A RR A A RR ee er fi are 5

306 Chromcles of the Cape Fear Rwer

was returned to North Carolina with General Holmes’s division,
and was afterwards detached and sent to the Cape Fear and
stationed at fortifications on the river.

In March, 1862, Captain Hall was made colonel of the Forty-
sixth Regiment, organized at Camp Mangum near Raleigh.
Ordered to Virginia, this regiment bore a conspicuous part in
the Battle of Sharpsburg, calling forth from the division com-
mander especial mention of its gallant colonel and staff for
distinguished bravery and coolness under fire. During that day
the regiment occupied several positions of importance and great
danger, and on every occasion it exhibited that steadiness and
coolness which characterized its record. In October, at Bristow
Station, General Cooke fell, and the command of the brigade
devolved on Colonel Hall. An unequal struggle was waged,
and disaster was averted only by Colonel Hall’s skillful manage-
ment of his command. Late in 1863, Colonel Hall resigned to
accept a civil office in North Carolina, and the regiment lost its
brilliant commander, a brave man, a good disciplinarian, a most
valuable and efficient officer. It was with much regret that his
regiment bade him farewell.

Alexander Duncan Moore, who at first commanded a battery
of light artillery from Wilmington, was made colonel of the
Sixty-sixth Regiment, organized in August, 1863. Colonel
Moore had been at West Point and was a brilliant young officer
of remarkable appearance and soldierly bearing. The Sixty-
sixth was ordered to Virginia in May, 1864, where, in “‘its first
baptism of fire on the 15th of May, its gallantry was conspicu-
ous and favorably commented upon by commanding officers.” A
series of battles followed, and on the 3d of June, 1864, Colonel
Moore was mortally wounded, a ball striking him in the neck.
The memory of his heroic courage was ever after present with
the officers and men of his command, and comments were made
upon his gallantry and the soldierly qualities he always ex-
hibited.

In the attack on Petersburg Colonel Moore was told that his
regiment was advancing too rapidly ahead of the right and left,
and he was directed to preserve the alignment. On receiving
this order, Colonel Moore seized his colors, planted the staff
upon the ground, and lifted his sword in the air above his head,

the well known signal; his command halted and dressed on the ©

colors, until the regiments on the right and left came upon the

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The War Between the States 307

same line—then, with a yell, all three sprang forward and
rushed upon the enemy. The movement was successful and the

foe retreated.

George Tait, of Bladen County, who was elected major of
the Eighth Regiment in July, 1861, resigned his commission,
and was, with Company K, of the Fortieth Regiment, stationed
at a battery near Federal Point Lighthouse. On the Ist of
December, 1863, when the Fortieth Regiment was organized as
Third Artillery, Captain Tait was appointed lieutenant colonel.
In January, 1865, he resigned this commission to take one as
colonel of the Sixty-ninth North Carolina Regiment. Colonel
Tait was a fine disciplinarian. He remained detached from the
Fortieth Regiment after it had been formed in order to train,
drill, and discipline the officers and men of the Thirty-sixth ;
and then he drilled and disciplined the Fortieth, which was

afterwards pronounced by the inspector general, Colonel Tan-
sill, “the best drilled regiment of Confederate soldiers” that he

had ever seen. Ege
Colonel Tait was a good and brave officer and in his rank had

no superior.

Maj. James Dillard Radcliffe, then connected with the Engi-
neer Department of the Cape Fear defenses, was elected colonel
of the Eighth Regiment of Volunteers, on its first organization
in 1861. Colonel Radcliffe, who had been principal of a mili-
tary school in Wilmington for several years previous to the war,
was an excellent drillmaster and disciplinarian, and soon had
the regiment well drilled. On the reorganization in 1862, the
regiment then being the Eighteenth State Troops, he was not re-
elected ; but he became colonel of the Sixty-first Regiment when

it was organized, in August, 1862.

Alfred M. Waddell, lieutenant colonel of the Forty-first Regi-
ment (Third Cavalry) was a scion of one of the old and vener-
ated families of the Cape Fear. He was commissioned lieu-
tenant colonel in August, 1863, having previously served as
adjutant. His regiment was scattered over an extended field of
Operations, and operated as detached cavalry, or partisan ran-
gers. In August, 1864, Colonel Waddell resigned, After the
war, as long as he lived, he always used his brilliant talent and
eloquence in behalf of his comrades and his fellow-citizens of

the Cape Fear.