614 NortH Caro.ina Troops, 1861-’65.

mail train, arriving that night. General Ransom left the

same night on an engine. Reaching Garysburg at daybreak, ”

he found there a section of artillery with two guns, which he
ordered down to Boon’s Mill, distant seven miles, where the
main road from Jackson to Garysburg and Weldon crosses
the swamp. Four companies of the Twenty-fourth regi-
ment, in command of Lieutenant-Colonel Harris, had pre
ceded him to the mill.

Detailing Captain Burgwyn, of Company H, Thirty-fifth
Regiment, whose home was in the county, to mount a squad of
his company and go on a scouting expedition, there being no
cavalry near at hand, early in the morning of 28 July, 1863,
General Ransom, with his staff, proceeded to Jackson, distant
ten miles, to obtain information of the enemy’s movements.
About 12:30 p. m. he left Jackson to return to Boon’s Mill
to make disposition to meet Colonel Spear, who was reported
rapidly advancing. When General Ransom had gotten about
half a mile distant a great shout was heard in the direction of
Jackson and, stopping to ascertain the cause, the enemy’s cav-
alry were seen charging over the hill about 150 yards dis-
tant.

Tt was now a question as to whose horses were the fastest, as
two miles or more lay between the Confederate commander
and his men, who were taking their ease, ignorant of the per-
ilous situation of their General. The horses of the General
and his staff being fresh the enemy did not gain on them,
though in reach of and subject to the enemy’s fire all during
the pursuit.

Dashing at full speed across the bridge, General Ransom
ealled out to have the planks taken up and the men to fall in
ranks. The enemy, seeing the situation and more or less
disorganized from the pursuit, halted to reform their columns
for attack. This gave time for the Confederate infantry,
most of whom were bathing in the mill pond, to get their guns,
and in a few minutes order was restored and our lines estab-
lished. The enemy now brought up his artillery and for an
hour or more shelled the Confederate position. Dismount-
ing his cavalry, Colonel S. P. Spear attempted an advance
down the road to the mill, which was met by a quick fire from

Tuirty-Firrh REGIMENT. 615

our men and this advance checked. About this time Lieuten-
ant Vassar, of the Macon Light Artillery, with two guns, ar-
rived from Garysburg, which were put in position behind
some earthworks erected by General French the year before.
They at once opened fire. By this time the fight was hot.
The enemy now attempted to carry our position by an at-
tack on the right and left flanks, and succeeded under cover
of the thick swamp undergrowth in getting their men directly
in our rear across the pond, which curves here nearly at right
angles. This movement was promptly met by advancing the
artillery to the front and shelling the woods with grape and
canister and by a brave fire from the infantry. The fight
had now lasted some five hours. Foiled in his expectation to
surprise the Confederates and reach the Weldon bridge with-
out serious opposition, Colonel Spear late in the evening
withdrew and during the night retreated through Jackson,
whence he came. This repulse of Colonel Spear, whose force
consisted of a “brigade of cavalry and nine pieces of artil-
lery,” with a supporting force of infantry at Winton, N. C.,
by not more than two hundred Confederate infantry with
two pieces of artillery, was not only a brilliant military
achievement of the greatest moment, as a defeat of the Con-
federates would have resulted in the destruction of the rail-
road bridge over the Roanoke at Weldon, which was one of
the main lines of railroad connecting Richmond and the
South, and in the occupation by the enemy of a large section
of the richest portion of the State, from which the Confeder-
ate government largely drew its supplies; but also preserved
this section of North Carolina ever afterwards from the en-
emy’s presence. The crops of 1863 and 1864 were saved to
the people as if no war was raging near them, and the slave
population remained quietly at work on the plantations
during the balance of the war.

This victory, coming so soon after his promotion, was
doubly gratifying to General Ransom’s friends, and the fact
that his home lay less than two miles distant, whence the
sound of the guns and the noise of the battle were trem-
blingly listened to by his delicate wife and small children, af-
fords a striking illustration of the nature of this contest