308 Chronicles of the Cape Fear River

In August, 1863, Roger Moore, a descendant of “King”
Roger Moore, was appointed major of the Third Cavalry. He
was a brave soldier, maintaining the honor of his ancestors upon
the field. In August, 1864, when Colonel Waddell resigned,
Major Moore became commanding officer of the regiment, which
was looked upon as a bulwark of protection for the railroad
from Weldon to Wilmington and of all that portion of thirty
counties east of it which was not in the hands of the enemy.
Protecting the villages and settlements from forays, guarding the
cross-roads and bridges, and checking the approach of the enemy
whenever he advanced beyond his gunboats, this regiment daily
and hourly did service of vital importance. In 1864 the regi-
ment was ordered to Virginia and took part in the brilliant
attack on Reams Station, August 25, 1864, following which
General Lee wrote to Governor Vance: “If those men who
remain in North Carolina have the spirit of those sent to the
field, as I doubt not they have, her defense may be securely
entrusted to their hands.”

John Grange Ashe entered the Confederate service in April,
1861, as lieutenant under Gen. Braxton Bragg, at Pensacola.
He was appointed acting adjutant general to Gen. Robert Ran-
som in June, 1862, and later in the same year was made major
of sharpshooters. He also participated in the Red River cam-
paign with Gen. Dick Taylor, in 1864. He died in Texas in
1867. |

William S. Ashe was appointed major quartermaster July 17,
1861, and colonel quartermaster, September 25, 1861. He had
in charge all Confederate transportation east of the Mississippi
River. Desiring more active service, in the summer of 1862
he was authorized by President Davis to raise a legion of artil-
lery, cavalry, and infantry, but before he had been able to do so,
he was killed in a railroad accident in September, 1862.

Dr. Alexander Ashe served as assistant surgeon in the Con-
federate Navy. He died in Texas, 1866.

Samuel A. Ashe was appointed lieutenant of artillery on
April 17, 1861, by Major Whiting, who had assumed command
of the Cape Fear defenses, and in May was commissioned by the
State. Although all North Carolina staff appointments ceased
on the transfer of our troops to the Confederacy on August 20,
1861, he and Capt. John C. Winder continued at their work
until November, when he was relieved. Captain Ashe then
joined, as a volunteer, Company I, Kighth Regiment, at the

The War Between the States 309

front at Coosawhatchie, S. C.; and later enlisted regularly as a
private in that company. But in December, the President ap-
pointed him in the Regular Army, and in March, 1862, the
commission came to him through Gen. R. E. Lee, then ecommand-
ing at the South. He was assigned to duty at the Charleston
arsenal, where he remained until the middle of July, when he
was appointed acting adjutant general to General Pender, and
joined Pender’s brigade in Virginia. The night following the
Battle of Second Manassas, he fell into the enemy’s hands and
was confined in the Old Capitol Prison until October, when he
was exchanged. In November he was assigned to duty with
General Clingman’s brigade, and in July, 1863, became ord-
nance officer of Battery Wagner, and continued so until the fall
of that fort in September, when he was ordered to the arsenal at
Fayetteville, where he served as assistant to the commanding
officer until the end of the war. On the day General Johnston
surrendered, Captain Ashe’s chief, General Gorgas, at Char-
lotte, in the most appreciative terms gave him orders to join him
across the Mississippi, but later told him he could go home and

govern himself according to circumstances.

At the election in 1870, he was elected a representative from
New Hanover and became a very active member of the Legisla-
ture, chairman of the Finance Committee, and leading member
of the Judiciary and other committees. In 1874 he edited at
Raleigh a daily paper, the Hvening Crescent, which probably
did more than any other one instrumentality in bringing about
the redemption of the State, the Democratic majority that year
being 12,000. In 1879 he purchased the Observer, and in 1881
he consolidated the News with it, founding the News and Ob-
server, of which he was editor until 1894. In 1903 he became
editor of a Biographical History of North Carolina, of which
seven volumes have been printed, and in 1908, his History of
North Carolina (1584-1783) was published.

Col. John Wilder Atkinson entered the service of the Confed-
erate States in 1861 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 occasion to mention his services in
his official report. He was then promoted to be major and trans-
ferred to the Nineteenth Virginia Regiment of Artillery. To
this the Tenth Virginia was added in 1863, and he was pro-