— eS eee ee — = =

600 NortH CAROLINA Troops, 1861~’65.

Speaking of this assault, General D. H. Hill says, and
General Hill never was lavish of his praise:

“I never saw anything more grandly heroic than this ad-
vance after sunset of the nine brigades under Magruder’s or®
ders. Unfortunately they did not move together, and were
beaten in detail.

“As each brigade emerged from the woods from fifty to one
hundred guns opened upon it, tearing great gaps in its ranks;
but the heroes reeled on and were shot down by the reserves at
the guns which a few squads reached.”

In this charge the Thirty-fifth Regiment lost both its com-
manders. Colonel Ransom was twice wounded, first through
the right arm rendering it powerless, and then in the right
side by a piece of shell.

Turning over the command to Lieutenant-Colonel Petway,
Colonel Ransom lay upon the field only to hear in a few
minutes that his gallant Lieutenant-Colonel was killed lead-
ing the regiment up the hill.

Here also fell, with many others, Captain Hardy J. Las-
siter, of Company D, heretofore mentioned.

Probably no regiment of Magruder’s command suffered
more in killed and wounded on this ever-memorable assault
than the Thirty-fifth, and being its first battle after New
Bern, then and there established its reputation for unsur-
passed fortitude and intrepidity in battle ; a reputation main-
tained from Malvern Hill to Appomattox.

Major John G. Jones now became Lieutenant-Colonel and
Captain John M. Kelly of Company ©, was promoted to be

Major, and First Lieutenant Evander MeN. Blue to be Cap-
tain of the company.

MARYLAND CAMPAIGN OF 1862.

When General Lee’s army left Richmond to meet the Fed-
eral general, Pope, at the Second Manassas, Ransom’s brig-
ade remained with the troops left behind to defend Rich-
mond and Petersburg, and to assist in the construction of
the fortifications around those cities. Colonel Vance of the
Twenty-sixth Regiment, having been elected Governor of
North Carolina, at his request and others, his old regiment

Tuirty-FirtaH REGIMENT. 601

on 26 August, 1862, was transferred to Martin’s and subse-
quently to Pettigrew’s brigade, and in the spring of 1863
the Fifty-sixth North Carolina Regiment, Paul F. Faison
Colonel. was assigned to take its place, and thereafter, Ran-
som’s Brigade was composed of the Twenty-fourth, Twenty-
fifth, Thirty-fifth, Forty-ninth and Fifty-sixth North Caro-
lina Regiments.

On 27 August, 1862, the brigade left Richmond en route
to join Lee’s army, then invading Maryland, and with Walk-
er’s brigade, composed of the Twenty-seventh, Forty-sixth,
Forty-eighth North Carolina, the Third Arkansas, and the
Thirtieth Virginia Regiments, under command of Brigadier-
General J. G. Walker, formed “Walker’s Division” during
this campaign.

We reached the Potomac River 7 September, 1862, and
waded through at Cheek’s Ford, where it was about a quarter
of a mile wide and waist deep. There was great enthusiasm,
and as the men would step on the Maryland shore they gave
the “rebel yell.”

After marching as far as the Monocacy River, we were or-
dered back to blow up the aqueduct over the canal, and on
the 11th recrossed the Potomac at Point of Rocks, and, march-
ing in the direction of a little town called Hillsboro, on the
Harper’s Ferry road, we reached and occupied Loudon
Heights on 14 September. The batteries of our division
from those heights shelled the enemy in Harper’s Ferry until
that place surrendered on the 15th. That same day we
marched twelve miles toward the Shenandoah, and that night
at 1 a. m. started for Shepherdstown, and at 1 a. m. on the

16th crossed into Maryland, wading the Potomac for the
third time within nine days.

BATTLE OF SHARPSBURG.

At 3 a. m. on 17 September, 1862, we were aroused and
marched to take our position in line for what was to be one
of the great battles of the war. Our brigade was first moved
to the extreme right of Lee’s army, but about 9 a. m. it was or-
dered to the left to support Jackson.

Quoting from “Confederate Military History,” Vol. 4: