120 Nortn CaroLina Troops, 1861-65.

passing through a ravine where some Yankee prisoners were
under guard. A very large, gruff looking Yankee was stand-
ing up slurring the rebels. He asked: “Why do you rebels
wear such dirty, ragged clothes?’ An Irishman by the name
of Forrest, belonging to Company D, Forty-eighth Regiment,
and as good a soldier as was in the regiment, answered:
“Faith and be jabbers, we Southerners always put on our
sorriest clothes when we kill hogs, and it is hog killing day
with us now,” pointing to a dead Yankee near by. This wit
of the Irishman caused a laugh, and forgetting the order to
be quiet, some two or three men raised a yell, which was
taken up along the line—a regular rebel yell. The enemy’s
lines halted, broke and fell back, so we did not get into any
further engagement. Whether it was this yell that caused
them to fall back, I cannot say, but I don’t suppose they knew
we were near them until the yell betrayed our whereabouts.

Our next engagement was at Cold Harbor, on 3 June,
1864. Cooke’s Brigade was on the extreme left of the Confed-
erate lines, only some cavalry being on our left. This was,
with us, probably the very hardest-fought battle of the
war. Just as we got in position on an old road—and it was
about sun up—the Federals, in heavy force, made a charge
which we met and after a hard struggle, which lasted some
time, repulsed. They soon made another charge. We were as-
sisted in repulsing this one by a battery of artillery, which
had just come up. The enemy would reinforce and come
again, but we repulsed every charge and during the day,
working between attacks, built a very good breastwork. The
last of the several charges was made about 6 o’clock p. m.
Several lines came forward.

One line would fire and fall down, another step over, fire
and fall down, each line getting nearer us, until they got
within sixty or seventy-five yards of some portions of our
line, but finding themselves cut to pieces so badly, they fell
back in a little disorder. Our men seemed to rise all at
once, with a rebel yell, and poured lead into them, cutting
down numbers of them. The old field in front of us was
almost covered with their dead. At no time during the war
did the Forty-eighth and Twenty-seventh do better fighting.

ani ERIN SY

Forty-E1@HtH REGIMENT. 121

Our position was a good one, and an important one to be held.
We lost several good men in this battle. Lieutenant M. D.
Clegg, of Company D, was wounded.

At 9 o’clock that night we took up the line of march, went
from place to place for several days, spending about one week
at Deep Bottom. At this place we had no battle, except
with flies. I never saw so many flies in all my life. Then we
went to the right of Petersburg. We were on the line about
one half mile to the right of the “Blow-up,” as it was called.
The day before the springing of that mine we were ordered to
the left of Petersburg and had crossed the Appomattox, and
were marching toward Richmond, when we heard the ex-
plosion. We returned and on the next day took up our quar-
ters in the trenches. The Forty-eighth occupied that posi-
tion which had been blown up. Here we remained for sev-
eral weeks, when we were moved to the extreme right and
built our winter quarters on Hatcher’s Run. General Heth
was ordered to attack the enemy whenever he attempted to ex-
tend his lines. So we had several engagements, one at the
Yellow House. This was in August, 1864, and on the 25th
of the same month we were in the battle of Reams Station,
where we charged a heavy force of Federals behind a breast-
work, broke their line and captured several hundred prisoners
and several pieces of artillery. This was a brave assault.
Two attacks had been made by other troops (I forget which)
that had failed to dislodge them. This had given the enemy
courage, and was rather discouraging to us, who had to make
the third attack. The timber for fifty or seventy-five yards
in front of their works had been cut down, the limbs sharp-
ened, making it very difficult to reach the works. The posi-
tion of the Forty-eighth was near the centre of the line, the
timber in our front being thinner than in other portions. We
succeeded in gaining the works sooner than those on the right
or left, who had more brush to go through. The first part
of the line broken was on the left wing of the Forty-eighth,
but the whole line was surrendered in a very few minutes.
We lost several in this charge. Lieutenant M. D. Clegg, of
Company D, was killed on the works about the time the line