224 Norra Carornina Troops, 1861-’65.

There is a great gap in the Southern part of the War Rec-
ords covering the first Maryland campaign. The Confeder-
ate reports were either lost or destroyed in that fortnight of
strenuous marching and fighting. The casualties of the reg-
iment at Sharpsburg, as at South Mountain, will never be ac-
curately known. Captain Wall’s estimate of about 45
wounded and 20 killed is believed to be right. Captain A. fy
Cole, Company D, and Captain Wesley Hedspeth, Company
E, are the only two officers given in Moore’s Roster as having
been wounded, though there were almost certain twice or
three times that many. Few soldiers in any war have ever
been killed under the same circumstances as W. C. Watkins,
of Company A. This man had been discharged as not physi-
eally able to serve. But wishing to take part in one more bat-
tle, he remained and fought at Sharpsburg, and fell and was
found dead with the discharge in his pocket.

THE RETURN TO VIRGINIA.

McClellan’s desperate and repeated attempts to pierce and

shatter the Confederate lines, had been substantially foiled.
But Sharpsburg proved to us but a pyrrhic victory at best.
Lee with less than 30,000, could not afford victories bought at
the expense of 10,000 men, even if it inflicted a loss of 15,000
on the enemy. Holding his lines undisturbed through the
18th, he withdrew that night across the Potomac, near Shep-
herdstown. Just as the last of our own army crossed the
enemy appeared and a brush occurred, but they did not press
us closely till the next day, when we turned and drove them
back with fearful loss.

After returning to Virginia, our command lay encamped
till late in October along the Opequon, not far from its battle
ground of 19 September, 1864. The region was one of great
thrift and plenty. The long rest was exceedingly grateful to
our weary and°foot-sore men. During this campaign an in-
trepid deed was performed near Bunker Hill by Frank Bow-
ers, of Company A. He was then driving an ammunition
wagon drawn by six mules. The jolting over the rough road
exploded one of the shells in his wagon and others rapidly
followed. Few men would have hesitated at instant flight.

TWENTY-THIRD REGIMENT. 225

No man could have been expected to do otherwise. But Bow-
ers was one of that heroic mold which never abandons a trust
or aduty. With marvellous presence of mind and courage,
he sprang to the ground, unhitched the team, and escaped
with them all unhurt from the verge of the volcano of bursting
shells. Yet history vouchsafes this gallant fellow but the
i of two words, one of them abbreviated to a single letter.
k, Gettysburg.” (Killed at Gettysburg. )

Here the army was recruited and reorganized. The Twen-
ty-third received its share of recruits. What was more im-
portant, it was strengthened by the return of many of its mem-
bers who had recovered from wounds and diseases. Colonel
Alfred Iverson, of the Twentieth North Carolina, was, after
Sharpsburg, commissioned Brigadier-General and assumed
command of the brigade. The Thirteenth Regiment was
about this time transferred to Seales’ Brigade, leaving bri-
gaded with us the Fifth, Twelfth and Twentieth

In November came the march southeast to Fredericksburg.
The following incident—a trifling flotsam of memory—oc-
eurring in this month, will illustrate the humorous side of a
soldier’s life. One of the Staff officers of the regiment, for
slightly overstaying a leave to visit some ladies was, as was
the usage, placed under arrest by Colonel Christie. Now an
officer under arrest must march in the rear of the regiment,
and cannot address his superior officer except in writing. This
incompetency to address the Colonel would have been without
complications except for the fact that the weather was cold
and the above officer and the Colonel were bed-fellows and
slept on a very narrow bunk. Now not even a Confederate
soldier was willing that all the freezing that fell to his lot
should be endured by one half of his body. So an oceasional
turning of the frozen side in was a sine qua non. But a lux-
ury of this kind could be safely obtained only by co-opera-
tion—there must be a simultaneous action of both occupants
of the bunk or dire consequence might follow. For co-opera-
tion communication is essential. Written communication in
the dark was impossible. Finally after long consultation
with two other officers in the same tent—the Colonel remain-

15