662 NortH CAroiina Troops, 1861-’65.

the Thirty-seventh Regiment again leading the brigade, Gen
erals Lee and A. P. Hill riding just in front of us the entire
day. On the 6th we reached Hagerstown, bivouacked three
days, then formed line of battle and entrenched, but Meade
did not dare attack, to the great disappointment of the Con-
federates, for they wanted revenge and felt sure we would
get it. On the night of 13 July the army crossed the Poto-
mac; on the morning of the 14th while Heth’s and Pender’s
Divisions were waiting at Falling Waters to cross the river,
the men being nearly all asleep, a squad of cavalry dashed up
and mortally wounded General Pettigrew. The Thirty-

seventh, with the brigade, was formed in line and did some .

very nice skirmishing, holding back a force that threatened
our rear until the wagon train and all the troops had passed
over the river, when it crossed on the pontoon bridge. The
Thirty-seventh was one of the last, if not the very last, to
cross. While at Hagerstown on 10 July, Lieutenant Thomas
L. Norwood, of Company A, who had been shot through the
breast and captured at Gettysburg, came marching into camp
disguised in the most ridiculously looking and fitting coun-
tryman’s suit of clothes imaginable, having secured it at Get-
tysburg in one of the houses around the hospital, and al-
though suffering greatly from his wound, he managed by
his wit and cunning to march through the Federal lines and
into ours; he was then sent to the headquarters of General
Lee and took a cup of coffee with that distinguished person-
age. He was considered one of the finest officers of the
Thirty-seventh. The regiment fell back with the army and
reoccupied the lines of the Rapidan, going into camp near
Orange Court House and doing picket duty at Morton’s Ford.

Colonel Barber in a report made about this time to the Ad+
jutant-General of North Carolina, says:

“The regiment has lost one hundred and fifty men killed,
seventy who have died of wounds, three hundred and two
who have died of disease, and three hundred and thirty-
two have been wounded and recovered. Total loss killed
and wounded, five hundred and fifty-two; to which add
three hundred and two who have died of disease, and we
have a total of casualties amounting to eight hundred and

TurrtTy-SEVENTH REGIMENT. 6638

fifty-four men. Fourteen commissioned officers of this reg-
iment have been killed or mortally wounded, and ten others
permanently disabled by wounds. This does not embrace
the names of those officers who have been wounded but were
not disabled by their wounds. ‘There are but six officers in
this regiment who have not been wounded, and a large num-
ber (both officers and men) have been wounded several times.

Notwithstanding the heavy loss of my regiment in battle I
now have present four hundred and forty-two officers and
men, and am able to give the enemy a good fight whenever it
is necessary.”

In that splendid campaign of strategy, when Lee pushed
Meade back from the Rappahannock to Centreville, this regi-
ment moved with the brigade and formed line of battle at
Bristoe Station on the 14th, but was not in the bloody battle
that took place. On the return of the army to the Rappa-
hannock, it was detailed to destroy the Orange and Alexan-
dria Railroad. Perhaps it may be of interest to know how
this was done. The rails were ripped up and pens made of
the cross-ties, the rails then laid on the pens which were set
on fire, the irons soon become red hot in centre, when half a
dozen soldiers would seize each end and run to a telegraph
post, or tree, and play circus by running rapidly around it—
bending the rail three or four times around the post. We
then went into camp on the Rappahannock, near Brandy Sta-
tion, where we remained several weeks, then took up the
march to the old lines on the Rapidan. While on the march
the Thirty-seventh was hurried rapidly back to assist our cav-
alry which was being driven back by the Federal cavalry ;
the regiment was formed on the left of the Warrenton road
and a battery placed on the right, as our cavalry came rush-
ing back closely followed by the Yankee cavalry. The battery
opened and the Thirty-seventh, from its concealed position,
poured a murderous volley into them. It was a sudden and
bloody check. The Thirty-seventh pursued them several hun-
dred yards down the road until not one could be seen, it then
rejoined the brigade and with it returned to our old camps
at Liberty Mills, on the upper Rapidan, and went into winter
quarters, but General Meade not content to allow the cam-