ee oa een

inate naa Ate nero

734 NortH Caroutina Troops, 1861-’65.

ing his commands. He replied: ‘Colonel, for God’s sake,
stop them and get them out of that thicket.” Colonel Cole-
man managed to extricate us, and we were reformed in the
old field again. Captain Allen got along very well with the
remainder of the evolution, and was relieved. General Stew-
art made us a nice speech, thanking us for affording him so
much amusement, and saying that it had been a very pleasant
day, and that it was necessary for soldiers to have a little fun
dccasionally. So ended my first and last attempt at battal-
ion drill.

IN MISSISSIPPI.

The corps was soon after transferred to the Department of
the Gulf, and went into camp at Meridian, Miss., where it
remained during the winter of 1863. In June, 1863, we
were ordered to Yazoo, Miss., and near Canton, Miss., the
Thirty-ninth was transferred to McNair’s Brigade, French’s
Division. This brigade, with the exception of the Thirty-
ninth, was composed of Arkansas troops, who were good sol-
diers, and they treated the “Tar Heels” so kindly that all the
survivors of the old veterans have a warm place in their hearts
for€ach other.

From the Big Pond, near Canton, we marched to Bird-
song’s farm, near Vicksburg. General Johnston was endeav-
oring to get into Vicksburg to assist General Pemberton in
getting out. On 4 July we were ordered to cook three days’
rations and to move that nigtht at midnight via Edwards’ Sta-
tion. During the day we heard continuous and heavy can-
nonading at Vicksburg, and that night as the troops were get-
ting ready for their dangerous march, a courier arrived with
the sad intelligence that General Pemberton had surren-
dered to Grant, and that the Federals were moving on John-
ston. ‘The command was given to march, and slowly and
sadly we started for Jackson, Miss., where we rested for a
few days. Here Johnston made a stand, with Breckin-
ridge’s Division on the left, resting on Pearl river, and
French’s Division on the right. About 6 or 8 July, Grant
came up with a heavy skirmish line and began shelling, feel-
ing for our lines. Breckinridge’s Division was hidden in

Tuirty-NIntH REGIMENT. 735

the chapparal, and a masked battery planted in line with the
railway. Company ©, with a portion of the regiment had
been on duty in the trenches for forty-eight hours, and had
been relieved to rest for a short time in a railroad cut, where
we were in perfect safety and had a full view of the masked
battery and our skirmish line. The Federals thought they
had discovered a gap, through which they had but to march
to the capital. They advanced in four lines, in perfect or-
der, keeping step as if on dress parade. Just as they
reached the railroad the cotton bales and brush were thrown
from the six fine brass cannon and, the command ringing
out, every piece fired at once. At the same time Breckin-
ridge’s men arose like ghosts in front and poured in a heavy
shower of minie balls. The destruction of life was awful;
they fell like grain before the reaper. We in the cut saw it
all. It lasted searcely fifteen minutes, and over seven hun-
dred dead were left on the railroad track. Tle survivors
hastily retreated to the timber in their rear. Grant was
pressing us all along the line, shelling the city every night.
It was a grand sight to see the shells passing like blazing me-
teors overhead, with a whizzing sound, as they went on their
deadly missions, crashing into the roofs of buildings and fre-
quently setting a house on fire. In a few days Johnston fell
back across Pearl river, placing torpedoes under the pontoon
bridge. These exploded as the Federals attempted to follow,
and we heard afterwards that many had been killed. Grant
followed us no further after the capture of Jackson, but re-

turned to Vicksburg and we marched unmolested to Bran-
don, Miss.

CHICKAMAUGA.

In September we moved to Tennessee to assist General
Bragg, arriving at Ringold on the 17th, and starting at once
for Chickamauga. We passed over the hills, where heavy
skirmishing was in progress, and crossed Chickamauga at
Reed’s Bridge. General Rosecrans, with his powerful army,
made an attack on the Friday after we arrived. Darkness
put a stop to the fighting, and we slept on our arms that night,
and on the morning of the 18th were in line again. I had