60 NortH Carorina Troops, 1861-’65.

I trust I may be permitted to say that my name does not
appear, as Second Sergeant of Company K, in the Roster,

published some years since, while the name of C. B. Mabson,
Second Sergeant, does.

Some people do not believe in bad luck. I do.

Cyrus B. Watson.
Winston, N. C.,

9 April, 1901.

NOTE.

On 19 May, 1901, I attended the unveiling of a monument
by the survivors of the First Regiment Massachusetts Heavy
Artillery, on the battle field of 19 May, 1864, the thirty-sev-
enth anniversary of the battle. I here met about sixty-five of
the said survivors, some of them attended by wives and daugh-
ters. I spent a day or two with them and at their request
took part in the ceremonies and delivered a short address.
This regiment fought immediately in front of the Forth-fifth
North Carolina, and the conflict was bloody. The monu-
ment bears the following inscription:

Piper
IN COMMEMORATION OF THE DEEDS OF THE FIRST REGIMENT
HEAVY ARTILLERY,
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS.

Three hundred and ninety-eight of whose members fell with-
in an hour around this spot during an action, May 19th,
1864, between a division of the Union Army commanded by

General Tyler, and a corps of the Confederate forces under
General Ewell.

Erected by the survivors of the Regiment.
1901.”

Together with these gallant men of New England I went
over every part of the field and was surprised to find how
familiar the fields, woods and houses appeared.

I also went into the Bloody Angle about a mile distant, and
had no difficulty in finding the places where the regiment
fought for days and nights. The fortifications are pre-
served without change all round the horse shoe. The old

ee OH Rf EMPRESS CAE NCEE NTT TE STC IP ET ETE EI A

Forty-Firra REGIMENT. 61

McCool house is just as it was thirty-seven years ago, the
weatherboards perforated with bullets; the Harrison house
almost ready to fall down from neglect; the trees that suffer-
ed during the battles are mostly down or dead, yet quite a
number living, with marks of bullets and shells healed over,
but plainly visible. There is considerable growth of young-
er pine trees. I brought away three blocks from a dead pine,
with bullets embedded in two and a grape shot in another,
which lies almost at the spot where the brave General Daniel
fell. Another section from the preserved heart of the dead
pine, too large for me to bring away, had nine bullets in it,
partly concealed by the wood that had grown around them in
the effort of the tree to outlive its injuries; many of the
wounded trees seem to have recently died. It seems that
after the armies left this dreadful angle, the dead of both ar-
mies were buried in shallow graves, or rather covered with
earth, and the ground in the pine woods along these trenches
plainly shows where the remains had since been removed. The
survivors of Daniel’s brigade should erect a monument on
the spot where he fell.
C. B. Watson.

8 June, 1901.