282 Norra Carornina Troops, 1861-’65.

ready for regimental inspection. We remained at this camp
for several days.

We left Weldon in the early part of April and reached
Plymouth, N. C., about the 15th, and began the siege of that
place. There were about 3,500 Yankees here, under the
command of General Wessell, strongly fortified by a
series of breastworks and forts, well mounted, with nearly two
hundred heavy siege guns, which would seem to make the
place well nigh invulnerable to an equal number of troops as
the assaulting party.

General Hoke established his lines on the upper town or
river, and Ransom’s Brigade on the south or front part of the
town, all under the command of Hoke. On the 18th, Ran-
som was ordered to assault the works in front of the town
which, by the way, was that part of the work that embraced
the three principal forts and could not be carried by an as-
sault made directly in front.

Preparatory to making this assault the Twenty-fourth Reg-
iment was drawn up in line of battle in a skirt of woods, some
three-quarters of a mile from the enemy’s works, and a de-
tail made, to intercept and drive back the enemy’s sharpshoot-
ers, posted some two hundred yards in front of us in the open
field. Our line advanced about half the distance, when the
firing commenced, and we can truthfully say, that this was
the finest work of the kind we ever saw, our lines steadily
advancing, while the enemy’s retreated into the forts.

The Twenty-fourth Regiment followed the line of skirmish-
ers to within a short distance of the forts, where we were
halted and ordered to lie down in a deep ravine. At this mo-
ment (dark) all the artillery on both sides, that could be
brought to bear was in full play, and from then until a late
hour at night it was a sublime, as it was also an awful scene,
to watch the transition of the bursting shells, dealing death
and destruction on every hand. The light caused by the
vivid flash of the cannon and the explosion of shells, made
it sufficient at times to have picked up a pin from the earth.
In this assault our casualties were comparatively light, con-
sidering how terriffic was this artillery duel.

We withdrew late at night, and the next day Ransom’s Bri-

 

TweEnty-FourtH REGIMENT. 283

gade was sent around in rear of the town on the river to make
the assault from below. Company E, of the Twenty-fourth,
was thrown forward as skirmishers and to find out, if possi-
ble, if the bridge at the creek had been burned. As we have
before stated in this sketch, the writer was acting as courier
from the skirmish line to General Ransom’s headquarters. It
was now night, and I had delivered a message from Captain
Lane, in charge of the skirmishers, to General Ransom, with
regard to the force of the enemy at the creek, when Lieuten-
ant Applewhite, of Texas, and acting as aid to General Ran-
som, was standing by and asked permission to take “this
man” (myself), and go to the creek and ascertain if the bridge
had been burned. Ransom at first objected, but finally
yielded, and Applewhite and myself set out, but did not go
far before we met General Dearing, of our cavarly, and one
other man.

On learning that we were going to the creek, Dearing and
his man joined us and we four soon stood on the bank of the
creek. The bridge had been burned and a small boat was on
the opposite side. Dearing asked who would swim the creek
and get the boat, and no sooner said than the man we did not
know was across the creek and had the boat. The enemy, as
we soon learned, was about forty paces from us behind breast-
works. The man that swam the creek, we have learned since
the war was Cavenaugh, from Onslow county. It was a
brave deed, and we mention it simply to show the material
that composed the Southern army, then around Plymouth,
and no doubt there were hundreds of equally brave spirits
in that unequal contest, some of whom fell that night and the
next morning in the storming of this strong citadel.

Captain Lane, with Company E, of the Twenty-fourth,
now arrived at the creek, and soon after a pontoon was fixed
and Lane and his company went across to the Yankee side.
When he gave the order to forward, the enemy poured into
them a heavy fire from behind breastworks, wounding several
of Lane’s men. Lane, however, maintained his ground until
reinforcements arrived, which was about ten minutes later,
when the Yankees fled.

We followed on to a hedgerow about one thousand yards
from the main forts, when Company E held the skirmish