18 Norto CaroLina Troops, 1861-’65.

allel roads for the purpose of intercepting the Confederates in
their march towards Lynchburg.

The vicinity of Appomattox Court House was reached on
the evening of Saturday, the 8th, and the exhausted troops
bivouacked until midnight, when the division was ordered
from the position of rear guard to the front, with a view of
opening the road towards Lynchburg, now occupied by Union
troops in large force. About sunrise on Sunday morning,
the 9th of April, 1865, the division engaged a large body of
the enemy’s cavalry, supported by infantry, and drove them
more than a mile, capturing a battery of artillery and several
prisoners. While engaged in this pursuit they were ordered
back to a valley in which the larger part of the Confederates
was now massed, and on arriving there received the sad intel-
ligence that the Army of Northern Virginia had surrendered.

Manifesting under defeat the same spirit of fidelity and
endurance which had characterized them in success, the rem-
nant of about 120 men and officers composing this regiment
accepted the fate of war and awaited the final arrangements
for capitulation; and on the morning of 12 April, after lay-
ing down their arms, dispersed on foot, many in tattered gar-
ments and without shoes, and thus made their way to their
distant and, in many instances, desolated homes.

And “the picture of the private soldier as he stood in the
iron hail, loading and firing his rifle, the bright eye glistening
with excitement, and with powder-stained face, rent jacket,
torn slouch hat and trousers, blanket in shreds, and the prints
of his shoeless feet in the dust of the battle, should be framed
in the hearts of all who love true courage wherever found.”

The preparation of this sketch, giving the organization and
outlining the movements of the Forty-third Regiment, is
largely due to the assistance rendered to me by W. G. Lewis,
B. F. Hall, W. R. Kenan, John B. Powell, W. E. Stitt, W.
R. Burwell, Thomas P. Devereux, John J. Dabbs and S. H.
Threadgill, members of the regiment, and participants in its
movements. The material employed was gathered from
memoranda and such official documents as were accessible.

Tuos. 8. Kenan.

Raugeienu, N. C.,
9 April, 1895.