340 Norra Carottna Troops, 1861-65.

to carry the place. Three 20-pound Parrott guns relied upon
to destroy the gunboats guarding the water approaches to
New Bern, proved utterly worthless. One burst, the ammu-
nition was defective and their fire proved more injurious to
the Confederates than to the enemy. There was nothing to
do but to withdraw. “The only question,” says General Pet-
tigrew in his report, “was whether I should carry the works
before withdrawing. The Twenty-sixth Regiment had been
in waiting ever since daylight, and would have done it in five
minutes. The works we could not hold. There would be a
probable loss of a certain number of men sixty miles from a.
hospital. I decided against it. Tt cost me a struggle after
so much labor and endurance to give up the eclat, but I felt
that my duty to my country required me to save my men for
some operation in which sacrifice would be followed by conse-
quences. I therefore withdrew the whole command except
the Twenty-sixth Regiment, which remained within about
500 yards of the place, in order to cover the withdrawal of
Captain Whitford’s men. I cannot refrain from bearing tes-

timony to the unsurpassed military good conduct of those
under me. In seven days they marched 127 miles; waded
swamps, worked in them by night and day, bivouaced in the
rain, some times without fire, never enjoyed a full night’s rest
after the first, besides undergoing a furious shelling, and
discharging other duties. All this without murmuring or
even getting sick.”

It was not long before General Pettigrew had another
chance at the enemy, in which he was more fortunate. Gen-
eral Hill, with all his available forces, on 30 March, 1863,
invested General Foster in Washington, N. ©. On 9 April,
1863, at Blount’s Creek, Pettigrew’s brigade met and defeated
General Spinola in the latter’s attempt to raise the siege.
Finding it impossible to capture the place after the enemy’s
gun boats had succeeded in passing the batteries at Rodman’s
Point, and thus reinforcing General Foster, after fourteen
days investment, General Hill withdrew, having failed in this

attempt to capture the town.