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518 North Caroitina Troops, 1861-65.

his chosen line of operation, and moved his army 80 as to
secure a crossing to the south side of James river.”
General Clingman’s entire staff were either killed or
wounded during the afternoon of that day, and the writers
were both wounded; Adjutant Bryan, while acting on the
staff of General Clingman, conveying orders on the field,
which rendered him unfit for duty several months, and Ser-
geant E. H. Meadows, commanding his company, very seri-
ously, incapacitating him for further active military duty,
(Lieutenant G. F. Darden, who had been in command of his
company, having been wounded the day previous. )
The regiment was now ordered into the trenches at nage
burg, and participated in all the hard fought battles in t .
vicinity. In the battle of Fort Harrison, one of the severest.
actions occurring on that front, Clingman’s Brigade, and par-
ticularly the Thirty-first Regiment, suffered terribly, so that
when one of the writers, Adjutant Bryan, returned to the
Regiment only a few days after this battle (date not —
bered) he found the entire Regiment consisted of only abou
sixty men, commanded by First Lieutenant Williams, the
ranking officer present. The command was ordered to hee:
mington to participate in the defense of Fort Fisher 13. Jan
uary, 1865. They took no part in the action, however, as
General Bragg and General Hoke concluded that the —
tion was extremely hazardous, as the enemy had alrea y
landed and thrown up works entirely across the peninsula,
which were manned by heavy lines of infantry, which, to-
gether with their navy, which could sweep the beach with hi
ister and grape at short range, would in all probability _
virtually annihilated the division. We fell back to Sugar ge
and engaged the enemy as they advanced, checking them, ze
afterwards falling back to Wilmington and through the -~
to the Northeast branch of the Cape Fear, which we cross .
on pontoons, the advance of the enemy arriving at the sout

i nd
bank just as our last troops had gotten across the river, an@ ,

our pontoons cut loose. : : :
We now marched to Goldsboro and Smithfield, where w

ville. The
waited the advance of Sherman from pga ae) -
clash of arms came now again at Bentonville, N. ©.,

Turrry-First Recimenr. 519

March, 1865. For two days General Johnston held in check
Sherman’s 70,000 men, with not more than 20,000 of all
arms. After two days’ successful resistance J ohnston, find-
ing the Federals in overwhelming force concentrated on three
sides of him, withdrew that night towards Raleigh. The re-
treat was continued to High Point, N. C., and at the quiet lit-
tle village of Bush Hill, about two miles from High Point,
the command was. surrendered to General Sherman, our
paroles being dated 1 May, 1865.

E. K. Bryan,

E. H. Mexapows.
New Berry, N. C.,

9 April, 1901.

Since completing the sketch of the Thirty-first Regiment,
my attention has been called to the following item taken from
Vol. 125, “Rebellion Records.” At page 815 to 818, is a
list of medals given for capturing flags belonging to Confeder-
ate regiments. Among other North Carolina regiments is the
following: “Sergeant Joseph B. Kemp, Company D, Fifth
Michigan, captured the flag of the Thirty-first North Carolina
Regiment—tearing it from its staff, which was retained by
the color-bearer’, at the Wilderness 6 May, 1864.”

Now this statement is utterly untrue from beginning to
end—it being a physical impossibility to capture the flag of
a regiment which was not in the battle, and which was at the
time of said battle, for some weeks, both before and after said
battle, several hundred miles distant. At the time of this
battle the Thirty-first regiment was in front of Petersburg,
Va., where it remained until Butler advanced from Bermuda
Hundred in his “on to Richmond.” The Thirty-first Regi-
ment, together with our entire brigade, met Butler’s forces
in the general fight at Drewry’s Bluff, and utterly routed him
and drove him back to Bermuda Hundred, all of which is well

known as a matter of history. Butler telegraphed on 7 May
that he had destroyed many miles of railroad (President
Davis’ History, page 389). So this is conclusive, as our regi-
ment was left by Gen. Clingman to guard Petersburg while
the balance of the brigade were with General Hoke near New