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778 NortH Caroiina Troops, 1861-’65.

much was accomplished, though the general undertaking was
defeated.

On 22 April, Colonel Baker was ordered to report to Gen-
eral Lee for the assignment of the regiment to General J. B.
Gordon’s Brigade. But when in camp near Weldon it was
ordered (3 May) by Brigadier-General Walker, toward New
Bern, and it took part in the feint executed by General Hoke
in that section. General Dearing, then commanding all the
cavalry near New Bern, ordered it to Kinston, which was
reached on the evening of 7 May. Thence by Hoke’s orders,
it proceeded by the highway to Weldon. The three compa-
nies serving in the Department of North Carolina were or-
dered 2 May to join their regiment, which on the 15th was
ordered to move with Hoke’s Division to protect the right
flank in the movement near Petersburg, of Beauregard
against Butler.

General Bragg, then in command at Richmond, complained
to General S. Cooper that Baker’s cavalry had been detained
by Beauregard after its orders to protect Richmond, and that
thus the safety of the capital had been jeopardized.

Beauregard answers the complaint as follows, and inciden-
tally expresses his high appreciation of the Carolina troop-
ers:

“General Bragg in his communication has declared that
the Third North Carolina (Cavalry) was detained for three
weeks without the shadow of authority; and that by the de-
lays occasioned by unauthorized assumptions in the move-
ments of troops the safety of the capital has been jeopardized.

“T beg leave respectfully to reply that on 25 April, General
Bragg authorized me to detain Baker’s cavalry until the New
Bern expedition should be completed, or until it should be re-
lieved by another. The New Bern expedition terminated 6
May and Colonel Baker with his command, started immedi-
ately to Weldon, which he reached on the 10th and thence to
Petersburg where he arrived with a portion of the command
on the 14th. On the same day he proceeded, under my or-
ders, with me to Drewry’s Bluff.

“At this time General Butler was threatening the capital
with a force largely superior to my own. There were with

Forty-First REGIMENT. 779

me including Baker’s, but one regiment of cavalry and frac-
tions of two others, viz: the Seventh South Carolina and
a part of the Fifth South Carolina. These, with the Third
North Carolina were essential to the protection of the right
and left flanks of my command. They participated in the bat-
tle of 16 May at Drewry’s Bluff, and so far from jeopardizing
the safety of the capital by delay in the*execution of orders,
they contributed essential service to its defense. All the
troops which could be spared from the capital were being
sent to me to defend it on the south side, and it did not occur
to me to send forward the regiment to Richmond, merely to
be returned, for the important purposes already indicated.

“Although the enemy was defeated on the 16th, and driven
back to his works at Bermuda Hundred, he still greatly out-
numbered me and held a menacing position dangerous to the
safety of the capital. I did not deem it prudent and wise
therefore, to send it on the 17th to Richmond, but directed
it to watch and protect my flank on James river.

“22 May, Colonel Ferebee, with the Fourth North Carolina,
having relieved Colonel Baker, was ordered immediately to
report to General Bragg at Richmond, and he did so on the
evening of the 23d. The detention was authorized, I respect-
fully submit, by the exigencies of the case and demonstrated
by the signal service the command rendered on the 16th at

Drewry’s Bluff.”

He asked for a court of inquiry, but General Lee expressed
himself as satisfied, dismissed Bragg’s complaint and refused

a court.

On this occasion Colonel Baker repeats that his marches
were thirty miles a day, and that as soon as pickets and cour-
iers reached camp under orders at midnight, he started at 3
a.m. Little rest was there for the wearied soldier for the
remainder of the bloody struggle.

A few weeks later, 21 June, 1864, the regiment lost Colo-
nel Baker by capture. He was considerably in advance of
the regiment, with but one or two men. It is thus told by the
enemy: