 1861, as second
lieutenant in the Orange Guards. This company was
assigned to the Twenty- seventh regiment, North Caro
lina troops, and in the following June he was detailed as
aide-de-camp on the staff of Gen. R. C. Gatlin. In
March, 1862, he organized Company D of the Fifty-sixth
regiment, was elected captain, and in September, 1863,
was promoted major, in which rank he was identified
with the record of the Fifty-sixth until the close of the
war. He participated in the campaigns in eastern North
Carolina and on the Blackwater river ; was on duty in
defense of Richmond during the Gettysburg campaign;
served in Ransom's brigade on the Weldon railroad;
took part in the battle of Kinston, and Pickett's expe
dition against New Bern, and was distinguished for gal
lantry in the assault at Plymouth under command of Gen
eral Hoke. Subsequently he shared the gallant record of
his regiment and brigade in the battles about Drewry's
bluff, which resulted in the bottling up of Butler at Ber
muda Hundred; and took part in the three days' battles
before Petersburg, where on the third day he was
severely wounded in the right arm. After his recovery
he served in the trenches until March 25, 1865, when he
participated in the famous sortie of Gordon's corps and
was shot through both thighs. His wounds were severe
and dangerous, and after the evacuation he was left at
Petersburg, whence he was unable to leave for his home
until the following June. As soon as his strength was
somewhat restored he again opened his law office at
Hillsboro, and being elected solicitor of Orange county

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 503

court, served as such during the years 1866, 1867 and
part of 1868. He was one of the thirteen members of
the Democratic constitutional convention of 1868, and
was elected to the State senate of 1868 and 1869, where
he rendered important service in the interests of the
people. In the legislature of 1870-72 he was also a con
spicuous member, and in 1872, as candidate for State
treasurer, shared the defeat of his party's ticket. In
1876-77 he was a member of the State senate and one of
the leaders in that body. In 1886 he was chairman of
the State board of commissioners to revise the tax system
of the State, and in the fall of the same year was honored
by the Democratic nomination for Congress. Since 1875
he has been a member of the executive committee of the
university of North Carolina, and for many years was
the trustee of the sinking fund of the North Carolina
railroad. His career as a lawyer has been one of distinc
tion and honor. In 1867 he was married to Rebecca,
daughter of Paul C. Cameron and granddaughter of
Chief Justice Ruffin, who died in 1883, leaving six chil
dren : Paul C. , George N. , William A. , Joseph, Isabella,
wife of Thomas Webb, and Anna Cameron. By his
marriage in 1887 to Miss M. F. Bailey, of Tallahassee,
Fla., he has one son, Alexander H.

Captain Joseph Graham, of Charlotte, N. C., born at
New Bern, April 15, 1837, is one of nine sons of the
famous statesman, William A. Graham, five of whom
served in the Confederate States army. The father was
born in Lincoln county in 1804, was graduated at Chapel
Hill, became prominent as a lawyer at Hillsboro ; served
in the State legislature, 1833 to 1840, several terms as
speaker of the house; was United States senator, 1840 to
1843; governor of the State, 1844 to 1848; secretary of
the navy under President Fillmore, and candidate for
vice-president with General Scott in 1852. After further
service in the State senate he was elected Confederate
States senator in 1864, and at the time of his death, in
1875, was one of the trustees of the Peabody fund, and
one of the Maryland and Virginia boundary commission
ers. Senator Graham's father, Joseph Graham, held the
rank of major in the revolutionary army. Captain Gra
ham was graduated by the university of North Carolina
in 1857, and by the Jefferson medical college, Philadel-

504 CONFEDERA TE MILITARY HISTORY.

phia, in 1859. Returning to Hillsboro, in October, 1859,
he married Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Blount Hill,
and in January, 1860, began the practice of his profession
at Charlotte. This promising career and the delights of
home he abandoned on the day of the passage of the
ordinance of secession, May 20, 1861, and enlisted as
third lieutenant in a company of light artillery which he
had assisted in organizing. This was known as Brem's,
and later as Graham's, battery, and was assigned to the
Tenth North Carolina regiment, light artillery. He was
promoted through the grades of second and first lieuten
ant to that of captain, receiving the latter rank in July,
1862, and he continued to serve in this capacity in North
Carolina and Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, until
the spring of 1864. During his career as an artillery
officer he took a not inconspicuous part in the battles
of New Bern, Gettysburg, Mine Run, Bristoe Station,
Drewry's Bluff, and other engagements. He was then
commissioned surgeon, C. S. A., and discharged the
duties of that rank until the close of the struggle. Sub
sequently, after practicing in Gaston county, N. C. , three
years, he began his long and honorable career as a med
ical practitioner at Charlotte. He has been a member of
the State board of examiners and board of health, a val
ued member of various professional societies, and presi
dent of the State medical association. He also maintains
a membership in the Mecklenburg camp, Confederate
veterans. By his marriage, previously mentioned, two
children are living: Dr. William A. Graham, Jr., and
Mrs. George Fitzsimmons.

William Alexander Graham, of Oxford, N. C., was
born at Vesuvius Furnace, Lincoln county, N. C., Sep
tember 5, 1804, son of Joseph Graham, who left the
county of Down, Ireland, in 1737, and settled in Chester
county, Pa., and died there. He was married twice, and
his widow, with the younger children, removed to Meck
lenburg county, N. C., shortly before the revolutionary
war. Here their sons, John, George and Joseph, took an
active part in the struggle, and Joseph, at the age of
nineteen, rose to the rank of major. He was wounded
seven times and left for dead in the skirmish at Charlotte
with the advance guard of Lord Cornwallis, but recovered
and fought to the end of the war. He married Isabella,

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 505

the daughter of John Davidson, one of the signers of the
Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, on May 20,
1775, and William Alexander was their seventh son. He
was educated at the university of North Carolina, settled
at Hillsboro, in the county of Orange, was member of
the legislature many times, speaker of the house of com
mons, State senator, United States senator, 1841 to 1844;
governor of North Carolina, 1844 to 1849; secretary of
the navy under President Fillmore, candidate for vice-
president with General Scott, member of the secession
convention in 1861, State senator, 1861 to 1863; Confeder
ate States senator, 1863 to 1865; elected to the United
States senate in 1866, but was not allowed to take his seat;
member of board of Peabody trustees, elected to State
convention of 1875, and was arbitrator on the disputed
boundary line between Virginia and Maryland at the
time of his death, at Saratoga, N. Y., August u, 1875.
As secretary of the navy he projected and organized the
expedition under Commodore Perry to Japan, and
another, under Lieutenant Henderson, to the valley of
the Amazon. Senator Graham married, June 8, 1836,
Miss Susannah Sarah, daughter of John Washington, a
merchant of New Bern, N. C., and by her had ten chil
dren. Five sons of Senator Graham served in the North
Carolina troops in the Confederate army: Dr. Joseph
Graham, of Charlotte, captain of artillery in the Tenth
North Carolina, who opened the great artillery duel
preceding the assault on the third day at Gettysburg;
John W. Graham, of Hillsboro, N. C., major of the
Fifty-sixth regiment, North Carolina troops, wounded
in the arm in front of Petersburg, and desperately
wounded in both thighs at Hare's Hill, March 25,
1865; William A. Graham, captain of Company K,
Nineteenth regiment, North Carolina cavalry, wounded
at Gettysburg and promoted to assistant adjutant-gen
eral of North Carolina; James A. Graham, captain of
Company G, Twenty- seventh regiment, wounded at
Sharpsburg and Chancellorsville ; and Robert I. D.
Graham, captain of Company D, Fifty-sixth regiment,
wounded at Hare's Hill, March 25, 1865. Dr. George W.
Graham, the sixth son, was graduated at the university
of North Carolina and at Bellevue college, N. Y., and
settled in Charlotte, where he enjoys a lucrative practice.
Augustus Washington Graham, born June 9, 1849, as all

506 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

his brothers, graduated at the university of North Caro
lina, studied law under his father, and was licensed to
practice in June, 1872 ; was secretary of the board of arbi
tration which determined the boundary line between
Maryland and Virginia, was tendered appointment as
secretary of civil service commission, but declined ; was
tendered chief of one of the bureaus in the treasury
department in Washington in 1886, but declined; elected
State senator in 1885 ; in 1895 was appointed judge of the
superior court of North Carolina and declined a renomi-
nation in 1897. In 1876 he married Miss Lucy A.,
daughter of James H. Horner, the founder of the famous
Horner school at Oxford. Susan Washington, the only
daughter of Senator Graham, married Judge Walter
Clark, associate justice of the supreme court of North
Carolina, who is at this time the best known of all North
Carolina statesmen. Their eldest son, David, served as
captain in the Second North Carolina regiment, United
States volunteers, in the recent war with Spain.

Captain Nathan G. Grandy, of Elizabeth City, was born
in Camden county, N. C., September 2, 1838. At the
beginning of hostilities, in 1861, he was active in the
support of his State, and having taken a prominent part
in the organization of a militia company in Camden
county, where he was then engaged in farming, he was
elected captain. He served in command of this organi
zation about twelve months, and was then elected captain
of a vidette company, organized for scouting purposes
and outpost duty, to observe the movements of the
enemy on the Pasquotank river, between Roanoke island
and Elizabeth City. After the battle of Sawyer's Lane
and the evacuation of Norfolk, that portion of North
Carolina was overrun by the Federal forces, and Captain
Grandy then became a member of an independent organi
zation formed for the purpose of guarding the citizens
and property from the depredations of a band of out
laws known as the "Buffalos. " He gave about a year to
this service and then engaged in blockade running, sup
plying the Confederate government with provisions and
other supplies through the Federal lines. His service
throughout was one of adventure and danger, ending
finally by parole at Norfolk in May, 1865. After the
close of hostilities he was made provisional sheriff of

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 507

Camden county, and, being elected to the same office by
the people, held it until September, 1868. From then
until the fall of 1877 he was in the commission business
at Norfolk, and subsequently he conducted a store at
Camden. In June, 1884, he was elected county commis
sioner, but never qualified, being elected sheriff in the
fall. In August, 1885, he resigned the latter office to
accept appointment under President Cleveland's admin
istration as deputy collector of internal revenue. In
August, 1890, he made his home at Elizabeth City,
where, since that time, he has been quite successful as a
broker and commission merchant. He was elected sheriff
of Pasquotank county in 1898, on the Democratic ticket,
the first time the county has gone Democratic since the
war. Captain Grandy was married in 1859 to Mary G.
Taylor, of Camden county, and they have two children
living: Charles Taylor, who was graduated at the univer
sity of North Carolina and is now connected with the
New York Journal, and Lillie Gregory, who was gradu
ated at Hollands, Va. , and is one of the instructors at
the Oxford female seminary.

Colonel Bazillia Yancey Graves, of Mount Airy, a dis
tinguished veteran of the North Carolina troops, is a
native of Surry county, born October 10, 1835. On the
day that the North Carolina convention voted to unite
the State with the Confederacy, he offered his military
services to the State, and, having been active in the for
mation of a volunteer company, was commissioned cap
tain. This became Company C of the regiment of Col.
W. W. Kirkland, first known as the Eleventh, and after
the reorganization as the Twenty-first regiment. He
was present with his command under fire on the right, in
Bonham's brigade, during the first battle of Manassas,
and took part in the pursuit of the defeated foe. In
Trimble's brigade he participated in the Shenandoah
Valley campaign with Stonewall Jackson, sharing the
gallant service of that famous brigade on Cross Keys and
other fields in the valley, and afterward took part in the
Seven Days' battles and Jackson's Manassas campaign,
including Slaughter's Mountain, Second Manassas, the
capture of Manassas Junction, and Chantilly. He was
wounded in the leg in the battles before Richmond, again
at Chantilly, and in another engagement a ball struck

508 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

his right arm and passed through the shoulder-blade.
Gangrene resulted, and he was disabled and suffered
greatly for eight months. This ended his service in the
field, during which he had been promoted on account of
gallant service through the grade of major to that of
lieutenant-colonel. At the close of the war he was on
duty as a collector of revenue in Surry county. Subse
quently he engaged in various mercantile operations,
mainly trading in tobacco, until the administration of
President Cleveland, when he served four years as post
master at Mount Airy. Since then, until October, 1897,
he has been in the warehouse business. He has now
retired from business.

Colonel Wharton J. Green, a distinguished citizen of
North Carolina, was born at St. Mark's, Fla., February
28, 1831, son of Gen. Thomas J. Green and Sarah A.,
daughter of Jesse Wharton, of Nashville, Tenn. His
father, the son of Solomon Green, of Warren county,
and grandson of William Green, of Virginia, was distin
guished as a statesman and soldier. After serving in the
legislatures of North Carolina and Florida, General
Green took part in the struggle for Texas independence,
serving from the battle of San Jacinto to the time of
annexation. He was made a brigadier-general in the
army of the young republic, and had the custody of Santa
Anna whilst a prisoner of war. He was second in com
mand of the Mier expedition, and being captured was
confined in the castle of Perote, between the City of
Mexico and Vera Cruz, until he and seven adventurous
comrades made their escape after eleven months' impris
onment by cutting through a seven-foot wall. Subse
quently he served as a member of Congress from Texas,
and was a State senator in the first legislature of Califor
nia. Returning to his native county toward the close of
this adventurous life, he died in 1863. He published a
history of the Mier expedition in 1845. Jesse Wharton,
maternal grandfather of Colonel Green, served in the
United States Senate from Tennessee, as also did another,
but more remote, kinsman, Nathaniel Macon, from North
Carolina. In childhood, after the death of his mother,
Colonel Green was placed in the care of his uncle, Joseph
P. Wharton, of Lebanon, Tenn. , where he was reared to
the age of fourteen years. He was educated at George-

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 5C9

town college, D. C., at Lovejoy's military academy,
North Carolina, at a select school near Boston, and
for three years he was a cadet at the United States
military academy. After reading law at the university
of Virginia and later at Cumberland university, he was
admitted to practice before the United States supreme
court in 1855, but soon afterward decided not to further
pursue that profession. He resided two years in San
Antonio, Tex., and then, returning to Warren county,
devoted his attention to the care of his plantation. In
1858 he married Esther S. Ellery, and during the follow
ing year traveled with his bride in Europe. At the out
break of the war he enlisted as a private in the Warren
Guards, the first company that went into the camp of
instruction at Raleigh, under the call of the governor.
This was mustered in as Company C of the Second regi
ment volunteers, later known as the Twelfth, and was
ordered to Norfolk. While there in camp Private Green
received authority from Brig. -Gen. Henry A. Wise to
raise a regiment for his legion. He immediately entered
upon this work, and when eight companies had reported
to him, he was ordered, with the rank of lieutenant-colo
nel, to report at Wilmington, then commanded by Gen.
J. R. Anderson, and thence was sent to Roanoke island,
threatened by the Federal expedition. He reached there
with his command on the morning of the second day of
the fight, and when it was virtually ended ; but, making
a vigorous protest against the contemplated surrender,
he was ordered to advance to meet General Burnside's
force, with promise of support. Colonel Green's battal
ion repulsed the advance of the enemy and was in line of
battle when a white flag passed from the rear, and he was
told that the island had been surrendered. In this brief
skirmish the Second battalion, under his -command, lost
heavily than any other command during the two days' more
fight. He was paroled about three weeks later, with his
men. On being exchanged he was ordered to Richmond
to reorganize his command, and was assigned to the bri
gade of Gen. Junius Daniel. Under the re-election law
he was not chosen as commander, whereupon he volun
teered as aide-de-camp on the staff of General Daniel,
and was for some time associated with the career of that
gallant officer. While on duty in North Carolina hs was
wounded by a fragment of shell at Fort Hill, near Wash-

510 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

ington, and while with General Daniel he was again
severely wounded in the fight of Rodes' division on the
first day of Gettysburg, at the time of the charge in
which General Reynolds, of the Federal army, was killed
During the retreat he was captured by Kilpatrick's cav
alry, and after being imprisoned for a time at Fort Dela
ware, was transferred to Johnson's island, where he was
detained until a few days previous to the evacuation of
Petersburg. As soon as President Davis heard of Colo
nel Green's return from prison, he sent into Congress his
nomination as brigadier-general, but in the confusion it
was not acted upon. This was so stated to Colonel Green
at Beauvoir by the President a few weeks previous to his
death, in the presence of his wife and daughter, Miss
Winnie. Since the war he has devoted himself mainly
to the care of his plantation and of the famous Tokay
vineyard, which he acquired in 1879. He was a delegate
to the Democratic national conventions of 1868, 1872 and
1876, and in the latter year was presidential elector. He
represented with marked ability the Third congressional
district in the Forty-eighth and Forty-ninth congresses.
By his first marriage Colonel Green has three children
living: Sarah Wharton, wife of Pembroke James, of
Wilmington; Adaline C. and Mabel E. Some years
after the death of his first wife he was married to the
widow of Judge David Davis, former president of the
United States Senate and justice of the supreme court.
Colonel Green was ever an advocate of the doctrine of
State rights of the strictest school, and consequently
espoused from the start, and long anterior, the move
ment in favor of secession. His views as to its right
have never changed.

William Henry Green, of Wilmington, now a successful
business man, is a survivor of the famous Latham bat
tery, a North Carolina artillery organization which dem
onstrated its efficiency and bravery on many noted fields
during the four years' war. He was born at New Bern in
1843, and entered the service as a private in the Branch
artillery, Capt. A. C. Latham, in July, 1862. In the
following year he was detailed as sergeant-major of the
battalion of Maj. J. C. Haskell, to which Latham's bat
tery was attached, and he served in this capacity during the
remainder of the war. He had an active career as an

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 511

artilleryman, participating in the famous Virginia bat
tles of Cedar Run, Second Manassas, Chantilly, Warrenton
Springs, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, where the battery
was in action three days, Spottsylvania, Second Cold
Harbor, and throughout the siege of Petersburg and the
retreat to Appomattox, where he was paroled. After
his return to North Carolina he made a beginning in the
profession of pharmacy at New Bern, and continued his
studies and practice at New York city, where he was grad
uated in 1869. In 1870 he embarked in business at Wil
mington as proprietor of a drugstore, which he has since
conducted with much success. In 1880 he was president
of the North Carolina board of pharmacy, and from
1880 to 1884 was president of the State pharma
ceutical association. He was married in 1875 to
Frances Iredell, daughter of Thomas D. Meares, of
Wilmington, and they have five children living : Fanny
M., Thomas M., Charles P., Jane L, and Mary O.
Green. A brother of Sergeant Green, Charles C. Green,
also a member of Latham's battery, served throughout
the war in the rank of sergeant, and was wounded at
New Bern. He died in August, 1895.

John Tillery Gregory, of Halifax, N. C., was born in
Northampton county, February n, 1832. His father
was a son of James Gregory and Mary Wynns, of Gates
county, and his mother was a daughter of Maj. John
Tillery, Sr., and Mary Sylvester. He was reared in the
family of his mother's brother, Maj. John Tillery, a
wealthy planter of Halifax county, who bestowed upon
him a tender care and an excellent education. Leaving
school at the age of twenty, he became a salesman in a
mercantile establishment at Halifax, and after gaining a
thorough business training, he became a partner of the
late W. W. Daniel, founding a business which was contin
ued successfully for a considerable number of )7ears. He
was a member of the Halifax light infantry, a well-drilled
and fully-equipped volunteer company, commanded by
Capt. James H. Whittaker, and with this company he
left Halifax for the seat of war in April, 1861. While in
camp at Raleigh he was elected one of the sergeants, the
company becoming Company F of the Second regiment
of volunteers, Col. Sol Williams. Later the regiment
was known as the Twelfth State troops and was com-

512 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

manded by Col. B. O. Wade ; the light infantry becom
ing Company G. The city of Norfolk, Va., being at that
time threatened, the old Second, being one of the first
regiments called into service from North Carolina, was
assigned to that field and remained there on picket duty
at Sewell's point and other places until the evacuation.
At the reorganization, while in camp near Norfolk, Ser
geant Gregory was elected lieutenant, and he continued
in that rank with his company until just after the battle
of Cold Harbor, 1862, when Colonel Wade approached
him on the battlefield and said : * ' Lieutenant Gregory,
we have had a hard and bloody fight. We have routed
the enemy and gained a glorious victory. I have been
very close to you and your company in this big fight.
The regiment is now without an adjutant and must have
one at once. For your meritorious conduct on the bat
tlefield, I now appoint you adjutant of the regiment.
You can enter on duty at once. ' ' At the close of the
war Lieutenant Gregory's commission as adjutant ranked
among the oldest in the army of Northern Virginia. His
old company, the Halifax light infantry, became a battle-
scarred command and had an honorable record in the
many hotly-contested battles of the army. It suffered
terribly at Hanover Junction, in the Seven Days' battles,
at Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, and
Spottsylvania Court House. In the latter fight Adju
tant Gregory was captured and carried, with about 3,000
others taken at the bloody angle, to Point Lookout, and
thence to Fort Delaware. There he was not released
until June 7, 1865, after an imprisonment of twelve
months and twenty-five days. On returning home he
resumed his place in business and continued so until the
firm was dissolved in 1867. His career as a public officer
began in April, 1855, when he was appointed clerk of the
superior court of Halifax county. After the war, No
vember, 1865, he was elected clerk of the court of pleas
and quarter-sessions of his county, and he held this office
from February, 1866, until the office was abolished in
1868. In the latter year he was elected clerk of the
superior court, and he served as such until December,
1894, when he retired from official life, after an honora
ble career of more than thirty-two years. He has also
served for sixteen years as secretary of the local lodge of
the Masonic order. By his marriage to Ellen Augusta,

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 513

daughter of Edwin T. Clarke, Mr. Gregory has nine chil
dren living: Mary Maud, wife of Mr. J. F. Crocker, of
Portsmouth, Va., Jesse Woodland, Elizabeth Clarke,
Edwin Clarke, John Tillery, Jr., Julia Genevieve, Quen-
tin, Fletcher Harrison and Arthur Wynns.

Richard K. Gregory, M. D. , a prominent physician of
Greensboro, N. C., was, at the outbreak of the war of
the Confederacy, an assistant surgeon in the United
States army and stationed in California. But his sympa
thies were with the South in the impending struggle,
and, as soon as hostilities began, he mailed his resignation
to Washington and started for his home in Richmond,
Va. Proceeding thence to the then seat of the Confed
erate government, at Montgomery, Ala., he offered his
services and was commissioned a surgeon in the Confed
erate States army. He served in the field three years
and was then ordered to take charge of the general hos
pital at Charlotte, where he was on duty until the close
of the war. Subsequently he was again in the United
States service as surgeon of the Fourth heavy artillery,
but in 1872 resigned his commission and made his resi
dence at Greensboro, where he has practiced as a physi
cian to the present time with much success.

Lieutenant Hugh A. Grey, at the time of his death
holding the position of supervisor of education of Meck
lenburg county, and a former officer of the Forty-eighth
regiment, North Carolina State troops, was born in that
county November 20, 1835. He was the son of Capt.
William Grey, of the State militia, whose grandfather,
William Grey, emigrated from the north of Ireland to
Pennsylvania and thence to Mecklenburg county, just
after the war of the revolution. William Grey, father
of H. A. Grey, married Jane E., daughter of Thomas
Re a, whose father, Andrew Rea, was a courier with Gen.
Nathaniel Greene. Her mother was Elizabeth, daughter
of Hugh Rogers, a revolutionary soldier. Both Andrew
Rea and Hugh Rogers were members of the Mecklenburg
convention. Lieutenant Grey was educated at Providence
academy and Davidson college, and in 1855 first engaged
in his life work as a teacher. In February, 1862, he vol
unteered from Union county in the company of Capt.
(afterward colonel) S. H. Walkup, which became Com-

514 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

pany F of the Forty-eighth regiment. He enlisted forty-
five men for the company and was elected second lieuten
ant in March, 1862. Joining the army before Richmond,
he took part in the exhausting Seven Days' battles, and
was afterward disabled by illness for three months. He
then returned to his company and commanded it in the
battle of Fredericksburg, in which every officer of his
regiment but one was killed or wounded. He received
a serious wound in the left shoulder from a sharpshooter,
which kept him in the hospital four months at Richmond
and Petersburg, after which he was sent home on fur
lough. He twice attempted to resume service with the
army, but was prevented by his wound, which refused to
heal, and prevented the use of his arm. Finally, in
June, 1864, he resigned and entered the civil service of
the Confederate States. From 1878 until his death
Lieutenant Grey was continuously devoted to educa
tional work, for seven years as principal of the Hopewell
academy, from 1885 to 1897 as principal of the Hunters-
ville high school, during 1895-97 as county school exam
iner, and afterward as supervisor of education. By his
marriage, in 1856, to Jane McCullough Parks, deceased,
and, in 1885, to Martha A. McMurray, he has seven chil
dren living: William R., Hugh A., Jr., Lula J., Charles
L. , John H., and Matte McMurray. The sons, except
the youngest, Matte M., now ten years old. are all grad
uates of Davidson college, the first a graduate also of
Johns Hopkins university and professor of Latin and
French at Davidson. John H. is a pastor of the Presbyte
rian church at Woodruff, S. C.

Captain Samuel A. Grier, a prominent physician of
Harrisburg and a veteran of the First volunteers and
the Fifth cavalry, was born in Mecklenburg county, Octo
ber 8, 1841. He is the son of Andrew Grier, for many
years chairman of the county court of Mecklenburg and
representative in the legislature, and Margaret Barrin-
ger, a descendant of Gen. Paul Barringer. He was edu
cated at Still Creek academy and Melville high school,
and had begun the study of medicine when Sumter fell
and the North and South flew to arms. Promptly volun
teering as a soldier, he became a private in the Hornet
Rifles, of Charlotte, which was mustered in for six
months' service as Company B of the First regiment vol-

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 515

unteers, Col. D. H. Hill. At the expiration of that serv
ice he joined Company F, Fifth North Carolina cavalry,
and was promoted to lieutenant of Company D, same
regiment, and to captain early in 1865. His brother,
P. B. Grier, remained with the old regiment, reorgan
ized as the Eleventh, was promoted lieutenant and was
killed at Bristoe Station. Captain Grier shared the serv
ice of his regiment under Stuart, W. H. F. Lee and
Hampton, fought at Brandy Station June, 1863, was
badly wounded at Upperville and again severely wounded
in the fight at Belfield, under General Barringer, while
opposing Hancock's movement against the railroad com
munications of Petersburg. At Namozine church, April
3, 1865, he was captured and was subsequently held as a
prisoner at the Old Capitol and at Johnson's island until
paroled in June, 1865. After his return to Charlotte he
engaged in farming until 1878, when he resumed the
study of medicine and was graduated at Jefferson medi
cal college, Philadelphia, in 1879. Embarking in the
practice in Caldwell county, he removed to Harrisburg in
1883, and there is now occupying a high professional as
well as social standing. By his marriage in November,
1868, to Mary, daughter of Dr. James F. Gilmer, of
Cabarrus county, his children are : Claudia L. , James F. ,
Samuel A., Elizabeth E., Margaret B., Mary G. , Elva
M., Evalyn A., Thomas, and Anna B. Claudia, the eld
est, was married in 1897 to Rev. J. Mercer Blair and
went to Japan as a missionary of the Southern Presbyte
rian church.

Captain James M. Gudger, a prominent attorney of
Asheville, and commander, in 1898, of the camp of Con
federate veterans at that city, was born in Pickens dis
trict, S. C., in 1836, the eldest child of Robert L. and
Mary (Johnson) Gudger. His father, a farmer in Bun
combe county until his death, in 1872, was the son of
James, the eldest son of William Gudger, one of the
earliest settlers in the region west of the Blue ridge,
going there at a time when the Indians were dangerous,
and acquiring large areas of land on both sides of Swan-
annoa river, near its mouth. The mother of Captain
Gudger was the daughter of Robert Johnson, a native of
Ireland, who emigrated to Charleston, S. C., and became
a prosperous planter in the Pickens district. Captain

Nc 56

516 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Gudger was reared in Buncombe county, and in the
spring of 1 86 1 assisted in the organization of the Rough
and Ready Guards, a volunteer organization which went
out with Zebulon B. Vance as captain and James M.
Gudger, first lieutenant. This became Company F of the
Fourteenth regiment, Junius Daniel, colonel, and at the
reorganization Gudger was elected captain, the rank in
which his subsequent service was rendered. He was
with his regiment in Virginia from the first, and during
the battles before Richmond in the spring of 1862 re
ceived a severe wound in the hip which disabled him for
nine months. He resumed command of his company at
Fredericksburg and participated in the battle of Chan-
cellorsville. Gettysburg soon followed, where his regi
ment was the first to enter the town, after the first
day's fight, and captured almost as many prisoners as it
had men. He was in the fall campaign of 1863 and
fought at the Wilderness and Spottsylvania until on May
14, 1864, he received a wound of such severity that his
military service was ended. Very soon after his return
home he was elected by practically unanimous vote to
the State legislature, where he served until the invasion
of the State by Sherman's army. Meanwhile, and dur
ing the three following years in which he farmed and
taught school, he pursued the study of law and gained
admission to practice in 1869. For sixteen years he fol
lowed his profession at Burnsville, and since then at
Asheville. He has also rendered valuable public service
as a State senator, elected in 1872; as solicitor for the
county four years from 1874, and four years as alderman
of the city, and has taken a prominent part in many
conventions of his party. He was one of the organizers
of the local camp of Confederate veterans. He was mar
ried in 1864 to Fannie Jane Patty, by whom three chil
dren survive, and, after her death, he married, in 1892,
Mrs. Honston, by whom he has a daughter living.

Lieutenant James Wharton Gulick, of Goldsboro, a
survivor of the Second regiment, North Carolina State
troops, was born at Princeton, N. J., in 1836, but was
reared from the age of ten years at Fayetteville, N. C.
He entered Princeton college in 1860, but left his studies
at the first sign of war, and returning home, enlisted in
the volunteer company known as the Goldsboro Rifles,

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 517

with which he served in the occupation of Fort Macon as
corporal. About a month later he resigned and, with
others, organized in one day at Goldsboro a company of
115 men, of which he was elected second lieutenant.
This became Company H of Colonel Tew's regiment, and
he was identified with its services in North Carolina and
Virginia in 1861, and in 1862 fought at the battles of
Seven Pines, Mechanicsville, Cold Harbor and Malvern
Hill. In the latter bloody engagement he received a
very severe wound in the left leg, which prevented his
further service in the field. In August, 1863, he resigned
on account of physical disability, and was assigned to a
position in the office of the collector of tax-in-kind, at
Goldsboro, where he remained during the existence of
the government. A brother of the foregoing, Dr. John
W. Gulick, served as assistant surgeon with Terry's
Texas Rangers, later as medical purveyor, and now re
sides at Corsicana, Tex.

Louis D. Gulley, of Goldsboro, N. C., was born in
Johnson county in 1844, the grandson of John Gulley, a
soldier of the American revolution, who served at Cowpens
and King's mountain. He enlisted early in the spring of
1862 in a volunteer organization, which became Company
A of the Forty-sixth North Carolina infantry regiment,
and served with this command until the end of the war.
While on duty in North Carolina he participated in the
engagement at Gum Swamp, between Kinston and New
Bern, in 1862. In Gen. John R. Cooke's brigade he was
in battle at Bristoe Station, Va., in the fall of 1863, and,
after the investment of Petersburg by the Northern army,
he fought in the trenches, taking part in the battle of the
Crater, and at Reams' Station was wounded both in the
right shoulder and left hand, but did not leave the field.
Of this battle, August 26, 1864, General Lee reported at
the time: "Gen. A. P. Hill attacked the enemy in his
intrenchments at Reams' Station, and at the second
assault carried his entire line. Cooke's and McRae's
North Carolina brigades, under General Heth, and Lane's
North Carolina brigade, of Wilcox's division, under Gen
eral Conner, with Pegram's artillery, composed the as
saulting column. Seven stand of colors, 2,000 prisoners
and 9 pieces of artillery are in our possession. Our
profound gratitude is due to the Giver of all victory and

518 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

our thanks to the brave officers and men engaged."
Cooke's brigade bore the brunt of the fighting in this
splendid victory, which regained the Wilmington &
Weldon railroad from the enemy. At the time of the
surrender of the army of Northern Virginia he was at
home on sick leave from Winder hospital, Richmond.
Subsequently he farmed two years in Johnson county,
then engaged in business two years at Raleigh, after
which he removed to Goldsboro, where, after a career of
eight years in mercantile business, he engaged in cotton
buying and manufacturing, which, with farming, is his
present occupation. In 1 874 he married Ida M. , daughter
of James Kerr, of Sampson county, and has eight chil
dren living: Mary K., Louis D. Jr., Edwin K., Emmett
L., Sudie, Ella, James K., and Katharine.

Nestus H. Gurley, commander of Thomas Ruffin camp,
United Confederate Veterans, of Goldsboro, was born in
Wayne county, N. C., in 1840. He was among the earliest
volunteers for the defense of the old North State, enlist
ing in the spring of 1861 as a private in Company H of
the First North Carolina cavalry, which went on duty
with the army at Manassas under the command of the
gallant Robert Ransom. He took part in the skirmish
of his command with the Federals in December, 1861,
near Dranesville, and in the spring of 1862, after serving
in the vicinity of Kinston, returned to Virginia to partic
ipate in Lee's campaign against McClellan before Rich
mond. There, in the daring scout made by part of his
regiment, Sunday, June 2pth, he was severely wounded
in the right breast and right leg, injuries which pre
vented further service. After spending two months at
home he attempted to return to duty, but was honorably
discharged. Since then he has been engaged in farming
in Wayne county. By his marriage, in 1864, to Julia M.
Sasser, he has five children living.

Jacob M. Hadley, M. D., a leading physician of La
Grange, N. C., formerly of the medical service of the
army of Northern Virginia, was born in Chatham county,
November 30, 1835. He is the son of William Penn Had
ley, a native of the same county, a prosperous farmer and
miller and member of the legislature in 1864, whose grand
father, Joshua Hadley, founded the family in North Caro-

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 519

lina, moving to Chatham county from South Hadley, Mass.
William Penn Hadley, though of good Quaker descent,
gave three other sons to the Confederate service: William
C. , who served as second lieutenant in the Second cavalry,
and was severely wounded at Brandy Station ; Oliver N. ,
of Company C, Twenty-sixth regiment, who died at
Morehead City in 1861, and John W., of the Second cav
alry, who met his death in the battle of Stevensburg, Va.
Dr. Hadley was educated at Trinity college and was
graduated in medicine at the university of Pennsylvania
in 1860. He practiced his profession in Craven county
until January, 1862, when he enlisted in the militia regi
ment of Colonel Clark, organized for the defense of New-
bern, and disbanded after the fall of that city. He was
then appointed assistant surgeon and assigned to the hos
pital at Raleigh with Surgeons Bryan and Haywood. In
the autumn of 1862 he was commissioned surgeon of the
Fourth regiment, North Carolina troops, with which he
served in the army of Northern Virginia during the
remainder of the war. He was with his regiment in
the engagements at Fredericksburg, Bunker Hill,
Winchester, Strasburg, and, on the retirement of the
army from Gettysburg, was left in charge of the
wounded at Martin sburg, where he became a pris
oner, but was left on duty, and finally was paroled
three months later. He was subsequently with his
regiment on the bloody fields of the Wilderness and
Spottsylvania, and through the long siege of Peters
burg; at the battles of Hatcher's Run and Farmville, and
finally at Appomattox was receiving wounded men at the
courthouse when the last guns were being fired. While
performing his duties on the field he was hit once by a
spent ball and once by a fragment of shell, but not seri
ously hurt. Dr. Hadley has continued in the practice
at LaGrange since 1867, has a wide reputation as a skill
ful physician and has been frequently honored in the
various professional societies of which he is a member.
By his marriage, in 1860, to Lizzie E. Kirkpatrick, he
has living one son, George B. W. Hadley, principal of the
LaGrange collegiate institute.

John C. Hadley, a prosperous business man of Wilson,
N. C., was born in 1845 in Wilson county and was edu
cated at the Hillsboro military academy. When that

520 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

institution was practically broken tip by the warlike
events of 1861, he entered school at Wilson and pursued
his studies until he had reached the age of eighteen years.
He then enlisted in March, 1863, in Company A of the
Fifty-fifth regiment, Col. J. K. Conally. With appoint
ment to sergeant he served with this command in the
Suffolk campaign and then joined the army in northern
Virginia, and, with the brigade of Gen. Joseph R. Davis,
participated in the Pennsylvania campaign. He had his
first introduction to severe battle on July i, 1863, in the
attack of Heth's division upon the Federals before Gettys
burg, in which the enemy was driven from Seminary
hill. But the colonel, lieutenant-colonel, and major and
many others fell killed or wounded, and in a rally by the
enemy, a number of the regiment were cut off in an
advanced position. Sergeant Hadley was both wounded
and captured, and from that time until June, 1865, nearly
two years, was a prisoner of war at Fort Delaware. It was
not his fortune, therefore, to participate in many glorious
battles, but his unfaltering devotion to the cause was
just as strongly displayed in prison camp as it could have
been on the field. Since his return to North Carolina
Mr. Hadley has been an enterprising and influential citi
zen. By his marriage, in 1868, to Mary Moore, he has
two children : Bessie, wife of G. W. Connor, of Wilson,
and Margaret R. Hadley.

Lieutenant Thomas J. Hadley, a veteran of the Fifty-
fifth North Carolina regiment, is a native of North Car
olina and a descendant of one of its old and patriotic fam
ilies. His great-grandfather, Thomas Hadley, was born
in Cumberland county, served as a captain in the army of
the revolution, and died for his convictions at the hands
of tories, being killed at his home. Thomas J. was born
in Wayne county (now Wilson) in 1838, and entered the
Confederate service in June, 1862, as a private in Com
pany A of the Fifty-fifth regiment. He was soon after
ward elected second lieutenant and then promoted
first lieutenant, and was recommended for a cap
taincy on account of his gallant service. He took
part in the engagement at Little Washington in North
Carolina, and, with the army of Northern Virginia,
took part in many famous battles. He fought at
Gettysburg on the first and third days, and during the

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 521

retreat, was wounded at Falling Waters. At the battle
of the Wilderness he received a wound in the left shoul
der which disabled him for a month. During the fight
ing on the Weldon railroad he was captured on the
skirmish line, and subsequently was held as a prisoner at
Fort Delaware until the close of the war. Since his
return he has made his home in his native county and is
now engaged in business at Wilson. He was married, in
1867, to Sallie, daughter of L. H. Sanders, and they have
five children: Lucien S., Mattie, wife of Walter Wood
ward ; Sallie, Thomas J. Jr. , and Mary.

Major Edward Joseph Hale was born near Fayetteville,
N. C., on December 25, 1839. He is the son of Edward
Jones Hale and his wife, Sarah Jane Walker. On his
father's side he is descended from Sir Matthew Hale, and
on his mother's from the. noble family of Wodehouse.
One of his ancestors, Col. Peter Mallett, was a major of
the North Carolina Continentals in the revolution, and
another, Samuel Hale, was an officer in the French and
Indian war. Another, Joseph Herndon, was a captain in
the revolution, while his maternal grandfather, Carleton
Walker, served on the staff of General Gaines in the war
of 1812 with the rank of major. The late Maj. Peter M.
Hale, of Raleigh, was his brother. On the 1 5th of Jan
uary, 1861, he married Mariah Rhett, a lineal descendant,
through her mother, of Sir John Yeamanns, the first gov
ernor of Carolina. They have had five children : Joseph
Hill, who died in 1883, at the age of nineteen; Edward
Jones, now business manager of the Fayetteville Ob
server; Louis Bond, now city editor of the same; Fred
erick Toomer, a civil engineer, and Thomas Hill, a rail
way clerk. Edward Jones Hale, the father of the subject
of this sketch, was the editor of the Fayetteville Observer,
one of the most influential of Southern journals, up to the
destruction of its printing house and office by General
Sherman in 1865. He was a man of wealth, and was in
the habit of spending three months of every year in
travel, accompanied by his family. To these journeys
young Hale doubtless owes much of his quickness of per
ception, versatility of genius and knowledge of the great
world. He was prepared for college at the Donaldson
academy, where he stood at the head of his class, and
graduated at the university of North Carolina in 1860

522 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

with the first distinction, having received the valedictory.
Being designed by his father for a political career, he
took the university's special course in constitutional and
international law. But all these plans were laid aside.
The day after Lincoln's proclamation calling for troops,
Edward Joseph Hale volunteered as a private soldier in
the Bethel regiment, of which D. H. Hill was colonel.
He was in the first pitched battle at Big Bethel, June 10,
1 86 1. When that regiment was disbanded Governor
Clark appointed him a second lieutenant of North Caro
lina troops. In 1862 he was appointed first lieutenant
and adjutant, and assigned to duty with the Fifty-sixth
North Carolina regiment of Ransom's brigade. He
participated in all the engagements of that command in
Virginia and eastern North Carolina, and distinguished
himself by his coolness and bravery. Though little
over twenty-one years of age, General Longstreet recog
nized his ability and appointed him judge-advocate of the
department court-martial. About this time he was
offered the very attractive and important position of pri
vate secretary to Governor Vance, of North Carolina,
but declined, preferring to remain in the field. His
ability, fighting record and general qualifications were
known to Brigadier-General Lane, and that officer, after
the death of Capt. George B. Johnston, tendered him the
position of adjutant-general of his brigade of veterans in
the fall of 1863. This he promptly accepted, and on the
recommendation of General Lane, President Davis ap
pointed him captain in the adjutant and inspector-gen
erals' department of the army, and assigned him to duty
with Lane's brigade. So slender and boyish looking was
this new chief-of-staff that some of the veterans seemed
to think him too young for such a responsible position.
But Captain Hale displayed such strong character in the
conduct of his duties that before the close of the terrific
campaign of 1864 he was the idol of the troops. His
behavior on the battlefield was extraordinary. He
would sit his horse under fire, coolly write dispatches
from the pommel of his saddle, and the next moment
throw himself into a charge with reckless abandon. In
the Wilderness, at Spottsylvania Court House, at Jericho
ford, Totopotomoy, Cold Harbor and Turkey Ridge; in
many battles before Petersburg after Grant had crossed
to the south side of the James ; at Deep Bottom, Gravelly

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 523

hill, Riddle's shop and Fussell's mill; at Reams' Station;
in the battles of the 2d of April, 1865, in the morning
and later at Battery Gregg and Battery 45 ; at Amelia
Court House, Farmville and other engagements on the
retreat to Appomattox, he distinguished himself and
acted with conspicuous gallantry. General Lane, of
whose splendid tribute to Captain Hale the military
sketch here given is an abbreviation, tells how this gal
lant officer led the brigade in the final charge and recov
ery of the Confederate works at Fussell's mill; of the skill
exhibited by him in the construction of several miles of
the defensive line near Petersburg, and of his successful
leadership in the charge of Lane's brigade at Reams'
Station. Not long before the close of the war a remark
able tribute was paid to Captain Hale's bravery and skill.
Upon the petition of the major commanding the Twenty-
eighth North Carolina regiment and all of its officers
present, he was recommended by his brigade, division
and corps commanders for the colonelcy of that regiment
for conspicuous gallantry and merit. The technical
difficulty that he was not a member of the regiment
delayed matters until too late for action before the war
closed. He was, however, appointed major and assistant
adjutant and inspector-general under the staff law that
had passed congress, and received the signature of the
president. After the war he was employed in a business
house in New York, and though without capital, he be
came a partner in a large wholesale house. In 1882 he
returned to Fayetteville and shortly after re-established
the Observer. He has been very prominent in North
Carolina politics. He has also served as United States
consul to Manchester, England, has traveled much in
the East, and is a writer of great distinction, especially
on political matters.

B. Frank Hall, of Wilmington, born in Duplin county
in 1842, served throughout the war as a member of the
Duplin Rifles, or Company A of the Forty-third regiment,
North Carolina infantry. He entered the service as a
private in the Duplin Rifles, Capt. Thomas S. Kenan,
organized at Kenansville, in 1859, and in April, 1861,
mustered in for six months. The company was first
assigned to the First, Col. D. H. Hill's regiment, but was
transferred to the Second regiment, Col. Sol Williams,

524 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

with which it served about Norfolk, Va. In December,
1862, the company was reorganized, and in March, 1862,
became Company A of the Forty-third regiment, Col.
Junius Daniel, who was succeeded by Col. T. S. Kenan.
In this command Private Hall soon rose to the rank of
first sergeant. Sergeant Hall was on duty with his regi
ment, in Daniel's brigade, during the Seven Days' cam
paign before Richmond, was under fire at Malvern hill
and afterward at Drewry's bluff and Suffolk, and from
December, 1862, to June, 1863, was on duty in North
Carolina, participating in the affair at Deep Gulley. He
took part in the terrific fight of July ist at Seminary
ridge, and the next two days of the Gettysburg
battle, the affair at Hagerstown on the retreat from
Pennsylvania, and subsequently, being attached to
Hoke's brigade, served in North Carolina, at the bat
tle of Batchelder's Creek, the siege and capture of
Plymouth, and the skirmishes before New Bern, return
ing thence to Virginia, where he participated in the
battle of Drewry's Bluff, Hanover Junction, Bethesda
Church, in 1864, and in the spring of 1865 took part in
the assault upon the Federal works at Hare's hill, March
25th. On the morning of April 2d, prior to the evacua
tion of Petersburg, he was in command of a squad of
twelve men, which, with a similar squad from the Forty-
fifth, entered Fort Mahone, then in the hands of the
enemy, captured 100 prisoners, and aided effectively in
the gallant fighting which forced the Federals from the
lines. During the retreat Sergeant Hall was in battle
at Sailor's creek, and at Appomattox, Sunday morning,
he joined in the last assault upon the enemy. Upon
the close of this gallant and self-sacrificing career, in
which he had never been wounded, though sharing all
the active service of his regiment except the Shenandoah
campaign, when he was disabled by sickness, Mr. Hall
returned to his native county, where he taught school for
three years. Removing to Wilmington in 1868, he
engaged in business, in 1869, as a member of the firm of
Edwards & Hall, now Hall & Pearsall, and he has met
with the success that every true soldier deserves.

Colonel Edward Dudley Hall, the first commander of
the Forty- sixth regiment, North Carolina troops, was born
at Wilmington, September 27, 1823, the son of Edward

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 525

Pearsall Hall, a prominent man of the Cape Fear region.
He was educated at Donaldson academy, and in 1845 was
married to Susan Hill Lane, of Wilmington, who died in
1850, leaving one son. He subsequently married Sallie
Loudon Green, daughter of James S. Green, by whom
two sons and three daughters are living. Early in man
hood he began an active career in politics as a Democrat,
was elected to the legislature in 1846, and as sheriff in
1852, an office in which he was retained for eight years.
In 1 86 1 he raised the first company of volunteers in that
part of the State, with which, as captain, he was mustered
in with the Second regiment of volunteers. Upon the
organization of the Seventh regiment, State troops, in
August, 1 86 1, he was commissioned major of that com
mand. At the battle of New Bern, March 14, 1862, he
was distinguished for gallantry in the bayonet charge of
his regiment, by which the enemy were driven from the
breastworks at Fort Thompson and a section of Brem's
battery retaken. Soon afterward, on account of the fame
which he gained on this occasion, he had the honor of
being elected colonel of the Forty-sixth, then forming,
though he was personally acquainted with but one man in
the regiment. Going into Virginia with this command
he was assigned to Walker's, afterward Cooke's, brigade,
and served in all the battles of the army of Northern
Virginia up to December, 1864, when disability com
pelled his resignation. After the wounding of Colonel
Manning, he commanded the brigade at Sharpsburg and
was commended by his superior officers for his efficient
service in this capacity. At Fredericksburg, after the
wounding of General Cooke, he was in command of his
brigade at Marye's hill, where he fought with Cobb's
brigade, repulsing six attacks of the enemy. He declined
promotion to brigadier-general, though urged upon him
by A. P. Hill. During the Gettysburg campaign he ren
dered conspicuous service on the South Anna river.
After his return home he served one year as sheriff, and
in 1866 was elected to the State senate. He was a dele
gate to the first Democratic convention after the war,
and was nominated for lieutenant-governor on the ticket
headed by Judge Thomas S. Ashe. In a campaign
which required fearlessness to conduct he was very
active. In 1883 he began a term of four years as mayor
of Wilmington, and was subsequently elected chief of

526 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

police. For three years he was special inspector of cus
toms for the Wilmington district, and during the four
years preceding the final failure of his health, he held
the position of major-general commanding the North
Carolina division, United Confederate veterans. His
death occurred in June, 1896.

Major Daniel H. Hamilton, of Hillsboro, is a native of
Charleston, S. C. , and rendered a portion of his service
as a Confederate soldier with the troops of that State.
He is the son of Col. D. H. Hamilton, who commanded
the First South Carolina regiment during the Confeder
ate war, and died in 1868 ; and his grandfather was James
Hamilton, governor of South Carolina during the admin
istration of President Andrew Jackson. James Hamilton
was a son of Maj. James Hamilton, who commanded a
battalion of Pennsylvania troops in the war of the revo
lution, and, on account of gallant service, was ordered
to ride in the post of honor at the surrender of Yorktown.
Maj. D. H. Hamilton was educated at the South Caro
lina military academy, at Charleston, and at the outbreak
of war, in 1 86 1, was an instructor in the military institute
at Hillsboro, tinder Col. C. C. Tew. He promptly
entered the military service at the first call to arms, and
upon the organization of the Thirteenth North Carolina
regiment, May 16, 1861, at Garysburg, under Colonel Pen-
der, he was elected major. He was soon afterward taken
with typhoid fever, and upon his recovery was assigned
to duty on the staff of General Ripley. He served in
this capacity in the campaigns of the army of Northern
Virginia until, during the Maryland campaign, on accotint
of a misunderstanding with his chief, he resigned his
commission and joined the First South Carolina regiment,
under command of his father, Colonel Hamilton, then on
duty in the same region. He served as adjutant of the
regiment until he received a severe wound at Shepherds-
town, which disabled him for active duty. Subsequently
he was appointed provost-marshal at Columbia, S. C.,
where he remained until the invasion by Sherman, after
which he was taken prisoner at Catawba bridge. Among
the engagements in which he took part were Dam No. 5,
Malvern Hill, Harper's Ferry, Sharpsburg and Boteler's
Ford. A brother, James Hamilton, was a cadet at West
Point in 1 860-61, but resigned and enlisted in the South

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 527

Carolina troops; was present at the reduction of Fort
Sumter, and afterward served on the staff of Gen. Rich
ard Taylor and John B. Hood, until near the close of
the war, when he became chief of artillery of Gen.
Joseph Wheeler's corps. He passed through thirty-eight
battles, three horses were killed under him, and his cloth
ing was frequently perforated by bullets, but he was
never wounded. His death occurred in 1867. After
the close of hostilities Major Hamilton resided three
years in Florida and then engaged in educational work
in North Carolina, conducting a private school for several
years, and having charge of the Hillsboro military acad
emy for three years. He is now deputy clerk of the
superior court.

Joseph A. Hamilton, vice-president of the Elmira cot
ton mills at Burlington and a prominent man of that
region of the State, had a noteworthy record as a private
soldier and non-commissioned officer of the Sixth regi
ment. He was born in Orange county in 1842, son of
John Hamilton, a native North Carolinian, and a soldier of
the war of 1812. In 1 86 1 he enlisted as a private in Com
pany F of the Sixth regiment, North Carolina troops, then
under command of Colonel Fisher, and was on duty at the
Potomac river until ordered to Yorktown. After the
retreat to Richmond he took part in the battles of Seven
Pines, Games' Mill and Malvern Hill, in which his reg
iment was distinguished by its gallant assaults on the
enemy's batteries. The next important battle of the
regiment was Second Manassas, where Hamilton was
wounded. After lying in the field hospital, two weeks,
he was carried to the Lynchburg hospital, and was not
able to rejoin his command until two days before the
battle of Fredericksburg, in which he participated. In
the second fight at Fredericksburg, in May following,
and in the defeat of Milroy at Winchester, he did a sol
dier's duty, and while sharing the memorable service of
his command on the first and second days of the battle
of Gettysburg, he was again wounded, fortunately but
slightly. In the disaster at Rappahannock Station,
November 7, 1863, he was among the captured, and,
after that, was held as a prisoner of war at Point Look
out, Md., for a period of sixteen months. This long and
wearisome confinement came to an end in March, 1865,

528 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

and after a few days at home, he started to rejoin his
company, but before he could do so, the remnant of the
gallant army had submitted to the inevitable at Appo-
mattox Court House. After this he engaged in farming,
and later was connected with mercantile business and
familiarized himself with cotton manufacturing as ship
ping clerk for the Caroline mills. In 1886 he was elected
sheriff of Alamance county, an office which he held for
eight years. Since then he has held his present official
position with the Elmira mills, and has for a time been
a director of the bank of Burlington.

Colonel Gray W. Hammond, of the Fifteenth North
Carolina infantry, the gallant regiment with which Gen.
William MacRae served as a company officer and com
mander, and which was distinguished under the brigade
command of Gen. John R. Cooke, was born near Cedar
Rock, Franklin county, October 22, 1829. He enlisted
April 1 6, 1 86 1, as second lieutenant of the Rocky Mount
light infantry, an organization which was mustered in as
Company K of the Fifteenth regiment. In July following
he was elected captain of his company, was re-elected
to that rank at the reorganization, and a year later was
promoted major. In 1864 he was promoted lieutenant-
colonel, the rank he held at the close. His service with
the regiment embraced the entire four years' struggle,
and was marked by gallantry in action and devotion to
the cause under all circumstances. He took part in the
early fighting about Yorktown, on the peninsula of Vir
ginia, and in the last charge at Appomattox ; and in num
erous intervening conflicts, such as Games' Mill, Malvern
Hill, Mine Run, Bristoe Station, and in eight months'
fighting in the Petersburg trenches, demonstrated his
soldierly qualities. After the close of hostilities he
returned to the duties of civil life, and as farmer,
merchant and hotel proprietor, magistrate for Edgecombe
county several years, and mayor of Rocky Mount, won
in every station the respect and confidence of his fellow
citizens. Colonel Hammond died in July, 1879. By his
marriage, in August, 1849, to Louisa J. White, there are
three children now living: Mary E., wife of A. W.
Arrington; Josephine, wife of Thomas J. Hackney, and
Charles W. Hammond, a prosperous business man of
Rocky Mount.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 529

Nathaniel Harding, rector of St. Peter's church, Wash
ington, N. C. , a grandson of Israel Harding, a native of
North Carolina and a staff officer, with the rank of major,
with Gen. Nathaniel Greene during the revolution, is
one of the survivors of four brothers who were in the
military service of the Confederate States. The eldest,
Jarvis B., was ordnance officer of the Fourth regiment,
State troops, and died of fever just after the battle of
Gettysburg ; Frederick was captain of Company K, Third
North Carolina cavalry, survived the war and died in
1894; and Henry, who was major of the Sixty-first regi
ment, is now living at Greenville. Nathaniel Harding
was born at Chocowinity, Beaufort county, in 1847, and
in August, 1864, enlisted as a private in Company I of the
Sixty-seventh regiment, Colonel Whitford, with which he
participated in the severe fighting at Plymouth and the
engagement at Fort Branch, and finally was paroled at
the close of the war at Greenville. Two years later he
entered the Cheshire military academy, Connecticut, was
graduated in 1869, and after studying two years at Trinity
college, Connecticut, returned to the Cheshire academy
as commandant, a position he held for two and a half
years. From 1870 to 1873 he studied for orders, was
ordained deacon in the latter year, and in 1875 was
ordained priest by Rt. Rev. Thomas Atkinson, at Wash
ington, N. C. Since then he has served very acceptably
at his present charge. By his marriage, in 1874, to a
daughter of Rev. Dr. N. C. Hughes, Mary E., who died
in 1886, he has four children: Collin Hughes, Fred Har-
riman, Mary E. , and William D. In 1889 he was married
to Marina B. , daughter of Edmund S. Hoyt.

Lieutenant William J. Hardison, of Williamston, N. C.,
formerly of the Seventeenth regiment, is a native of
Beaufort county, born November 18, 1828. Since his fif
teenth year he has been a resident of Martin county,
where he enlisted in the spring of 1861, organizing a
company which was mustered in as Company E, Seven
teenth North Carolina regiment. At the organization he
was elected second lieutenant and two years later he was
promoted first lieutenant. The earlier and longer period
of his service was in North Carolina, but in the fall
of 1863, his regiment, commanded by Col. William F.
Martin, became part of the brigade of Gen. James G.

530 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Martin, and, after being stationed for a time at Wilming
ton, defeated the Federals at Newport and relieved Gen
eral Hoke's command at Plymouth. Then being called
into Virginia, Lieutenant Hardison participated in the
bottling of Butler, including the gallant fight of May 2oth
at the Hewlett house. He was subsequently in the battle
of Cold Harbor and the four days' fighting before Peters
burg, June 1 4th- 1 8th, served in the trenches at Peters
burg several months, and took part in the engagements at
Henrico almshouse and on the Darbytown road, under
Longstreet. In the spring of 1865 he commanded his
company in the fight at Northeast river bridge, near
Kinston, and at Bentonville. After the close of hostilities
he resumed his occupation as a farmer, and in 1874 was
elected sheriff of Martin county, an office he held for
twenty-two years. He is a devoted member of the United
Confederate veterans, and commander of John C. Lamb
camp at Williarnston, an organization which in its title
perpetuates the name of the gallant lieutenant-colonel of
the Seventeenth, who fell on the enemy's breastworks at
Bermuda Hundred. Commander Hardison was married
in 1855 to Mary A. Andrews, who died in 1887, and has
six children living.

Peter C. Harkey, of Mecklenburg county, a veteran of
the First North Carolina cavalry, was born in the county
where he now resides, May 3, 1828, and was reared as a
farmer. On May 8, 1861, he enlisted in the cavalry com
pany organized in Mecklenburg for what was then known
as the Ninth regiment of State troops. This became
Company C of the regiment, which had its first rendezvous
at Asheville, and in the fall of 1861, led by the gallant
Robert Ransom, went into Virginia to the Confederate
lines at Manassas. As sergeant of his company he par
ticipated in most of the one hundred and fifty fights in
which the regiment was afterward engaged, notably the
battles of the Seven Days before Richmond, Second
Manassas, South Mountain, Sharpsburg, Fredericks-
burg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness,
Spottsylvania, Brandy Station, Reams' Station, Wil-
cox's Farm, Cedar Run and Five Forks. In the cav
alry fight of March 31, 1865, in Barringer's brigade,
he was shot from his horse, and was captured by
the enemy, by whom he was held as prisoner at Fortress

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 531

Monroe until July 17, 1865. Since the close of the war
he has been engaged in agriculture in his native county,
living a quiet and prosperous life, his home brightened
by the presence of his wife, Sallie Russell Gingles, to
whom he was married October 16, 1865, and seven sons
and four daughters.

Major George W. F. Harper, a prominent citizen of
Lenoir, N. C., was born in Caldwell county in 1834, a son
of James Harper. He was educated at Davidson college,
and in 1856 entered upon a business career which occu
pied his attention until the beginning of the war. In
March, 1862, he enlisted in Company H, Fifty-eighth reg
iment, North Carolina troops. The service of this regi
ment was mainly rendered with the army of Tennessee,
and Major Harper was identified with it throughout.
Enlisting as a private, he was promoted to first lieutenant
in July, 1862, to captain the following September, and to
major in the fall of 1863. For a considerable time he
was in command of his regiment. The first field service
of the Fifty-eighth was at Cumberland Gap, Tenn., and
it participated in several skirmishes in that region and
in Kentucky. In 1863 it joined Bragg's army at Chat
tanooga and fought in the battle of Chickamauga, at
which, however, Major Harper was not present, being on
detached duty. He took part in the battle of Missionary
Ridge, where his brigade and regiment gallantly resisted
the assaults of Sheridan. During the famous campaign
of 1864, from Dalton to Atlanta, he was a gallant partic
ipant up to the battle of Resaca, where he received a
severe wound, which for some time confined him to the
hospital. While at home, during his convalescence, he
took part in the pursuit of Colonel Kirk's raiders after
their capture of Camp Vance, and in this affair his horse
was shot under him. Rejoining the army of Tennessee,
now under the command of Hood, he, with his regiment,
led the advance of Lee's corps into Columbia, Tenn.,
where he was left in command at Columbia with prison
ers captured during the Tennessee campaign. Subse
quently he conveyed about 1,700 prisoners to Corinth.
After this he was engaged in operations against the
Federal cavalry, and his regiment was then moved to
Branchville, S. C. After a number of engagements with
Sherman's advance, he fell back to Columbia, burning

No 57

532 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

the bridge as they entered that place, and thence marched
to Charlotte, N. C. , fording the icy waters of the Catawba
river in February. His last battle was at Bentonville,
where his regiment gave a good account of itself. Since
the close of hostilities he has been successfully engaged
in business at Lenoir. In 1874 he built the section of the
Chester & Lenoir railroad, between Lenoir and Hickory,
a narrow-gauge line, which has been under his charge as
president since 1894. He is also president of the Bank
of Lenoir, president of the company which controls the
Blowing Rock summer resort, trustee of the Charlotte
female college, and a director of the State hospital at
Morganton. In 1 880-81 he was a member of the legisla
ture of North Carolina. By his marriage, in 1859, to
Ella, daughter of Rev. Jesse Rankin, he has two chil
dren, George F. Harper and Mrs. Ellen Bernhardt.

Henry D. Harper, Sr., D. D. S., of Kinston, N. C.,
was born near Bentonville in 1847, the son of John Har
per, a farmer of Johnson county, born there in 1803, died
in 1897. His grandfather was John Harper, a native of
Virginia, and a soldier of the war of the revolution. Dr.
Harper was under eighteen years of age during the whole
course of the great war, but in July, 1864, he enlisted in
the Confederate ranks as a private in the independent
company of infantry organized in Goldsboro and com
manded by Capt. John W. Griswold. A few weeks later
he was detailed as orderly to Col. S. D. Pool, and in this
capacity continued until the close of the war. He took
part in the engagement at Cobb's Mill, Lenoir county,
and surrendered at Stantonsburg, April 25, 1865. Return
ing to his home near Bentonville he found that it had
been transformed into a Confederate hospital and con
tained fifty-four wounded soldiers, nearly all of them
mortally hurt. The farm was devoid of fences and devas
tated by the necessities of war, so that he and his father
were compelled to rent an adjoining farm upon which to
labor for their sustenance. He was thus engaged three
years, when he was fortunately able to leave his home in
a restored condition and begin his own career as a student
in the university of Kentucky. After four years' study
in the academic and theological departments, he took a
course in dentistry, and in 1885 was graduated in that
profession at the university of Tennessee. Since 1882 he

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 533

has been very successful in the practice of dentistry at
Kinston, has served five years as chairman of the board of
education of his county, and in the years 1884-85 was presi
dent of the State dental association. At the organization
of the naval reserves, Kinston division, in March, 1895, he
was elected lieutenant -commander, a rank which he held
until his resignation about a year later. In 1 87 7 Dr. Harper
was married to M. Delia, daughter of John H. Coward,
and they have six children : Henry D. Jr. , Carl C. , Jasper
V., Edith Earl, Fay Marie and Mildred D. Harper.

Lieutenant John C. Harper, of Nashville, N. C. , a vet
eran of the Twelfth North Carolina regiment, was born
in Franklin county in the year 1841, and was there reared
and educated. He entered the State service, May 10, 1861,
as a private of Company H, Second regiment of volun
teers, under Col. Solomon Williams. He served in the
ranks until the reorganization, in 1862, when the regi
ment was reorganized as the Twelfth regiment, and then
he was elected first lieutenant of his company. From the
summer of 1863 until the close of the war he was in com
mand, first of the sharpshooters of the regiment, and
later of the sharpshooters of the brigade. The service of
the regiment was mainly rendered under the brigade
command of Garland and Branch, in the divisions of D. H.
Hill and Rodes. Among the battles in which Lieutenant
Harper participated were the bloody fight and glorious
victory at Chancellorsville, where he was wounded in the
left leg by a minie ball and disabled for ninety days;
Spottsylvania Court House, the fighting thence to Cold
Harbor, the relief of Lynchburg, the capture of Harper's
Ferry, Early 's raid through Maryland, including the battle
of Monocacy, the demonstration against Washington, and
the fight just after crossing the Potomac, on the retreat,
the Shenandoah battles of Winchester and Cedar Creek,
and after that he served in the trenches before Petersburg,
took part in the battle of Fort Steadman, and, surviving
the fighting on the retreat, participated in the last charge
at Appomattox and then surrendered. Since then he has
resided in Nash county and since 1869 has served as a
magistrate. By his marriage, in 1869, to Hattie E. John
son, who died in 1882, he has one child, Mary G. In 1883
he was married to Susan J. Mitchell, and they have four
children, Hattie, Bessie, John H. and Susan.

534 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Major James Gilmer Harris, of Charlotte, prominent
among the surviving veterans of the Seventh infantry and
Lane's brigade, was born in Mecklenburg county, No
vember 10, 1841, of patriotic North Carolina ancestry.
His father, Nathaniel A. Harris, born in Cabarrus county,
died in 1845, was the son of Laird and Theresa (Alex
ander) Harris, the latter of whom was the daughter of
William and Elizabeth Alexander, whose fathers, Heze-
kiah and Abram Alexander, were both members of the
Mecklenburg convention of 1775. His mother was Mary
Gilmer, daughter of John Gilmer, of Mecklenburg. She
reared her son in Cabarrus county until her death, in
1854, when he made his home with an uncle, Dr. James
F. Gilmer. In 1859 he entered the North Carolina mili
tary institute at Charlotte, but left there in the spring of
1 86 1 and enlisted with the Cabarrus minute men, of
which he was elected and commissioned captain. In
August he took his company to the camp of instruction
at Graham, where it was assigned, as Company H, to the
Seventh regiment, which soon afterward became a part
of Branch's brigade. With this command he took part
in the battles of New Bern, and then going into Virginia
and joining A. P. Hill's division, participated in the
engagements at Mechanicsville, Frayser's Farm, Cold
Harbor, Malvern Hill, Harper's Ferry, Sharpsburg and
Fredericksburg. In the battle of Chancellorsville he
was in command of his company on the extreme right of
his regiment, in line of battle behind log breastworks
from which the enemy had been driven. In the dark
ness of evening a Federal brigade came up and Har
ris demanded to know who they were. On the reply,
"We are Federals; speak or we will fire into you." Lieu
tenant Campbell, of Company C, responded, "Fire then;
there's more of us than you can shoot." The Federals
then proposed to surrender, and while negotiations were
going on, the men intensely excited, fearing treachery
and not being able to see more than ten feet ahead, a
party of horsemen was heard coming along in the front.
Some one in Lane's brigade fired, and a volley followed.
On the next morning they learned to their great sorrow
and dismay that the horsemen were Jackson and his
staff, and that he had been fatally wounded. During
the retreat from Gettysburg, Captain Harris, as ranking
officer among the survivors, commanded the regiment,

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 535

and he had the same honor after the battle of the Wilder
ness until the close of the war. At Spottsylvania Court
House, where Lane's brigade was distinguished in check
ing the onslaught of Hancock's corps, he held his regi
ment in place in the dense fog and gave the order to fire,
as soon as the Federal colors appeared before him, his
men responding with a volley that swept the enemy from
their front. He fought at Cold Harbor and in several
engagements about Petersburg, and on September 30,
1864, was severely wounded at the battle of Jones' Farm.
He was promoted major about this time, the rank in
which he closed his service. Since 1867 he has resided
at Charlotte, where for thirty years he has been success
fully engaged in business as a merchant. He is a valued
member of Mecklenburg camp.

J. Shakespeare Harris, of Concord, a veteran of the
North Carolina cavalry, was born at Springville in 1845,
the son of Charles Jay Harris and his wife, Lenore,
daughter of William Springs. His family was founded
in North Carolina about 1730, by an ancestor who came
from Cecil county, Md. Several of his ancestors were
soldiers of the revolution, notably his mother's grand
father, Captain Houston. He was educated at the North
Carolina military school, under D. H. Hill, and was but
sixteen years of age when that famous preceptor went
into the war. In February, 1862, young Harris enlisted,
though not yet eighteen, as a private in Company F,
Fifth cavalry, and from that time until the evacuation of
Petersburg was identified with the record of his com
mand, under Gordon and Barringer, W. H. F. Lee and
Hampton. He took part in the famous cavalry fighting
attending the campaign of 1863, notably the engagements
at Brandy Station, Upperville and Gettysburg, under
Stuart. In August, 1863, he was detailed as a scout in
the rear of the enemy's lines along the Alexandria rail
road, and in this adventurous service obtained much val
uable information. He was in the thick of many cavalry
fights, was wounded with a saber cut and a pistol shot
Novembers, 1864, and at Disputanta was taken prisoner.
This latter misfortune ended his military service, as he
was held at City Point, Point Lookout and Johnson's
island until July, 1865. Since the war he has been
engaged in farming near Concord, is happily situated

536 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

with an elegant home and pleasing surroundings, and
with his good wife, a daughter of Dr. Hudson Mills, of
Rutherford, enjoys life as every brave Confederate vet
eran deserves.

Lieutenant Fabius J. Haywood, of Raleigh, a veteran
of the Fifth North Carolina infantry regiment, was born
at Raleigh in 1 840, and immediately after his graduation
at the university of North Carolina, in 1861, entered the
Confederate service in Company E, Fifth regiment, of
which he was elected second lieutenant. In the Seven
Days' battles before Richmond his regiment was distin
guished, in Garland's brigade of D. H. Hill's division,
and during that campaign he was assigned to the staff of
General Garland, with whom he served until that gallant
commander was killed at South Mountain, Md. He was
soon afterward appointed adjutant of his regiment, and
he continued to serve in that capacity, participating in
all its battles until, in the first day's fight at Gettys
burg, he was desperately wounded in three places, the
left hip, right thigh and left hand. Upon the retreat of
the army he was left in field hospital among those whom
it was impossible to move, and became a prisoner of war.
A few weeks later he was transferred to David's island,
New York harbor, and from there to Johnson's island,
Lake Erie. About ten days before the surrender at
Appomattox he was paroled, but was never formally
exchanged. On his return home he began the study of
medicine and was graduated at the Bellevue hospital
medical college, New York, in 1868. Since then he has
been engaged in the practice at Raleigh.

Leo D. Heartt, cashier of the First national bank of
Durham, in his boyhood was earnestly devoted to the
Confederate cause and served as a clerk in the office of
Gov. Zebulon B. Vance. It was his special duty to carry
messages from the governor and to act as a courier
between the executive department and officers in the
field, and in this capacity he frequently went through the
lines and obtained a vivid impression of the circum
stances of war. He carried the last dispatches from the
governor to the headquarters of Gen. Wade Hampton,
and accompanied the governor on a personal visit to that
distinguished commander. Subsequently he was engaged

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 537

in mercantile pursuits, until he became connected with
the banking business at Raleigh, where he remained until
1887, when, upon the organization of the First national
bank at Durham, he was invited to accept the position of
cashier. He is also a director of the Durham & Northern
railroad. He has taken an active part in municipal
affairs, as alderman for several terms and as chairman of
the graded school committee. For twelve years he served
as assistant paymaster-general of the State military
organization. Mr. Heartt is a native of Raleigh and a
son of Leo E. Heartt, a prominent merchant who served
during the war with the Senior reserves. His grand
father, Dennis Heartt, a native of Connecticut, of Ger
man descent, was at the time of his death the oldest
newspaper editor in the country. Mr. Heartt was mar
ried in 1872 to Annie, daughter of Oliver S. Dewey, col
lector of the port at New Bern during the war, and after
the evacuation of that place, in charge of the commissary
department.

Captain Ludolphus B. Henderson, dental surgeon, of
Durham, a veteran of the Third regiment, North Caro
lina troops, was born in Caswell county in 1834, son of
James S. Henderson, a well-known farmer of that
region. He studied at Trinity college and then entered
the dental college at Philadelphia, where he received the
degree of doctor of dental surgery in the winter of 1860.
In the spring of 1861 he enlisted in Company A of Gen
eral Fender's First regiment, the Third volunteers, or, as
it was afterward known, the Thirteenth regiment. At
the reorganization of the army he was promoted to first
lieutenant, and during the Gettysburg campaign was
advanced to the rank of captain. He served with his
regiment in southeastern Virginia during 1861, marched
to Yorktown in the spring of 1862, participated in the gal
lant action of his command at Williamsburg, fought at
Seven Pines and in the Seven Days' campaign until he
was severely wounded at White Oak swamp. He was
disabled until after the Maryland campaign, but rejoined
his regiment at Bunker Hill. He was sent in command of
a detachment to guard Snicker's ford, and there with sixty
men repulsed and inflicted heavy loss upon a company of
cavalry and a regiment of infantry sent against them by
the enemy, Not long after this Captain Henderson was

538 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

taken with smallpox and had a terrible experience in the
hospital at Winchester. A rumor of the approach of the
enemy's raiders caused him to make his way to Staunton
after about three weeks in the pest-house, and reaching
there he took charge of about three hundred convalescents
and proceeded to Guinea Station, after which he re
joined his command near Fredericksburg. He took part in
the battle of Chancellorsville, where his regiment suffered
severely, and at Gettysburg fought in the battles of the
first and second days and was again wounded. He was
in the battles of Bristoe Station and Mine Run, the Wil
derness and Spottsylvania Court House ; was disabled by
illness during the Cold Harbor fighting, and subsequently
fought on the Petersburg lines until the evacuation.
After the fight at Burgess' mill, April i, 1865, he was left
in command of two companies to defend the bridge and
was captured there next day. After a brief confinement
at the Old Capitol prison he was taken to Johnson's island
and held until July, 1865. After these events Captain
Henderson resumed his professional work, practiced at
Washington, D. C., and Atlanta, Ga., until 1889, and then
made his home at Durham. By his marriage, in 1862, to
Anna, daughter of R. B. Simpson, of Baltimore, he has
five children living, L. B. Henderson, of Seattle, Sallie
R. , Mary, Samuel and Thomas.

Needham Bryan Herring, M. D. , a worthy representa
tive of the medical service of the Confederate armies,
was born in Duplin county, N. C. , in 1839. He was
reared and educated in his native place, and then studied
medicine at the university of New York, where he was
graduated in March, 1861. Soon afterward he volun
teered as assistant surgeon at the hospital located at
Wilson, and continued in service there during the fall of
1861 and the following winter. In the summer of 1862
he was taken with typhoid fever, which incapacitated
him during the succeeding two years. Again tendering
his services in behalf of the wounded and suffering heroes
he was assigned, as assistant surgeon, to the military
hospital at Lynchburg, Va. , in the summer of 1864, and
he remained there on duty during the siege of that place
by the Federal forces. Subsequently he was taken vio
lently ill with dysentery, and after lying for some time
in hospital was taken to his home. In the .following

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 539

winter he returned to duty as assistant surgeon at Ral
eigh, and was in service when the war came to an end.
Since then he has been engaged in the practice of med
icine in Nash county until 1873, and after that date at
Wilson, his present home. He was married in 1862 to
Sarah S. Vick, who died in 1892, leaving seven children:
Doane, William, Lucy, wife of Dr. John A. Stevens, of
Clinton; Robert, Sallie, Benjamin and Julia. In 1896
Dr. Herring wedded Alice S. , daughter of Dr. John Har
vey, of Greene county.

Lieutenant Frederick J. Hill, a prominent tobacco
dealer of Henderson, N. C. , was born at Wilmington in
1833, son of Dr. John Hill, who at the time of his death,
in 1846, was president of the old Cape Fear bank. He
was graduated in 1852 at the university of North Carolina
and immediately took charge of his plantation in Madison
county, Miss. In 1861 he was married to Sarah Watters,
of Wilmington, N. C. He entered the Confederate
service, May 15, 1862, as a private in Company D of the
Twenty-eighth Mississippi cavalry, a regiment which
rendered distinguished service in that State under the
command of Col. P. B. Starke. He was on duty for about
six months at Vicksburg, and subsequently on the courier
line along the Mississippi river, with headquarters at
Greenville, Miss. ; served in Tennessee under General
Van Dorn, and under J. E. Johnston in the campaign for
the relief of Vicksburg. He was distinguished for gal
lantry and had his horse shot under him at the battle of
Franklin, Tenn. Soon after the fall of Vicksburg he
received a commission from President Davis as second
lieutenant, and was assigned to duty as drill-master in
Virginia. Subsequently he was on duty as enrolling
officer at Louisburg, N. C., until he was paroled at
Raleigh, May 31, 1865. After the close of hostilities he
returned to his plantation in Mississippi, where he
remained until 1875 ; then was occupied with the manage
ment of a stock farm in northern Virginia until 1882,
when he made his home at Henderson. He is now one
of the leading business men of the city and highly
respected by his fellow citizens. Thomas S. Hill, order
ly-sergeant of the Eighteenth Mississippi regiment, was
killed in battle at Cold Harbor.

540 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY,

Lieutenant John Hampden Hill, a prominent citizen
of Goldsboro, N. C., served in the Confederate States
troops as an officer of the Fortieth North Carolina regi
ment. Two brothers were also in this patriotic service,
Dr. Thomas Hill, now residing at Goldsboro, and Ga
briel H. Hill, of Charlottesville, Va. Mr. Hill was born
in Chatham county, October 14, 1834, and was reared in
Brunswick county, near Wilmington, where he received
his primary education. He attended St. Timothy's hall,
Catonsville, Md., four years, and in 1854 was graduated
at Chapel Hill. He then engaged in farming, first at
his father's home, until he was married, in 1858, to Mary
L., daughter of Thomas Bunting, when he made his
home at Sunflower, Miss. Early in the winter of 1863
he enlisted at Smithville, N. C., in Company H., Forti
eth regiment, and was commissioned second lieutenant
by Governor Vance. With this command he was at Fort
Anderson during the bombardment, and in the battles
of Tom's Creek, Wilmington, Northeast River, Wise's
Fork, near Kinston, and Bentonville, receiving a wound
in the left leg at the latter battle. After the surrender
at Greensboro he made his home at Clinton, and em
barked in the drug business. He had the misfortune to
lose his property by fire in 1877, and he then removed to
Goldsboro, where he held the office of postmaster under
President Cleveland's first administration, and since 1895
has held by repeated elections the office of mayor of the
city. Lieutenant Hill has five children living: John
Holmes, Mary A., wife of R. D. Cromly, Elizabeth H.,
Louisa and Minnie Beall Hill.

Thomas Hill, M. D., late surgeon, C. S. A., was born
in Sampson county, N. C., in 1832, and was reared at
Wilmington. He was graduated at St. Timothy's hall,
Md., in 1847, and then studied in the university of North
Carolina, until, in the midst of the junior year, he turned
his attention ,to the study of medicine. In 1854 he was
graduated in this profession at the university of the city
of New York, and received appointment as assistant
surgeon in the United States navy. After several
months' service in this capacity, he resigned his commis
sion and resided for three years at Salisbury, where he
was married, in 1858, to Mary C. McConnaughey. Re
moving then to Brunswick county, he practiced his pro-

CONFEDERA TE MILITARY HISTORY. 541

fession and engaged in rice planting until the first alarm
of war, when he entered the Confederate service, in
April, 1 86 1. He was commissioned assistant surgeon,
Confederate States army, in July, 1861, and from that
date until March, 1862, was in charge of the general hos
pital of the army at Fredericksburg, Va. Subsequently
he was in charge of the general hospital at Goldsboro
until May, 1862, when he was promoted surgeon in the
regular army and appointed to the presidency of the
medical examining board at Raleigh ; also put in charge
of the general hospital, No. 8, at Raleigh, the building
now known as the Peace institute. Remaining there
until April, 1864, he then was assigned as surgeon to the
Fortieth regiment, North Carolina troops, and in Decem
ber following was appointed chief surgeon of the North
Carolina reserves, on the staff of General Holmes. After
this distinguished career, which was brought to a close
by the surrender at Greensboro, he practiced his profes
sion at Salisbury two years, then at Kenansville until
1871, and afterward at Danville, Mo., until 1876, when
he returned to Salisbury, and in 1 88 1 made his home at
Goldsboro, where he has since been prominent in his
profession. He has served for many years as coroner for
Wayne county.

William Henry Hill, a retired farmer of Franklin
county, N. C., of which he is a native, born February
22, 1841, is one of the survivors of the gallant Forty-
seventh regiment, North Carolina State troops, and had
the good fortune to take part in every engagement of his
command without receiving a wound or falling into the
hands of the enemy. He enlisted in June, 1861, in Com
pany E of the Forty-seventh, as third sergeant of his
company, and under the leadership of the lamented Pet-
tigrew, went into the thick of the fight with the army of
Northern Virginia. After many famous battles and cam
paigns, he marched with the remnant of the army under
Lee from Richmond and Petersburg, and after enduring
great hardships was surrendered at Appomattox. On his
return to North Carolina he made his home in Wake
county and engaged in farming, and in 1867 was married
to Miss Tempie H. Gee, a union to which have been born
five sons and three daughters. Three of his sons are in
business at Louisburg. Since 1869 Mr. Hill has carried

542 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

on farming with much success in Franklin county, but
since 1895 has been retired from the active duties of his
occupation.

Samuel H. Hilton, a noted cavalry scout of the army
of Northern Virginia, was born in Lancaster county,
S. C., July 6, 1844. His father, Capt. Aurelius Hilton, a
native of the same county, married Annie, daughter of
Rev. Thomas Lee, a Baptist minister of White Plain,
S. C., and in 1845 removed to North Carolina, settling in
Union and later in Mecklenburg county. He attained
his military rank of captain in the State militia in South
Carolina. Young Hilton was educated at the White
Plain academy, and previous to the beginning of hostil
ities in 1 86 1 was the youngest member of the Mecklen
burg dragoons. On May ist he left school, and the
dragoons having disbanded, joined the Hornet's Nest
Riflemen, of which also he was the youngest soldier, and
served in the Bethel regiment at Yorktown, Va., for
six months, the term of its enlistment, and then in Feb
ruary, 1862, enlisted in Company C of the First North
Carolina cavalry. He was with this gallant regiment
through the Seven Days' campaign before Richmond,
and just after the battle of Malvern Hill distinguished
himself by the capture of four Federal soldiers. He was
on picket duty at daybreak, armed only with an Enfield
rifle, when he saw four bluecoats advancing, whom he
instantly hailed and demanded their surrender, mean
while calling to imaginary comrades in the woods. The
stratagem succeeded, and at his request the four infantry
men gave up their guns and marched into the Confeder
ate camp as prisoners. The gallant Barringer, captain
of the squadron and afterward general, was astounded at
this piece of cool bravery, and Hilton was ordered to
report to headquarters, where he was asked what reward
he desired. He modestly expressed himself as satisfied
with his position as a private, but made known his desire
to become an independent scout. He was immediately
detailed as such, and in this capacity he led an adventur
ous career during the remainder of the war, attached to
the headquarters of Gen. Wade Hampton and later of
Gen. W. H. F. Lee. Reconnoitering, capturing strag
glers of the enemy, carrying messages, etc. , were but a
part of his interesting life as a soldier, which it would

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 543

require a volume to relate. He was twice wounded, and
finally, while bearing messages near Petersburg, with two
companions, a guide and an attendant, he was surrounded
and captured, June 21, 1864. He made a gallant attempt
to escape, riding at full speed under a rattling fire, only
to run into the guns of another body of the enemy, who
compelled his surrender. He was carried before Grant at
City Point and finally to Point Lookout, where he was
exchanged November 14, 1864. In January, 1865, he
returned to the army and continued on duty to the end.
Since then he has resided in Mecklenburg county and the
city of Charlotte, engaged as a farmer, miller, and real
estate dealer. He has served his county as magistrate,
judge of the county court, and for eight years as member
of the county board of commissioners, and is a past com
mander of Mecklenburg camp. By his marriage in 1866
to Margaret A. Icehower, he has a daughter, Mrs. Flor
ence Erwin, of Charlotte.

Peter E. Hines, A. M., M. D., distinguished in the
medical service of the Confederate States army, was
born in Warren county, N. C., in 1828, the son of Rich
ard Hines, a prominent lawyer, member of the North
Carolina legislature in 1824, and a representative in the
United States Congress. He is also a descendant of Col.
Jonas Johnston, a revolutionary hero of the State.
He was reared at Raleigh and educated at Chapel Hill,
with graduation in 1849, after which he was graduated
in medicine at the university of Pennsylvania, in 1852.
He continued his professional studies in the hospitals
and schools of Paris, and then returned to Raleigh, in
1854, and embarked in the practice. When the war
broke out, in 1861, he had been engaged for about two
years in farming in Craven county, having temporarily
retired from practice, but on May 2oth, he received a com
mission as surgeon in the provisional army of the Confed
erate States. After first being in charge of the camp of
instruction at Raleigh, he was appointed surgeon of the
First North Carolina infantry, the Bethel regiment. He
was with this command one month, and then was detailed
to establish the first hospital at Yorktown, Va. , where he
was in charge until September. He was next with the first
North Carolina hospital at Petersburg until June, 1862,
when he was made medical director of the department of

544 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Petersburg, by order of General Ransom. In this capac
ity, and after October as senior surgeon in charge of all
hospitals at that post, he remained at Petersburg until
September, 1863, when he was appointed medical director
of the general hospitals of North Carolina, by authority
of the secretary of war. With headquarters at Raleigh,
he served in this capacity until paroled at Greensboro.
During the next six years he remained upon his planta
tion in Craven county, and then made his home at Ral
eigh and resumed the practice of medicine, at once assum
ing a position in the general practice analogous to his
distinguished rank in the military service. He was presi
dent of the State medical association in 1876, was presi
dent of the State board of medical examiners from 1878
to 1884, and in various other ways has been recognized
as one of the leading professional men of the State.

Colonel John Wetmore Hinsdale, of Raleigh, one of
the most prominent attorneys of North Carolina, was
born at Buffalo, N. Y., February 4, 1843, the son of
Samuel Johnston Hinsdale, of Fayetteville, N. C.
Brought to North Carolina in his infancy, he was reared
and given a preparatory education at Fayetteville, after
which he studied three years at Chapel Hill, the State
university, which he left at the close of his junior year,
in April, 1861, to enter the military service. He was
first attached to the staff of his uncle, Gen. T. H. Holmes,
by appointment of Governor Clark, with the rank of sec
ond lieutenant. He reported to General Holmes just at
the close of the battle of First Manassas, and remained
with him until January, 1862, when he was assigned to
the staff of General Pettigrew as adjutant-general of the
brigade. In this capacity he participated in the battle of
Seven Pines, and after the capture of Pettigrew, in the
same line of duty with General Pender during the Seven
Days' campaign. When General Holmes was ordered to
the Trans-Mississippi department, Lieutenant Hinsdale
accompanied him as a member of the staff and remained
in that field, meanwhile participating in the battle of
Helena, Ark., until 1864, when he returned to North
Carolina with General Holmes, and was on duty as adjut
ant-general until January, 1865. He was then, at the
age of twenty-two years, elected colonel of the Third
regiment, Junior reserves, which he commanded in the

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 545

battles of Kinston and Bentonville, and surrendered with
General Johnston at High Point. With the close of hos
tilities he took up the study of law and was graduated by
the law school of Columbia college, New York, and
admitted to the bar of that State in 1866. In the same
year he was admitted to practice in North Carolina and
afterward in the supreme court of the United States.
He first practiced his profession at Fayetteville, and while
residing there was married in 1869 to a daughter of Maj.
John Devereux. Removing to Raleigh in 1875 he soon
took a high place at the bar of that city, and since then
has become particularly distinguished in the railroad,
insurance and general corporation practice. In 1878 he
published an annotated edition of Winston's North Caro
lina reports, which added to his repute as a sound and
discriminating lawyer. He has given his attention
strictly to his profession, without straying into the
attractive and commonly associated field of politics.
Socially he is one of the most hospitable and popular
men of the city.

Captain Samuel A. Hoey, a gallant Confederate vet
eran of Shelby, was born in Union county, S. C., in 1840,
and was educated at the military academy conducted by
Gen. Micah Jenkins. In April, 1861, with a squad of
seven men from Cleveland county, N. C. , he joined Com
pany F of the Fifth South Carolina regiment, and with
that command was on duty on Sullivan's island, Charles
ton harbor, as private. He was promoted to drill-master
by Governor Ellis, of North Carolina, with rank of lieu
tenant, and was ordered to Yorktown, Va., and was then
elected first lieutenant of Captain Corbett's Fifth North
Carolina volunteer company. In July, 1861, the governor
of North Carolina called for additional regiments, and he
went to his home and organized a company of which he
was commissioned captain. This was assigned to the
Thirty-fourth regiment, North Carolina troops. He
started with his command for the relief of Roanoke
island, but that point was captured before their arrival.
In the spring of 1862 his regiment was ordered to Rich
mond, in General Fender's brigade, A. P. Hill's division,
Stonewall Jackson's corps, and he participated in the
battle of Frayser's Farm and other engagements during
the campaign between Lee and McClellan on the penin-

546 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

svtla. He was subsequently in battle at Cedar mountain,
Harper's Ferry, Sharpsburg and Fredericksburg. At
this time he was senior captain of his regiment and was
offered the rank of lieutenant-colonel, but being under
twenty-one years of age he would not accept this honor.
Resigning his commission as captain, he joined Hamp
ton's legion. Under General Hoke he participated in
the capture of Plymouth and the engagement at Little
Washington, and then, returning to Virginia, was in the
battle of Hanover Court House, where he was captured
by the enemy. Subsequently he was confined at Point
Lookout, Md., and Elmira prison, N. Y., until after the
close of the war. Then returning to his home he busied
himself with the carpenter's trade, and is now a promi
nent and prosperous contractor and builder. He was
married, in 1865, to Mary C. C. Roark. Their children
are, William Rufus, Samuel E., Clyde R., Nellie Belle,
wife of R. C. Warren, and Eula May.

Bloom V. Holcomb, of Mount Airy, N. C. , was born in
Yadkin county, December i, 1844, and there entered the
Confederate service in 1863, as a private of Company I,
Twenty-eighth regiment, North Carolina troops. His
first campaign was in Pennsylvania, and his first battle,
the world-famous encounter at Gettysburg, where he
shared the gallant fighting and exhausting duties of
Lane's brigade of Wilcox's division. Returning to Vir
ginia he spent the winter with his command at Liberty
Mills, and in the spring of 1864 went into the bloody
struggle at the Wilderness and Spottsylvania Court
House, which was continued in lesser encounters thence
to the James river. While engaged on the Cold Harbor
line he was wounded, but soon afterward was again on
duty in the Petersburg trenches. He served in the
defense of Petersburg until the evacuation, and was close
to the Crater when the famous mine explosion occurred
and the Federal attempt to break the line was defeated.
During the retreat to Appomattox he fought at Sailor's
Creek, April 6th, and was among the many captured on
that occasion. As a prisoner of war he was held at Fort
Delaware until June 20, 1865. After his release he
made his home in Yadkin county mainly until his re
cent removal to Mount Airy, where he is engaged in
business.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 547

Lieutenant Alexander Quarles Holladay, a Confeder
ate soldier who has been prominent in the work of educa
tion during the era of peace which has followed, was born
in Spottsylvania county, Va., in 1840, the great-grandson
of Lewis Holladay, a major in the continental army, and
son of Alexander R. Holladay, who represented his Vir
ginia district in the United States Congress before the
war, and as president of the State board of public works
rendered valuable services in connection with the salt
supply of the armies. Young Holladay's home was made
at Richmond, in 1853, and his education was received in
Richmond college, the university of Virginia and in
Switzerland and Berlin. On April 17, 1861, he was mar
ried to Virginia Randolph, daughter of Thomas Boiling,
of Boiling island, James river, and five days later he
enlisted as a private in Company A of the Twentieth
Virginia regiment. In the rank of junior second lieu
tenant, to which he was at once elected, he shared the
exhausting service of this ill-fated command, skirmish
ing with the enemy in western Virginia before Rich
mountain, and upon the retreat falling a victim to the
prevalent typhoid fever, from which he had hardly
recovered, when in January, 1862, the Twentieth having
been disbanded, he joined S. T. Martin and W. F. G.
Garnett, of Henrico county, in the organization of a
company of light artillery, of which he was elected first
lieutenant. His company was assigned to the Twelfth
battalion, and he shared its service in the battles of Games'
Mill, Frayser's Farm, Cold Harbor, Mechanicsville and
the affair at Carrsville, and until the spring of 1863, when
he was again disabled by sickness. When convalescent
he was detailed in the quartermaster's department at
Richmond. Early in 1864 he was detailed to the staff of
Gen. Braxton Bragg, with whom he served nearly one
year in Richmond and North Carolina, parting with that
officer at Chester, S. C., in April, 1865, with orders to
report to Gen. Joseph E. Johnston at Greensboro, N. C.,
at whose headquarters he received his parole and bade
farewell to the service. For a year after the close of
hostilities he was a sufferer from disabilities incurred in
the service. During the succeeding three years he man
aged his farm in Mecklenburg county, N. C., and then
removed to Richmond, where he resided, with the excep
tion of one year at Boiling island, until 1880. Meanwhile

Nc58

548 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

he served two terms in the Virginia senate by election
in 1871 and 1873. Accepting, in 1880, the presidency of
the Stonewall Jackson institute at Abingdon, he acted in
that capacity until 1884, when he was called to the pro
fessorship of history and literature in the agricultural
and mechanical college at Lake City, Fla., and a year
later became the president of that institution. From this
position in 1889 he was called to the presidency of the
agricultural and mechanical college of North Carolina.
His administration during the past decade has been most
successful.

Captain James Q. Holland, of Gastonia, was born in
Gaston county, N. C., in 1846, a son of Washington F.
Holland, a prominent business man of that period. He
was a student at Davidson college during the early part
of the war, left his studies in the spring of 1864 and
entered the Confederate service as first lieutenant of
Company C, Second regiment, North Carolina reserves.
He was on duty with his command until the close of the
war, soon after his enlistment being promoted to cap
tain. After the invasion by Sherman's army he was a
participant in several skirmishes with the enemy, and
took part in the engagements at Kinston, at Belfield,
Va., and served in the battle of Bentonville. Finally he
was surrendered with the army under General Johnston
at ^ Greensboro. At the close of this military career,
being but nineteen years of age, he was engaged for
three years in farming and then embarked in mercantile
pursuits at Charlotte. In 1877 he established his present
business at Gastonia, in which he has met with much suc
cess. He is one of the prominent men of the town and
an enterprising business man. By his marriage, in 1867,
to Julia, daughter of Dr. J. F. Smyre, of Lincoln county,
he has seven children, John Holland, a fine bookkeeper ;
Estella, wife of S. N. Boyce; Minnie, wife of Dr. J. E.
Curry ; Clara, Bessie, James and Leonard.

William Henry Hollo way, of Durham, entered the
service of the Confederate States in March, 1862, as a
private in Cameron's battery of light artillery. He was
stationed for some time at Richmond, in the camp of
instruction, and afterward at Drewry's bluff; going from
there to the eastern part of North Carolina, where he

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 549

was on duty until the surrender. Mr. Holloway was
detailed during a great part of his service as a black
smith in the quartermaster's department. It is an inter
esting fact in military history that many a promising
campaign has failed for want of a blacksmith and horse-
shoer. His work is indispensable to every cavalry com
mand, and in every line of service the lack of such skilled
workmen would be severely felt. Mr. Holloway did
faithfully the work that was assigned him, and is
deserving of mention as a true and loyal North Caroli
nian. He was born in Orange county in 1842, the son
of Nathaniel Holloway. He learned his trade with his
father, and since the restoration of peace has carried it
on in Durham, acquiring a competency and winning the
esteem of his fellow citizens. He was married, in 1869,
to Mary J., daughter of William J. Duke and a niece of
Washington Duke, and they have seven children living.

A. B. Hollowell, adjutant of Thomas Ruffin camp,
United Confederate Veterans, at Goldsboro, was born in
Wayne county in 1847. He entered the Confederate
service in the spring of 1863 as a private in Company H
of the First North Carolina cavalry, and from that date
served under the gallant Gordon and Barringer until his
command, having cut through the Federal lines at Appo-
mattox Court House, was disbanded at Lynchburg.
Among the engagements in which he participated were
the cavalry fights attending the battles of the Wilderness
and Second Cold Harbor, Hanover Court House, the
engagements around Petersburg and Richmond, ending
at Five Forks, and the battle of Sailor's Creek on the
retreat of Lee's army.

James Monroe Hollowell, of Goldsboro, a veteran of
the North Carolina troops, was born in Wayne county in
1840, and entered the State service on April 15, 1861, as
a private in the Goldsboro Rifles. About a month later
he was enrolled in a company for the heavy artillery.
When it was mustered in as Company F, Tenth regiment,
heavy artillery, he was appointed quartermaster-ser
geant. In this capacity he served with the artillery two
years, and subsequently one year as first sergeant, dur
ing these periods participating in various active duty,
including the battle of Fort Macon, April 25, 1862, and

550 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

the fight with gunboats below Wilmington. At Fort
Macon he was captured, but being at once paroled was
exchanged in the following August. In 1864, on account
of failing health, he was detailed for duty in the office of
General Hebert, commanding the defenses at the mouth
of Cape Fear river, but his health growing worse he was
sent to his home at Goldsboro. While there, however,
he was employed in the office of Gen. L. S. Baker, in
district command. He was finally paroled at Goldsboro
by General Schofield. Remaining at that city, he soon
afterward entered the railroad service, in which he has
been engaged during most of the intervening period. He
was agent of the Atlantic & North Carolina road at Golds
boro until 1868, when he was removed for political rea
sons, after which he served as city clerk and tax collector
until 1871. From 1873 to 1887 he was agent of the Rich
mond & Danville road, at Goldsboro, subsequently was
agent for brief periods at Danville and Winston, and in
other railroad employment. He became bookkeeper for
the Goldsboro national bank in 1896, and in December,
1897, was promoted to cashier. In August, 1861, Mr.
Hollowell was married to Martha J. Outlaw, daughter of
B. R. Hood.

Cicero Kohler Holmes, a prominent citizen of Lexing
ton, is one of the survivors of the gallant naval brigade
of the army of Northern Virginia, in 1865, that fought at
Sailor's Creek, on the retreat from Richmond, until after
all the rest of E well's command had surrendered, and
then were cheered by the Federals when they laid down
their arms. It was after Generals Ewell, Kershaw, Bar
ton, G. W. C. Lee, DuBose, Hunton and Corse had given
up the unequal struggle that these heroes under Commo
dore Tucker yielded to an overwhelming foe. Mr.
Holmes was born in Davidson county, N. C., January
19, 1846, and at the age of eighteen years, in January,
1864, he enlisted in the Confederate naval service. He
was first stationed at Wilmington, where he served in
various capacities, mostly as coxswain of the captain's
gig, with one of the gunboats, until the fall of Fort
Fisher and the evacuation of Wilmington, when he went
to Richmond and was stationed with his comrades at
Drewry's bluff, one of the most important fortified posts
in the defenses of Richmond. He served there until

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 551

Richmond, too, was evacuated, when he joined in the
retreat of the army with E well's corps. He was released
as a prisoner of war, so that he reached home July 3,
1865, when he soon occupied himself in farming and con
tinued in that pursuit until 1884, when he engaged in the
lumber trade, his present business.

Captain Lewis Clark Hanes, postmaster of Lexing
ton, N. C., during the last administration of President
Cleveland, was born at Fulton, Davie county, August 31,
1827, and enlisted at Lexington, April i, 1862, in a vol
unteer company which became Company B of the Forty-
eighth regiment, North Carolina troops, Col. Robert C.
Hill. This regiment went into Virginia under the bri
gade command of General Ransom, and participated in
the Seven Days' battles before Richmond, serving gal
lantly at Games' Mill, Cold Harbor and Malvern Hill,
and subsequently was identified with the army of North
ern Virginia, and was heard from on almost every field
where Confederate valor was made famous. Captain
Hanes was with his regiment as quartermaster and
commissary, to which he was promoted from quarter
master of his company before the regiment went into
the field, through all its service, including the battles of
Second Manassas, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, the Wil
derness, Spottsylvania, and the defense of Petersburg.
Just before the evacuation he was sent to Salisbury to
collect supplies, and from there he reported to General
Johnston at Greensboro, who assigned him to the same
duty. After the surrender at Greensboro he returned to
his home, and then was engaged in the timber business
in Florida until 1867, when he returned to Lexington,
which has since been his home.

Lieutenant Ethelred J. Holt, a gallant officer of the
Sixteenth North Carolina cavalry battalion, now a promi
nent merchant of Smithfield, N. C., was born October 2,
1839, near Princeton, Johnston county, N. C. His first
enlistment, June i, 1861, was in Company I, Twenty-
fourth North Carolina regiment, but on account of pro
tracted sickness, he was honorably discharged. On
March 7, 1862, he joined Company A, Sixteenth battalion,
as a private. A few months later he was made orderly-
sergeant, and in April, 1862, was promoted to senior sec-

552 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

ond lieutenant; in December, 1863, to first lieutenant, and
from September 30, 1864, until General Lee's surrender,
April 9, 1865, he was in command of his company. In
January, 1865, he was recommended for promotion to the
rank of captain. He also served a portion of 1863 as
adjutant and quartermaster, and was for a time on the
staff of Major-General Pickett. Among the engagements
in which he participated were the skirmishes around
Suffolk and Franklin, Va. , and in eastern North Carolina
around Kinston, New Bern and Washington, and the
battles of Drewry's Bluff, Bermuda Hundred and all the
cavalry fighting on General Lee's right, from May, 1864,
to the surrender, including Reams' Station, Hatcher's
Run, Five Forks, Sailor's Creek, Farmville and Appo-
mattox. He was wounded, September 30, 1864, at Pop
lar Spring church, and again, April 5th, near Farmville,
Va., and on April 9, 1865, the last day of battle for the
army of Northern Virginia, he had his horse killed under
him while leading the last charge made by any of Lee's
forces. At Appomattox, as senior officer present, he
had command of the cavalry brigades of Generals Rob
erts and Barringer, and signed the paroles for the rem
nants of the two brigades. After his return to North
Carolina, in April, 1865, he located in Catawba county,
N. C., and engaged in merchandising until 1868, when
he removed to Wayne county and engaged in farming.
In 1871 he returned to his native county and engaged in
the lumber business. In the fall of 1872 he was elected
sheriff and served one term. In 1874 he was elected to
represent his county in the State legislature and again in
1878. In 1876 he was elected by the people as a member
of the board of county commissioners and again in 1880.
In 1885 he moved to Smithfield and engaged in the
Jiardware business. In 1888 he was again called to serve
the people, as county treasurer, to which office he was
elected for three terms. In January, 1868, he was mar
ried to Miss Sarah M. Cox, of Wayne county, who died
in 1871. In 1874 he married Miss Jane Gaston Sneed,
by whom he has four children : Stephen Sneed, the pres
ent editor of the Smithfield Herald; Ethel Jane, Richard
Rowan and William Norman. Captain Holt is descended
from a patriotic North Carolina family. His only living
brothers, Lieut. William N. Holt, of the Fifty-fifth North
Carolina regiment, and Sergt. John W. Holt, of the Six-

THOMAS M. HOLT

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 553

teenth battalion, were brave and gallant soldiers. His
great-grandfather, James Holt, held the rank of ensign
in the continental army, and his grandfather, Ethelred
Holt, was a soldier in the war of 1812. In politics he is
an unswerving Democrat and in religion a Methodist.

Thomas M. Holt, Confederate soldier, former governor
of North Carolina, and captain of industry, to whom the
famous mills on Haw river are a fit and abiding monu
ment, was born July 5, 1831, in that part of Orange
county now known as Alamance and died at Haw River
in 1896. He was the son of Edwin M. Holt, who estab
lished the first cotton mill in central North Carolina, and
was equally successful in the management of extensive
agricultural interests. Thomas M. was educated at
Caldwell institute, and the university of North Carolina,
where he was a student in the class of Judge Settle, Sen
ator Vance, Judge W. A. Moore, Prof. W. C. Kerr,
Kemp P. Battle and others of later prominence. Leav
ing college in December, 1850, he studied business meth
ods at Philadelphia, and then entered into the manufac
ture of cotton with his father. In December, 1860, they
centered their enterprise at the Alamance cotton mills
on Haw river, where now the factories controlled by the
Holts operate about 23,000 spindles and 1,000 looms and
employ 1,100 people. Early in 1861 he entered the mil
itary service of his State and the Confederacy, and was
on duty during that year, but upon the reorganization
in the spring of 1862, it was recognized that his services
were indispensable in the department of manufacture
and supply, quite as essential to the success of the
struggle as carrying a gun in the field, and he was
returned to the management of the cotton and flour mills
on the Haw river. In 1862 he became the sole owner of
the mills there, and he increased the spindles to 1,000
and ran them night and day, making yarns, during the
continuance of the war. Promptly accepting the situa
tion at the close of the struggle, and foreseeing that the
South must win future greatness in the channel marked
out by the genius of the age, he began making brick to
enlarge his mill, ten days after the surrender of General
Lee, and in November of the same year was the first
man to go on the market from the South to buy machin
ery for the manufacture of cotton. Since then the hum

554 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

of the mills on the Haw has never ceased, no strike or
lockout has ever disturbed the friendly and loving rela
tions of employer and workman, and after a peaceful
warfare of thirty years, this commander of industry had
the satisfaction before his death of seeing, near at hand,
the defeat of New England by the South, without blood
shed or hatred, under the laws of the nation, and for the
good of the whole people. The plants at Haw River are
owned almost exclusively by Governor Holt's sons and
sons-in-law. Near the town which he built, adjoining the
mills, he had a handsome residence, but his favorite place
was Linwood, the famous plantation where he raised fine
stock and the wheat which won the medal at the Colum
bian exposition. His devotion to agriculture was also
attested by many years' service as president of the State
agricultural society and his prominence in the establish
ment of the agricultural department of the State govern
ment. In railroad development also he had been con
spicuous, as a director of the North Carolina railroad
from 1869 and president from 1875 until 1891. In official
life he also attained the highest honors. When only
twenty-one years of age he became a magistrate, at that
time an office of much honor, and was chairman of the
board of finance of his county. From 1872 to 1876 he
was chairman of the board of county commissioners,
being elected without regard to party lines, and he then
became State senator. In 1883, 1885 and 1887 he was a
member of the house of representatives, was speaker
of the house in 1885, and in 1888 was elected lieuten
ant-governor. Upon the death of Governor Fowle, in
April, 1891, he became governor of the State, an office
in which he manifested great ability and the highest
patriotism. He was also a leader in the promotion of
education, greatly aided the State university and David
son college, and in 1895 received from the university the
degree of LL. D. Governor Holt was married in Octo
ber, 1855, to Louisa M., daughter of Samuel and Mary
A. (Bethel) Moore, and became the father of five chil
dren: Charles T., Cora M., Louise M., Ella M., wife of
Charles B. Wright, of Wilmington, and Thomas M. , Jr. ,
deceased. Charles T. Holt, eldest son of the foregoing,
was born in Rockingham county, N. C., in 1858, and
was educated at Davidson college. Going to Massachu
setts, he served an apprenticeship as a machinist, and

DR. E. B. HAYWOOD

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 555

after gaining- a thorough acquaintance with the machinery
of cotton mills, returned to take charge of the Haw River
mills. Since the death of his father he has been presi
dent of the three mills, the Granite, T. M. Holt and
Cora. In 1894 he was married to Eugenie, daughter of
Governor Jones, of Alabama. Cora M., daughter of
Governor Holt, was married in 1880 to Dr. Edward
Chambers Laird, who was born in Mecklenburg county,
Va., in 1854, son of Dr. Alexander Thompson Laird and
his wife Virginia, daughter of Judge Edward R. Cham
bers, of Virginia. He was graduated at the Virginia mil
itary institute in 1875, and at the medical department of
the university of Baltimore in 1877. He is now engaged
in the practice at Haw River, and is interested in the
Holt mills.

Edmund Burke Haywood, M. D., distinguished in the
medical service of the Confederate States army, born at
Raleigh, January 13, 1825, died January 18, 1894, was a
worthy descendant of a family for a long time identified
with the history of North Carolina. The family had its
origin in the county of Lancaster, England, where the
name was written Heywood. In 1662 John Heywood
emigrated to the island of Barbadoes, and thence his son,
John Haywood, born on the island in 1684, removed to
North Carolina, and settled in what is now Halifax
county. He was one of the commissioners who con
structed Fort Johnston, at the mouth of Cape Fear river ;
was a colonel of militia, many times a member of the
provincial assembly, and in 1752 was elected treasurer of
the northern counties of the province. At the time of
the revolution three of his sons were officers of the pro
vincial militia, the most distinguished being Col. William
Haywood, who was a member of the committee of safety
for Halifax district in 1775; of the State congress at
Halifax, in April, 1776, and November, 1776; of the com
mittee which drafted the constitution and bill of rights ;
of the council of State in 1776; was one of the commis
sioners who signed the revolutionary currency of the
State, and a member of the legislature at Smithfield in
1779. The eldest son of Colonel Haywood, and father
of Dr. Haywood, was John Haywood, born 1755, who
was one of the commissioners who selected the site of the
university of North Carolina, and a trustee of the same ;

556 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. ,

was prominent in the Episcopal church, and for forty
years and until his death, in 1827, was treasurer of State.
The town and county of Hay wood perpetuate his name.
Dr. Haywood lost both his father and mother by death,
when about three years old, and was intrusted to the
care of his eldest sister, Eliza, a woman of the rarest
graces of mind and body, who devoted the best years of
her life to his care. As a student of the lamented Mc-
Pheeters and Lovejoy, he early manifested the remark
able intellectual ability which characterized his life, and
at the university of North Carolina was one of the four
who led the famous class of 1847, the class of Pettigrew
and Ransom, Poole and Haywood. From this institution
he also received the degrees of A. M. and LL. D. The
degree of doctor of medicine he received from the uni
versity of Pennsylvania, in 1849. In 1861, at the first
call to arms, he volunteered in the Raleigh light infantry
and was made surgeon of the State troops, and soon after
ward examining surgeon and medical director. In 1862,
being commissioned surgeon, C. S. A. , he was on duty at
Seabrook hospital during the campaign before Rich
mond. Soon after this he was put in charge of the gen
eral hospitals at Raleigh, of which the Pettigrew hospital
was the most noted. Here his consummate skill as a
surgeon, his accuracy and untiring industry, soon placed
him in the very front rank of his profession. After the
surrender of the Confederate armies his services were
freely given without hope of compensation, and his own
slender means were devoted to the care of the sick and
wounded until the last soldier left the hospital in July,
1865. During the war his successes in surgery were
among the greatest recorded in the professional annals
of the State. He rendered valuable services to the com
monwealth, without compensation, in the departments of
public philanthropy, and greatly ameliorated the con
dition of the insane during his directorship of the State
hospital, from 1866 to 1889. Subsequently he was chair
man of the board of public charities. He also served as
physician to the Peace institute and the asylum for the
deaf, dumb and blind at Raleigh. His eminence as a
physician was recognized by the professional societies of
other States and countries. He was honored with the
presidency of the Raleigh academy of medicine, of which
he was a founder, and in 1868 was president of the State

L. B. HOLT

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 557

society. For more than a quarter of a century he was a
vestryman of Christ church, Raleigh, and he maintained
his comradeship with the Confederate veterans as a mem
ber of Junius Daniel camp at Raleigh. Alfred W. Hay-
wood, second son of the foregoing, at eight years of age
assisted his father in hospital duty and did what he could
to aid in providing for his family when the progress of
Sherman's army left them bereft of property. He was
graduated with first honors at Horner's military school,
and then after four years' business training as teller in
the Citizens' national bank, entered the law school of
Chief Justice Pearson, where he was graduated, as vale
dictorian of his class, in 1876. During the eighteen
years of professional career which followed, he attained
great success as a lawyer, particularly in corporation
practice ; won prominence in the councils of the Demo
cratic party, and had important business connections.
On May 23, 1873, he was married to Louise M., daughter
of Gov. Thomas M. Holt, and in 1895, at the request of
the latter, he abandoned his law practice and assumed
part of the care of management of the vast manufactur
ing interests established by Governor Holt. He is now
one of the executors of the Holt estate and vice-president
of the Granite manufacturing company, the Thomas M.
Holt manufacturing company, and the Cora manufactur
ing company, all engaged in the manufacture of cotton
goods.

Lieutenant L. Banks Holt, of Graham, Alamance
county, N. C. , a son of Edwin M. Holt, the pioneer of
the great cotton manufacturing industry, now carried on
in Alamance county by his descendants, was born Janu
ary 28, 1842, and was educated at Dr. Alex Wilson's
school and the military academy at Hillsboro. He
entered this academy in 1859, and left in the spring of
1 86 1 to serve with the Orange Guards in the occupation
of Fort Macon. After two months' service there he
joined the regiment of Col. Charles Fisher, the Sixth
North Carolina State troops, and served as drill-master
until after the first battle of Manassas, in which the regi
ment became famous. He participated in that engage
ment and was commissioned as first lieutenant and
assigned to the Eighth North Carolina regiment, with
which he served at Roanoke island, and was captured

558 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

with his regiment by the Federal troops. After his
exchange his regiment participated in numerous battles
and in the engagements at Charleston, S. C., Savannah,
Ga., and the capture of Plymouth. After the latter cam
paign he was ordered to Petersburg with his regiment
and took part in some of the most desperate combats of
the war in the vicinity of that place. He was severely
wounded in the head at the battle of Petersburg, and
after recovering and joining his regiment he was ordered
with his regiment to Chaffin's Farm, where he was shot
through the thigh at the battle of Fort Harrison, another
ball cutting through his hair as he stopped to care for his
wound. Being captured by the enemy, he was taken to
hospital at Fortress Monroe and afterward imprisoned at
Old Capitol prison, Point Lookout and Fort Delaware
until June i, 1865. After his return to North Carolina,
he became associated with the Alamance cotton mill,
built and owned by his father, and in 1868 was interested
in the building of the Carolina cotton factory, and is still
a part owner in each of these pioneer factories. In 1880
he and his brother built the celebrated Bellemont mills
near Graham, he now being its sole owner and also sole
proprietor of the Oneida mills at Graham ; a partner in
the Altamahaw mill, a stockholder in the E. M. Holt
plaid mill at Burlington, in the Asheville cotton mills
at Asheville, N. C. , Mineola manufacturing company at
Gibsonville, N. C. , and other cotton mills. His business
also includes banking and agriculture, his celebrated
Alamance and Oak Grove farms being devoted to the
breeding of standard horses, cattle and sheep, and are
the most famous in the South. The business career in
which he has been instrumental in achieving the great
commercial victories of the South in cotton manufacture,
has been marked by the characteristics of the family, of
which he is a prominent member, shrewd and successful
management, and generous and humane regard for his
humbler associates in industry. In the busy life that
L. Banks Holt leads, in all the intelligent and well-direct
ed efforts that he puts forth to build up the agricultural
interest, the manufacturing, the stock raising and the
other interests of his State, there is no desire on his part
to impress his individuality either on his friends or the
public generally. On the contrary, Mr. Holt is a gen
tleman of retiring disposition, and what he does to win

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 559

popular favor is born of a natural desire to move forward
in the line of general progress. He is the personification
of gentleness, integrity and industry, and these com
bined make him a man, a noble, big-hearted, big-brained
man, capable of the accomplishment of big undertakings.
Because of the gentleness of his nature he is well fitted
for the easy control of the forces that are necessary aids
in the establishment and operations of big industries,
able at all times, because of his wisdom, his ripe experi
ence and his excellent judgment, to impress his ideas on
his business associates. He has no political ambition
and has never had any. He has always been earnestly
desirous of good government, and has been among the
first in his county to lend his influence to the ends he
thought would best promote the prosperity and develop
ment of the State. He is a North Carolinian true to the
core, loving her past, proud of her present, confident of
her future. Lieutenant Holt was married in October,
1865. His hospitable home is presided over by his
charming wife, who was a daughter of Hon. Giles
Mebane, of Caswell county, one of the most conspicuous
patriots of the State. They have seven children : Mary
V., Bettie M., Fannie Y., Carrie B., Cora A., Emily L.
and Mattie. At this writing four of them are married:
Mary V. , wife of Dr. George Allen Mebane ; Bettie M. ,
wife of M. B. Wharton, Jr. ; Fannie Y., wife of Henry
W. Scott, and Carrie B., wife of James K. Mebane.

Morton B. Wharton, Jr., of Graham, is a son of the
distinguished Rev. Morton B. Wharton, D. D. , of Norfolk,
Va., who served during the early part of the war of the
Confederacy, in the department of the chief quartermas
ter of the army, rendered valuable service in the collec
tion of supplies, and in various other ways ministered to
the forces in the field. His family is one of the oldest in
Virginia, founded in America by Sir George Wharton, of
Westmoreland, England. The subject of this sketch was
born at Euf ala, Ala. , and during his childhood and youth
resided in various parts of the South, as the residence of
his father was changed from time to time, and accompa
nied his father to Germany, when the latter was appointed
United States consul. He attended the university of
Alabama in 1885-86, and the university of Virginia in
1887-88, and prepared for the profession of law. In 1890
he was married to Bettie Mebane, daughter of Lieut. L.

560 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Banks Holt, and soon afterward relinquished the practice
of law at Montgomery, Ala. , to take charge of one of the
Holt cotton mills, his present occupation, in addition to
a partnership in the Oneida Store company at Graham.

James H. Holt, deceased, the third son of Edwin M.
and Emily Farrish Holt, was born in Alamance county,
April 22, 1833. He was educated at the Caldwell insti
tute at Hillsboro, and at eighteen years of age entered
business life as a clerk in his father's store at Graham.
For three years, after 1858, he was cashier of the branch
bank at Graham, and subsequently filled the same posi
tion in the bank at Thomas ville. Though the Holt fam
ily, so distinguished in the development of cotton man
ufacturing, was depended upon largely during the
Confederate era for the work in mill and factory so indis
pensable to the successful establishment of the new
government, yet several of them found occasion to do
gallant duty at the front. The eldest brother, Thomas
M. , afterward governor, was in the military service dur
ing the first year of the war ; L. Banks received honor
able wounds as a lieutenant and served throughout the
war, and William E. served for a time in the Sixth regi
ment. James H. was no exception to the patriotic devo
tion of the family, and in 1864 he did faithful service as
a private in Company K of the Tenth regiment, heavy
artillery, North Carolina troops. He continued on mil
itary duty until the close of the struggle, and then
returned to the work of manufacturing. In 1867 he
supervised the building and equipment of the Carolina
cotton mill, and in 1880 had the same duty in connection
with the Glencoe mill. In both of these famous factories
he was a stockholder, and was as well a director of the
Commercial bank of Charlotte. By his marriage, in
1856, to Laura C. Moore, he had seven sons: Walter L.,
Edwin C., Samuel M., James H. Jr., Robert L., Wil
liam I. and Ernest A. Edwin C., second son of the
foregoing, was born in Alamance county in 1861, and
was educated at Davidson college. Leaving college in
1 88 1, he had the management of the Carolina cotton mill
five years, and then in partnership with his brother,
Walter, built the Elmira cotton mill at Burlington, of
which he is now secretary and treasurer. The mill has
5,000 spindles, about 600 looms, and employs 300 oper-

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY 561

atives. He is also vice-president of the Holt-Morgan cot
ton mill at Fayetteville, a still larger factory, and is
president of the Lakeside mill and interested in the
Glencoe, Alamance and Carolina mills. In 1893 he was
married to Dolores Delgado, daughter of Bishop Stevens,
of Charleston, S. C., and niece of Gen. Ellison Capers.
James H. Holt, of Burlington, fourth son of James H.
Holt, is a native of Alamance county, was educated at
the university of North Carolina, and served his appren
ticeship in the family occupation of cotton manufacture
at the Glencoe mill. In 1890, in connection with his
brother, Robert, he built the Windsor cotton mill, of
which he is now the manager. In 1894-95 he conducted
the New York office for the sale of the cotton products of
the mills. He is a stockholder in the Commercial bank
of Charlotte and has other important interests. He has
served six years in the State Guard as lieutenant and
captain of Company F, Third regiment, and for four
years was aide-de-camp, with the rank of colonel, on the
staff of Governor Carr.

Captain William J. Houston, a type of the gallant and
cultured young professional men of North Carolina who
sacrificed their lives in the cause of Southern independ
ence, was born in Duplin county, June 2, 1827, and was
killed near Upperville, June 29, 1863. His parents were
Samuel and Elizabeth Houston, among the most promi
nent people of the county. He was educated at Wake
Forest and Columbia college, Washington city, with
graduation in 1850. Then entering upon the profession
of law at Kenansville, he rapidly took high rank as an
attorney and gained prominence as a political leader.
After several terms in the lower house of the legislature,
he was elected senator from the Seventeenth district in
1856, an office which he held until chosen solicitor for his
judicial district in 1859. He was a member of the famous
convention of the State in May, 1861, and resigned his
seat therein, as well as his judicial office, to take com
mand of a cavalry company which he had organized, and
which was mustered in as Company I, First regiment,
North Carolina cavalry. He served with his regiment in
Virginia during 1861, and at the close of the Seven
Days' battles before Richmond, in 1862, was captured at
Malvern Hill, but exchanged soon afterward. He partici-

562 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

pated in nearly all the battles of Stuart's cavalry until
his last fight at Upperville, preceding the Gettysburg
campaign. In that encounter, in command of the dis
mounted men of General Gordon's brigade, fighting des
perately against great odds, he was shot through the
head and instantly killed. He was a man of promise, a
lawyer of ability, remarkably effective as an orator, and
at the time of his death was being urged by his friends
as a candidate for the Confederate Congress. He enlisted
his men with a promise that he would remain with them
as captain, and on that account had declined two offers
of promotion to the command of regiments. Two
brothers of Captain Houston were also in the Confeder
ate service, Robert Houston, a prominent attorney of
Wilmington, now deceased, and H. V. Houston, now of
Greene county. This family is connected by marriage with
the Carrolls, who were also distinguished in the Confed
erate service. Mary W., sister of the foregoing, was
married to Maj. G. W. Carroll, who served in the reserve
troops and had four brothers at the front. L. R. Carroll
was color-bearer of his regiment; J. T. served in the
same command ; Rev. John L. Carroll, D. D. , was also a
Confederate soldier, and O. J. Carroll, recently United
States marshal of the eastern district of North Carolina,
ran away from home in his boyhood and joined the Con
federate artillery. These Confederate soldiers were
great-grandsons of John Carroll, a soldier of the revolu
tion and a kinsman of Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, a
signer of the Declaration of Independence.

William Houston Carroll, of Burlington, son of Maj.
G. W. Carroll and Mary W. Houston, was born in Duplin
county in 1862, and is now prominent as an attorney and
is a worthy representative of the sons of veterans who
have in their hands the destiny of the South. He was
educated at the university of North Carolina, with gradua
tion in 1886, and completed the law course in 1889. He
is chairman of the Democratic executive committee, and
city attorney. In 1891 he was married to Sallie E.
Turrentine.

Benjamin Ashley Howard, a deserving Confederate
veteran, now a merchant of Wilson, N. C. , was born in
Edgecombe county in 1843, and enlisted in April, 1861,
in Company D of the Second North Carolina regiment of

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 563

infantry, one of the first ten regiments of the State. He
fought in the Seven Days' campaign before Richmond,
at Cold Harbor and Malvern Hill, receiving a slight
wound in the last engagement, and was next in battle at
Cedar Run. At South Mountain he was so severely
wounded in the right arm as to incapacitate him for fur
ther duty in the field. He remained with his command,
however, as ambulance sergeant, and later in charge of
the litter corps of the regiment, in which capacity he
was present in the Shenandoah Valley campaign, the
fighting in the trenches and about Petersburg, and the
retreat to Appomattox. Returning home after the sur
render, ragged, barefooted and penniless, he engaged in
farming, to which he has added in recent years the man
agement of a store. In 1866 he was married to Millicent
E. Felton, and they have two children living: Benjamin
E. and Mattie J., wife of John T. Williams.

Philip A. Hoyle, of Newton, N. C. , a Confederate sol
dier of the Twenty-third North Carolina regiment, was
born in Catawba county, 1845, a son of Reuben Hoyle.
His father was a faithful supporter of the Confederacy,
and while on duty connected with the commissary depart
ment, contracted a disease which caused his death.
Philip Hoyle enlisted in 1863, at the age of eighteen
years, as a private in Company F of the Twenty-third
regiment, and joined his command at Kelly's ford, dur
ing the operations which followed the return of Lee's
army to Virginia after the battle of Gettysburg. He was
in battle at Kelly's ford and then at Mine Run, after
which his regiment went into winter quarters. In May,
1864, he went into battle with his command on the 5th,
and was in action every day during the terrific struggle
which followed in the Wilderness and in the vicinity of
Spottsylvania Court House until May i2th, when he was
among the many Confederate soldiers who were over
whelmed and captured in Hancock's attack upon the
bloody angle. From this time until July, 1865, he was
a prisoner of war, confined first at Point Lookout and
afterward at Elmira, N. Y. After his return to North
Carolina, Mr. Hoyle completed his education at Ruther
ford college and then engaged in teaching school, which
was his occupation during the next ten years. He gained
much prominence in the political affairs of his county,

No 59

564 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

and was elected clerk of the court in 1882. Since retiring
from that office he has been engaged in agriculture, and
has also taken an active part in public affairs as a member
of the legislature of 1893, as a member of the board of
education and as county commissioner. By his marriage,
in 1871, to Martha S. Johnson, he has three children
living: Walter T., Joseph N. and Robert Bruce.

James D. Hufham, D. D., a distinguished divine of the
Baptist church, and chaplain of Wyatt camp, United
Confederate Veterans, at Henderson, N. C. , was born in
Duplin county in 1834. His father was Rev. George
Hufham, a prosperous planter, who was the son of John
Hufham, for a considerable time judge of the inferior
court; and the latter was a son of John Hufham, a native
of England, who came to America in 1736 and was a
patriot soldier in the war of the revolution. Dr. Huf
ham 's mother was Frances Dunn, a native of Maryland.
He was graduated at the Wake Forest college in 1856, as
the valedictorian of his class, and immediately entered
upon the work of the ministry in Duplin county. Four
years later he became editor of the Biblical Recorder, of
Raleigh. During the four years of war he was unwearied
in his efforts for the promotion of the cause of the Con
federacy. First serving on the city committee for the
care of the families of soldiers who had gone to the front,
his field of effort gradually broadened until he was
engaged in traveling all over the South procuring sup
plies for the army. The prosecution of these beneficent
labors brought him in contact with many of the great
leaders of the Confederacy, by whom he was recognized
as a faithful and efficient coadjutor. He was at Raleigh
when Sherman reached that city and when Grant arrived
there to adjust the terms of surrender of Johnston's
army. The doctor is still a faithful and sympathizing
friend of the surviving Confederate veterans. In 1868
he was stationed as a minister in Camden county, and
a few years later was put in charge of the missionary
work of his church. Again for a short time he had
charge of the Biblical Recorder, and while at Raleigh
organized the Baptist Tabernacle church. During
thirteen years he labored efficiently as a minister at
Scotland Neck, building up a large congregation there
and at other places in that region. In addition to his

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 565

ministerial work he has been a liberal contributor to the
religious press, for ten years edited the State organ of
the church, and has now in preparation a series of papers
covering the documentary history of the Baptist church.
The wife of Dr. Hufham, who died in 1890, was the
daughter of Dr. Thomas I. Faison, a member of the first
constitutional convention of the State, and distinguished
for his services in both branches of the legislature. Four
children are living: Thomas, mayor of Hickory, N. C. ;
James D., chemist of the agricultural department at
Raleigh ; Annie and Mary.

Lieutenant George W. Huggins, of Wilmington, a sur
vivor of the old Wilmington Rifle Guards, was born in
Onslow county, N. C., in 1840, the son of Luke B. Hug-
gins, a native of the same county, born in 1806, who was
for many years a merchant at Wilmington and New
Bern, and served as a private in the home guard during
the great war. George W. was reared at New Bern and
Wilmington, and in April, 1861, was mustered into mil
itary service as a private in the Wilmington Rifle Guards,
later assigned as Company I to the Eighth (Eighteenth)
North Carolina regiment, one of the ten original regi
ments of the State. Private Huggins was promoted first
corporal in September, 1861, and junior second lieuten
ant in April, 1862. With his regiment in the army of
Northern Virginia he took part in the battles of Hanover
Court House, Mechanicsville, Cold Harbor, Frayser's
Farm and Malvern Hill, and at the close of the bloody
Seven Days' struggle before Richmond received a severe
wound in the foot, at Harrison's Landing, which dis
abled him until July, 1863. He then returned to his
regiment in Virginia, but was detailed for duty in the
quartermaster's department at Wilmington, where he
remained until the city was evacuated, when he made
his way to Johnston's army and was paroled with it at
Greensboro. He has resided at Wilmington since the
war, and since 1885 has been in business successfully as
a jeweler. He was married in 1867 to Lizzie, daughter
of W. H. Allen, of Laurinburg, a Confederate veteran,
and they have two children, George Allen and Henry
Allen Huggins. Two brothers of Lieutenant Huggins
were in the service: James B., who was in the quarter
master's and paymaster's departments, with the rank of

566 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

captain and now resides in Wilmington, and William T. ,
who served six months as lieutenant of Company I,
Eighth regiment, and subsequently was engaged in the
manufacture of salt for the army.

Marshall B. Hughes, a leading citizen and prosperous
farmer of Camden county, rendered service to the Con
federate States as a member of the Fourth cavalry, North
Carolina State troops. Born in Camden county, August
20, 1845, he enlisted when about eighteen years of age,
in 1863, as a private in Company G, Capt. Demosthenes
Bell, Fourth cavalry, Col. D. D. Ferrebee commanding.
He was identified with the service of this regiment in
Virginia and North Carolina during the remainder of the
great struggle, was frequently in engagements with the
enemy and was twice wounded, but fortunately not seri
ously. Among the battles in which he participated, the
most important were those about Petersburg, Va., Ber
muda Hundred, Burgess' Mill, and the other encounters
with Federal cavalry. Private Hughes made an excel
lent record as a Confederate soldier, and then returning
to civil life before he was twenty years old, he has since
then been a man of influence and standing in his com
munity. He attended school for a year when his mili
tary service was done, and then engaged in mercantile
business, to which and to farming he has given his atten
tion in the past three decades of peace and quiet in the
Union. In 1886 his worth as a citizen was recognized by
election to the office of register of deeds, which he held
two years. In 1894 he was elected county commissioner,
and being appointed to the same position in 1896,
became chairman of the board. He was the candidate
of his party for State representative in the political cam
paign of 1896. By his marriage, in 1870, to Mary B. Mor-
risette, of Camden county, he has five children : Edward
Bertram, Minnie, Jerry J., Vincent M. and Henry Grady.

Lieutenant William H. Hughes, of Raleigh, N. C., a
gallant artilleryman of the army of Northern Virginia,
was born in Norfolk county, Va., in 1835. He was
reared and educated in his native county, and there
enlisted in the Confederate service on the day the navy
yard was burned by the United States officers. He had
for several months been a private in the old Portsmouth

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 567

artillery, afterward known to fame as Grimes' battery,
and he continued with this command, gaining promotion
to sergeant, until it was disbanded after the battle of
Sharpsburg, when he was transferred to Moorman's artil
lery. He was at a later date again transferred and pro
moted, becoming second lieutenant of Hardwick's battery
of Moorman's battalion. In this rank he served until
the close of the war, at Appomattox being in command
of Cooper's battery of Fredericksburg. His service was
a long and arduous one, embracing most of the great
battles of the army, among them the Seven Days' cam
paign before Richmond, Second Manassas, Warrenton
Junction, Crampton's Gap, Sharpsburg, Chancellors-
ville, the affairs with gunboats on the Rappahannock,
Brandy Station, where he fired 240 rounds from one gun,
Hagerstown, and many other of the cavalry fights during
the year in which he was connected with Stuart's horse
artillery. Later battles in which he took part were Mine
Run, Fairfield, the Wilderness, Spottsylvania Court
House, and the battles with Early in the Shenandoah
valley up to Winchester, where he was wounded, dis
abling him for six weeks. After fighting on the Peters
burg lines several months, he was with the army in the
retreat, was in battle at Farmville and was paroled at
Appomattox. Though hit several times in battle he was
never disabled, except at Winchester. Mr. Hughes is
at present a prosperous merchant at Raleigh, N. C.

Major Daniel Washington Hurtt, of Goldsboro, N. C. ,
was born at New Bern, N. C., in June, 1825. At that
city, early in 1861, he entered the service of the Confed
erate States as captain of the Beauregard Rifles, an
organization which was assigned as Company I, to the
Second regiment, Col. Charles C. Tew. He served with
the regiment on the Rappahannock and in North Caro
lina until the opening of the campaign of 1862 about
Richmond. During the Seven Days' campaign he
served in General Anderson's brigade, at Mechanics-
ville, Cold Harbor and Malvern hill, and was next in bat
tle at vSouth mountain and Sharpsburg, Md. In the
latter combat he was shot in the face, losing the teeth on
one side of his upper jaw, and falling into the hands of
the enemy, was sent to the hospital at Boonsboro. About
ten days later he was exchanged, and upon his recovery

568 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

he rejoined his regiment in time to take part in the bat
tles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. In the
latter battle he rendered distinguished service in com
mand of the brigade skirmishers, and was promoted to
major on the field by General Ramseur. In the first
day's fight at Gettysburg he was struck on the lower part
of the breast by a minie ball, which, after penetrating a
package of letters and a memorandum book, inflicted
such injuries that he was incapacitated for further serv
ice. He reported for duty in May, 1864, but upon exam
ination was granted a furlough, and in August, 1864, he
was compelled to resign on account of continued disabil
ity. He made his home at New Bern in 1865, then
removed to Tarboro, thence to New Bern in 1877, and
since 1886 has resided at Goldsboro. By his marriage,
in 1846, to Maria E., daughter of William Tisdale, a cap
tain of the war of 1812, he has three children living:
William T., Stephen F. and Henry T. After the death
of his first wife, he wedd'ed Kate L. Dewey. A brother
of Major Hurtt, Edward H., served during the war in
the adventurous career of a blockade-runner.

Anderson M. Idol, of High Point, N. C. , was born in
Davidson county, September 19, 1847. At sixteen years
of age, in the fall of 1863, he began his career as a boy
soldier of the Confederacy, and made a gallant record in
some of the most important and fiercely fought battles of
the war. He enlisted in Company B of the First battal
ion, North Carolina sharpshooters, which had a distin
guished part in the history of Early's division of the
army of Northern Virginia. With Early, in the Shenan-
doah Valley campaign of 1864, he participated in the bat
tles of Winchester and Cedar Creek, and other encounters
with Sheridan's men, and then ordered back to the
trenches of Petersburg, took part in the fighting there
until the evacuation. He was surrendered with the
army at Appomattox, and then came home and entered
upon the occupations of civil life. Since 1871 he has
been a citizen of High Point.

Lieutenant J. M. Ingle, a prominent citizen of Ashe-
ville, was born in Buncombe county, in 1839. His
parents were Nathan and Nancy (Alexander) Ingle,
children of Philip Ingle and James Alexander, pioneer

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 569

farmers of the county. In May, 1861, he enlisted in Com
pany F of the Sixth regiment, North Carolina troops, was
mustered in at Raleigh, and then was ordered to Rich
mond and on to the Shenandoah valley. He shared the
gallant service of his regiment at the great victory of
First Manassas, where Col. C. F. Fisher fell, and subse
quently after the regiment was renumbered the Sixteenth
and attached to the brigade of General Fender, Corporal
Ingle was promoted to orderly-sergeant, and in 1863 to
first lieutenant. He was with his company to the last,
and most of the time in command of it. He partici
pated in the engagement at Seven Pines and the fierce
Seven Days' battles of 1862, and received a severe wound
in the neck at Malvern Hill, which disabled him until the
battle of Sharpsburg. Afterward he was in all the bat
tles of the army of Northern Virginia, through the Get
tysburg campaign and the struggle of 1864, and on April
2, 1865, was one of the three men who escaped from the
capture of his regiment when Grant's army overwhelmed
the thin line of gallant Confederates who had so long
held out at Petersburg. Having no command left, he
shouldered a musket and fought with the army in its last
campaign which ended at Appomattox Court House.
He then engaged in farming, and attending school until
he could become a teacher himself, alternated teaching
with school study until he had obtained an education.
After this he was occupied as a mercantile clerk at vari
ous places, was elected sheriff of Madison county in 1876,
but failed to receive the office; in 1885 married Laura,
daughter of R. L. Gudger, and in 1887 made his home at
Asheville, where he has since resided. For some time
he served as superintendent of water works for the city.
Lieutenant Ingle was one of the gallant North Carolina
soldiers whose record will be a perpetual inspiration to
patriotic devotion. At Gettysburg he was one of the
last to leave the field as the army retreated, and at Chan-
cellorsville he was distinguished for heroic daring. He
is still a true comrade among the survivors of the Con
federate army, and was active in the organization of Zeb
Vance camp at Asheville, and was its first quartermaster.

Lieutenant John R. Ireland, a prominent citizen of
Burlington, a veteran of the Thirteenth regiment, North
Carolina troops, was born in Alamance county, in 1843,

570 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

son of John Ireland, a native of Ireland, of Scotch-Irish
descent. At the outbreak of war he left the Graham high
school and enlisted as a private in Company E, Third
volunteers, known as the Thirteenth, after the reorgan
ization. His first captain was Thomas Ruffin, Jr., son of
the chief justice, and his first colonel, William D. Fender.
During 1861 he was on duty with his command in south
eastern Virginia, was transferred to Yorktown in the
spring of 1862, fought in the battles of Williamsburg,
Seven Pines, and in the Seven Days' struggle, ending at
Malvern Hill, where his regiment suffered severely in the
charge upon the enemy ; was in the battles of the Second
Manassas campaign, and crossing the Potomac was
engaged at South Mountain, where his brigade com
mander, General Garland, was killed. At Sharpsburg
he was taken prisoner while reconnoitering, and carried
back of the Federal line, but in the following night man
aged to escape and rejoin his regiment. He was slightly
wounded at Fredericksburg, and at Chancellorsville was
distinguished by the capture of Brig. -Gen. Rutherford
B. Hayes, afterward president of the United States.
During the fierce onslaught of the Confederates, on May
3d, Hayes was endeavoring to rally his brigade when
Ireland, with two comrades, rode down upon him and
carried him into the Confederate lines. For this exploit
he was promoted to second lieutenant by President
Davis, on the recommendation of Congressman McLean.
Lieutenant Ireland was in each day's fight at Gettysburg
with Scales' brigade, and in the last charge was severely
wounded in the knee. Under the friendly shade of night
he crawled to the Confederate lines and was carried back
to Virginia. After lying for some time in hospital at
Richmond, he rejoined his regiment in time to partici
pate in the battles of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania Court
House and Cold Harbor. Subsequently he served in the
Petersburg trenches until the assault by Grant's forces
following the battle of Five Forks, when he received a
wound through the lungs. At the evacuation he was put
in an ambulance and conveyed to his home, and con
sequently was never surrendered. In the course of
his gallant career he was five times wounded, at the
Seven Days' battles, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg and
Gettysburg. After his recovery he was busied as a
planter until 1886, when he made his home at Burling-

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 571

ton for the education of his children, and has since been
engaged in business. By his marriage, in 1872, to Julia
F. Ireland, of Frankfort, Ky., he has four children
living : Etta, John, Sallie and St. Clair.

Stephen W. Isler, of Goldsboro, an attorney of distinc
tion and a veteran of Dearing's cavalry brigade, was born
in Jones county, N. C., October 18, 1839. He is the son
of Simmons Isler, a native of the same county, and the
history of his family, in the old North State, antedates
the revolution, in which his ancestors took an honorable
part in the cause of independence. He was graduated
at Chapel Hill, in 1858, and in the law school of Harvard
university in 1 86 1 . Then, returning to his native State, he
enlisted in the fall of 1862 as a private trooper in the Six
teenth North Carolina battalion, which was on duty in
North Carolina, and toward the latter part of the war
formed part of the brigade of General Bearing, on whose
staff he served for several months in the winter of 1864-65
as assistant adjutant-general. Mr. Isler participated in all
the cavalry engagements of his battalion about Richmond
and Petersburg, was one of the participants in the famous
raid under Hampton, which resulted in the capture of
Grant's cattle near City Point, and near the end, being
sent to Goldsboro on a foraging expedition, was there
when the army of Northern Virginia was surrendered.
He embarked in the practice of law at Goldsboro, in 1866,
and held the office of solicitor for Greene county until
the office was vacated under the reconstruction laws.
His career as a lawyer, which has since continued without
interruption, has been both honorable and highly suc
cessful.

Lieutenant John Q. Jackson, of Kinston, prominent in
the legal profession in Lenoir county and vicinity, is a
native of that county, born in 1832. Mr. Jackson received
his first education at Airy Grove academy, and was then
prepared for college by Rev. Franklin Pewell, of Chapel
Hill, N. C. He then went to Trinity and graduated in
1 86 1. From the age of eighte<^i years he resided in
Greene county until he enlisted, in the spring of 1862, as
private in the Sixty-first regiment, North Carolina troops.
At the organization of this regiment he was elected sec
ond lieutenant of Company E, and soon afterward was

572 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

promoted first lieutenant, in which rank, during nearly
the whole of his service, he was in actual command of
the company. He was in battle at Williamston, N. C. ;
and near Kinston, in December, 1862, he was captured
by the enemy, but paroled a day later and exchanged in
a month. At the siege of Charleston he was among the
forces on duty, and lay under fire for a long time ; and
then going into Virginia, shared in the closing part of
the battle of Bermuda Hundred, fought at Games' Mill
against Grant's army, and again in the battles before
Petersburg, where he was shot through the arm, July 30,
1864. This wound kept him in the hospital two weeks,
and after his return to the ranks, he served north of the
James until captured at Fort Harrison, in September,
1864. After this misfortune he experienced the miseries
of a prisoner of war at the Old Capitol and Fort Delaware
until June, 1865. Then returning to North Carolina he
farmed in Greene county and studied law, gaining admis
sion to practice in 1868. During one year, 1866-67, ne a^so
held the office of clerk of the superior court of that
county. Since 1878 he has been a resident of Kinston
and a practitioner of law at that city. In 1870 Lieuten
ant Jackson was married to Mary J., daughter of Henry
Granger. He had one brother in the Confederate serv
ice, Henry C. Jackson, who was in the artillery and now
resides at Wilson.

Captain Thomas Jordan Jarvis, officer in the Confed
erate States provisional army and forty-third governor of
North Carolina, was born in Currituck county, January
1 8, 1836, the son of Rev. B. H. Jarvis, a minister of the
Methodist church. By his own exertions in teaching,
and the aid of friends, he completed the course of study
at Randolph-Macon college, Virginia, and was graduated
in 1860, and subsequently was engaged in teaching in
Pasquotank county until he entered the Confederate
service in May, 1861. He was first a private of the State
Guard, an Elizabeth City company, which was assigned
to the Seventeenth regiment, and served with this com
mand until July, when he organized a company in Curri
tuck county, of which he was commissioned first lieuten
ant. This became Company B of the Eighth regiment,
and with promotion to captain in 1863, he shared the
service of that regiment until disabled by wounds. He

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 573

participated in the engagement at Chicamicomico in
October, 1861; was captured at Roanoke island, held as
a prisoner on the transports, then paroled and exchanged
in September, 1862. Subsequent military events in
which he shared were the skirmish near New Bern in
October, 1862; at Goldsboro, December, 1862; the defense
of Charleston, S. C., throughout 1863, including the bom
bardments and the sinking of the Federal monitor Keo-
kuk; the bombardment of Fort McAllister, near Savan
nah; the constant fighting at Charleston from July nth
to December 6, 1863; the engagements at New Bern,
Plymouth and Little Washington in 1864, and the skir
mishes about Petersburg, Va., until May i4th, when he
was severely wounded, a ball shattering his right arm,
and causing the removal of six inches of the bone. He
was in the hospital at Richmond until August, then was
sent to the country near Petersburg, until, being conva
lescent, he returned home. After the close of hostilities
he opened a small store in Tyrrell county as a means of
livelihood, but in the fall of 1865 began the honorable
and prominent public career in which he has been distin
guished, by election to the State constitutional convention
from Currituck. In the next year he embarked in the
practice of law. He was elected to the legislature in 1868
from Tyrrell, and as a candidate for elector on the Dem
ocratic presidential ticket, made a canvass of a large part
of the State. He was a steadfast and uncompromising
defender of the best interests of the commonwealth, and
in 1870, being re-elected, was chosen as speaker of the
house. He canvassed the State as an elector on the
Greeley ticket, in 1872; was a member of the constitu
tional convention of 1875 from Pitt county, to which he
removed in 1872 ; was elected lieutenant-governor in 1876,
and upon the election of Governor Vance to the United
States Senate, succeeded him in the gubernatorial chair.
By election to this office, in 1880, he had an administra
tion of six years, which is memorable for the promotion
of public enterprises and industrial prosperity. On his
retirement from the governorship he was appointed min
ister to Brazil by President Cleveland. After his return
from that post, at the opening of President Harrison's
administration, he engaged in the practice of law at
Greenville, in which he still continues. Upon the death
of Senator Vance, Governor Jarvis was appointed his

574 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

successor and served as United States senator a short
time. In 1874 Governor Jarvis was married to Mary,
daughter of John Woodson, of Virginia.

Newton Anderson Jeffreys, one of the leading business
men of Greensboro, is a native of Guilford county, born
May n, 1841. His Confederate service was rendered in
the Forty-fifth regiment, North Carolina troops, which
was a part of the famous brigade of Gen. Junius Daniel.
He enlisted in Company C of this regiment, May 2, 1862,
and after serving for some time in North Carolina, went
into Virginia under Daniel's command and participated
in the Seven Days' battles before Richmond, remaining
in that region until the next winter, when they were
ordered back to North Carolina to oppose the Federal
advance on Goldsboro. When General Lee prepared for
the Pennsylvania campaign, Daniel's brigade was called
to the army of Northern Virginia and assigned to Rodes'
division of Ewell's corps, and Private Jeffreys partici
pated in the fight at Berryville and marched thence to
Carlisle, returning to Gettysburg and fighting on the first
day, where he assisted in winning Seminary ridge from
the enemy, and again on the third day. His next great
battle was the Wilderness, where he was captured by
the Federals, ending his career as a soldier. At Point
Lookout and Elmira, N. Y. , he was confined until June
13, 1865. On his return home he engaged in farming,
then for a time lived in South Carolina, whence he re
turned to Greensboro and went into business, in which
he has had a successful career.

Colonel James T. Johnson, the last of the commanders
of the gallant Thirty-fifth regiment, was born in Ca-
tawba county, N. C. , in 1836, son of Daniel P. Johnson.
He was educated at Rutherford college, and in 1861 was
graduated as a doctor of medicine by the university of
Pennsylvania. Immediately afterward he entered the
Confederate service as a member of Company K, Thirty,
fifth regiment, North Carolina troops, commanded by
Col. M. W. Ransom. He was second lieutenant of his
company at its organization, was elected captain at the
organization of the regiment, promoted major for gallant
conduct at the battle of Fredericksburg, became lieuten
ant-colonel a year later, and finally was a colonel com-

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 575

manding the Thirty-fifth, in the North Carolina brigade of
Gen. M. W. Ransom. During 1861 he was on duty in
eastern North Carolina, participating in the battle of
New Bern; and then being transferred to Virginia, he
fought at Seven Pines and throughout the Seven Days'
battles. A severe wound received at Malvern Hill dis
abled him for three months, a period which he passed in
the hospital at Richmond and at his home. Rejoining
his regiment, he was in the battle at Fredericksburg,
and after this his brigade served in North Carolina in
protection of the line of the Wilmington & Weldon rail
road, rendering active and arduous service, which was of
the utmost importance to the army of Northern Virginia.
In May, 1864, in command of his regiment, he partici
pated in the defeat of Butler at Drewry's bluff and Ber
muda Hundred, and here received a severe wound in
the leg which disabled him for a considerable time. On
returning to service he found his command in the
trenches before Petersburg, where he continued on duty
until the evacuation. He took part in the famous sortie
of General Gordon's corps against Fort Stedman, and
in the disastrous battle of Five Forks was captured by
the enemy. Subsequently he was imprisoned at John
son's island, Ohio, until June, 1865. Since the close of
hostilities Colonel Johnson has been engaged in the
practice of his profession at Hickory, N. C., and is one
of the prominent citizens of that region.

Captain Philip Jefferson Johnson, now a merchant at
Lenoir, was born in Burke county, N. C., in 1840, the
son of Daniel P. Johnson. In the spring of 1861 he
enlisted in the first company which left his county, Com
pany G of the First, or Bethel, regiment of volunteers,
and during the six months' service of that command was
on duty on the Virginia peninsula. His re-enlistment
was in Company K of the Thirty-fifth regiment. He
was elected captain of this company, and took part in
the Seven Days' battles before Richmond, where he
incurred an attack of typhoid fever which disabled him
until after the battle of Sharpsburg. Rejoining his
company he was in the fight at Fredericksburg and sub
sequently campaigned in North Carolina, taking part
finally in the memorable capture of Plymouth, under
General Hoke. Then returning to Virginia he fought

576 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

at Drewry's bluff and Bermuda Hundred, and was dis
tinguished in the battles of June i6th and i;th, before
Petersburg. On the evening of June 1 7th his regiment
was ordered to drive the Federals from the angle in the
works before Petersburg, which the First Michigan
sharpshooters, under command of Maj. Levant C. Rhines,
had taken possession of, after a sanguinary fight of two
days, in which the Confederates had been gradually
pushed back. Captain Johnson led the charge, which
was made with such vigor that the Michigan men were
able to fire but two volleys before Johnson's regiment
was upon them. The fighting was continued with des
peration along the line of the earthworks, and the bayo
net was freely used on both sides. Finally Captain
Johnson jumped over the rifle-pit, followed by his men,
and though four of the enemy sprang forward to bayonet
him, he escaped with a wound in the hand, and suc
ceeded in capturing Adjt. J. E. Buckbee, the only Fed
eral officer left on the field, with 100 of his men. Buck-
bee, afterward promoted colonel, gave up his sword to
Captain Johnson, and going with him to the rear, ex
pressed a regret that the Confederate command to which
he had surrendered was not larger in numbers. In 1893
Captain Johnson was handsomely entertained at Chicago
by Colonel Buckbee and his wife. During the subse
quent fighting on the Petersburg lines, including the
battle of the Crater, the capture of Fort Stedman, and
the long struggle ended at Five Forks, where he was in
the heat of battle, Captain Johnson was at the front.
During the retreat he narrowly escaped capture at Farm-
ville, Va., and at Appomattox he was paroled. On
returning home he aided in breaking up a gang of rob
bers in Caldwell county, and then engaged in teaching
school for a few months in Indiana. After that he was
for sixteen years occupied in farming and the manufac
ture of lumber. For eight years he has been engaged in
the mercantile business at that place. By his marriage,
in 1867, to Jennie E. Corpenniiig, he has three children:
Florence A., Bascom G., and Philip J.

Armistead Jones, now a leading attorney of Raleigh,
N. C. , in his youth served faithfully in the cause of the
Confederate States. He was born at Granville in the
year 1847, and consequently was not available as a soldier

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 577

until the war was well on in its course. In May, 1864,
he entered the service as a private in Mosely's battalion
of light artillery, and in this command was on duty within
the borders of the State until the close of hostilities. He
was on coast duty all this time, was frequently under fire,
and took part in the battles of Town Creek, Fort Fisher
and other engagements. Finally, being included in the
capitulation of General Johnston and paroled at Greens
boro, he returned to civil life, and for several years found
employment and a livelihood as an assistant agent at
Raleigh for the Raleigh & Gaston railroad. During this
service he pursued the study of law, and being admitted
to the bar in 1870, entered upon the professional career
in which he has won distinction. Two brothers of Mr.
Jones were also in the service of the Confederacy, William
W. Jones, a private in the Third cavalry regiment, now
an attorney at Asheville, N. C., and John H. Jones, of
Mosely's battery, who, after serving devotedly through
out the four years' war, died from the effects of the ex
posure and fatigue of his military career.

Benjamin L. Jones, of Beaufort, now prominent among
the business men of the city, was born, reared and edu
cated there, and there enlisted, in early manhood, in the
military service of the Confederate States. He became
sergeant of Company D, Sixty-seventh North Carolina
regiment, commanded by Col. John N. Whitford, and
was on duty during the remainder of the war, engaged
in the State defense. Toward the close of the war his
regiment formed part of a brigade under the command
of Colonel Whitford, and opposed the advance of the
enemy from the coast. Among the engagements in
which Sergeant Jones participated were the splendid vic
tory of the forces of General Hoke at Plymouth and the
battles of Kinston and Bentonville, in the spring of 1865.
At the end he was paroled at Stantonsburg. Then,
returning to Beaufort, he founded his present business
in 1871, and has since conducted it with good results. He
has served the city efficiently as a member of the city
council and has faithfully discharged the duties of county
treasurer. In 1868 he was married to Orpha N. Gibbs,
and they have one son, Hugh C. Jones. One brother of
the foregoing, John M. Jones, served as a private in the
command of Colonel Poole and died in 1866.

578 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Edmund Jones, now a prominent attorney at Lenoir,
N. C., left his studies at the university of North Carolina
in 1864, at the age of sixteen years, and enlisted as a pri
vate in the Third North Carolina cavalry, then a part of
Barringer's famous brigade, operating on the flank of
Lee's army at Petersburg. His first battle was at
Ream's Station, and he took part in the famous cavalry
raid under General Hampton, in which 2,500 head of
beef cattle were captured from Grant and brought into
the Confederate lines without the loss of a man. He was
in the fight with Warren at Belfield and in the operations
against Wilson's raid, at this period being on duty every
day for forty-two days in succession. He took part in
all the operations of his brigade until the close of the
war, never being absent a day from duty, and finally
was in the desperate encounter with Sheridan at Cham
berlain's Run, March 31, 1865, in the battle of Five
Forks, and during the retreat was engaged at Namozine
church and in other skirmishes on the road to Appomattox.
Before the surrender he made his way through the Federal
lines with thirty or fort)T of his comrades, and carried to
President Davis a dispatch from General Lomax, which
was the first official notice received by the head of the
Confederacy of the surrender of General Lee. Mr.
Jones then reported to General Beauregard, and was told
by him to go home and await orders. This gallant boy
soldier was born in Cal dwell county in 1848, son of
Edmund W. Jones, a planter, who gave four sons to the
Confederate cause. Of these, William D. Jones was a
member of the staff of General Leventhorpe; John T.
Jones was lieutenant-colonel of the Twenty-sixth North
Carolina regiment, and was killed at the battle of the
Wilderness, May 6, 1864; and Walter T. Jones, of Com
pany I, Twenty-sixth regiment, was killed at Gettysburg.
After the close of hostilities, Mr. Jones attended the law
school of the university of Virginia, and continuing his
professional studies, was admitted to the practice of law.
He was a member of the State legislature in 1870-74,
1878, 1879, l893-94, and from July, 1885, to 1889, held the
position of chief of the division of customs of the United
States treasury department. He is a member of the
board of trustees of the university of North Carolina.
In 1872 he was married to Miss Eugenia Lewis, daughter
of Maj. A. M. Lewis, of the Confederate States service.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 579

In April, 1898, upon the breaking out of the war with
Spain, Mr. Jones promptly tendered his services to the
United States and raised Company C of the Second
North Carolina volunteer infantry, U. S. A. , of which he
became captain, and continued to command his company
until his regiment was mustered out of service on
November 10, 1898. While in the service of the United
States his company was stationed at St. Augustine, Fla. ,
at which point he was in command of Fort Marion, where
he organized the military prison, in which capacity Fort
Marion is now used.

Colonel Hamilton C. Jones, of Charlotte, prominent
among the lawyers of North Carolina, was born at Salis
bury, November 3, 1837. His father, Hamilton C.
Jones, conspicuous as an attorney, member of the legisla
ture and supreme court reporter, was the son of William
Jones, a native of Wales, who settled in Suffolk county,
Va. His mother was Eliza, daughter of Maj. Pleas
ant Henderson, of Chapel Hill, a revolutionary soldier
whose brother, Gen. William Henderson, commanded
Sumter's brigade at Eutaw Springs. He was educated
both in letters and the law at the State university, with
graduation in 1858, and in 1859 began the practice at
Salisbury. He was defeated, in 1860, as the Whig can
didate for the legislature, and in the campaign of that
year supported the Bell and Everett ticket. At the
same time he was first lieutenant of the Rowan Rifle
Guard, and early in the spring of 1861, went with his
company to occupy Fort Johnson. When the ordinance
of secession was enacted, he was commissioned by Gov
ernor Ellis, captain of Company K of the Fifth North
Carolina regiment, commanded by Col. Duncan Mac-
Rae, with which he served on the Virginia peninsula in
the defense of Yorktown and at the battle of Williams-
burg, where he was seriously wounded. In July, 1862,
while convalescent from this injury, he was commissioned
lieutenant-colonel of the Fifty-seventh regiment. In this
rank he was able to join the army of Northern Virginia in
the fall of 1862, after which he participated in the record
of Hoke's brigade at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville,
Gettysburg and Bristoe Station, and was in command of
his regiment during Colonel Godwin's service in com
mand of the brigade. On November 7, 1863, he was

Nc60

580 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

captured, together with the greater part of Hoke's and
Hays' brigades, in the affair at Rappahannock bridge,
and was thereafter imprisoned at the Old Capitol prison
at Washington and at Johnson's island, Lake Erie, until
specially exchanged in February, 1865. At once rejoin
ing his regiment, he was promoted colonel. He com
manded the Fifty-seventh in the subsequent fighting on
the Petersburg lines until, in the battle of Hare's Hill,
March 25, 1865, during the gallant but fruitless attempt
to cut the Federal lines, he was again seriously wounded,
causing his disability during the remaining brief chapter
of the struggle. He was sent to his home 'on the last
train which left Richmond previous to the evacuation.
After the close of hostilities he resumed the practice of
law, and in 1867 removed to Charlotte and formed a
partnership with Gen. Robert D. Johnston, which con
tinued for twenty years. He has enjoyed an extensive
practice, and is widely known as a well-equipped and
successful lawyer. He represented Mecklenburg county
in the State senate in 1869 and 1871, and during Presi
dent Cleveland's first administration, held the office of
United States district attorney for the western district.
In 1873 he was married to Connie, daughter of Col.
W. R. Myers, of Charlotte, and they have six children.

Captain Kenneth R. Jones, a veteran of the Twenty-
seventh regiment, North Carolina troops, now in busi
ness at New Bern, was born in Jones county, N. C.,
in 1842, and was educated at Chapel Hill. In May,
1 86 1, he left the university and enlisted in the Jones
county light infantry, which was mustered in as Com
pany I of the Twenty-seventh regiment. From a pri
vate he was promoted in a few months to second lieuten
ant, and at the reorganization he became first lieutenant.
In 1864 he was promoted captain. Among the engage
ments in which he participated with an honorable record,
were those at New Bern, Seven Pines, Games' Mill, Har
per's Ferry, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Chancellors-
ville, the Wilderness, Spottsylvania and Second Cold
Harbor. At Sharpsburg he was twice shot in the left
arm, causing his disability for several months; at Cold
Harbor he was wounded in the right arm, and at Fray-
ser's Farm, in June, 1864, he received a wound in the
left leg which permanently disabled him. After the

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 581

surrender, which occurred when he was at home wound
ed, he took up the duties of civil life, and in 1876 estab
lished his present business at New Bern. His brother,
Robert H. Jones, now deceased, served throughout the
war, gaining the rank of second lieutenant of Company
G, Second North Carolina infantry; was wounded at
Spottsylvania, and subsequently represented Carteret and
Jones counties in the State senate.

M. Henry Jones, of Durham, a veteran of Forrest's
cavalry, was born in Chatham county, N. C., in 1845,
son of A. S. Jones. The latter was a planter of Orange
county and a son of Henry Jones, a prosperous gentle
man of the old regime. In 1860 Mr. Jones removed with
his father to Mississippi and there enlisted, in 1862, first
in an independent company commanded by James Floyd,
which re-enlisted as a whole as Company H of the
Eighteenth regiment, Mississippi cavalry. His service
was typical of that of the troopers who gallantly held
that region and repeatedly defeated the attempts of the
Federal armies to penetrate the rich country which was
known as " Forrest's territory." Along the Mississippi
river he engaged in numerous skirmishes with the Fed
eral gunboats and transports, and, fighting under Forrest
at Tupelo and Brice's Cross-roads, shared the glory of
the utter rout of the Federal forces at those famous bat
tles. He was also in the fight at Oxford, participated in
the raid to Memphis, and was a member of the daring
expedition which occupied west Tennessee and captured
Fort Pillow. Subsequently he was on an expedition
to Biloxi, served on special duty in the Wolf river region,
carried dispatches to Mobile, and then rejoined his regi
ment at Citronelle. After the battle of Selma he surren
dered at Gainesville, Ala. During the years immedi
ately following the war he was in business at Jacksonville,
Fla., removed to Raleigh in 1882, and six years later made
his home at Durham, where he is now engaged in the
jewelry business. He is a prominent citizen and influ
ential in public affairs. In 1874, Mr. Jones was married
to Mary Agnes, daughter of Col. George Center, of
Florida. She died in 1876, and ten years afterward
he married Bessie, daughter of John McLaurin, of
Wilmington.

582 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Allen Jorden, of Troy, N. C., was born in Mont
gomery county in 1829, the son of John and Sarah
(Butler) Jorden. On the parental branch he is descended
from Welsh ancestry. In youth he was educated in the
schools of his native county, then engaged in teaching
school, after which he entered upon the study of law,
and gaining admission to the bar, began the practice of
his profession in 1857. This vocation he promptly aban
doned, however, upon the call of his State, and en
listed as a private in a volunteer organization, which was
assigned as Company P to the Forty-fourth regiment,
North Carolina State troops, Pettigrew's brigade. He
was elected to a lieutenancy in Company F, but through
a misunderstanding did not receive his commission.
Subsequently he was appointed sergeant and was trans
ferred to Company H. He was identified with the serv
ice of his regiment until the fall of 1862, when, having
been elected county attorney of Montgomery county, he
was honorably discharged that he might assume the
duties of that office. Since then he has devoted himself
to the practice of his profession, in which he has attained a
gratifying eminence, and to the discharge of those public
duties to which he has frequently been called. He was
elected to the legislature in 1864, 1867, 1872, 1878 and
1887. He was also chosen as a delegate to the constitu
tional convention which was to have convened in 1871,
and being re-elected in 1875, held a seat in that body.
He has merited honorable mention by his sympathy and
efforts for the survivors of the Confederate army and
his part in the restoration of good government. Ity his
marriage, in 1857, to May Horton, of Chatham, he has
one child, Mary O.

Benjamin Franklin Jordan, a business man of High
Point, N. C., was born in Guilford county, June 19,
1842. With his brother, A. G. Jordan, he enlisted
in one of the early organizations of patriotic North Caro
linians for service in the Confederate cause, joining a
cavalry company from Davie county, but did not go to
the front with that command, and in August, 1862, en
listed as a private in the artillery company of Capt. W. B.
Lewis, Tenth battalion, heavy artillery. With this com
mand he was on duty in the vicinity of Wilmington, man
ning the defenses of that city, until Sherman began his

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 583

inarch through Georgia, when his battery was sent to
oppose that movement. At Savannah he served under
Maj. W. B. Young and took part in several small battles
during the campaign. After the evacuation of Savan
nah he was captured by the enemy, and subsequently
was confined as a prisoner of war at Port Royal until
after the close of hostilities. On June 25, 1865, he re
turned to High Point, and after residing for a short time
in Indiana, he returned and embarked in business. He
has served as alderman of his city many terms, and is one
of the influential men of the community.

Lieutenant Henry C. Kearney, an officer of the Fif
teenth regiment, North Carolina troops, during the Con
federate war, and since then for twenty years sheriff of
Franklin county, was born in that county, August 31,
1842. On May 16, 1861, he enlisted in the Confederate
service as second lieutenant of Company E, Fifteenth
regiment, Col. Robert M. McKinney, and in May, 1862,
he was promoted to first lieutenant. In these capacities
he served during the war, also acting for a time as adju
tant of the regiment. Among the battles in which he
participated were Dam No. i, at Yorktown, Malvern
Hill, South Mountain, Fredericksburg, on the South
Anna near Hanover Junction, Bristoe Station, the Wil
derness, Spottsylvania Court House, Hanover Junction,
Turkey Ridge, White Oak Swamp, Reams' Station, Bel-
field, the siege of Petersburg, Sutherland Station, and
the last campaign, ending at Appomattox, where he was
paroled. He was wounded slightly at Malvern Hill, at
South Mountain, where his regiment was part of the
gallant band that held back McClellan's army, again on
Marye's hill at Fredericksburg, and more seriously at
White Oak swamp, the latter wound disabling him for
several weeks. In addition to these evidences of sol
dierly conduct, his clothing was pierced in seventeen
places by Federal bullets during his service with the gal
lant Fifteenth, all in one day, September 14, 1862. At
South Mountain he was captured by the enemy, and for
about a month after that was imprisoned at Fort Dela
ware. Then, being paroled, he was exchanged a month
later and permitted to return to the field. On returning
home after the close of hostilities he was occupied for
four years in the manufacture of tobacco, and after that

584 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

in farming, until, in 1878, he was elected sheriff of his
county. In this office his services have been so satisfac
tory that he has ever since been retained by biennial elec
tion. In July, 1866, Lieutenant Kearney was married to
Mary J. Long, of Franklin county, and they have six
children living. He is a member of the camp of Con
federate veterans at Louisburg.

Colonel Thomas S. Kenan, of Raleigh, N. C., was born
February 12, 1838, near Kenansville, of ancestry distin
guished in the service of the State. His father, Hon.
Owen R. Kenan, represented Duplin county in the legis
lature and was a member of the first congress of the
Confederate States. His grandfather, Hon. Thomas S.
Kenan, also sat in the legislature several times for Du
plin county, and from 1805 to 1811 was in the State's
delegation to the United States Congress. The great
grandfather, James Kenan, a leader in the revolutionary
epoch, colonel and afterward brigadier-general, was a
delegate from Duplin to the colonial conventions in 1774,
1775 and X77^> and State senator from 1777 to 1791.
After an academic preparation, Colonel Kenan entered
the university at Chapel Hill and was graduated in 1857.
He then applied himself to the study of law under the
direction of Judge Pearson, and two years later began
the practice of his profession at Kenansville. This
career was, however, soon interrupted by the events of
1 86 1. Heartily in sympathy with the impulses which
brought about the union of his State with the Confeder
acy, he entered the military service of North Carolina in
April, 1 86 1, as captain of the Duplin Rifles, an organiza
tion which had been formed in his native county in 1859.
The company was assigned to the First regiment under
Col. D. H. Hill, and later to the Second regiment
under Col. Sol Williams. As Company C, of this com
mand, the Rifles served at and near Norfolk through the
summer of 1861, returning home at the end of the period
of enlistment. The company was then reorganized and
became Company A of the Forty-third regiment, of which
Kenan was elected lieutenant-colonel, at the organiza
tion in March, and promoted colonel, April 24, 1862. In
command of his regiment Colonel Kenan served a short
time at Wilmington and Fort Johnson, on the Cape Fear
river, and then was assigned to Daniel's brigade and par-

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 585

ticipated in the operations before Richmond, serving at
Drewry's bluff and in a demonstration against Suffolk
during the Maryland campaign of 1862. During the
following winter and the spring of 1863, his service was
rendered in eastern North Carolina and he led the regi
ment in several encounters with the enemy, until Gen
eral Lee began his preparations for the Pennsylvania
campaign. Colonel Kenan's regiment was then called
to Fredericksburg, Va., and assigned to Rodes' division
of the Second corps under General Ewell. He acted with
the cavalry supports at Brandy Station and Berryville,
and marched into Pennsylvania as far as Carlisle.
Reaching the field of Gettysburg at i p. m. , of the first
day, he led his regiment in the hard fighting of July ist,
before Seminary ridge ; during the second day the regi
ment lay under fire in support of a battery, and march
ing to the left in the following night, participated in the
desperate fight at Gulp's hill on July 3d. Here, in lead
ing a charge, Colonel Kenan fell severely wounded. On
the next day he was captured with other wounded men
in the ambulance train, and subsequently was held as a
prisoner of war at Johnson's island until March, 1865,
and then placed on parole, but was never exchanged.
He reached home after the surrender of the armies.
After the close of hostilities he was at once accorded a
prominent part in the work of restoring civil government
in the commonwealth. He was a member of the legis
lature in the sessions of 1865-66 and 1866-67, and in 1868
made a hopeless but gallant contest for Congress in the
Cape Fear district. He was a delegate to the national
Democratic convention of 1872, and in the same year
began a service of four years as mayor of Wilson, where
he had made his home in 1869. From this office he was
called by the people of the State to that of attorney-gen
eral of North Carolina, which he held, with many evi
dences of public esteem, during a period of eight years.
Not long after the expiration of his second term he was
appointed to the office of clerk of the Supreme court.

Captain William Rand Kenan, of Wilmington, a gallant
veteran of the Forty-third regiment, was born at Kenans-
ville, N. C., August 4, 1845. He was educated at the
Grove academy and the university of North Carolina,
leaving the university in November, 1863, to enlist as a

586 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

private in the Forty- third regiment. He was at once
detailed as sergeant-major. In May and June, 1864, he
was acting adjutant of his regiment, and after that on
account of his gallantry at the battle of Bethesda Church,
was ordered by General Grimes to take command of the
sharpshooters from his regiment, with the rank of acting
lieutenant. While serving in this capacity he was shot
through the body in the fight at Charlestown, in the
Shenandoah valley, August 22, 1864, which compelled
his remaining at home sixty days. On recovery he was
assigned to the command of Company E, Forty-third
regiment, by Colonel Winston, who sent in an application
for his promotion to second lieutenant on account of dis
tinguished gallantry, which bore the warm endorsement
of General Grimes, and was approved by General Early.
After three weeks' service in command of Company E,
he was appointed adjutant of the regiment, the rank
which he held to the close of hostilities. Among the
battles and skirmishes in which he was engaged were the
following: Plymouth, N. C., Drewry's Bluff, Bethesda
Church, Games' Mill, Cold Harbor, Harper's Ferry,
Monocacy, Md. , Washington, D. C. , Snicker's Ford,
Kernstown, Winchester, Hare's Hill, Petersburg, Sail
or's Creek, Farmville and Appomattox Court House.
After his return to North Carolina he resumed his studies,
applying himself specially to the law, and in November,
1865, he removed to Wilmington, where he began a
business career in which he has met with success and
prosperity. From 1881 to 1885, and from 1889 to 1894,
he was a member of the board of audit and finance in
the city government, and from 1894 to 1898 held the
office of collector of the port of Wilmington. He served
efficiently as captain of the Wilmington light infantry
from August, 1889, to January i, 1892. By his marriage
in March, 1864, to Mary, daughter of Jesse Hargrave, of
Chapel Hill, Captain Kenan has four children: Mary
Lily, Jessie H., wife of J. Clisby Wise, of Macon, Ga. ;
William R. Jr., superintendent of the Lake Superior
carbide works, Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. , and Sarah Gra
ham Kenan.

Charles Humphrey King, of Wilmington, a veteran of
the Confederate war, was born at Rochester, N. Y., in
1837, and was reared and educated in that State. In

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 587

1860 he made his home at Wilmington, and in the fol
lowing year went into service with the Wilmington
Rifle Guards, in April, serving in the occupation of Fort
Caswell. The company was assigned to the Eighteenth
regiment, North Carolina infantry, and he continued
with it, earning promotion to corporal and fourth sergeant,
until June, 1862, when the period of enlistment expired.
He then became a private trooper in the Scotland Neck
Rifles, and eight or ten months later was transferred to
the Sixty-first regiment, North Carolina infantry, as
quartermaster-sergeant. He was on duty with this
command until the surrender of Johnston's army. At
the close of the war, having no resources, he went to
New York city, reaching there July 4, 1865, with nothing
but the old uniform on his back. A year later he
returned to Wilmington, where he has since been in
business.

George L. Kirby, M. D. , surgeon of the Second regi
ment, North Carolina State troops, and since 1894
superintendent of the Central hospital for the insane, at
Raleigh, was born near Clinton, July n, 1834, the son
of William and Elizabeth (Cromartie) Kirby. His
grandfather, William Kirby, moved to North Carolina
from his native county of Southampton, Va., and was
possessed of a large estate in the ante-bellum days. Dr.
Kirby was graduated in medicine at the Long Island
hospital college, Brooklyn, N. Y., in 1860, and after
continuing his studies one year in Paris, France, returned
in January, 1861, reaching New York on the day the
Star of the West was fired on in Charleston harbor.
Proceeding to his home, he was the second man of his
county to enlist for the defense of the State, in April,
1 86 1, becoming a member of Captain Marsh's company,
known as the Sampson Rangers. When the company
was assigned to the Twentieth regiment of infantry he
was appointed assistant surgeon, and subsequently, upon
the resignation of Dr. J. B. Hughes, was promoted sur
geon. He served in this capacity until December, 1864.
He was on duty with his regiment in the battles of
Mechanicsville, Cold Harbor, Games' Mill, Malvern
Hill, South Mountain, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg,
Chancellorsville, on the Rapidan, the Wilderness, Spott-
sylvania Court House, Second Cold Harbor, Winchester

588 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY^

and Cedar Creek, and subsequently at Petersburg until,
at the close of 1864, he was transferred to hospital duty
with orders to establish a hospital at Wytheville, where
he remained in charge until July, 1865. At the battle of
Kelly's Ford he was captured by the Federals and there
after confined for two months at Fort McHenry. In
August, 1865, he made his home at Goldsboro and entered
upon a professional career, which has been replete with
success and honor. In 1894 he was called upon to take
charge of the hospital for the insane at Raleigh, a position
which he has shown himself thoroughly competent to fill.
He has served six years as a member of the State medical
examining board and twelve years as coroner of Wayne
county. In 1866 he was married to Mary C., daughter
of John A. Greene, a descendant of General Nathaniel
Greene, and has eight children. William Kirby, a brother
of the foregoing, served one year as lieutenant in the
Twentieth regiment, and during the remainder of the
Confederate era, as a member of the State legislature.
He died in 1897.

Lieutenant William Emmett Kyle, of Fayetteville,
N. C., is a native of Virginia, born in Christiansburg,
Montgomery county, the son of William E. Kyle, of that
county, whose father was a native of Ireland and emi
grated to Virginia. On the maternal side, Mr. Kyle is
of Welsh descent, his mother, Sarah M. Shanklin, being
the daughter of a native of that part of the British
islands. Lieutenant Kyle was educated at Christians-
burg, and then started in life as a farmer, but in 1860
embarked in the retail dry goods business at Fayetteville,
N. C. There he enlisted among the earliest volunteers
in the famous First regiment of volunteers, under Col.
D. H. Hill, and shared the service of that command at
Big Bethel. After the disbandment of that regiment,
he entered the Fifty-second regiment of State troops, and
was commissioned lieutenant of Company B. With this
regiment, in Pettigrew's brigade, he participated in the
command of the army of Northern Virginia, and fought
at Franklin, Hanover Junction, Gettysburg, Pa., Hagers-
town, Md., Falling Waters, Bristoe Station, Culpeper,
Mine Run, the Wilderness, Spottsylvania Court House,
Hanover Junction, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Drewry's
bluff, Hatcher's run, Southerland's station, Reams' sta-

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 589

tion, Amelia Court House, Farmville and surrendered at
Appomattox, April 9, 1865. In the battle of Reams*
Station, August 25, 1864, the North Carolina brigades of
Cook, Lane and McRae were greatly distinguished in a
charge which resulted in the capture of fourteen cannon
and 5,000 prisoners. Lieutenant Kyle bore a prominent
part in the splendid record made by the troops in the
capture of Col. Francis A. Walker, of the Federal army,
adjutant-general to General Hancock. Kyle was wounded
three times, at Gettysburg, Spottsylvania Court House
and Petersburg, in the head, hip and leg. He was taken
prisoner at Petersburg, but managed to escape a few
hours later. At the time of the surrender at Appomattox
he was in command of the sharpshooters of McRae 's bri
gade. From Appomattox he walked to his home in Vir
ginia, and soon afterward resumed his occupation as a
merchant. He has been prominent as a citizen of Fay-
etteville, serving eleven years as alderman and four terms
as mayor of the city. In December, 1867, he was mar
ried to Miss Frances A. Dewes, of Hampton, Va., and
they have six children: Edwin D., James, Laura M.,
Annie M., Frances D. and Mary B.

Lieutenant Wilson G. Lamb, of Williamston, N. C., a
veteran of the Seventeenth regiment, North Carolina
troops, was born at Elizabeth City, N. C., in 1842, son
of Wilson G. Lamb, who served for a time during the
war as commissary at Hatteras, and great-grandson of
Col. Gideon Lamb, who commanded the Sixth North
Carolina continental troops at German town, Brandy wine
and Monmouth. At the age of sixteen years he was
appointed to the United States naval academy at An
napolis, but soon afterward returned home, and when
the Seventeenth regiment was organized, in which his
brother, John C. Lamb, was lieutenant-colonel, he enlisted
and was made sergeant-major. In 1862 he was elected
second lieutenant of Company F, and in 1863, adjutant
of the regiment. In July, 1 864, he was appointed provost-
marshal of Hoke's division, but in December, resuming
his duties as adjutant, continued in that position until
the close of the war. He took part in the fight at New
port barracks, N. C., in 1863; Bermuda Hundred, May
20, 1864; Second Cold Harbor, the Petersburg battles of
June 1 4th to i8th, being wounded on the i8th and disabled

590 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

for a month ; Henrico almshouse and Darbytown road, near
Richmond ; was several months on duty in the Peters
burg trenches; commanded the skirmish line of Hoke's
division in the first battle of Fort Fisher, and was present
at the second battle; was complimented for great gal
lantry and coolness in command of the rear guard at
Northeast river bridge; at Kinston was again compli
mented for gallantry by Captain Elliott, and finally took
part in the battle of Bentonville. Since the war he has
taken an active interest in public affairs, has served
twenty-five years as a member of the State executive
committee for the Democratic party, and was a delegate
to the national conventions of 1884 and 1892. He is
president of the order of Cincinnati, of North Carolina.
Lieut. -Col. John C. Lamb, brother of the foregoing, was
born in 1834, and entered the Confederate service in May,
1 86 1, as captain of Company A, Seventeenth regiment.
He was in command of Fort Clark, at Hatteras inlet,
and was captured there in July, 1861, and subsequently
held as a prisoner at Fort Warren for several months.
On his return his regiment was reorganized and he was
elected lieutenant- colonel. He commanded the regiment
at the battle of Newport Barracks, commanded the ex
pedition which captured Plymouth and burned the town
in 1863, and continued in conspicuous service until in the
battle of May 20, 1864, before Bermuda Hundred, where
he fell, mortally wounded, as he sprang on the enemy's
earthworks, cheering on his men, who achieved a splen
did victory.

Colonel John R. Lane, of the famous Twenty-sixth
regiment, was born in Chatham county, N. C. , July 4,
1835. His parents were possessed of limited means and
he was reared with the advantages of self-denial and
manly independence. Early in May, 1861, he volunteered
in a company, raised in his county, known as the Chatham
Boys, afterward Company G, Twenty-sixth regiment,
State troops. He was soon made a corporal, and at the
first occurrence of a vacancy, was elected captain. He
was popular with his comrades from the first, and was
noted for his unbounded patience, forbearance, kindness,
sagacity and presence of mind. In August, 1862, after
undergoing a rigid examination, he was promoted to lieu
tenant-colonel. At Gettysburg, where the Twenty-sixth

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 591

suffered the greatest loss of any regiment, either Union or
Confederate, during the four years' war, he was pre
eminently distinguished for gallantry. This loss was
mainly sustained in winning Seminary ridge on the first
day of the fight. The men fell rapidly under the fire of
the enemy. Colonel Burgwyn picked up the colors from
the fallen bearer and turned them over to Private
Frank Hunnicutt, who was shot dead after he had ad
vanced but a few steps, Colonel Burgwyn falling about
the same time. Lane assumed command and took the
colors from the hands of Lieutenant Blair, who had picked
them up. Going quickly to the front he called out,
"Twenty-sixth, follow me," and as he looked around at
his brave men, fell, as they thought, dead. The ball
passed through the back of his head and out at his mouth.
But, as his men rallied under the terrible fire, and the
remnant pushed on and carried the hill, so he fought
against death and won the victory. On his return to the
regiment six months later, he recruited his command by
May, 1864, to 750 men, and it was then pronounced by
General Heth the best drilled regiment in his division.
At the battle of the Wilderness it was in position near
the center of Lee's line, and had the honor of opening
the battle and the misfortune of losing many brave men.
Near Spottsylvania Court House, General Lee, having
called for the most reliable regiment in the division to
guard a wagon train, the Twenty-sixth was assigned to
that duty, General Lee remarking to Colonel Lane,
"This is the greatest compliment I can bestow upon you
and your regiment. ' ' At the surrender, Colonel Lane
was in hospital at Danville, from the effects of another
severe wound received at Reams' Station. He was
wounded in all five times. As a regimental commander
he was the worthy successor of Zebulon B. Vance and
Harry K. Burgwyn, and a painting, showing the three
heroes, is one of the valued artistic and patriotic treasures
of the State. Since the war, Colonel Lane has been
engaged in business in his native county.

Colonel William C. Lankford, a native of North Caro
lina, distinguished as an officer of the Forty-seventh regi
ment, and now prominent in the medical profession at
Wake Forest, was born in Franklin county in 1833. He
was educated at Louisburg, N. C., at the university of

592 CONFEDERA TE MILITARY HISTORY.

Virginia and the university of New York, being gradu
ated in academic studies and in the profession of medi
cine. Embarking upon his professional work before the
war, he was engaged in the practice at Franklinton when
the State seceded and he felt the thrill of patriotic devo
tion which inspired the soldiery of 1861. Organizing a
company of men, he enlisted in the spring of 1862 and
was commissioned captain of Company F, Forty-seventh
regiment, State troops. This was assigned to the brigade
of General Pettigrew, and under the leadership of that
gallant commander, and successively of Kirkland, MacRae
and Martin, did effective service in many campaigns.
The gallantry of Captain Lankford's service led to his
promotion, in the spring of 1864, to major, and a few
months later to lieutenant-colonel, and finally, soon be
fore the close of the war, to his recommendation for
promotion to colonel. Among the battles in which he
participated were those of Falling Waters, the Wilderness,
Spottsylvania Court House, Cold Harbor, the siege of
Petersburg, Kinston and Goldsboro. After the close of
hostilities, Colonel Lankford returned to Franklin county
and resumed the practice of medicine, also giving his
attention to farming, and after some years he removed to
Wake Forest, where he has been a resident for sixteen
years. Officially he has had the honor of serving as a
commissioner of Franklin county, and as postmaster of
Wake Forest during the second administration of Presi
dent Cleveland. In 1865 he was married to Ella Brenan,
of Suffolk, Va., and they have three daughters.

Basil Manly Lanneau, a native of Charleston, S. C.,
born February 15, 1845, has the distinction of being the
youngest of the fifteen hundred men enlisted in Hamp
ton's legion in 1 86 1. At the beginning of hostilities he
was a student at Furman university, Greenville, S. C.,
but he promptly left his studies to take up arms and was
enrolled in the legion as a private June 8, 1861, being
then sixteen years of age. His brother, John F. Lan
neau, was captain of Company B of cavalry, the com
pany which he joined. During the winter of 1861-62 Pri
vate Lanneau was attached to the staff of Maj.-Gen.
William H. C. Whiting, who had an important command,
and he served with that officer until after the battle of
Seven Pines, before Richmond. After a few months

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 593

spent with his original command, he was detailed by the
war department as cadet engineer, and upon the staff
of his brother, Capt. John F. Lanneau, of the engineer
corps, he was engaged for some time in the construction
of the fortifications about Richmond. His brother then
being ordered to Mobile, Private Lanneau rejoined his
cavalry company, and under the gallant Wade Hampton,
rode with the cavalry during the remainder of the four
years' struggle. Among the many cavalry encounters in
which he shared the hard fighting of his command, were
those about Yorktown, at Fredericksburg, Thoroughfare
gap, Seven Pines, the Seven Days' battles around Rich
mond, Jack's shop, United States Ford, Warrenton
Springs, Upperville, Brandy Station, Gettysburg, Wil-
liamsport, Spottsylvania, and in North Carolina the
engagements at Little Washington, New River (after
the fall of Fort Fisher), and Goldsboro. His career since
the war has been of a character to give him a wide
acquaintance throughout the South. In 1867 he made his
home in Georgia as special agent of an insurance com
pany, and while there, in 1868, was married to Mary E.,
youngest daughter of Dr. George L. Bird, of Crawfords-
ville, that State, a lady who is a cousin of Hon. Alexander
H. Stephens. Settling at Crawfordsville he was engaged
in mercantile business until 1874, when he removed to
New York and became associated with a cotton commis
sion house. In August, 1878, he received from Post
master-General D. M. Key the appointment of chief clerk
of the railway postal service, an office he held until 1883.
Subsequently he has served seven years as special agent
of the Mutual life insurance company of New York in
Missouri, and as general traveling special agent of the
Union Central life insurance company for the States of
North Carolina and Virginia. In the latter, his present
occupation, he makes his home at Raleigh, N. C. Mr.
Lanneau is a member of the Confederate Veteran associ
ation at Savannah, and in 1896-97 served on the staff of
Gen. Wade Hampton.

Captain John Francis Lanneau, professor of physics
and applied mathematics at Wake Forest college, North
Carolina, and widely known in the South as a scientist
and educator, is a worthy type of those scholarly men
who left the schools and colleges of the South in 1861 to

594 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

serve, as their attainments best fitted them, with her
armies of defense. He was born at Charleston, S. C.,
in 1836, was graduated at the South Carolina military
academy in 1856, and at the outbreak of war was pro
fessor of natural philosophy and chemistry at Furman
university. In the spring of 1861 he entered the Confed
erate service as captain of Company B of cavalry, in
Hampton's legion, and served in that capacity until the
reorganization, in 1862, when he was commissioned first
lieutenant of engineers. As an officer of engineers he
served under Generals W. H. C. Whiting, Longstreet,
Pickett, Wise, Anderson, Maury and Robert E. Lee, and,
during the last campaign of Lieut. -Gen. Wade Hampton,
held the position of chief engineer of his cavalry corps.
In the fall of 1864 he was commissioned captain of
engineers, being the thirty-fourth to receive that grade.
His military record embraces service with the legion in
the engagements at Free Stone Point, at Williamsburg
(where he led the cavalry charge), and the Seven Days'
battles before Richmond. Immediately afterward he
was assigned to engineering duties on the line of works
from Drewry's bluff to Petersburg. In 1863 he was
engaged in constructing a line of fortifications, some eight
miles long, connecting Chapin's bluff and Richmond;
subsequently was occupied in strengthening the defenses
of Mobile, Ala., then was on duty before Richmond when
the city was threatened by General Dix, and finally aided
in preparing for the defense of Columbia, S. C. , against
Sherman. He was a participant in the battles of Reams'
Station and Hatcher's Run, in addition to the services
named, and as chief engineer was prominently connected
with General Hampton's famous cattle raid in the rear of
Grant's army. At the close of the war he resumed his
career as a teacher. Previous to accepting his position
at Wake Forest college in 1890, he had served as professor
of mathematics and astronomy in Furman university
until 1868; as professor of mathematics in William Jewell
college, Missouri, until 1873; as president of the college
at Tuscaloosa, Ala., until 1879; as president of the
Baptist female college at Lexington, Mo., until 1888,
and as president of Pierce City Baptist college, Missouri,
until 1890. Professor Lanneau was married, in 1869, to
Louise Skinner Cox, of Greenville, S. C., and has six
children living.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 595

James H. Lassiter, a prominent business man and patri
otic citizen of Henderson, N. C. , was born in Gates
county, May 27, 1816, a son of Blake Lassiter. In 1842
Mr. Lassiter first embarked in business as a merchant in
Murfreesboro, N. C. During the war his age prevented
him from rendering active service in the field, but he was
thoroughly devoted to the cause, and is yet loyal to the
memory of the brave boys who served in the North Caro
lina regiments. He rendered duty when called upon as
a member of the Senior reserves, and in the commissary
department did efficient service in gathering and furnish
ing supplies to the army. Not all of a people are priv
ileged by nature to brave the dangers of war and enjoy
its glory, but true loyalty may be as strongly manifested
by those who remain at home and perform those duties
essential to the maintenance of the military force.
Among these latter Mr. Lassiter is worthy of remem
brance. Since 1865 he has been very successfully
engaged in business at Henderson, is a director of the
Citizens bank, and of the storage warehouse and cotton
mill, and in various channels of activity is an enterpris
ing and valuable citizen.

Lieutenant Thomas D. Lattimore, of Shelby, a veteran
of Jackson's corps of the army of Northern Virginia, is
one of seven brothers who served in the ranks of the
Confederacy. The father of this family of heroes was
John Lattimore, a native of Cleveland county, and grand
son of John Lattimore, of Virginia, who carried to his
grave a bullet received while fighting in the patriot ranks
during the revolution. The brothers in the Confederate
army were Daniel Lattimore, lieutenant of Company B,
Forty-ninth regiment, killed at the battle of the Crater ;
John L. Lattimore, Company B, Forty-ninth regiment;
James H. Lattimore, Company F, Thirty-fourth regi
ment, who was twice wounded; Frank Lattimore, Com
pany F, Forty-ninth regiment; Joseph C. Lattimore, of
Terry's Texas rangers and Audley M. Lattimore of Gra
ham's artillery. Joseph, John and Frank were each at
one time prisoners of war. Thomas D. Lattimore was
born in Cleveland county, in 1843, and enlisted as a pri
vate, in 1 86 1, in Company F, Thirty- fourth regiment,
North Carolina troops. After service in the eastern part
of the State, he accompanied his regiment to Fredericks-

Nc 61

596 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

burg, Va. , and thence to Richmond. His brigade, com
manded by General Fender, opened the fight at Median •
icsville and was hotly engaged at Games' Mill ; took part
in the battle of Frayser's Farm, and was tinder fire at
Malvern hill. After this campaign Private Lattimore
was promoted to a lieutenancy. He fought under Jack
son at Cedar run, Second Manassas and Chantilly. In
the latter engagement Colonel Riddick and Lieutenant-
Colonel Miller, of the Thirty-fourth, were both mortally
wounded. He took part in the capture of Harper's Ferry
and the battles of Sharpsburg and Fredericksburg, and
his last battle, under Jackson, was at Chancellorsville,
when he saw the flash of the guns that gave the mortal
wound to that famous commander. At Gettysburg he
was one of the few who escaped unhurt from the sanguin
ary battle of the first day and the desperate charge of the
North Carolinians on Cemetery hill. During the retreat
from Pennsylvania he was in the engagements of Hagers-
town and Falling Waters and was one of the last to cross
the pontoon bridge. During the long struggle with the
army under Grant, he fought at the Wilderness, Spottsyl-
vania Court House, Hanover Junction, Hatcher's run,
Reams' Station, in the trenches at Petersburg and, after
the lines were broken, at Southerland Station and Farm-
ville, his military career finally being ended by parole at
Appomattox. After the close of hostilities he was mainly
engaged in merchandise and manufacturing until 1874,
when he was elected clerk of the superior court, an office
which he had the honor of holding for a period of twenty-
three years. He is now secretary, treasurer and general
manager of the Buffalo manufacturing company. By his
marriage, in 1871, to Matilda Beam, he has six children
living: Hattie, wife of W. B. Nicks; E. B. Lattimore,
M. D. ; J. J., Thomas W., S. N. and Pearl.

Captain William Henry Harrison Lawhon, of Moore
county, of the Forty-eighth regiment, was born May 16,
1841, son of L. W. Lawhon. In youth he determined to
enter the ministry of the Baptist church, and at the age
of eighteen began his studies, preparatory to that sacred
service, at Hughes' academy, Orange county. His
spirited devotion to his State, however, won him from his
studies to the field, and he volunteered in the company
organized in Moore county, February 25, 1862, by Capt.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 597

B. R. Husk. He was elected to a lieutenancy of this
company when it was assigned to the Forty- eighth regi
ment, Col. Robert C. Hill. Soon afterward he was pro
moted to the rank of captain, which he held during the
remainder of the war. Ordered to Virginia and assigned
to Robert Ransom's brigade, he was with the Forty-
eighth in its first battle, June 25th, at French's farm,
opening the Seven Days' battles before Richmond. In
the Maryland campaign the regiment took part in the
capture of Harper's Ferry, and fought with great gallantry
at the Danker church, at Sharpsburg, losing half its
numbers. Then being assigned to Cooke's brigade, it
was in the hottest of the fight at Fredericksburg, and
again suffered heavy loss. From Fredericksburg it was
sent to Pocotaligo, S. C., and thence, in April, 1863, to
eastern North Carolina, marching a great deal and skir
mishing occasionally. July was spent at Richmond and
part of August at Fredericksburg, after which the regi
ment joined the army of Northern Virginia again, at
Gordonsville, and moved to Bristoe Station, where they
attacked the enemy and suffered the heaviest loss so far
in their record. At the Wilderness they fought desper
ately, Cooke's and Kirkland's brigades holding back an
overwhelming force of the enemy. At Spottsylvania,
Hanover, Turkey Ridge, Cold Harbor, on the lines
before Richmond and Petersburg, Yellow House,
Reams' Station, and in many skirmishes, from the fall
of 1864 to the spring of 1865, the regiment added new
laurels to its battle-scarred flag. When the Forty-
eighth surrendered at Appomattox it did not have more
than enough left to make a full company, but they were
all heroes. Captain Lawhon shared this record from
beginning to end, participating in every battle, except
Fredericksburg, when he was disabled by sickness. In
the hand-to-hand fight at Reams' Station he captured a
stand of colors from the enemy. Soon after the close of
hostilities he was married to Anne Jane Bostick, of Rich
mond county, and for a time engaged in agriculture,
until, feeling anew the call to ministerial work, he entered
upon service as a pastor of the Baptist church, in which
capacity he is known and loved in many communities.
For fourteen years he was moderator of the Sandy Creek
association. His first wife died in 1888, leaving eight
children, and in 1889 he married Nora E. Vestal. In

598 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

1893 he was appointed by the governor to assist in the
location of positions of North Carolina troops on the bat
tlefield of Sharpsburg. He was also selected to write
the history of his regiment, a duty performed with much
ability. In 1896 he was elected to the legislature, where
he served with credit to himself and constituency.

Lieutenant Nathan M. Lawrence, since 1894 the
superintendent of the Masonic orphan asylum at Ox
ford, N. C., was born in Edgecombe county, October 25,
1840. His father, Peter P. Lawrence, a native of Ten
nessee, of Welsh descent, was cashier of the bank at
Tarboro for a period of thirty years. Mr. Lawrence was
educated at Horner's school, and left his occupation as a
mercantile clerk in 1861, to enlist in the Edgecombe
Home Guards. This volunteer organization was subse
quently Company I of the Fifteenth North Carolina regi
ment. With this command, during 1861, he was sta
tioned at Yorktown, Va., and subsequently took part in
the fight at Dam No. i, the siege of Yorktown and the
battle of Williamsburg. He was at the front during the
Seven Days' battles before Richmond, and at Malvern
hill received a severe wound which caused his disability
for a considerable time. Upon his recovery, in the fall
of 1862, he was commissioned first lieutenant of Com
pany H, Fifth regiment, North Carolina troops, and sta
tioned at Charleston. He was taken sick while on duty
and was sent to his home, where before he could recover
he was captured by a Federal party and carried to New
Bern. From that time until the close of the war, a
period of nearly two years, he was held in confinement
at Johnson's island, Lake Erie. After his return to
North Carolina he was engaged in mercantile pursuits
until 1882, and from that date until 1894 was agent of
the Clyde line of steamers and general manager of the
Tar River transportation company. Mr. Lawrence was
married, in 1865, to Sallie, daughter of Thomas S. Hos-
tins, of Edenton, who represented Choane county in the
State legislature, and for a long time held the office of
sheriff.

John Pelapidas Leach, of Littleton, chief of staff of the
Third brigade, United Confederate Veterans, division of
North Carolina, was born in central North Carolina,

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY, 599

January 17, 1846. His military service in the Confed
erate army began in the summer of 1863, as a private in
Company C, Fifty-third regiment, North Carolina troops,
and he served in this capacity until the close of the war,
participating in all the operations of Grimes' brigade,
Rodes' division, during the period of his enlistment.
The battles in which he took part were mainly those
accessory to the siege of Richmond and Petersburg, in
1864-65, including Hatcher's Run, Hare's Hill, and the
engagement at Sailor's creek during the retreat to
Appomattox, where he was with the army when it was
surrendered by General Lee. He was one of the sharp
shooters selected for the night assault upon Fort Sted-
man, in the battle of Hare's Hill, where his company lost
20 men out of the 27 engaged, and he received a slight
wound, the only one incurred in his service. For his
gallantry in this action he was awarded a medal and sixty
days' furlough by General Gordon, corps commander.
On several occasions during the war he was detailed with
his company to convey prisoners to Andersonville, Ga. ,
and on one of these trips he remained for a month at the
stockade on guard duty. Returning to North Carolina
after the surrender, Mr. Leach was engaged in the mer
cantile business at Raleigh from 1867 until 1872, and in
the following year began farming in Halifax and Warren
counties, his present occupation. He was elected to the
State senate in 1892, and from 1893 to 1896 served as
presiding justice of the criminal court of Warren county.
In 1896 he was appointed to his present station in the
Confederate veterans association, with the rank of lieu
tenant-colonel. Colonel Leach was married, in 1872, to
Ellen Douglas Moore, of Raleigh, and they have five
children living: Lucy lana, Mabel, Catherine, John P.
Jr., and Sallie Moore.

David Perry Lee, a veteran of the signal corps of the
army of Northern Virginia, now a prominent farmer of
Mecklenburg county, was born upon the plantation
where he now resides, February 5, 1843. His parents
were David M. Lee, who died in 1873, and Nancy A.
Withers, a sister of Hon. T. J. Withers, of the Confed
erate States Congress, who is still living (1898), at the
age of ninety-one years. He enlisted on August u,
1 86 1, in Company B of the Thirteenth regiment, North

600 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Carolina troops, and served in the ranks during the bat
tles on the Virginia peninsula between Lee and McClel-
lan, serving in all, as a private, about ten months, and
was then detailed as one of the twelve men from the
Thirteenth regiment, who, with twelve from the Third
Louisiana, constituted the beginning of the Independent
signal corps. By special act of Congress the mem
bership was afterward increased to 300. He served in
this line of duty until the end of the war, rendering val
uable aid to the army, and witnessing all the stirring
scenes which marked the passing from stern reality to
history of the grand old army of Northern Virginia. At
Appomattox he was one of the 35 of the original 300 sig
nal men who remained on duty, these being from the
States of North Carolina, Georgia and Louisiana. His
first service was at Newport News, where he witnessed
the naval combat between the Merrimac and the Federal
fleet, and his last service was at Appomattox, guarding
prisoners who were captured on the retreat from Peters
burg. Three brothers of Mr. Lee were in the Confeder
ate service. Pollock B., a lawyer in Memphis prior to
the war, became a lieutenant in a Tennessee regiment,
and was soon detailed as aide-de-camp to General Zolli-
coffer, whom he accompanied to the fatal field of Fishing
Creek. Subsequently he was one of the most trusted
aides of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston and of all the com
manders of the army of Tennessee, and at one time was
assistant adjutant-general of the army with the rank of
colonel. His death occurred at Memphis in 1867, and
he was buried in Elmwood cemetery. He was much
loved and widely known in the West, at one time being
assistant adjutant- general of the army of Tennessee, as
was evidenced by a sword presented him by the ladies of
Memphis, Tenn. His last official act in the army was
the turning over to the enemy, by order of General
Johnston, his native town. Junius M. Lee served with
the Hornet's Nest Riflemen, and later with the Fifth
North Carolina cavalry, and died in 1897. Francis
Marion Lee, a younger brother, was a member of the
Fifth cavalry, and died in 1864 from pneumonia, con
tracted during Gen. Wade Hampton's famous cattle raid.
The subject of this sketch has given his attention en
tirely to the management of his extensive land posses
sions since the war, and is now one of the county's most

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 601

prosperous citizens. He is a member of Mecklenburg
camp, U. C. V., and commander of Sharon township
branch. By his marriage, in 1875, to Ann Luzenia Rea,
he has four children.

Colonel Stephen Lee, born at Charleston, S. C., 1810,
died at Asheville, 1879, was the son of Judge Thomas
Lee, a man of much prominence in his time. He was
educated at the United States military academy, and was
assigned as an instructor to the Charleston military
academy, where he taught for several years, until 1844,
when he removed to Asheville and founded a boys'
school, which speedily gained wide fame and popularity.
This work, however, he resigned in the spring of 1861,
to accept the commission of colonel of the Sixth regi
ment, North Carolina volunteers, one of the earliest to
go to the front in Virginia. He was ordered with his
regiment to western Virginia to meet the invasion under
McClellan and Rosecrans, and was there during the
operations immediately following the disaster at Laurel
hill, intrusted with important duties by Gen. H. R. Jack
son and General Loring. He continued to serve under
Gen. R. E. Lee in that arduous campaign until his health
failed. He retained his commission until his resignation,
in 1863, after which he rendered valuable service to the
State in putting new troops in the field. After the close
of hostilities he resumed his work as a teacher and con
tinued in that occupation until his death. By his mar
riage, at Charleston, to his cousin, Caroline Lee, he had
fourteen children, of whom nine sons served in the Con
federate army. John Miles Lee, the eldest, enlisted
from South Carolina, and served throughout the war;
William Franklin Lee, who now resides in Florida,
enlisted from that State, became lieutenant of his com
pany, and lost an arm in battle, but returned to the field
on his recovery and served to the end. Charles Coch-
rane Lee was graduated at West Point in 1856, was pro
moted second lieutenant of ordnance, resigned in 1859,
was an instructor at Charlotte, N. C., and in 1861 was
commissioned lieutenant-colonel of the First North Caro
lina regiment, of which Lieut. -Gen D. H. Hill was then
colonel. He rendered distinguished service with this
command at the battle of Big Bethel, and after the dis-
bandment of the regiment became colonel of the Thirty-

602 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

seventh, which he led in the battles before Richmond
until killed, at Frayser's farm, June 30, 1862. Thomas
Lee, a teacher in South Carolina at the beginning of the
war, enlisted in that State and served in the army of
Northern Virginia until he died in military hospital from
disease incurred on the field. Henry Burns Lee and
Stephen Lee, Jr. , enlisted in North Carolina in the Bun
combe Rifles. Stephen died in hospital, at Richmond,
and Henry became a member of the staff of Gen. S. D.
Lee, and being taken prisoner was confined at John
son's island. He died in 1897. Benjamin M. Lee
enlisted from Asheville, in the summer of 1863, in Com
pany A, Twenty-fifth regiment, South Carolina troops,
shared the service of that command in Virginia and
North Carolina; was captured at the fall of Fort Fisher
and was subsequently a prisoner of war until July, 1865.
Subsequently he joined his brother in Florida, and was
there engaged in civil engineering until 1887, when he
made his home at Asheville again, where he has since
held the office of city engineer. Joseph T. Lee, of this
nobly patriotic family, entered the army in 1864, and
after serving in eastern North Carolina, died in hospital
at Goldsboro. James Hardy Lee, the youngest, served
in the- vicinity of Asheville in Company B of reserves,
under Gen. J. G. Martin. His home, for some years
past, has been in Asheville.

Lewis Leon, one of the leading business men of Char
lotte, N. C. , and a veteran of the Confederate States serv
ice, was born in Mecklenburg, Germany, November 27,
1841. Three years later he was brought by his parents
to New York city, whence he removed to Charlotte in
1858, and engaged in mercantile pursuits as a clerk. Be
coming a member of the Charlotte Grays, he entered the
active service with that command, going to the camp of
instruction at Raleigh on April 21, 1861. The Grays
were assigned to Col. D. H. Hill's regiment, the First,
as Company C, and going to Virginia, took part in the
battle of Big Bethel, in which Private Leon was a partici
pant. At the expiration of the six months' enlistment of
the Bethel regiment, he re-enlisted in Company B, Capt.
Harvey White, of the Fifty-third regiment, commanded
by Col. William Owen. He shared the service of this
regiment in its subsequent honorable career, fighting at

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 603

Gettysburg, Bristoe Station, Mine Run and the Wilder
ness, receiving a slight wound at Gettysburg, but not
allowing it to interfere with his duty. During the larger
part of his service he was a sharpshooter. At the Wil
derness, May, 1864, he was captured by the enemy, and
from that time until June, 1865, was a prisoner of war at
Point Lookout and Elmira, N. Y. Upon being paroled
he visited his parents in New York city, and then worked
his way back to Charlotte, where, after a few years,
he was able to found a business which has since been
quite successful. He is warmly regarded by his com
rades of Mecklenburg camp, U. C. V., and has served
three terms as its commander. On April 3, 1873, he was
married to Miss Sarah Levy, of New York, and they
have three children.

Captain John W. Lewis, of Halifax county, Va., was
born in that county, February 19, 1831, the son of War
ner M. Lewis, a farmer of that county, and descended
from Gen. Robert Lewis, who came to Virginia from
Wales in 1640. The family is widespread and promi
nent. One of its members, Fielding Lewis, married a
sister of Gen. George Washington. The mother of Cap
tain Lewis was Elizabeth Hinton, of Wake county, N.
C. , who died in 1832, at the age of twenty-five years.
He was reared at Milton, N. C. , and educated at Love-
joy's military academy and the university of his adopted
State. Returning to Halifax county in 1850 he was
engaged in farming until the crisis of 1861 arrived.
Though an old-line Whig and a friend of the Union, he
was impelled by the call from Washington for 75,000
troops, to prepare for the defense of his State. Before
the ordinance of secession he had raised a company,
known as the Bruce Guards, which was- offered to Gov
ernor Letcher. He became captain of the company in
June, 1 86 1, and it was mustered in the following month,
as Company E, Nineteenth Virginia infantry, Wise's
legion. On September 2ist following, while engaged
in scouting at Sewell mountain, he was seriously wounded
in the right shoulder. He was disabled for several
months, and during this time his company was captured
at Roanoke island. In July, 1862, with his arm yet in a
sling, he organized another company, which was mus
tered into the artillery service as Lewis' battery. After

604 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

participating in the battle of Fredericksburg, he was
again compelled to retire from the service by his wound
breaking out afresh, and with the exception of participa
tion in the fight at Staunton river bridge, he was debarred
from further military duty. In December, 1863, he was
elected to the Virginia legislature, and with re-election
he served to the close of the war, rendering patriotic
service in that body. Subsequently he engaged in
farming until 1870, when he entered the tobacco busi
ness, with which he is yet connected. Captain Lewis
was married, in 1855, to Anna Hinton, who died in 1857;
in 1860 to Elizabeth A. Baskerville, who died in 1880;
and in 1885 to Lizzie Walker. He has nine children
living.

Captain Thomas C. Lewis, of Wilmington, a gallant
officer of the Eighteenth regiment, North Carolina
troops, was born near Newport, R. L, in 1839, and reared
and educated in that New England State. He removed
to Wilmington in 1857, and becoming a member of the
Wilmington Rifle Guards, went on duty with that organ
ization early in the conflict. When it became Company
I of the Eighteenth regiment, he was appointed a ser
geant, and after the re-enlistment in 1862, he served as
quartermaster-sergeant until the battle of Second Manas-
sas, when he was elected second lieutenant of his com
pany. At this battle he received a severe wound in the
hip which disabled him for half a year. Upon rejoining
his command he was elected captain, the rank he held
until, in the disaster to Johnson's division at Spottsylva-
nia Court House, he was made prisoner. He was con
fined at Fort Delaware and shared the bitter experience
of the 600 officers held under fire at Morris island, and
was not released until June, 1865. During his service he
also took part in the great battles of Fredericksburg and
Chancellorsville, and was wounded in one of the skir
mishes in Virginia.

William H. Lilly, M. D., of Concord, formerly a sur
geon in the Confederate States service, was born in
Montgomery county, February 22, 1834, son of John A.
and Harriet E. (Tomlinson) Lilly. He was educated
at Emory and Henry college, Virginia, and subsequently
studied medicine and was graduated at the university

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 605

medical college of New York. But early in the year
1862 he laid aside for the time his plans of professional
ambition and enlisted as a private soldier in Company
E, Fifty-second North Carolina regiment. When the
company was organized he was elected first lieutenant,
and when the regiment was organized he was appointed
assistant surgeon. Soon afterward he was commissioned
surgeon of the Fifty-second, the capacity and rank in
which he served during the rest of the war. He was
with his regiment, in Pettigrew's brigade, Heth's divi
sion, A. P. Hill's corps, throughout its career, being
absent but ten days from duty, and won for himself the
love and grateful memories of his men, by his devotion
and self-sacrifice in their behalf. Since 1869 he has
enjoyed a large and lucrative practice at Concord, and is
highly esteemed by the community. In 1869 he was
married to Mary E., daughter of Dr. John H. Montgom
ery. A younger brother of Dr. Lilly, Thomas Lilly,
left Emory and Henry college in 1861 and enlisted with
an An son county company, which became Company K,
Twenty-sixth regiment, Colonel Vance's old command.
He was later promoted to captain and was given com
mand of the sharpshooters of Pettigrew's brigade. From
the Seven Days' battles to the evacuation of Petersburg
he made an unblemished record of patriotism and gal
lantry. He was wounded in the immortal charge of Pet-
tigrew and Pickett at Gettysburg, also slightly on other
occasions, and fatally while on the picket line at Peters
burg about the time of the evacuation. He died in the
hospital at Richmond on April 13, 1865, as a result of his
wounds.

Thomas W. Lindsay, of Beaufort, a survivor of the
Tenth North Carolina artillery, is a native of Beaufort,
born in 1843, and was educated at that city. On May
10, 1 86 1, he enlisted as a private in the Second regiment
of volunteers, one of the first ten regiments formed in
the State, from which he was transferred in August fol
lowing to Company H of the Tenth regiment, heavy
artillery. He entered this command as fourth sergeant
and continued on duty, mainly in coast defense, through
out the war, at the close being second sergeant of his bat
tery. At the fall of Fort Macon, Beaufort harbor, in
April, 1862, he was captured by the Federals, and after

606 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

being paroled was exchanged in the fall of that year.
He also took part in the battle of Goldsboro Bridge and
the siege and capture of Plymouth, under General Hoke,
and his military career was ended in the spring of 1865
by his parole at Stantonburg. Since then he has resided
at Beaufort and has been engaged in business with much
success. During the first administration of President
Cleveland he held the office of assistant postmaster. Mr.
Lindsay was married, in 1873, to Jane W. Davis, who
died in 1881, leaving two children, Mary A. and Thomas
W. Jr. In 1884 he married Elizabeth B. Davis, and they
have one child, Warren W. Lindsay.

Lieutenant Shedrick H. Loftin, of Kinston, a veteran
of the Third regiment, North Carolina cavalry, is a
native of Lenoir county, born in 1839, and was educated
at his home and at Wake Forest college. He enlisted in
the spring of 1861 as a private in the Kinston Rifles, a
volunteer organization formed at Kinston, which was
assigned to the Ninth regiment volunteers, afterward the
Twenty-seventh regiment, commanded by Col. George
B. Singletary, but two or three months later was trans
ferred to the Third cavalry. With this command he
served during the remainder of the war, at the close hav
ing the rank of junior second lieutenant and acting cap
tain of Company E. He was in the fights at New Bern
and Kinston in the earlier part of the struggle, cam
paigned on the Blackwater river, and later in Barringer's
gallant brigade of North Carolina troopers, served about
Petersburg eight or nine months in frequent encounters
with the enemy, fighting in the famous battles of Ash
land, Five Forks, High Bridge and Sailor's Creek.
Escaping the disasters on the final retreat, he participated
in the last combat at Appomattox Court House, and
making his way through the Federal lines united with
Johnston's army and was surrendered at Greensboro.
Since the close of hostilities he has made his home at
Kinston, where he is now prominent in business and
financial circles as a banker. In 1877 he was married to
Miss Willie R. Sutton. Two brothers of Mr. Loftin
were also in the Confederate service: Elijah P., who
served in the last year of the war as a private, and
W. C. R. Loftin, who was a private in General Hoke's
command throughout the four years of conflict,

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 607

Captain William Lord London, of Pittsboro, brigadier-
general commanding Second brigade, North Carolina
division, United Confederate Veterans, was born at Pitts
boro, April 3, 1838, the son of Henry A. and Sallie M.
(Lord) London. His grandfathers, John R. London and
William C. Lord, were both natives of Wilmington, the
former being an officer of the patriot army of the war of
the revolution. When North Carolina took up arms in
defense of the Confederacy, young London left his
employment as clerk in his father's store and enlisted as
a private in the Chatham Rifles, a volunteer organization
which was first assigned to the Fifteenth regiment, State
troops, as Company M, and later to the Thirty-second
regiment. He was mustered in as second lieutenant of
his company, in June following was promoted to first
lieutenant, and in May, 1862, was promoted to captain.
At the opening of the campaign of the army of Northern
Virginia, in 1863, he was in command of the sharpshoot
ers of his brigade, Gen. Junius Daniel's, and was com
mended by General Daniel for his services at Gettysburg
and on the retreat. Colonel Brabble, of the Thirty-sec
ond, in reporting the battle, wrote: "Where all behaved
so well, it is difficult to discriminate, yet justice requires
that I should mention Capt. William L. London. To his
skill and gallantry is greatly due whatever of service the
regiment may have rendered in the battle." He was at
once, in recognition of his gallantry, assigned to General
Daniel's staff as inspector-general, and later in the year
was made adjutant- general of the brigade, which after
the Wilderness was led by Gen. Bryan Grimes. Captain
London was identified with the gallant record of his bri
gade and regiment throughout the war, from his first
battle at Dam No. i, under Magruder, to the final scene
with Lee at Appomattox. He was severely wounded at
Malvern hill, was shot in the right arm at Gettysburg,
and received a third wound, a ball passing through his
body, at Winchester, with Early, in 1864. Yet it was
his good fortune to be able to return promptly to duty
and to miss few of the historic battles of the army. The
career of this gallant and devoted soldier aptly represents
the heroism of the North Carolina soldiery.

Jacob A. Long, of Graham, was born in Alamance
county, in 1846, son of Jacob Long, a farmer of that

608 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

county, of which his grandfather was also a native, his
great-grandfather, Conrad Long, being a native of Ger
many who immigrated in 1750. The great-uncles of Mr.
Long were soldiers of the revolution ; his mother's father,
Col. John Stockard, was a soldier of the war of 1812, and
the latter's father, James Stockard, fought in the patriot
army in the war for independence. Gov. William Trous-
dale, of Tennessee, whose mother was a sister of James
Stockard, was with Jackson at New Orleans. Inspired
by the example of such ancestry, Jacob A. Long, a
schoolboy in Virginia during the early part of the Con
federate war, gladly joined the hastily gathered force of
militia, who defended the Staunton bridge against Fed
eral raiders in the spring of 1864, for five hours maintain
ing an action that resulted in the repulse of the enemy.
At the close of his term of school following this memor
able incident, he went to Petersburg, Va., and enlisted
as a private in the battery of Capt. Samuel T. Wright, in
the artillery of Anderson's corps, in May, 1864. During
the siege of Petersburg he was stationed with his artil
lery company on the lines immediately to the left of
where the mine explosion occurred, July 30, 1864. He
and his comrades, expecting such a demonstration, had
been aroused every morning at 3 o'clock and made ready
to repel the enemy, and when the shock came, upheaving
great sections of the works and throwing men and cannon
in the air, his battery was ready to promptly turn their
guns upon the advancing Federals and render effective
assistance in the memorable fight, which resulted in the
recovery of the line by Lee's army. For his part in this
battle Private Long was promoted to corporal in his bat
tery, a fitting recognition of his youthful daring and
intrepidity. Again, on March 25, 1865, in the famous
sortie of Gordon's corps against the Federal works on
Hare's hill, he fought with heroism. Indeed, through
out this Jong and famous siege, he worthily acquitted
himself as a comrade of the battle-scarred veterans who
held the lines against Grant's overwhelming forces.
During the retreat he was constantly in service, and at
Appomattox, about n o'clock, April pth, he spiked his
gun and with three companions escaped through the
enemy's line and made his way to Johnston's army, with
which he was surrendered at Greensboro. Subsequently
he attended the school of Dr. Alexander Wilson at Mel-

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 609

ville and then entered upon the study of law with Wil
liam Ruffin at Hillsboro. Since 1874 he has been one of
the leading lawyers of Graham. In 1892-93 he was chair
man of the house finance committee in the State legisla
ture. He was married, in 1871, to Esta, daughter of
David P. Teague, and seven children have been born of
this union, his eldest daughter being musical director at
Elon college.

Lieutenant James J. Loughlin, of Warrenton, formerly
of the Thirtieth regiment, North Carolina State troops,
was born at Manchester, England, June 16, 1840. At
the age of seventeen years he came to the United States
and first settled at Norfolk, but subsequently found
employment at Warrenton, where he now resides. There,
in 1 86 1, he enlisted as a private in Company B, Capt.
William C. Drake, of the Thirtieth regiment, Col. F. M.
Parker. Soon after his enlistment and the organization
of the regiment, he was promoted first sergeant, and
about two years later became second lieutenant and was
put in command of the sharpshooters of the regiment.
With the Thirtieth, in George B. Anderson's brigade, he
took part in all the battles of his command during his
service at the front, including the Seven Days before
Richmond, Cold Harbor, Malvern Hill, South Mountain,
Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and Gettys
burg. During the return of the army from Pennsyl
vania, during the latter part of July, he took part in a
skirmish at Manassas gap and had the misfortune to be
captured. As a prisoner of war he was carried to the
Old Capitol prison and thence to Johnson's island, where
he was held until June, 1865, nearly two years of impris
onment. Upon his release Lieutenant Loughlin returned
to Norfolk, but subsequently made his home at Warren
ton, where he was married in December, 1865, to Lucy
A. Johnson. They have four children living: James J.,
Jr., quartermaster of the Second regiment, North Caro
lina State troops; Mrs. Isabella Tunstall, Mrs. Lucy H.
Mabry, and Minnie M. Loughlin.

William Love, of Greensboro, a veteran of the Forty-
seventh regiment, North Carolina State troops, was born
in Alamance county, in April, 1839. He is of North
Carolina descent, his father, William Love, and his

610 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

grandfather, Charles Love, a soldier of the war of 1812,
having been natives of that State; his mother was a
daughter of Christian Isley, who came to Alamance
county from Ireland. Mr. Love left his civil employ
ment to enlist, July 2, 1862, as a private in Company K,
Forty-seventh regiment, and was promoted to corporal.
From the period of his enlistment he was identified with
the record made by his gallant regiment and Pettigrew's
brigade on the battlefields of the army of Northern Vir
ginia, was in many battles and on every occasion proved
himself a brave and steadfast soldier. The principal
engagements in which he participated were Gettysburg,
the Wilderness, Hanover Junction and Cold Harbor. He
was twice wounded, most severely at Reams' Station,
where he was shot through the thigh. After going
through the arduous service and deprivation and danger
of defending the lines of Petersburg through the long
siege, he was captured during the fighting of the early
days of April, 1865, and carried to Point Lookout, where
he was held as a prisoner of war until June 28th. Since
his return home he has been mainly engaged in the lum
ber trade, which he has prosecuted with much success.
By his marriage, in 1861, to Miss S. A. Morton, he has
children living: Alice L., Lena, James A., Annie E.,
William H., Sallie P. and Ernest E. It is an interest
ing fact that Mr. Love's family, having mainly removed
to the north, was divided by the war and that he had a
brother in the Union armies.

Henry T. J. Ludwig, of the faculty of North Carolina
college, Mount Pleasant, was born in Cabarrus county in
1843, son of Jacob and Sophia (House) Ludwig. His
ancestry, originally of German origin, has been North
Carolinian since 1766 and has a patriotic record equal to
any, his great-grandfather, Elias House, having lost an
arm fighting for the independence of the United States,
and his grandfather, Jacob House, having been a soldier
of 1812. He also had an uncle, George Ludwig, who
served as cavalryman in the Black Hawk war. He was
educated at North Carolina college until he was eighteen
years of age, and North Carolina then calling upon her
sons for military service, he enlisted in 1861, going to the
field as drummer-boy of Company H, Eighth regiment.
He shared the record of his regiment from the beginning

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 611

to the end, going through the fight at Roanoke island
and the subsequent experience as a prisoner of war and
doing his share in all the battles of the regiment, includ
ing the hard fighting at Charleston, and in Hoke's divi
sion at Plymouth and before Petersburg. He was cap
tured on the Petersburg lines, August 19, 1864, but soon
recaptured. After the final battle of Bentonville and the
surrender by Johnston, he engaged for a few years in
farming, but in 1869 entered upon his life work as an
instructor at North Carolina college. He was elected
professor of mathematics in 1871, a position he has since
retained and most creditably filled. He was for several
years a correspondent of the Mathematical Visitor ; is at
this time a member of the American mathematical soci
ety, and in 1894 received from Newberry college the
degree of Ph. D. For eight years he was secretary of
the State Grange, and at present he holds the position of
superintendent of public schools of his county.

William James Lumsden, M. D., of Elizabeth City,
was born at Greensboro, N. C., April 10, 1846. He is
the son of Rev. James D. Lumsden, a native of Edin
burgh, Scotland, who came to Virginia in childhood,
was reared at Richmond, married Mrs. Brandon, nee
Miss Elmira Harris, of Stanley county, N. C., and
became a minister of the Virginia conference of the
Methodist church. Young Lumsden was educated at
Crenshaw and Hardy's academy, at Blackstone, Va.,
but in the spring of 1861, when fifteen years of age, he
left his studies to enter the military service of the Con
federate States. Enlisting in April, 1861, in Matthews
county, in Armistead's battery, light artillery, of the Vir
ginia forces, he served as a private, doing duty at York-
town and Gloucester Point, until he was taken seriously
ill during the siege of Yorktown, which so impaired his
health that he was honorably discharged after several
months' sickness. He then secured an appointment to
the Virginia military academy, at Lexington, and during
the remainder of the war was identified with the history
of that institution and the famous record of the cadets,
notably the battle of New Market, where they were the
heroes of the fight, capturing a Federal battery and turn
ing the guns upon the foe. After the college buildings
were burned by Hunter, the school was continued at

Nc 62

612 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Richmond, where Cadet Lumsden divided his time
between study and military service. They were the last
to leave the city in April, 1865, and he then, with others
of the cadets, went to Lynchburg and thence joined the
army under General Johnston, and was surrendered at
Greensboro. Immediately after the close of hostilities
he found employment in teaching school at Elizabeth
City, where his father was then stationed, and in 1869 he
was graduated in medicine at the university of Mary
land, and entered upon the practice of that profession at
Elizabeth City. He has had an honorable and successful
career as a physician, and is highly regarded as a citizen.
He is president of the Pasquotank county medical soci
ety, and a member of the State medical society, the
American medical association, the American public
health association, and has been a member of the State
board of health, and member of the board of examiners
for pensions. In 1874 he was married to Miss S. L.
Kennedy.

John H. McAden, M. D., former brigade surgeon of
Scales' brigade, of later years a banker and prominent
citizen of Charlotte, was born in Caswell county, March
13, 1835. He is descended from Rev. Hugh McAden,
one of the pioneer Presbyterian clergymen of North Caro
lina, whose father immigrated to America from the north
of Scotland. Both his grandfather, John McAden, and
his father, Henry McAden, were medical practitioners
and prominent in their profession. His mother was
Frances, daughter of Hon. Bartlett Yancey, a well-
known congressman of the former times, in whose honor
the town of Yancey ville and the county of Yancey
received their names. By the early death of his parents,
Major McAden was orphaned at the age of five years.
He was reared in his native county and educated at the
university of North Carolina. Then giving his attention
to the study of medicine, he was graduated at Jefferson
medical college in 1857. Beginning the practice in Cas
well county, he continued there until the spring of 1861,
when he was commissioned surgeon in the Confederate
States army and assigned to the Thirteenth North Caro
lina regiment, whose fortunes he shared through the bat
tles of Williamsburg, Seven Pines, Mechanicsville, Cold
Harbor, Games' Mill, Malvern Hill, South Mountain and

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 613

Sharpsburg. Col. A. M. Scales then being promoted
brigadier-general, he was assigned to the latter's staff as
brigade surgeon. In this capacity he went through the
campaigns of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and Get
tysburg, and after the latter battle was detailed by Gen
eral Fender to remain at Gettysburg and take charge of
the severely wounded of his division. Three weeks later,
with thirteen other Confederate surgeons, he went to
Baltimore for transfer to the Confederate lines, but there
the whole party was arrested and held as hostages for an
Assistant Surgeon Rucker, who had been captured by
General Early's men, and it was understood was threat
ened with execution. It was represented to the fourteen
Confederates that in case Rucker met this fate, they
should draw lots to determine which of their number
would lose his life in retaliation. But, happily, Rucker
escaped and McAden and his party, after several months
of imprisonment, were permitted to rejoin their friends.
Reaching the army again, in December, 1863, he con
tinued in active service and was in the sanguinary con
flicts of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania Court House,
Second Cold Harbor, Harrison's Landing, the fights about
Petersburg, including Reams' Station and Five Forks,
and Appomattox. After the close of hostilities he
engaged in the wholesale drug trade at Charlotte and
followed that with much success until 1875, when he
retired. Since then he has held the presidency of the
Merchants' and Farmers' bank, and is prominently asso
ciated with other enterprises, president of the McAden
cotton mills, on Catawba river, president of the Spartan-
burg, Union & Columbia railroad, and a director of the
Victor cotton mills. He was married in October, 1871,
to Sallie Jenkins, of Salisbury, and has seven children.

Lieutenant H. C. McAllister, one of the survivors of
the Cabarrus Guards, was born in Gaston county, Sep
tember 8, 1835, the son of George W. McAllister, a cap
tain of the State militia. His paternal ancestry was of
Scotch- Irish origin, and that of his mother, Elizabeth
Plunk, was of German extraction. Jacob Plunk, his
grandfather, was a soldier of the revolution. Lieutenant
McAllister enlisted April 17, 1861, in the Cabarrus
Guards, and in August following was detailed drill-mas
ter for a company then forming at Mount Pleasant,

614 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Cabarrus county, and was elected second lieutenant at
the organization of the company. In September follow
ing, this became Company H of the Eighth regiment,
State troops, a regiment with which he was identified
throughout the war. He was in the battle of Roanoke
Island, and being surrendered shared the imprisonment
of his comrades on the steamer Spaulding. Being re
turned to the service by exchange in August, 1862, he
was on duty with his regiment in North Carolina, South
Carolina and Virginia, serving twenty-two days at Bat
tery Wagner during the siege, and in 1864, in Cling-
man's brigade of Hoke's division, participated in the cap
ture of Plymouth, the battles of Bermuda Hundred,
Drewry's Bluff and Cold Harbor. At Cold Harbor,
while looking after the dead and wounded of the Eighth
regiment, by order of General Hoke, during an armistice
for that purpose, he was taken prisoner by Federal
troops and detained for forty-eight hours, but was
returned by order of General Grant, at the instance of
General Lee. In 1865 he was with his command at Wil
mington and in the battle of Kinston and other engage
ments. He was twice wounded, at Petersburg, June
i6th, on left knee by a spent ball, and August 19,
1864, through the right leg. After the surrender by Gen
eral Johnston he returned home, with the rank of first
lieutenant, and soon found an avenue to success in civil
life as a contractor and builder, which has been his occu
pation up to the present. Since 1872 he has served as a
magistrate continuously, and in 1882 he was elected to
the legislature. By his marriage, in 1862, to Fannie
Cook, he has eight children : Robert Lee, Martha A. ,
Sallie A., John B., George P., Lulu Blanche, Emma
May and Maggie Cook.

Lieutenant David McCauley, of Chapel Hill, was one
of five brothers who answered the call of North Carolina
during the war of the Confederacy and fought in the
ranks of the Confederate armies. He enlisted in April,
1 86 1, in the company formed in Orange county, under
Capt. R. J. Ashe, which was one of the first in the State
to volunteer. It became Company D of the First regi
ment of volunteers, commanded by Col. D. H. Hill, and
after the organization at Raleigh, Private McCauley
accompanied his command to the peninsula of Virginia,

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 615

where he took part in the famous battle of Big Bethel.
After the period of enlistment had expired, the regiment
was disbanded and Mr. McCauley was elected to office
under the civil government of North Carolina. During
the remainder of the war he held the rank of first lieu
tenant in the reserves. While a participant in none of the
great battles, he was frequently on duty against the Fed
eral raiders and served in a number of skirmishes in the
State. Finally he surrendered at Salisbury. His brother
James was a member of a Texas regiment and died in
the service. Samuel J. McCauley served in the Junior
reserves in North Carolina; Benjamin was killed in the
memorable assault on Malvern hill, in 1862, and George,
of the Twenty-eighth regiment, North Carolina troops,
Lane's brigade, attained the rank of captain, and after
four years' service received wounds in the last charge at
Appomattox which caused his death soon afterward.
These patriotic boys were the sons of Benjamin Mc
Cauley, a farmer of Orange county. David McCauley
was born May 20, 1832, and since 1853 has been engaged
in business at Chapel Hill, with the exception of the four
years of the war. In addition to his mercantile inter
ests he gives his attention to agricultural pursuits. In
political affairs he has been prominent as chairman of the
township committee of the Democratic party.

Major Charles W. McClammy was born near Wilming
ton, N. C., at Scott's Hill, the son of a prominent fanner
of that region. He was well educated and graduated
with the highest honors at Chapel Hill, after which he
returned to his home and engaged in farming with his
father. At the beginning of hostilities, in 1861, he
joined a cavalry company commanded by Captain New-
kirk, and was elected lieutenant of this organization.
This company did good service in eastern North Caro
lina, among its achievements capturing a gunboat of the
enemy which had grounded in New river in Onslow
county. It was subsequently assigned to the Third North
Carolina cavalry as Company A, and upon the resigna
tion of Captain Newkirk, First Lieutenant McClammy
was promoted to the captaincy. His subsequent gallant
career is well described in the following extract from an
address delivered by Colonel Moore: "But there was one
gallant spirit, one dashing chivalric soul among them,

616 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

that if these departed heroes could be consulted, they
would say, 'Tell of the brave deeds and heroic achieve
ments of our gallant Major McClammy. ' From the time
he gave his services to his State and country, he was all
enthusiasm and dash, and never lost an opportunity to do
his best. In nearly every fight our regiment was en
gaged in, he was present, and in glorious service. His
services were so meritorious that Colonel Baker, before
his capture, spoke of wanting to promote him. When
he was promoted, he was the ninth captain in rank, and
one of if not the very youngest. It was my pleasure to
recommend and urge his promotion, and I have never
regretted it. It was a great compliment, but altogether
deserved. He was complimented in general orders for
gallant services both in the White Oak and Charles City
road. He was dashing and gallant to the end. He was
my warm personal friend. I admired and loved him for
his many noble traits. After the war, returning to his
farm, he followed his chosen vocation until called from
the plowhandles to serve you in the House of Represent
atives as member from New Hanover county; then in
our State senate, as senator from New Hanover and
Brunswick; then as a Cleveland elector; and then as
your representative in Congress for four years. After
this he retired to his farm, enjoying the quiet of rural
life. While thus engaged, his life was ended by a
lamentable accident, and his old comrades were over
whelmed with mourning."

James H. McClintock, a former county official, and
now a prosperous farmer of Mecklenburg county, was
born in Chester county, S. C., December 18, 1844. His
parents, Matthew and Jennie (Jamieson) McClintock,
were natives of the same county. In February, 1864, he
left the home farm to enter the Confederate service, and
at Charleston became a private in Company F of the
Twenty-third South Carolina infantry. With this com
mand he was soon called to the defense of Richmond and
Petersburg by Beauregard, and was first in battle before
Petersburg, June i6th. This proved to be his last battle
as well as first, for he received a severe wound in the
left arm which made amputation necessary. After six
weeks in hospital he returned home, having experienced
but a comparatively brief service, but he had suffered in

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 617

that time his full share of the miseries of war. He
entered Davidson college, North Carolina, in 1867, and
was graduated in 1870, whereupon he taught school for
ten years, in the two Carolinas, and afterward engaged
in farming in Mecklenburg county, of which he had
become a citizen. Here in 1882 he was elected superin
tendent of education and was re-elected in 1884, but
resigned to accept the office of county treasurer, which
by successive re-elections he held with distinction as a
faithful and active public official, for the period of ten
years. Since then he has given his attention to farming.
He is an active member of the Mecklenburg camp, a
director of the Alpha cotton mills and prominent in the
councils of the Presbyterian church. By his marriage,
in 1873, to Emma Hunter, of Mecklenburg county, he
has seven children.

Colonel Matthew Locke McCorkle, of Newton, N. C.,
was born in Catawba county, November 7, 1817. He is
the grandson of Francis McCorkle, a native of Mecklen
burg county, who was a gallant soldier of the revolution,
participating in the battles of Ramseur's Mills, King's
Mountain, Eutaw Springs, Cowan's Ford and Torrence's
Tavern. Francis McCorkle was a son of Matthew Mc
Corkle, of Scotch- Irish parentage, who came to America
about 1745. Colonel McCorkle entered Davidson college
in 1838, and though compelled to teach school during a
part of his academic course, was able to graduate with
his class. Subsequently he read law with Chief Justice
Pearson and began practice in 1845 at the county seat of
Catawba, now the city of Newton. In 1846 he was
appointed clerk of the superior court, to fill a vacancy,
and subsequently being elected, held the office until
1850. Upon the passage of the ordinance of secession by
North Carolina, he devoted himself heartily to the sup
port of the State, and though advanced in years, sought
active duty on the field. He organized a company, of
which he was elected captain, and this was assigned as
Company F, to the Thirteenth regiment, North Carolina
volunteers, known at a later date as the Twenty-third.
Accompanying this command to Virginia, he was on duty
near Manassas Junction until the spring of 1862, and
then marched to reinforce Magruder on the peninsula.
After the evacuation of Yorktown, he participated in his

618 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

first battle at Williamsburg. At this time his health was
completely wrecked and he was compelled to resign and
return to his home. During the latter part of the war he
held the rank of colonel, commanding a regiment of the
Senior reserves. From 1864 until 1867 he represented the
counties of Lincoln, Catawba and Gaston in the State
senate, and in 1875 was a member of the constitutional
convention. His high reputation as a jurist warranted
his appointment, by Governor Fowle, in August, 1890,
as judge of the superior court of the Eleventh judicial
district. During his service upon the bench, it was
observed that upon all appeals to the supreme court his
judgments were affirmed by the higher tribunal. Upon
his retirement from the bench he was the recipient of
many complimentary notices of his ability, fairness and
impartiality. Judge McCorkle was married, in 1850, to
Jane M. A. Wilfong, a granddaughter of John Wilfong,
who was a gallant soldier of the revolution and a presi
dential elector in 1836. Their children living are, Henry,
a civil engineer in Texas; George, connected with the
interior department of the national government; Charles
M., an attorney at Newton, sergeant in Company A,
First North Carolina volunteers, in recent war with Spain ;
Mary Locke, wife of Eugene Simons; Lizzie A., wife of
Charles Ingram.

Captain Charles McDonald, of Concord, a veteran of
the gallant Twentieth regiment, was born in Philadel
phia, Pa., in 1838, the son of John McDonald, a descend
ant of a Tyrone county patriot who lost his life in the
Irish rebellion, under Robert Emmet, in 1798, and of
Caroline Dungan, one of whose ancestors, a Baptist min
ister, and of a family of revolutionary patriots, removed
from New England to Bucks county, Pa., about 1680.
Captain McDonald was engaged in the manufacture of
cotton at Concord previous to the secession of North
Carolina, and he then entered heartily into the work of
organizing troops, becoming lieutenant of the Cabarrus
Guards, which was mustered in as Company A of the
Twentieth regiment, North Carolina troops. Being
appointed commissary of his regiment, he served in that
capacity until the end of the war. Under Colonel Iver-
son, in Samuel Garland's brigade, the regiment won
great distinction at the battle of Games' Mill, storming

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 619

and capturing a battery supported by Sykes' brigade,
United States regulars, and thus removing from the Con
federate line at a critical moment a destructive enfilading
fire. In this famous charge the regiment lost, in ten
minutes, 270 killed and wounded out of 750 engaged.
The battle record of the Twentieth, thus gallantly begun,
was sustained on every important field of the army of
Northern Virginia. At the close of the war Captain
McDonald was entitled to the rank of major, and by his
faithful and devoted service had won the warmest regard
of his command. He reached home again, April 24,
1865. He represented Cabarrus county in the legisla
ture of 1889, and held the office of mayor of Concord in
1894. He has been engaged in agricultural pursuits
since 1876.

Cadet William Hugh McDowell, a gallant young
North Carolinian, who was a martyr to the cause of
the Confederacy on the bloody field of New Market, in
the Shenandoah valley, was born in Iredell county,
December 22, 1845, the son of Robert Irwin and Rebecca
(Brevard) McDowell. His paternal grandparents were
Hugh McDowell, whose father was John McDowell,
who was seriously wounded in the revolutionary army ;
and Margaret Irwin, whose father was Gen. Robert
Irwin, distinguished as a signer of the Mecklenburg
declaration and a general in the revolutionary army.
The mother of Cadet McDowell, Rebecca Brevard, is still
living at Charlotte. Robert Irwin McDowell was born
in Mecklenburg county about 1814, was married to
Rebecca Brevard, August 8, 1844, and died in 1885. His
widow was born in Lincoln county, July 17, 1823, the
daughter of John Franklin and Margaret (Conner) Bre
vard, who were both children of revolutionary soldiers,
the father of the former, Alexander Brevard, having
fought with gallantry on nine of the bloodiest fields of
the war for independence. William Hugh McDowell, in
his brief but heroic life, honorably supplemented the
patriotic record of his ancestry. He was educated, first
at the Hillsboro military academy, and thence was
sent to the Virginia military institute, upon the recom
mendation of his mother's relative and friend, Mrs.
Stonewall Jackson. With the cadets of that institution
he went out to battle in May, 1864, and after enduring

620 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

the fatigues of a rapid march, joined in the brilliant
charge of his young comrades upon the Federal battery.
They were successful in this historic battle of May i5th,
but at a heavy cost in blood. Five of the cadets were
killed and forty-five wounded, and among the dead was
the body of gallant young McDowell. This young hero
was brave, religious and lovable, a noble type of the
thousands of promising lives that were given for country
and conscience' sake in the fearful four years' struggle.

Lieutenant Archibald McFadyen, pastor of the Presby
terian church at Clarkton, was born in Cumberland
county, N. C., April 6, 1836, of Scottish descent. His
family has long been resident in North Carolina, however,
both his father, Archibald B. McFadyen, and his grand
father, Archibald, being natives of the State ; his mother,
also of Scotch origin, was the daughter of Neill McNeill.
Mr. McFadyen, destined in youth to the ministry, was
graduated at the university of North Carolina, June 5,
1862, and after teaching school for two years, he pursued
a course of study in the Union theological school of Vir
ginia. After leaving college in June, 1862, he volunteered
as a private in Capt. J. H. McNeill's cavalry troop, Com
pany A, Fifth North Carolina cavalry, and began a gal
lant service in the Confederate army. In the winter of
1862 he was promoted second lieutenant of the company.
With Robertson's cavalry brigade of Stuart's cavalry
corps, he participated in the campaign of 1863, fighting at
Brandy Station and Gettysburg, and on the retreat from
Pennsylvania he was taken prisoner, July 12, 1863, near
Hagerstown, Md. As a prisoner of war he was sent to
Johnson's island, Lake Erie, and was held there until
June 12, 1865, nearly two years of privation and suffer
ing. After his return home, he was engaged in teaching
one year and then continued his studies at the theolog
ical seminary two years, after which he was licensed to
preach, by the presbytery of Fayetteville, in 1868, and
ordained in April, 1870, by the presbytery of Wilming
ton. He now holds the position of stated clerk in the
latter presbytery, and is held in love and esteem by his
congregation at Clarkton. By his marriage, June 18,
1868, to Miriam E. Cramartie, he has seven children:
Archibald H., Georgia F., Alice C., Paul R., Henry R.,
Miriam C., and Gertrude M.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 621

H. L. McFadyen, M. D., now a prominent physician
at Waynesville, was one of the boy soldiers of the North
Carolina troops, the youngest of four brothers who were
in the Confederate service. Archibald, Neill and John
Alexander were the names of the elder sons, and the
first named, a soldier of the Fifth North Carolina cavalry,
being captured in Maryland in 1862, was held twenty-two
months a prisoner at Johnson's island. The parents of
this family were A. B. and Christian (McNeill) McFad
yen, natives of Cumberland county, N. C. The paternal
grandfather was a native of Jura, Scotland, and the Mc-
Neills were from the Isle of Skye, in the same country.
Dr. McFadyen was born upon the home farm in Cum
berland county in 1847, and left it first in his sixteenth
year to enlist in the Confederate service as a private in
the Thirty-sixth regiment, North Carolina troops. Dur
ing the siege of Fort Fisher he served as a courier for
Colonel Lamb, the commandant, and escaping the dis
aster which befell most of the garrison, he was subse
quently with General Clingman in Johnston's army and
participated in the battles of Kinston and Bentonville.
As he was walking across the battlefield at Kinston, after
the first day's engagement, he espied a wounded Fed
eral soldier, left for dead, stripped of nearly all his
clothing and so weak from loss of blood that he could
not speak, and gave him water and secured attention for
him. One day before the surrender at Greensboro he
took advantage of the suggestion of General Clingman
and made his way through the Federal lines to his home.
After several years of industry in the turpentine forests,
young McFadyen began the study of medicine under Dr.
W. A. Bizzell, of Elizabeth town, was graduated in 1876
at the university of New York, and then practiced two
years at Elizabethtown. Since then he has been in con
tinuous practice at Waynesville, where he is the senior
physician in years of practice and holds high rank pro
fessionally and socially. He is a member of the State
medical association, one of the organizers of the county
society, and local surgeon for the Southern railroad. He
is also a member of Pink Welch camp, U. C. V. He has
seven children living by his marriage, in 1877, to Mary
H. Rinaldi, whose grandfather was a captain of a steamer
during the war of 1812, and whose father, Benjamin F.
Rinaldi, entered the Confederate service as a captain,

622 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

was a member of the staff of Gen. Stonewall Jackson,
was Wounded at Chancellorsville, where Jackson fell, but
recovering served to the end and died in 1887.

John D. Mclver, a prominent business man of Sanford,
was born in Chatham county, November 4, 1826, son of
John B. Mclver and his wife, Mary Dalrymple. His
grandparents, John Mclver and Archibald Dalrymple,
came to North Carolina from Scotland, Isle of Skye, in
1775, and becoming earnest supporters of the patriot
cause during the revolution, suffered from the destruc
tion of property by the British. Archibald Dalrymple
served as a courier in the revolutionary war, and served
two terms in the legislature. The subject of this notice was
a gallant soldier of Company A, Fifth cavalry regiment,
North Carolina troops, enlisting under Capt. John Mc-
Keller in January, 1864, his service including much of the
hard fighting under General Gordon, who was killed near
Richmond, and later under Generals Barringer and Fitz-
hugh Lee, with W. H. F. Lee's cavalry division. He
participated in many important battles and cavalry en
counters, including the campaign beginning with the
Wilderness and Spottsylvania and ending at Petersburg.
In a skirmish near Petersburg, September 29, 1864, while
charging the Federal breastworks, he was severely
wounded and was not fit for duty until the early spring
of 1865. After the close of hostilities he returned to his
native county and engaged in farming, his chosen occu
pation. In 1875 he embarked in business as a merchant
at Sanford, and in this occupation, as well as farming,
he has met with marked success. For three terms he has
served his county efficiently as a member of the board of
county commissioners.

John McMillen Mclver, a successful and popular busi
ness man of Gulf, N. C., was born at Carbonton, Moore
county, the son of Alexander Mclver and his good wife
Ann Gordon. His father, Alexander, and his grand
father, Daniel Mclver, lived and died in Moore county,
and illustrated in their lives the sturdy traits of their
Scottish ancestry. He was educated at the Melville pre
paratory school and at the university at Chapel Hill, and
after leaving school found his first occupation as a soldier
pf the Confederacy. Enlisting as a private in Company

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 623

A, Fifth regiment, North Carolina cavalry, he served
with that command throughout the war. He was in bat
tle at Whitehall, N. C., and was then transferred to the
army of Northern Virginia, joined Stuart's cavalry in
time to witness the close of the fight at Gettysburg.
Subsequently he was identified with the record of his
regiment in Gordon's brigade, later under Barringer,
until the surrender at Appomattox. Then returning to
his home in Moore county, he found employment for a
time as schoolteacher until the times were more settled
and other avenues of industry opened, when he embarked
in business as a merchant, in which he has ever since
found happiness and success. Coming out of the war
with only an old horse as his capital, he has been favored
by fortune and is one of the substantial citizens of the
county. Throughout, both in war and peace, he has
endeavored to do his duty. He was married in 1870 to
Parmelia Harris, who died leaving no children ; then to
Mattie L. Morrison, who lived but ten years and left
three children, Estelle, Evan G., and Mattie Lee; and in
1890 he married Lois Anderson, of Davidson college.

Lieutenant James McKee, M. D., of Raleigh, N. C.,
was born at that city, January 5, 1844. He was a stu
dent in the university of North Carolina, pursuing the
studies of the sophomore year, when the crisis arrived in
the history of the South, and in July, 1861, warmly
espousing the cause of his State, he enlisted as a private
in Company D, First North Carolina or Bethel regi
ment, with which he was connected until the com
mand was disbanded in October following. He was then
commissioned second lieutenant, C. S. A., and detailed
as a drill-master at Camp Holmes, near Raleigh, a con
script camp of instruction. In December, 1862, he took
command of Company B of Mallett's battalion, and par
ticipated in the battle of Kinston on the i4th of that
month, from which he and 33 men of his command were the
only ones who escaped without capture. Subsequently
he was on duty at Goldsboro, at Camp Holmes, and at
Morganton, until assigned to the command of Company
C, Seventh North Carolina infantry, with which he served
in the Petersburg trenches and participated in the severe
battle of Jones' Farm, before Petersburg, September 30,
1864. Lieutenant McKee was paroled at Greensboro in

624 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

April, 1865, ending a creditable military career at the age
of twenty-one years. He subsequently studied medicine
and was graduated in 1869 at Belle vue college, New
York. Since then he has enjoyed a lucrative practice at
Raleigh and occupies a high station as a citizen and pro
fessional man. For more than twenty years he has held
the office of health officer of his city, and has rendered
valuable service in the framing of laws for the promotion
of health and the collection of vital statistics.

William Dougald McMillan, M. D. , city and county
superintendent of Wilmington and New Hanover county,
was born in that county in 1844, a descendant of an old
patriotic colonial family. His maternal great-grand
father served with the rank of colonel on the staff of
General Marion. He was educated in the Wilmington
schools and the Bula military academy until he had
reached the age of sixteen years, when he enlisted, in
the spring of 1861, in the Topsail Rifles, with which he
served for one year on the coast. In the spring of 1862
he became a member of Rankin's heavy artillery, but
after a few months' service provided a substitute for that
command and volunteered as a private in the Fifty-first
regiment of infantry. There he served in 1863 as ser
geant-major, and during 1864-65, while able for duty, as
acting adjutant. His regiment was attached to Cling-
man's brigade and did gallant service in North Carolina
and Virginia. He shared its fortunes in battle at Ply
mouth, Bermuda Hundred, Drewry's bluff, Cold Harbor,
Port Walthall Junction, in the trenches at Petersburg
and the fighting on the Weldon railroad, and at Fort
Harrison and the Crater. He was slightly wounded at
Drewry's Bluff, Second Cold Harbor, Bermuda Hundred
and Petersburg, and seriously at Fort Harrison. He
was last in battle in the defense of Fort Fisher and sur
rendered at High Point, N. C., in the spring of 1865.
After the close of hostilities he took up the study of med
icine, and after graduation at the university of Maryland,
entered upon the practice in New Hanover county, resid
ing for many years at Magnolia. In 1869 he was mar
ried to Margaret, daughter of William J. Anderson, of
Fayetteville, and they have living seven children : Lizzie
A., William D. Jr., Mary L., Joanna H., Henry J., Eleanor
and Sidney G.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 625

Henry C. McQueen, a member of the banking house
of Murchison & Co., Wilmington, had the honor, as
a boy, to be one of the heroic defenders of Fort Fisher
and to endure the hardships of a Northern prison camp.
He was born at Lumberton in 1846, a son of Dr. Edmund
McQueen, a leading physician of that section of the
State, and was educated at Bingham's school and the
Hillsboro military academy. He entered the Confeder
ate service in the summer of 1864 as a private in Com
pany D, First North Carolina battalion, with which he
served, with promotion to the rank of corporal, until
January 15, 1865. On the latter date he was captured
with the garrison of Fort Fisher, after surviving the ter
rible bombardment of three days and nights. In this
fearful ordeal he received a severe wound in the leg.
Carried north as a prisoner of war, he was held at Point
Lookout until paroled in June, 1865. He then returned
to Lumberton and engaged in business there until 1866,
when he removed to Wilmington and embarked in the
cotton trade. In 1869 he became associated with the
famous banking house of which he is now a member.
He served as president of the produce exchange for two
terms. He has served several years as a member of the
board of audit and finance of Wilmington, and is now its
chairman. He is also president of the New Hanover
transit company, and holds several other positions of
trust and honor. He is a member of the First Presby
terian church of Wilmington, and chairman of its board
of deacons. A brother of the foregoing, Edmund Mc
Queen, was in the quartermaster's department, with the
Thirty-first regiment throughout the war, and died in
1876. In 1871 Mr. McQueen married Agnes Hall, daugh
ter of the late Avon E. Hall, a leading merchant of Ashe-
ville, N. C. To this union there are two daughters, Sue
Moore and Agnes.

John J. Mackey, of Asheville, N. C., was born in
McCowell county, that State, in 1845. There he was
raised and educated. He volunteered in April, 1864, in
the Sixth North Carolina cavalry as a private and served
in that command until the surrender. He was in the
following engagements, all in North Carolina: Kinston,
Moses Fork, skirmish near Goldsboro and at Cobb's Mill.
After the war he farmed in McDowell county, N. C., for

626 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

two years and then attended school two years. He was
married in 1869 to Matilda Gill, who died in 1872, leav
ing two children, both of whom are now deceased. He
was again married, in 1879, to Susan E. Stokely and they
had three children, all of whom died. His second wife
died in 1890, and in 1891 he was married to Alberta B.
Davis. Mr. Mackey, in 1888, was elected register of
deeds of Buncombe county, N. C., and re-elected three
times, serving eight years in all. In August, 1898, he
was renominated for the same office. He has always
enjoyed the esteem of the community in which he lives,
and is one of the most respected citizens of Buncombe
county.

Colonel Duncan K. MacRae was born in Fayetteville,
N. C., in 1819, and died in Brooklyn, N. Y., on Febru
ary 12, 1888. He was a lawyer of great reputation and a
politician of consummate powers, but his mind and habit
of thought were of that independent character which
forbade the strict restraints of party lines, and conse
quently he never reached the highest places in official
life. Coming on the stage of action at that period when
the old Whig party was considered the party of conserva
tism and respectability par excellence, it was a charm
to him to join the '* Young Democracy" and cast in his
lot with the brilliant young men of the day who drew
their inspiration from the Calhoun school of State rights
politics. He was a member of the house of commons
from his native county, Cumberland, in 1842, and took a
notable share in its action. He soon removed to Ral
eigh, the capital, and, taking up a large circuit, was
brought in contact with the most distinguished lawyers
of the State, and easily took high position. Tradition
still teems with incident of his quickness at repartee and
his powers of eloquence and marked success. Removing
to Wilmington in 1851, he soon became an independent
candidate for Congress upon the issue of the distribution
of the proceeds of the sale of public lands; but, in the
midst of his canvass, he was appointed consul to Paris
by President Pierce and accepted the office. While occu
pying this position, he was secretary of the famous
council of American foreign ministers, concerning the
Cuban question. A residence of four years in the
capital of France, amid the exciting scenes of the third

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 627

empire, added greatly to his charm of manner and grace
of diction. Returning to North Carolina at the close of
Pierce 's administration, he resumed the practice of law
at New Bern and soon entered upon a large and lucra
tive business, but the enticements of politics again
brought him before the public as an independent candi
date for governor, his successful competitor being Hon.
John W. Ellis, who entered upon the office in the begin
ning of the year 1861. One of his first appointments was
that of Mr. MacRae to be colonel of the Fifth North
Carolina State troops, which was formed at Halifax,
N. C., and pushed rapidly to the front, part of the regi
ment reaching Manassas in time to take part in the bat
tle, being attached to Longstreet's brigade. His regi
ment was engaged in all the outpost duty, and had fre
quent engagements with the enemy in front of Fairfax
Court House, during the first winter of the war, and was
among the earliest arrivals at the peninsula on the
change of front to meet McClellan's advance at York-
town, and was in the rear on the retreat from that point.
As part of Early 's brigade, his regiment earned from
Hancock the name of Immortal. Concerning Colonel
MacRae, we quote from a speech of Governor Stedman,
of North Carolina: "As a soldier, his name stands pre
eminent among the heroes who have illustrated the valor
of our Southern land. At Williamsburg, at the head of
the Fifth North Carolina regiment, he immortalized him
self and State. A writer for the London Times, and a
soldier of distinction himself, who was present at that
bloody combat as a staff officer to McClellan, nam.es, as
the most illustrious feats of arms in modern warfare, the
charge of the Old Guard at Waterloo, the charge of the
Light Brigade at Balaklava, and the charge of MacRae's
North Carolina regiment at Williamsburg." He bore,
with his regiment, a prominent part in all the actions of
the army of Northern Virginia, through the Seven Days'
battles around Richmond, and up to and including Boons-
boro and Sharpsburg. At this last battle he received
serious injuries, which, added to failing health, for he
was always of feeble physical frame, compelled his retire
ment from active service in the army. On his return to
North Carolina, he was sent to Europe by Governor
Vance on an important mission, which, being finished,
he began the publication of "The Confederate," an

Nc t>3

628 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

administration newspaper in North Carolina, which was
the recognized organ of the Confederate government in
this State. And in this employment he remained until
the entry of Sherman's army into Raleigh, on which
occurrence he left the city with the army of General
Johnston. On account of the prejudice of the local lead
ers who came into place in North Carolina in the days
of military rule, he was not permitted to resume his resi
dence in Raleigh, and removed to Memphis, where he at
once took front rank at the bar, which rank he held for
several years, his practice carrying him to the highest
court in the land. But failing health of self and family
took him to Chicago, where he remained but a short
time, returning to North Carolina in 1880 and entering
upon a large and lucrative practice at the bar in Wilming
ton. From this time until death put its hand upon him,
he kept his place in the front, where it had ever been.
When he turned his face to the wall and the light of
life went out, North Carolina lost one of the most bril
liant men who ever lived within her borders. Years will
pass before the memory of his sublime eloquence and his
keen wit shall be forgotten. And among the glories of
his native State will be ever the reputation of his old
regiment, the Fifth North Carolina.

Major James Cameron MacRae, a well-known lawyer,
who has held important positions in the judiciary of the
State, was born at Fayetteville in 1838, the son of John
MacRae, who was for many years the postmaster at that
place. In his youth he taught school and read law, and
gained admittance to the practice in 1859 and 1860, but
had hardly launched himself in a professional career
when the State called her patriotic sons to war. He
enlisted at Fayetteville in April, 1861, in Company H of
the First North Carolina regiment, which was soon
ordered to Virginia and speedily attained distinction in
the battle of Big Bethel, in which Private MacRae took
part. In July, 1861, he was appointed second lieutenant
of Company D, Fifth North Carolina infantry, and, on
joining the regiment, just after the battle of First Manas-
sas, was made adjutant. With this command he took part
in the defense of Yorktown and the battle of Williams-
burg. Before the battle of Seven Pines he was promoted
to captain of staff, and, with the duties of assistant adju-

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 629

tant-general, was assigned to the department of North
Carolina, with headquarters at Raleigh. In 1863 he was
ordered to western North Carolina, in command of a
mixed battalion of infantry, cavalry and artillery, with
the rank of major. He made his headquarters at Mor-
ganton and Asheville and continued in this duty until
assigned to the staff of Gen. L. S. Baker, in command
of the eastern district of North Carolina and southern
Virginia. Here he performed the duties of assistant
adjutant-general until the end of hostilities, when he was
surrendered with Baker's command in Wake county.
During his service in North Carolina he was captured in
1862, but was exchanged a few weeks later; took part in
the last fighting at Plymouth ; served in Georgia, harass
ing Sherman's advance to Savannah, and finally was in
battle at Kinston. With the return of peace he again took
up his law practice at Fayetteville, where he has since
made his home. In 1865 he was appointed clerk and
master in equity for Cumberland county, and in 1874-75
he represented his county in the legislature, serving as
chairman of the committee on internal improvements and
second on the judiciary committee. His high standing
as a lawyer was recognized in 1882, by his appointment
by Governor Jarvis to fill the vacancy in the superior
court, due to the resignation of Judge Risdon T. Ben
nett. Soon afterward he was elected to the same office
for a term of eight years. In 1892 he was appointed
by Governor Holt, associate justice of the supreme court
of the State, to succeed Judge Joseph Davis, deceased, a
position which he filled with great credit during the un-
expired term of two years. He then returned to his
practice as an attorney, maintaining a partnership with
his son, Samuel H. MacRae, at Fayetteville, and another
with Capt. W. H. Day, at Raleigh.

Captain Walter G. MacRae, a gallant North Carolina
soldier, now residing at Wilmington, was born at that
city, January 27, 1841. He was educated in New England,
entering a private school in Boston in 1856, graduating
at the English high school at that city in 1 860, receiving
the Franklin medal, and then studying law at the Har
vard law school until the outbreak of hostilities in 1861,
when he returned home to fight for his State. Joining the
Eighteenth North Carolina, he accompanied it to South

630 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Carolina, and a few months later was transferred to the
heavy artillery and stationed at Fort Fisher. Subse
quently he became a member of McNeill's Partisan Rang
ers, and, after an adventurous career of thirteen months
with that command, joined Company C of the Seventh
North Carolina infantry, with a commission as lieutenant
from Governor Ellis. From that time he was in com
mand of his company, with promotion to captain after
the battle of Gettysburg. Among the engagements in
which he participated were the encounters at Thomp
son's bridge on the Neuse river, the skirmish near Pol-
locksville, N. C., and the battle of Chancellorsville,
where he was slightly wounded in the right thigh. After
ward he was in command of three companies of skirmish
ers during the righting on the Rappahannock river. At
Gettysburg he was in battle three days, and, on the
evening of the third day, received a severe wound in the
left thigh. While being carried to Richmond he was
sick three weeks with fever at Newton, Va., and, on
reaching the Confederate capital, he was granted a fur
lough for forty days. In May, 1864, he participated in
the death grapple of the armies in the Wilderness, and
had the misfortune to be captured. He was held at Fort
Delaware, and in the following August was one of the
600 officers placed under fire at Morris island, thence
being returned to Fort Delaware and held until the close
of hostilities. When home again at Wilmington, he held
for a time the position of general freight agent of the
Atlantic Coast Line railroad, and later was superintend
ent for eight years of the first cotton print mill estab
lished in the South. Since then he has had a very suc
cessful career in the profession of civil engineering.

John Newland Maffitt was born at sea February 22,
1819, the son of a famous Methodist preacher of the same
name who was at that time emigrating with his family to
the United States from Ireland, the land of his nativity.
Young Maffitt entered the United States navy as a mid
shipman February 25, 1832, was promoted lieutenant in
1848, and resigned May 2, 1861. Entering the service of
the Confederate States, he took a cargo of cotton to Eng
land early in 1862, and while there received instructions
to take command of the Oreto, constructed at Liverpool,
the first of the Confederate cruisers built in England.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 631

He met the vessel at Nassau, where she was detained by
a court of admiralty, but finally released. He then took
the ship to Green Cay, 60 miles distant, where she received
her armament, and was christened the Florida. Before
leaving this port yellow fever broke out in the crew, and
the Florida was run into Cardenas, Cuba, where Captain
Maffitt was also stricken with the disease. Before he
had fully recovered he found it necessary to make a
friendly port, and achieved the remarkable feat of running
the blockade at Mobile, September 4, 1862, with a sick
and disabled crew, escaping serious injury though two
hours under fire. After completing the armament of the
vessel, he again successfully ran the blockade, January 15,
1863, though preparation had been made for his capture.
The Florida began her captures of Federal shipping in
the Gulf and cruised between New York and the equa
tor, taking in all about fifty-five prizes, including one
valued at $1,500,000. In August, 1863, the cruiser
arrived at Brest, France, where she was refitted, and
Captain Maffitt, on account of broken health, was relieved
from command. He subsequently commanded the
Albemarle a short time, and the blockade-runner Owl.
His last years were spent at Wilmington, N. C., where
he died May 15, 1886.

William C. Mallison, a prominent merchant of Wash
ington, N. C. , was born in Beaufort county in 1843, and,
when about seventeen years of age, in April, 1861, entered
the military service of the State as a private in the Wash
ington Grays, a fine volunteer company, which included
the flower of the young men of the county. Going with his
comrades to Portsmouth, N. C., he was left there as
camp guard when the company was ordered to Hatteras,
and thus was permitted to escape capture in August,
1 86 1. He then joined the company of Capt. Henry Hard
ing, with which he participated in the battle of New Bern
in March, 1862. Soon afterward he was transferred to
his old company, in the Tenth regiment, heavy artillery,
and served with that command until the close of the war,
stationed mainly below Wilmington and at Weldon, and
was surrendered near Wilson, N. C. Since the return
of peace he has been a citizen of Washington, and has
been quite successful in business as a hardware merchant
during the past thirty years. By his marriage, in 1871,
to Mary Bishop, he has eight children living.

632 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

William S. Mallory, of Charlotte, was born in Norfolk,
Va., May 18, 1845, son °f William S. Mallory, a former
merchant of that city, and great-grandson of Col. Fran
cis Mallory, who gave his life in the revolutionary war.
He was educated at the Norfolk military academy and
when the war broke out, was residing with his grand
mother in Perquimans county. He was anxious to enlist,
and not only his people opposed his going, but the officer
to whom he presented himself refused to accept him on
account of youth and lack of inches as well as years.
But determined to enter the service, he stowed himself
away in the boat which took the company to the field,
and thus managed to be permitted to accompany them
and finally to enlist. His company was F of the Twenty-
seventh North Carolina regiment, Cooke's brigade, and
gave good account of itself during the four years' strug
gle. He served as private and orderly-sergeant to the
end, taking part in the battles of New Bern, Games' Mill,
Cold Harbor, Malvern Hill, Harper's Ferry, Sharpsburg,
Fredericksburg, Bristoe Station, the Wilderness, South
Anna Bridge, Second Cold Harbor, Deep Bottom, Yellow
Tavern, Reams' Station, the Crater, Hatcher's Run, and
all of the Petersburg fights. He was seriously wounded
and captured at Bristoe Station, and imprisoned at Point
Lookout until May, 1864, but was finally exchanged and
was in the battle of the Wilderness three days after rejoin
ing his command. He was detailed to hunt deserters in
western North Carolina in 1865, and surrendered with
Johnston at Greensboro, N. C. Until 1880 he was a
merchant and cotton buyer at Tarboro, and then removed
to Charlotte, where he has served nine years as secretary
and treasurer of the Alpha cotton mills, and two years in
the same capacity with the Louise cotton mills. August
6, 1867, he was married to Pamela Shepperd, of Salem,
a sister of the wife of Maj.-Gen. William Dorsey Pender.
They have three children.

Charles Daniel Malone, of Louisburg, a veteran of the
First North Carolina cavalry, well remembered by his
comrades by the camp name of "Little C. D.," was born
in Warren county, July 29, 1845. He was but a school
boy at the beginning of the great war, a student at the
Louisburg academy, but he was anxious to enlist for the
defense of his State. In consideration of his youth, how
ever, he was held back through the influence of his father,

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 633

until he was seventeen years old, when he became en
rolled as a private in Company E of the First cavalry,
then at Orange Court House, in Gen. Wade Hampton's
brigade. The career of this famous regiment of troopers
has been described in previous pages, and of Private
Malone it may be truthfully said that he was identified
with it from the time of his enlistment to the close of the
war. Among the famous encounters in which he took
part were those of Culpeper Court House, Brandy Sta
tion, Second Manassas, Jack's shop, Hanover Junction,
Reams' Station, Stony Creek and numerous fights around
Richmond. He remained steadfastly a private, declin
ing election to rank, but was frequently detailed for
special service, scouting and the like, acted as courier
for both Generals Hampton and Stuart, and was at times
in command of his company. On one occasion, he and
the bugler of the regiment, on account of a misunder
standing of orders, were the only ones who followed the
colonel in a charge. He was with Stuart when his com
mand was entirely surrounded by the enemy, the occasion
when his colonel, Thomas Ruffin, was killed, and was one
of the 40 men with General Hampton who kept the
enemy out of Richmond at the time of Kilpatrick's and
Dahlgren's raid. At Hatcher's run he was wounded in
the right hand, in the act of firing. Since the war Mr.
Malone has been engaged in mercantile enterprises and
in teaching, has been successful in these, and enjoys the
esteem and confidence of the community. He was mar
ried, in 1869, to Bessie, daughter of Dr. Noah Joyner, of
Pitt county. She died in 1895, leaving seven children;
Vernon Lee, Charles Noah, Emily Williams, Ellis, Mary
Ethel, Robert Joyner and Edmund Lucien. Dr. James
E. Malone, a younger brother of the foregoing, is nota
ble among the people of his county for .devotion to the
sacred memories of the great struggle, and has earned
the gratitude of the Confederate survivors by the un
stinted manner in which he has given time, talent and
resources to their cause. He is now engaged in promot
ing his cherished project — a fine monument at Louisburg
in memory of the Confederate dead. He was born in
DeSoto county, Miss., in 1851, and was educated for the
medical profession at Bellevue college, New York. His
wife, Anna Richmond Fuller, is a sister of the North
Carolina poet, Edwin W. Fuller, who married a sister
of Dr. Malone and Charles D. Malone.

634 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Major Basil C. Manly, a noted artillery officer of the
North Carolina troops, was born at Raleigh, May 9, 1839,
son of Charles Manly, governor of the State in 1849. He
was educated at Lovejoy's academy, St. James, Md., and
Chapel Hill, and in law at the school of Chief Justice
Pearson. Soon after he began his practice at Raleigh
as an attorney, the crisis of 1861 arrived and he entered
the service as lieutenant of the Ellis light artillery,
afterward famous as Manly's battery. This company
was composed of some of the most patriotic and enthusi
astic young men of that period, and his leadership among
them was demonstrated by his promotion to captain, May
1 6, 1 86 1, when the first commander, Stephen D. Ramseur,
became colonel of the Forty-ninth regiment. The bat
tery was assigned to the Tenth regiment as Company A,
left for Virginia August 2, 1861, and remained at Smith-
field until March 2d, following, when it was ordered to the
peninsula. In the Yorktown campaign he first fired on the
enemy at Dam No. i, and was next engaged at Williams-
burg, where, with three guns, the gunners in charge being
Corporals Dunn, Brooks and Robertson, a battery of
the enemy was captured. His battery was in action at
Seven Pines, Savage Station and White Oak swamp,
under fire at Malvern hill, and subsequently was attached
to Semmes' brigade, McLaws' division, Longstreet's
corps. It rendered valuable service at Boonsboro and
Sharpsburg; at Fredericksburg was held in reserve in
the rear of Mar ye 's heights, prevented from opening fire
by the death of the courier who was sent with orders;
and at Chancellorsville, after having been engaged two
days on the right, was sent back to meet Sedgwick's
corps. The latter's retreat across the river was greatly
harassed by Manly, whose fire twice broke the Federal
pontoon bridge. On the second day of Gettysburg he
displayed military genius in the placing of his battery,
on the third day took an active part in the great artillery
duel, and, during the retreat to Virginia, had a sharp
engagement at Funkstown, July 10, 1863, in which the
battery sustained severe loss. Throughout the campaign
of 1864, in the battles of the Wilderness and Cold Har
bor, and other frequent and arduous artillery duty, he
served as captain, and about January i, 1865, was pro
moted major and assigned to duty as chief of artillery of
Hoke's division. He fought his last battle at Benton-

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 635

ville, and was paroled with Johnston. After the war he
married Lucy Haywood, who, with two sons, survives
him. As a citizen of Raleigh, he was a great favorite,
and was seven times elected mayor, dying while an in
cumbent of that office, May 16, 1882. He was a born
soldier, a natural leader, and in emergency none was
more cool and self-possessed.

Captain Matthias Manly, a leading citizen of New Bern
and a veteran of the Second regiment, North Carolina
troops, was born at that city in 1845. In April, 1861,
being about sixteen years of age, having received a mil
itary training at the Hillsboro military academy under
Colonel Tew, he entered the service of the State and was
detailed as a drill-master at Fort Macon until June, when
he enlisted in Company D of the Second regiment,
organized and commanded by his former academic prin
cipal. At the organization he was appointed junior
second lieutenant, and afterward was promoted captain.
With his gallant regiment he entered the army of North
ern Virginia, and during the campaign before Richmond,
participated in the battles of Mechanicsville, Cold Har
bor and Malvern Hill, where he was slightly wounded in
the side. He was in the battle of Fredericksburg, De
cember, 1862, and on the 3d of May following, took part
in storming the Federal breastworks and gaining the
glorious victory of Chancellorsville. But here, in the
high tide of victory, he was shot in the left arm and in
the body, and being captured by the enemy, was sent to
the Old Capitol prison. It was not his fortune to again
stand in battle line with his comrades in gray, for, in
September following, he was transferred to Johnson's
island, Lake Erie, and was there detained, suffering the
miseries of prison life and an inclement, climate until
March, 1865. Since the close of hostilities he has been
engaged in the cotton trade, first at Baltimore, from 1867
to 1878, and since then at New Bern. He has served two
terms as mayor of the city, and as postmaster two terms
by appointment of President Cleveland. In 1891 he rep
resented New Bern at the celebration of the seventh
centennial of Berne, Switzerland.

John Manning was born on the 3oth day of July, 1830,
in the ancient capital of the colony of North Carolina,

638 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Edenton. He was taught at a school of much local fame,
the historic Edenton academy, then under the charge of
Charles Disbrow. Thence he was transferred to the
Norfolk military academy. In his senior year he was
appointed to the honorable position of captaincy of ca
dets. He left Norfolk and entered the sophomore class
in the university of North Carolina. He was a faithful
student, graduating with high honor and showing the
bent of his mind by delivering an oration on "The Influ
ence of Religion on Law." After leaving the univer
sity, young Manning availed himself of his father's offer
to sail with him, as captain's clerk, along the eastern
coast of South America, visiting, among others, the great
cities of Rio Janeiro, Montevideo and Buenos Ayres.
Orders being received for the Bainbridge to proceed to
the coast of Africa, not liking a naval life, he resigned
his position and returned home on the national vessel,
St. Louis. He resolved to become a lawyer, and after
studying for his profession in the quiet village of Pitts-
boro, under a cousin of his, an eminent lawyer, John H.
Haughton, he became a partner in his large practice.
On the 5th of June, 1856, he had the good fortune to
marry a lady of Pittsboro, in every way suited to him,
in talents and character, in religious proclivities, in social
position, in intellect and taste, Miss Louisa J., daughter
of Dr. Isaac Hall, a physician of Pittsboro, son of the
more eminent lawyer and judge, John Hall, of Warren-
ton, of the supreme court of North Carolina. Their
union has been most happy. They have raised eight
children, all showing the outcome of their training — a
never failing, loving and wise management at home.
The young, hard worked lawyer, in politics an ''old-line
Whig," soon won the hearts of the people of Chatham
and was often solicited to be a candidate for a seat in the
general assembly. This he firmly declined, although
in private, and sometimes on the stump, he used his in
fluence to avert war and preserve the Union. When war
actually came, he volunteered among the first troops
raised by the State, was soon made first lieutenant in his
company, and shortly afterward adjutant of his regiment,
the Fifteenth volunteers. His experience as boy-cap
tain of the Norfolk academy cadets, made him a valuable
officer. His military career was suddenly cut short by
receiving from Judge Asa Biggs, of the Confederate

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 637

States district court, the office of receiver under the
sequestration act, which position he held until the end of
the war, collecting, and promptly accounting for, hun
dreds of thousands of dollars. About the same time that
he entered the military service as a volunteer, he was
elected to the secession convention of 1861, and although
he had been an ardent Union man, he joined with Badger,
Graham, Gilmer and other older members of his party,
in sustaining the ordinance of revolution offered by Mr.
Badger. He likewise voted for the ordinance offered by
Chief Justice Ruffin, which proposed to dissolve the
bands connecting North Carolina with the Union without
claiming to repeal the act of acceptance of the Federal
Constitution, adopted in 1789. When both these propo
sitions were negatived, he joined all the other members
in voting for the Burton Craige ordinance of secession.
He deprecated the haste of the convention in adopting
the provisional and permanent constitution of the Con
federate States, and ineffectually endeavored to have
them submitted to the people. All measures for a vig
orous prosecution of the war he actively sustained. After
the war he devoted himself assiduously to repairing his
shattered fortune. On the death, in 1870, of the mem
ber of Congress from his district (ex-Judge Robert Gil-
Ham), he was nominated as his successor, and with a
former majority of over 1,000 against him, was elected
over Joseph W. Hoi den by over 350 votes. While in
Congress he vigorously assailed all measures especially
directed against the Southern States. He made a strong
speech against the old force bill, which set aside safe
guards of liberty under the plea of suppression of the
Ku Klux Klan. This speech was circulated by his party
throughout the Northern and Western States as a cam
paign document. Having no taste for the . manipulation
of primaries, he was not nominated by the ensuing dis
trict convention. The next public position held by Dr.
Manning was a membership in the constitutional con
vention of 1875. Here he labored successfully to correct
many crude and unsuitable provisions of the Constitu
tion of 1868. Having a deep love for the university, his
alma mater, then in straits, he consented to be a candi
date for a seat in the general assembly of 1881, with
the avowed object to aid in upbuilding it. At the re
quest of President Battle, he introduced a bill for grant-

638 CONFEDERA TE MILITARY HISTORY.

ing the first annuity ever received from the State, $5,000.
By the active labor and eloquent speeches of himself and
others, the bill became a law. At the same session he
was, with Hon. William T. Dortch and Hon. John S.
Henderson, selected by the general assembly to codify
the laws. The result is the code of North Carolina, pro
mulgated by the general assembly of 1883. About this
time he was tendered a position on the superior court
bench, but declined the offer. He likewise declined the
office of secretary of state. In 1881, not only without
his solicitation, but without his knowledge, the board of
trustees of the university, by a unanimous vote, elected
him to fill the vacancy in the professorship of law, caused
by the death of ex- Judge William H. Battle, in 1879.
Beginning with a class of seven, he had under his instruc
tion in 1897-98, eighty- seven students. The reputation
of the school for thoroughness has spread to distant
States. The hold possessed by Dr. Manning on the
hearts of his students is boundless. They admire and
respect his learning and skill in instruction, they rever
ence his piety and unbending integrity, and repay his
kindly interest in their welfare with the sincerest grati
tude and affection. Dr. Manning has from boyhood
been a faithful follower of Christ and not ashamed to
avow it. He has been an active member of the church
of his forefathers, the Protestant Episcopal, holding
nearly all its offices which can be conferred on a layman,
including a seat in its general convention.

Captain Eugene Stuart Martin, of Wilmington, distin
guished in the artillery service of the North Carolina
troops, was born at Wilmington, August, 1840, the son
of Alfred Martin, a prominent merchant of that city.
After his graduation at the university of North Carolina,
in 1860, he took employment in the business house of
Rankin & Martin, of which his father was a member, and
thence enlisted, April 15, 1861, as second sergeant of the
Wilmington Rifle Guards, which was assigned as Company
I, to the Eighteenth North Carolina infantry. He served
with this regiment until the term of enlistment expired,
in April, 1862, and in May following was commissioned
first lieutenant of artillerv and assigned to Company A,
First North Carolina battalion of artillery. In Septem
ber, 1863, he was detailed as engineer officer for the con-

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 639

struction of fortifications on Smith's island at the mouth
of Cape Fear river, and upon the completion of this work
was ordered to Fort Caswell as chief of artillery and
ordnance officer of that fort, Fort Campbell and others,
constituting the defenses of Oak island. He continued
in this duty, with promotion to the rank of captain, until
January 17, 1865, when, in obedience to orders, he blew
up the works and retired with the Confederate forces to
Fort Anderson, on the west bank of Cape Fear river.
Here, under General Bragg, he was chief of ordnance
and artillery for that fort and the other defenses on the
west bank of the river until February 19, 1865, when,
with his artillery, he accompanied General Hagood's
command to Town Creek, where he took part in the.
battle of February ipth and 2oth, with Schofield's corps.
Upon the evacuation of Wilmington, February 22d, he
commanded the artillery defending the pontoon bridge
over the northeast branch of the river, and checked the
enemy by a vigorous artillery fire. Joining in the retreat
of the forces under General Bragg to Rockfish, he left,
about March 8th, for Kinston, where he served in battle
on the staff of Gen. R. F. Hoke as ordnance officer.
During the battle of Bentonville, March 19, 20 and 21,
1865, he served as chief of ordnance and artillery tem
porarily under the orders of General Hardee ; was twice
wounded, one wound in the ankle being quite severe ; and
was recommended for promotion to colonel for gallant
conduct. After the army fell back to Smithfield, he
was ordered by Gen. J. E. Johnston to go to Tarboro and
organize an ordnance department and train, it appearing
at that time that General Johnston contemplated a move
ment by Weldon against the rear of Grant's army. But
Captain Martin found he could not proceed beyond Wel
don, and was then ordered to evacuate that place and
forward the troops and supplies to Raleigh. This duty
performed, he reported to General Johnston at Raleigh,
and was detailed to go out on the line of the Carolina
Central railroad and ascertain if the enemy were utiliz
ing that road and what troops were being transferred.
While he was yet occupied with this service, the army was
surrendered, and he then gave himself up at Wilming
ton to Gen. J. R. Hawley, in command of the Federal
forces. He remained a prisoner of war at his native city
until May 18, 1865. In addition to the wounds received

640 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

at Kinston, Captain Martin was injured by the concussion
of an exploding shell at Fort Anderson, the hearing of
his left ear being destroyed. In September, 1873, he
entered upon the study of law, and being admitted to
the bar in 1874, has ever since practiced his profession
with much success.

Lieutenant James Bryan Martin, attorney at Windsor,
N. C. , is a native of Louisiana, born in Assumption parish,
August 25, 1844, and was educated at Baton Rouge.
When the war broke out he enlisted for the Confederate
service as a private in Company K, Eighth Louisiana
infantry. He served with this regiment in the army of
Northern Virginia about six months, and was then ap
pointed sergeant-major of the Twenty-sixth Louisiana
infantry. A year later he was promoted to lieutenant
of Company C of the same regiment, and subsequently
was given command of Company A, Weatherby's battal
ion, Louisiana sharpshooters. He also served for some
time as ordnance officer and aide-de-camp on the staff of
Brig. -Gen. Allen Thomas, who has since filled the office
of minister to Venezuela for the United States. Lieu
tenant Martin participated in the defense of Vicksburg in
1863-64, fought at the battle of Chickasaw Bayou against
Sherman, and was on the lines about Vicksburg until the
surrender to Grant, when he was paroled. His exchange
did not occur until about a year later. Upon the close of
hostilities he lived in New Orleans, in 1868 removed
to Norfolk, and in 1874 to Bertie county, N. C., and
engaged in the practice of law at Windsor. He is promi
nent in his profession and enjoys in a marked degree
the confidence of his community. For several years he
served as chairman of the inferior court of Bertie county,
and has acted as a member of the Democratic State execu
tive committee, with notable influence in the councils
of his party. He is faithful to the memory of the Confed
eracy and maintains a membership in Pickett- Buchanan
camp, United Confederate Veterans, at Norfolk.

Lieutenant Thomas Duncan Martin, M. D., a well-
known citizen of Raleigh, N. C. , was born at Elizabeth
City in 1815, and was educated at Hertford academy,
Edenton academy, and at Utica, N. Y. Determining to
embrace the medical profession, he studied to that end in

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 641

1838 and 1839, and then was engaged in the practice in his
native county and in Hyde county, until the beginning of
hostilities in 1861. In June of the latter year he enlisted
in Company F of the Twenty-seventh North Carolina
infantry, and was elected first lieutenant. ^But, after about
a month's service in this capacity, the demand for skilled
medical officers in the army led to his being detailed to the
hospital at New Bern, where he practically had charge
until February, 1862. He then removed the patients
under his care to Goldsboro, and remained in the hospital
there until the following May, when his health broke down,
and, his period of enlistment having expired, he was
compelled to return to his home. He was a resident of
Hillsboro until the close of the war, when he removed to
Raleigh and engaged in the cotton trade, in which he
was quite successful. In 1874 he retired from business
life. Dr. Martin was married, May 23, 1849, at Hert
ford, N. C., to Henrietta Perkins, a descendant of Sir
John Archdale, the Quaker governor of North Carolina.

Colonel William Joseph Martin, of the Eleventh regi
ment, North Carolina State troops, was born in Rich
mond, Va., December n, 1830. He was the son of
Edward Fitzgerald Martin, who came from Ireland to
America in early manhood, had a successful career as a
physician, and, by his marriage to Frances Anne Foster,
had several children, of whom Colonel Martin was the
eldest. A brother of Edward who accompanied him to
America, John Martin, a distinguished artist, was the
painter of the portrait of Chief-Justice Marshall, which
hangs in the old Confederate capitol at Richmond. Four
of his sons became clergymen in the Presbyterian church.
Colonel Martin was educated at the university of Vir
ginia, where he gave special attention to the study of
chemistry, with such success that before his graduation
he was called to the chair of natural science at Wash
ington college, Pa. In 1858 he was elected pro
fessor of chemistry at the university of North Carolina,
then at the zenith of her ante-bellum prosperity. The
young professor remained at Chapel Hill until North
Carolina had allied her fortunes with the new Confeder
acy, when he gave himself unreservedly to the service
of the State and organized a company of volunteers in
Orange county. He was assigned to the Twenty-eighth

642 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

regiment, tinder General Lane, and served in the eastern
part of the State several months, until elected lieutenant-
colonel of the Eleventh regiment, which had been organ
ized from the men of the famous Bethel regiment. He
was with his regiment in North Carolina and on the
Blackwater river in Virginia, until 1863, when the regi
ment was assigned to Pettigrew's brigade, A. P. Hill's
corps, army of Northern Virginia. Colonel Martin soon
became distinguished as a gallant leader of brave men,
on the bloody fields of Gettysburg, Bristoe Station, the
Wilderness, Spottsylvania Court House, Cold Harbor
and Petersburg. After Gettysburg he was in command
of his regiment, with promotion to colonel. He was four
times wounded, slightly at Spottsylvania and Reams'
Station, and very severely at Bristoe Station and Peters
burg. A short time before his surrender, at Appomat-
tox, his commission as brigadier-general had been pre
pared, but the rush of disaster which ensued gave him
no opportunity to enjoy that well-deserved promotion.
Returning to the State university, he endeavored to
rebuild its shattered fortunes for two years, and then
founded the Columbian high school at Columbia, Tenn.,
which he conducted very successfully for three years, after
ward accepting the professorship of chemistry at David
son college, where he greatly enlarged the scope and
efficiency of his department and became the leading spirit
in the faculty. During the disability of President Mc-
Kinnon, in 1887, he served as acting president, and was
urged to accept the permanent presidency, but declined
and brought about the election of President Shearer,
under whom he accepted the position of vice-president,
also discharging the duties of bursar. The impairment
of his health, which prevented him becoming president
of the college, gradually increased and resulted in his
death, March 23, 1896. He left surviving him his second
wife, Letitia C. Costin, of Wilmington, and four children :
Miles Costin, William Joseph, Jr., Mary T., and Lucy
Battle Martin. William Joseph, Jr. , who succeeded his
father in 1896 as professor of chemistry in Davidson
college, was born at Columbia, Tenn., February 10, 1868;
was graduated at Davidson college in 1888, and at the
medical department, university of Virginia, in 1890;
was instructor in chemistry in Davidson college, 1890-91 ;
studied at Johns Hopkins university, 1891-92; took the

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 643

master's degree at Davidson in 1893 and the degree of
Ph. D. at the university of Virginia in 1895 ; also from
1892 to 1896 served as instructor in chemistry at the latter
institution. He is a fellow of the Chemical society of
London and of the American chemical society.

Lieutenant Cave Johnson Matthews, since 1874 a resi
dent of Reidsville, N. C., rendered his Confederate mil
itary service with the Tennessee troops, in which State
he was born, at Springfield, January 19, 1839. He
enlisted in April, 1861, in Company C of the Fourteenth
Tennessee infantry, was elected second lieutenant at the
reorganization in the spring of 1862, and after the battle
of Second Manassas was promoted first lieutenant for gal
lantry on that field. His first campaigning was with
Robert E. Lee in northwestern Virginia. On January
i, 1862, he joined Jackson at Winchester and participated
in the Romney campaign, after which he was transferred
with his regiment to Yorktown. He took part in the
defeat of Franklin's division at West Point, and was in
the battle of Seven Pines, where their brigade com
mander, Gen. Robert Hatton, was killed. In this battle
his company waded waist-deep in water to attack and
capture a battery which they could not hold for want of
support. Under the command of General Archer he
fought at Games' Mill, where the brigade lost heavily in
the assault and capture of a Federal battery ; was in the
fight at White Oak swamp, marched with Jackson to
northern Virginia, and participated in the battles of Cedar
Mountain, Second Manassas, in the latter fight command
ing the company after all the superior officers had fallen,
and winning promotion by his gallantry. He then took
part in the battles of Harper's Ferry, Sharpsburg, Fred-
ericksburg and Chancellorsville. In this last battle, on
May 3d, Lieutenant Matthews received a severe wound in
the ankle and was left between the lines, but managed to
return to his comrades and was for a considerable time
in the hospital at Richmond. He was then detailed to
obtain recruits in east Tennessee, a service which occu
pied him during the remainder of the war. He was
paroled at Danville, was married in Virginia, October 19,
1865, and then resided at Louisville, Ky., for nine years.
During his residence at Reidsville he has been one of the
leading merchants of the city and a prominent citizen.

Nc64

644 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Colonel David Guy Maxwell, of Charlotte, is a native
of Mecklenburg county, born April 20, 1840, the son of
William Maxwell, who was a captain of State militia
before 1861, and for twenty-two years clerk of the court
and register of deeds of Mecklenburg county. His grand
father was Guy Maxwell, a native of County Tyrone,
Ireland, who emigrated to Pennsylvania about the year
1790, with his parents, William and Sarah (Guy) Max
well, who subsequently removed to Mecklenburg county,
leaving two brothers in Pennsylvania, a descendant of
one of whom, Robert Maxwell, was third assistant post
master-general in President Cleveland's second adminis
tration. The mother of Colonel Maxwell was Nancy
A. , daughter of Col. Zebulon Morris and great-grand
daughter of Judge John Ford, a signer of the Mecklen
burg declaration. Colonel Maxwell was educated at
various academies and at Davidson college, and immedi
ately after the fall of Fort Sumter, assisted in the organ
ization of a company known as the Mecklenburg Farmers,
which became Company H of the Thirty-fifth North
Carolina regiment. At first second lieutenant, he was
at once promoted first lieutenant, and after the reorgan
ization, elected captain. After the previous captain,
then disabled, resigned, he accepted this rank, in which
he served with much efficiency thereafter. He took part
in the bloody Seven Days' campaign before Richmond
and the battles of Harper's Ferry, Sharpsburg and
Shepherdstown, and from the latter field, being very ill,
was taken to a farmhouse and thence transferred to
Martinsburg, where, the hospital being full, he was cared
for in a private home. When the Federals took posses
sion of the town, the proprietor, fearing his house would
be burned, assisted him to escape at night. The captain's
faithful servant found a loose horse on the street, and
improvising a bridle, mounted the captain upon it and
carried him safely to a farmhouse six miles from the
enemy's lines, whence he was sent to his home. In the
spring of 1863 he rejoined his regiment, then in eastern
North Carolina, and attempted to resume his service, and
was able to leave the ambulance long enough to take part
in the battle of Batchelder's Creek, but was advised by the
surgeon to resign. This he did, with the recommenda
tion of General Ransom that he be assigned by Governor
Vance to light duty. He was soon elected colonel of the

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 645

Eighty- fifth North Carolina State militia, and appointed
Confederate State tax collector for the Forty-fifth North
Carolina district and stationed at Charlotte, where he
remained until the close of hostilities. He has resided at
Charlotte since 1867, occupied as a merchant and farmer,
owning the Sugar Hill estate, the site of a revolutionary-
battle, and frequently serving his city in official capaci
ties. For ten years he held the rank of adjutant of Meck
lenburg camp, U. C. V. He was married, in 1863, to
Margaret, daughter of Dr. S. B. Watson, and they have
five children. His eldest son, William, is yardmaster of
the Southern railroad at Columbia, S. C. , and the second
son, Watson, is in business at New York city.

Theophilus C. May, now a prominent citizen of Spring
Hope, N. C., and one of the leading farmers of his
county, was identified during the war with the troops
which served in defense of the State. He was born in
Franklin county in 1838, and in January, 1862, entered
the service of the State in a company organized in Nash
county. In a battalion composed of this and three com
panies from other counties, he was mustered in at
Raleigh, and first assigned to duty on the Raleigh &
Gaston railroad, guarding bridges, etc. , which occupied
the command until about May, 1863. His company, then
being ordered to Kinston, was merged in the battalion
of Maj. Clement G. Wright, under General Robertson's
command. After a short service at Tarboro, the com
pany was made a part of the Sixtieth regiment at Wil
mington, and with that command took part in various
service near the coast, including the siege and capture of
Plymouth. Private May shared in all this service and
the later perilous duty in defending Petersburg from
the Federal army under Butler and holding the Cold
Harbor line against Grant, and in the continual fighting
on the Petersburg lines to Christmas, 1864, when he was
transferred to Bragg's command at Wilmington. After
the fall of that city he participated in the gallant service
of Hoke's division at Bentonville. Since the close of hos
tilities he has devoted himself to the management of his
agricultural interests. By his marriage, in 1860, to Eliza
beth Edwards, he has had eleven children: Thomas J.,
who died in 1896, leaving one daughter, Ruth May;
James Oliver; Mary E., wife of W. G. Taylor; Ada A.,

646 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

wife of W. G. Edgington ; Susan E. , wife of J. M. Valen
tine; Charles E., Genatus J., Albert F., Sallie, Myrtle
and Wylie.

Samuel H. Maynor, of Norwood, Twenty-third regi
ment, was born in Montgomery county, November 12,
1840, the son of Andrew J. and Sallie (Redding) Maynor.
He was a member of the first company which left his
native county for the Confederate service, enlisting as
a private in the company of Capt. Calvin Cochran, Com
pany C of the Twenty-third regiment, State troops, Col.
D. H. Christie. His service began May 27, 1861, and
continued until the close of the war. In 1862 he was pro
moted corporal, and about the first of 1863 orderly-ser
geant. He was in all the battles of his regiment and
Iverson's brigade, except when disabled by wounds, and
was identified with the army of Northern Virginia from
the time the regiment was ordered there, the date of the
battle of First Manassas. Under Gen. Samuel Garland,
he was at Seven Pines and the campaign before Rich
mond, and fought at South mountain, where Garland fell.
In many other great battles he did a soldier's duty,
Chancellorsville, Gettysburg and Cedar Creek being some
of the most famous. Under Iverson his regiment was
among the first in the fight at Gettysburg, July ist, and
suffered terribly, Colonel Christie being among the killed
and Lieutenant-Colonel Johnston and Major Blacknall
among the wounded. Sergeant Maynor fell with a severe
wound in the face, which disabled him for six or eight
months. Returning to the service when he had recov
ered, he fought on, and at Cold Harbor was again
severely wounded, a ball passing through the leg. Fin
ally being surrendered at Appomattox, under the brigade
command of Gen. R. D. Johnston, he returned to his
native county and engaged in farming, which was his
occupation until 1895, when he embarked in the manage
ment of a hotel at Norwood. By his marriage, in 1865,
to Eliza J., daughter of George Hilliard, he has seven
children: Anna P., Emma B., J. C., Nannie L., M. C.,
L. A., and Sallie B. Maynor.

Captain Edward Hughes Meadows, a prominent citizen
of New Bern, served faithfully in various capacities with
the armed forces of the Confederate States. He was

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 647

born at New Bern, April 26, 1843, an(^ received his pre
paratory education there, then entering Trinity college,
which he left in 1859 to take up the study of medicine.
At the beginning of hostilities, in 1861, he volunteered as
a member of the Elm City Rifles, but after about one
month's service as a private, he was assigned to the med
ical department at New Bern, where he was on duty until
the evacuation. He performed the same service at Golds-
boro until September, 1862, when he was appointed
assistant commissary of subsistence, with the rank of
captain, and assigned to the Thirty-first regiment, North
Carolina troops. In this capacity and later as assistant
to Major Gage, commissary of Clingman's brigade, he
continued until the spring of 1864, when he went into
active service at the front as first sergeant of Company
K of the Thirty-first regiment. He fought in the des
perate battles of Drewry's Bluff, Bermuda Hundred and
Second Cold Harbor, until in the last he was shot in the
right wrist, completely disabling him for further duty in
the field. Nevertheless, after his wound had healed, in
November following, he was on duty in the medical
department at Goldsboro and afterward at High Point,
until the surrender. He was at Charleston during the
siege, and, in December, 1862, participated in the skir
mish at Deep Gully, Craven county. Since 1865 he has
been engaged in business at New Bern, first in the drug
trade and later as a manufacturer of fertilizers. He
has been honored with the presidency of the State board
of pharmacy two years; was mayor of New Bern four
years, 1884 to 1888; was eighteen years chairman of the
district school committee, and is now chairman of the
county board of education. In business matters he is
prominent as a former director of the Atlantic & North
Carolina railroad, and is now vice-president of the New
Bern cotton exchange and of the Citizens' bank.

John Stephen Meadows, of Louisburg, was born in
Granville county, N. C., February 25, 1840. At the begin
ning of the great war he abandoned his occupation as a
traveling salesman and devoted the next four years to the
military service of his State and the Confederacy, of
which he was a devoted supporter throughout. Enlisting
in June, 1861, as a private in Company D, Twelfth regi
ment, North Carolina troops, under Col. Sol Williams,

648 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

he was on duty as a private for about eighteen months,
during which he participated in the campaign in south
eastern Virginia, fighting at Hanover Court House and
in the Seven Days' battles, where his regiment suffered
heavy loss. Surviving the carnage there, he was taken
sick when the army entered Maryland and was left at a
farmhouse near Frederick City, where he was captured.
Fortunately, he was imprisoned but two months, at Fort
Delaware, and then being exchanged, returned to the
ranks in time to fight at Chancellorsville. At Gettys
burg he was shot in the right hand, compelling its
amputation, and he again fell into the hands of the
enemy, being held at David's island hospital, New York,
until September. Then being paroled, he returned
home, disabled for further service. In his crippled con
dition he took up the study of medicine, and, after study
ing at Richmond, Va., was graduated at the Atlanta
medical college in 1868. For five years he practiced the
profession near Oxford, N. C., and then embarked in
the tobacco business, which he has ever since followed.
Under President Cleveland's first administration he was
collector of internal revenue for the Fourth district.
Since 1890 his home has been at Louisburg, where he is
proprietor of the Meadows hotel. He was married in
1866 to Elizabeth D. Hobgood, of Oxford, who died in
1872, leaving four children, of whom three are living,
Toccoa, Samuel and Benjamin Hill. In 1874 he was
married to Dora Davis, of Henderson, by whom he has
seven children: Emma, John, Willie, Claude, Owen,
Boyd and Ruth.

Paul B. Means, a prominent lawyer residing at Con
cord, was born in Cabarrus county, April 7, 1845, of
patriotic North Carolina lineage. He is the son of Gen.
W. C. Means and his wife, Catherine Jane Barringer,
whose parents were both residents of Cabarrus county.
His great-grandfather, John Means, came to America
from Ireland about 1725, and John Paul Barringer, his
mother's grandfather, emigrated from Germany about
the year 1720. One of the latter family, John Paul Bar
ringer, was taken by the English troops and imprisoned
at Camden, S. C. , on account of his devotion to the cause
of the colonies during the war of the revolution. Colonel
Means, as the subject of this sketch is familiarly known,

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 649

enlisted, at the age of seventeen years, in Company F
of the Fifth North Carolina cavalry, and served as a
private and on the staff of Gen. Rufus Barringer, during
the remainder of the war, participating in all the cam
paigns of his regiment and many a hard-fought encounter
with the enemy. He was among the bravest of the
famous North Carolina troopers; in every emergency he
displayed the heroic qualities of a soldier, and was
wounded three times in battle. In a letter dated May 3,
1 88 1, to Wade H. Harris, editor of The Sun, Concord,
N. C., General Barringer says: "Colonel Means, though
a mere boy when he waived a right to an exemption from
the war, to which he was entitled on account of near-
sightedness, and volunteered, was allotted to my head
quarters after some years' service as a private in the
Fifth cavalry regiment, and bore a gallant and conspicu
ous part in most of the movements of the North Carolina
cavalry brigade. ' ' Returning home a veteran at the age
of twenty years, he completed his education at the uni
versity of North Carolina, with graduation in June, 1868;
and then entered upon the study of law, reading for two
years with Chief Justice Pearson at Richmond Hill. He
began the practice of his profession at Concord, January
17, 1870, and has since then made that place his home.
He has attained distinction as a lawyer, and since 1876
has acted continuously as counsel for the Richmond &
Danville railroad company and its successor, the South
ern. He was elected a trustee of the university of North
Carolina in 1872, and has ever since served in that capac
ity, being re-elected every eight years by the legislature
of North Carolina. He has also efficiently represented
his county several terms in each branch of the State leg
islature. He was commissioned by Governor Vance as a
member of his staff on the 8th day of January, 1877,
"with the rank of colonel to date from the ist day of
January, 1877." In 1868, and continuously since, he
has been active and prominent in the councils and cam
paigns of the Democratic party in his State and in the
nation. He has represented his county in every congres
sional, judicial and State convention in which it was en
titled to delegates since 1868, and has been a delegate from
his congressional district to three national conventions,
and once a delegate from the State-at-large to a national
convention. While always the truest supporter of all

650 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

nominees of the Democratic party, as represented at Chi
cago in 1896, he is an uncompromising "gold standard
Democrat," and has unfalteringly been so ever since the
differences on the financial issue began in his party ; and
since the issues of "free silver" and, subsequently, of
"fusion" with populists, first arose in his State, he has
always and vigorously opposed both ; notably as one of
the State Democratic executive committee for North Car
olina, of which he is now and has been a member for more
than twenty years, and most of the time he was the
only member of the committee who contested and voted
against these issues, until the State Democratic conven
tion of May 26, 1898, decided against fusion with any other
party. He is now the only "gold standard Democrat"
on this committee. On the 2yth day of November, 1894,
he and Mrs. M. F. Ross, formerly Miss Moselle Foard,
of Concord, were married in All Saints (Episcopal)
church of Concord, of which they are both members.

Colonel Oliver Pendleton Meares, of Wilmington, N. C. ,
entered the State service in April, 1861, as captain of
the Wilmington Rifle Guards, and, when that volunteer
organization became Company I of the Eighteenth
North Carolina regiment, he was elected lieutenant-
colonel. In this rank he served until the reorganization
in 1862, when he accepted the position of quartermaster
of the Sixty-first regiment. He remained with his regi
ment in this capacity until the list of quartermasters
was reduced, in 1864, when he became assistant brigade
quartermaster of Clingman's brigade, Hoke's division.
He served in this capacity until the surrender of John
ston's army at Greensboro. Making his home at Fay-
etteville after this event, he remained there until Janu
ary, 1867, when he was elected judge of the criminal
court of New Hanover county. His term in this office
was cut short, by its abolishment, and he resumed his
practice until again elected judge of the criminal court of
Hanover county. He served eight years in this office,
eight years as circuit judge of New Hanover and Meck
lenburg counties, and two years after the circuit was
enlarged to seven counties, resigning in 1897.

Thomas D. Meares, general agent of the Seaboard Air
Line railroad at Wilmington, has the honor of being one

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 651

of the boy soldiers of North Carolina during the closing
scenes of the great struggle. He was born at Raleigh,
in 1848, and was reared at Wilmington. In December,
1864, being about sixteen years of age, he enlisted as a
private in the Junior reserves, under Col. James G. Burr,
but within a few weeks his soldierly qualities led to his
selection as courier on the staff of Gen. Bradley T. John
son, at Salisbury. A month later he joined the staff of
Gen. Wade Hampton, between Hillsboro and Durham,
and began a service as courier for that gallant cavalry
commander, which continued until the end of the war.
After the battle of Bentonville and the surrender which
followed, he went to his father's farm near Salisbury
and remained there until 1867, when he returned to Wil
mington. For two years he was connected with the
Wilmington Star, subsequently was in the mercantile
business, and first entered the service of the railroad
with which he is now connected in 1874. He is a very
competent and courteous official, a valued citizen, and
has served efficiently as a member of the board of alder
men of Wilmington.

Cornelius Mebane, of Greensboro, a descendant of
Alexander Mebane, a distinguished public man of North
Carolina during the early days of the Republic, did gal
lant service as a soldier of the Confederacy. He was
born at Mason Hall, Orange county, June 14, 1839, and,
at the beginning of hostilities, as a member of the Orange
Guards, participated in the occupation of Fort Macon,
by the State troops. A few weeks later he joined an
other company which was assigned as Company F, to the
Sixth regiment, North Carolina volunteers, which, under
the command of Col. Charles F. Fisher, joined the forces
of General Johnston in the Shenandoah valley, and, mov
ing thence to the support of Beauregard, had its first
baptism of fire at the Henry house on the field of vic
tory at Manassas plains. At this time he held the posi
tion of quartermaster-sergeant, from which he was pro
moted to sergeant-major, and in 1862 to adjutant of the
regiment. He was with his gallant regiment at York-
town, through the Seven Days' campaign, at Second
Manassas and Boonsboro, Md., and, at the latter fight,
was wounded in the face and side, on account of
which he was sent to the hospital at Richmond and subse-

652 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

quently given a furlough. Rejoining his command, he
took part in the Pennsylvania campaign and the gallant
charge of his regiment to the summit of Cemetery hill
on the second day of the battle of Gettysburg. At Mine
Run he was again severely wounded, an arm being shat
tered, but he returned to duty at Kinston and took part
in the storming of Plymouth under General Hoke. Dur
ing the remainder of 1864 he was with his regiment in
almost constant service, driving Butler back from Peters
burg, defeating Grant on the Cold Harbor line, driving
Hunter down the Shenandoah valley, traversing Mary
land and demonstrating before the United States capital,
and taking part in the exhausting service and severe bat
tles of Early 's army opposed to Sheridan in the valley.
Then he served in the Petersburg trenches, took part in
the desperate attack of Gordon's corps on Fort Stedman,
and was with the army on the retreat to Appomattox,
where he was paroled. Subsequently he was mainly
engaged in cotton manufacturing, in Alamance county,
until 1 88 1, when he made his home at Greensboro, where
he has served for some time in the United States revenue
service.

Captain James I. Metts, of Wilmington, was born at Kin
ston, N. C., March 16, 1842, and was reared from the age
of six years at the city where he now resides. Early in
1 86 1 he left the State university to enlist in the Rifle
Guards, organizing in anticipation of war, and on April
1 5th was with his company in the seizure of Fort Cas-
well. Soon afterward his company was assigned to the
Eighteenth regiment, and he was made corporal and was
one of the color guard of the regiment when it was
ordered to Coosawhatchie, S. C. On leaving the latter
place he was given charge of the regimental colors,
which he carried until his term of service expired, after
twelve months. Re-enlisting, he became fifth sergeant
of Company G, Third regiment, Col. Gaston Meares, and
entered the campaign before Richmond at the close of
the battle of Seven Pines. He took part in the Seven
Days' battles with distinction, winning attention by his
unassuming bravery, and ability as sergeant specially
manifested in reforming part of the regiment at the bat
tle of Cold Harbor, and, in command of a detail, guard
ing a causeway in the Chickahominy swamp. He was

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 653

among those who received the last orders of Colonel
Meares before he was killed at Malvern hill. After this
fight he was made orderly- sergeant, and on return to
camp near Richmond, was honored by being assigned to
the main work of drilling the recruits for his company.
During the Maryland campaign he was disabled by ill
ness contracted in the peninsula swamps, but he rejoined
his company at Bunker Hill, and Captain Rhodes and
First Lieutenant Quince having been killed at Sharps-
burg, in the promotions which followed Sergeant Metts
became senior second lieutenant. At Winchester he was
detailed as commissary of the regiment, and after Front
Royal, he discharged the duties of adjutant. His cool
ness at Fredericksburg attracted the attention of superior
officers. Afterward he was disabled by pneumonia and
in hospital at Richmond until his regiment started
through Culpeper toward Pennsylvania, when he joined
it and took part in the fighting around Winchester, where
his brigade, Stuart's, at Jordan's Springs, did much
toward the victory over Milroy. He commanded the
rear guard of the brigade two days prior to crossing the
Potomac. In the Confederate assault on Gulp's hill, on
the evening of the second day of the battle of Gettysburg,
he led his men forward and was soon hotly engaged
within seventy-five yards of the second line of Federal
breastworks. In the dark some boy soldier came up to
him and said, * ' Lieutenant, my father is killed. ' ' He
could only answer, "Well, we cannot help it;" and the
boy, replying, "No, we cannot help it," turned about
and resumed firing as rapidly as he could at the enemy.
Long afterward the lieutenant was told that the boy kept
up his firing till exhausted, and that next day his face
was black with powder. A few minutes later Lieuten
ant Metts felt his right breast penetrated by a rifle ball,
and experienced the excruciating pain that follows a
wound in the lungs. He turned to Lieut. -Col. William
M. Parsley, Adjutant James and Capt. Ed. H. Arm
strong, three as brave men as ever stepped to the tap of
the drum, and told them his condition, and James helped
him to the ambulance corps. He soon fell from loss
of blood, and suffered terrible pain as he was hauled two
miles over the rough road in an ambulance. But for the
care of a sister of charity he would have died in the field
hospital. Many people from Baltimore and elsewhere

654 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

visited the wounded Confederates at Gettysburg, bring
ing clothing and delicacies of food. An elderly lady,
who brought two charming young lady friends, on find
ing that his rough bed had no sheet, pulled off her petti
coat, tore it in two and pinned it together, saying,
"Don't mind me, boys, I'm a mother; and he shall have
a good sheet to-morrow. ' ' The same kindness followed
him in the general camp hospital and in the West building
hospital at Baltimore, where he found his kinsmen, Col.
Thomas S. and James G. Kenan, also wounded on Gulp's
hill. Soon afterward he was transferred to Johnson's
island, Lake Erie, where Colonel Kenan was his bunk-
mate for thirteen months. Their sufferings here during
winter were excessive, with insufficient food, scanty
clothing, in houses neither ceiled nor plastered, and with
but one stove for about 60 prisoners. During one night,
when the mercury was twenty degrees below zero and
even the guard was forced to take shelter, Maj. John
Winsted and three or four others escaped and made their
way across the ice to the mainland, but the excessive cold-
prevented all from going further, except Major Winsted,
who reached Canada and returned to the Confederacy on
a blockade-runner. Many tunnels were dug for escape,
but were invariably discovered, and many amusing inci
dents occurred in connection with them. The treatment
of the prisoners by the guards was cruel until they were
relieved by two brigades from the front. In August,
1864, Lieutenant Metts was selected, as one of the most
enfeebled and delicate of the prisoners, for exchange, and
not long afterward found himself again upon the streets
of Richmond rejoicing in a new lease of life, for he had
been assured that he could not survive another winter at
Johnson's island. He found that Captain Armstrong, an
amiable gentleman, fine scholar and one of the bravest
of men, had been killed at Spottsylvania, and he had
been promoted to captain of his company, which he
joined at Staunton in December. He took command of
his company and Company E, and served in Cox's bri
gade of Grimes' division, though his health was very deli
cate, until detailed to serve on the staff of Major-General
Grimes as special inspector of division. The night before
arms were stacked at Appomattox he accompanied a
band from division headquarters to serenade General
Lee, who was too much affected to say much, but gave

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 655

each of the boys a warm pressure of the hand and an
affectionate good-bye. He started home in company
with Gen. W. R. Cox, Surg. Thomas F. Wood and
others, and, after joining his mother, brothers and sisters
at Graham, went to Wilmington and began the struggle
of civil life, with the duty of caring for his family, who
had lost all their property. His first engagement was
with two Federal sutlers, who treated him kindly. Since
then his exertions have been rewarded with the success
that is the just desert of a brave patriot. In 1882 Cap
tain Metts had the pleasure of receiving his sword,
which, as he was being taken to the rear at Gettysburg,
he gave to a Maryland physician, Dr. J. R. T. Reeves, for
safekeeping. The doctor saved the sword from capture,
and after many years' search, finally discovered its owner.

Anderson R. Miller, prior to his death a prominent
merchant of Kinston, N. C. , was born in Lenoir county,
in 1830, and was there reared and educated, and in 1858
was married to Delia M., daughter of James Henry. He
was one of four brothers who were in the service of the
Confederate States: John P. Miller, serving as a ser
geant in the Sixty-sixth North Carolina regiment ; Fran
cis X. as a pontoon builder, and Wyley P. as corporal in
Latham's battery. He entered the service in August,
1862, as a private in Nethercutt's battalion, which later
became a part of the Sixty-sixth regiment, and he was
on duty in the ranks with this command until the fall of
1864, when he was detailed as hospital steward with
Starr's battery. In that capacity he served until surren
dered with the army at Greensboro. His military service
was rendered within the State, and included a number
of skirmishes and the battles of Cobb's Mill and Benton-
ville. After the close of hostilities he returned to his
home at Kinston and resided there until his death. He
served two terms as city commissioner and was valued
as an enterprising and useful citizen. By his marriage,
in 1858, he had three children, who survive him: Sybil,
wife of Dr. H. O. Hyatt ; Maud, wife of George S. Luce ;
Edwin L., and William R. Miller. He died March 3, 1898.

James Calvin Miller, of Winston, one of the pioneers
of that flourishing young North Carolina city, is a native
of Forsyth county, born December 3, 1830. He recalls

656 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

with pride the fact that he was permitted to serve in the
Confederate cause, though circumstances prevented his
entering the army until the latter part of the war. His
enlistment was in Company G of the Fourth regiment,
North Carolina troops. With this famous command he
took part in the battle of Kinston and various skirmishes
in the eastern part of the State during the invasion by
Sherman and Schofield. Since the close of hostilities he
has been active in the upbuilding of his section in his
business as a carpenter and contractor. By his marriage,
in 1856, to Esther R. Thomas, he has four children,
J. R., Mrs. Mary E. White, Mrs. Laura M. Miller, and
Mrs. Alice S. Carmichael.

Robert Martin Miller, of Reidsville, a veteran of Ju-
nius Daniel's old regiment, who was severely wounded
at Sharpsburg and lost a leg at Chancellorsville, was
born in Rockingham county, December 19, 1835. He
enlisted May 24, 1861, in the Reid Guards, Capt. S. S.
Slade, which became Company G of the Fourteenth
regiment, North Carolina troops, organized at Garysburg
early in June. He was with his regiment at Yorktown,
at Seven Pines and through the bloody struggle of the
Seven Days before Richmond, at Second Manassas, South
Mountain and Sharpsburg, everywhere performing the
full duty of a fearless soldier. Wounded in the head at
Sharpsburg, where the loss of his regiment was very
heavy, he was for a considerable time confined to hospi
tal, but he returned to the ranks in time to take part in the
battle of Fredericksburg. At Chancellorsville, May 3d,
he fell with a severe wound in the left leg, which necessi
tated amputation. Thus crippled, he could no longer
serve the cause he loved, and as soon as able he returned
home to resume, with this heavy handicap, the struggles
of civil life. His career since then, mainly as a merchant
for twenty years at Reidsville, has been a thoroughly
honorable and praiseworthy one. By his marriage, in
1859, to Elizabeth Dodson, he has six children living:
James, Robert H., Mollie F., John, Jennie E., and Adol-
phus.

Lieutenant Luther R. Mills, for more than thirty years
a prominent factor in the educational affairs of North
Carolina, as professor of mathematics at Wake Forest

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 657

college, was associated with the cause of the Confederate
States as a member of the Twenty-sixth regiment, Vir
ginia infantry. He is a native of the Old Dominion,
born in Halifax county in 1840. In 1861 he was gradu
ated at Wake Forest college, receiving the master's de
gree, and in September following he entered the Con
federate service as fourth sergeant of Company K of
the Virginia regiment named. He was soon promoted
first sergeant of his company and retained that position
until 1864, declining promotion to captain and assistant
quartermaster. In the latter year he was commissioned
second lieutenant. His military service covered almost
the whole period of the war, and brought him into the
famous defensive fighting at Yorktown, Chapin's bluff,
at Charleston, S. C., during the siege of 1863, the defeat
of the Federal invasion of Florida, during the Olustee
campaign, Beauregard's defense of Petersburg against
Butler and Grant, and the siege of Petersburg, including
the battle of the Crater, where he was severely wounded
in the right shoulder. During the siege Lieutenant Mills
was identified with the service of Anderson's corps, and
during the retreat from Petersburg he was in the fight
ing up to and including Sailor's Creek, where he was
captured, April 6, 1865. As a prisoner of war he was
carried to the Old Capitol and thence to Johnson's island,
and was not released until June 19, 1865. He became a
member of the faculty at Wake Forest college in Janu
ary, 1867. By his marriage, in 1869, to Anna Lewis, of
Tarboro, he has three daughters and two sons, the latter
of whom are now in charge of the male academy at
Franklin.

Lieutenant Walter A. Montgomery, justice of the
supreme court of North Carolina, served as a Confederate
soldier throughout the four years' struggle, and returned
from Appomattox a veteran at the age of twenty years.
He was born at Warrenton, February 17, 1845, and en
listed in May, 1861, as a private in Company E, First
North Carolina cavalry, Capt. W. H. Cheek. But he was
very young for a soldier's life and a month later was
honorably discharged. Determined, however, to con
tinue in the service, he enlisted within ten days as a pri
vate in Company A of the Second infantry regiment,
then stationed at Norfolk. This regiment was known

658 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

after the reorganization, in May, 1862, as the Twelfth
infantry, and, under the command of Cols. B. O. Wade,
W. S. Davis and H. C. Coleman, in the brigade com
manded successively by Samuel Garland, Alfred Iverson
and Robert D. Johnston, won great distinction in the
army of Northern Virginia. Private Montgomery be
came a sergeant in 1862, and in the fall of 1864 was pro
moted to second lieutenant of Company F. He shared
the gallant service of his command at Hanover Court
House, in May, 1862; at Fredericksburg, December,
1862 ; at Chancellorsville, where he was slightly wounded ;
Brandy Station, June, 1863; the first day's battle at Get
tysburg, where he was wounded; Kelly's Ford, Mine
Run, the Wilderness, Spottsylvania Court House, Hatch
er's Run, the many months of fighting in the Petersburg
trenches, the famous sortie under Gordon on March 25,
1865, the battles of April ist and 2, 1865, Sailor's Creek
and other encounters on the retreat, and finally was in
the last fight at Appomattox, where he was paroled with
Lee. After this long career as a soldier, in which he
shared the fame of North Carolinians in the most valor
ous army of history, he became a student at Warrenton
academy. Soon his studies were specialized upon the
law, and, being admitted to practice at Raleigh, in Jan
uary, 1867, he began a career as a lawyer which is famil
iar to the people of his State. He made his residence at
Warrenton and remained in practice there, except two
or three years, in 1873-75, when his home was at Mem
phis, Tenn. In 1894 he was elected to the supreme
court of the State, to fill the vacancy caused by the ap
pointment of Judge Sheperd as chief justice, and in
1896 he was elected for the full term of eight years.

Lieutenant Augustus Minton Moore, formerly of the
Confederate States service, now an attorney of Green
ville, N. C., was born at Edenton in 1841, and there
reared and prepared for college at the Edenton academy.
He abandoned his studies at the university of North Caro
lina in May, 1861, to enter the military service for the
defense of his State, becoming a private in Company A
of the First regiment, State troops. A year later he was
elected first lieutenant of Company A, Third battalion,
light artillery, with which he served until the latter part
of 1863. He was then detached on staff duty with Col.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 659

George Jackson until toward the close of 1864, and after
ward as judge advocate of the general court martial, on
the staff of General Bragg. During his active career in
the field, he participated in the battle of Seven Pines,
the Seven Days' battles before Richmond and the North
Carolina engagements at Whitehall, and Spring Bank,
and was under fire at Sugar Loaf during the bombard
ment. He was once wounded, slightly, in the leg. He
was with the army at Greensboro, was surrendered there,
then returned to his native county, and like most of the
soldiers of the Confederacy, farmed at first for a liveli
hood. Subsequently reading law, he was admitted to
practice and remained at Edenton, following his profes
sion until January, 1883, when he removed to Greenville.
Thence, in 1889, he moved to the State of Washington,
and there made his home, first at Seattle and then at
Mount Vernon, engaging in the practice of law, and, in
1895, representing his county in the Washington legisla
ture. In January, 1897, he returned to Greenville. He
has taken a prominent part in political affairs, as a can
didate for attorney-general of North Carolina, in 1880,
and as a Republican candidate for presidential elector
in 1888.

James Daniel Moore, manufacturer and banker, at
Gastonia, and a veteran of the Twenty-sixth regiment,
North Carolina troops, was born in Caldwell county, in
1846, a son of Carroll Moore. His grandfather, Daniel
Moore, a native of Virginia, was a revolutionary soldier
at the age of fifteen years and fought at the battle of
King's Mountain. The latter was a grandson of John
Moore, a native of Ireland. The wife of Carroll Moore
was Sarah Mast, whose great-grandfather, David Mast,
emigrated from Holland to Pennsylvania, whence a
branch of the family removed to Ohio, where its descend
ants are prominent manufacturers. Mr. Moore, at the
outbreak of war, was preparing for college, but in May,
1 86 1, at the age of fifteen years, he enlisted as a private
in Company F, Twenty-sixth regiment. He served in
North Carolina until the spring of 1862, experiencing his
first battle at New Bern, and in Virginia fought at Seven
Pines and throughout the Seven Days' struggle before
Richmond. In North Carolina he again took part in the
siege of Little Washington and several skirmishes and

No 65

660 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

then, rejoining the army of Northern Virginia, fought at
Fredericksburg during the battle of Chancellorsville.
At Gettysburg his company, led by Captain Tuttle, took
part in the assault on Seminary ridge on the first day
and suffered terrible loss. Of eighty-seven men who
went into the charge, only three reached the crest of the
hill, one of whom was Private Moore. While crossing
the wheat field, the colors fell fourteen times, from the
hands of the wounded or killed color- bearers, and were
as often picked up and carried on toward the Federal
lines. Of the gallant three who reached the summit of
the hill, Moore was first wounded and then his comrade
Henry Coffee. The other, Sergt. Robert Hudspeth,
went through the battle unhurt. Mr. Moore was brought
back to Virginia and carried to Richmond, where he lay
in the hospital thirty days and was then sent to his home.
He was not able to rejoin his regiment until May i,

1864, on the eve of the terrible struggle from the Rapidan
to the James, in which he participated from beginning to
end. After the battle of the Crater on the Petersburg
lines, he was transferred to the First cavalry. After
obtaining a horse he joined the cavalry in September and
participated in the battle of Belfield. Here his horse,
being unused to war, became unmanageable and carried
him into the Federal lines, but, in the stampede, he
escaped without injury. During January and February,

1865, he served as courier to Gen. Wade Hampton and
subsequently was with a wagon train until the surrender
of the army. Returning to civil life, he went West, in
the winter of 1865, and resided at Winamac, Ind., George
town, 111., and Indianapolis, variously occupied, until
1868, when he returned to North Carolina. From that
time he was very successfully engaged as a merchant,
until 1897, when he became connected with the First
national bank at Gastonia, of which he is now cashier.
In 1888 he took a prominent part in the establishment of
the Gastonia cotton manufacturing company, of which
he was secretary and treasurer. Subsequently he found
ed the Modena cotton mill, with which he is connected as
secretary, treasurer and general manager. By his mar
riage, in 1870, to Martha J. Lewis, he has eight children,
Henry Beeler, John C., James D., Jr., Charles Milton,
Mary Eugenie, wife of J. Morrow; Essie Modena, wife
of Rev. C. H. Durham; Sarah Jane, and Martha Rebecca.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 661

Lieutenant James E. Moore, of the Third North Caro
lina cavalry, after the war a prominent lawyer of Williams-
ton, was born in Martin county, January 30, 1841. He
was graduated with the honor of valedictorian of his
class, at the university of North Carolina, in 1862, and
was at once admitted to the practice of law at Raleigh.
Returning home he made an unsuccessful attempt to
raise a company for the Confederate service, and then,
early in the fall of that year, enlisted as a private in the
Third cavalry. In the following year he was elected
second lieutenant of Company K, the rank in which
the remainder of his service was given. He was
first on duty in North Carolina and participated in the
fights at Fosler's Mill and near Jamesville in Martin
county, in 1863; was captured while on picket duty and
held as a prisoner about twenty days. Subsequently,
with the cavalry of the army of Northern Virginia, in
Barringer's brigade, his regiment, under the gallant lead
ership of Col. John A. Baker, he participated in many
battles and skirmishes in the vicinity of Petersburg and
Richmond, among them the engagements at Drewry's
Bluff, Hanovertown Ferry, Ashland, Hawes' shop,
Salem church, Hanover, Cold Harbor, and remained on
duty and in frequent fighting until, during the retreat,
he made his way to Lynchburg, and thence to Danville,
and home after the surrender. In the fall of 1865 he
was elected to the house of commons, and in 1867 to the
State senate. Subsequently making his home at Williams-
ton he resumed the practice of law, in which he after
ward continued.

John W. Moore, of Mecklenburg county — Bugler
Moore, of Barringer's brigade — is a native of that county,
born January 2, 1842. He is the son of Samuel McEw-
ing and Eveline C. (Wallace) Moore, both of Scotch-Irish
descent. He was educated at the Baptist institute at
Taylorsville, and enlisted May 18, 1861, as a musician in
Company C, Ninth regiment, North Carolina volunteers,
better known as the First North Carolina cavalry. He
was at once appointed bugler of the company, and in
that capacity served until in June, 1864, upon the promo
tion of Colonel Barringer to brigadier-general, he was
made bugler of the brigade. He was with his famous
regiment of daring troopers in more than seventy battles,

662 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

prominent among which were Dranesville, the Seven
Days before Richmond, South Mountain, Sharpsburg,
Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Brandy Station, June 9,
1863, and August i, 1863, Gettysburg, the Wilderness
and Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor, Yellow Tavern, Brook
Church and with the brigade throughout the battles
about Petersburg and on the retreat to Appomattox.
He was off duty but six weeks, on account of sickness.
His faithful horse, Frank, which he rode through the
war, except a few months after Brandy Station, when he
was wounded, survived, tenderly cared for by his master,
until March 7, 1887. Since the close of hostilities Mr.
Moore has been a prosperous farmer of his native county,
which he has had the honor of representing one term in
the legislature. He was married in 1865 to Margaret,
daughter of Dr. John H. Gibbon, and sister of Gen.
John Gibbon, of the United States army. She died in
1886, leaving eight children: John W., a Presbyterian
minister and missionary in Japan ; Nicholas G. , a physi
cian at Pineville, N. C. ; Lynford L., a medical mission
ary in China; Lizzie C., Samuel W., a Presbyterian
minister at Pocahontas, Va. ; Margaret Anna, Mary A. ,
and Francis L. In 1890 Mr. Moore was married to Mary
A., daughter of Dr. Leander Z. Williamson, of Lancas
ter, S. C.

Colonel Roger Moore, of Wilmington, the last com
mander of the Third North Carolina cavalry, was born
near Wilmington, July 19, 1838, and was in business in
that city as a wholesale and commission merchant at the
beginning of the great war. He was a member of the
Wilmington light infantry, and enlisting with that com
mand, served in the Eighteenth regiment, to which it
was assigned, until June, 1861, when he resigned. In
the spring of 1862 he entered the service again as a mem
ber of the company known as Lawrence's Partisan
Rangers, subsequently assigned to Claiborne's regiment,
the Forty-first North Carolina, or Third cavalry. When
Lawrence's rangers were divided into two companies,
Private Moore was promoted captain and given command
of the senior company. Soon afterward, being disabled
by the fall of his horse, he was unable to rejoin his com
mand until four months later, when he was made com
missary of the Third cavalry, with the rank of captain.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 663

About a year later he was promoted major, and, in this
rank, when Col. John A. Baker was captured June 21,
1864, he took command of the regiment. In August,
1864, he was promoted lieutenant-colonel. While with
the Third cavalry he participated in the battles of Kins-
ton in December, 1862, New Bern (with General Hoke),
the cavalry affairs on the Blackwater and with Long-
street about Suffolk, the battles which resulted in the
bottling of Butler at Bermuda Hundred, Ashland, Yel
low Tavern, Hanovertown, Hanover Court House, North
Anna Bridge, Nance's Shop, Deep Bottom, White Oak
Swamp, Malvern Hill, Charles City Road, where Gen
eral Chambliss was killed, Belfield, the fighting with Wil
son's and Kautz's raids under Hampton, the City Point
cattle raid, Reams' Station, Burgess' Mill, Hatcher's
Run, Davis' Farm, Dinwiddie Court House, Five Forks
and Namozine Church. In all of these spirited cavalry
engagements Colonel Moore bore himself as a gallant
officer, fully sustaining the reputation of the troopers led
by Gordon, Barringer and W. H. F. Lee. After the sur
render of the army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox
he returned to Clinton, N. C., and in August following
again made his home at Wilmington, where he has ever
since resided, becoming one of the leading and prosperous
business men of the city. He has served as alderman of
the city and county commissioner of New Hanover county.

William Collier Moore, of Mount Airy, though a North
Carolinian by birth, served during the war of the Con
federacy in a Georgia command. He was born in Cald-
well county, June 6, 1842, and in 1850 was taken by his
parents to a new home in Forsyth county, Ga. His
first service, after the beginning of the war, was in
the State troops at Brunswick, for five - months, after
which he enlisted in the Confederate service with the
Fulton Dragoons, under Capt. William M. Williams,
which went to the field in Virginia as a part of the legion
commanded by Col. T. R. R. Cobb, in the spring of 1862.
He participated in the Seven Days' battles before Rich
mond, and subsequently was assigned to the cavalry bri
gade of Gen. Wade Hampton, Stuart's division, army of
Northern Virginia. After this he shared the fighting of
Hampton's brigade and division, throughout the cam
paigns of 1862 and 1863 in Virginia, Maryland and Penn-

664 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

sylvania, participating in a great number of combats and
several famous battles, and in 1864 was at the front
from the Rapidan to the James. After the army had
occupied the Richmond and Petersburg lines, his regi
ment was on duty against Sheridan and Hancock, and
he shared their constant service until November, when
he was sent South to obtain horses. While on this duty
at Augusta, Ga., he was called on to serve in the trenches
against the advancing army of Sherman. Here he was
one of fifty mounted men under Gen. P. M. B. Young,
who, with a body of dismounted men under Major Puck-
ett, of Phillips' legion, did good service against the great
Federal army of invasion. Falling back before the
enemy, he was with General Young when the latter, com
manding fifty troopers and 300 dismounted men, held back
a division of the Federal army until Savannah could be
evacuated. In the spring of 1865 he fought under
Hampton at Bentonville, and then, being taken sick,
remained in Wake county until 1873. After that he
made his home in Raleigh until 1892, when he became a
citizen of Mount Airy. He has served as commissioner
of the county and is an influential citizen.

Captain William Thomas Moore, of Thomasville, N. C. ,
was born in Halifax county, Va., December 28, 1828,
but was reared in North Carolina. In the spring of 1861
he became a member of the Leesburg Grays, which was
assigned to the Third regiment of volunteers, organized
May 1 6, 1861, at Garysburg, under Col. W. D. Pender.
After the regiment was ordered to Suffolk, Private Moore
was sent back to North Carolina to obtain recruits, and
continued in this duty until he was severely injured by a
falling tree, which caused his disability for some time.
On his recovery he was elected captain of a company of
the reserves, with which he served in eastern North
Carolina until the close of hostilities, participating in the
battle of Kinston and at the close being stationed at Lex
ington. Since then Mr. Moore has been engaged in
farming quite successfully, is one of the leading men of
his county, and for two years has served as superintend
ent of the orphanage at Thomasville.

^ Edwin W. Morris, of Franklin ton, a veteran of the
Sixth North Carolina regiment, was born in Granville

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 665

county, July 9, 1845, son of R. F. Morris, the senior
member of the firm that first manufactured smoking
tobacco at the town of Durham, now so widely noted for
that industry. He was educated at Horner's preparatory
school at Oxford, and at Durham, where his parents
moved in 1859. In March, 1863, before he had reached
his eighteenth birthday, he volunteered as a private in
Company C of the Sixth infantry, the old regiment of
Colonels Fisher and Fender, then under the command of
Col. S. McD. Tate. He participated in the North Caro
lina battles at Plymouth and Washington, and then,
going into Virginia, was at Lynchburg when Hunter was
driven from that post, took part in the Valley campaign
under Early. During the winter of 1864-65 he fought in
the trenches at Petersburg, took part in the battle of
Burgess' Mill, and was one of those in the heroic attack
upon Hare's Hill by Gordon's command, in which part of
the Federal line was taken. After fighting on the re
treat from Petersburg to Appomattox, he was with the
last of the army under Lee. On his return home he
found General Kilpatrick in command at Durham, and
his father's house in use as headquarters for that officer.
Soon afterward he entered the tobacco manufacturing
business with his father and continued until 1870. Sub
sequently he was connected for several years with the
Blackwell factory, until he removed to Franklinton and
engaged in mercantile business. In 1893 he was ap
pointed postmaster at that place, where he has also held
the office of mayor three years and of justice of the peace
eight years. He also for two years conducted a news
paper at Franklinton. By his marriage, in 1866, to Sarah
A., daughter of Capt. W. H. Williams, of Franklinton,
Mr. Morris has nine children: Leo C., in business at
Wilson ; Bertha, Minnie, Blanche, wife of T. W. Whed-
bee, of Franklinton ; Mary, wife of J. S. Morris, of Frank
linton ; Robert Wilson, in the railway service at Durham ;
Carrie, Billie Dunn and Katie Bet.

Captain Willis Wilson Morrisette, of Elizabeth City,
was born in Camden county, N. C., January 19, 1839, the
son of Tully Morrisette, a soldier of the war of 1812.
Being of military age at the beginning of hostilities in
the spring of 1861, Mr. Morrisette abandoned his occu
pation of teaching school to volunteer as a soldier of

666 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

North Carolina and of the Confederate States. He en
listed as a private in the Seventh regiment, North Caro
lina volunteers, known later as the Seventeenth State
troops. His service with this command was until its
disbandment in the spring of 1862, when he re-enlisted
in Company B, Sixty-eighth infantry, with the rank of
lieutenant. About a year later he was unanimously
elected captain of Company G of the same regiment, the
rank which he held during the remainder of the war.
He is remembered as a skillful and capable officer, who
manifested undaunted courage in the face of danger.
Among the battles in which he took an honorable part
were those of Kinston, Bentonville and Cox's Bridge.
After the close of hostilities he engaged in farming and
later conducted a store in Camden county, until 1872,
when he was elected register of deeds of the latter
county. He filled that office with credit for six years,
and then was county commissioner for a considerable
time. He made his home at Elizabeth City, as agent for
Pettit's steamboat line, in 1893. By his marriage, in
1865, to Louise Seymour, of Camden county, Captain
Morrisette has two children : Laura, wife of Dr. Ritter,
of Mayock, and Clara, wife of S. B. Bartlett, of New
port News.

Lieutenant Daniel F. Morrow, mayor of Burlington for
several years past, a veteran of Lane's North Carolina
brigade, was born in Alamance county in 1842, son of
John Morrow, a planter of that county. He was pre
pared for college at Bingham's school, and was a student
at the State university when he enlisted in the spring of
1861, at the age of eighteen years, in Company G of the
Twenty-eighth regiment, North Carolina troops. He was
on duty at Wilmington until the spring of 1862, and then
marched to New Bern and covered the retreat from Fort
Macon. Then being transferred to Virginia, he took part
in the battle of Hanover Court House (was taken pris
oner and held at Governor's island and Fort Delaware
for two months), Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, fight
ing on the first and third days of that battle ; Bristoe Sta
tion and the skirmishes of the fall campaign of 1863; the
Wilderness, Spottsylvania Court House, Cold Harbor,
Fair Oaks, and the frequent encounters and constant
service on the Petersburg lines, until April, 1865. After

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 667

the evacuation of the Confederate capital he was in the
battle of Farmville and was surrendered at Appomattox.
During this service he was wounded several times, but
fortunately not severely. Entering the army as a private,
he was promoted to sergeant in 1862, to third lieutenant
in 1863, and to second and then to first lieutenant in the
last year of the war. He has had a successful business
career since his return to civil life, first in Orange county,
and since 1890 at Burlington. The estimation in which
Lieutenant Morrow is held by his fellow citizens is shown
by his retention in the office of county commissioner for
ten years, and his election and re-election as mayor of
the city. By his marriage, in 1868, to Martha E.,
daughter of Brice Carter, of Alamance county, he has
five children: Annie L. , Mary Jessie, Charles H., Wil
liam R. , and Paul E. Morrow.

Lieutenant Elbert A. Moye, of Greenville, clerk of the
superior court of Pitt county, was born in that county in
1842, the grandson of George Moye, a soldier of the revo
lution. His Confederate service was rendered in the
Eighth North Carolina regiment, in which he enlisted as
a private of Company G, September 3, 1861. He rose
through the grades of corporal and orderly-sergeant to
second lieutenant, and was distinguished as a gallant sol
dier. He was first in battle at Roanoke island, and was
there captured, paroled and exchanged. Subsequent
prominent events in his military record were the battle of
Goldsboro, the defense of Charleston and the skirmish on
James island, the capture of Plymouth, the battles of
Suffolk, Bermuda Hundred, Drewry's Bluff and New
Bern, the Chicamicomico expedition, fight between
Kinston and New Bern, and Second Cold Harbor. He
was captured at the latter battle and was confined at Fort
Delaware until June 17, 1865. He was elected to the
house of commons in 1876 and to the senate in 1878,
and has held his present office since 1885.

Francis Marion Moye, M. D. , of Wilson, N. C. , a prom
inent ex-Confederate, was born in Pitt county in 1839,
was educated at Chapel Hill, and in medicine at the uni
versities of Pennsylvania, New York and Tennessee,
being graduated at the latter institution in 1861. Re
turning to North Carolina, he enlisted as a private in the

668 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

heavy artillery regiment of Col. John J. Hedrick. ^ Later
he was detailed as assistant surgeon, and served in that
capacity until after the fall of Fort Fisher, when he
resumed his place in the ranks. He was with his com
mand at Petersburg, but, being compelled to return by
illness, was not again able to be on duty except during
a part of the closing operations in North Carolina. Since
then he has resided in Wilson county, engaged in farm
ing and merchandise until about 1890, and subsequently
giving his entire attention to the affairs of the Masonic
order, in which he has held many exalted offices.

Colonel Kenneth McKenzie Murchison, of Wilmington,
was born near Fayetteville, N. C., February 18, 1831, the
son of Duncan Murchison, a native of Scotland, who set
tled in North Carolina about 1760 and became prominent
in the planting and manufacture of cotton. The eldest
son, John R., enlisted early in the war in the Eighth
regiment, won promotion to colonel, and was killed in the
battle of Cold Harbor, June 6, 1864. A younger son,
David Reid, served in the Seventeenth and Fifty- fourth
regiments, and later was inspector-general of the com
missary department for the State, and for some time,
subsequent to 1880, was the owner of the Carolina Cen
tral railroad. Colonel Murchison, the second son of
Duncan, was graduated at Chapel Hill in 1853, and then
engaged in business pursuits in New York city and Wil
mington until the spring of 1861, when he disposed of his
business in the North, assisted in the organization of a com
pany at Fayetteville, and entered the service as second lieu
tenant. His command became Company C of the Eighth
regiment, and was captured at Roanoke island, a disaster
which Lieutenant Murchison escaped by his fortunate
absence. He then organized another company in Cum
berland county, which was assigned to the Fifty-fourth
regiment, with himself as captain. He was at once
elected major upon the organization of the regiment,
was soon promoted lieutenant-colonel, and after the
death of Col. J. C. S. McDowell, at Fredericksburg,
became the colonel of the regiment. He was specially
commended for gallant service at Fredericksburg by Gen.
E. M. Law, commander of his brigade. He commanded
his regiment at Chancellorsville and in the battle of
Winchester against Milroy, and subsequently was ordered

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 669

to convey the prisoners taken on that occasion to Rich
mond, and, returning promptly to Winchester, served in
guarding the wagon trains of Lee's army. On July 6th,
in command of his regiment, he gallantly repulsed the
enemy's advance on Williamsport. He served in Hoke's
brigade during the subsequent operations in Virginia,
and when the brigade was cut off by the enemy at Rap-
pahannock Station, November 7, 1863, he was among the
captured. From that time he was held as a prisoner of war
at Johnson's island, Lake Erie, until July, 1865, an im
prisonment of twenty months. Upon his release he
resumed business at New York and established branch
houses at Wilmington and Fayetteville, doing an exten
sive banking business. Though a resident of New York,
he spends the winter seasons at Wilmington, where he
has large property interests, is the owner of a popular
hotel, and has a beautiful home upon a large body of
land embracing the site of the First St. Philip's church.

Cyrus Murphy, a Confederate veteran, residing at Fay
etteville, is a native of Cumberland county, born Septem
ber n, 1842, son of William and Mary J. (Blue) Murphy.
His family in both branches has been living in North
Carolina since the revolutionary war, coming originally
from Scotland. After receiving an education in the
common schools, he engaged in farming and continued
in that occupation until the outbreak of war, when he
enlisted in Company K, Thirty-eighth regiment, North
Carolina State troops. Beginning as a private, he was
promoted sergeant-major in recognition of his good
record as a soldier, in August, 1862. His regiment was
part of Scales' brigade and participated in the campaign
before Richmond in June, 1862, and he shared its service
in that bloody series of battles, as well as at Cedar mount
ain, the second battle of Manassas and Germantown, Sep
tember Qth. In the latter engagement he was severely
wounded, receiving a ball in the leg, which is not yet
extracted. Though disqualified for further service on
the field, he continued on duty with the army and was
put on detached service in the quartermaster's depart
ment at Jackson, Northampton county. He returned
home to Fayetteville finally, on furlough, just in time to
be captured by Sherman's troops, and he was then sent
as a prisoner of war to Point Lookout, Md., and held

670 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

until July, 1865. One of the atrocities of this period was
the murder of his brother, Wellington. The latter, a
brave Confederate soldier, had come home badly wounded,
and when Sherman's army entered Fayetteville, he was
taken from the house by some of the Federal soldiers and
shot through the head. Since the war Sergeant Murphy
has been engaged in farming and teaching school. In 1 894
he was elected to the office of clerk of the superior court
of Cumberland county. By his marriage, August 12, 1868,
to Lucy A. Holmes, he has seven children: Wellington
A., Willie G., Lillie I., Stella A., Rosaline, Maude and
Claude.

Needham Whitley Musgrave, of Goldsboro, a survivor
of the Twenty-seventh regiment, North Carolina troops,
was born in Wayne county in 1842. In June, 1861, he
enlisted in Company A of the Twenty-seventh regiment,
as a private, and, with the forces under General Branch,
had his first encounter with the enemy at New Bern.
Reaching Richmond, Va. , under the command of Col.
John R. Cooke, during the battle of Seven Pines, he took
part in the service of General Holmes' command during
the Seven Days' battles, and afterward remained on
duty near Petersburg and Richmond until the Maryland
campaign, where his regiment was present at the capture
of Harper's Ferry and fought gallantly at Sharpsburg.
Subsequently he took part in the battle of Fredericks-
burg; and at Bristoe Station, where nearly all of his
company were killed or wounded inside of a few minutes,
he received a wound in the right foot which prevented
further active duty. A few months later he began serv
ice in the quartermaster's department with the army and
continued in this up to the call for every man able to
ride a horse to take the field, which he did as a member
of Kennedy's battalion. Soon afterward, being trans
ferred, he was sent home to procure horses, and was not
able to rejoin his command before the surrender. After
the capitulation at Greensboro he was paroled at Raleigh.
Returning to his home he studied dentistry and practiced
that profession about three years, but since then has
given his attention entirely to farming. In 1892 he made
his home at Goldsboro. He has served as chairman of
the county board of education, and is now a trustee of the
Greensboro school. In 1877 he was married to Marietta,

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 671

daughter of Thomas W. Yelverton. Thomas W. Mus-
grave, a brother of the foregoing, served as a private in
Company A of the same regiment until captured in the
battle of the Wilderness, after which he was a prisoner
of war. He died in 1869.

Frederick Nash, for more than twenty-five years clerk
and treasurer of the city of Charlotte, was born at Hills-
boro, N. C., July 22, 1839. His ancestry has been con
spicuous in the history of the State, his father, Henry K.
Nash, having been a lawyer and orator of widespread
fame; his grandfather, Frederick Nash, having served
as chief justice, and his great-grandfather, Abner Nash,
having the honor of being the second governor of North
Carolina. The brother of the latter, Francis Nash, was
a brigadier-general in the revolutionary army and was
killed at the battle of Germantown. By ancestral mar
riage, Frederick Nash is also descended from Gov. Wil
liam Bradford, who landed at Plymouth Rock from the
Mayflower and became the second governor of Massa
chusetts colony. The subject of this sketch was educated
at the university of North Carolina, and was admitted to
the practice of law in 1860. But in August, 1861, he
abandoned his profession to enlist as a private in Com
pany G of the Twenty-seventh North Carolina regiment.
Soon afterward he was detailed as secretary of the board
of military claims for the State, the chairman of the
board being Hon. B. F. Moore, and the other members
Hon. S. F. Phillips, late solicitor-general of the United
States, and Hon. P. H. Winston, father of the former
president of the State university. In the latter part of
1862 he rejoined his regiment and served in the ranks
until October, 1863, when he was detailed upon the staff
of General Kirkland and subseqtiently upon the staff of
Gen. William MacRae. After the battle of Hatcher's
Run, October 27, 1864, he was appointed adjutant-gen
eral of Barton's brigade, Custis Lee's corps, the position
which he held until the close of his service. He partici-
pated in numerous engagements with the enemy, notably
the battles of Gum Swamp, Bristoe Station, Mine Run,
the Wilderness, Spot tsyl van ia, Burgess' Mill, Reams'
Station (where he was slightly wounded), and the battles
about Petersburg, until during the last retreat, three days
before the surrender, in a sudden attack from a Federal

672 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

scouting party he was seriously wounded in the right leg.
On the next day it became necessary to amputate the
limb, seriously disabling him for life. He made his home
at Charlotte, in 1871, and has ever since been one of the
most respected citizens of the town. He is a member of
Mecklenburg camp. By his marriage, in 1873, to Bettie
M. Little John, of Oxford, he has five children living.

Lieutenant Joseph G. Neal, of Marion, for many years
sheriff of McDowell county, of which he is a native, was
born in 1842, the son of Joseph Neal, of Scottish birth.
He entered the military service of the State as a private
in the company of J. M. Neal, which, upon going into
camp at Raleigh, was assigned to the Twelfth regiment,
North Carolina volunteers, as Company B. This regi
ment was ordered into Virginia and Private Neal shared
its services at Evansport, guarding the Potomac river,
until the spring of 1862. Then he served in the defense
of Yorktown, and, after the evacuation of that post,
fought in the battles of Williamsburg and Seven Pines.
Following the latter engagement he suffered a severe at
tack of pneumonia and was honorably discharged. Later
in the course of the war, having recovered his health, he
enlisted in the Forty-ninth regiment, Gen. M. W. Ran
som's brigade, with which, in May, 1864, he was in the
heat of battle at Drewry's bluff and Bermuda Hundred,
for a few days confronted Grant on the Chickahominy,
and then took part in the famous battles of June i6th and
1 7th before Petersburg. From this date until March 16,
1865, just nine months, he was on duty in the Petersburg
trenches, often not a hundred yards from the works of
the enemy, constantly exposed to danger and death, as
well as to cold and storm, through the dark and gloomy
winter. During the greater part of this time he held the
rank of lieutenant of Company B, Thirty-fifth regiment,
with which he participated in the assault on Fort Sted-
man, March 25, 1865. At the battle of Five Forks, April
ist, he was captured by the enemy, and soon afterward,
being transferred to Johnson's island, was held there as
a prisoner of war until June 19, 1865. Several times
during his career he suffered slight wounds. In 1871,
Lieutenant Neal was appointed tax collector, and in 1872
he was elected sheriff of his county. Such was his effi
ciency that he was retained in this office until his resig-

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 673

nation in 1890. From 1894 until November, 1897, he
served as deputy collector. By his marriage, in 1866, to
Rowena E. Weaver, he has six children living1, Minnie
N. , widow of W. P. Blanton ; Laura N. , wife of John B.
Newton; Lizzie, wife of Samuel H. Yancey; William W.
Neal, of the United States war department; Bonnie,
wife of Dr. Gay S. Kirby, and Leon Andrews.

Lieutenant Marmaduke W. Norfleet was born in Cas-
well county, N. C., June 10, 1839. When a boy he moved
to Yancey ville, N. C., and in 1857, at the age of eighteen,
was elected second lieutenant of the Yanceyville Grays,
then just organized, and it was with this company he
volunteered his services to the Confederate States in
1 86 1. His company was assigned as Company A, to the
Thirteenth North Carolina regiment, and with this regi
ment he served until the spring of 1862, when, upon the
resignation of Captain Graves, he was elected in his
stead. But preferring not to part with his old friend and
officer, he severed his connection with Company A,
Thirteenth regiment, and was transferred with Captain
Graves to Company A, Forty-seventh North Carolina
regiment, as second lieutenant, and with this regiment
he served until Gettysburg, where he went down seri
ously wounded in a hand-to-hand conflict. How well he
served may best be told in the simple words of the faith
ful old negro, who was servant to him until he was taken
prisoner: "He was a good soldier and a Christian gen
tleman, and conducted himself as such at all times dur
ing the time I was with him." He was taken from Get
tysburg to a United States hospital on Bedloe island, and
after his partial recovery was moved to David's island
prison and then to Johnson's island, where he remained
until the following summer, when he was. again moved
to Point Lookout, and later to Fort Delaware, from
which place he was paroled in September, 1864. He
was never exchanged and so could not return to the army.
Miss Ellen Kirkpatrick, the girl who had watched and
waited for his coming through all the years of war, chose
to share his fate and become his wife. Eight children
blessed a happy union. Two daughters, five sons and his
loved and honored wife survive him, for on September
27, 1890, he crossed "over the river to rest under the
shade of the trees" with comrades gone before. All

674 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

of his family reside in Winston, N. C. , where his sons
are prominently connected in business, all of whom live
to honor his memory.

Captain William Harris Northrop, a prominent business
man of Wilmington, who served in the Confederate cause
in various capacities throughout the war, was born at
that city in 1836 and there reared and educated. In 1855
he became a member of the State military organization,
known as the Wilmington light infantry, with which he was
on duty before the secession of the State at Fort Caswell
and later at Fort Fisher. In June, 1865, he was commis
sioned lieutenant and assigned to the Third North Caro
lina, then stationed at Aquia creek, on the Potomac. He
served in the line about eighteen months and was then
commissioned captain quartermaster. After six months
of this duty, with his regiment he was transferred to the
Second corps, engineer troops, and stationed at Wilming
ton and vicinity. After the evacuation of that city he was
attached to the staff of General Bragg until the surrender.
Among the engagements in which he participated were
Aquia Creek on the Potomac, the Seven Days' battles
before Richmond, Frederick City, Boonsboro and Sharps-
burg, Md., and Bentonville, N. C. Both as a company
officer and a staff officer his service was marked by
bravery and entire devotion to the cause. Since the close
of hostilities Captain Northrop has constantly resided at
Wilmington, where he is regarded as one of the reliable
business men and leading citizens.

Captain John M. Odell, of Concord, one of the promi
nent manufacturers of the South, was born in Randolph
county, January 20, 1831. He is the son of James Odell
and Anna Trogden, the latter being the granddaughter
of Solomon Trogden, who emigrated to America before
the revolutionary war, in which he served as a soldier.
Captain Odell engaged in manufacturing cotton before
the period of civil war, and served at that time as
postmaster at Cedar Falls. When the State seceded and
it became necessary to organize troops for her military
defense, he was active in the work, and being prominent
in the formation of a company was elected captain.
This was assigned to the Twelfth volunteer regi
ment, commanded by Colonel Pettigrew, as Company M.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 675

This was afterward known as the Twenty-second regi
ment. Captain Odell was identified with its record in
Virginia, tinder the gallant Pettigrew, in Holmes' bri
gade, on duty on the Potomac river, and on the penin
sula, up to and including the battle of Seven Pines. He
then, on the expiration of his enlistment, being in feeble
health, returned to North Carolina and resumed his work
as a manufacturer, in which he could more effectually
aid in the work of supporting the newly organized repub
lic. His brother, Laban Odell, who entered the service
as a lieutenant in the Twenty-second regiment, contin
ued in the field, was promoted to major for gallantry at
Fredericksburg, and was killed at Chancellorsville. Cap
tain Odell has prospered in his enterprises since the war,
and is now proprietor of the Odell cotton mills, of Con
cord, probably the largest manufactory of the kind in the
State. By his marriage, in 1853, to Rebecca C. Kirk-
man, he has two children living : W. R. Odell and Ollie
M., wife of S. J. Durham. In 1891 he was married
to Mrs. Addie Allison White, daughter of R. W. Alli
son,

Charles J. O'Hagan, M. D., surgeon of the Thirty-fifth
North Carolina infantry, now a prominent physician of
Greenville, was born in the county of Londonderry, Ire
land, in 1821, and came to America in 1842, making his
home at Greenville. He studied medicine, was gradu
ated at the New York medical college, and left his prac
tice in the spring of 1861 to become first lieutenant of
Company H, Twenty-seventh regiment. In July follow
ing he resigned this rank, and entering the medical
department was assigned as assistant surgeon to the
First North Carolina cavalry. In May, 1862, he was
transferred to the Thirty- fifth regiment and promoted
surgeon, the capacity in which he served during the
remainder of the war. He was devoted to the men of
his commands, and was with them under fire in the bat
tles near Vienna, Dranesville, Sharpsburg, the Seven
Days before Richmond, Fredericksburg, Little Washing
ton, N. C., Drewry's Bluff, served in the lines at Peters
burg from June 17, 1864, until the evacuation, and was
in the final conflicts at Five Forks, Sailor's Creek and
Appomattox.

No 66

6T6 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Captain William H. Oliver, of New Bern, was born at
that city in 1829. He married Hannah Taylor Attmore,
daughter of George S. Attmore, a distinguished lawyer
and bank president. He was the son of Samuel Oliver,
who was a native-born citizen of New Bern, and during
his life he resided in New Bern. Not only Mr. Oliver's
father, but his ancestors for four generations previous
have been natives of the city. The first of the family at
New Bern was John Oliver, who settled in 1720, and the
line descends through John Oliver, second, Joseph
Oliver, Samuel Oliver, to the subject of this sketch. At
the age of nineteen years he engaged in mercantile pur
suits, and during the years succeeding prospered in busi
ness. When the State began an organization for the
impending war, in April, 1861, his sagacity and experi
ence as a business man were called into use by his appoint
ment as quartermaster, with the rank of captain. In
this capacity he served at New Bern until the evacuation
of the city, when he continued the same services at Gra
ham until the spring of 1863. He was then commis
sioned by Governor Vance as agent for the State to pur
chase cotton for blockade-running purposes, with instruc
tions to buy every bale available at the price of twenty
cents per pound. He first gathered up all the cotton in
most danger of seizure by the enemy, and in a short time
had purchased about 7,000 bales. A large part of this
was shipped to England and there sold by John White,
of Warrenton, the agent of the State in that country, and
with the proceeds were purchased the steamship Lord
Clyde, afterward known as the Advance, and a great
quantity of clothing and other supplies for the army.
Some of the cotton was manufactured at home into cloth
and yarn, and the latter Captain Oliver exchanged in
Virginia for leather. After this duty was performed he
rendered further services of a similar nature as special
agent of the State until the close of the war, when he
was surrendered with the army at Greensboro. Subse
quently he engaged in buying cotton, and three years
later entered the insurance business, his present occupa
tion. He is one of the leading citizens of New Bern, has
served several terms as councilman, and prepared the act
of the general assembly, passed in 1897, which fixed the
correct title of the city as New Bern. In 1896, when
John B. Pioda, minister to the United States from Switz-

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 677

erland, brought to New Bern a beautiful silk flag pre
sented by the old city of Bern, Mr. Oliver took a promi
nent part in the social functions, and in return was hand
somely entertained by the Swiss minister at the Swiss
legation during a subsequent visit to Washington. By his
marriage, in 1854, to Hannah T., daughter of George S.
Attmore, a prominent lawyer, who died in 1861, he has
five children : George Attmore, Elizabeth Gettic, wife of
Martin Williard, Mary Taylor, Hannah Attmore, wife of
Capt. R. B. Huske, and Martha Harvey, wife of Thomas
M. Constable.

Colonel Edwin Augustus Osborne, of the Fourth regi
ment, North Carolina State troops, now a minister of the
Protestant Episcopal church, resident at Charlotte, was
born in Laurens county, Ala., May 6, 1837. His father,
Dr. Ephraim Brevard Osborne, in early life a soldier of
the war of 1812, was the son of Col. Adlai Osborne, of
the colonial militia of North Carolina, whose wife was
Margaret, daughter of Gen. Thomas Lloyd, of the same
service. His mother was Nancy, daughter of John
Smith, a planter, who emigrated from Westmoreland
county, Va. , early in the present century. At the age of
twenty-one years Mr. Osborne returned to the native State
of his ancestors and completed his education in the States-
ville military academy, which he left in the spring of
1 86 1, as lieutenant of a company organized among the
students. This became Company C of the Fourth regi
ment, Col. G. B. Anderson, and two months after the
organization of the regiment he was promoted to captain
of Company H. In this rank he served in the Peninsular
campaign, and was severely wounded at Seven Pines.
Rejoining his command on the day of the Second Manas-
sas battle, he took part in the subsequent engagements
at South mountain and Sharpsburg, in the latter receiv
ing another severe wound which disabled him for four
months. After taking part in the battle of Chancellors-
ville he was promoted major, in which rank he served at
Gettysburg and the Wilderness, and at Spottsylvania
Court House was again seriously wounded. He was
again on duty in November, 1864, and was promoted
lieutenant-colonel and shortly afterward colonel, but his
last wound proved obstinate in healing and he was not
able to remain steadily on duty. The wound did not

678 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

heal permanently until a year or more after the close of
the war. After teaching school at Statesville and Char
lotte for a short time, he became clerk of the superior
court of Mecklenburg county. During his nearly ten years
tenure of this office he studied law and was admitted to the
bar, but when he resigned in 1875, he devoted himself to
the ministry of the Protestant Episcopal church. His
most notable work in this connection has been the organ
ization of the Thompson orphanage and training insti
tution, of which he has served as superintendent since
1887. He has held the office of chaplain of the Mecklen
burg camp since its organization. He also served as
chaplain of the Second regiment of North Carolina vol
unteers, which was enlisted for the war with Spain.
March 17, 1865, he was married to Fannie Moore, of Wil
mington, and they have seven children living.

Edward Ralph Outlaw, one of the most influential cit
izens of Bertie county, and a gallant veteran of the Con
federate service, was born in that county, November 30,
1840. At the beginning of the Confederate war he was
a student at the university of North Carolina, at Chapel
Hill, but he promptly abandoned his books, and in April,
1 86 1, enlisted as a private in Company L of the First
regiment of volunteers, under Col. D. H. Hill. When
that regiment was disbanded he assisted in organizing a
company in Bertie county, which was mustered in on
February 23, 1862, with himself as second lieutenant, and
it became Company C of the Eleventh regiment, North
Carolina State troops. He continued in this rank until
after the battle of Gettysburg, where on the first day his
company lost 34 out of 38 men engaged, including two
lieutenants, the orderly-sergeant, and all the corporals.
On the third day he and his three comrades surviving
participated in the charge of Cemetery hill. He was
then promoted to captain of the recruited company, and
continued in that rank until he was surrendered at
Appomattox. Among the battles in which he took part
were Franklin, Va., Whitehall, N. C., Hagerstown, Fall
ing Waters, Mine Run, the Wilderness, Spottsylvania
Court House, Cold Harbor, siege of Petersburg, Reams'
Station and Burgess' Mill. Since the war Captain Out
law's occupation has been that of a farmer in Bertie
county. In 1869, being elected sheriff, he served one

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 679

term, and being again elected in 1880, he served until
1889. During this period he also acted as treasurer of
the county and rendered memorable service. Finding
the county orders selling at the heavy discount of 25 to
50 cents on the dollar, he immediately brought them to
par by personally guaranteeing them and paying them
out of his own funds, and his financial administration was
so excellent that in two years he had the floating debt of
the county paid and money in the treasury. By election,
in 1888, he served one year in the State legislature. For
sixteen years he has been chairman of the Democratic
executive committee of his county. He has been a friend
of the Confederate soldier since the war, and was the first
president of the Veterans association of his county. In
1868 Captain Outlaw was married to Lucy Roscoe, and
they have nine children living: Janie, wife of W. H.
Hunt, of Oxford; Lucy, Lizzie, Alice, Edward, Mary
Miller, John, David and Alexander.

Colonel William A. Owens, who fell while gallantly
leading Daniel's old brigade, at Snicker's Gap, Va., July
19, 1864, was born at Charlotte, N. C., in September,
1833. His parents were Henry C. and Jane E. (Allison)
Owens, both natives of North Carolina. He was edu
cated at the university of North Carolina, with gradua
tion in 1856, and then completing the study of law,
beginning the practice of his profession at his native town.
On November 24, 1857, he was married to Alice Brandon
Caldwell, only daughter of Hon. G. W. Caldwell, a mem
ber of Congress from North Carolina in that period. She
was of patriotic stock, her father having commanded a
company and gained the brevet of major in the Mexican
war, and her grandfather, Samuel Caldwell, having served
as a captain in the revolutionary war. She could not do
other, then, than cheer her husband in his patriotic deter
mination, when early in 1861 he abandoned a lucrative
practice, the mayoralty of the city and the office of
county solicitor, to enter the military service. He had
carefully studied military tactics as soon as war was
feared, and became a capable officer though without
practical training. He was first orderly-sergeant of the
Hornet's Nest Riflemen, one of the earliest companies,
and soon became its captain, serving in that capacity with
the First regiment, to which it was assigned, and taking

680 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

part in the battle of Big Bethel. After the expiration of
the six months' enlistment, while engaged in organizing
an artillery company at Charlotte, he was elected major
of a North Carolina regiment, two months later lieuten
ant-colonel of the Eleventh regiment, and in May, 1862,
colonel of the Fifty -third regiment. Thereafter he was
prominently and gallantly associated with the record of
the brigade of Gen. Junius Daniel, throughout the cam
paigns in Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, until he
was wounded at Spottsylvania Court House on May 12,
1864. He was disabled for some time and had just
returned from home to his brigade, of which he took
command, Daniel having died from wounds received at
Spottsylvania, when he was called upon to lead his men
into battle at Snicker's Gap, which the brigade had
reached en route to reinforce General Early. In this
action, on the same day of his return to service, he was
mortally wounded. His successor, Colonel Coward,
reported: "Colonel Owens was as gallant an officer as
his State had in the service. Our service lost much in
the fall of this officer. ' ' His regimental successor, Col.
James T. Morehead, has said of him: "He was a good
officer, brave, humane, social, popular with both men
and officers. ' ' His remains were brought back to Char
lotte and interred with full honors. The widow of Col
onel Owens is still living at Charlotte, devoted to his
memory.

Captain Owen A. Palmer, a prosperous landholder and
farmer, residing at Gulf, N. C., rendered faithful service
during the Confederate war as a soldier and officer of the
Third North Carolina cavalry. He was born May 22,
1833, son of J. J. Palmer, a native of Chatham county
and grandson of a settler from England who served as
surveyor of the State. His mother was Elizabeth,
daughter of Murdoch McQueen, and granddaughter of
Hugh McQueen, who held the rank of colonel during the
Mexican war and was distinguished in that contest.
Captain Palmer was well educated in youth, finishing his
studies at Trinity college, where, however, he did not
remain for graduation. He then entered upon the
charge of a farm and continued in that occupation until
the secession of his State. Earnestly supporting the
Confederate cause, he enlisted in Company E of the

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 681

Third regiment of cavalry, commanded by Colonel
Baker, and was first in battle at New Bern. He was
subsequently identified with the career of his command,
in North Carolina and in the campaigns of the army of
Northern Virginia, rising in rank by virtue of gallantry
and devotion to captain of his company. In the Seven
Days' battles before Richmond, and in the many impor
tant engagements that followed, he was in the thick of
the fight, but fortunately escaped without wounds or cap
ture. His service did not end until he was surrendered
with General Lee at Appomattox. Since then he has
resided upon his farm, devoted to agriculture, prospering
in his enterprises, and honored by the community as a
worthy soldier and a generous and hospitable man.

Captain Edward S. Parker was born in Cumberland
county, that part now Harnett county, N. C., in the year
1838. His father's name was Anthony Parker, and his
mother's maiden name was Eliza Surles. His advantages
in the way of education were poor. He was for a short
time a pupil in the school of Gen. A. D. McLean, in
Summerville in his native county, and later he was a
pupil in a school taught by John W. Stuart, at Leach-
burg, Johnston county. He obtained license to practice
law in the courts of pleas and quarter sessions, com
monly called county courts, just before the civil war. He
went to Goldsboro, and for a year or so was in the office
of the late Judge George V. Strong, who then lived in
that place. In that town he became a member of the
Goldsboro Rifles, a company of the State volunteers.
On Monday after the fall of Fort Sumter this company
was ordered to Fort Macon, and on the Tuesday follow
ing, it and other volunteer companies of the State took
possession of the fort. This was more than a month
before the secession of the State. Later Captain Parker
became a member of Company H, Second regiment
North Carolina State troops, commanded by Col. C. C.
Tew. The first ten regiments of North Carolina troops
were designated as North Carolina State troops, because
they volunteered at the start for three years or the war.
He went with his regiment to Virginia and remained with
it till 1862, when upon the organization of the Fiftieth
regiment he was made commissary with the rank of cap
tain. While occupying this position, and with his regi-

682 CON FED ERA TE MI LIT A R Y HIS TOR Y.

ment in North Carolina, tinder Gen. D. H. Hill, he was
taken prisoner and carried to old Fort Norfolk, where he
and other Confederate officers were held in close confine
ment upon very scant rations, and informed that they
were held as hostages for a Federal general named
Straight and his officers, who had been captured in Ala
bama commanding and recruiting negro soldiers, and
against whom the governor of that State was about to
proceed for violation of the law forbidding the inciting
of insurrection among slaves, the penalty of the crime
being death. After being so held for weeks, without
any communication from the outside world, he and his
fellow prisoners, numbering ninety-odd Confederate
officers, from the rank of colonel to lieutenant, were put
upon a transport, named Maple Leaf, and under guard
of a company of Federal soldiers, they started for Fort
Delaware. While scarcely out of sight of Fortress Mon
roe, these prisoners, in midday, in the presence of their
guards, planned and captured the entire company sent
as guards over them, and took possession of the vessel.
Of the prisoners, who thus released themselves, and took
captive the vessel and their guards, some were suffering
from sickness and others from wounds received in battle,
so that only 76 were able to undertake an actual escape.
The Federal soldiers were paroled and the captain prom
ised to go on to Fort Delaware before reporting, and the
76 Confederate officers were put ashore by means of small
boats about eight or ten miles south of Cape Henry light
house. This was just before night on the 9th of June,
1863. About all they knew was that they had the Atlan
tic ocean in their rear and the Federal army in their
front. They walked down the beach to Currituck sound,
in North Carolina, and got some salt makers to put them
across. They soon found that their escape had been
reported, as soon as the vessel could return to Norfolk,
and that Federal cavalry was after them. In the low
lands of northeastern North Carolina they found as loyal,
big-hearted people as live upon this earth, and they were
by them concealed by day in the dense forests and piloted
by night by short stages in the direction of the Confeder
ate lines, until at the expiration of from ten days to two
weeks, they all reached safety from recapture. They
were in three squads, each under a different guide and
leader from the faithful Confederates in the Federal

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 683

lines. They all met at Weldon, N. C. , not a man miss
ing, and parted for their several commands. Among
these escaped officers were representatives from nearly
every Southern State, including the border States of
Missouri and Kentucky. While they lay concealed by
day and moved only by night, to evade the Federal
forces after them, they were fed by the good people of
the counties through which they passed on the best that
could be procured, and in the greatest abundance. Even
the ladies came into the deep woods to bring cheer and
food to the hunted Confederate officers as they bivou
acked under the moss-draped trees of swamp and low
lands. After the war Captain Parker engaged in other
pursuits than the law till 1869, when -he moved to Ala-
mance county, where he now lives in the town of Gra
ham, the county seat, and practices his profession. He
married Miss Ellen Northam, of Smithfield, in Johnston
county, and they have three living children, two sons and
a daughter. He was solicitor for the Fifth judicial dis
trict from 1891 to 1894, inclusive, and was elected to the
State senate in 1896.

Colonel Francis Marion Parker, of the Thirtieth regi
ment, North Carolina State troops, was born in Nash
county, N. C., September 21, 1827. He was reared at
Tarboro and was educated in several of the famous acad
emies of that period, receiving military training at the
school of J. M. Lovejoy. His father dying as he was
about to enter the university, he took charge of the home
farm, and in December, 1851, was married to Sarah,
daughter of Dr. James J. Phillips. In 1853 he removed
to his present farm residence on Fishing creek, near
Ringwood, Halifax county. During the John Brown
raid excitement of 1859 he was elected second lieutenant
of a volunteer company, called the Enfield Blues, which
maintained its organization and went into camp at
Raleigh, April 28, 1861, upon the call of Governor Ellis.
This organization became Company I of the First regi
ment, under Col. D. H. Hill, and behaved well under
fire at the battle of Big Bethel, Va. In August, Lieu
tenant Parker was elected captain, and on October iyth,
upon the organization of the Thirtieth regiment, he
was elected colonel of that command. In the spring of
1862 he led his regiment on skirmish duty, at Seven

684 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Pines and through the Seven Days' battles, with consid
erable loss, in the brigade of Gen. G. B. Anderson. In
September he was with Hill's division at South mountain
and Sharpsburg, where he narrowly escaped death, a
rifle ball striking his head and laying bare the brain.
Many months elapsed before he could resume command
of his regiment, and then under the brigade command of
General Ramseur he fought at Chancellorsville. The
division under command of R. E. Rodes had a conspic
uous part in the flank attack where Jackson received his
mortal injury, and on the following morning the Thir
tieth supported Pegram's battery and then moved
through the thick woods and assailed the enemy behind
breastworks, making a hand-to-hand fight in which
the bayonet was used freely, and capturing many prison
ers. Subsequently it encountered a flanking column
which it drove from the field, protecting Ramseur's bri
gade from disaster, for which General Ramseur person
ally thanked the gallant colonel. The brigade reached
the field of Gettysburg about 2 p. m. on the first day,
and advancing forced the Federals from the stone fences
and through the village. While standing on one of these
fences Colonel Parker received a very painful wound in
the face, which nearly blinded and entirely disabled him
for a considerable time. On May 4, 1864, he again
rejoined his regiment on the Rapidan, and on the next
day went into battle in the Wilderness. He participated
with gallantry in this terrific struggle, and at Spottsyl-
vania Court House, May i2th, led his regiment in the
famous charge of the North Carolinians, in which the dis
tinguished Gen. Junius Daniel fell. Finally, on May
1 9th, during E well's flank attack on Grant, Colonel
Parker received his third severe wound, this time through
the body, which disqualified him for further duty in the
field. By direction of General Lee he was assigned to
light duty and reported, after his recovery, to General
Holmes, at Raleigh, as commandant of the post. He
surrendered at Greensboro as senior officer of the invalid
corps. But for his frequent severe wounds he would
doubtless have been honored with much higher com
mand, for which he had proved his fitness on several
occasions. General Lee once sent him word that his
head was too big, referring in a jocular way to the two
nearly mortal wounds he had received in that part of the

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 685

body. Since the war he has led a quiet and happy life
as a farmer, and has reared a family of five boys, one of
whom is now in the United States navy, and a daughter,
Mary, wife of John Battle, deceased.

Walter Scott Parker, one of the leading business men
of Henderson, was born in Wilson county, N. C., and
was educated at Trinity college. Though but a boy
during the period of the Confederate war, he shouldered
a musket in 1864 and served in the defense of his State.
In 1867 he began his career as a merchant in a modest
way, and in 1882 opened a retail business at Henderson.
Five years later he became a pioneer in the wholesale
grocery trade in his city. He is also the organizer of the
cotton manufacturing industry at Roanoke Rapids, estab
lished in 1895, and has other important financial and com
mercial interests. By his marriage, in 1876, to Miss
Lucy Closs, he has three children, Fanny C. , Willie C. and
Lucy Closs. Mrs. Parker is the daughter of Rev. Wil
liam Closs, D. D., for fifty years one of the most promi
nent ministers of the Methodist church South. Her
grandfather, Daniel Closs, was a soldier of the war of
1812, and bore to the day of his death a bullet received
at the battle of Crany Island, near Norfolk. Her brother,
Lieut. William A. Closs, was born in Lewisburg, June
23, 1843, and was educated at the male academy at that
place and at the military school at Wilson, conducted by
Rev. Charles F. Deems, D. D., late pastor of the Church
of the Strangers, New York. In the spring of 1861 he
left school and became a drill-master at Garysburg, and
on May i6th was commissioned a lieutenant in Company
E, Seventh regiment, Lane's brigade. He took part in
the battle of New Bern, and then going to Virginia went
into the bloody struggle against McClellan's army of
invasion. In a letter, written about this time to the
loved ones at home, he assured his father that he would
not act rashly in the impending battle, as that would not
be the part of a hero, but whether the issue should be
one of life or death for him, all would be well, as he saw
a bright hope of glorious victory beyond the skies. In
the battle at Games' Mill, June 27, 1862, after winning
promotion by distinguished gallantry on the field, he fell
dead with his face to the foe, and was buried by his sor
rowing comrades near the scene of conflict. His captain,

686 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

William Lee Davidson, testified in a letter of sympathy to
his family that Lieutenant Gloss was a brave and gallant
boy, beloved and respected by all the officers of the regi
ment. His memory is an inspiration to Mrs. Parker in
her labor of love as president of the Vance county chap
ter, Daughters of the Confederacy, and fifth vice-presi
dent of the North Carolina division of that patriotic
society.

Lieutenant William Fletcher Parker, of Enfield, Hali
fax county, was born November 6, 1842, in that county,
was given his preparatory education in the school of
J. H. Horner, and was a student at the university of
North Carolina in 1861 and 1862. In the latter year he
enlisted in Company F, Seventh Confederate cavalry, a
regiment composed of five Georgia and five North Caro
lina companies. He was elected third lieutenant of his
company and subsequently was promoted to second lieu
tenant. His command was on the Blackwater in Virginia
from the summer of 1862 to the summer of 1863, on con
stant picket duty and in frequent skirmishes, the most
important of which were at Zuni. Returning to North
Carolina, it was on picket duty from Cape Fear to White
Oak rivers, and was then ordered to Kenansville, where
in the fall of 1863 it narrowly escaped capture. Soon
afterward the regiment participated in the capture of
Newport barracks and had the satisfaction of regaining
a number of the arms lost at Kenansville. While in
winter quarters at Garysburg, the North Carolina com
panies of the regiment were united with Virginia com
panies to form the regiment of Colonel (later brigadier-
general) Dearing, which in the spring of 1864 participated
in the capture of Plymouth, invested Washington and
was in the force that attempted the capture of New Bern.
At Croatan, Dearing' s command captured a garrison of
Federals. From New Bern they were hurried to Peters
burg to resist the advance of Butler, and arriving there
were at once sent against the Kautz and Wilson cavalry
raiders. At Blacks-and-Whites the North Carolina troop
ers, under Gen. W. H. F. Lee, met the enemy, and again
at Reams' Station, and aided in the utter rout of the
enemy. Frequent skirmishes and battles followed, the
most important of which were those at Battery No. 7,
Peeble's Farm, Burgess' Mill and the Boiseau house,

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 687

near Five Forks. Bearing's regiment was in the famous
cattle raid which secured 2,485 fine beef cattle from
Grant's supply near City Point. The regiment took up
its march April 26., which ended at Appomattox, on
April 9, 1865. The North Carolina companies of Dear-
ing's regiment were then known as the Sixteenth battal
ion, North Carolina cavalry (also entitled the Seventy-
fifth North Carolina troops), W. P. Roberts' brigade.
On the 3d the battalion was instrumental in checking a
dangerous stampede, for which it was personally compli
mented by General Lee and other high officers. At Jet-
ersville it was conspicuous in the effort of the army to
turn south toward Danville ; and after that it was in con
stant combat on the rear until Appomattox was reached.
Lieutenant Parker was in every battle and skirmish of
any consequence in which his company took part, and
was the greater part of the time in command of it. In a
skirmish at City Point his clothing was pierced by a minie
ball, his saber scabbard indented, and his horse wounded.
At Battery No. 7, fighting Grant's advance before Peters
burg, he escaped from a hand-to-hand struggle, in
which two of his comrades were killed by his side.
At Amelia Court House his horse was again wounded
under him, but he was spared during the war from per
sonal injury. While at Kenansville, N. C., he was dan
gerously sick with typhoid fever, and was tenderly pro
vided for by Miss Elizabeth J. Herring, to whom he was
married about the close of the war. Since the close of
hostilities he has been engaged in farming and manu
facturing, and has held for twelve years the office of
county treasurer. He has one child living, the wife of
B. D. Mann.

John M. Parks, of Statesville, a survivor of the Twenti
eth regiment, was born in Cabarrus county in 1836, son
of Levi Parks, and grandson of Robert Parks, both
natives of the old North State. He entered the military
service as a private in the Cabarrus Black Boys, com
manded by Capt. I. B. Atwell, which was assigned as
Company B to the Twentieth regiment, North Carolina
volunteers, at its organization in June, under command
of Col. Albert Iverson, who was at a later date promoted
brigadier-general. At well's company, Company B, had
been organized for a year before enlistment, and became

688 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

distinguished for soldierly conduct. Private Parks soon
earned promotion to orderly-sergeant, and after the bat
tle of Chancellorsville was recommended for promotion
to captain on account of gallant service. He was first
on duty in North Carolina at Fort Johnson and Fort Cas-
well, at the mouth of Cape Fear river, early in the spring
of 1862 was ordered to Fort Fisher and then returned to
the fortifications, whence, in June, 1862, the regiment
was ordered to Virginia and assigned to Garland's bri
gade. The Twentieth served with distinction in the bat
tles of Mechanicsville, Cold Harbor and Malvern Hill,
Company B losing 46 men in that campaign ; and during
the remainder of 1862 was in battle at Second Manassas,
South Mountain, Sharpsburg and Fredericksburg. At
the famous battle of Chancellorsville, as has been indi
cated, Sergeant Parks was a gallant participant, fighting
in the battles of the ist, 2d and 3d of May, and that sum
mer he marched into Pennsylvania with the regiment,
and on the ist of July took part in the fierce encounter
with the enemy which resulted in victory for the North
ern army. The price which his company paid for this
victory was the loss of 29 men out of 35 engaged.
Sergeant Parks was one of the wounded, being shot in
the head and so severely injured that he fell into the
hands of the enemy. He was carried to Fort McHenry,
thence to Fort Delaware, and in October, 1863, was trans
ferred to Point Lookout, where he was a prisoner until
May i, 1864. Returning to Richmond he was given a
furlough, and as soon as he had regained his strength he
rejoined his regiment, then at Staunton under the com
mand of General Early, and about to make the celebrated
campaign through Maryland. He took part in the battle
of Monocacy and the engagement at Frederick City, Md.,
the demonstration before Washington city, and on the
return to the Shenandoah valley fought at Winchester,
July 20, 1864, and was severely wounded in the leg. He
lay on the field all afternoon without attention, and was
then carried to a temporary Federal hospital, where his
leg was amputated. He lay in hospital in Maryland until
October, and was then taken to Wheeling and from there
to the Camp Chase prison at Columbus, Ohio, where
during that winter he slept on a board bunk with one
small blanket for covering. In March, 1865, he was car
ried to Maryland and held at Point Lookout until June,

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 689

1865, when he was finally paroled. Since then Mr. Parks
has been engaged in farming, and now owns plantations
in Cabarrus and Mecklenburg counties, though making
his home at Statesville.

Colonel William Murdoch Parsley was born in Wil
mington, N. C., October 6, 1840. He was the second
son of Mr. O. G. Parsley, a prominent citizen, holding
at various times high positions of trust and honor. Mr.
Parsley was owner and manager of a large sawmill and
extensive lumber trade, and in 1858 his son was taken
into the business and sent as supercargo of a vessel to the
West Indies. In 1860 he was made a partner in the firm
of O. G. Parsley & Co. In April, 1861, he entered the
Confederate service and fought all through the war in the
Third regiment, North Carolina infantry, one of the ten
regiments authorized by the constitutional convention,
enlisted "for the war." He was commissioned captain
of Company F, which was organized in Wilmington and
equipped by Mr. Parsley, senior. He served with his
regiment in Jackson's corps, which was afterward E well's
and then Gordon's. The regiment assembled in Garys-
burg in May, 1861, and was sent from there to Aquia
creek, in which vicinity it went into winter quarters. In
the spring of 1862 it was ordered to Goldsboro to meet
an expected attack of the enemy from New Bern, N. C.
Ordered back to Richmond it arrived too late for the bat
tle of Seven Pines, but took part in all the Seven Days'
fights around Richmond, Mechanicsville being the first
regular battle, followed by Cold Harbor and White Oak
Swamp. At Malvern hill, July ist, Captain Parsley was
severely wounded by a minie ball, which entering just
below the left ear, came out at the center of the back of
the neck. He reached home within a few days. During
his convalescence from the illness consequent upon this
wound, he was married, on September 2, 1862, to Eliza
Hall Nutt, third daughter of Henry Nutt, of Wilming
ton, and on September 2 9th returned to his command,
just after the battle of Sharpsburg. A short time after
this he was made major by regular promotion. He was
in the first battle of Fredericksburg, and with the regi
ment until about the ist of March, 1863, when he returned
home on a furlough. His family had in the meantime
left Wilmington, on account of yellow fever, and after-

690 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

ward settled as refugees in Bladen county. lie returned
to the army in April. Before the battle of Chancellors-
ville he was made lieutenant-colonel and commanded the
regiment in that battle and through the whole campaign
which followed. He was under fire at Winchester, in
June, and at Jordan Springs was slightly wounded twice,
once being saved from a fatal wound by the fact that the
button on his coat caused the bail to glance aside. At
Gettysburg he was one of the three officers of the Third
regiment not killed or wounded. Payne's Farm, Bristoe
Station and Mine Run followed Gettysburg. In Sep
tember, 1863, he came home for a two weeks' furlough,
and saw for the first time his little daughter, then three
months old. For six weeks more he traveled over the
State on recruiting service, returning late in October to
his command, then at or near Mitchell's ford. At this
time he brought home the regimental flag, which was in
tatters, to see if it could be repaired; but concluded
instead to lay it aside and make another, using the
material of his old company (F) colors, a handsome silk
flag presented by his mother when the company first
went into service, and in the serious business of war no
longer used. The red and white silk of the company
colors was supplemented by a width entirely across the
staff end, of blue, from a "before the war" silk dress, on
which was painted the seal of North Carolina and the
dates 1776 and 1861, stitched on in white letters arranged
above and below it. This last flag was never brought
home, though the staff in some way was saved, and with
the original tattered banner is now in possession of the
association of the Third regiment, which was organized,
February 2, 1866. In May, 1864, came the battles of
Locust Grove and of the Wilderness. After Colonel
Thruston was wounded on the loth, Colonel Parsley was
in command until, at Spottsylvania, on the i2th of May,
he, with a portion of the regiment, was captured at the
horseshoe or "bloody angle" as it is now called. He
was imprisoned in Fort Delaware, and from there, the
first week in July, was conveyed on the prison ship
Dragoon to Charleston, S. C., and anchored off Hilton
Head in line of the Confederate guns — the prisoners, all
officers, being confined between decks. In August he
was exchanged, and the first week in October returned to
the regiment, then in the valley of Virginia. He shared

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 691

their fortunes, taking part in the battles around Peters
burg, in the capture of Hare's Hill, and afterward in the
trenches, until April 6, 1865, when he was killed at
Sailor's Creek on the retreat from Petersburg to Appo-
mattox, three days before the surrender, aged twenty-
four years and six months. Thus fell this gallant son of
North Carolina in the last throes of the cause for which
he gave his life.

Robert H. M. Paschall, of Merry Mount, Warren
county, now a prosperous business man, was identified
for more than four years with the gallant record of the
Twelfth regiment, North Carolina State troops. He
enlisted in May, 1861, when the Twelfth was known as
the Second volunteers, under Col. Sol Williams, in Com
pany B, of Granville county, where he was then engaged
in mercantile trade, and after serving about one year as
a private was promoted to sergeant, his rank during the
remainder of the war. He was with the regiment at
Norfolk, in its first battle at Hanover Court House, May,
1862, where, having received a slight wound, his name
appeared among the first battle casualties of the regi
ment, and was next in battle at Fredericksburg. Then
he participated in Jackson's great victory of Chancellors-
ville. At Gettysburg he received severe wounds in his
leg and his elbow, and he was in consequence disabled for
six months. After his recovery he took part in the fight
ing at Spottsylvania Court House, and from Cold Harbor
went to Lynchburg to aid in the repulse of Hunter. He
was with Early in the campaign against Washington,
including the battle of Monocacy, and returning to the
valley, fought at Winchester and Cedar creek, receiving
another wound in the latter battle. Finally, after weary
months of exposure in the trenches of Petersburg, he was
with the army on the last fatal march and the last sad
day at Appomattox. Since then Mr. Paschall has been
continuously in business as a merchant, first for ten years
at Townsville, and since then at Merry Mount, where he
also has agricultural interests and is one of the magis
trates of the county. He is a member of John White
camp, United Confederate Veterans. Mr. Paschall was
born in Warren county, December 17, 1838, was married
in 1860 to Melissa A. Twisdale, and has nine children
living.

Nc 67

692 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Lieutenant James R. Patterson, of Asheville, a veteran
of the Twenty-fifth regiment, North Carolina troops, was
born in Buncombe county, July 5, 1844, the son of Robert
and Leah (Roberts) Patterson. His father, also a native
of Buncombe, and a descendant of the Scotch-Irish pio
neers of North Carolina, was a self-educated man of
strong character and great devotion to principle, who
became a Baptist minister and was widely known
throughout the western part of the State during his forty
years' service. Through his mother Mr. Patterson is
connected with the Ball family of Virginia. He enlisted
from Buncombe county in 1861, as a private in Company
K of the Twenty-fifth regiment, and after serving on
the coast and at Grahamville, N. C. , under General Lee,
took part in the battle of New Bern and reached Virginia
in time to participate in the Seven Days' battles before
Richmond, in General Ransom's brigade. After sharing
the service of his regiment at Harper's Ferry and Sharps-
burg, he was sick for some time at Chimborazo hospital,
Richmond. Rejoining his command during the battle
of Fredericksburg, he soon afterward returned to North
Carolina and took part in the assault upon Plymouth, the
capture of the Federal troops, and the movement against
Washington. He fought under Ransom in the battle of
Drewry's Bluff, and continued in battle under Hoke on
the Bermuda Hundred line, and at Petersburg. He was
one of the heroes of the battle of the Crater on the Peters
burg lines, where the North Carolinians held their ground
and finally swept the enemy from the lodgment they had
gained. In the charge Patterson, who had just been
elected second lieutenant of his company, received a
severe wound in the left arm, the bone being broken,
and a few weeks later it became necessary to amputate
it. Thus crippled he returned to the front, early in 1865,
but was soon honorably retired from duty. Afterward
he engaged in teaching until 1870, when he was elected
register of deeds for Buncombe county, an office which he
held for eighteen years, then being elected clerk of the
criminal court for a term of four years. In 1893 he
embarked in the business of general insurance, with Mr.
Rutledge, a son of the former colonel of the Twenty-
fifth regiment, as a partner, and they have met with
much success in their enterprise. Lieutenant Patterson
is a charter member of Zeb Vance camp of United Con-

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 693

federate Veterans of Asheville. By his marriage, in 1869,
to Julia E. Penland, who died in 1881, he has two chil
dren living, William R. and Lottie Lee. In 1883 he was
married to Lillie Stansill, who died in 1890. Three
brothers of Lieutenant Patterson were also in the serv
ice: Joseph M., who enlisted in the same company with
him, served throughout the war as sergeant and now
resides in Missouri ; William A. , who served in the Six
teenth regiment until disabled, and died in 1881; and
Elijah S., of the First North Carolina cavalry, who was
captured at Brandy Station in 1862, and died in Point
Lookout prison in 1863.

Lieutenant Charles Montgomery Payne, D. D., pastor
of the Presbyterian church at Washington, N. C., did
gallant service in the Confederate States army as an
officer of the Fifty-sixth regiment, Ransom's brigade.
He was reared at Lexington, where his birth occurred
October 19, 1842, and educated at Davidson college from
1 860 until April, 1862, when he went on duty as a member
of the Davidson College Guards, which became Company
K of the Fifty-sixth regiment, North Carolina infantry.
He served first as sergeant, and in the fall of 1862 was
elected second lieutenant. From the fall of 1864 he was,
during the greater part of the time, attached to the staff
of Gen. Matthew W. Ransom, and for a considerable
period was acting adjutant of his regiment. Among the
engagements in which he took part were those near Fort
Fisher, in the fall of 1862; at Gum Swamp, spring of
1863; the assault and capture of Plymouth; Bermuda
Hundred and Drewry's Bluff, Va. ; the battle of June 17,
1864, at Petersburg, and after that the long and weari
some service in the trenches before Petersburg, includ
ing the desperate fighting at the Crater and Hare's hill,
and finally the decisive conflict at Five Forks, where he
was captured and his service in the field ended. As a
prisoner of war he was first taken to the Old Capitol and
thence to Johnson's island, where he was held until the
last of June, 1865. After his return to Lexington he
studied medicine, attended the university of New York,
and was graduated at Washington university, Baltimore,
in 1869. He practiced this profession in his native State
and in Georgia until 1870, when he determined to devote
himself to the cherished purpose of his life, the Christian

694 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

ministry. He studied at the Union theological semi
nary, at Hampden-Sidney, was graduated in 1872, and
after serving at Wilmington ten years and at Concord
two years, came to his present charge at Washington
in 1894. He has received from Davidson college the
degrees of A. B. and D. D. Dr. Payne has four children
living: Charles Lee, Anne B., Thomas Sparrow and
John Lewis.

Noah Staton Peel, of Williamston, one of the boy-sol
diers of the Confederacy, and great-grandson of John
Peel, a soldier of the revolution, was born in Martin
county, in August, 1846. In July, 1864, being then
eighteen years of age, he enlisted in the First regiment,
North Carolina Junior reserves. He remained on duty
during the period of greatest trial to North Carolina,
while her soil was being traversed and her resources
devastated by the army of Sherman, and participated in
the battle of Kinston in March, 1865. Returning home
after the capitulation of Johnston's army, he engaged in
farming for five years and then embarked in mercantile
pursuits at Williamston, his present occupation. He has
also had an honorable and conspicuous official career as
magistrate, from 1876 to 1880, as member of the county
court two years, and in 1894 received the appointment of
clerk of the superior court of Martin county. Mr. Peel
was married, in 1886, to Lizzie Yarrell, who died in 1892,
leaving one child, Julius Slade Yarrell Peel.

James Edward Peterson, of Salem, N. C., a veteran of
the Twenty-sixth regiment, North Carolina troops, is a
native of the city where he now resides, born December
25, 1827. He entered the Confederate service in August,
1862, joining the Twenty-sixth regiment at Weldon and
becoming a member of the regimental band. He served
in this capacity throughout the campaigns of the army of
Northern Virginia which followed, and was with his
regiment constantly, except when brought back to North
Carolina to take part in the inauguration of Gov. Zebulon
Vance, the former colonel of the regiment. During this
visit to the State they gave several concerts for the pur
pose of raising funds for the army hospitals. Soon after
the fall of Petersburg he was captured, with the band,
and was paroled on the morning that news was received

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 695

of the assassination of President Lincoln. Since the war
he has been an industrious and influential citizen of
Winston.

Robert R. Pinkston, of Henderson, a veteran of the
Fourth regiment, North Carolina troops, was born in
Anson county, in 1839, a son of Hugh D. Pinkston. He
enlisted in the Confederate service in April, 1861, in the
Anson Guards, or Company C of the Fourth regiment, of
which Gen. Junius Daniel was the first colonel. After
the reorganization, in 1862, the regiment was known as
the Fourteenth. With this command he served at Manas-
sas, under Beauregard, and in the spring of 1862 was at
York town under General Magruder. After a month's
arduous service at Yorktown that post was abandoned,
and during the retreat he was detailed to convey a party
of six soldiers to Richmond. Rejoining his regiment on
the Chickahominy river, he participated in the battle of
Seven Pines, where the Fourteenth lost 374 men, killed
and wounded ; and in the battles of June, under General
Lee, in all of which his command rendered distinguished
service. Subsequently he took part in the battles of
Cedar Run and Second Manassas, South Mountain and
Sharpsburg, and being captured in the latter engagement
was held as a prisoner of war at Fort McHenry until the
spring of 1863. Then rejoining his command, he par
ticipated in the battles of Chancellorsville, Berryville,
Martinsburg and Gettysburg. On the return to Virginia
he was promoted to sergeant and detailed for duty in the
quartermaster's department at Richmond, where he re
mained until the close of the war. After his return to
North Carolina he resumed the occupation of carpentry,
in which he had previously been engaged, at Raleigh,
N. C., and in 1878 embarked in business as a contractor.
Since 1883 he has also conducted a planing mill at Hen
derson. He is prominent among the industrious and
successful business men of his city. In 1868 he was mar
ried to Lula N. Ward, of Granville county, N. C.

John A. Pollock, M. D. , of Kinston, a Confederate sol
dier in the Third North Carolina cavalry regiment, was
born in Onslow county, November i, 1844, the son of
Dr. W. A. J. and Olive Branch (Humphrey) Pollock.
His father, Dr. Pollock, practiced medicine for more than

696 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

half a century in Onslow and Lenoir counties. He made
his home in the latter county in 1850, where John A.
was reared and educated at the Kinston academy. The
latter, in January, 1862, being a little past seventeen
years of age, enlisted as a private in the Fifty-fifth regi
ment, North Carolina troops, but a few months later was
transferred to Company E of the Third cavalry, with
which he was identified until the end of the war. He
participated in the fighting at New Bern, Kinston and
Goldsboro and on the Blackwater river, Va., and during
the siege of Suffolk by Longstreet's forces, acted as
courier for General Armistead, and was in all the battles
and skirmishes in which that general's troops were
engaged. The Third becoming a part of Barringer's
North Carolina brigade, W. H. F. Lee's division, he was
in the fight at Ashland, Drewry's bluff, Hanover Court
House, Darby town, Boydton, Plank road, Belfield, and
the frequent combats of the cavalry during the siege of
Petersburg. In March, 1865, he was detailed to recruit
the horses of his command, and was at Greensboro,
N. C. , on this duty when the army of Northern Virginia
was surrendered. He was then attached to Johnston's
army and subsequently paroled with it. Fortunately, in
all these engagements he escaped with but one slight
wound in the right ear, received during the skirmishes
on the Pamunkey river. On his return home he engaged
in the drug trade and studied medicine, and in 1876 was
graduated at the university of New York. For many
years he has been prominent and successful as a medical
practitioner, served several terms as medical examiner of
Kinston and Lenoir counties, was a member of the
county medical society, and for twelve years a member
of the State medical society, and has delivered lectures
on physiology and hygiene in colleges and institutes.
He has kept alive his experiences as a soldier as captain
of the Macon mounted guards, composed of survivors of
Company E, Third cavalry. By his marriage, in 1867,
to Miss Agnes P. Jones, he has three children : Mozelle,
Raymond and Emily H. A brother of the foregoing, An
drew J. Pollock, for many years an eminent physician of
Florida, served during the war as captain of Company H,
Fifty-fifth North Carolina troops. An uncle of Dr. Pol
lock was fatally wounded in the charge by Hoke's divi
sion at Wise's Fork's battle in 1865. The forefathers of

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 697

Dr. Pollock were of Scotch descent. His great-grand
father, William Pollock, served in the revolutionary war,
and a great-uncle in the war of 1812. The latter was
wounded and died at Fort Caswell, near Wilmington,
N. C. His brother, W. D. Pollock, lieutenant of the naval
reserves of Kinston, enlisted for service in the recent war
with Spain, and his son, Raymond, while at home from
the Jefferson medical college of Philadelphia, offered his
services to the governor of North Carolina in the same
cause.

Lieutenant James B. Pool, of Taylorsville, prominent
for many years as an official of Alexander county, and a
gallant soldier of Lane's brigade, was born in Alexander
county, April 5, 1841, son of William Pool, also a native
of North Carolina. His grandfather, Jesse Pool, was a
native of Dinwiddie county, Va. ; his great-grandfather,
William Pool, fought in the Indian wars, and the imme
diate ancestor of the latter was Samuel Pool, a native of
England, who served in the patriot army of the revolu
tion. In September, 1861, Mr. Pool enlisted in an organ
ization which became Company G of the Thirty-seventh
regiment, North Carolina troops, and was stationed at
New Bern until the spring of 1862, when it fought under
General Branch, against the Federals at that place, and
then was ordered into Virginia. With the army of
Northern Virginia he was in battle at Hanover Court
House, Mechanicsville, Games' Mill, Frayser's farm,
Malvern hill, Cedar run, Manassas Junction, Manassas
Plains, Ox Hill, Harper's Ferry, Sharpsburg, Shepherds-
town, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg.
During this service he was promoted from private to
third lieutenant early in his career, then to second lieu
tenant and to first lieutenant in December, 1862. He
was wounded at Second Manassas, Cedar Mountain,
Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, but not so severely
as to keep him out of any of the battles of his regiment.
Finally this devoted soldier was captured at Gettysburg.
He was in command of sharpshooters on the second day,
and on the third day was captured in the famous assault of
Pettigrew's command on Cemetery hill. From that time
until March 14, 1865, he was held as a prisoner of war
at Johnson's island, Lake Erie. On his return to his
home he engaged in teaching school and in farming, and

698 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

in the latter occupation is still interested as the owner of
a fine farm in Alexander county. In 1871 he was elected
register of deeds, and after ten years of service in that
capacity, represented his county in the legislature. Sub
sequently he was a member, successively, of the board of
education and the board of county commissioners, until
1891, when he was elected to his present position, clerk
of the court. Since 1869 he has also been a minister of
the Baptist church; and until the failure of his health,
rilled several pastorates. He is one of the board of trus
tees of Taylorsville collegiate institute. By his marriage,
in 1865, to Elizabeth Teague, he has three children liv
ing: Oscar F. F., Osmund F., and Erne Alma. Two
brothers of Captain Pool were in the Confederate service :
N. A. Pool, captain of Company K, Seventh regiment,
and Christopher C. Pool, of Company G, Thirty-seventh
regiment.

Captain Stephen Porter, of Andrews, Cherokee county,
is a native of Blount county, Tenn. , son of Andrew Por
ter, a native of Virginia, who married Betsy Treadaway,
of South Carolina, and moved to Tennessee in 1840.
Andrew Porter enlisted in Company K, Fifth Tennessee
cavalry, in 1862, and was with his regiment in the Ten-
essee and Kentucky campaigns, including the battles of
Perryville and Richmond, until captured during the bat
tle of Marysville, in January, 1863, when he was impris
oned at Camp Morton, Ind., where he died from hard
ships and exposure in March, 1864. Captain Stephen
Porter, born in 1841, enlisted in the same company with
his father and shared his early service, receiving a wound
in the battle of Richmond, Ky. He served in many cav
alry engagements, received two slight wounds in the bat
tle of Chickamauga; at Shelbyville in a hand-to-hand
encounter, was wounded in the head by a saber cut ; and
at Marysville was shot through both hands and so badly
disabled that a comrade was detailed to assist him from
the army, it appearing that his fighting days were past.
He made his way to Franklin, N. C., and at the end of
six months felt able to return to the fight. He then
organized and was elected captain of a company which
was attached to Thomas' legion as Company K. He
was sent on scouting duty to Tennessee, served with the
forces under General Vaughn, was on duty guarding the

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 699

road at the mouth of Tuckaseegee river, and then
returned to Asheville. His last scouting expedition was
down the Tennessee to observe General Stoneman's
operations, and after reporting he was again ordered to
Franklin, where he surrendered and secured the parole
of his command with side arms and horses. Subse
quently he resided at Franklin until 1875, when he made
his home in Cherokee county, removing in 1891 to
Andrews, where he was a pioneer in business, and is now
conducting a successful hotel. He has served as magis
trate for eleven years. By his marriage, in 1865, to
Lucilla Moore, who died in 1877, he has seven children,
and four have been born to his second marriage, in 1878,
to Tallulah Adams, of Georgia.

Captain Charles Price, a prominent attorney of Salis
bury, was one of the boy-soldiers of the Confederacy and
enjoys the distinction of having been elected major before
reaching the age of eighteen years. His father, John M.
Price, served in the army as a quartermaster until old
age compelled his retirement. His family, of Scotch
origin, has been in North Carolina since the time of the
revolution. Captain Price was reared at Warrenton,
and was there educated until 1864, when, at the age of
seventeen years, he enlisted for the Confederate service
and was elected captain of Company A, First regiment
Junior reserves, the company being composed of young
men from Warren, Franklin and Nash counties. In the
fall of the same year he was elected major of the regi
ment, and though the commission did not issue on
account of his youth, he served in that capacity during
the remainder of the war, participating in several engage
ments with the enemy, notably that of Belfield. After
the close of hostilities he returned to Warren" county, and
resuming his studies prepared himself for the practice of
law. He was licensed to practice in 1868, and then
began, in Davie county, a career in that profession in
which he has since become greatly distinguished. In
1872 he was elected to the State senate from Davie and
Rowan counties, and in 1875 he represented Davie in the
constitutional convention, being elected without opposi
tion. In 1876 he was elected to the house of representa
tives without opposition and became speaker of that body,
being at that time the youngest member who had ever

700 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

been thus honored. Removing to Salisbury in 1878, he
devoted himself wholly to the legal profession, having
held no office since then except that of trustee of the
State university for sixteen years, and that of United
States district attorney, by appointment of President
Harrison. In 1881 he became attorney for the Richmond
& Danville railroad, and continued in that capacity until
in 1894, as special master, he sold the Richmond & Dan
ville, Western £ North Carolina, the Northwestern, the
Durham & Northern, and the Oxford & Clarksville rail
roads to the Southern railroad company. Since then he
has acted as division counsel for the latter system. In
1871 he was married to Annie Hobson, daughter of Gov.
John M. Morehead. She died in 1876, leaving one son,
Augustus Hobson Price. In 1878 he married Mary
Roberts, of Mobile. She was one of the lady managers
for North Carolina at the Columbian exposition of 1893.

Thomas R. Purnell, of Raleigh, N. C. , judge of the
United States district court, is a native of Wilmington,
and received his education at Hillsboro military academy
and at Trinity college. In April, 1864, being sixteen
years of age, he enlisted in the Confederate service as a
private in a cavalry company, organized and commanded
by Captain Howard, but was at once detailed as a courier
to General Whiting. After a brief service in this capac
ity he was assigned by General Whiting to duty as a
member of Blackford's corps of topographical engineers,
and in that line of duty he continued until his corps was
disbanded at the time of the surrender at Appomattox.
Private Purnell then joined the army under General
Johnston, and was the third man paroled at Greensboro.
During his service he was under fire at the Dutch Gap
canal and in an engagement with gunboats at Aquia
creek, and very frequently while acting as courier.
When peace was restored he entered Trinity college,
Randolph county, N. C., and was graduated there in
1869. Then taking up the study of law, he was admitted
to the bar at Raleigh, in 1870, and at Baltimore, Md., in
1871, after which he practiced for several months at the
latter city. Returning to his native State he followed his
profession at Salem until, on March 4, 1873, he received
the appointment of State librarian. This office he
resigned in 1876, and accepted a seat in the legislature,

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 701

as representative of Wake count)'-, at the same time
resuming the practice of law with his home at Raleigh.
In 1882 he was elected to the State senate, where he
served one term, and in 1892 was nominated for attorney-
general, but was defeated by a small majority. From
1877 to 1896 he also discharged, during the greater part
of the time, the duties of United States commissioner.
His appointment as United States district judge, a posi
tion which he fills with ability and dignity, was made in
May, 1897. Judge Purnell is descended, through his
mother, from E. B. Dudley, a distinguished North Caro
linian, who served as an officer in the war of 1812 and
the Mexican war, and from 1836 to 1841 was governor of
the State, and his father, Christopher Dudley, who served
in the revolutionary war and as a member of the colonial
legislature of North Carolina. His paternal ancestor
came from the eastern shore of Maryland and settled in
Halifax county, N. C.

Captain Junius Napoleon Ramsay, M. D. , a prominent
citizen of Seaboard, N. C., was born in Northampton
county, March 31, 1836. He was educated in the common
schools, preparatory to entering the university at Chapel
Hill, where he was graduated in 1857, and two years later
he was graduated professionally at the university of
Pennsylvania. Embarking then in the practice of medi
cine, at Seaboard and at Jackson, he was well launched
in a professional career when the first alarm of war fol
lowed the movement for independence of the Southern
States. This movement he sympathized with and sup
ported with all the strength of his young manhood, and
not content with awaiting the action of his own State,
he went to Charleston, S. C., about the ist of March,
1 86 1, and enlisted as a private in the Palmetto Guards,
commanded by Capt. George B. Cuthbert. This organ
ization was stationed at the famous Stevens' iron battery,
at Cummings Point, during the bombardment of Fort
Sumter, and it is believed that Dr. Ramsay fired the sec
ond gun against the fort at the opening of that memor
able cannonade. A few days after the fall of Sumter he
secured an honorable discharge in order to enter the serv
ice of his own State, and on the way home learned of the
evacuation and burning of the navy yard at Portsmouth.
He consequently hurried on to Virginia, and offering his

702 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY,

services was appointed assistant surgeon, in which capac
ity he served at Fort Norfolk until the secession of North
Carolina. Then returning home he assisted in organiz
ing a company in his county, and was commissioned first
lieutenant. This became Company A, Third battalion,
light artillery, Maj. J. W. Moore commanding, and Lieu
tenant Ramsay was identified with its service during the
following two years. He was then transferred, at his
request, to Company I, Eighth infantry, with which he
was in battle at Plymouth, N. C. , and at Battery Wagner,
Charleston harbor, and immediately after the latter fight
was promoted to captain of the company. Going with
his regiment to the defense of Petersburg and Richmond,
he received a severe wound in the left foot at the battle
of Drewry's Bluff, which prevented further service in the
field. Upon partial recovery he was assigned to duty as
assistant surgeon at Greensboro, N. C., where he was
paroled in May, 1865. Since then he has been engaged in
the practice of medicine, except during the last decade,
when he has given his whole attention to his business
and agricultural interests. He is vice-president and
director of the bank of Weldon, and has served as director
of the Eastern insane asylum and of the Oxford orphan
asylum. When President Davis' remains were carried
through the State to Richmond he was one of the escorts
of honor on behalf of North Carolina. By his marriage,
in 1865, to Bettie Harwell Phillips, Dr. Ramsay has three
children living: John T., Joseph H. and Bettie Phillips.

Captain Nathan Alexander Ramsey, a prominent cit
izen of Durham, N. C., was born in Chatham county,
December 3, 1827, a son of Joseph Ramsey, member of
the State senate, 1827-30, and a member of the State
constitutional convention of 1835. He was a grandson of
Matthew Ramsey, a captain of the continental army and
brother of Gen. Ambrose Ramsey, who served eleven
years in the State senate of North Carolina. Mr. Ram
sey's mother was Elizabeth, daughter of Winship Stead-
man, who was a member of the North Carolina State
senate and a brother of Nathan Steadman, of the revo
lutionary army. Mr. Ramsey was educated at Lovejoy's
academy and the university of North Carolina, being
graduated from the latter institution in 1848. In 1850
lie made a visit to California, subsequently was in merr

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. ?G3

cantile business, and for three years was connected with
the treasury department at Washington, D. C. He
entered the Confederate service, April 16, 1861, as first
sergeant in the Fifth regiment, North Carolina volun
teers, and he served with this command on the Virginia
peninsula until 1862. He was then commissioned by
the governor to organize a new company, of which he
was elected captain, and this became Company D of the
Sixty-first regiment. He continued in this rank until
the close of the war, but for some time performed the
duties of lieutenant-colonel. With the Sixty-first regi
ment he served at Wilmington, Charleston and various
other points on the coast, and took part in the battles of
Kinston, N. C. , and the fighting on Morris island, James
island and Sullivan's island, in Charleston harbor. His
most severe engagement was in defense of Battery Wag
ner. He was ordered to Virginia in 1864, fought at
Drewry's bluff and Cold Harbor, at the battle of the
Crater and Fort Harrison, and in March, 1865, partici
pated in the battle of Bentonville. Soon afterward he
was surrendered with Johnston's army. Captain Ramsey
was once captured by the enemy at Kinston, but was
paroled within forty-eight hours and soon afterward ex
changed. An interesting incident of his experience was
a night encounter with a. body of 25 deserters, whom he
persuaded, single handed, to go with him and rejoin the
army. Captain Ramsey was married, in 1868, to Anne
Sophia, daughter of John Thompson, who for twenty
years was clerk of the superior court. Her grandfather,
John Thompson, was a member of the provincial con
gress of the State, as a representative of Chatham
county. Her brother, John Erwin Thompson, was a
member of the Independent light infantry, the oldest
military company of the State. In August, 1862, he was
promoted to first lieutenant of Company G, Forty-eighth
regiment. He was severely wounded in battle, com
manded his regiment at Bristoe Station, and being taken
prisoner in April, 1865, was confined for some time at
Johnson's island. Captain Ramsey has five children liv
ing: N. Elizabeth, Cora Manly, Adelaide, Pauline and
;Nathan A. Jr.

Lieutenant John T. Rankin, of Wilmington, a veteran
of the North Carolina artillery, was born at Southport, in

704 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

1845, and reared and educated at Wilmington. In Au
gust, 1863, he; enlisted as a private in Company A, First
North Carolina artillery, and in the following January
was commissioned first lieutenant. In this rank he served
on the coast, participated in the defense of Fort Fisher
and Fort Anderson, and at the engagement of Town
Creek, February 20, 1865, was wounded and made pris
oner by the enemy. Subsequently he was held at Fort
Delaware until May 27, 1865. Mr. Rankin's father,
Robert G. Rankin, raised a company of heavy artillery,
of which he was commissioned captain, in May, 1862, and
which became Company C of the First North Carolina
battalion. He served on coast defense until Johnston's
final campaign against Sherman, when he participated in
the battle of Bentonville, and was killed, receiving seven
wounds. At his death he was senior captain of the bat
talion. Robert G. Rankin, Jr., another son of Captain
Rankin, also served in the First battalion, as a private.

W. H. Rankin, of Guilford county, a gallant soldier of
the Twenty-first regiment, North Carolina troops, who
served in thirty-three pitched battles of the army of
Northern Virginia, was born in Guilford county, Decem
ber 14, 1841. He entered the Confederate service as sec
ond sergeant of Company M, Eleventh regiment of vol
unteers, as the Twenty-first was then entitled, and under
the command of Colonel Kirkland took part in the first
battle of Manassas, July 21, 1861. In the spring of 1862
he marched with Ewell to reinforce Jackson in the Shen-
andoah valley, participated in the battle of Winchester
and some minor affairs, and at the battle of Cross Keys
received a severe wound in the left leg, which disabled
him for a considerable time. On his return he took part
in the battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and
Gettysburg, fought in the Wilderness against Grant, and
at Cold Harbor, and then, moving with Early to the relief
of Lynchburg, joined in the chase of Hunter down the
valley and marched through Maryland up to the forts at
Washington. Returning to the valley, he fought against
Sheridan at Winchester and Cedar creek, and afterward
served in the Petersburg trenches until in the famous
sortie of Gordon's corps against Fort Stedman, March
25» ^65, he lost his left leg in the battle. He lay in
hospital, thus disabled, during the exciting events of the

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 705

evacuation and Federal occupation, and finally was able
to return home in July of that year. He is now engaged
in teaching and in the management of his farm near
Brown's Summit.

Colonel James M. Ray, of the Sixtieth regiment,
North Carolina troops, brigadier-general commanding
the Fourth brigade, North Carolina division, United Con
federate Veterans, was born in Buncombe county, in
1839, the third child of Elisha and Harriet (Alexander)
Ray. His father, who died in 1844, was a merchant in
Buncombe county and a colonel of the State militia, and
was the son of John Ray, a planter of South Carolina,
who removed to Tennessee in middle life. His mother,
Harriet, was the granddaughter of William Alexander,
a revolutionary soldier, who removed to North Carolina
after that war. The latter, a relative named Patton, and
another comrade had the honor of capturing the mess
chest of General Cornwallis at King's mountain, and this
trophy is still treasured by his descendants. Colonel
Ray was educated at Emory and Henry college, Virginia,
and then engaged in business in Tennessee until early in
1 86 1, when he entered the service of that State as a first
lieutenant. In June, 1861, he enlisted as a private in a
company for home defense at Asheville, N. C., and in
1862 organized a company, of which he was elected first
lieutenant, for the Sixth battalion, North Carolina troops,
which was soon filled up to a regiment, and known as
the Sixtieth, Lieutenant Ray becoming captain of Com
pany F. He served with this command in east Tennes
see, participated in the battle of Murfreesboro, and for
good conduct was promoted lieutenant-colonel. In the
summer of 1863 he was with Johnston in Mississippi, was
general field officer at Big Black river on July 4th, and
took part in the defense of Jackson. At the famous bat
tle of Chickamauga he commanded his regiment in Sto-
vall's brigade, Breckinridge's division, in the fighting of
September ipth and 2oth, and on the last day was severely
wounded in the arm within 81 yards of the Federal
breastworks, the nearest point reached by the Confeder
ate troops. During his convalescence he was in com
mand of the post at Asheville, its former commander,
General Vance, having been captured, and subsequently
was a staff officer with Gen. J. G. Martin. The post of

706 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Asheville, under General Martin's command, held out for
some time after the surrender of General Lee, the non-
combatants being called out for service by Colonel Ray,
but finally fell through treachery and the violation of a
flag of truce. Colonel Ray resided after this in Paris,
Tenn., until 1878, when he made his permanent home
at Asheville and engaged in real estate transactions. He
has been a public-spirited and valuable citizen, and is one
of the prominent men of western North Carolina. He
was elected lieutenant-commander of the first Confeder
ate veterans organization at Asheville, and subsequently
was commander until 1893. He was also the first com
mander of Zeb Vance camp, U. C. V., of Asheville,
which he organized, and declined re-election after one
year's service. In 1896-97 he served as inspector-general
of the State under Maj.-Gen. W. L. DeRosset, and at
Nashville, in 1897, he was elected to his present high
rank in the order. By his marriage, in 1861, to Alice Cald-
well, of Tennessee, a descendant of a colonial Virginia
family, he has five children: Wayne S., Walter M., Clar
ence F. , Carl Robert, and Willie Emily. The latter was
maid of honor at the Nashville reunion and sponsor at
the western North Carolina reunion at Andrews, and
also sponsor for Zebulon Vance camp at the Atlanta
reunion.

Captain Neill W. Ray, of the gallant Sixth regiment,
was born at Argyle, Cumberland county, and was the son
of William Ray and his wife Margaret, who was a daugh
ter of Neil McLaughlin. Both the grandfathers of Cap
tain Ray came to North Carolina from Scotland, about a
century ago. He was educated at Longstreet academy
and at the North Carolina military institute at Charlotte,
leaving school before his studies were completed, to
enter the Confederate service. He enlisted for the war
in May, 1861, in the company of Capt. S. McDowell Tate,
Company D, afterward colonel of the Sixth regiment,
State troops, and went into camp of instruction first at
Charlotte, afterward, about June i, 1861, at Company
Shops, now known as Burlington. Being elected at the
outset to the rank of second lieutenant, he was promoted
to first lieutenant in 1862, and to captain in 1863. With
his regiment he joined the army of Gen. J. E. Johnston
at Winchester, Va., early in July, and after a toilsome

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 707

march across the mountains, on the 2ist of July shared
the famous service of his regiment at the battle of First
Manassas. In 1862 he bore his part in the distinguished
service of his command at Yorktown, and as the army fell
back, at Eltham's Landing, then Seven Pines, Mechan-
icsville, Games' Mill, White Oak swamp, Malvern hill,
Slaughter's mountain, Thoroughfare Gap, Second Ma
nassas, Ox Hill, Boonsboro, Sharpsburg near St. Mum-
ma's or the Dunker church, and at Fredericksburg ; and
then followed the historic encounters of Chancellorsville,
Winchester, Gettysburg, Williamsport, Warren ton Springs,
Bristoe Station, Rappahannock Bridge, Mine Run, New
Bern, Plymouth, the fighting around Petersburg, includ
ing Hanover Junction and Bethesda church, in all of
which he played a gallant part. At Gettysburg he was
with his regiment as part of the attacking column, which
charged and captured Cemetery heights on the evening
of July 2, 1863, and held it until orders to fall back were
given. Captain Ray has always claimed that failure to
support that attack and capture of Cemetery hill, was the
turning point at the battle of Gettysburg. He tells with
what great reluctance the men of the Sixth North Caro
lina State troops fell back, complaining of having to
leave a position that was so dearly won ; and with pride
for his regiment he refers to the monuments erected on
Cemetery heights by the Union soldiers who defended it
on that night. They tell the tale of the desperate en
counter. At Bethesda church, May 30, 1864, when
Grant's army was making a desperate effort to reach
Richmond, Captain Ray's left ankle was badly shattered,
and it was deemed necessary to perform an amputation,
which put an end to his military career. Two months
later he returned to Fayetteville, his present home, and
in 1865 he was elected clerk of the superior court of the
county. This office he held for two years, in the mean
time reading law, so that when he was defeated under
the Canby election, so-called, he was prepared to obtain
license to practice and begin a career as a lawyer which
has ever since continued, with abundant honors and sub
stantial success. For several years he has been honored
by his fellow citizens with the office of mayor. In 1878
he was married to Laura Pearson, of Morganton, and
they have one child living, Donald. Captain Ray has
contributed to war annals an interesting and authoritative

Nc 68

708 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

history of the Sixth regiment, which is on file in the war
department at Washington, and also at Richmond and in
several of the public or college libraries in North Carolina
and Virginia.

William T. Redmond, of Durham, one of the gallant
North Carolinians who fell on the slope of Cemetery hill
in the famous charge of Avery's brigade, is a native of
Durham county, born June 12, 1843. His father, Wil
liam P. Redmond, a native of North Carolina, was a
prosperous farmer. In his eighteenth year, Redmond
enlisted in Capt. W. J. Freeland's company, which
became Company C of the Sixth regiment, North Caro
lina troops, commanded by Col. Charles F. Fisher.
Ordered to Virginia in July, 1861, the Sixth was on duty
in the Shenandoah valley in the brigade of General Lee,
and soon afterward took an important part in the famous
victory of July 2ist, at Manassas. Private Redmond did
a soldier's duty on that field as well as in the bloody
battles of 1862, at Seven Pines, Games' Mill, Malvern
hill, Thoroughfare Gap, Second Manassas, Boonsboro,
Sharpsburg and Fredericksburg. He took part in the
gallant defense of Fredericksburg, in May, 1863, was at
the battle of Winchester, and carried the colors of his
regiment on the night of July 2d, when the Sixth stormed
the heights of Gettysburg, after an obstinate hand-to-
hand fight with bayonets and clubbed muskets over the
stone wall. Within a few rods of the Federal lines he was
shot down, and on the retreat to Virginia was carried to
the hospital at Staunton. His wound was of such severity
that it was two months before he could go to his home,
and he was never afterward fit for service. He was also
slightly wounded at Sharpsburg. Since the restoration
of peace Mr. Redmond has been successfully engaged in
farming. He has held the office of magistrate for a con
siderable period, and during the second administration of
President Cleveland, was connected with the revenue
service at Durham. He is a member of the R. F. Webb
camp, United Confederate Veterans. In 1865 he was
married to Elvira, daughter of Wesley Rhodes, and they
have had eleven children, of whom five are living : William
P., James J., Charles A. (who served in Company I, First
North Carolina regiment, in the late war with Spain),
and Naomi, a daughter.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 709

Captain David Settle Reid, of Winston, was born in
Rockingham county, April 28, 1847, nephew of Gov.
David Settle Reid, who was born in the same county in
1813, became a successful lawyer, was elected to the
State legislature, the United States Congress, the govern
orship of the State, succeeded Willie P. Mangum as
United States senator, and after the secession of the
State was a member of the Confederate States Congress.
When the subject of this sketch was seventeen years of
age he entered the Confederate military service, in May,
1864, as orderly-sergeant of Company A, Third regiment,
Junior reserves, and during his comparatively brief serv
ice was promoted to second lieutenant and then to cap
tain of his company. He participated in the battle of
Belfield, Va. , was with the forces under General Bragg
at Fort Fisher, and afterward took part in the battles of
Kinston and Bentonville. He was paroled with Johnston's
army at Greensboro, and then returned to his native
county. He has been a citizen of Winston and engaged
in business as a merchant since 1877, and is one of the
leading citizens of the town.

Major James Reilly, born at Athlone, County Roscom-
mon, Ireland, April 17, 1823, died at Wilmington, No
vember 5, 1894, was one of the most gallant artillery
officers of the army of Northern Virginia, and a hero of
the immortal defense of Fort Fisher. Coming to Amer
ica when quite young, he first resided in New Jersey and
later in Maryland, where he enlisted in the Second regi
ment of artillery, United States army. He served in the
war with the Seminole Indians in Florida, and later in
the Mexican war, receiving severe wounds at Chapulte-
pec. For bravery he was promoted orderly-sergeant and
assigned to Capt. Henry Hunt's battery, and entered the
capital of Mexico with the column of General Worth. In
1857 he was appointed ordnance-sergeant, and not long
before the rupture between the North and South he
was detailed to take charge of Fort Johnson on Cape
Fear river. On January 9, 1861, when he was asked to
turn over the keys to a party of citizens, he stoutly
refused until persuaded resistance was futile. On the
next day he took back the stores from the same parties,
the act having been disavowed by the governor. Soon
afterward he received his discharge by special order of

710 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

May 3d, and then tendered his services to the old North
State. Being a fine artilleryman he drilled the volun
teers at Fort Johnson and at the Raleigh camp of instruc
tion, until commissioned captain of a battery organized in
Rowan county. With this gallant company, known as
Light Battery D, North Carolina troops, he joined the
army in Virginia just after the battle of First Manassas,
and was presented by General Johnston with a fine set of
guns, captured from the enemy, and assigned to General
Whiting's command at Evansport. During the follow
ing winter his command was reported by the inspector-
general as in the best condition of any battery in the
army. At York town, with the troops covering the rear,
he brought off all his own guns and two abandoned by
another battery, which were presented to his command.
He was in battle at Eltham's Landing and Seven Pines,
and was particularly distinguished in the daring and
skillful combats, almost daily, with the enemy's superior
artillery, which preceded the Seven Days' campaign. He
was selected by Whiting to accompany him in reinforcing
Jackson, and took a prominent part in the attack of Jack
son's command on McClellan's right, especially at Toto-
potomoy bridge, Games' Mill, White Oak swamp and at
Malvern hill, where his battery lost heavily, but bravely
did the work assigned them, and received the personal
congratulations of General Jackson. At Games' Mill he
was given the choice of the fourteen captured cannon.
At Freeman's Ford, Thoroughfare Gap, Second Manas
sas, Boonsboro, Sharpsburg and Fredericksburg, he won
new honors, fighting in the most exposed positions with
the greatest gallantry. In May, 1863, he was strongly
recommended by General Whiting for promotion. Gen.
J. E. Johnston had previously recommended him, saying
that he would rather have Reilly's battery with him than
any other in the Confederate States. At Gettysburg his
battery and Latham's were the first of the battalion to
engage the enemy, July 2d, and he was actively engaged
on the third day also. After this he was promoted major
and assigned to the Tenth North Carolina volunteers, or
First artillery. In December, 1864, during the first
demonstration against Fort Fisher, he arrived at that
important post in company with General Whiting, and
during the second assault was in command on the left of
the forces in the works. After the enemy had gained a

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 711

foothold, and Whiting and Lamb were both wounded,
he assumed chief command, and rallying his men drove
back the enemy for a time. But the odds were so great
against him that he fell back to Fort Buchanan with a
little remnant of the garrison, and there surrendered his
sword to Capt. E. L. Moore, of Massachusetts, who
returned it with expressions of admiration of his former
enemy's gallantry, in 1893. Major Reilly was impris
oned at Fort Delaware, where he was visited by General
Hunt, his former captain, and received privileges not
usually granted to the prisoners of war, and was offered
a commission in the United States army. Returning to
Wilmington after the close of hostilities, he was for some
time superintendent of the Wilmington and Brunswick
ferry company, and later engaged in farming until his
death. He was married, in July, 1848, to Annie Quinn,
of Ireland, who died in 1872, leaving three daughters and
one son, John W. Reilly, now superintendent of the Wil
mington gas light company. By a second marriage he
had two daughters. Major Reilly was a devout Roman
Catholic, and was kind and benevolent to all. He was
selected to deliver the welcome address to the first bishop
of North Carolina, afterward Cardinal Gibbons, who
always held him in high esteem for his many Christian
virtues. In his battery he had organized an association
for the spiritual welfare of its members and reminded
them of the efficacy of prayer before going into battle.

Lieutenant Ferdinand Lafayette Reynolds, of Winston,
was born in Forsyth county, August 6, 1836. In early
manhood he removed to Illinois and there at first enlisted
in the United States army, but embraced an opportunity
to escape, in the spring of 1862, and return to North
Carolina, where he was in command of a camp of
recruits. He entered service with the army of Northern
Virginia, as first lieutenant of his company, which was
assigned to the Forty-eighth regiment, North Carolina
troops, as Company K. In the brigade of General
Walker he participated in the battles of Seven Pines and
of the Seven Days before Richmond, and subsequently
with the brigade of General Cooke, took part in many
battles and skirmishes, including the great combats at
Sharpsburg and Gettysburg. In one of the battles
before Richmond he was severely injured, sustaining a

712 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

fracture of the right thigh, which disabled him for a long
time. He has been one of the enterprising and valued
citizens of Winston, has held a position in the office of
the revenue collector for that district, and is now engaged
with his four sons in the nursery business, a few miles
west of the city.

Captain V. V, Richardson, of White ville, well known
throughout North Carolina for his prominence in public
affairs, was born in Columbus county, November 6, 1839,
son of Valentine and Nancy (Pridgen) Richardson. He
is of patriotic lineage, his grandfather Richardson having
served as an American soldier in the war of the revolu
tion. Captain Richardson, after completing his educa
tion at the Whiteville academy, followed farming until
twenty years of age and became a clerk in a store at
Whiteville. Here he was a leader in the organization of
the first company formed in the county, at the beginning
of the war of the Confederacy, and was elected its sec
ond lieutenant. This became Company H of the Eigh
teenth regiment, North Carolina State troops. He was
on duty with his command in North Carolina about one
year, and then served for a time in the office of the pro
vost-marshal at Wilmington. Subseqtiently he was com
missioned captain of Company C of his old regiment, then
commanded by Col. T. J. Purdie and afterward by Col.
J. D. Barry, in the brigade of Gen. James H. Lane. He
commanded his company in the battles of Fredericks-
burg, Chancellorsville and many other famous conflicts,
and at the battle of the Wilderness commanded the sharp
shooters of the brigade. While in the performance of
this duty he fell with a severe wound through the hip,
which disabled him for further service. General Lane,
in his report of this engagement, mentioned him as "a
most reliable officer of often tried gallantry." His res
ignation as captain was accepted, in October, 1864, and
having returned home, in August he was elected sheriff of
Columbus county, an office which he held for eight years
thereafter. He was then elected to the legislature, where
he had a seat either in the Senate or House for a period
of ten years, holding the prominent positions of chairman
of the finance committee and the committees on corpora
tions and redistricting the State. At the end of his leg
islative service he twice declined re-election. He was

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 713

then appointed sheriff, to fill an unexpired term, and was
subsequently elected to the office, but resigned before the
expiration of that term to accept an appointment by
President Cleveland as United States marshal for the
eastern district of North Carolina. He also held the
position of director of the Western North Carolina rail
road by appointment of Governors Vance and Jarvis.
He now holds the position of director of the institution
for the deaf and dumb at Morganton, and is actively
engaged in farming, merchandising and manufacturing.
His career, both as a soldier and civilian, has been one of
honor and prominence, and he has faithfully discharged
the trusts confided to him. Captain Richardson was
married, in 1865, to Amanda, daughter of Col. Alfred
Smith. They have the following children : C. G. , Alfred
S., Donald V., Maud A., Marietta S., and Bessie.

Lieutenant Dallas M. Rigler, a gallant veteran of
Lane's North Carolina brigade, was born at Charlotte,
where he now resides, November i, 1844. He is the son
of John R. Rigler, a native of Philadelphia, Pa., who
removed to Charlotte about 1833, as an employe of the
United States mint, and continued in that service until
the beginning of the war. The son, as a loyal North
Carolinian, enlisted in 1861, as a private in Company I
of the Thirty-seventh regiment, and subsequently was
identified with its career until the war had practically
come to an end, rising through the grades of corporal,
orderly-sergeant and second lieutenant to that of first
lieutenant. He served gallantly in many battles, includ
ing those of New Bern, Hanover Court House, Mechan-
icsville, Frayser's Farm, Games' Mill, Cold Harbor,
Cedar Run, Second Manassas, Harper's Ferry, Shep-
herdstown, Chancellor sville, the Wilderness, Spottsylva-
nia Court House, Jericho Ford, Gravelly Run, Reams'
Station, and the fighting about Petersburg. He was
wounded several times, most seriously at Chancellors-
ville, where his right leg was broken, disabling him dur
ing the Gettysburg campaign, and on one occasion nar
rowly escaped a serious wound through the interposition
of a small Bible captured from a Yankee, which, carried
in his pocket, stopped a ball, at Chapin's bluff. He was
complimented for bravery at Spottsylvania, and from
August, 1864, was distinguished in command of the

714 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

sharpshooters from his regiment who were included in
the famous sharpshooters of Lane's brigade, whose serv
ice was of the most romantic and daring nature, and fre
quently received the warm approbation of the Confederate
commanders, including Robert E. Lee himself. Lieuten
ant Rigler was captured, April 2, 1865, with the gallant
300 who held Fort Gregg, on the Petersburg lines, for
several hours against the determined assaults of Ord's
Federal corps, who surrounded them and were encour
aged by the successes of their army. He was subse
quently held as a prisoner of war at Johnson's island until
about the ist of July, 1865. Since his return to Charlotte
he has been engaged in business pursuits with good suc
cess. In May, 1866, he was married to Mary J. Archer,
of Portsmouth, Va.

Charles W. Rivenbark, of Charlotte, was born in New
Hanover, now Pender county, April 23, 1841, the son of
William and Margaret (Browning) Rivenbark, natives of
the same county. He enlisted in the First regiment,
North Carolina troops, Col. Montford S. Stokes, which
was organized at Warrenton, N. C., June 3, 1861, and
soon afterward ordered to service on the Potomac river.
As a private, and later as orderly-sergeant of his com
pany, he served with credit in the subsequent campaigns
and battles of his command, participating in the engage
ments of Games' Mill, Frayser's Farm, Cold Harbor,
South Mountain, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Chancel-
lorsville, Winchester and Gettysburg. During this serv
ice he was slightly wounded two or three times, and was
captured at Chancellorsville, but exchanged six days
later. He devoted himself thoroughly to the profession
of a soldier, studying the tactics, and becoming so pro
ficient that he was frequently called upon to act as drill-
master, and was for a short time detailed for that duty
with the Forty-fourth Georgia regiment. At the fateful
battle of Gettysburg he was captured by the enemy, and
thereafter was confined at Fort Delaware. After he
had been a prisoner of war over a year and a half, he
formed a plan of escape into which about 140 fellow pris
oners were admitted. It was necessary to swim seven
miles across the bay from the walls of the fort, and
a sufficient number of planks with a couple of tightly
corked canteens tied to each were provided. He sawed

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 715

the hole through which his comrades dropped and took to
the water, and all got away in safety, but when he came
to look for his life-preserver he found that it had been
appropriated by another, and he was forced to remain
behind. Not long afterward, by another plan, he made
his escape, after a year and nine months' imprisonment,
and on April ist started for Dixie. But the speedy close
of the war made further service impossible. In 1878 he
made his home at Charlotte, where is now in business,
and is a comrade of the Mecklenburg camp with the rank
of quartermaster. In February, 1866, he was married to
Mrs. Kate Moore.

Stephen G. Roberts, who since the war has made a
successful career as a merchant of New Bern, was a
faithful soldier of the Confederacy during his youth. He
is a native of Carteret county, N. C., born in 1844. When
eighteen years of age, in the fall of 1862, he went to Wil
mington and enlisted in the battery of light artillery,
commanded by Capt. Z. T. Adams, which became Com
pany D of the Tenth North Carolina battalion. He was
identified with the subseqtient service of this battery, and
in July, 1864, while on duty at Fort Fisher, was detailed
as a courier for Maj. Spiers Singleton. While acting in
this capacity he was captured by the Federals during the
first attack upon the fort, on Christmas day, 1864, which
put an end to his service as a Confederate soldier. He
was transported to Point Lookout, Md., and confined
there until May, 1865. After his return to North Caro
lina he found employment as a mercantile clerk for three
years, at Portsmouth, and then made his home at New
Bern, where he has ever since been engaged in business.

Eber R. Robertson, a gallant young martyr of the
Confederacy, was born at Winnsboro, S. C., April 4,
1847, of a patriotic family of Scotch descent, which has
had representatives in all the American wars since the
revolution. Two of his great-grandfathers served in
the revolution in the patriot army, Capt. William Rob
ertson and Maj. William Smith, the latter of whom sub
sequently represented a South Carolina district in the
United States Congress. Young Robertson, inspired by
such examples of patriotism, enlisted in February, 1863,
before he was sixteen years old, as a private in the

716 CONFEDERA TE MILITARY HISTORY.

Charleston Light Dragoons, of Company K of the Fourth
South Carolina cavalry, Col. B. H. Rutledge. He served
near Charleston until the spring of 1864, when the com
mand was ordered to Virginia, and there Robertson was
selected, upon the recommendation of his colonel, as
courier to Gen. M. C. Butler. In this capacity he par
ticipated in the campaigns and battles of Hampton's cav
alry until September 24, 1864, when he was accidentally
killed by a Confederate sentinel near Petersburg. A
younger and surviving brother of the foregoing, Capt.
Thomas R. Robertson, of Charlotte, who reveres the
memory of the fallen heroes of the South and has done
much to perpetuate the martial and chivalrous spirit of
the past, was born at Winnsboro, April 24, 1849. He
was graduated at the university of South Carolina in
1869, was admitted to practice as an attorney in 1876,
removed to Charlotte in 1881, and in 1885 was appointed
clerk of the criminal court of Mecklenburg county, and by
reappointment served until 1893, when he was appointed
postmaster by President Cleveland. While in South
Carolina he became a lieutenant of the Fairfield Light
Dragoons, organized in 1875, and was promoted captain,
and subsequently was a non-commissioned officer of the
Gordon light infantry until 1881. At Charlotte he has
served as first lieutenant of the reorganized Hornet's
Nest Riflemen, one year, and as captain of that famous
organization since 1884. With the Gordon light infantry
he took part in the Yorktown centennial celebration,
and as commander of the Riflemen participated in the
parades at both the inaugurations of President Cleve
land, at the last serving as aide to General McMahon,
chief marshal. He was married, in 1871, to Cora M.,
daughter of Col. William Johnston, for many years presi
dent of the Charlotte, Columbus & Augusta railroad, a
descendant of a signer of the Mecklenburg declaration,
and a great-granddaughter of two revolutionary officers,
Capt. William Johnston and Gen. Joseph Graham.

Lieutenant J. Rowan Rogers, a gallant veteran of the
Forty-seventh regiment, North Carolina troops, which
was first commanded by his brother, Col. Sion H. Rog
ers, was born in Wake county, in 1844, and was educated
at Wilson's academy, in Alamance county, which he left
to enlist as private in Company I of his brother's regi-

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 717

ment, in the spring of 1862. Three weeks after the
organization he was elected third lieutenant, and subse
quently was promoted second lieutenant. The regiment
was on duty in North Carolina for some time, during
which Lieutenant Rogers commanded a squad of men on
railroad guard duty near Enfield, and with his regiment,
on the railroad from Kinston to Goldsboro, was in fre
quent skirmishes with the enemy until ordered into Vir
ginia and stationed near Petersburg. Here he was taken
with typhoid fever and disabled for several months, and
on his recovery took part in the campaign against
Federal General Foster in the vicinity of Goldsboro and
Kinston. Returning to Virginia, he was engaged in the
vSuffolk campaign, and was in southeastern Virginia
under General Pryor until again ordered to North Caro
lina, where his brigade came tinder the command of Gen
eral Pettigrew and did good service at New Bern. He
was second in command of the sharpshooters, who drove
in the Federal sharpshooters on Rodman's Point, below
Little Washington, and repulsed a gunboat with rein
forcements, and was honorably mentioned in general
orders. At Gettysburg his gallant brigade suddenly
encountered the enemy on the first day, and deploying
with great coolness, drove the Federal cavalry before
them. In the desperate fight that followed, the Forty-
seventh and Fifty-second made a splendid charge to the
relief of the Twenty-sixth and Eleventh regiments, and
forced the enemy from the field in their front, though at
heavy loss. On the third day, after lying behind the
batteries for several hours, in the terrible heat of a July
sun, they sprang up at the order to advance, and threw
themselves with a devoted valor that has no superior in
the annals of war, against the Federal lines. of Cemetery
hill. They were swept down by the fire of more than
100 cannon, great gaps were cut by the enemy's rifles as
they came nearer to the goal, and finally the handful that
was left disappeared in the terrible roar and smoke of the
battle. Lieutenant Rogers, when capture seemed inev
itable, returned to the original lines, having fortunately
escaped with a slight wound. His company in this cam
paign lost 52 men; out of the regiment, 700 muskets
before the fight, but 97 were left on duty on the return
to Virginia. Lieutenant Rogers was in twenty-eight
battles in all, including the Wilderness, Spottsylvania

718 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

and Cold Harbor, in the latter engagement receiving a
serious wound which disabled him until after the battle
of Reams' Station. When taken to the rear after this
wound, General Kirkland, also wounded, called him into
his tent, and he was carried in the general's ambulance
to hospital. After serving many months on the Peters
burg lines, and in the battles at Jones' farm, Burgess'
Mill and on the Weldon railroad, he was captured on
the Cox road, near the Appomattox river, April 6, 1865.
He was confined as a prisoner of war at the Old Capitol
prison and Johnson's island until June i8th. In 1867
Lieutenant Rogers opened a general store at Raleigh,
which he is conducting in addition to his industry as a
farmer. For two terms he was sheriff of Wake county,
being first elected in 1886, and during the administration
of President Harrison, he served as mail weigher in the
postal service. In June, 1897, he was elected steward of
the State school for the deaf and blind at Raleigh.

Colonel Sion Hart Rogers, first commander of the
Forty-seventh regiment, North Carolina State troops,
was born in Wake county, in 1825. From his earliest
manhood, when he was denominated "the gallant Rog
ers," in commemoration of one of the most remarkable
political struggles that Wake county ever witnessed, he
was the center of a band of warm friends and a recog
nized leader in political and patriotic activity. In 1853
he was elected to the United States Congress by the
metropolitan district, and though the youngest member
of the house, displayed remarkable firmness and inde
pendence. With the exception of Puyear, he stood alone
from North Carolina, and with the exception of John
Bell, of Tennessee, almost alone in the South in opposi
tion to the Kansas-Nebraska bill. At that period, and
up to the secession of North Carolina, he was an ardent
Union man, but when secession became inevitable, he at
once enlisted in the Raleigh Rifles, afterward Company
K, Fourteenth regiment. On May 21, 1 86 1 , he was elected
first lieutenant, the capacity in which he served during
the year's enlistment. There then being fear that the
State's quota might not be filled, he came home and
entered into the work of organization, raising first a bat
talion and then a regiment, the Forty-seventh, of which
he was commissioned colonel. With a part of his un-

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 719

drilled command he operated vigorously against the Fed
eral advance from New Bern, and subsequently complet
ing his regiment, was on duty in North Carolina, and at
Drewry's bluff and vicinity during the Maryland cam
paign, when he had command of all the troops on pro
vost guard duty at Petersburg. Later he displayed
soldierly qualities in various encounters with the enemy
in the vicinity of Suffolk, in the engagement at Kinston,
during the expedition against Goldsboro, where the
Federals were defeated in their attempt to cross the
river, and in the following fights which forced the enemy
back to New Bern. His regiment was hotly engaged at
the railroad bridge, near Goldsboro, and Colonel Rogers
was complimented for his gallantry on that occasion. He
was never a robust man and had suffered from hemorrhage
during his service, and on this account resigned after his
command returned to Virginia, in January, 1863. He
was promptly elected attorney-general of the State, by
the legislature, an office which he held for two terms.
He was also for a time county attorney of Johnson county,
and in 1870 was again elected to Congress. He was
loved by his regiment, for, like all brave men, he had
tender and attractive qualities. Upon his death, in
1874, memorial meetings were held in all the courts
which he had attended, and resolutions were adopted,
expressing the profound sorrow caused by the compara
tively early ending of his career. Three children sur
vive him: W. H. Rogers, a merchant at Raleigh; A. G.
Rogers, lieutenant in the United States navy, and a
daughter residing in Texas.

George A. Rose, deceased, a Confederate soldier of
Warren county, N. C. , was one of five brothers who ren
dered gallant service in the cause of the South. He
enlisted, in 1861, in a company organized in Warren
county, and served with this company until the close of
the war. Then returning to his home, he engaged in
farming until the time of his death in 1893. His brother,
Louis Rose, was a faithful soldier throughout the four
years, and was severely wounded. Robert F. Rose, who
also received honorable wounds in the service, and
Thomas and Louis were in the Confederate ranks from
the beginning to the end of the struggle. George A.
Rose, of Henderson, N. C., who bears the name of his

720 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

gallant father, was born in Warren county, in 1868, and
was there reared and educated. He embarked in busi
ness at the age of seventeen years as a partner in a gen
eral store at Henderson, and has ever since continued
with much success in this enterprise. He is also a stock
holder in cotton mills and has important agricultural
interests. Mr. Rose was married, in 1890, to Martha
S. , daughter of Dr. Bennett P. Perry, of Franklin county,
N. C.

William B. Royall, D. D., the distinguished professor
of Greek language and literature at Wake Forest college,
is connected with the memories of Confederate service,
both through the work of his father, as chaplain of the
Fifty-fifth North Carolina regiment, and by virtue of his
own boyhood experience in the ranks. He was born at
Mount Pleasant, Charleston county, S. C., September 2,
1844, and was educated at Furman university, in his
native State, and at the North Carolina institution where
he is now an honored member of the faculty. In the fall
of 1861 he enlisted in the Santee artillery, Manigault's
battalion, as a private, and served with that command
until about a year later, when his father became chaplain
of the Fifty-fifth. He then received the appointment of
commissary-sergeant in that regiment, the capacity in
which he served during the remainder of the war. He
was with his regiment during the prominent engage
ments of the army of Northern Virginia, from Gettys
burg to Appomattox, frequently did devoted service with
the ambulance corps, and was often under fire, particu
larly during the siege of Petersburg. He was called to
the position of instructor at Wake Forest not long after
the war, and in 1871 was appointed professor of Greek.
He is also a minister of the Baptist church. By his mar
riage, in 1871, to Miss Hall, of Columbus county, he has
four sons living, William, John H., Robert H. and
James B.

John Kirkland Ruffin, M. D., of Wilson, N. C., is a
worthy representative of the medical service of the Con
federate States army. He was born in Orange county,
N. C., in 1834, son of Hon. Thomas Ruffin, born in King
and Queen county, Va. , 1787, died in 1870, after a career
of pre-eminent distinction as a lawyer and chief justice

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 721

of North Carolina. Dr. Ruffin was educated at the uni
versity of North Carolina, and graduated in medicine at
the university of Pennsylvania. He left his practice at
Washington, N. C., in April, 1861, to become assistant
surgeon of the Fifth infantry regiment, with which he
was at the first battle of Manassas. He was then pro
moted to surgeon of the Forty-ninth regiment, with which
he was in battle during the Seven Days' campaign about
Richmond, and at Drewry's bluff, Fredericksburg and
Suffolk. In the winter of 1864-65 he was transferred to
the medical examining board of North Carolina, for the
selection of recruits. While in the State he was present
at the capture of Plymouth. His professional career after
ward was at Graham, until 1876, and since then at Wil
son. He was married, in 1858, to Sallie E., daughter of
Col. Joshua Tayloe. She died in 1883, leaving seven
children, and three years later he wedded Nina W.,
daughter of Henry J. G. Ruffin, of Louisburg.

Colonel Thomas Ruffin, a distinguished North Carolina
patriot, was born near Louisburg, in 1820, the third son
of Henry John Gray Ruffin, colonel of State militia in
1812-17, and his wife Mary Tartt. Soon after he attained
majority he removed to the Ozark region of Missouri and
began the practice of law, and won distinction by his
fearless enforcement of order at great personal peril. On
August 31, 1846, he was commissioned first lieutenant of
the Ozark Mountain Guards, which was attached to the
First regiment of infantry for the Santa Fe expedition,
organized under the call of July 18, 1846, and marched
with his command toward Mexico, where, however, the
war ended before his arrival. Afterward returning to
North Carolina, he practiced law at Goldsboro, was
elected to Congress, and was serving his second term
when his State seceded. Resigning his seat, he organized
a company which was attached to the First North Caro
lina cavalry, and remained with it as captain, though
tendered the command of a regiment of infantry. He
represented his district in the provisional congress of the
Confederate States in 1861, and again in 1862, serving
alternately in the field and in the national legislature.
Then declining re-election, he was in continuous service
with his famous regiment under Hampton and Stuart
until, at the battle of Gettysburg, he received a saber cut

Nc 46

722 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

on the head from a Federal officer whom he met in the
charge, and was shot after he was wounded. On recov
ering from the effects of this injury, he participated in
the Bristoe campaign, in command of his regiment, and
met his death in the famous cavalry fight at Auburn
Mill, October 13, 1863, in which Stuart extricated his
cavalry after being entirely surrounded by the enemy.
In his account of this affair, General Stuart wrote: "Gen
eral Gordon, who was directed to cover the left flank,
seeing the enemy pressing rapidly down on that side in
a manner which threatened to cut us off from the road,
ordered forward one of his regiments, the old First, which
was led by its gallant colonel, the lamented Ruffin. He
charged a regiment of infantry, nearly all of whom had
surrendered, when a reinforcement closing up rapidly
under the cover of a fence, compelled this Spartan band
to relinquish their captives. The colonel of the regiment
fell in the charge. He was a model of worth, devotion
and heroism. ' ' Colonel Ruffin was captured in a dying
condition, with a wound in the forehead, and taken to
Alexandria, where he was permitted to have the kindest
attentions from the Southern ladies there, who, after
his death, had his remains placed in a private vault
from which they were transferred to the Ruffin home
stead. His gold watch, jewelry and all personal effects
were preserved by his captors and forwarded to his
family.

Wesley Soule Russell, one of the leading business men
of Chatham county, was born in Robe son county, March
8, 1839, the son of Mark Russell, of Fayetteville, and his
wife, Sarah J. Council, both natives of North Carolina.
Mr. Russell's military service was rendered in the quar
termaster's and commissary departments, he never serv
ing in the ranks except at the battle of Bentonville.
His enlistment was in Company D, Fifty-first regiment,
North Carolina State troops, a command which was
mainly on duty in the State, but made a gallant record
in other quarters. He served with the regiment at Cold
Harbor in the army of Northern Virginia, in the quarter
master's department, and in other famous combats,
served in the defense of Charleston, S. C., and with
J. E. Johnston fought the last great battle of Benton
ville. After the close of hostilities he returned to Ran-

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 723

dolph county and engaged in farming for a time, and
then was employed in the office of the clerk of the court
at Ashboro. In April, 1866, he began his career as a
merchant at Egypt Depot, Chatham county, in which he
has continued to the present, meeting with marked suc
cess. Since 1879 he has been a valued citizen and enter
prising business man at the town of Gulf. For ten years
he discharged the duties of postmaster at Egypt Depot.
Mr. Russell has three children living, Herbert A., Paul
ine S., and Edna K.

David Simons Sanders, a prominent merchant of Beau
fort, and a veteran of the Forty-first regiment, North
Carolina troops, was born in Onslow county, in 1844. In
1857 his home was made in Carteret county, where he
enlisted, in November, 1861, as a private in Company E,
Forty-first regiment, or Ninth cavalry, with which he
served until, in 1864, he was transferred to Company H
of the Tenth North Carolina heavy artillery. He was one
of General Martin's couriers when he took Newport,
and was also courier for General Hoke in his raid around
New Bern, N. C. His first fight was at the battle of
New Bern. He participated in the Seven Days' cam
paign before Richmond, in June and July, 1862, and in
November of the same year, while in the fight at Batch-
elder's creek, near New Bern, was captured by the enemy,
after which he was held as a prisoner of war, at New
Bern five months and at Governor's island, N. Y., a
week, and then being paroled, was exchanged two
months later. He subsequently took part in the fight
ing about Suffolk and numerous skirmishes on the Black-
water, defending the Confederate communications south
of Richmond, and was in battle around Petersburg in
1863. In April, 1865, he was finally paroled at Stantons-
burg, after which he returned to his old home in Carteret
county, and in 1865 was married to Emily F. Sabiston.
For many years he has conducted a mercantile business
with much success at Beaufort. Mr. Sanders has five
children living: William A., Kate E. , wife of W. P.
Smith; Luther D., Susan C., and Charlotte V. His
brother, John W. Sanders, now living in the same
county, held the rank of second lieutenant in Company
H, Tenth artillery, and was acting captain at the close
of the war.

724 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Lieutenant Calvin Cowles Sanford, of Mocksville, now
a leading business man of his town, was born in Davie
county, October 15, 1843, and at the age of fifteen years
made his home at Farmington, where he enlisted in the
Confederate service as a private of Company F, Forty-
second regiment, North Carolina troops, March 18, 1862.
He was stationed on guard duty at Salisbury and Lynch-
burg at the beginning of his military career, served under
General Pettigrew in the campaigning on the Blackwater
river, and in the fall of 1863 was with his regiment
assigned to the brigade of General Martin. This brigade
gained a handsome victory at Newport, occupied Ply
mouth after its capture, and soon afterward won distinc
tion in Virginia in the defeat of Butler at the Hewlett
house, where Colonel Brown was shot in the head, Lieu
tenant Sanford was wounded in the arm, and 20 of his
company were disabled. Subsequently he took part in
the fighting on the Cold Harbor line, the battles of
Petersburg, the defense of the Petersburg intrenchments
and the lines north of the James, until ordered, new
under the brigade command of General Kirkland, to the
relief of Fort Fisher. There the gallant North Carolini
ans were not permitted to fight as they desired, and the
famous stronghold fell into the hands of the enemy. His
last battles were Kinston and Bentonville, after which
he was surrendered with Johnston's army. His gallant
service was recognized by promotion to sergeant and
later to lieutenant. For thirty-two years he has been a
merchant at Mocksville, pursuing an honorable and suc
cessful career, in the meantime being four times elected
sheriff of his county, Davie, for two years each, making
eight years in all.

Captain Henry Savage, of Wilmington, formerly a sol
dier and official of the Confederate States government,
was born at Wilmington, in 1834, where for a number of
years, subsequent to 1850, he was in the naval stores
business with his brother. In 1853 he was one of the
organizers of the militia company, known as the Wil
mington light infantry, in which he held the rank of jun
ior second lieutenant. With this command, which became
Company G of the Eighth, later the Eighteenth, North
Carolina regiment, he entered the Confederate service in
April, 1 86 1, and in June was promoted to captain of his

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 725

company. He served in Virginia, in the brigade of General
Branch, and participated in the battles of Hanover Court
House and the Seven Days' campaign before Richmond,
escaping serious injury from the enemy's bullets, though
hit several times, but falling a victim to disease as the re
sult of his arduous service and exposure. He was sent to
hospital at Richmond, and a few days later was forwarded
to his home on furlough. Four or five months afterward,
having in a measure recovered strength, he attempted
to rejoin his regiment, but suffering a relapse en route,
returned home, and accepted an honorable discharge.
In the early part of 1863 he was appointed by President
Davis collector of customs at the port of Wilmington and
depositary for the Confederate States treasury, and the
duties of this position occupied him until the close of the
struggle for independence. The port of Wilmington, as
is well known, was ]the great entry port for the South,
and his office was one of importance. After the fall of
Fort Fisher he retired to Raleigh, and later establishing
his office in a railroad car, moved west as necessity
demanded until the fall of the government. He is now
a prominent citizen of Wilmington, where he held the
office of city clerk and treasurer from 1877 to 1883. He
is adjutant of Cape Fear camp, No. 254, United Confed
erate Veterans.

Captain James P. Sawyer was born in Edneyville, N.
C., in 1837, and removed to Asheville in infancy. In
that city he grew to manhood and there received his
education. He entered the Confederate service in April,
1 86 1, in Company A of the Twenty-fifth North Carolina
infantry, as orderly-sergeant, and soon after was made
regimental commissary with rank of captain, serving as
such for about one year. He then resigned and was
made shipping agent of the North Carolina salt works at
Saltville, Va. He was there placed in command of a
battery and served in that capacity until October, 1864,
when he went to Petersburg, Va. There he rejoined his
old company and was made chief clerk at headquarters
of Gen. R. H. Anderson. He continued to hold this
position until just before the surrender at Appomattox,
when he was called upon to act as adjutant of the regi
ment. After the war he returned to Asheville, N. C.,
and engaged in business as a clerk until 1870, when he

726 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

commenced general merchandising in Asheville, which
business he still carries on. In 1879 ne was elected
president of the bank of Asheville (the first one organ
ized in that city after the war). He remained president
about ten years and then resigned. Soon after this the
Battery Park bank was organized and he was elected its
president. He is still holding this position. He is also
chief of staff of Brig. -Gen. James M. Ray, commanding
the P'ourth brigade, U. C. V. He also belongs to Zeb
Vance camp, Asheville, N. C. He is president of the
board of directors of the State insane asylum at Morgan-
ton, N. C. He is past grand master of the order of
Odd Fellows of the State, and was representative to the
grand lodge, which met in Boston, in September, 1898.

John Catre Scarborough, a distinguished educator of
North Carolina, was born in Wake county, September 22,
1841, the son of Daniel Scarborough, a native of the same
county. The Scarborough family, of English descent,
has an honorable record of several generations in the
State. His mother, Cynthia Horton, was of Scotch
descent. He was prepared for college at Buffalo acad
emy, but abandoned his studies in the spring of 1861 to
answer the call of the State. On April 16, 1861, he
enlisted in Company K, Fourth regiment of volunteers,
as a private. With this regiment, known later as the
Fourteenth, State troops, he served until January, 1863,
as sergeant of his company, and was then, at his request,
transferred to Company I, First regiment State troops,
with which he served during the remainder of the war.
He participated in the battles of Williamsburg, Seven
Pines, Mechanicsville, Games' Mill, White Oak Swamp,
Malvern Hill, Second Manassas, fighting during the
Seven Days' campaign in the sharpshooter corps; was in
the famous defense of the South mountain passes, and
was one of the Confederate heroes of the "bloody lane"
at Sharpsburg. Captured by the enemy at the latter
battle, he was taken to Fort Delaware, but after a con
finement of twenty-eight days, had the good fortune to
be one of the last prisoners exchanged under the Hill-
Dix cartel. After about thirty days at home, he was
again at the front and participated in the battle of Fred-
ericksburg. Beginning with the spring of 1863, he was
in all the following battles of his command, including

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 727

Cliancellorsville, Winchester, Gettysburg, Mine Run, the
Wilderness, Spottsylvania Court House, and the cam
paign thence to Richmond, including Cold IJarbor. He
went with Early's command to Lynchburg, engaged in
the pursuit of Hunter down the valley, and took part in
the capture of Harper's Ferry, the battle of Monocacy,
the demonstration against Washington, and the battles at
Snicker's Gap, Winchester, Bear River, Fisher's Hill and
Cedar Creek, in the fall of 1864, receiving in the last
fight a severe wound in the thigh from a minie ball.
He was disabled, in consequence, until March, 1865,
when he returned to his regiment at Petersburg, in time
to share the last fighting there and march with Lee to
Appomattox, where he had the honor of taking part in
the last charge, April pth. On his return he worked on
his father's farm, aiding in providing for the family;
then determined to complete his education, he entered
Wake Forest college, where he was graduated in 1869.
For two years he acted as a tutor at the college, and then
in 1871 opened an academy at Selma, which he conducted
successfully until, in 1876, he was elected State superin
tendent of public instruction, as the nominee of the Dem
ocratic party. By re-election, in 1880, he held this office
eight years". In March, 1889, he was appointed commis
sioner of labor statistics for a term of two years, and was
reappointed in 1891. In 1892, being again elected State
superintendent, he discharged the duties of that office for
a third term, ending in January, 1897. His ability was
so signally shown in this position that he was renom-
inated by his party in 1896, but the election resulted
adversely to the whole ticket Since June, 1897, he has
held the office of president of the Chowan Baptist female
institute at Mnrfreesboro. Mr. Scarborough was mar
ried, in 1876, to Julia Vass Moore, of Johnston county,
and they have three children living : Hartwell V. , Annie
R., and Julia C. Two brothers of Mr. Scarborough were
in the Confederate service, one of whom died in the
hands of the enemy after the Sharpsburg campaign, and
one, though twice wounded, survived the war and died
at Wake Forest in 1890. An uncle, Amos Scarborough,
gave four sons to the service, all of whom lost their lives.

John F. Shackelford, of Tarboro, N. C., was born
.in Lowndes county, Ala., August i, 1846, whence in boy-

728 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

hood he removed with his parents to Wilmington. He
was educated at the Hillsboro military academy until, in
January, 18^2, when he entered the Confederate service
at Charleston, S. C. , but was refused on account of his
youth. Returning to Wilmington, he joined the Sixty-
first North Carolina regiment as a volunteer, though
under age, and a few months later entered the blockade-
running service between Nassau and Wilmington. In this
service, of such vital importance to the Confederacy, he
was one of the most daring and adventurous spirits.
During the course of his career he served several months
on the famous cruiser Tallahassee, was captured at sea
on Confederate States steamer Mary Amno, Captain
Dexter, by the Grand Gulf, Captain Winslow, and sub
sequently imprisoned at Fort Macon, Fort Norfolk and
Fort Monroe six months, and taken to New York and
paroled. Afterward he made two trips from New York
to Mexico with arms and munitions of war, for the Con
federate government, which were landed in Mexico and
taken across the border. He was also in several engage
ments. After the close of hostilities he saw service in
Mexico in the Maximilian war, then went to Baltimore
and found employment as a clerk until 1870, when he
made his home at Tarboro. He has prospered in
business, and in June, 1895, was elected president of the
bank of Tarboro. In 1885 he married Kate S. Red
mond, and they have one child, Maud Dudley Shack-
elford.

Lieutenant Charles W. Shaw, a gallant Confederate
veteran of Southern Pines, Moore county, was born at
that place, July 14, 1839. Two of his brothers lost their
lives in the Confederate service, Thomas B. Shaw, quar
termaster-sergeant of the Twenty-sixth regiment, and
Dr. David B. Shaw, surgeon of the same command.
They were the sons of Charles C. Shaw, a soldier of the
war of 1812, and are descendants of a Scottish ancestor
who came to America about 1776. Lieutenant Shaw
was educated at Carthage and then engaged in teaching
school, being thus occupied in Richmond county at the
beginning of the great war. In May, 1862, he enlisted
in the first company that left that county, Company H of
the Twenty-sixth regiment, State troops, and beginning
as a private, was promoted corporal after the battle of

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 729

Gettysburg, where he was slightly wounded; became
second lieutenant in November, 1863, and was trans
ferred to Company D, Forty-eighth regiment, and after
the battle of Reams' Station was promoted to first lieu
tenant. He shared all the famous battles of his com
mands, the Seven Days' campaign, Malvern Hill, Gettys
burg, the Wilderness, Reams' Station and the fighting
about Petersburg. At Reams' Station he was shot
through the left thigh, and then going into battle on the
Petersburg lines upon crutches, was struck down by a
piece of shell and reported killed. But he hobbled back
to the lines during the night, and was on duty until fur-
loughed in March, 1865. Since then he has been engaged
in agriculture, and has enjoyed a happy and successful
life. Ever since 1866 he has been retained in office as a
magistrate, and he has during three terms served as
county commissioner. By his marriage, in 1867, to Kate
B. Blue, he has four children : Hattie, William, Katie,
and John. Rev. Angus Robertson Shaw, nephew of the
foregoing, born in Chatham county, December 6, 1858,
is one of those survivors of the patriotic families of the
Confederate era who prize the duty of preserving the
heroic records of their kinsmen, and defending their
honor against unjust aspersion. He was educated in the
university of North Carolina, and soon after leaving that
institution, in 1882, entered the theological seminary at
Princeton, N. J., where he was graduated in 1886. He
was ordained at Lumberton, N. C., September 28, 1887,
and then entered upon the ministry of the Presbyterian
church. After service for one year as an evangelist at
Fayetteville, he was in Texas as a pastor until June,
1897, when he became pastor of the Presbyterian church
at Henderson, N. C. He has occupied a prominent
position in his presbytery, was trustee of Daniel Baker
college, Brownsville, Tex. , and in addition to his regular
pastoral work and evangelistic labors, he has been a fre
quent contributor to the religious press. In 1889 he was
married to Lilian Lee, daughter of David Worth Porter,
of Ashboro, and grandniece of Governor Worth. They
have three children: Egbert Worth, Lilian Eloise, and
Angus Robertson, Jr.

Colonel Henry Muchmore Shaw was born November
30, 1817, at Newport, R. I., but in early life he located

730 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

in Currituck county, N. C. , and continued to reside there
up to his death. He was married, April 2, 1836, to Mary
Riddick Trotman, of Camden county, who, with three
children, William B., Henry M. and Mary T., survived
him. He was a physician by profession, and up to the
time he entered public life and participated actively in
politics, enjoyed a very large and lucrative practice. He
was also a successful planter and often found rest and
relaxation from the anxieties of his profession and the
turmoil of politics, upon his well kept farm. In politics
he was a Democrat. He was early elected to the State
senate and from there he was called to the leadership of
the Democracy of the First congressional district, and was
twice elected to the house of representatives from that
district. In the national legislature he took a prominent

?art. In debate he was strong and aggressive, but fair,
n 1 86 1, when the legislature of his State called a consti
tutional convention to consider the State's relation to the
Federal government, he was chosen with great una
nimity, by the people of Currituck county, to represent
them in that acute crisis. His service in that body
ended his brilliant civic and political career; for long
before its final adjournment, he resigned and joined the
army of the South. He was appointed and commis
sioned colonel of the Eighth regiment of North Carolina
State troops. He organized his regiment at Warrenton,
N. C., in July and August, 1861, and on the fall of Hat-
teras he was ordered to take his regiment to Roaiioke
island, it having been transferred to the Confederate
government and made part of its forces. Colonel Shaw
was a disciplinarian without being a martinet, and made
good use of his time and opportunity after his arrival on
the island to drill and discipline his regiment. The
immediate command of the island fell to him as ranking
officer about the end of the year, and it was about this
time that the news of the organization of the Burnside
expedition was received in the South. As commanding
officer he laid before his superiors the condition of the
defenses of the island. Gen. Henry A. Wise, with a
small body of troops, was sent to the defense of the island,
but General Wise took up his headquarters at Nag's
Head, a place separated from the island by Roanoke
sound, and distant from the island about four miles.
Burnside's fleet began to enter Hatteras inlet in January,

CONFEDERA TE MILITARY HISTORY. 731

1862, and assembled in Pamlico sound preparatory to its
attack upon the island. On or about February 6, 1862,
the great fleet hove in sight and anchored several miles
distant. While General Wise was nominally in com
mand, he was too far distant to direct the actual move
ment of the troops on the island, and besides he was ill at
the time, so the real command and responsibility rested
with Colonel Shaw. The great fleet of gunboats, which
accompanied the expedition under Admiral Goldsboro,
opened a furious bombardment on the morning of Feb
ruary yth, and late in the afternoon, under the cover of
the guns of Admiral Goldsboro, Burnside landed a large
force upon the south end of the island. Colonel Shaw
had less than 2,500 troops, all told, and on the morning
of the 8th he found himself greatly outnumbered by a
well-equipped army. The Federals began their advance
on the Confederate position about daylight. Deducting1
the companies and battalions, which were actually neces
sary to man and defend the forts and other defenses on
Croatan side of the north end of the island, Colonel
Shaw had not more than 1,200 available troops to oppose
Burnside 's advance. Neither courage nor strategy could
withstand such a force, and a surrender was inevitable.
The prisoners were detained by General Burnside on the
island and on ships about two weeks and were then
paroled. Colonel Shaw and his regiment were ex
changed in September, and he at once proceeded to reor
ganize his command and prepare it for active service.
In the fall of 1862 he was in command at Kinston, N. C.,
and while there he had repeated skirmishes with the
enemy between that place and New Bern, which was
then in the hands of the Federals. In December of that
year his regiment had a sharp engagement -with General
Foster at Neuse river, near Goldsboro. The early part
of 1863 was spent in camp near Wilmington, and in the
early spring the regiment went to Charleston, and was
on James island skirmishing with the enemy during the
heavy artillery engagement in which the monitor Keo-
kuk was sunk, in April of that year. V/hen this threat
ened attack on Charleston was over, the regiment
returned to Wilmington. General Gilmore landed on
Morris island early in July, 1863, and commenced his
famous siege of Charleston. Clingman's brigade, to
which Colonel Shaw's regiment was attach ed> was imme-

732 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

diately ordered to its defense, arriving in that city on
July nth. From then to December 6th, when his regi
ment was ordered to Petersburg, Va. , he was almost con
stantly under fire. He served with his regiment on
James island, Morris island, Sullivan's island, in Battery
Wagner, Battery Gregg, Fort Moultrie, and where the
fight was hottest. In July, August and September, the
heat of the sun and the fire of the enemy, by day and by
night, made Morris island almost a hell on earth, but
Colonel Shaw bore himself so bravely and so cheerfully
that his command won for itself high praise. His great
courage and coolness in battle made him the idol of his
regiment. From Charleston his regiment went to Peters
burg and from Petersburg it was sent to North Carolina,
about the ist of February, 1864, to form a part of an
expedition against New Bern. In the early dawn of
the morning of February i, 1864, while the sun yet
refused to look upon the deed about to be done, Colonel
Shaw was suddenly killed. He was sitting on his horse
at the head of his regiment, surrounded by General Cling-
man and his staff and several other mounted officers,
waiting for the advance guard to clear the way across
Batchelder's creek. A stray ball, fired by the enemy at the
advance guard, struck Colonel Shaw on the cheek, and
passing diagonally through his head, came out behind
his ear, killing him instantly. He fell from his horse
dead. Thus fell one of the strongest, bravest and best
men who gave their lives to the cause of the South.

Captain Norman Leslie Shaw, one of the leading busi
ness men of Warrenton, N. C., was born at Murfrees-
boro, April 3, 1842, and was educated at Emory and
Henry college, Virginia, and at Chapel Hill university of
North Carolina. He then engaged in business at Har-
rellsville, N. C., and in February, 1861, was married to
Mary Olivia McDade, of Chapel Hill. Leaving home
and business on the call of his State, he enlisted in Jan
uary, 1862, as second lieutenant of Company D, Seven
teenth North Carolina State troops, Col. W. F. Martin.
A year later he was promoted to first lieutenant, and soon
afterward was appointed adjutant of the regiment. In
1864, upon the resignation of the captain of Company D,
he was promoted to that rank, in which he served during
the latter part of the war, He was identified with the

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 733

career of his gallant regiment, under the brigade com
mand of Generals Martin and Kirkland, Hoke's division,
and participated in the battles of Drewry's Bluff, Ber
muda Hundred, Hewlett's House, Cold Harbor, Peters
burg, and took part in the defense of the Petersburg
lines until Hoke's division was ordered to Wilmington in
December. In North Carolina he participated in the
engagements at Washington, the battle of the ram Albe-
marle, Goldsboro, Goshen Swamp, Mount Olive, White
hall, Kinston, New Bern, Southwest Creek, near Golds
boro, Sugar Loaf Hill, Fort Fisher, and several minor
encounters during the retreat from Wilmington toward
Raleigh, his last battle being at Bentonville. While in
the trenches at Petersburg, he was wounded in the hip
by a fragment of shell, which disabled him for three
months. After the close of hostilities, Captain Shaw
resided at Harrellsville, where he was for fifteen years
engaged in mercantile business. His wife dying in
1883, he was two years later married to Jennie, widow of
Capt. George B. McDowell, of Edenton, and he removed
to the latter place in 1885, and for three years edited the
Albemarle Enquirer, the Democratic organ in the First
congressional district. His second wife lived but a short
time, and in 1887 he was united to Delia M., widow of
Col. William A. Jenkins, of Warrenton, former attorney-
general of the State. Captain Shaw, while residing at
Harrellsville, filled the positions of chairman ^ of the
board of county commissioners and judge of the inferior
court. At Warrenton he is regarded as a leading influ
ential citizen. In the Baptist church he is prominent as
an active working layman, being the moderator of the
Tar River association. He has served two terms as
grand dictator of the Knights of Honor of the State, and
is one of the leading promoters of the Thomasville
orphan asylum. By his first marriage he has three chil
dren living: Nannie Eloise, Dora Dunn, Addie McDade.

Lieutenant William Brenton Shaw, now an attorney
at law, practicing in Henderson, N. C. , was born and
reared in Currituck county, N. C. He is the son of Col.
Henry M. Shaw, the gallant commander of the Eighth
North Carolina State troops, who fell in battle February
i, 1864, in an engagement near New Bern, N. C. Col
onel Shaw was, when a very young man, sent to the

734 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

State senate, and twice, before the war, was honored
with a seat in the United States Congress. W. B. Shaw,
at the beginning of the war, in 1861, at the age of sixteen,
was commissioned by the governor of North Carolina a
drill-master, with the rank of second lieutenant, and he
at once entered the service and drilled the various com
panies of his father's regiment, which was then being
formed. In the fall of 1861 the regiment was ordered
into active service upon Roanoke island, where the drill
ing of troops continued until January, 1862, when Lieu
tenant Shaw was sent by his father to the Virginia mil
itary institute, where he prosecuted his studies until
graduation, in 1865. As a cadet he held the grades of
office in the corps, of corporal, then color-sergeant, and
then first lieutenant of Company A. In 1864, and up to
the surrender, the corps of cadets was many times taken
to the field in active service, was several times under
fire, and in the battle of New Market lost over 50, killed
and wounded. Lieutenant Shaw was a member of what
is now known as the "war corps," and justly enjoys the
glory achieved by that noble band of boys. When the
immortal Jackson fell, his body was taken to Lexington,
Va. , for burial. It was laid in state in his old classroom
for two days, and Lieutenant Shaw was honored by
being detailed as officer in charge. He commanded the
detail that guarded the body, also the detachment of
artillery that fired half-hour guns while it lay in state.
His detail carried the remains to their resting place,
and under his immediate command the last salute was
fired over the hero's grave, Colonel Shipp, then com
mandant of the corps, being in command of the whole
funeral cortege. In his graduating class, Lieutenant
Shaw was one of four who were selected for commis
sions in the Confederate States engineer corps, to take
effect upon graduation, in July, 1865, but the surrender
ended this bright hope. After the surrender he returned
to his home, and seeing no hope of pursuing his chosen
profession of civil engineering, he devoted himself to the
law, and obtained his license from the supreme court in
1868, but did not begin active practice until 1879, from
which time on he has enjoyed a highly honorable and
successful career as a lawyer. In 1874, very much
against his will, he was induced to become the Demo
cratic candidate for State senator, to represent seven

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 735

counties. He prosecuted a vigorous canvass and was
elected. Since that time, while he has taken an active
part in every campaign, he has not sought political pre
ferment. He is well known in the political councils of
his party, and enjoys the reputation of being one of the
first-class advocates and campaign orators in his State.
He is a consistent and influential member of the Baptist
church, and his proudest distinction is, he has always
lived an honest and sober Christian life.

William E. Shaw, a prominent manufacturer of Char
lotte, is one of the youngest living veterans of the Con
federate States army. He was born at Charlotte, March
12, 1848, son of Robert and Margaret (Bolton) Shaw,
and in the fall of 1863, being but fifteen and a half years
old, enlisted in Poague's battalion of artillery, Tenth
North Carolina regiment. With this command he was on
duty at Petersburg, participating in the operations of the
artillery during the siege, and was frequently engaged
on the retreat to Appomattox, where he was surrendered
with the army of Northern Virginia. Then returning to
Charlotte, he was sent to Newark, N. J. , by his father, to
perfect himself in the trade of a harness-maker. In 1879
he established his present business, which has grown to
very large proportions and includes in its departments an
extensive tannery establishment. He has served as alder
man of the city and was instrumental in the inauguration
of the present fire department. On May 10, 1869, he was
married to Mary L. , daughter of Benjamin M. and Eliza
beth (Parker) Preston. They have seven children living.

Captain Richard B. Shearer, a member of a distin
guished Southern family who fell in battle at the Monoc-
acy, Md., was born in Appomattox county, Va., in 1836.
He was graduated with first honors at Hampden-Sidney
college, after which he taught two years, and then
entered the university of Virginia, also placing himself
under the care of Roanoke presbytery as a candidate for
the ministry. About the close of his second year in the
university the war began, and hesitating only to decide
if the life of a soldier were compatible with his consecra
tion to the ministry, he enlisted in a volunteer company
from his native county, which was assigned to the Forty-
second Virginia regiment. His modesty, self-denial and

736 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

regard for others, as well as his unflinching bravery, won
the esteem of his superiors and the love of his comrades,
and he speedily rose by successive promotions to the rank
of captain. He participated in the Shenandoah Valley
campaign, under Jackson, and afterward fought under
Ewell and Early until his patriotic devotion was sealed
with his life blood on the famous field of Monocacy, July
9, 1864. Captain Shearer was one of the sons of John A.
and Ruth A. (Webber) Shearer. His father, who died
in 1897, aged eighty-eight years, was an elder in the old
Concord church and a descendant of one of Cromwell's
Ironsides, who settled upon confiscated estates in Ire
land. The children of John and Ruth Shearer, besides
Captain Shearer, were John B., Elizabeth M., Mary R.,
James W. and Henry Clay. James W., who is now a
Presbyterian minister at St. Louis, Mo. , and Henry Clay,
a resident of Appomattox county, also served in the Con
federate army. The eldest son, John Bunyan Shearer,
D. D., LL. D., since 1888 president of Davidson college,
North Carolina, though not a soldier of the Confederacy,
honors and reveres the memory of all who suffered for
the cause of Southern independence. He was born at
the family home, July 19, 1832, was graduated at Hamp-
den-Sidney college in 1851, and at the university of Vir
ginia in 1854; studied theology in Union seminary,
Va., and was licensed to preach in April, 1857. He
preached at Chapel Hill until 1862, and subsequently in
Virginia, until called to the presidency of Stewart col
lege, Tennessee, in 1870. Since then he has been very
active in the cause of higher education, and is particularly
distinguished on account of the energy with which he
has advocated and introduced the systematic study of the
English Bible. His Bible course syllabus is in use in
many schools and colleges. As president of Davidson
college he has become identified with North Carolina,
where the value of his noble work is fully appreciated.

Dr. Joseph C. Shepard, of Wilmington, N. C., promi
nent among the physicians of that city, was born in New
Hanover county, in 1840. He was graduated at the State
university in 1858, and in medicine at the university of
New York in 1860, after which he continued his studies
at Paris, France. Early in the fall of 1861 he enlisted in
the Confederate States service, and being commissioned

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 737

assistant surgeon, was assigned to duty on the coast, with
Adams' battery. In the fall of 1864 he was transferred
to Fort Fisher, where he remained through the first
bombardment and the second, at the latter being cap
tured with the brave defenders. He was sent as a prisoner
of war to Governor's island and held there until early in
March following, when he returned to duty in North
Carolina and was assigned to the hospital at Greensboro,
where he remained until after the surrender. Since then
he has been engaged in the practice in New Hanover
county and Wilmington.

William B. Shepard, a leading citizen of Edenton, is a
native of Elizabeth City, son of William B. Shepard, a
lawyer, who died in 1852, after a prominent career as a
jurist, member of the legislature and representative in
Congress for a period of eight years. His family has
been identified with North Carolina since the colonial
period. Before completing his education at the univer
sity of Virginia, in 1862, he entered the Confederate
States service as an aide-de-camp on the staff of Gen.
J. J. Pettigrew, with whom he served in the campaigns
of the army of Northern Virginia until the general was
killed in the battle of Falling Waters, following the
encounter at Gettysburg. Mr. Shepard then became a
member of Selden's battery, stationed at Mobile at that
time, and was in active service with this artillery com
mand during the Atlanta campaign, taking part in the
series of battles which began with Resaca. Under Hood
he fought in the three famous battles about Atlanta, and at
Franklin and Nashville, Tenn. ; and finally, again under
J. E. Johnston's command, took part in the campaign in
the Carolinas and was surrendered at Greensboro. At the
close of this gallant and commendable service he was but
twenty years of age. At Gettysburg, in the world-
famous charge upon Cemetery hill, his horse was shot
under him, and in various other hotly-contested battles,
his personal bravery was manifested. Since the war he
has engaged in agricultural occupations, with much suc
cess. He is a director of the bank of Edenton, a trustee
of the university of the South at Sewanee, Tenn., and
was a member of the legislature of North Carolina in
1893. The wife of Mr. Shepard was Mildred, daughter
of Hon. Paul C. Cameron, of Hillsboro, N. C.

738 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Captain James H. Sherrill, of Catawba, a veteran of
General Ramseur's old regiment, the Forty-ninth North
Carolina, was born in Iredell county, in 1845, the son of
Henderson Sherrill, who served several terms as repre
sentative of Catawba county in the North Carolina legis
lature. He entered the Confederate service, March 19,
1862, as a sergeant of Company I, Forty-ninth regiment,
and in the following June served before Richmond with
his command, which was especially distinguished at the
battle of Malvern Hill. He was with his regiment in the
Maryland campaign, at the capture of Harper's Ferry
and the battle of Sharpsburg, and took part in the De
cember encounter at Fredericksburg. He was subse
quently on duty in North Carolina with Ransom's bri
gade, which was at that time in effect the right wing of
Lee's army; met the enemy on the Chickahominy during
the absence of the army in Pennsylvania, and in January,
1864, took part in the operations against New Bern.
About this time he was promoted to captain of Company
A, which he commanded in the gallant fighting of his
regiment at Drewry's bluff and Bermuda Hundred, the
battles of Petersburg and the long continued defense of
the Confederate lines about that city. He took part in
the fighting on the Weldon railroad near Petersburg, the
battles of Five Forks and Sailor's Creek, and finally sur
rendered at Appomattox. In the course of his services
he was twice wounded. After the close of hostilities
Captain Sherrill engaged in farming for a few years,
and in 1869 removed to Texas. Returning to North
Carolina in 1884, he resumed his agricultural operations
and became interested in tobacco manufacturing. He
served for some time as private secretary to Hon. A. C.
Shuford, congressman for the Seventh North Carolina
district. By his marriage, in 1877, to Mary J., daughter
of Joseph Davidson, he has six children living: Oscar,
Stella, Eula, Seth, Zoe and Ross.

John Sherrill, of Catawba, a survivor of the gallant
Twelfth regiment, North Carolina troops, was born in
Iredell county, in 1836, a son of Henderson Sherrill. He
was educated in the old field school and was occupied
upon the farm until the spring of 1861, when he became
a member of the Catawba county rifles. This became
Company A of the Second regiment of volunteers, Sol-

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 739

omon Williams, colonel. After reorganization the regi
ment was known as the Twelfth. He was on duty with
his command in the vicinity of Norfolk, Va., during 1861,
and after the evacuation of that region was with General
Branch at Gordonsville. In the battle of Hanover Court
House, May 27, 1862, Mr. Sherrill was severely wounded,
and in consequence was given a furlough of sixty days.
He rejoined his regiment in the midst of the Maryland
campaign and took part in the battles of South Mountain
and Sharpsburg. Previous to the battle of Chancellors-
ville he was detailed for duty as a courier, attached to
brigade headquarters, the capacity in which he served
during the remainder of the war. He participated in the
three days' battle of Gettysburg, the bloody struggle in
the Wilderness and at Spottsylvania Court House ; after
Cold Harbor went with General Early on his expedition
from Lynchburg to Harper's Ferry and thence to Wash
ington city, fought in the Shenandoah valley battles of
Winchester and Cedar Creek, and rejoined the main army
before Petersburg in the winter of 1864. He was distin
guished for gallant and devoted duty during the fighting
on Hatcher's run and the various encounters during the
retreat to Appomattox. Since the war he has met with
much success in the peaceful vocation of a farmer. He
was married, in 1866, to Sophronia Youant, who died in
1894.

Miles O. Sherrill, of Newton, N. C. , a veteran of the
Twelfth regiment, was born in Catawba county, in 1841,
a son of Hiram Sherrill, a planter of considerable prom
inence. Mr. Sherrill left his school studies in April,
1 86 1, and enlisted in a volunteer company -from Catawba
county, which was assigned to the Second regiment of
volunteers, commanded by Col. Sol Williams, and after-
Ward known as the Twelfth regiment. He rose to the
rank of orderly-sergeant in his company, but declined a
lieutenancy, which would have required his joining
another command. During 1861 he served near Norfolk,
Va. ; in May, 1862, participated in the battle of Hanover
Court House, and with Gen. Samuel Garland's brigade
fought through the Seven Days' battles before Rich
mond, after the sanguinary fight at Malvern Hill remain
ing all night on the field with the wounded soldiers. At
the battle of South Mountain his younger brother,

Nc 70

740 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

James Albert Sherrill, SL lad of seventeen years, was
killed. At this time Sergeant Sherrill was disabled by
illness, and his next battle was at Fredericksburg, where
he had his hat destroyed by a fragment of shell. At
Chancellorsville he shared the gallant service of his regi
ment, driving the enemy from their works and capturing
many prisoners, and on the night of the first day's bat
tle, while reconnoitering, he heard the command to halt
and the fatal shots which put an end to the military
career of their beloved general, Stonewall Jackson. At
Gettysburg, Sherrill was among the heroic North Caro
linians who drove the enemy into Gettysburg, killing
General Reynolds and routing his command, capturing a
great many prisoners. In the spring of 1864, after sur
viving the terrific struggle in the Wilderness, he was
stricken by a severe wound in the leg, at Spottsylvania
Court House, and was captured by the enemy. The
amputation of his leg, which became necessary, was per
formed on the field, and in this condition he was hauled
in an ambulance to Aquia creek, thence via boat to
Alexandria, upon his arrival barely retaining a spark of
life. He lay in hospital at Alexandria and at Washing
ton until the following November, when he was trans
ferred to the military prison at Elmira, N. Y. At this
place he witnessed many instances of harsh treatment of
the prisoners, who also suffered from the character of
their food. In the surgical ward the rations were not
objectionable, but in other departments of the prison
they were intolerable, and many a poor fellow died from
privation. While a prisoner, his miseries were intensi
fied by an attack of smallpox. Finally being exchanged,
in February, 1865, he returned to Richmond and thence
to his home. After the restoration of peace, Mr. Sherrill
attended Catawba college, and in 1868 was elected pro
bate judge and clerk of court, an office in which he served
with marked efficiency until 1882. Subsequently he was
a member of the legislature, one term each in the house
and senate, and after this was connected with the inter
nal revenue office of his district until 1892, when he was
again elected to the senate. Since then he has been
engaged in life and fire insurance agency. Mr. Sherrill
was married, May i, 1867, to Sarah, daughter of Capt.
Joseph Bost, captain in the Holcombe legion, killed at
Stony Creek, near Petersburg, in 1864. Seven children

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 741

are living: Garland, M. D., of Louisville, Ky. ; Bessie
C., wife of S. L. Alderman; Edward Gilmer, of Hills-
boro ; Clarence O. , a cadet at the West Point military
academy; Mervin, Russell G., and Mary Lula.

J. J. Shipman, adjutant of the camp of Confederate
veterans at Brevard, Transylvania county, was born near
that place in 1833, the youngest of eleven children, born
to Hezekiah and Hannah (Rhodes) Shipman. His pater
nal grandfather, of Dutch ancestry, was a soldier in the
war for American independence and one of the earliest
settlers of western North Carolina. Young Shipman
went from the farm in June, 1861, to enlist as a private
in Company B, Twenty-fifth North Carolina regiment,
and served with that command in the eastern part of the
State and along the coast until the spring of 1862, when
he went to Virginia and was soon in the thick of battle
before Richmond. He participated in the heavy fight
ing during the Seven Days of carnage which resulted in
the defeat of McClellan's army, and on the last day, at
Malvern hill, sustained an accidental injury of such
severity as to disable him for further duty. After a
month in hospital he was honorably discharged. Return
ing home, he was appointed the first clerk of the superior
court of the newly created county of Transylvania, and
he held this office until the fall of the government. Since
then he has held other civil positions, and for twenty
years has been magistrate of his township. He was mar
ried in December, 1862, to Margaret J. Neeley, and they
have five children.

Lieutenant Abel A. Shuford, of Hickory, one of the
most prominent bankers and manufacturers of western
North Carolina, was born in Catawba county, in 1842,
son of Jacob H. Shuford, a farmer, and native of the
same county. After receiving his education in the old
field schools, he made his d£but in business life as a clerk
at Hickory, an occupation which was interrupted, in
1 86 1, by the call for troops for defense of the State. At
the age of nineteen years he enlisted as a private in Com
pany F, Twenty-third regiment, North Carolina troops,
under command of Col. J. F. Hoke, and was soon pro
moted to corporal and then to second sergeant. With
his regiment he was in camp near Manassas, Va. , until

742 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

the spring of 1862, and then was ordered to the peninsula,
where in his first battle, Williamsburg, he carried the
colors of his regiment. He fought at Seven Pines and
in the Seven Days' campaign, up to the battle of Cold
Harbor, where he was severely wounded. After a season
in hospital and at his home he was again with his com
rades at Martinsburg, after their return from Maryland,
and engaged in the battles of Fredericksburg, Berryville
and Winchester. He was then elected second lieutenant
of his company, but the battle of Gettysburg, which fol
lowed, was his last. Slightly wounded in the first day's
fight, he was captured by the enemy and sent as a pris
oner of war to Fort Delaware, and three months later to
Point Lookout, where he was held for eighteen months.
Then being exchanged, he was given a furlough, during
which the war came to an end. After farming for a time
he made his home at Hickory and embarked in mercan
tile business with a small capital. In the years which
have followed he has met with much success as a mer
chant, and is still interested in that business, but as a
capitalist and manufacturer he is most widely known. In

1891 he became the president of the Citizens' bank, a
year later merged in the First national bank, of which
he is now the head ; also is president of a bank at New
ton, and director of the Burke county bank at Morgan-
ton. He is president of the Hickory manufacturing
company and of the electric light company, and since

1892 has been general manager of the Granite Falls cot
ton mills, which run 3,000 spindles. In educational
work he has a responsible part as a trustee, both of the
Catawba college and Claremont college. Officially he
has rendered efficient service to his fellow-citizens as
chairman of the Democratic county executive committee
for the past fifteen years, as county commissioner and
city alderman, and as member of the State legislature, in
1884-85. He was married, in 1874, to Alda V., daughter
of Dr. O. Campbell, and niece of Col. Reuben Campbell,
of Statesville, N. C.

Albert Meredith Simms, pastor of the Tabernacle Bap
tist church, at Raleigh, N. C., was born in 1847, in Cul-
peper county, Va., and was educated in youth at the
school of his father, Albert G. Simms, one of the most
noted teachers of that period. This patriotic father gave

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 743

five sons to the Confederate armies. The eldest, Joseph
Montcalm Simms, enlisted early in 1861 as a private in
the Hempstead county rifles, of Arkansas; rose to the
rank of major, and in command of his regiment, was
killed in the battle of Oak Hill, Mo., August, 1861.
Thomas H. Simms, now residing at Hope, Ark., enlisted
in the same regiment, and falling severely wounded in
the battle of Oak Hill, was left for dead within ten paces
of his brother's body. Edmund B. served as a private in
the Seventh Virginia infantry, took part in the charge of
Pickett's division at Gettysburg, and was killed at Mil-
ford soon afterward. John G. B. Simms, now an attor
ney at Con way, Ark., and a former member of the legis
lature of that State, served in the Arkansas troops under
General Garland. Albert Meredith Simms enlisted on
his seventeenth birthday, June 20, 1864, as a private in
Sturdivant's battery, Sturdivant's battalion, then at
Petersburg, and served there seven months in the mortar
batteries covering the line between the Appomattox river
and the crater. On the retreat his company took its
field guns and fought on the rear guard all the way to
Appomattox Court House, including the battles of Farm-
ville and Sailor's Creek. At Appomattox, when the Fed
eral lines were closing around the remnant of the army,
he escaped with his battery, and made a forced march to
Lynchburg, where he and his comrades spiked their
guns at 2 p. m., on the Sunday following the surrender,
and were paroled. He subsequently farmed at his old
home until 1867, when he entered Richmond college.
After two years' study he entered the ministry of the
Baptist church, and was stationed twelve years in West
Virginia, two years in Arkansas, and nine years in
Texas, before coming, in 1893, to Raleigh. His talent and
devotion to his sacred calling have made him many warm
friends in his present home. Mr. Simms was married,
in 1872, to Mary, daughter of Robert Stewart, a native
of Bath county, Va. , and they have three children : Eva
B., Robert N., and Mattie Ina Ouida Simms. It is wor
thy of note, in connection with the devoted services of
this family, that both the grandfathers of Albert G.
Simms, the father, were soldiers of the revolution.

Lieutenant-Colonel Peter J. Sinclair was born in the
highlands of Scotland in 1837, His father was an emi-

744 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

nent Presbyterian minister, who emigrated with his fam
ily to the United States, while the subject of this sketch
was yet a youth, and settled in Pennsylvania, where the
son studied law and was licensed to practice. He came
to North Carolina and was admitted to the bar in 1858,
and edited the North Carolinian, a strong Democratic
paper, in Fayetteville. At the outbreak of the war, he
volunteered with the Lafayette light infantry, Company
F, First North Carolina volunteers, but soon after raised
a company in Cumberland county, which was placed in
the Fifth North Carolina infantry, Col. D. K. McRae, as
Company A. After a few weeks in camp, at Halifax, his
regiment went direct to Manassas, in Virginia, and was
brigaded under General Longstreet and participated in
the first battle of Manassas and in all the movements of
the army of Northern Virginia in front of Union Mills
and Fairfax Court House, during the first winter of the
war. He was promoted to major in March, 1862. His
regiment, having been transferred to Early's brigade,
went to the peninsula and did constant service in the
trenches at Yorktown. On the retreat to the Chicka-
hominy, he distinguished himself at the battle of Wil-
liamsburg, where his horse was killed under him and he
was severely bruised. He was in the battle of Seven
Pines and was promoted to be lieutenant-colonel of his
regiment in May, 1862 ; he took part in the battles around
Richmond, and was wounded at Cold Harbor, but recov
ered in time to be with his regiment at Fredericksburg.
He resigned his commission in 1863. After peace was
established, he resumed the practice of law at Marion, in
McDowell county, where he has continued to reside up
to the present time, engaged in a large practice in many
of the western counties of North Carolina, and has for
years been prominent in his profession and in the
development of the section where he resides. He is coun
sel for the Ohio River and Charleston railroad company.
Although, like most of his comrades of the Confederate
army, he has passed the meridian, he is still active and
vigorous and devoted to the duties of a large and success
ful practice.

Lieutenant William Slade, a veteran of Barringer's
cavalry brigade, now a leading merchant of Williamston,
N. C., was born in Martin county, in 1841. He was edu-

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 745

cated in the schools of his native county and at Trinity
college, Randolph county. In October, 1861, he entered
the Confederate service as orderly-sergeant of an inde
pendent cavalry company, organized in Martin county,
which, about a year later, was mustered in as Company
K of the Third North Carolina regiment of cavalry. In
the summer of 1862 he was elected first lieutenant of his
company, and in this rank continued throughout the
remainder of the war. While on duty in North Caro
lina, through 1862 and 1863, he was engaged in various
garrison and reconnoissance duty, and in skirmishes with
the enemy, including two in Martin county, near James-
ville and at Foster's mill; and in Virginia in 1863 and
1864, under the brigade command of General Barringer
of General Hampton's division, he fought at Drewry's
bluff, Hanovertown ferry and Ashland, Hanover, Cold
Harbor, and the various cavalry engagements around
Petersburg during the campaign around Richmond in
1863 and 1864 and the spring of 1865. After the close of
hostilities he returned to his home, and after teaching
school for a time, began his mercantile career as a clerk,
embarking in business on his own account in 1876. He
has been successful in business and is a valued citizen.
In 1878 he was married to Cordelia- Hassell, daughter of
Elder C. B. Hassell.

Lieutenant Thomas Wright Slocumb, of Goldsboro, a
veteran of the Twenty-seventh regiment, North Carolina
troops, was born near Goldsboro in 1842, the son of John
C. Slocumb, born in the same county in 1811, died in
1 88 1. His grandfather was Jesse Slocumb, a native of
the same county, who represented the New Bern district
in the United States Congress, and died in 1820, while
serving in his second term ; and his great-grandfather,
Ezekiel Slocumb, also a native of North Carolina, born
in 1755, died in 1840, was a distinguished patriot, who
held the rank of colonel in the revolutionary army. Mr.
Slocumb was a cadet at the North Carolina military
institute at Charlotte, from 1860 until May i, 1861, when
he went to Raleigh, and after acting as drill-master
about two weeks, enlisted with the Goldsboro Rifles,
which was mustered in as Company A, Twenty-seventh
regiment. In the fall of 1861 he became fourth sergeant,
soon afterward first sergeant, and in April, 1862, was

746 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

elected first lieutenant He took part in the battle of
New Bern, in March, 1862, and then going to Virginia
fought at Seven Pines and through the Seven Days' bat
tles, at Harper's Ferry and on the bloody field of Sharps-
burg. His health then gave way and he was compelled
to go home, where his condition not improving, he
resigned his lieutenancy in October, 1862. In April,
1863, he re-enlisted in Company H, First North Carolina
cavalry, as a private, and served with that command in
the cavalry fighting at Ashby's Gap, Paris, Upperville,
Williamsport, Gettysburg and Brandy Station. In the
latter engagement, August i, 1863, he was so severely
wounded as to incapacitate him for further service in the
field, but after his convalescence, in the fall of 1864, he
was appointed assistant adjutant-general of North Caro
lina, and discharged the duties of that position on the
staff of General Gatling, at Raleigh, until the surrender
at Greensboro. Since 1872 Lieutenant Slocumb has
been in the service of the Wilmington & Weldon railroad,
now holding the position of agent at Goldsboro. By his
marriage, in 1867, to Mary, daughter of Dr. Adam C.
Davis, he has seven children living: Harriet H., widow
of John J. Gay; Minnie D., Ashby P., Thomas W., John
C., Mary D., and Rebecca H.

James A. Smith, pastor of the Baptist church at Fair
Bluff, N. C. , as a boy participated in the war of the Con
federacy, manifesting the same courage and energy
which have characterized his subsequent life. He is of
Scotch- Irish, North Carolinian and Puritan descent, his
father, James A. Smith, being a native of North Carolina
and son of James Smith, who was born at Dublin, Ire
land, and his mother, Agnes J., being a daughter of
Simon Baldwin, of Weathersfield, Conn., whose father
was a captain in the war of 1812, and was descended
from the Mayflower immigrants. Mr. Smith was born at
Red Springs, April 6, 1846, and previous to the war stud
ied at the Bingham military school. In his seventeenth
year he enlisted in the Confederate service as a private
in Company D, First North Carolina heavy artillery,
January 13, 1865, and was given a position as courier for
Major-General Whiting. While serving in this capacity,
he was with the troops at Fort Fisher, and on January
T5> l865> during the bombardment and assault of that

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 747

stronghold, was wounded. He was taken prisoner with
the garrison and confined for six months at Point Look
out, Md., finally being released, June 9, 1865. On re
turning home he completed his education at the univer
sity of North Carolina and at Davidson college, where he
was graduated in 1871. In 1874 he completed a course
of study at the theological seminary at Columbia, and
entered the ministry of the Baptist church. He now has
in charge the church at Fair Bluff and two neighboring
churches. He has been of great service to education and
the general improvement of the communities with which
his lot has been cast, as chairman of the board of educa
tion of Columbus county, four years, as the founder of
the Fair Bluff Times, the first newspaper published
at Fair Bluff, as the leader in the work of ridding his
county of saloons, as the main factor in establishing the
State Line Chautauqua Sunday-school. Mr. Smith was
happily married, November 20, 1874, to Lula, daughter
of Silas Fulton, of Savannah, Ga. Their children are:
Agnes L., J. Fulton, Lahlie, James P., Albert C., Willie
S., Lansing B., George W., and Edward D. Mr. Smith is
now in his fifty-third year, but is as strong and vigorous
as ever. He is both pastor and editor, and is doing
all in his power to elevate the section in which he
lives.

Thomas T. Smith, of Charlotte, was born at Greens
boro, Choctaw county, Miss., November 13, 1845, anc^
served during the great war as a soldier in Mississippi
commands. He is the son of Aaron Smith, who also was
in the Confederate States service as a cavalryman, and
was a member of the bodyguard of President Davis dur
ing his trip through the Carolinas and Georgia, in 1865,
being captured and paroled while on that- duty. His
mother, Julia Ann Bays, was the granddaughter of a sol
dier of the war of 1812, two of whose sons served in the
war with Mexico. Mr. Smith enlisted, August i, 1861,
in his fifteenth year, as a private in Company D, Fifteenth
Mississippi regiment, and served with that command
under General Crittenden at Fishing Creek, and under
Albert Sidney Johnston in the battle of Shiloh. Soon
afterward he was honorably discharged on account of
physical disability, but on his recovery, early in Septem
ber, 1862, he re-enlisted in Company D of the Forty-

748 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

third Mississippi regiment, Col. B. F. Moore, with which
he served to the end of the war, with promotion to
orderly-sergeant, and occasional detail as sergeant-major
of the regiment. With this regiment he fought at luka,
Corinth (where his colonel was killed), Chickasaw bayou,
Snyder's bluff, and in the trenches during the siege of
Vicksburg. Here he was surrendered and paroled with his
regiment, and after a short visit to his home, was in pa
role camp until exchanged early in 1864. Subsequently
he joined the army under General Polk, which united
with General Johnston at Resaca, Ga. He took part in
the remainder of the Atlanta campaign, including several
important battles, and after the fall of Atlanta, shared in
the fatigues and perils of the Tennessee campaign of
General Hood, including the battles of Franklin and
Nashville. This long and honorable record was ended
with the surrender of the army at Greensboro, N. C.
While on his way home from that place he was taken sick,
and found hospitable attention at the home of Lewis
Boon, a planter, near Burlington, N. C. , and before leav
ing there he was married, July 29, 1865, to Barbara, the
daughter of his host. With his wife he proceeded to Mis
sissippi, but returned to North Carolina in 1867, and after
farming a few years made his home at Charlotte. Since
then he has been engaged in the railway service, six years
as agent of the Carolina Central, at Charlotte, nine years
as freight agent of the Richmond & Danville, at Atlanta,
Ga. , and subsequently with the Southern road at Charlotte.
He has also served as alderman of Charlotte and six
years on the school board. He has eleven children
living.

Wiley H. Smith, a prominent merchant of Goldsboro,
whose career well exemplifies the indomitable pluck of
the Confederate soldiers who have built up a new pros
perity on the ruins of the old, was born in Wayne county,
in 1846, the son of William Smith, a native of the same
county, of Scotch-Irish descent, who was a soldier in the
war of 1812. Wiley H. was the youngest of four broth
ers who were in the Confederate ranks. Josiah W. , who
died in 1893, held the rank of captain in the North Caro
lina troops ; Stephen J. , a private in Company A, Twenty-
seventh regiment, was killed at Sharpsburg, and Benja
min T. served three years in Colonel Nethercutt's

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 749

command, and in the Seventieth regiment. When about
eighteen years of age the subject of this mention also
enlisted, becoming a member of the independent com
pany of Capt. W. R. Bass, in March, 1864, with which he
served through the year in provost duty at Wilmington
and at Fort Lee, at the latter post holding the position
of chief ordnance-sergeant. After the fall of Wilming
ton he went to Goldsboro and joined the Seventieth regi
ment, the last organized in the State, to which his com
pany was assigned in January, 1865. He then took part
in the engagements at Cobb's Mill and Kinston, but was
mostly on detached duty until the surrender. The close
of the war found the boy-soldier barefooted, bareheaded,
penniless, with only a knowledge of farming and unable
to read or write. Looking to him for aid, were a father,
nearly eighty years old and paralyzed, and three invalid
sisters. Under such circumstances he was mustered in
for the battle of life. After plowing for a time, he
obtained a position as clerk in a Goldsboro store, where
he obtained his education, and by hard work and self -de
privation managed, in a few years, to meet all his father's
obligations, care for his family, and establish himself in
business as a grocer. In 1870 he married Mary E. Mc-
Arthur, whose assistance contributed no little to his suc
cess. Since 1878 he has been engaged in the hardware
trade, in 1889 becoming president of the Wayne agricul
tural works, a manufacturing establishment which under
his management has grown to large proportions. He is
now a wealthy man and commands the respect of all who
know him. For two years he has held the office of direc
tor of the State penitentiary, by appointment of Governor
Carr. Mr. Smith has four children living : Margaret T. ,
wife of B. H. Griffin; Sallie McArthur, William H., and
Graves James.

William P. Snakenberg, chief of police of Wilson, N.
C., is a native of Louisiana, born at New Orleans, in
1844, and rendered his Confederate service in a Louisiana
regiment. Through his mother he is descended from a
revolutionary soldier, whose descendants settled in Ohio,
whence several of them enlisted in the Federal army.
Mr. Snakenberg entered the Confederate States service
in June, 1861, as a private of the Lafayette Rifle Cadets,
which became Company K, of the Fourteenth Louisiana

750 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

infantry, went to Virginia early in the war and
served in Starke's brigade of Stonewall Jackson's divi
sion. Before being assigned to the Stonewall division, he
participated in the defense of York town during the
siege, and the battles of Williamsburg and Seven Pines,
and subsequently took part in the engagements at
Games' Mill, Cold Harbor, Frayser's farm, Malvern
Hill, Cedar mountain, Second Manassas, Chantilly, cap
ture of Harper's Ferry, Sharpsburg, Chancellorsville,
Winchester, Gettysburg, Rappahannock Station, Bristoe
Station, Mine Run, the Wilderness and Spottsylvania
Court House. At Sharpsburg he was shot twice, a ball
wounding his left hand and another penetrating his body,
and in consequence was disabled until March 2, 1863. In
the disaster to his division at the bloody angle, May 12,
1864, he was captured and subsequently was confined at
Point Lookout and Elmira, N. Y. , until paroled, March
2, 1865. During a portion of his imprisonment, a cousin
from Ohio, a Federal soldier, was among his guards.
Since 1866 he has been a resident of North Carolina,
engaged in the milling business, first in Edgecombe and
later in Wilson county. He was elected to the police
force of Wilson in 1882, was deputy sheriff of the county
six years from 1884, and in 1897 was elected chief of
police. In December, 1862, he was married, in Tarboro
county, to Delphi J., daughter of George Gardner,
and has six children: John W., Edwin F., Claude, Wil
liam, Alice Lee, wife of William Holden, and Kate.

Bennett Smedes, director of St. Mary's school, Raleigh,
N. C. , is a native of Schenectady county, N. Y. , born in
1837, but from the age of five years, when his parents
removed to North Carolina, has been a resident of that
State. He was educated at Lovejoy's academy, at the St.
James college in Maryland, and the General theological
seminary of New York, where he was graduated in 1860.
From that date he served at Baltimore as assistant to
Rev. Dr. Cox, then rector of Grace church, later elevated
to the bishopric, until the winter of 1862, when he
endeavored to cross the Federal lines and join the army
of Northern Virginia, where he considered his most
imperative duty to lie. But he was captured in this
attempt, and was held about two months in the Old Cap
itol prison at Washington, then being released on parole

CONFEDERA TE MILITARY HISTORY. 751

and exchanged some months later. Making his way to
Raleigh, he was appointed chaplain of the Fifth North
Carolina regiment of infantry, of Rodes* division, army
of Northern Virginia, with which he served during the
Gettysburg campaign and until February, 1864, when,
being disabled by sickness, he was sent home on furlough.
He never recovered sufficiently to rejoin his regiment
during its service. At the close of hostilities he became
an assistant to his father, Rev. A. Smedes, then president
of St. Mary's school, and in 1877, upon the death of the
latter, took charge of the institution, a position in which
he has since been retained. He has demonstrated great
ability as an educator, and his two decades of work as
head of this famous school have been productive of good
throughout the State.

Rufus A. Spainhour, of Wilkesboro, a veteran of the
First regiment, North Carolina troops, was born in Burke
county, October 5, 1839, and was educated in Wilkes
county, where he enlisted in May, 1861, in the company or
ganized in that county, under Capt. M. S. Stokes. This
became Company B of the First regiment, Col. M. S.
Stokes, and reported to the adjutant-general of the Confed
erate States in Virginia in July, 1 86 1. His brother, J. H.
Spainhour, chaplain of the regiment, died of fever at
Fredericksburg, October 17, 1861, and soon after the
Seven Days' campaign, in the following spring, another
brother in this regiment, John C. , died of brain fever.
Rufus A. was detailed as commissary-sergeant, previous
to the battles before Richmond between the armies under
Lee and McClellan, but took part in that bloody cam
paign, and subsequently performed the duties of his posi
tion with faithfulness and efficiency until the close of the
four years' struggle, being present at every battle in
which the army of Northern Virginia engaged. After
he was surrendered at Appomattox, he returned to his
father's home in Burke county, N. C. , but soon removed
to Dellaplane in Wilkes county, where, after teaching
school for a time, he embarked in the mercantile business
in Dellaplane and two years later removed to Wilkesboro,
where he is still engaged. In 1 880-81 he represented his
county in the legislature. By his marriage, in 1866, to
Mary Anne Ginnings he has three children: Ila M.,
Bertha A., and James Edgar.

752 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Major Thomas Sparrow, born at New Bern, October 2,
1819, died at Washington, N. C., January 14, 1884, is
well remembered for his devotion to the Confederate
cause. He was graduated, in 1842, at Princeton college,
New Jersey, as valedictorian of his class, read law at
New Bern with Judge Gaston, was licensed to practice,
and then took the master's degree at his alma mater.
In 1844 he married Annie, daughter of John Black well.
He began his residence at Washington in 1847, and prac
ticed law as the partner of Edward Stanley, also serving
in the legislature in 1858-59, until in August of the latter
year, he removed to Arcola, 111. Upon the election of
President Lincoln he returned to North Carolina, and in
April, 1 86 1, entered the Confederate service, organizing
and taking rank as captain of the Washington Grays,
composed of the flower of the young manhood of Beau
fort county. He was assigned to the Seventh regiment,
but at his request, was transferred to the Second regi
ment, then in Virginia. While awaiting transportation
he was ordered with his company to assist in the defense
of Fort Hatteras, where he endured the terrific bombard
ment of August 28th and 29th, in which not less than
3,000 shells were thrown at the devoted garrison, who,
with no guns capable of making adequate reply, simply
endured this assault until compelled to surrender. While
a prisoner of war at Fort Columbus, New York harbor,
and later at Fort Warren, Boston, he was distinguished
for devotion to the comfort and welfare of his men.
They were subjected to great privation and hardship.
One of the orders of the guard read: "No one is to be
allowed to write oftener than once a month, and then the
letter must not exceed six lines. All letters are to be
open and to undergo the usual inspection." Neverthe
less, he declined to be exchanged and gave the oppor
tunity to another that he might remain and care for his
men until all were liberated. After about six months of
this life he returned and was promoted to major of the
Tenth regiment, heavy artillery, and assigned to com
mand of the city and river defenses of Wilmington. At
home on sick leave when the surrender occurred, he
refused to give his parole, and taking a small boat paddled
twenty miles that he might escape with his sword, which
his family still cherishes. For several years afterward he
led a laborious life as a farmer, rather than take the oath

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 753

of allegiance. Finally resuming- his professional career,
he served in the State legislature in 1870 and 1880, and
was the house manager in the celebrated impeachment
trial of Gov. W. W. Holden, by the skillful conduct of
which he gained great prominence. He was one of the
founders of the Confederate veteran organizations,
organizing the first camp in the State, May 30, 1883.

Captain John Francis Stephens, of Pilot Mountain, N.
C., was born at- Albany, N. Y., June 23, 1834, but re
moved to North Carolina before the beginning of the war
of the Confederacy. During the early part of the strug
gle he was living at High Point, Guilford county, and
engaged in the work of making salt for the army, but in
1862 reported for duty at Raleigh, and was sent to Camp
Holmes. While there he was detailed to work in the
iron mines of Surry county, which were under govern
ment management. He continued in this service until
the close of hostilities, and in 1864 was elected captain
of a company of the details, organized to be ready for
call when needed. During the subsequent period he
has been a prosperous farmer of Surry county, and for
about ten years has served as magistrate. By his mar
riage, in 1864, to Lucinda Boyles, he has five children
living: W. H., Flora E., Eunice A., Roselle J., and
Ruby M.

Major James M. Stevenson, one of the martyrs of the
heroic defense of Fort Fisher, was born at New Bern,
April 26, 1824. In early manhood he married Christiana
E. Sanders, and made his home near Wilmington. At
the beginning of the conflict, in 1861, he held the rank
of first lieutenant in the artillery company of Capt. J. J.
Hedrick, and it was he who, on April 16, 1861, demanded
and received the surrender of Fort Johnson, near the
mouth of Cape Fear river. He was soon afterward de
tached and ordered to Fort Caswell as ordnance officer,
and while there accepted the captaincy of a company of
artillery organized by R. J. Murphy, E. L. Faison and
A. A. Moseley, of Sampson county. This company was
attached to the Thirty-sixth regiment, and assigned to
duty at Fort Fisher, where Captain Stevenson, with
promotion to major, remained nearly a year. In the
latter part of November he reinforced General Hardee,

754 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

who was opposing Sherman's march through Georgia.
At the battle of Harrison's Old Field, fourteen miles
from Savannah, he was in command of part of his own
and parts of the Fiftieth, Fortieth and Tenth battalions,
and failing to receive orders to withdraw, held an
advanced position, fighting gallantly until flanked by two
brigades, when he brought off all his artillery, wagons
and wounded in safety, and was warmly complimented
by General Hardee. He returned to Fort Fisher as the
first attack was abandoned, and fought with unfaltering
courage during the attack of January i3th to i5th, until,
while cheering his men and urging them to stand firm, he
was hurled from the parapet by the explosion of a shell
and fell bleeding in the garrison below. Carried as a
prisoner of war to Fort Columbus, N. Y., he died there,
March 19, 1865. He left four children: Daniel Sanders,
James C., Ida Alene, wife of Capt. John L. Rankin, and
Ellen Ruth, wife of Clement C. Brown. Daniel Sanders
Stevenson, who died in 1873, was a private in the Thirty-
sixth artillery, but had his most conspicuous career after
being detailed as a signal-officer and assigned to duty on
the Little Hattie, a famous blockade-runner commanded
by Captain Lebby. It is remembered that this famous
craft, on an October morning in 1864, being sighted by
the Federal fleet, determined to run the blockade in day
light, and accomplished the feat successfully under fire
of over twenty men-of-war, with eight of them in hot
pursuit. She was partly sheltered by the fire of the
forts, signaled for by Stevenson, standing on the paddle-
box during the storm of shot and shell which followed
the daring boat. On Christmas eve following, the Hattie,
her officers being deceived by the lights of the fleet, ran
into the Federal squadron, but they coolly kept on their
course, young Stevenson signaling with a lantern to
his brother at Fort Fisher to suspend the fire until they
got in. Though passing so close to the enemy's ships as
to be able to touch them occasionally, they again reached
port without harm. The last trip, from which neither
the boat nor any of her gallant crew ever returned,
was made just after the first siege of Fort Fisher. James
C. Stevenson, the second son of Major Stevenson,
born in 1848, entered the service on board the blockade-
runner Ad Vance, at the age of fifteen years, and for
two years was engaged in the exciting work of blockade-

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 755

running. Then feeling that he ought to enter the army,
he enlisted in the winter of 1864 in Company A, Thirty-
sixth regiment, heavy artillery, and was at once detailed
to the signal corps and assigned to duty at Fort Fisher.
He remained at his post during the memorable bombard
ments of December and January, and escaping after the
evacuation, joined the army under Johnston and fought
at the battle of Bentonville. There he was captured,
and being sent to Point Lookout, Md. , was held there
four months in the prison camp. Since the war he has
been prominent in the business affairs of Wilmington, in
the wholesale trade since 1887. He has served three
years upon the board of county commissioners, and is
now president of the Wilmington wholesale grocers' asso
ciation, vice-president of the Southern wholesale grocers'
association, president of the Oakdale cemetery company,
president of the Wilmington homestead and loan associ
ation, secretary and treasurer of the New Hanover transit
company, and a director of the Carolina Central railroad
company. In 1876 he was married to Elizabeth J. ,
daughter of Col. William L. Smith, of the Reserve corps,
and they have four children: James Martin, Reston,
Christina Sanders, and Almeria.

Alvis H. Stokes, of Durham, a veteran of the Third
North Carolina cavalry, is one of five brothers — sons of
William Y. Stokes, of Caswell county — who were in the
military service of the Confederate States. His brothers
in the army were John Y. Stokes, William A. Stokes,
who died during the war from disease contracted in serv
ice; James T. Stokes, for one year first lieutenant of the
Twenty-first regiment, subsequently a member of the
Third cavalry, and Charles H. Stokes, lieutenant, who
was killed in battle near Richmond, Va. Alvis H.
entered the service in 1863, at the age of seventeen years,
enlisting as a private in Company C, Third North Caro
lina cavalry. He served with this command during its
operations about Kinston and Weldon, and during 1864
was with Barringer's brigade in the campaigns about
Richmond. He was identified with the gallant record
made by his regiment during the long and desperate
struggle through the fall and winter of 1864 and the
spring of 1865, against the overwhelming hosts of the
Federal armv. After the surrender of General Lee he

Nc 71

756 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

and his comrades made their way to Danville and there
disbanded to seek their homes. Subsequently he entered
Trinity college, and after completing the four years'
course of study received the master's degree in 1870. For
three years he was engaged as a teacher at the Mangum
academy, after which he embarked in business at Dur
ham. From this he retired in 1897, after an active and
successful career. He has various important financial
interests, and has held the positions of director in the
First national bank and vice-president of the Fidelity
bank. For a number of years he rendered valuable serv
ice as chairman of the board of county commissioners.
In 1886 Mr. Stokes was married to Mary, daughter of
M. A. Angier, and they have two children, Lucy May
and Thomas A. Stokes.

Lieu tenant- Colonel William Williams Stringfield, a
prominent citizen of Waynesville, N. C. , was born in Ten
nessee, May 7, 1837, of colonial American descent. The
founder of the family was Richard Stringfield, who settled
in Virginia. James Stringfield, a captain in the continental
army, and his son John, a native of the vicinity of James
town, were among the pioneers of western North Caro
lina. Rev. Thomas Stringfield, son of the latter and
father of Colonel Stringfield, was born in Kentucky, in
1796, and was reared from twelve years of age near
Huntsville, Ala. He was a soldier in the Indian wars
and bore thence through life the scar of an almost fatal
wound in the forehead; soon after reaching his seven
teenth year was an ordained minister of the Methodist
church and a chaplain in Andrew Jackson's army in the
war of 1812, being a great favorite with Jackson; became
widely noted as a pioneer preacher in east Tennessee,
and was a member of the general conferences in which
the church South was established; in 1836 was elected
editor of the Southwestern Christian Advocate, the fore
runner of the present organ of the church, published at
Nashville; and died June 12, 1858, at Strawberry Plains,
Tenn., where he had founded the college which was
destroyed during the war. His wife was Sarah, daughter
of William Williams and Sarah King, both of colonial
families, the latter being the daughter of Col. James
King, who came to America as an officer of the line in
the British army, and after participating in the disas-

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 757

trous campaign of General Braddock, settled in Virginia,
served in the revolutionary army, and afterward made
his home at King's Meadows, the site of the city of Bris
tol, Tenn. Colonel Stringfield was reared and educated
at Strawberry Plains, Tenn., and in June, 1861, enlisted
as a private in Company F, First Tennessee cavalry, with
which he served in the campaign under General Zolli-
coffer, from Cumberland Gap into Kentucky, taking part
in the fights at Barbersville, Wild Cat and Rock Castle,
and at Yellow Creek narrowly escaping death at the
hands of eleven bushwhackers. Returning home in the
following winter on sick leave, he organized a company,
which became E of the Thirty-first infantry, and he was
elected captain. Soon afterward he was appointed pro
vost-marshal for the counties of Carter, Johnson, Sullivan
and Washington, but resigned that position September
27, 1862, to accept the rank of major of Thomas' legion,
afterward the Sixty-ninth regiment, North Carolina
troops, with which his main service was rendered. He
served in east Tennessee and southwest Virginia, in
numerous engagements, was with Early in the Shenan-
doah valley, at the battles of Staunton, Kernstown, Win
chester, Strasburg, Berry ville, etc., and in December,
1864, was transferred with his regiment to western North
Carolina, where he was in command, from Pigeon river
to the boundary, and on March 6, 1865, fought his last
battle with Colonel Kirk, on which day he was promoted
to lieutenant-colonel. He was in thirty-seven encounters
with the enemy, and had some narrow escapes from death
and capture. At Staunton he had a hand-to-hand fight
with two Federal soldiers, killing one and capturing the
other. An incident of his career, particularly worthy of
mention, is his saving the lives of some wounded Federal
prisoners in hospital at Emory and Henry college, Vir
ginia, October 6, 1864, after a massacre of them had
begun. After assuming command of western North
Carolina, west of the Balsam mountains and extending to
the Hiwassee, west of Murphy, he was hourly in danger
of being murdered by outlaws, as was his comrade, Col.
W. C. Walker, of the Second regiment, Thomas' legion,
a few months previous. That whole mountain region,
along the great Smoky mountains, including the homes
of 400 Cherokee Indians, many of whom, by bribery,
etc., had been led to desert the South, was danger-

758 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

ously infested with these outlaws. Colonel Stringfield
having troops in several counties, traveled often alone,
and fearless in the discharge of duty. As a professed
Christian, he had great belief in an overruling Provi
dence. While fearless of the foe, he also was severe
toward the desperadoes of our own army, some of whom
felt the force of his iron will and were compelled to
release prisoners that they were leading out, bound, to be
shot. All citizens were protected in person and property.
In April, 1865, he was detained by the Federal forces at
Knoxville, in violation of the flag of truce, which he car
ried in for the purpose of arranging terms of surrender,
and was imprisoned until June i, 1865. After the close of
hostilities he removed from east Tennessee to Haywood
county, N. C., and was mainly engaged in business at
Asheville, etc., from 1868 to 1872, when he removed to
Waynesville. There, in 1879, he established the Hay-
wood White Sulphur Springs hotel, which was the begin
ning of the fame of Waynesville as a popular summer
resort. This present establishment is a handsome hos
telry, magnificently situated, with accommodation for 250
guests, and is liberally patronized. Colonel Stringfield
is heartily enlisted in the work of preserving the ties of
comradeship of the living Confederates, was the organ
izer and first commander of the veteran camp at Waynes
ville, and has also organized a camp among the Indian
veterans. He is now and for years has been commander
of the veterans of all western North Carolina. He takes
an intelligent interest in public affairs and represented his
county in the legislature of 1882-83. He has been thrice
elected to the general conference, Methodist Episcopal
church South. He has seven children by his marriage, in
1871, to Maria M., daughter of Col. James R. Love, and
granddaughter of Col. Robert Love, a revolutionary sol
dier and the founder of Waynesville. Mrs. Stringfield
had three brothers who were Confederate soldiers, and
three brothers-in-law. Their eldest son, Thomas, was
first lieutenant, Company H, First North Carolina vol
unteers, and served in General Lee's corps in the recent
war with Spain.

Alexander B. Stronach, a prominent merchant of Ral
eigh, born in that city in 1847, entered the Confederate
service, June i, 1864, at the age of seventeen years, as a

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 759

private in Capt. Joseph B. Starr's battery, Company B,
Thirteenth battalion, North Carolina artillery. With this
command he was connected until the close of the war,
taking an active part in the final operations in North
Carolina, and fighting at Southwest creek, near Kinston,
and in the battle of Bentonville. He was paroled at
Raleigh in May, 1865. He has subsequently been en
gaged in a successful commercial career, is an enterpris
ing and influential citizen, and popular with his comrades
of the North Carolina troops.

William Strudwick, M. D. , now a prominent physician
of Hillsboro, was a staunch supporter of the Confederate
cause during the years 1861-65, and was a participant
in some of the stirring events of the military operations
on the coast of North Carolina in the spring of 1862. He
was born at Hillsboro, in 1830, son of Dr. Edmund
Strudwick, a prominent physician, who was the first
president of the State medical society, and was tendered
the position of first superintendent of the State insane
hospital at Raleigh. The latter was the son of Maj.
William Strudwick, member of Congress, whose grand
father, Samuel Strudwick, came to America during the
colonial administration of Governor Burlington, receiv
ing a large grant of land in payment of a debt of ^30,000,
owed him by that functionary. The wife of Dr. Edmund
Strudwick was Anne, daughter of Frederick Nash, jus
tice of the supreme court of North Carolina. William
Strudwick was educated at Bingham's academy and the
university of North Carolina, and after his graduation at
the latter institution, received the degree of doctor of
medicine from the Jefferson medical college, at Phila
delphia, in 1853. In 1852 he wedded Caroline Watters,
of Cape Fear, and he made his home at Hillsboro, where
he had a successful professional career until the crisis of
1860-61. He entered the military service as a member of
the Orange Guards, and being ordered to Fort Macon,
was commissioned surgeon of his regiment, with the
rank of major. The garrison of Fort Macon, under com
mand of Col. Moses J. White, made a gallant resistance
to the Federal land and naval forces which surrounded
them, in the latter part of April, 1862, and only surren
dered after a ten hours' bombardment, when the Confed
erates marched out with honorable terms and gave their

760 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

parole. Surgeon Strudwick was on duty during this
affair, in the fort, and subsequently was for a consider
able time on parole. When exchanged he returned to
active duty, and was ordered to take charge, as chief
surgeon, of the yellow fever hospital at Smithville, N. C.
Since that time he has continued in the practice of
his profession with notable success. He has six children
living: Edmund, of Richmond, Va. ; Anne Nash, Julia,
wife of William B. Meares; Sheperd, of Richmond;
Mary, wife of T. M. Arrasmith, and Margaret.

John W. Sutphin left his home in Halifax county, in
June, 1864, to accompany, as surgeon, a strong volun
teer force that hastened to the defense of Roanoke
bridge, threatened by the advance of Crook's raiders.
Forgetting all danger in his solicitude for others, Dr.
Sutphin exposed himself to the deadly fire of the enemy's
artillery, and a fragment of shell struck him, inflicting a
mortal wound. He died June 21, 1864, and lies buried
on the old farm, his former home, near the foot of High
hill. In the medical fraternity, of Virginia, Dr. Sut
phin 's position was one of prominence and weight. He
loved his profession and was eminently successful, pos
sessing as he did, skill and originality, combined with a
personal magnetism almost invariably found in men of
decided ability. Loved and admired by family and
friends, a fine musician and man of letters, he was totally
devoid of arrogance and vanity, and enjoyed his own
fireside, surrounded by his books and scientific apparatus.
His father, James Sutphin, was a wealthy farmer of Am-
herst county, and the family line can be traced back to
a scion of Dutch nobility, Nicholas Von Sutphin, who
landed in Philadelphia in 1615. Dr. Sutphin married
Martha Anne, second daughter of Dr. James Singleton,
of Gloucester county, Va., a very high-bred woman,
proud of revolutionary ancestors on her father's side and
royal lineage on the maternal, the Ragland side of her
house. The eldest daughter of the family, Mary Wat-
kins, is now the wife of E. G. Davis, a leading merchant
of Henderson, N. C. A typical Southern woman in
manner and temperament, she has clung tenaciously to
the traditions of the past, and is secretary of the Vance
county chapter of the Daughters of the Confederacy.
Capt. James S. Sutphin, son of Dr. Sutphin, who went

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 761

into the Confederate service from Halifax county, Va.,
enlisted as a private in the company commanded by
Capt. D. A. Claibourne. The company was mustered in
at Richmond, Va., as Company K of the Fourteenth
Virginia regiment, Col. James Gregory Hodges. He was
on duty at Jamestown island, remaining on the peninsula
until the following spring; heard the first bullet whistle
at Hampton, and was in hearing of the battle of Bethel.
He was in command of the picket line on the Dismal
Swamp, near Suffolk, on the night after the ironclad
Virginia was blown up, and shared his rations next morn
ing with Capt. Catesby Ap R. Jones and his crew of toil-
worn sailors. He continued on duty in the same com
pany, with promotion to the rank of captain, until after
the battle of Gettysburg, in the meantime having gone
through nearly all the battles of the army of Northern
Virginia. After Gettysburg, he was retired on account
of wounds, but about a year later was assigned to post
duty at the parole and exchange camp at Richmond,
where he remained till the Stars and Stripes were run
up on the flagstaff at the capital. Then, under his
charge, the archives of the government were packed in
six knapsacks and strapped on the backs of his office
force, and they made their way, after many narrow
escapes, to Greensboro, N. C. At that place. General
Brantly, commandant of the post, assigned him to the
duty of giving out two days' rations to every re turning-
Confederate soldier. This service terminated his mili
tary career.

Harvey S. Suttlemyre, a merchant of Hickory, N. C.,
was identified during the Confederate war with the
record of the Thirty-fifth regiment, North Carolina
troops. He was born in Burke county, in 1832, a son of
Jacob Suttlemyre, who was a soldier of the war of 1812.
Mr. Suttlemyre was educated in his native county, and
there was engaged in agriculture until he answered the
call of his State, in the spring of 1862. Becoming a pri
vate in Company K, Thirty-fifth regiment, he shared the
service of this command in North Carolina, where, as a
part of Ransom's brigade, it was engaged in numerous
skirmishes and constant movements along the line of the
Weldon railroad, checking the advance of the enemy from
the coast and vigilantly guarding the territory of the

762 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

State. In the spring of 1864, he fought tinder Beaure-
gard at Drewry's bluff and Bermuda Hundred, and, in
June of that year, participated in the desperate righting
before Petersburg, where his regiment, after losing its
colors and regaining them a half dozen times, finally cap
tured the Michigan regiment against which it had strug
gled. In this encounter he was wounded and captured,
and after lying in hospital at Fortress Monroe for six or
eight weeks, was transferred to Point Lookout, where he
was held until August, 1864. In the spring of 1865, hav
ing recovered from the long illness which followed his
imprisonment, he joined his comrades in the Petersburg
trenches, and was on duty till the battle of Five Forks,
when he was again captured. This ended his military
experience, and when he was paroled in June, 1865, the
Confederacy had ceased to be. Returning to his North
Carolina home, he resumed agricultural pursuits, and ten
years later made his home at Hickory, where he has met
with marked success as a retail merchant.

John G. Tatham, a prominent citizen of Murphy, N.
C., who devoted four years of his youth to the military
service of the Confederate States, coming out a veteran
at the age of twenty years, was born near Valley Town,
Cherokee county. Though but sixteen years of age, dur
ing the exciting days of military organization, in 1861, he
succeeded in becoming enrolled as a private of Company
D, Twenty-fifth regiment, North Carolina troops, Col.
Henry M. Rutledge. He was mustered in at Asheville,
with his brother as captain of the company, and, during
1 86 1, was on duty at the mouth of the Cape Fear river,
at Charleston, S. C. , and near Savannah, where his regi
ment went into winter quarters. In the spring of 1862
the regiment formed a part of Gen. Robert Ransom's
brigade, and won distinction in the bloody struggle be
tween the armies of Lee and McClellan, which ended in
complete triumph for the Confederate arms. Private
Tatham fought through this campaign and shared the
subsequent service of his regiment on many famous fields,
including the battles of Fredericksburg, Drewry's Bluff,
Petersburg, etc. During the winter of 1864, he was at
home on furlough from the army of Northern Virginia,
and on attempting to return, found himself cut off by
the Federal forces, whereupon he joined the cavalry com-

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 763

inand of Gen. John C. Vaughn, with which he served
until the end. He was with the troops who escorted
President Davis on his journey westward from Richmond,
after the evacuation, and, in the capacity of a messenger,
was admitted to the last council held by the President
and his cabinet. Since the close of hostilities, Mr. Tat-
ham has been engaged in farming and has also had a dis
tinguished career as a public official of his county. At
the organization of Graham county, he was elected
county clerk and for eighteen years was retained in that
office by the popular vote. He served one term in the
legislature by election in 1892, and for four years held
the office of deputy collector of internal revenue. In
1893 he was married to Mary McCoombs, daughter of a
pioneer farmer of Cherokee county. Mr. Tatham is the
son of Thomas and Mary (Phillips) Tatham, both natives
of North Carolina, the father a veteran of the Mexican
war. Of their eleven children, six served in the Confed
erate ranks. Capt. L. B., the eldest, assisted in organ
izing Company D, Twenty-fifth regiment, was mustered
in as second lieutenant, was promoted first lieutenant at
the reorganization, and soon afterward made captain.
He participated in the Seven Days' battles, Sharpsburg,
Fredericksburg, Drewry's Bluff, and many other engage
ments, and served nine months in the trenches at Peters
burg, until captured March 25, 1865, in Gordon's attack
on Fort Steadman, after which he was imprisoned at
Fort Delaware until the close of hostilities. The other
brothers were Julius M. and Jasper N., in Company D,
who both died from exposure in the service ; William C. , a
lieutenant in Thomas' legion, and Pinckney B., of another
command, both of whom served to the end of the war.

David T. Tayloe, M. D., surgeon of the Sixty-first
regiment, North Carolina troops, was born at Wash
ington, N. C., February 21, 1826. He was graduated
with distinction by the university of North Carolina, in
1846, and then entering upon the study of medicine with
Dr. John Norcum as his preceptor, was graduated in that
profession at the medical department of the university of
New York in 1849. He embarked in professional work
in Halifax county, and when an opportunity offered,
removed to his native city and entered upon a career of
great usefulness. In addition to his professional labors,

764 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

he filled in the course of his life, various positions of
trust, in which he gained the approbation of his fellow-
citizens. When his State went through the fiery trial of
war, he volunteered his services for military duty and
was commissioned surgeon of the Sixty-first regiment, a
post in which his devoted patriotism and high profes
sional skill were alike displayed throughout the war. He
was a man of broad culture, an accomplished scholar in
the classics, and fond of poetry, philosophy and history.
Generosity, courage and tenderness were marked traits
of his character. He was a devoted Southerner and a
loyal North Carolinian. He died March 25, 1884, deeply
mourned by all who had enjoyed his acquaintance or had
been honored by his friendship.

Charles C. Taylor, now a prominent citizen of Durham,
in his youth was connected with the service of the Con
federate States, and still retains a warm feeling of com
radeship toward the surviving veterans and reverence for
the cause for which they fought. He was born in Cum
berland county, January 25, 1847, and is the son of Wil
liam Taylor, a native of England, who was brought to
New York in his infancy by his parents, and removing
to North Carolina about 1830, became one of the leading
business men of Fayetteville. Young Taylor enlisted in
Company B of the Second regiment, Junior reserves,
under command of Col. John H. Anderson, and after
being detailed for some time as secretary for the colonel,
served from the beginning of 1865 until the close of hos
tilities as hospital steward. In this capacity he was in
charge of the sick in hospital at Raleigh. Subsequently
Mr. Taylor served as secretary of the Freedman's bureau
at Fayetteville, and after the suspension of that institu
tion, engaged in the mercantile business. In 1879 he
made his home at Durham, where he is now an influen
tial citizen. He has served as city alderman several
terms, officiating as chairman of the finance committee
and as mayor pro tern. He is vice-president of the More-
head banking company. In the various departments of free
masonry he has attained considerable prominence, and in
1886, was elected grand scribe of the grand chapter of
the State. In 1872 he was married to Eliza, daughter of
Capt. Henry Richards, of Hillsboro. Four children are
living, Elizabeth, Josephine, Catherine and Charles C.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 765

James P. Taylor, a retired merchant of Charlotte, did
good service for the Confederate States as a member of
the Forty-ninth regiment, North Carolina troops. He
was born in Mecklenburg county, January i, 1845, the
son of Wilson M. and Mary (Shepperd) Taylor. He en
listed in the latter part of 1862, before he had reached
the age of eighteen years, as a private in Company F of
the Forty-ninth regiment, Ransom's brigade. Accom
panying his regiment to southeastern Virginia, in the
spring of 1864, he was subsequently identified with the
army of Northern Virginia during the defense of Peters
burg, participated in the battles at Drewry's bluff, Ber
muda Hundred, Chickahominy swamp, Petersburg, Wei-
don railroad, Reams' Station, Belfield, Wilcox's farm, the
Crater, and in fact all the operations about Petersburg
in which his regiment took part. He was wounded in
the breast by a fragment of shell, December 19, 1864,
and was disabled in consequence five weeks, and in his
last battle, Five Forks, April i, 1865, was taken prisoner.
Subsequently he experienced the privations of prison life
at Point Lookout, until June 28, 1865. After the close
of hostilities, he was for twenty-four years engaged in the
railroad service in North Carolina, and then in the gro
cery business, in which he met with much success. He
is a member of Mecklenburg camp, Confederate vet
erans, and highly regarded by his comrades. He was
married, in 1877, to Mrs. Mary E. Almond, nee Starrett,
of South Carolina, who died February i, 1898.

Colonel John Douglas Taylor, of the Thirty-sixth
North Carolina artillery, was born at Wilmington, in
1831, and in 1853 was graduated at the university of
North Carolina. He then engaged in rice planting in
Brunswick county, and being elected to the State senate,
in 1859, served in that body until January, 1862, when he
entered the Confederate service as captain of the Bruns
wick heavy artillery. He was stationed with his com
mand at Fort Caswell, and upon the organization of the
Thirty-sixth artillery in the latter part of 1862, he was
elected major. In 1863 he was promoted lieutenant-
colonel, the rank in which he served until the close of
hostilities. Being placed in command at Fort Campbell,
in the early part of 1864, he held that post until the fall
of Fort Fisher compelled its abandonment, after which

766 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

he was attached to the brigade of General Hagood.
Among the engagements in which he participated were
Fort Anderson, Town Creek, Kinston and Bentonville,
in the last of which he was severely wounded, losing his
left arm. In 1877 he was appointed clerk of the superior
court at Wilmington, to fill an unexpired term, and since
then has resided there. He has served several terms as
clerk and treasurer of the city, and in 1890 was elected
to the office of clerk of the superior court.

Lieutenant James A. Tennent, of Asheville, a veteran
of the engineer service of the army of the Confederate
States, was born at Charleston, S. C., in 1842, the third
son of William M. and Eliza (Hopkins) Tennent, both
natives of that State. The founder of his family in
America was the Rev. William Tennent, who emigrated
from Ireland in 1716, and, making his home at Nesh-
aminy, Pa., established there the "Log college," the
first theological school of America, which, being trans
ferred to Princeton, N. J., by his removal there, became
the foundation of the Princeton theological seminary.
He died in 1746, at the age of seventy years. His son,
William, also a Presbyterian minister, removed to South
Carolina, and became very prominent during the revolu
tionary period, as a member of the State assembly and
as commissioner to bring the Tories to terms of peace.
Mr. Tennent is also descended, through a maternal
branch, from the Landgrave Thomas Smith, a native of
England, who was governor and commander-in-chief of
the colony of South Carolina in 1693. At the time of the
secession of South Carolina, young Tennent was a stu
dent in the State military academy, and in January,
1 86 1, with the corps of cadets, was put on duty in Charles
ton harbor, constructing and manning the battery, after
ward famous as Battery Wagner. Here he served as
number two on gun number one, and assisted in firing
the first shot upon the national flag, preventing the Star
of the West from bringing supplies to Fort Sumter.
He also took part in the bombardment of Fort Sumter,
and immediately thereafter, being graduated at the mili
tary academy, he was commissioned first lieutenant of
the Calhouii Guards, of the Seventeenth regiment, South
Carolina troops. Two months later he was detached as
military instructor and assistant engineer at Port Royal.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 767

He was on duty at Fort Walker, Hilton Head, during the
attack by Admiral Dupont, and after the evacuation of
that post, rejoined his company and served on James
island until the spring of 1862, when he was again de
tached as assistant engineer in the Second military dis
trict. In June, as adjtitant of his regiment, Twenty-third
South Carolina volunteers, he accompanied it to Virginia,
where he participated in the battle of Malvern Hill, and
the Second Manassas campaign, after which he was for a
time disabled by illness. Returning southward with
Evans' brigade, he took part in the Goldsboro campaign
against Foster, after which he was detached on engineer
ing duty on the South Carolina coast. His only absence
from active duty was five months, from June, 1863, as
military instructor and assistant professor of mathemat
ics at the Hillsboro, N. C. , military academy. He was
afterward assigned to the Second and then to the First mil
itary district, South Carolina, and when on Sullivan's
island, in July, 1864, became engineer in charge, this
appointment bringing under his supervision all the de
fenses in Charleston harbor east of Fort Sumter, and
thence northward on the coast to North Carolina. On
January 15, 1865, he was sent with his entire force to
secretly prepare the way for the retreat of General Har-
dee's army from Charleston, a duty which was faithfully
performed. He subsequently served as staff officer with
Col. John Clark, the chief engineer of the army of the
South, as it was then called, and was present at General
Hampton's surprise of Kilpatrick, near Fayetteville, and
the battles of Averasboro and Bentonville. At the time
when General Johnston surrendered he was executing an
order to re-establish communications in South Carolina
and remove a large quantity of military stores which had
escaped the Federal army. Since that period, Mr. Ten-
nent has devoted his talents to engineering and archi
tecture, at Charleston until 1872, and since then at Ashe-
ville, where many of the handsomest buildings are of his
creation. By his marriage, in 1869, to Lizzie West, of
New Orleans, he has one son, George.

Major James J. Thomas, prominent among the business
men of Raleigh, was born in Franklin county, July 19,
1831, son of James J. Thomas, a native of Alabama. At
the age of nineteen years he decided to embark in mer-

768 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

cantile pursuits, and after serving in a subordinate
capacity for a few years, opened a store at Franklinton.
In 1 86 1 he abandoned a successful business to offer his
services to the State, and became a member of Company
F, Forty-seventh regiment, and was commissioned first
lieutenant of his company by Governor Clark. Later in
the same year he was appointed quartermaster of the
regiment commanded by Col. Sion H. Rogers. When
this rank was abolished by Congress, he was, on the
recommendation of Gen. R. E. Lee, appointed assistant
division quartermaster, and assigned to the division of
Gen. Harry Heth, A. P. Hill's corps, army of Northern
Virginia. In this position he discharged, for much of the
time, the duties of division quartermaster, and was acting
in that capacity when the army was surrendered at Appo-
mattox Court House. On the 3oth of June, 1863, the
army being in Pennsylvania, Major Thomas proceeded
toward Gettysburg with all the available wagons of his
division, intending to collect supplies in that direction,
with a detail of infantry and cavalry as a guard, and dis
covered the enemy in position on a distant hill. Halting
and retiring to a safer place for the train, he camped that
night, while the Confederate forces were marching past
him to open the great struggle with the bloody victory
of July ist. After the first day's battle, he went
over the field and gathered up everything of military
value, and partially repeated that duty on the night of
the 2d. During the retreat he was captured at Green-
castle, Pa., but soon rescued by General Imboden's com
mand. He was at the battle of Drewry's Bluff, the fights
about Richmond, and many minor engagements. After
the close of hostilities, he, with other citizens of Raleigh,
conducted a cotton and commission business at Balti
more, until 1872, and afterward he was member of a firm
at Raleigh. Since 1876 he has conducted an extensive
business independently, rendered valuable public services
as first president of the cotton and grocery exchange, was
the first president of the Raleigh savings bank, presi
dent of the Oak City mills, is president of the Raleigh
cotton mills, and has prominent interests in other impor
tant enterprises. He has also served as president of the
Commercial and Farmers' bank, of Raleigh, since its
organization, in 1891.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY 769

Lieutenant Pleasant Campbell Thomas, a prominent
citizen of Davidson county, of which he is a native, was
born May 12, 1838. He entered the Confederate service,
April 23, 1861, as second lieutenant of the Thomasville
Rifles, a volunteer organization which was mustered in
as Company B of the Fourteenth regiment, North Caro
lina volunteers, one of the ten regiments first enlisted
for twelve months' service. Soon afterward he was pro
moted first lieutenant. Under Col. Junius Daniel the
regiment served in the Norfolk, Va., district, until the
spring of 1862, and while there Lieutenant Thomas
witnessed the memorable duel of the Virginia and the
Monitor. His health gave way before the inauguration
of active warfare before Richmond, and he found it nec
essary to resign and send a substitute. Subsequently,
during the continuance of the Confederate government,
he served as a bookkeeper connected with the military
department of North Carolina. Upon the close of hos"-
tilities he embarked in business with his father, the hon
ored founder of Thomasville, in which he has continued
since his father's death, with the exception of his public
services. He has been prominent in the political affairs of
his county and district, has served in the lower house of the
legislature and in the senate, and was a candidate for
Congress in 1891.

Colonel William Holland Thomas was born in Haywood
county, on Pigeon river (where Bird Evans now lives,
one mile below Sonoma), on the 5th of February, 1805.
He was a son of Richard Thomas, who came to North
Carolina about 1803 from Virginia. His mother was
Temperance Calvert, lineally descended from a brother
of Lord Baltimore. His paternal grandmother was a
Strother, of Virginia, and a sister of President Zachary
Taylor's mother. His relationship to President Taylor
was traced by them, and during Taylor's short term
as president, Colonel Thomas always had the entree to
the mansion and was a welcome guest. His father came
to North Carolina with John and George Strother, his
first cousins. Richard Thomas was drowned in a stream
in northern Georgia, where he had gone on business,
some months before his only child, the subject of this
sketch, was born. Mrs. Temperance Thomas was a
woman of strong native intellect, wonderful energy, and

770 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

was inspired by the sole object in life of advancing her
boy. Col. William H. Thomas started in life, when he
was fifteen years old, as a clerk in a store at Quallatown,
Jackson county, for the celebrated Congressman Felix
Walker, who was the author of the expression "talking
for Buncombe." Felix Walker's principal store was
located at Waynesville, and young Thomas went to the
branch store, with Walker's brother, agreeing to work
three years for $100 and board and clothing, but the
profits of the Quallatown store were applied to meet the
losses of that at Waynesville, and the young clerk, at the
end of his term of service, was compelled to accept
Walker's law books, now in the possession of his son, in
place of the $100. Meantime, young Thomas had devel
oped marked aptitude for business, and his mother
agreed to sell a tract of land owned by her to furnish
capital to start him in business as a merchant. Within
about ten years he was running three stores in Cherokee
county, at Scott's Creek, Qualla town and Fort Butler
(where Murphy is now located). In 1837 he had opened
two others, one at Fort Montgomery (now Rufrmsville),
and the other at Calhoun (now Charleston), Tenn. In
his boyhood he became a great favorite of Yonaguska
(Drowning Bear), who was the head chief of the Upper-
town Indians. Yonaguska had the Cherokees to adopt
Thomas into the tribe, by a decree of the council. From
that time he was the adviser in all of the business of the
tribe, and was soon declared to be their head chief.
Before the end of General Jackson's second term, in the
year 1836, Colonel Thomas went to Washington to estab
lish the claim to a fund due them from the government, of
those Cherokees who wished to remain in North Caro
lina, and to get. the consent of the government that they
should remain without surrendering their claim to the
fund. Colonel Thomas presented to President Jackson
a letter of introduction from Col. Robert Love, of Hay-
wood county, an old revolutionary hero, who had been
Jackson's friend, when he first migrated to east Tennes
see, and who had won Old Hickory's favor by giving him
every vote in Haywood county, as a candidate for the
presidency. Thomas never failed, during the remainder
of Jackson's term, to get a respectful hearing upon the
business which took him to the capitol. So deeply did
Colonel Thomas become interested in the cause of the

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 771

Indians, that he spent much of his time in Washington
between 1836 and 1840, and all of the time from 1841 till
1848. But, notwithstanding his absence, such was his
executive capacity that he conducted, through agents,
a large and lucrative business in North Carolina and con
tinued to increase his wealth. On his return to the
State, in 1848, Colonel Thomas became a candidate for
the State senate, and was elected every two years there
after until 1862. Meantime he served as a delegate from
Jackson county to the secession convention of 1861, being
elected while discharging his legislative duties in Raleigh.
In 1862 Colonel Thomas was authorized by President
Davis to raise a legion for service in the Confederate
army. He recruited under this authority, and had mus
tered into service fourteen companies of white infantry
and four companies of infantry composed of Cherokees.
He raised also four companies of cavalry, one company
of engineers and one of artillery. When east Tennessee
was evacuated, in the winter of 1863, most of the white
companies of infantry went under Lieut. -Col. James R.
Love, Lieutenant-Colonel McKamy and Major String-
field, to western Virginia and fought under Breckinridge
in 1864. Colonel Thomas, with the residue of his com
mand, crossed over into North Carolina and protected all
of the State border south of Madison county. No man
in the State showed his devotion to the cause by either
sacrifice of time or money, or the risk of his life, more
cheerfully than did Colonel Thomas. During his long
term of service in the legislature, Colonel Thomas had
procured donations of Cherokee lands to build turnpike
roads, which permeated every section of the State south
of the Pigeon river, and which were a monument to
his memory. But his greatest service as a legislator was
in forcing the adoption of the amendment to the charter
of the western North Carolina railroad company, requir
ing the building of the Ducktown, afterward the Murphy
branch. In 1858 Colonel Thomas was happily married
to Sarah J. Love, the eldest daughter of Col. James R.
Love, a leading citizen of Haywood county, and a grand
daughter of Col. Robert Love. His ardent devotion to
the "cause of the Confederacy induced him to accept serv
ice, which at his time of life was too arduous, and his
health gave way under the great strain upon mind and
body. He was one of the most remarkable men the

No 72

772 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

State has produced. Few men have done more, either
for their State or for their fellow men, than did Colonel
Thomas. His home was at Stekoah, the location of the
Indian town destroyed by General Rutherford, on the
banks of the Tuckaseegee. Mrs. Thomas died before her
husband, but he left surviving him two sons, William H.
Thomas, Jr., and James R. Thomas, and a daughter,
Sallie Love, who is the wife of Judge Alphonso C.
Avery, of Burke county.

Captain John Houston Thorp, of Nash county, one of the
survivors of the old First North Carolina, and one of the
detail in which Private Wyatt was killed during the bat
tle of Big Bethel, was born in Nash county in 1840. He
was educated at Chapel Hill, with graduation in 1860.
In May, 1861, he became a private in the ranks of Com
pany A of the First regiment, and soon accompanied the
command to the peninsula of Virginia. Just after the
battle of Big Bethel he was promoted corporal for gal
lantry in action, and in that rank he continued until the
regiment was disbanded, six months after its enlistment.
Then returning to his native county, he assisted in rais
ing Company A of the Forty-seventh regiment, of which
he was commissioned first lieutenant, and in the spring
of 1862, promoted captain. Subsequently he com
manded his company until it was paroled at Appomattox.
With the gallant Forty-seventh, in the brigade of General
Pettigrew, he was in battle near Washington, N. C., in
the winter of 1862; participated in the famous assaults
upon Seminary hill and Cemetery hill, on the first and
third days of the battle of Gettysburg ; during the retreat
from Pennsylvania was in the affairs at Funktown and
Falling Waters, took an active part in the Bristoe cam
paign, and in May, 1864, fought through the Wilderness
and Spottsylvania battles. After serving in the trenches
around Petersburg during the winter of 1864 and the
spring of 1865, he took part in all the engagements of the
last retreat and the fighting at Appomattox. Toward
the last, Captain Thorp had command of the regimental
sharpshooters and then of the brigade sharpshooters.
On returning to North Carolina, he began the study of
law, and being licensed to practice in 1866, was engaged
in professional duties at Rocky Mount until 1877, when
he turned his attention to agriculture. In 1887 he was
elected to the State senate from the Seventh district.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 773

Richard A. Torrance, of Charlotte, was born in Meck
lenburg county, December 7, 1833, son of James G. and
Margaret (Allison) Torrance, of Scotch and Irish descent,
his grandfather, Hugh Torrance, being the first of his
line in North Carolina. He was graduated at Chapel
Hill in 1855; in 1856 married Elizabeth Reid, and in the
following year moved to Texas, where he engaged in
farming. He prospered in his new home and was elected
a county commissioner, but in 1861 his wife died, and
the war breaking out, he enlisted in Company H of the
Eighth Texas cavalry. He first joined this command on
the battlefield of Shiloh, and continued in service as a
private, taking part in the battles of Murfreesboro,
Chickamauga and Knoxville and many other cavalry
affairs, and was slightly wounded at Murfreesboro. On
December 26, 1863, during the campaign in east Tennes
see under Gen. Tom Harrison, his left leg was shot off,
and this desperate wound ended his military career. He
was sent to his old home in North Carolina, whence, in
December, 1864, he returned to Texas and remained
there until 1869, meanwhile, in 1865, being united in
marriage to Eliza Gaston, of South Carolina. From 1869
to 1871 he resided in the latter State, since then in Meck
lenburg county, where he is busied with the care of the
paternal estate which has descended to him. He has
served as county commissioner and six years as county
tax collector. He is also interested in manufacturing
enterprises, and is a valued member of Mecklenburg
camp, U. C. V. Mr. Torrance has five sons and six
daughters living.

Charles William Trice, of Lexington, N. C. , was born
in Orange county, N. C., June 2, 1843, and thence
removed with his father to Texas, in 1857. While in
that State he entered the Confederate service in
August, 1 86 1, as a private in the Seventh Texas infantry,
and accompanied this regiment to Port Hudson, Miss.
The command was ordered thence to Fort Donelson, but
he was unable to accompany it on account of illness, and
thus escaped the surrender of that fort and the imprison
ment which the regiment suffered at Chicago. After the
Seventh was paroled and again in the field, he rejoined
it at Port Hudson, and participated in the battle of Ray
mond against Grant, in the spring of 1863; was in the

774 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

skirmishes about Jackson, and marched with General
Johnston's forces to the rear of Grant's army just before
the surrender of Pemberton. Then falling back to Jack
son, he fought in the defense of that city, and later in
the year participated in the great Confederate victory at
Chickamauga. In the battle of Missionary Ridge his
division was distinguished for steadiness. During the
Atlanta campaign, he was in the fights at Golgotha
church and New Hope church, and at Kenesaw mountain
lost his left hand. This severe wound disabled him for
further service, and he soon afterward went to Durham,
N. C. After the close of hostilities he entered the rail
road service, and is now agent of the Southern road at
Lexington.

Samuel Graeme Turnbull was a member of the Tow-
son Guards, of Baltimore county, Md. , and with the
rank and file of the same company, crossed the lines at
the beginning of the war and joined Stuart's Twelfth
Virginia cavalry, in which he served as second lieutenant
until the spring of 1862, when he died of diphtheria,
near Harrisonburg, Va. After his death, his mother, like
so many noble women in Baltimore, devoted her life and
means to furnishing supplies and comforts to the Confed
erate soldiers confined in the prisons of the North. Rev.
Lennox B. Turnbull, son of H. C. and Anna T. Turn-
bull, and brother of the foregoing, was born in Baltimore
county, Md., in 1850. His mother was a daughter of
Samuel F. Smith, president of the Philadelphia bank, a
descendant of Sir William Keith, colonial governor of
Pennsylvania. Dr. Turnbull was educated at Hampden-
Sidney college, the university of Virginia and the Union
theological seminary of Virginia, from which he gradu
ated in 1873. After a residence in Santa Barbara, Cal.,
he was ordained by the Chesapeake presbytery, and
became pastor of several churches in Loudoun county, Va.
In 1889 he took charge of the Old Market mission, now
the Hoge Memorial church, and thence in 1894 was called
to the pastorate of the First Presbyterian church at Dur
ham, which he still serves. In 1896 the degree of doctor
of divinity was conferred upon him by Davidson college.
He took a prominent part in founding the first free
public library in North Carolina, and in the removal of
Union theological seminary to Richmond, and is a trustee

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 775

of both institutions. In 1874 he was married to a
daughter of Judge Ryerson, of the court of appeals, in
Newton, N. J. , who, with five children, is still living.

Lieutenant Veines Edmunds Turner, of Raleigh, was
born in Franklin county, N. C., in 1837, was reared in
Henderson county, and there entered upon the practice
of the dental profession, after his graduation at the Balti
more dental college in 1858. He enlisted in June, 1861,
in Company G of the Thirteenth North Carolina infantry
regiment, afterward known as the Twenty- third regiment,
in which he served as second lieutenant of his company
until May, 1862, and then as adjutant of the regiment
until early in 1863, when he was appointed quartermaster.
When the rank which he held was abolished, in the early
part of 1864, he was assigned as acting staff quartermas
ter with General Ramseur, afterward with General
Pegram, and finally with General Walker, with whom he
was surrendered at Appomattox. He was under fire at
Yorktown, Va., about a month, and participated in the
battles of Williamsburg, Mechanicsville, Cold Harbor,
South Mountain, Sharpsburg, and Fredericksburg while
lieutenant of his company, and subsequently was present
in the battles of Farmville and Appomattox. At Cold
Harbor he received a wound which disabled him for
several weeks. After the close of hostilities he practiced
his profession at Henderson until 1871, and since then at
Raleigh.

James A. Turrentine, a prominent citizen and ex-
mayor of Burlington, is one of the survivors of Gen.
J. R. Chambliss' gallant old regiment, the Thirteenth
Virginia cavalry. He was born at Burlington in 1835,
son of John S. Turrentine, a planter of Alamance county.
His mother was Elizabeth B., daughter of Jeremiah Holt
and a relative of Gov. Thomas M. Holt. At the begin
ning of the Confederate war, young Turrentine was in
Virginia, and there became a member of the cavalry
regiment with which he had his military career. He
enlisted in June, 1861, in Company I of this command,
and in the early part of the war, served about Richmond
and in the Blackwater region. Then joining Stuart's
cavalry corps he shared the famous operations of those
brave troopers, during the Fredericksburg and Chancel-

776 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

lorsville campaigns, at Brandy Station, the raid through
Pennsylvania and the cavalry fight at Gettysburg, the
campaign from the Rapidan to the James, ending with
the long and arduous service on the flank of Lee's army
at Petersburg, including the battles of Hatcher's Run
and Five Forks. At the time of the last retreat and sur
render he was separated from his regiment on foraging
duty. He was wounded at the battle of Second Manassas,
from the effects of which he still suffers. In May, 1865,
Mr. Turrentine was appointed a passenger conductor on
the railroad line between Goldsboro and Charlotte, a
position which he held for thirty years. He was a mem
ber of the legislature of 1 880-81, was five years chairman
of the board of county commissioners, and ten years
mayor of his city. He was married, in 1859, to Louise
Anna Kilby, and their children living are: Vir-
ginius Lee, Darius Hill, Elizabeth, wife of James Mont
gomery ; Hattie, and Mary. Mrs. Turrentine is a daughter
of Judge Thomas J. Kilby, whose father, John Kilby,
was one of the gallant crew of the Bon Homtne Richard
under John Paul Jones.

Robert C. Twitty, a well-to-do farmer of Warren county,
left home and a young wife, in the spring of 1861, to
take up arms for the cause of his State and the Confed
eracy, and enlisted as second lieutenant of Company I,
Twelfth regiment, State troops. He served with this
infantry command for one year, and then, upon re-
enlisting, was transferred to the First cavalry regiment.
First as private for six months, and then as adjutant of
the regiment, he was identified with its famous career
through the four years of war. Under Hampton and
Stuart, Baker and Barringer, he was among the bravest
of the heroic troopers who won renown for the old North
State on the soil of Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylva
nia. Among the numerous engagements in which he
took part with the First cavalry, were the fights on the
occasion of Wilson's raid, White Oak Swamp, Spottsyl-
vania Court House, and the many fights around Rich
mond and Petersburg, including the battle of Charles
City Road, where he was wounded, Belfield, the Hampton
cattle raid, and the final engagements at Chamberlain's
Run, Five Forks and Namozine church. After the regi
ment was disbanded at Danville, Va,, Adjutant Twitty

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 777

returned home and resumed his occupation as a farmer,
in which he has ever since continued. He is an influen
tial man in the county, and has served three terms as
president of the board of commissioners. He was born
in Warren county, January 6, 1838, was educated at Trin
ity college, Randolph county, and in 1860 was married to
Sarah F. Palmer, by whom he has eight children living:
William T., Ph. D., M. D., a physician at Buffalo, N. Y. ;
James G., a pharmacist, and Robert H., a veterinary sur
geon, both at the same city ; William A. , Caroline, wife of
Horace Palmer, of Warren county ; Harriet, wife of W. T.
Pitts, of Keysville, Va. ; Mary, wife of William H. Pal
mer, of Buffalo, N. Y. , and Anna. Two cousins of Mr.
T witty were in the Confederate service : Henry F. , who
enlisted in 1862, was in numerous engagements and was
severely wounded at Bristoe Station and at Spottsylvania
Court House, and, after the war, engaged in farming
until his death in 1888; and John E. Twitty, who entered
the Twelfth infantry in 1861, and participated in all
its service until he was wounded at Spottsylvania, from
the effects of which he soon afterward died at Wash
ington.

Alvis K. Umstead, a Confederate veteran now promi
nent in the business circles of Durham, was born in what
is now Durham county, in 1839, a son of Squire D.
Umstead, a native of North Carolina. He entered the
military service of the State, in May, 1861, as a private
in Company B, of Colonel Fisher's regiment, the Sixth
North Carolina volunteers. With this gallant command
he was on duty in the Shenandoah valley, under Gen.
J. E. Johnston, and arrived at the plains of Manassas
with Bee's brigade in time to participate in the glorious
victory of July 2ist. In the spring -of 1862 he was at
Yorktown, until the evacuation, and afterward took part
in the battle of Seven Pines and the Seven Days' cam
paign before Richmond. Thence marching into Mary
land, he did a soldier's duty at South mountain and
Sharpsburg. After the return of the army to Virginia,
he was transferred to Company K, Second North Caro
lina cavalry, with which he took part in the operations
under Gen. J. E. B. Stuart during the Chancellorsville
campaign, and followed that gallant leader through
Maryland and Pennsylvania, while Lee's army was

778 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

invading the North. He was in the cavalry battle at
Gettysburg on July 3d, and afterward shared the service
of the cavalry in protecting the retreat. He continued to
fight with Stuart through the autumn of 1863, at the
Wilderness, Spottsylvania Court House, and until the
fateful day at Yellow Tavern. He rode with Hampton's
troopers in the daring raid around Grant's army to City
Point, and was identified with the career of Barringer's
brigade until the evacuation of Petersburg. At that
time, being on detached duty, he was not able to rejoin
the army before the surrender. After his return to
North Carolina, Mr. Umstead was occupied in farming
for a period of fourteen years, and still gives a portion of
his attention to the management of his agricultural inter
ests. Since 1879 he has resided at Durham, where he
does an extensive business in the manufacture and sale
of leaf tobacco.

Benjamin W. Upchurch, a well-known business man of
Spring Hope, N. C. , rendered faithful service during the
war as a private in the North Carolina troops, both upon
the soil of his native State and in southeastern Virginia.
He was born in Nash county, in 1844, and when eighteen
years of age became a member of the company of Capt.
J. W. Nichols, with which he was on duty along the
Raleigh & Gaston railroad and in various skirmishes
with the enemy. Later he became a member of the
Sixtieth regiment, with which he took part in the famous
victory at Plymouth, early in 1864, and immediately
afterward was transferred to the field of conflict in Vir
ginia, fighting against Butler on the Bermuda Hundred
line, and participating in the repulse of the Federal as
saults at Cold Harbor. In the latter battle, June 5, 1864,
he was seriously wounded, incapacitating him for further
duty in the field. After lying in hospital at Rich
mond several months, he was sent home, and in Novem
ber, 1864, was assigned to duty in the hospital at
Wilson, where he remained until the capitulation of
Johnston's army. Ever since the close of hostilities
he has been engaged in business in his native county.
In 1865 he was married to Virginia A. Matthews,
and they have three children living: Virginia A.,
wife of W. H. Styles; Benjamin W., and Henry C.
Upchurch,

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 779

Burges Urquhart, a prosperous farmer of Bertie
county, and one of the youngest survivors of the Con
federate service, was born in Isle of Wight county, Va.,
April 5, 1847. During the early period of the war he
was still in school, but he left his studies at Bingham's
school, then in Orange county, N. C., and enlisted in
June, 1864, as a private in Sturdivant's battery, light
artillery. He served as an artilleryman from that time
until April, 1865, taking part in the hard fighting and
deprivation of the veterans on the Petersburg lines
throughout the long siege, and then, after the city was
evacuated, was in frequent battle with the pursuing
enemy until his command, reaching Lynchburg, was
informed of the surrender by General Lee, when the bat
tery was disbanded. Then returning home, young
Urquhart resumed his school studies in Hanover county,
for two years, after which he took charge of his interest
in his father's estate, lands in Bertie county, where he
has ever since resided, giving his attention to agricult
ure. He is one of the prosperous and influential men of
the county. On June 6, 1871, Mr. Urquhart was mar
ried to Mary B. , daughter of Lewis Thompson, for many
years one of the most prominent men of North Carolina,
and they have six children living: Pattie Thompson,
Mary Norfleet, Margaret McKenzie, Louise Hill, Bur-
ges, Jr. , and Richard Alexander.

Major William Wiley Vannoy, of North Wilkesboro, a
Confederate veteran of the North Carolina troops, was
born in Wilkes county, July 22, 1835, and enlisted in the
spring of 1861, in the volunteer company organized in
Wilkes county, commanded by Capt. Hamilton A. Brown.
This was mustered in as Company B of the First regi
ment, Col. M. S. Stokes, and he went to the front in
Virginia as a sergeant of his company. Soon afterward
he was promoted second lieutenant. In his first battle,
at Seven Pines, he was captured by the enemy, and,
being taken to Fort Delaware, was confined there until
August, 1862. On being exchanged, he rejoined his
command and participated in the battle of Fredericks-
burg, where the misfortune which had attended him was
still more manifest. In this, his second battle, he re
ceived a severe wound, which destroyed his left eye.
He was disabled at home for three months, rejoining his

780 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

command in the battle of Chancellorsville. He then con
tinued on duty until August, 1863, when he was dis
charged on account of disability. Immediately upon his
return to North Carolina, he was commissioned major,
by Governor Vance, and assigned to a command with the
reserve troops and with special duties. In this capacity he
served until the close of hostilities. He was subsequently
engaged in farming, with the exception of six years in
business at Wilkesboro, until 1891, when he embarked in
business as a merchant at North Wilkesboro. He has also
rendered public service as constable and deputy sheriff.

Major W. G. Vardell, at the beginning of the war of
the Confederacy a prominent business man of Charleston,
sacrificed other interests upon the altar of patriotism, and
served with credit as a staff officer under General Ripley,
and other commanders in the State. His handsome res
idence, Cedar Grove, on the Ashley river, 1 1 miles above
Charleston, was burned during the war. He was a
worthy representative of the freedom-loving Huguenots
who came to South Carolina through Holland, after the
revocation of the edict of Nantes, and his ancestry in
America runs back to the latter part of the seventeenth
century. He married Miss Belle, of Charleston, a grand
daughter of Rev. Dr. James Malcombson, a native of
Ireland, educated at Glasgow, Scotland, who was the
founder of the Second Presbyterian church at Charles
ton, where he died of yellow fever in 1804. Rev. Charles
Graves Vardell, son of Major Vardell, was born at Charles
ton, February 12, 1860, was reared at Charleston and at
Summerville, and at the latter place was occupied in youth
in the phosphate works and upon the government tea farm.
Going to St. Paul, Minn., when about twenty-two years
of age, he was, while prostrated with typhoid fever,
drawn to the sacred calling to which he has since devoted
his life. After two years at Oberlin college, Ohio, he
was graduated at Davidson college in 1888, and at
Princeton seminary in 1891, and was licensed by the
presbytery of New Brunswick in the latter year. In
June, 1891, he was ordained as pastor of the New Bern
(N. C.) Presbyterian church, his father, Major Vardell,
who became a member of the Charleston presbytery late
in life, taking part in the ceremony. He has given to
his work the full energy of a bright intellect, exceptional

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 781

activity, and consecrated devotion. In July, 1898, he was
elected to the presidency of the Red Springs seminary
for girls, at Red Springs, N. C. , which has promise of a
successful career under his management. He was married,
in 1891, to Linda Lee, daughter of Rev. Jethro Rumple,
D. D., of Salisbury, N. C., an accomplished lady who
has charge of the musical department of the seminary.

Captain Joshua W. Vick, of Selma, captain of Com
pany E, Seventh North Carolina State troops, was born
in Nash county, in 1843. Being about eighteen years of
age at the beginning of the Confederate era, he enlisted,
April i, 1 86 1, as a private in the company of Capt. A. J.
Taylor, organized at Wilson and Garysburg, and subse
quently assigned as Company E to the Seventh regi
ment, which was mustered in August 21, 1861. A year
later he was elected first lieutenant, and in 1863 was pro
moted captain. The regiment served on the coast, par
ticipating in the battle of New Bern, until in May, 1862,
in the brigade of General Branch, it moved to Peters
burg and began its career in the army of Northern Vir
ginia. Captain Vick participated in the battles of Hanover
Court House, or Slash Church, Games' Mill, Frayser's
Farm and Malvern Hill, Harper's Ferry, Sharpsburg,
Chancellorsville, the defeat of Milroy at Winchester,
Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, and other
engagements. At Sharpsburg he was slightly wounded
in the head, at Gettysburg was wounded in the left
knee, causing his disability for three months ; while par
ticipating in the famous charge of Cemetery hill, at Spott
sylvania, was wounded in the left shoulder, and at Win
chester was captured by the enemy, which was followed
by his imprisonment for several weeks at Fort McHenry.
After the close of hostilities he returned home and began
the study of medicine, and was graduated professionally
at Washington university, Baltimore. Since then he has
been prominent in his profession. Captain Vick was
married, in 1872, to Rosetta, daughter of Lunsford and
Lorinda Richardson, and they have three children : Dora
L. , George D. , and Edward W.

Colonel Alfred Moore Waddell, of Wilmington, was
born at Hillsboro, N. C., September 16, 1834, and was
graduated at Chapel Hill in 1853. Then entering upon

782 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

the study of law at Hillsboro, he was admitted to the bar
in 1854, and two years later made his home at Wilming
ton, where he soon won consideration by his ability as a
lawyer and eloquence as an orator. From July, 1860,
until some time in 1861, he owned and edited the Wil
mington Herald, the leading Whig paper of the Cape
Fear region, in which he earnestly opposed secession,
until the State had decided otherwise. He then offered
his services as a soldier. While detailed in raising a
company in Chatham county, he was commissioned cap
tain in the Fourth North Carolina regiment, one of the
original ten furnished by the State. Subsequently he
turned over his Chatham county company to Moore's
battery, and accompanied that command to South Caro
lina. In 1862 he was appointed adjutant of the Forty-
first North Carolina regiment, or Third cavalry, and a year
later was promoted to lieutenant-colonel. In this rank
he served with the command under Hampton in the army
of Northern Virginia, and participated in the cavalry
fighting at Hanover Court House, on the Blackwater, at
Jack's shop, White Oak swamp, Hawes' shop and Drew-
ry's bluff, rendering efficient and gallant service until in
August, 1864, he became desperately ill. He resigned a
month later, declaring that he wished to stand in no one's
path of promotion, but if he recovered would return as a
private. He was not able to re-enter the service during
the war, and was at Wilmington when that city was occu
pied by the Federal army. Subsequently he formed a
law partnership at Wilmington with his father, Hon.
Hugh Waddell, and devoted himself to professional work
until, in 1870, he was suddenly called into the political
field. The Democratic candidate for Congress having
declined to make the race against Oliver H. Dockery,
Mr. Waddell was tendered the nomination seventeen days
before the day of election. Dockery's previous majority
had been about 2,000, but Colonel Waddell made a vigor
ous fight, victoriously engaged his renowned opponent in
debate, and was elected by 300 majority. He was three
times re-elected, and as a representative of North Caro
lina in Congress made a very creditable career. His
manly and eloquent defense of the South, in April, 1862,
as a member of the "Ku Klux" committee, attracted
much attention, as did his noted speech of January,
1876. During his last term he held the chairmanship of

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 783

the postoffice committee. He was a delegate-at-large to
the national convention which nominated Hancock, whom
he supported in public addresses throughout several
Northern States. In 1882 he resumed his connection
with journalism as editor of the Charlotte Journal, but not
long afterward returned to Wilmington and the practice
of law. In 1888 he was a candidate for the United States
Senate to succeed Senator Ransom. He has delivered
several famous public addresses, prominent among which
are those at the unveiling of the Confederate monument at
Raleigh, at the observance of the centennial of the uni
versity of North Carolina, and at the laying of the cor
nerstone of the R. E. Lee monument at Richmond.

Lieutenant Henry J. Walker, M. D. , of Huntersville,
was born in Mecklenburg county, June 24, 1836, the son
of Thomas J. and Jane (Beattie) Walker. A brother,
L. J. Walker, is elsewhere mentioned in this volume.
He was educated at Due West college, South Carolina,
and in April, 1861, became a member of a volunteer com
pany, which was subsequently assigned to the Third regi
ment of volunteers and mustered in as Company B. In
the following year, upon re-enlistment, the regiment was
numbered the Thirteenth. He served with this com
mand as a sergeant and later as second lieutenant, in the
army of Northern Virginia, participating in the battles of
Williamsburg, Seven Pines, the Seven Days' righting
before Richmond, South Mountain, Sharpsburg, Fred-
ericksburg, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. During
nearly his whole service he was with the sharpshooters of
his brigade, and had many daring adventures and thrill
ing experiences. On the retreat from Gettysburg he
was severely wounded at Hagerstown, which necessitated
the immediate amputation of his left leg. He was taken
to an improvised hospital at Martinsburg, and falling into
the hands of the enemy, was taken in September to West
building hospital at Baltimore, where he was cared for
until November, then being transferred to Johnson's
island prison camp. There he remained until exchanged,
May 17, 1864. While a prisoner of war he began the
study of medicine, which he continued at -the university
of New York in 1873. Since then he has enjoyed an
extensive and lucrative practice at Huntersville. On
June 23, 1864, he was married to Catherine E. Berryhill,

784 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

to whom he had been betrothed before his enlistment,
and they have five children living : Margaret Alice, wife
of Rev. J. Brice Cochrane, of Murphy; Dr. Charles E.,
a graduate of the medical department of the university of
Maryland, and the partner of his father ; Rev. William
L., pastor of the Third Presbyterian church at Greenville,
S. C. ; James Oscar, and Katie J.

Levi J. Walker, a well-known citizen and retired busi
ness man of Charlotte, was born in Mecklenburg county,
August 20, 1841, the son of Thomas J. and Jane (Beattie)
Walker. He was reared upon the farm of his parents,
and for eight years prior to the Confederate era was
employed in the Rock Island woolen mills. He enlisted
in April, 1861, as a private in Company B, Thirteenth
North Carolina infantry, Gen. W. D. Fender's old regi
ment, and going into Virginia soon afterward, shared the
gallant service of his regiment at Yorktown, Williams-
burg, Seven Pines, Games' Mill, Frayser's farm, Me-
chanicsville, Cold Harbor, Malvern Hill, Fredericksburg
and Chancellorsville. In the victorious but bloody fight
of July i, 1863, at Gettysburg, he fell with two bullet
wounds, and another more serious wound from a frag
ment of shell, which made necessary the amputation of
his left leg. Falling into the hands of the enemy, he
was taken to David's island, New York, and held in a
prison hospital for eight months. He was then exchanged,
but was, of course, wholly incapacitated for further serv
ice. A brother to whom he was and is greatly attached,
Dr. H. J. Walker, now residing at Huntersville, N. C.,
during the retreat from Gettysburg also received wounds
which caused the loss of his left leg. The photographs
which they treasure, showing the two at enlistment and
again at the close of the war, are a telling illustration of
the effects of war. For twenty- five years after the close
of hostilities, Mr. Walker was engaged in the wholesale
and retail grocery trade at Charlotte, and for three years
was proprietor of a leading drug store, but since then he
has been retired from business. He is a faithful mem
ber of Mecklenburg camp, Confederate veterans, with the
rank of past first lieutenant-commander. He was mar
ried, in 1867, fo Dorcas Marshall, and after her death, in
1869, he married Leonora C. Montgomery, who died in
1892. One child is living, Julia A., wife of W. L. O'Con-
nell, of Charlotte.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 785

Charles Thornton Wall, of Rural Hall, Forsyth
county, a gallant survivor of the Twenty-first regi
ment, North Carolina troops, was in a number of the
fiercest conflicts of the army of Northern Virginia, and
attested his devotion to the cause of the Confederacy by
many months of suffering. He was born in Forsyth
county, August 12, 1843, and in May, 1861, enlisted in
Company G of Colonel Kirkland's regiment, then called
the Tenth volunteers, whose service he shared at Manas-
sas and in the famous campaign of the Shenandoah valley
under Stonewall Jackson. At the battle of Winchester,
in this campaign, he was so unfortunate as to receive a
gunshot wound in the head, which nearly caused his
death, and deprived him of the power of speech for
eight weeks. He was in hospital at Winchester, Staun-
ton, Richmond and Lynchburg, and finally returned to
his command in time to take part in the battle of Sharps-
burg, where he was wounded in the left thigh and taken
prisoner. When released from imprisonment, he fought
with his regiment at Gettysburg and fell in the first day's
battle, with a wound in the left leg. This, however, did
not prevent his continuing on duty, though constantly
troubled by his wounds. In spite of his injuries he was
in most of the great battles of the army, and in 1864
served in the trenches at Petersburg. At the time of
the surrender he was acting as a commissary in North
Carolina, and after the surrender of Lee, returned to his
home. In 1875 he was married to Miss C. Beck, and
they have three children, Lillie, Willie and Victoria.

W. W. Ward, of Charlotte, a veteran of the artillery
service of the Confederacy, was born at Union ville, S. C. ,
December 21, 1845, the son of H. N. Ward, a native of
North Carolina, and his wife, Mary Pegram. On Sep
tember 19, 1 86 1, in his sixteenth year, young Ward
enlisted in the Confederate service as a private in the
Macbeth light artillery, with which he served until the
close of the war. With this command he served under
Gens. N. G. Evans, Beauregard, Longstreet and J. E.
Johnston, and participated in various campaigns through
out the South, including the battles of Secessionville,
S. C. , Kinston, N. C. , and Jackson, Miss. Though fre
quently warmly engaged with the enemy, he was never
wounded or captured, though he had occasional narrow

786 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

escapes, as at Kinston, where, having been sent back for
ammunition, he returned to the field after his comrades
had retreated. He surrendered at Asheville, April 26,
1865, and since then has resided at Charlotte, where he
is a popular and esteemed citizen. His attention has
been given to business pursuits, in which he has pros
pered. He is a member of the Mecklenburg camp, and
is a director of the Ada and Louisa cotton mills, of
Charlotte. On January 6, 1870, he was married to
Isabella Gilson, of Fort Mill, S. C., and they have six
children.

Roberson R, Warren, a brave soldier of the Sixty-
seventh North Carolina regiment, now a prosperous
farmer of Beaufort county, was born at Blount's Creek,
in 1843. He is of patriotic American stock, his great
grandfather having been a soldier of the revolutionary
army. Early in June, 1861, he entered the military serv
ice of the State and the Confederacy as a private in the
company organized in Craven county by Capt. John N.
Whitford, subsequently assigned to the Tenth regiment,
heavy artillery, as Company A. With this command he
took part in the battle of New Bern under General
Branch, and an engagement near Kinston soon afterward,
and then his company was detached and became the
nucleus of the Sixty-seventh regiment, under command
of Colonel Whitford. He served as corporal in this regi
ment until the end of the war, taking part in a number
of engagements, among them the fight at Cox's bridge,
near Bentonville, and the siege and capture of Plymouth.
In this regiment his brother, John W. Warren, also
served from the time of organization, and was badly
wounded by a fragment of shell in a skirmish near Kins-
ton. Since the close of hostilities, Mr. Warren has been
engaged in farming in his native county. By his mar
riage, in 1888, to Carrie M. Brand, he has five children:
Robert Thurston, Carmen, Lillian McMasters, Rosaline
G., and Cecil Clyce.

Colonel J. A. Washington, of the Fiftieth regiment,
North Carolina troops, was born in Wayne county, in
1832. He entered the active service in April, 1861, as
sergeant of the Goldsboro Rifles, and in the following
month organized a new company, of which he was

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 787

elected captain. This was assigned to the Second regi
ment of infantry as Company H, and he served in com
mand of it until the period of enlistment of the regiment,
one year, had expired. He was then elected lieutenant-
colonel of the Fiftieth regiment, and in January, 1863,
was elected colonel. He commanded the regiment, and
engaged in various skirmishes during the operations in
North Carolina in the spring of 1863. After about
eighteen months' service with the Fiftieth regiment, he
resigned his commission and was no longer on duty. He
was a faithful and efficient officer, and while the circum
stances of the service did not afford him participation in
any of the great battles of the war, he demonstrated, in the
minor encounters with the enemy, his ability to meet any
requirement. Since the war Colonel Washington has
been a resident of Goldsboro.

Captain Samuel Blackwell Waters, of New Bern, who
gave four years' service to the cause of the Confederate
States, is a native of Long Island, N. Y. , born in
1835. At the age of six years he came with his mother
to New Bern, the residence of her brother, John Black-
well, where he was reared until he entered St. Timothy's
hall, Maryland. Subsequently he attended the Walter
Chisholm preparatory school, at Woodstock, N. Y. , pre
paring for entrance to Columbia college, but instead of
contnming his studies, entered mercantile life at New
York city, where he remained five years, in 1858 being
united in marriage to Phoebe C. Welling. In the same
year he returned to North Carolina and embarked in
business at Little Washington, where, at the advent of
war, he organized a volunteer company of which he was
elected first lieutenant. His command was assigned to
the Third regiment, North Carolina troops, and he con
tinued in the same rank until the reorganization, when
he was promoted captain in the Confederate States army,
and assigned as adjutant to the Eighteenth regiment.
He participated in the battles of First Manassas, was
on duty for some time at Aquia creek, and fought at
Hanover Court House, Mechanicsville, Games' Mill and
Frayser's farm, in the latter battle being knocked from
his horse by an exploding shell and disabled for several
weeks. Upon convalescence he was appointed enrolling
officer and provost-marshal of Raleigh, and continued in

No 78

788 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

that duty until General Johnston occupied the city,
when he was detailed to the quartermaster's department
under Maj. W. W. Pierce. Later, having been offered
the position of commissary and rank of major with Gen.
Fitzhugh Lee, he attempted to join that officer, but on
reaching Weldon found he was cut off. He made his way
to Elizabeth City, and soon afterward went to New
York city, his wife having gone through the block
ade six months before, and was engaged in busi
ness there until 1867. Then returning to North Caro
lina, he was in business at Salisbury two years and at
Wilson until 1882, since which date he has been a citizen
of New Bern.

C. Barksdale Watson was born in Forsyth county, N.
C., in 1844. His paternal ancestors moved into North
Carolina from Prince Edward county, Va. , in the latter
part of the eighteenth century. His grandmother, from
whom he received his middle name, was a Barksdale
from Halifax county, Va. In the early part of 1862 he
volunteered and served throughout the war as a sergeant
in Company K, Forty-fifth regiment of North Carolina
volunteers, Rodes' division, Swell's corps, of the army of
Northern Virginia. He faithfully performed his duties
as a soldier, in camp, on the march, and upon the field
of battle. He was three times wounded, twice slightly,
and once (at Spottsylvania Court House) severely.
From this last wound he has never fully recovered,
although he did report for duty after a partial recovery,
and was serving on the line at Petersburg on that day of
fierce battle when Grant broke through the attenuated
line, on which men were posted several yards apart.
He retreated with the army to Appomattox, where the
gallant host that had followed Lee laid down their arms
and furled the banners that had so often waved defiantly
in the front of battle. Returning home, Mr. Watson
studied law and settled in Winston, N. C. , where he has
practiced his profession since August, 1869. In 1888 he
was elected to the State senate and served two terms.
In 1893 he was elected to the house of representatives,
and in 1896 was nominated by the Democratic party for
governor. Division among the Democrats, and the fact
that the third party had a ticket in the field, caused his
defeat by D. L. Russell, the Republican candidate. Mr.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 789

Watson is one of the most successful lawyers of North
Carolina and has an extensive practice, especially in the
northwestern counties of the State.

Harrison Watts, past lieutenant-commander of Meck
lenburg camp, United Confederate Veterans, of Char
lotte, is a native of Livingston county, Ky. , born May 2,
1840. He is the son of David and Caroline (Given)
Watts, of that county, and residents of Paducah, where
his father was engaged in business as a banker. He was
educated at Paducah, receiving the degree of bachelor of
arts at a college there when seventeen years of age, and
afterward studied two years in the university of Virginia.
Returning to Paducah, where he became the cashier of
his father's bank, he went to St. Louis, in the spring of
1 86 1, and joined the battery of light artillery organized
at that city under Capt. Emmet MacDonald. With this
command he served under Gen. Sterling Price during the
struggle for the possession of Missouri, fighting at Spring
field and Pea Ridge, and then crossing the Mississippi
took part in the battles of Shiloh and Farmington. Dur
ing this service he held the rank of lieutenant. After
the battle of Farmington he was detailed for the naval
service and sent to Liverpool, England, to go out upon
one of the cruisers building at that place. But, like
many others on the same mission, he never had the
opportunity to carry the flag of the Confederacy on the
high seas, on account of the non-completion of the ves
sels. Returning to America after the war, he engaged in
cotton brokerage at New Orleans, from 1865 to 1878,
and while there was elected marshal of the Crescent City
White league, in which capacity he commanded Section
A in the fight on the levee, September 14, 1874. Since
1878 he has been one of the leading" cotton brokers of
Charlotte, and is popular with all, notably with the
comrades of Mecklenburg camp, who have honored him
with the ranks of lieutenant-commander and acting com
mander. He was married in September, 1864, while at
Liverpool, to Susan F. Brown, an American lady, and
they have two children : Harry Dickson Watts, of Char
lotte, and Mrs. James Campbell Flournoy, of Kentucky.

John K. Wells, of Shelby, a veteran of the Twelfth
regiment, North Carolina troops, was born in Cleveland

790 CONFEDERA TE MILITARY HIS TOR Y.

county, in 1844, the son of John K. Wells, also a native
of that county. In the fall of 1862 he left school and
enlisted in Company E of the Twelfth regiment, joining
his command in winter quarters near Fredericksburg,
Va. His first battle was at Fredericksburg, and in the
following spring he participated in the engagements of
Jackson's corps, on Saturday and Sunday, at Chancel-
lorsville. In this battle his captain, J. W. Gidney, was
distinguished for gallantry, in rushing to the front of the
regiment with flashing sword and calling the men to fol
low him, as they stood hesitating in the face of the Fed
eral army. In this battle also, Louis M. Wells, a brother
of John K., met his death in the ranks. Subsequently
Mr. Wells was disabled for some time with typhoid fever
and was for two months in the hospital at Richmond. In
August, 1863, he rejoined his command at Orange Court
House, and after participating in the Bristoe and Mine
Run campaigns, shared the gallant service of his regi
ment under Gordon in the battle of the Wilderness. At
Spottsylvania he fought on the line of the bloody angle,
and at Cold Harbor he was among the heroes who held
their position in spite of the repeated and desperate
assaults of Grant's army. Subsequently he shared the
services of Rodes' division in the repulse of Hunter at
Lynchburg, the campaign through Maryland against
Washington, and the famous battles of the Valley cam
paign of 1864, including Winchester, Fisher's Hill and
Cedar Creek. In December, 1864, he was again with
Lee's army on the Petersburg lines, fought at Hatcher's
run, shared the desperate assault of Gordon's troops
upon the Federal lines at Fort Stedman, and on the 2d
of April, 1865, took part in the recapture of Fort Mahone.
When the retreat began he was one of the last to cross
the river, and before he arrived at Appomattox, was
several times engaged in battle against the pursuing
enemy. Throughout this service he fought as a private
and escaped without injury, except a slight wound
received at Chancellorsville. Since the war he has been
engaged in farming, and is one of the leading and pros
perous men of his county. From 1880 to 1888 he served
as register of deeds, and in 1896 he held the office of col
lector of taxes. He was married, in 1872, to Rachel,
daughter of James M, Ware.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 791

Major Stephen Whitaker, a prosperous farmer of Cher
okee county and a veteran of Thomas' legion, was born
in Buncombe county, in 1814, the son of James and Polly
(Walker) Whitaker, natives of Wilkes county. His
father represented Buncombe county in the legislature,
and in 1835 removed to Cherokee county, then a part of
Macon, under a permit from the Indians, and was asso
ciated with Rev. Humphrey Posey in the establishment
of the Hiawassee mission station. He was the first rep
resentative of Cherokee county in the legislature, and
passed his declining years upon a farm near the present
site of Andrews. Major Whitaker began his career as
a farmer by the purchase of 160 acres at the Indian land
sale in 1838, where he still resides, having increased his
holdings to more than 15,000 acres of valuable land. At
the beginning of the Confederate war, he organized a
company on Valley river, of which he was commissioned
captain, and which was mustered in by Major Stringfield
as Company E of Walker's battalion, Thomas' legion.
With this command he served in Tennessee, Virginia and
North Carolina, in many skirmishes, and commanded the
advance guard under General Early in the demonstration
against Washington, in 1864. Afterward he was ordered
to Cherokee county to protect the citizens against
marauders, and surrendered to Colonel Kirk, at Frank
lin, Macon county, N. C., May 12, 1865, and paroled his
command after the surrender of General Lee became
known to him, being the last command to surrender in
North Carolina. By his marriage, in 1835, to Miss Eliza
beth Taylor, thirteen children were born, of whom two
served in the Confederate army. J. Mack Whitaker
enlisted in his father's company at the age of sixteen
years, and served to the end, as a faithful and cour
ageous soldier ; and David was in the Confederate service
from the beginning to the close of the war, winning pro
motion to a lieutenancy.

Alphonzo White, of Perquimans county, a veteran of
the North Carolina State troops, was born in the county
where he now resides in the year 1845. His youth pre
vented an early enlistment with the forces of the Confed
eracy, but in 1863, having reached the age of eighteen
years, he became a member of Webb's battery, Starr's
battalion of light artillery, as a private, and during the

792 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

remainder of the struggle he was identified with the serv
ice of that command. His battalion, in the performance
of the necessary duty assigned it, did not often meet the
enemy in battle, being called upon mainly to defend the
Petersburg lines while the army of Northern Virginia
was occupied elsewhere, and to guard the coast and the
line of the Weldon railroad, but his record is character
ized by the same faithfulness to duty which is the crown
ing glory of the Confederate soldier wherever placed.
He served at Petersburg, at Fort Fisher, and for a long
time at Weldon. The battalion was disbanded after the
surrender of General Lee, but Private White was one
of seventeen adventurous spirits who determined to
unite with Johnston's army and continue the fight. In
this they were prevented by the operations of the Fed
eral army, and they were consequently compelled to sur
render and give their parole at Raleigh. He has since
then been mainly occupied in agriculture, though he has
for some time also been interested in the manufacture of
lumber and in the mercantile business. He has served
as a magistrate, and since 1892 has been the deputy
sheriff of his county. Mr. White was married, in 1867,
to Sallie Billups, who died in 1888, and in 1889 he wedded
Gertrude Haskett. Eight children are living: Robert
T., Jesse, Mattie A., and Alphonzo, by the first mar
riage; and Elbert, Joseph W., Sallie A., and Ruth A.,
by the second.

Captain Joseph Harvey White, a gallant soldier of
Daniel's brigade, who fell at the bloody angle at Spott-
sylvania Court House, was born in York county, S. C.,
December 21, 1824. His parents were William E. White,
a farmer of York county, and Sarah, daughter of Rev.
McKamie Wilson, an eminent Presbyterian divine of that
period. He was reared in his native county and grad
uated at Davidson college, after which he entered busi
ness life at Charleston, S. C., as a commission merchant.
While thus embarking in his life career, he was married,
October 16, 1850, to Sarah J. Young, daughter of Joseph
Young, a merchant and planter of Cabarrus county, and
an elder in the Presbyterian church. Two years later
Captain White removed to Charlotte and took charge of
a plantation, which he owned near that city, and was
thus engaged at the formation of the Confederate States

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 793

government. In 1862 he organized and was elected cap
tain of a company which became Company B of the Fifty-
third regiment, Gen. Jtmius Daniel's brigade. With this
command he joined the army of Northern Virginia, and
took part in a number of famous battles, including those
of Brandy Station, Gettysburg, Mine Run, Bristoe Sta
tion, and in May, 1864, engaged in the bloody struggle
with Grant's army in the Wilderness and Spottsylvania
Court House. The righting began on the 5th and raged
almost continuously for nearly two weeks. On May i2th
Hancock's corps swept over the angle in the works near
Spottsylvania Court House, taking many prisoners, and
breaking the Confederate line; and in the desperate
charge which was made, saving Lee's army from imme
diate destruction, Captain White's life was part of the
bloody sacrifice. He was a gallant officer and died
nobly. His widow, who warmly cherishes his memory
and all the heroic memories of the cause for which he
perished, is yet living at Charlotte, beloved by many.

William Edward White, M. D., an early martyr in the
cause of Southern independence, was born at Fort Mill,
S. C., March 15, 1835, the third son of William E. White
and his wife, Sarah Wilson. He was one of six brothers
who joined the Confederate States forces. He was
reared at Fort Mill and educated at Davidson college and
the university of New York, being graduated at the lat
ter institution as doctor of medicine in 1858. Subse
quently he practiced his profession at Charlotte, with
much success and promise of a useful career, and on
October 16, 1860, was married to Sarah Caldwell, daugh
ter of D. A. and Martha (Bishop) Caldwell, natives of
Mecklenburg county. In May, 1861, enthusiastically
devoted to the cause of his State and, the Confederacy,
he left home to accept the rank of assistant surgeon of
the Seventh North Carolina regiment of infantry. With
this command he served at its various stations in North
Carolina until he was disabled by camp fever, of which
he died, November 9, 1861. He had already, in a brief
service, demonstrated fine professional attainments and
capabilities which promised rapid promotion. His widow,
faithful singly to his memory, yet resides at Charlotte,
and warmly cherishes the heroic memories of the Con
federacy.

794 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Leroy R. Whitener, a prominent citizen of Hickory,
and a veteran of Garland's brigade, army of Northern
Virginia, was born in Catawba county, N. C., in 1837,
a descendant of one of the first settlers of that region.
He entered the Confederate service April 27, 1861, as a
private in the Second regiment of volunteers, under Col.
Sol Williams, later known as the Twelfth regiment.
This regiment was organized before the State seceded,
and he was in Raleigh at the time of secession. During
his service he was promoted to sergeant. During his
first year's duty in Virginia he was a witness of the naval
encounter between the Virginia and Monitor, and after
the evacuation of Norfolk he fought in the Seven Days'
battles before Richmond. After the victory at Second
Manassas came the celebrated fight of his brigade at
South mountain, defending the passes against McClel-
lan's army, where Garland was killed, and the bloody
struggle at Sharpsburg immediately ensued. He fought
at Fredericksburg, was near the spot where General
Jackson was mortally wounded at Chancellorsville, and
at Gettysburg shared the gallant service of Rodes' divi
sion, until he was wounded and captured by the enemy.
Fortunately he was held but a few weeks at David's island
and then paroled. Upon his exchange, in October follow
ing, he rejoined his regiment, and in 1864 was in battle
at the Wilderness, Spottsylvania Court House and
Cold Harbor ; was with Early at the battle of Monocacy
and the demonstration against Washington city, and in
the fall took part in the desperate struggle against Sher
idan's superior numbers at Winchester and Cedar creek.
After this he fought in the Petersburg trenches, was in
the battle of Hatcher's Run and several other engage
ments, and upon the retreat to Appomattox, in which he
was frequently engaged, was surrendered with the rem
nant of the glorious old army. In addition to his wound
at Gettysburg, he was slightly injured at Cold Harbor
and Hatcher's Run. Since the war he has been engaged
in farming, but since 1887 has resided at Hickory, where
he is also engaged in business. He has had a prominent
career as a public official, eight years as county commis
sioner, as a member of the board of aldermen, and twice
mayor of the city, and is now a director of the Western
asylum at Morganton and representative of the county
in the legislature. He was married, January 12, 1866,

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 795

to Miss Martha J. Shuford, with whom he lived happily
until her death, February 3, 1896. He was married
again, June 22, 1897, to Mrs. Alice Ingold Murrill.

Anderson Lindsay Whitt, of Pilot Mountain, Surry
county, was born in Randolph county, June 5, 1840, but
was brought by his parents to the town where he now
resides in 1841. There he enlisted, June 9, 1861, as a
private in Company H of the Eleventh regiment of vol
unteers, Gen. W. W. Kirkland's old regiment, later
known as the Twenty-first, State troops. Early in 1861
he accompanied his regiment to Danville, and thence to
Richmond, and on July 2ist shared the service of his
command in the great victory over McDowell's army.
After remaining in camp near Manassas during the win
ter, he took part in the active and glorious campaign
under Jackson, in the Shenandoah valley, as a private in
Trimble's brigade of Swell's division. Then being
ordered to Richmond, he went through the Seven Days'
campaign, the Second Manassas campaign and battles of
Jackson's corps, and took part in the capture of Harper's
Ferry and the battle of Sharpsburg. Subsequently he
was on duty in North Carolina until Petersburg was
threatened by Butler, when he assisted in bottling that
redoubtable warrior at Bermuda Hundred. Afterward,
under the brigade command of General Lewis, in Ram-
seur's division, he marched with Early through Mary
land to Washington city and fought against Sheridan at
Winchester and Cedar creek. His frequent service on
the skirmish line kept him in frequent action, and he was a
participant in many a hot fight that is not named in his
tory. Finally serving in the trenches about Petersburg,
he became sick and unfit for duty, and was granted a fur
lough in January, 1865, after which he saw no more serv
ice. Since the close of hostilities he has been a resident
of Pilot Knob, and in 1897 was appointed a justice of the
peace. By his marriage, in 1866, to Cynthia Hill, he has
the following children: Ernest E., William Luther,
Mary Ella, Anne, Sarah Elizabeth, Cora Grant, and John
Crockett.

James Thomas Wiggins, a gallant North Carolina sol
dier, now residing at Wilson, was born at Oxford, Gran-
ville county, in 1844, and reared and educated at Hender-

796 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

son. He entered the Confederate service as a private in
the Granville Grays, which was mustered in as Company
C of the regiment first known as the Second and later as
the Twelfth North Carolina infantry. He served with
this command until December, 1861, when he was honor
ably discharged on account of physical disability. Recov
ering his strength, he re-enlisted, early in December,
1862, as a private in Company K, Fifty-fourth regiment,
Col. J. C. S. McDowell, Law's brigade, Hood's division.
He was appointed fourth sergeant, and after participating
in the battle of Fredericksburg, was promoted sergeant of
sharpshooters, the capacity in which he served during
the remainder of the war. He took part in the second
battle at Fredericksburg, then in the defeat of Milroy at
Winchester and the engagement at Williamsport, and in
November, 1863, was captured in the disaster at Rappa-
hannock Station, after which he was a prisoner of war at
Point Lookout until early in the spring of 1864. Rejoin
ing his regiment, he took part in the campaign under
Early in the Shenandoah valley, fighting at Winchester,
Cedar creek, Fisher's Hill and Waynesboro. At Cedar
creek he was slightly wounded in the face by a piece of
shell. Subsequently he served on the Petersburg lines,
and was in the battles on the Vaughn road and at Fort
Stedman or Hare's Hill, and during the retreat was in
frequent encounters with the enemy up to the surrender
at Appomattox. Since then Sergeant Wiggins has de
voted himself to the pursuits of peace, making his home
at Wilson. He had one brother in the service, Joseph
L. Wiggins, who fought in the ranks of the Second regi
ment and afterward in the Twenty-fourth, and then
served as purchasing agent with the rank of captain until
captured in the latter part of 1864. He was imprisoned
at Fort Delaware until the close of the war, and died
two years later.

Captain O. A. Wiggins, of Wilmington, a gallant vet
eran of Lane's brigade, is one of seven brothers who
were soldiers of the Confederacy. He was born in Hali
fax county, April 8, 1844, and in May, 1861, entered the
service as a private in the Scotland Neck mounted rifle
men, organized in his native county, and subsequently
was promoted to lieutenant of Company E, Thirty-seventh
regiment, of the brigade then commanded by General

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 797

Branch and later by General Lane. With this command
he went through the entire war, participating in the bat
tles of Hanover Court House, Mechanicsville, Cold Har
bor, Frayser's Farm, Cedar Run, Second Manassas, Ox
Hill, Sharpsburg, Harper's Ferry, Shepherdstown, Fred-
ericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Falling Waters,
Bristoe Station, Mine Run, the Wilderness, Spottsylva-
nia Court House, Reams' Station, Jones' Farm, Hare's
Hill, and the fighting on the Petersburg lines until they
were broken. He was wounded at Chancellorsville, at
Spottsylvania Court House, May i2th, was promoted cap
tain on the field, was wounded on the same field May
2ist, and at Petersburg, April 2d, was shot in the head
and made prisoner. While being conveyed to Johnson's
island, he escaped by jumping from a car window while
the train was at full speed, near Harrisburg, Pa., after
which he disguised himself and worked his way back to
Dixie. His brothers in the service were Blake B. Wig
gins, surgeon of a Mississippi regiment in Bragg's army,
who died in 1866; William H. , a private throughout the
war in the Texas rangers, died in 1867; John W., also in
the Texas rangers, who served four years and died in
1888; Thomas J., first in the Scotland Neck cavalry and
later a lieutenant in the Thirty-seventh North Carolina,
now living at Littleton; Alfred S., first lieutenant in
Scotland Neck cavalry, killed May 17, 1863, near Suf
folk, and Eugene B. , who enlisted at the age of fourteen
in the First South Carolina rifles, was desperately
wounded and lost an eye in the battles before Rich
mond, was honorably discharged, but re-enlisted in 1863,
in Manly's battery and surrendered at Appomattox. He
died in 1886.

Captain George Willcox, of Carbonton, a gallant officer
of the Twenty-sixth regiment, was born in Moore county,
June 17, 1835, the son of George and Margaret (Martin)
Willcox. His family in both branches has borne an hon
orable part in the history of North Carolina for several
generations. His grandfather, John Willcox, son of
Thomas Willcox, is honorably mentioned in Wheeler's
history. Captain Willcox was educated at Carthage and
at Carbonton, and then was occupied in farming until the
beginning of the Confederate war. In May, 1861, he
enlisted in Company H, Twenty-sixth regiment, North

798 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

Carolina State troops, and during the succeeding cam
paigns bore himself with such valor and discretion that
he rose to command of his company. He was one of the
heroic North Carolinians who made the fame of Petti-
grew s brigade. His first battle was at New Bern, but
subsequently he was identified with the army of North
ern Virginia, on the fields of that State, and of Maryland
and Pennsylvania. At Mai vein Hill, Gettysburg, the
Wilderness, and in the hard fighting about Gettysburg,
he represented well the indomitable valor of his State.
At Gettysburg, July i, 1863, he was twice severely
wounded in the foot and in the side, and on the retreat
he was captured, July 4th, but was soon afterward res
cued by the Confederate forces and carried to hospital at
Richmond. At the battle of the Wilderness he was shot
through the shoulder, but not long afterward he was
again in the ranks, and in October, 1864, in the thick of
the fight at Burgess' Mill, he was again captured, but
again he succeeded in making his escape. He was finally
surrendered at Appomattox, when he returned home and
resumed his occupation as a farmer. He has repre
sented his county one term in the legislature, by election
in 1884, and his senatorial district in the State senate, by
election in 1890. In 1866 he was married to Isabel C.
Palmer, and they have five children: Joseph M., ^Fred
Leroy, Robert P. , John and George W.

Captain John Wilkes, of Charlotte, N. C. , was born in
New York city in 1827, the son of Admiral Charles
Wilkes, United States navy, famous as the commander of
the United States exploring expedition to the Antarctic
ocean in 1838, and as the captor of the Confederate States
commissioners, Messrs. Mason and Slidell. He entered the
United States navy in 1841, as a midshipman, graduated
at the United States naval academy, Annapolis, in 1847,
at the head of a class of 135 members, and served in the
Mexican war, participating in the attacks upon Brazos,
Vera Cruz and other services performed by the navy
Resigning in 1854, he made his home at Charlotte and
engaged in mining and manufacturing. At the begin
ning of the rupture between the South and North, he
adhered to the cause of the State with which he had
become identified. In 1858 he had founded what is now
known as the Mecklenburg iron works, and this plant,

JOHN WILKES.

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 799

during the war, was used by the Confederate States gov
ernment in the manufacture of supplies for its navy. He
was also engaged as railroad contractor in the govern
ment service, building that portion of the present South
ern railway system between Greensboro and Danville,
and the road from Raleigh to the Deep River coal fields.
In August, 1865, he organized the First national bank of
Charlotte, N. C., this being the first national bank
organized south of Richmond, Va. , and became its pres
ident, until 1869, when he resigned to take charge of
manufacturing interests, [in which he has always been
largely engaged. Since 1870 he has been the manager of
the Mecklenburg iron works, now the oldest manufactur
ing institution in the State. Captain Wilkes is prominent
in the affairs of the Episcopal church, in Charlotte and in
the diocese of North Carolina, having been at all the
State conventions for forty years, and having represented
the diocese in the general conventions since 1883. He
is now president of the Alumni association of the United
States naval academy, being one of the five oldest gradu
ates therefrom. In 1854 he was married to Miss Jane R.
Smedberg, of New York city, and they have four chil
dren living.

James E. Wilkins, for many years a resident of Wilson,
N. C. , is a native of Virginia, born in Norfolk county, in
1836, and reared at Portsmouth, rendered his military
service for the Confederacy in a Virginia regiment, the
Sixteenth infantry, which was a part of the famous bri
gade of Gen. William Mahone. He served as a private
for some time and afterward, in various capacities, as
sergeant, in command of the ambulance corps, in charge
of men in the pioneer corps, and attached to General
Mahone's headquarters as courier. He participated in a
large number of engagements, in fact missing but one of
those in which Mahone's brigade took part. Among
these were the battles of French's Farm, Malvern Hill,
where he was wounded, disabling him for two months;
Culpeper Court House, Second Manassas, Fredericks-
burg, Chancellorsville, Crampton's Gap, Sharpsburg,
Bristoe Station, the Wilderness and Spottsylvania battles,
Ashland, Petersburg, the fighting in the trenches before
Petersburg, the battle of the Crater, two fights at
Hatcher's Run, and Reams' Station. He was a second

800 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

time wotmded at Crampton's Gap. After the evacua
tion of Richmond he was captured on the retreat to
Appomattox, and sent to Hart's island, Long Island
sound, where he was held as a prisoner until July, 1865
Since the close of hostilities he has been active in the
pursuits of peace, and has prospered in the occupation of
a contractor. By his marriage to Ella Brockett, of Ports
mouth, in 1872, he has five children living: Mary L. ,
William B., James E., Robert P., and Linwood. Mr
Wilkins is a descendant of an old colonial family. His
grandfather, Willis Wilkins, was an officer in the con
tinental army.

Lieutenant Bailey P. Williamson, of Raleigh, one of
the survivors of the Roanoke island battle, entered the
service in April, 1861, from his native county of Meck
lenburg, as a private in the cavalry company of Capt.
T. F. Goode. After about six months' service with this
command he was elected first lieutenant of a company of
infantry, organized in his home county, and commanded
by Capt. R. C. Overbey, which was assigned to the Sec
ond North Carolina battalion, Col. Wharton J Green
He participated in various skirmishes on the Virginia
peninsula with the cavalry, and was with the forces
which defended Roanoke island from the assaults of the
Federal fleet and army in February, 1862. The Second
battalion reached Roanoke island February 8th, after the
fight was practically lost, but had a brisk encounter with
the enemy before they were surrendered Upon being
exchanged, in August, 1862, he rejoined his battalion,
but was soon detailed at Raleigh for the manufacture of
ordnance stores, etc. Occasionally he was called from
this employment for field service. He has had a success
ful business career since the close of the war, has served
three years as chairman of the county board of commis
sioners, aiding in the inauguration of the new road system,
and since 1894 has been president of the Raleigh gas
company.

Lieutenant Charles R. Wilson, of Durham, a gallant
soldier of the Fifty-sixth regiment, Gen. M. W. Ran
som's brigade, Bushrod Johnson's division, was born in
Orange county, March 24, 1838, a son of John W. Wilson
and a descendant of one of the colonial families. He was

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 801

educated at Cedar Grove, and prior to the war was en
gaged in farming. In May, 1862, he enlisted in Company
D of the Fifty-sixth regiment, North Carolina troops, at
that time organized and drilled with the regiment at
Camp Mangum. He was identified with the career of
the regiment during its service in eastern North Caro
lina, protecting the Confederate channels of communica
tion and driving back the numerous parties of raiders
sent out from the Federal posts on the coast. In the
course of this service he took part in the actions at Gum
Swamp, at Wellington on the Weldon railroad, at Suffolk,
Va. , and in the vicinity of New Bern, besides a great
many other skirmishes, which have not been given an
important place in history. In the battle of Plymouth he
was severely wounded, and being carried to the rear
during the action, was taken up in a wagon 'by a friend
and conveyed to Tarboro, where he lay in hospital for
eight months. Rejoining his command, he served under
Beauregard at Drewry's bluff and on the Bermuda Hun
dred line, and was nine months with Bushrod Johnson's
division in the Petersburg trenches. In the spring of
1865 he was taken prisoner at Dinwiddie Court House,
and was held at Johnson's island for a period of two
months and twenty days. Mr. Wilson entered the serv
ice in the rank of lieutenant and served in that capacity
throughout the war. He was a gallant and capable
officer. When the soldiers of the South resumed the
vocations of peace, he returned to the farm and followed
agriculture until 1885, when he made his home in Dur
ham. He was married, in July, 1861, to Lucy M.,
daughter of George Nicholls.

Major James W. Wilson, of Morganton, N. C., was
born in Granville county, the son of Rev. Alexander
Wilson, D. D., a native of Belfast, Ireland, and a grad
uate of the university of Dublin, who died in 1871, after
a celebrated career in this country as an educator. Major
Wilson was educated at the Chapel Hill university,
where he received a master's degree in 1852. Subse
quently he was connected with the engineering corps of
the Western North Carolina railroad, under R. E. Rodes,
afterward a major-general in the Confederate army. In
April, 1 86 1, he was married to Louise Erwin, of McDow
ell county, and almost immediately afterward he began

802 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

the organization of a company, of which he was elected
captain and which was assigned to the Sixth regiment,
North Carolina troops, commanded by Col. Charles F.
Fisher, president of the North Carolina railroad. His
company was organized in the Haw River region of Ala-
mance county, where Captain Wilson had spent his boy
hood days, and was distinguished for its esprit du corps.
Fisher's regiment was the first to re-enlist for the war
and Wilson's was the first company of the regiment to
take this patriotic obligation. Captain Wilson was in
battle at First Manassas, where Colonel Fisher was killed,
and remained in that vicinity until the spring of 1862,
when he participated in the engagements at Williams-
burg and Seven Pines and the Seven Days' campaign
before Richmond. He subsequently took part in the
battles of Second Manassas, at Harper's Ferry was
detailed to bring up the artillery to the summit of Mary
land heights, and at Sharpsburg and Fredericksburg did
gallant duty. Soon afterward he was appointed to the
staff of General Ramseur, and in this capacity he served
at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. After taking part
in the battles of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania Court
House and Cold Harbor and the battles before Peters
burg, until the fall of 1864, he was put in charge of
transportation, at Morganton, N. C., and at the same
time was appointed superintendent of the Western North
Carolina railroad by Governor Vance. In 1876 he was
elected president of this railroad company by a board of
directors appointed by Governor Vance, and in 1880
became chief engineer under the Richmond & Danville
railroad management. The line of the Western North
Carolina railroad, from Old Fort to the western portal of
the Swananoa tunnel, winding as it does through the
steeps of the Blue ridge mountains, is a triumph of engi
neering skill in great part due to the genius of Major
Wilson. Though Mr. McCalla first projected the way, it
was Wilson who overcame all the difficulties, and is justly
entitled to the credit for the magnificent result. In 1887
he became chief engineer of the Knoxville, Cumberland
Gap & Louisville railroad, which he held until 1891,
when he was made chairman of the railroad commission
of North Carolina. At present he is interested in manu
facturing at Weldon and resides in a beautiful home at
Morganton. He has several times represented his

R. E. WILSON

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 803

county in the legislature, is a member of the executive
committee, of the board of trustees of the State university,
and was president of the Western North Carolina hospital
from 1887 to 1891.

Major Reuben Everett Wilson, of Salem, a crippled
Confederate veteran, who has worn the gray ever since
1 86 1, had a particularly noteworthy career in the mil
itary service of the South. He was born in that part of
Stokes county, now called Yadkin, in 1841, and entered
the service May 12, 1861, as a member of the Yadkin
Gray Eagles, a volunteer organization which was sent to
Danville and mustered in as a part of the Eleventh vol
unteers, later known as the Twenty-first regiment, North
Carolina troops. At the reorganization this regiment had
twelve companies, and Companies A and B, to the for
mer of which Major Wilson then belonged with the rank
of lieutenant, were made the nucleus of the First North
Carolina battalion of sharpshooters. This organization
was preserved throughout the war, though it served,
whenever needed, attached to various brigades of Swell's
corps, and at the end Mr. Wilson was in command with
the rank of major. The battalion participated in no less
than twenty-six battles during the war : Bull Run, First
Manassas, First Winchester, Cross Keys, Cold Harbor,
Chaffin's Farm, Slaughter's Mountain, Hazel River,
Manassas Junction, Second Manassas, Chantilly, Har
per's Ferry, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Chancellors-
ville, the Wilderness, Second Winchester, Spottsylvania
Court House, Gettysburg, Mine Run, Batchelder's Creek,
Warsaw, N. C., Newtown, Hatcher's Run, Petersburg,
and Battery 45, before Petersburg — and Major Wilson was
in many of them. He was wounded in the leg and arm
at Hazel River, and in his last fight received a severe
wound in the foot, which caused its amputation after the
war. His battalion had been employed during the win
ter seasons in western North Carolina, and Virginia for
the purpose of intercepting deserters, and on the charge
of having shot some of these, he was re-arrested after his
parole at Appomattox, and sent to the Virginia penitenti
ary, where, and at Raleigh penitentiary, he was held until
December, 1865, the only other Confederates imprisoned
at that time being President Davis and Major Gee, of
Florida. Finally, on being given a trial, he was dis-

Nc 74

804 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

charged. Since then Major Wilson has been a citizen of
Winston, and after a long business career is now retired
from active life. Our subject has now in his possession
the flag of his company, which he treasures above all else.
This flag was made of silk, contributed from the silk
dresses of the young ladies of Yadkin county, N. C.

James Madison Winston, of Franklin county, a veteran
of the Fifteenth regiment, North Carolina troops, was
born in the county where he now resides, March 31, 1840,
and was there reared and educated. His military service
began on June 3, 1861, as a private in Company C, Fif
teenth North Carolina infantry. On being ordered to
Virginia, he served on the peninsula and shared the dis
tinguished duty of his regiment in the fight at Dam
No. i on the York town lines, April 16, 1862, where his
colonel, Robert M. McKinney, was killed. The courage
and determined fighting of the regiment were highly com
mended by General Magruder, under whose general com
mand the operations in that quarter were conducted.
His next battle was at South mountain, during the cam
paign in Maryland, where his regiment, in Gen. T. R. R.
Cobb's brigade, lost heavily. In the bloody battle of
Sharpsburg he was also in an important part of the field,
in active righting, as well as at Shepherdstown. At
Fredericksburg he fought in J. R. Cooke's brigade on
Marye's hill. Other engagements in which he took part
were Chancellorsville, Malvern Hill and Reams' Station.
After fighting in the trenches, during the siege of Peters
burg, he was captured April 2, 1865, on the abandonment
of the Confederate lines, and was taken to Point Look
out, where he was held until finally paroled, June 22,
1865. Throughout his career he fully sustained the hon
orable fame of his regiment and the high reputation of
the Confederate soldier. Since the war he has mainly
been engaged in farming, with considerable success, and
now makes his home at Youngsville. He was married,
in 1866, to. Elizabeth Wilson, who died in 1875, and in
1882 to Ida T. Ezell, of Granville. His children living
are five sons and three daughters.

Joseph A. Witherspoon, of Newton, N. C. , was born in
Catawba county, October i, 1843, and enlisted from that
county in July, 1862, as a private in Company E of the

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 805

Fifty-seventh North Carolina regiment, Col. A. C. God
win. With the gallant record of this command he was
thoroughly identified until the close of hostilities. He
participated in the successful and brilliant charge of the
regiment at Fredericksburg, on the Bowling Green road,
was in the battle of Chancellorsville, where General Hoke
commanded the brigade, shared in the defeat of Milroy
at Winchester, at Gettysburg took part in the bloody fight
of the first day, was among the heroes who won the
splendid victory at Plymouth, N. C., defended Peters
burg against Butler, with Early marched through Mary
land and fought before the forts at Washington, was in
the Shenandoah Valley campaign of 1864, and afterward
fought in the trenches at Petersburg. During the daring
attack upon the Federal works on Hare's hill, March 25,
1865, he was captured. Previously he had had the same
experience, having fallen into the enemy's hands on the
Rappahannock river in the fall of 1863, which resulted
in two months' imprisonment at Point Lookout, and he
now made another unpleasant visit at that place, which did
not end until June 29, 1865. Upon being paroled he
returned to his home and engaged in farming, which he
has followed with much success. During the past five
years he has held the office of storekeeper and ganger in
the United States internal revenue service.

Cyrus H. Wolfe, of Mecklenburg county, a veteran of
the Fifty-third regiment, North Carolina troops, was born
in the county of which he is now a resident, February
1 8, 1842, the son of John and Eliza M. (Howie) Wolfe.
His parents were both natives of Union county, N. C.,
his father's family being from Pennsylvania and origin
ally of Irish origin, his mother of Scotch descent. Three
sons of these parents, besides Cyrus, were in the Confed
erate service, two of whom, Elam and Henry, were killed,
the former at Hanover Court House, the latter at Gettys
burg. William L. , who survived, is a resident of Meck
lenburg county. Cyrus H. enlisted in March, 1862, in
Company B of the Fifty-third regiment, Daniel's bri
gade, and was with this gallant command throughout its
distinguished career to the end of the struggle. After
the battle of Gettysburg he became a member of the
regimental band and served in that capacity during the
remainder of the war, from the Rapidan to the James,

Nc 75

806 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

about Petersburg, and thence to Appomattox, where he
was surrendered. Then returning to Mecklenburg
county, he gave his attention to agriculture, his present
occupation. He is a member of Mecklenburg camp, and
for twenty years has served as magistrate. He has six
children living by his marriage, in 1867, to Jennie,
daughter of James McHunter, of Huntersville. Her
family is one of the oldest in the county. The children
are: Sue Eliza, who married Dr. J. McDeamond;
Blanche Maria, married D. C. More; John McKnight,
a graduate of Davidson college ; Harlan, a graduate of
the Charlotte commercial college ; Myrtle M. , a student
in the Charlotte female college, and Flynn, yet in school.
They have lost two sons, both promising youths, who at
the time of death were students in military schools.

James H. Wood, a prosperous farmer of Franklin
county, and a survivor of the Sixty-sixth regiment, North
Carolina State troops, was born in the county of which
he is now a prominent citizen, in the year 1840. He
entered the military service as a private in a volunteer
company, which became Company B of the Sixty-sixth
regiment, in December, 1861, and was on duty with his
command in the State during the next two years. In
the fall of 1863 his regiment, under the command of Col.
A. Duncan Moore, became a part of the brigade organ
ized by Gen. James G. Martin, and went into camp for
drill near Wilmington, and subsequently participated in
the operations under Major-General Hoke. In May,
1864, he was with his brigade under General Whiting,
taking part in Beauregard's famous defense of the Ber
muda Hundred line against Butler. On May 2oth, at the
Howlett house, under the division command of D. H.
Hill, the Sixty-sixth was the center of the brigade line
and won the admiration of all by its coolness in halting
and dressing on its colors under fire, when it was found
too far in advance. After this the brigade was in Gen
eral Hoke's division, and at Cold Harbor, Private Wood
was one of the heroes of the Sixty-sixth who held the
line against repeated assaults, although the Virginia
forces on their immediate right were driven back. Here
the regiment lost its colonel, the gallant Moore. Private
Wood fought through the June battles before Petersburg,
continued on the Petersburg and Richmond lines until

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 807

December, and then, under the brigade command of
General Kirkland, participated in the attempted relief of
Fort Fisher. He was in the gallant fight at Wise's fork
and the last battle of Johnston's army at Bentonville,
and was surrendered at Greensboro. Since then Mr.
Wood has been successfully engaged in farming in
Franklin county. By his marriage, April 8, 1878, to
Miss Pemy Smith, of Wilson county, who died in 1895, he
has four children living: James Franklin, William Wil
son, Carrie Barnes, and Mary Lily.

James K. Wood, of Oxford, N. C., a veteran of the
naval service of the Confederate States, was born at
Oxford July 31, 1844, a son of James M. Wood, who was
a member of the Senior reserves of North Carolina and
is yet living (1898) at Berea, Granville county. In 1862
Mr. Wood entered the Confederate States service on
board the ironclad North Carolina, and was on duty with
this vessel about two years. Subsequently he was at
tached to the ironclad Raleigh, under the command of
Lieut. Pembroke Jones. He was on board the Raleigh
when she steamed out of Cape Fear river, in May, 1864,
escorting blockade-runners. She drove several Federal
vessels out to sea, but on her return up the river stuck
upon the bar and went to pieces. After this Mr. Wood
was on duty on a battery below Fort Fisher, on the North
Carolina until she went to pieces, later in the Battery
Cameron, near Wilmington, and after the evacuation of
that city was on duty at Drewry's bluff until the aban
donment of the Confederate capital. He was a member
of the party under command of Col. John Taylor
Wood, which, in the early part of February, 1864, made
a night assault upon the United States steamer Under
writer in the Neuse river, at New Bern, N. C. The sur
prise and capture of this Federal vessel was one of the
most daring exploits of the war and elicited a joint res
olution of thanks from the Confederate Congress. Since
the close of hostilities Mr. Wood has been very success
fully engaged in business at Oxford, and is a highly re
spected and influential citizen.

William P. Wootten, of Wilson, N. C. , a devoted sol
dier of the Confederacy, was born in Wayne county in
1844, and was reared from the age of twelve years at Wil-

808 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

son, by his widowed mother. He entered the service in
April, 1 86 1, as a private in Company P, Fourth regi
ment, North Carolina State troops. The regiment was
re-enlisted in June, 1861, under Col. George B. Ander
son, and, under his training became one of the best in
the army of Northern Virginia. Private Wootten served
with the regiment at Yorktown and Williamsburg, and
at Seven Pines, received a wound in the left arm which
disabled him for three months. He then took part in the
battles of Frederick sburg, Chancellorsville, three days
of fighting at Gettysburg, and the Bristoe campaign.
After going through the battles of the Wilderness, he
was frightfully wounded at Spottsylvania Court House,
a shot plowing through his left thigh, leaving a wound
twelve inches long. He was at home disabled for about
104 days, and when he returned to the field, found his
command on the Petersburg lines. He went with the
reinforcements to Early and fought at Winchester, Sep
tember 19, 1864, and was captured and confined at Point
Lookout until November, when he was exchanged at
Fort Pulaski, Ga. Again returning to the field, he
served in the Petersburg trenches, and on the retreat,
fought at High Bridge, where he was severely wounded
in the right thigh by an explosive bullet. He was carried
in an ambulance to Appomattox and there paroled. He
did not recover from this last wound for four months.
During the last two years of the war Mr. Wootten held
the rank of sergeant. Since then he has been equally
devoted and persistent in the occupations of peace, and
is now one of the prosperous business men of Wilson.
He was married, in 1866, to Mary Polk, daughter of
Thomas Perry, of the Confederate States army, and they
have three children : Edwin R., Charles D. , and George R.
A brother of the foregoing, John H. Wootten, served in
the North Carolina cavalry and lost his life at Petersburg,
leaving a wife, whose maiden name was Louisa Sykes,
and three children : John, Carrie and Anna.

Lieutenant Joshua Granger Wright, a prominent busi
ness man of Wilmington, N. C., and a native of that
city, born in 1840, is the only survivor of four brothers
who served in the cause of Southern independence as
members of the army of Northern Virginia. He first
enlisted for military duty in the spring of 1862, becom-

CONFEDERA TE MILITARY HISTORY. 809

ing the orderly-sergeant of an independent cavalry com
pany. But he was with this command not more than
four or five weeks when he became a member of the First
North Carolina infantry, which had been on duty in Vir
ginia since July, 1861. In this regiment he was commis
sioned first lieutenant of Company E. The regiment
was part of Ripley's brigade, D. H. Hill's division, and
served with great credit in the battles of Boonsboro or
South Mountain, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg and Chan
cellors ville, during Lieutenant Wright's connection with
it At the last battle, while participating in the gallant
assault by Jackson's corps, he was seriously wounded, a
shot passing through his left hip. This caused his entire
disability until the spring of 1864, when he attempted
to re-enter the service, but soon found it impossible to
undertake duty on the field. Then returning to Wil
mington, he was assigned to duty in the office of the
provost-marshal for several months. He made two more
attempts to serve in the field, without success, the last
bringing him to the vicinity of Raleigh en route to Lee's
army, when he received the news of its surrender. The
brothers of Lieutenant Wright in the service were James
Allen Wright, captain of Company I, First North Caro
lina regiment, killed at Games' Mill, 1862; Thomas
H. Wright, who was orderly-sergeant of a company of
the Thirty-seventh North Carolina (Col. W. M. Barbour),
was fatally wounded at the Wilderness, May, 1864, and
died in hospital at Richmond; and Adam E. Wright,
who served as surgeon in the Confederate army during
the entire war, under Surg. -Gen. Edward Warren.

Henry Lawson Wyatt, the first Confederate soldier to
be killed in battle, was a private of the Edgecombe
Guards, Company A, First regiment, North Carolina vol
unteers. He was born in Richmond, Va., February
12, 1842, the son of Isham and Lucinda Wyatt, who
removed to Pitt county, N. C., in 1856. Young Wyatt
was one of the first to enlist under the governor's
call of April, 1861, abandoning his work as a carpenter
at Tarboro to become a private in the Edgecombe Guards,
under Capt. John L. Bridgers. Fifty-four days after
he was mustered in he was killed in battle, at the age of
twenty years, and was buried near the foot of the Corn-
wallis monument, Yorktown, Va. On the Northern side

810 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

the battle of Big Bethel was made memorable by the
death of the gallant Major Winthrop at the head of his
men. This famous engagement of June 10, 1861, so far
as Confederate infantry was concerned, was fought mainly
by the First North Carolina regiment, under its gallant
officers, Col. D. H. Hill, Lieut -Col. Charles C. Hill, and
Maj. James H. Lane. Near the close of the fight, after
the enemy was worsted, Colonel Hill asked Captain
Bridgers to have a house burned in their front, between
the lines, which he feared would be used as a shelter by
the enemy. The captain called for five volunteers, who
promptly stepped forward, and jumping over the low
breastworks, started on a run for the house, Corp. George
W. Williams leading, followed in order by Thomas
Fallen, John H. Thorp, Henry L. Wyatt, and R. H.
Bradley. Upon observing this, shots were fired upon
the squad by the rear guard of the enemy in the woods to
our left front. All the party fell to the ground, as they
had been drilled to do for protection, but Wyatt dropped
with a mortal wound through the head. He did not
move again, though he did not cease to breathe until he
was put in the ambulance to return to Yorktown that
night, some four or five hours after he was shot. After
Wyatt fell, the squad was ordered back and the house
was burned by shelling it. A life-size painting of this
young hero is now among the treasures of the library of
the capitol of the State which is honored by his memory.

Colonel James M. Wynn, a gallant cavalry soldier of
the North Carolina troops, was born at Barfields, Hert
ford county, October 12, 1834. He was educated at St.
Paul's college, Long Island, N. Y., and at St. Timothy's
hall, a military school near Baltimore, Md., where he was
a schoolmate of Fitzhugh Lee. His education was com
pleted at the university of North Carolina. In the
spring of 1861 he entered enthusiastically into the work
of organizing the military forces of the State, and raised
in Hertford county a portion of a company, the other
portion being raised in Gates county by John Booth, of
which the latter was elected captain and he first lieuten
ant. This was known as Company C, Second North Car
olina cavalry, and went into camp of instruction at
Kittrell. Lieutenant Wynn retained that rank about two
years, but during much of that time had command of

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 811

his squadron, both captains being disabled by wounds
received within a few days of each other, and from which
they never fully recovered. In the spring of 1863 he was
promoted to captain, and soon after was commissioned
colonel and assigned to command of the Fifteenth
cavalry battalion, North Carolina State troops, the rank
in which he served during the remainder of the war. A
great part of his service was on special or detached duty.
Among the battles in which he participated were
Fredericksburg, Brandy Station, and he was with Long-
street when he invested Suffolk, Va. He was selected to
lead the charge at Washington, N. C. , and in many skir
mishes evinced the traits of a gallant soldier. After the
surrender of the army of Northern Virginia, he repaired
to Franklinton, where his family had taken refuge, and
in the following November he took up his residence on
his plantation, " Petty 's Shore," on the Chowan river,
in Hertford county. In January, 1874, he made his resi
dence at Murfreesboro, and ten years later established a
mercantile business there, which he still manages in
addition to his agricultural interests. While still in the
service he was elected to the State senate of 1862-63, and
during the session of the legislature he spent the winter
at Raleigh. In February, 1865, he was married to
Jennie Brown, of King George county, Va. Their chil
dren living are, Mary Waller, Jennie Brown, Thomas
Buckner, Lucy Donnally, John Southall, William Douglas
and Maude Louise.

Charles W. Yates, of Wilmington, was born in Guilford
county, N. C., in 1839, and removing to Rockingham
county in 1860, there enlisted in 1862, in an independent
cavalry company organized from several counties, which
became Company E of the Forty-first regiment, North
Carolina troops. During nearly the whole of his service
he acted as courier for Col. John A. Baker and his suc
cessor, Col. Roger Moore. Among the cavalry engage
ments in which he took part were those at New Bern,
Kinston, Hanover Court House, Reams' Station, Ash
land, Chaffin's farm, Drewry's bluff and Petersburg.
He was slightly wounded in the skirmish near Kinston,
and just after the fall of New Bern in June, 1862, was
captured and imprisoned in a jail at that place several
months, and afterward held nearly two months at Gov-

812 CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

ernor's island and Fort Delaware, then being exchanged.
During the retreat to Appomattox Court House he was
captured in the fight at Namozine church, April 6th, and
after that was a prisoner of war at Point Lookout until
June, 1865. Mr. Yates has been in business at Wilming
ton since 1870, and has served as alderman of the city.

Major Robert S. Young, of the Seventh regiment,
North Carolina troops, killed while on duty at Petersburg,
Va., was born at Concord, Cabarrus county, January 20,
1821, the son of Joseph and Mary (Simonton) Young.
After his education had been completed at Bingham's
high school, he gave his attention to the management of
his plantations in North Carolina and Texas, until 1861,
when he returned from the latter State at the alarm of
war and organized Company B of the Seventh North
Carolina regiment, in May and June. Elected captain at
the organization of his company, he led his command to
the camp of instruction at Graham, and thence to the
coast, where his regiment was assigned to the brigade of
General Branch, and participated in the battle of New
Bern. In May, 1862, Branch's brigade was ordered to
Virginia and attached to the army of Northern Virginia,
in which it had a splendid career. At the battle of
Games' Mill, Captain Young was distinguished, leading
his men in a gallant charge at a critical moment, and
Colonel Campbell being killed in the same fight, he was
promoted major. During the Maryland campaign he was
taken sick, and left at Frederick City, where he was cap
tured by the enemy. He was imprisoned at Fort Dela
ware until the following spring, when he returned home,
his health so much impaired that he was no longer fit for
duty in the field. About a year later he was appointed
inspector-general on the staff of Gen. R. F. Hoke, with
whom he served at Drewry's bluff, Cold Harbor and
Petersburg, until killed July 8, 1864, by a Federal sharp
shooter, near the iron bridge over the Appomattox, near
Petersburg. By his first marriage Major Young had one
son, John Phifer Young, born July 2, 1845, who, at the age
of fifteen, entered the military institute at Charlotte, aud
in the following spring went to Raleigh with the cadets
and served as a drill-master until Company B of the
Seventh regiment was organized, when he became first
sergeant, and was soon promoted to brevet second lieuten-

CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. 813

ant. After participating in the battle of New Bern he
accompanied his brigade to Virginia, and was captured
in the battle of Frayser's Farm, but soon afterward ex
changed, so that he was enabled to participate in the
Manassas and Maryland campaigns with promotion to
second lieutenant. After the battle of Fredericksburg,
upon the resignation of his ranking officers, he was pro
moted captain, the capacity in which he had served for
some time previous. When commissioned he was but sev
enteen years and eight months old, and it is believed that
he was the youngest captain in the Confederate States
service. In the first day's fighting under Jackson at Chan-
cellorsville he was distinguished for bravery, and was
given the honor of conducting to headquarters 250 prison
ers, captured by his regiment, but he survived the loss
of his great commander but one day, falling in the des
perate battle of Sunday, May 3d. Major Young's second
marriage, December 8, 1846, was to Sarah Virginia Bur
ton, who was born September 2, 1827, in Lincoln county,
daughter of Alfred Moore Burton, a lawyer, and his wife
Elizabeth, daughter of John Fulenwider, a native of
Switzerland. Her grandfather was Robert Burton, a
colonel of Washington's army, and member of the con
tinental congress, two of whose brothers were killed in
the battle of Princeton. Mrs. Young is now living at
Charlotte, and has five children living, one of whom,
Alfred Burton Young, served as a courier for Major-Gen-
eral Hoke and now resides at Concord. Mrs. Elizabeth
Williams Hoyle, a sister of Mrs. Young, who lives with
her, lost her only son in the Confederate service, Alfred
E. Hoyle, a private of Company K, Twenty-third regi
ment, who was killed in the battle of Seven Pines.

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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY

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