12 Nortu Carotina Troops, 1861-’65.

withdrew under cover of the rain and approaching darkness.
After the rain ceased a survey of the field was made, showing
a larger number of dead and wounded of the enemy than the
aggregate number of the two companies engaged in the fight.
On receiving a detailed report of the affair and its results,
General Grimes was heard to express himself to the effect
that all things considered, he believed this to be one of the
great fights of the war. These two companies rejoined the
regiment after dark, and in a few hours the entire army re-
tired towards Richmond to confront the Union army, then
moving in the same direction.

Nothing of special note occurred, except frequent skir-
mishing, till the battle of Bethesda Church, which was fought
on the afternoon of 30 May. Further skirmishing took
place on 31 May and 1 June, and the battle of Gaines’ Mill
was fought 2 June, and Cold Harbor 3 June, in all of which
this regiment bore its part.

After the battle of Cold Harbor, the Second Corps, then
commanded by General Early, was ordered into camp near
Gaines’ Mill and held in reserve till 13 June. The sharp-
shooters of Rodes’ Division had been previously organized
into a separate corps under command of Captain W. E. Stitt
(Company B), and numbered about one thousand men, made
up of details from the different regiments, the Forty-third
contributing about thirty-five from the right wing under
command of Lieutenant Perkins (Company F), and thirty-
five from the left wing under command of Sergeant-Major
Kenan, who had been appointed by the brigade commander,
10 June, a Junior-Second Lieutenant. On 13 June the See-
ond Corps was ordered to Lynchburg, Va., arriving there on
the 18th, and in the afternoon the sharpshooters engaged
those of the Union forces. The withdrawal of the enemy
during the night was promptly discovered, and the sharp-
shooters marching at the head of the division in pursuit over-
took their rear guard at Liberty, when another skirmish en-
sued, and again at Buford’s Gap on the afternoon of the
20th. The pursuit was continued on the 21st through Salem
Va., where another skirmish took place. On the 22d the
troops rested at Salem, and resumed the march on the 23d in

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Forty-THIRD REGIMENT. Ae:

the direction of the Potomac river, reaching Staunton early
on the morning of the 27th; remained there till the next
morning, and then marched to Harper’s Ferry, which was
reached on the morning of 4 July. Here the Corps of Divis-
ion sharpshooters captured Bolivar Heights about 10 a. m.,
and about 8 p. m. drove the enemy from Harper’s Ferry
across the river to Maryland Heights. On the 5th the
Forty-third occupied Harper’s Ferry, relieving the sharp-
shooters. Skirmishing continued most of the day. On the
6th the corps crossed the Potomac at Shepherdstown and
engaged the enemy in the rear of Maryland Heights, the bat-
tle continuing nearly all day. On the 7th they moved
through Crampton’s Gap towards Frederick, and after fre-
quent skirmishing reached Frederick on the morning of the
9th, where General Lew Wallace’s Division of Union troops
was strongly posted on the eastern bank of the Monocacy
river. After a stubborn fight they were driven from the
field, with the loss of a large number of killed, wounded and
prisoners. On the 10th the Confederates moved in the direc-
tion of Washington City, and, after a hard march in extreme-
ly hot weather and over a dusty road, arrived in front
of Fort Stevens about noon of the 11th, within sight of the
dome of the Federal Capitol. The sharpshooters advanced
within 200 yards of the fort, but retired to a position about
300 yards to the rear, where they halted and dug rifle-pits.
In the afternoon the enemy threw forward a heavy line of
skirmishers, who attacked vigorously, but were repulsed with
some loss. Here, our sharpshooters remained, subjected to
a severe shelling from the forts till the afternoon of the 12th,
when the enemy, reinforced by two corps from the Army of
the Potomac, advanced and drove them from their improvised
works. Rodes’ Division then moved forward and retook the
lost ground. The casualties on both sides were considera-
ble. On account of the arrival of the above-mentioned rein-
forcements, a further advance of Early’s troops was not
made, and they were withdrawn on the night of the 12th, and
recrossed the Potomac on the 14th near Leesburg, Va. The
movement into Maryland was probably made to create a
diversion in favor of operations around Richmond.