126 Norra Carorina Troops, 1861-’65.

of the greatest of the American States. He gave untiring en-
ergy and masterly judgment to the rapid organization, drill,
discipline and preparation for active service in the field of his
regiment. A graduate of the Military Academy at West
Point, and for a few years an officer in the regular army, en-
dowed with a mind of great strength and quickness, constant
in purpose, daring and brilliant in execution, prepared for
the science of war and revelling in its dangers and fierce en-
counters, and with a spirit fired with a determination to excel
in the profession of arms; it is not to be wondered at, that, un-
der his capable authority and the influence of his stirring ex-
ample, the regiment rapidly took form and shape as a strong,
disciplined and efficient body of men; nor that the impress of
his spirit and the effect of his training should, as its subse-
quent career demonstrated, be retained, not alone to charae-
terize the natural development of veterans, but, likewise, as a
part of its heritage of honor, so long as the flag under which
he arrayed them claimed an existence amid the heraldry of
nations. Short as was the length of his authority over them,
the force of his activity, zeal and fearlessness was felt and
recognized by the Forty-ninth (Ramseur’s) Regiment through
all its struggles and hardships, in the camp, on the
march, in making or meeting assaults, advancing or retreat-
ing, in sunshine and storm, through the long and
wearing siege of Petersburg, where it rushed alone into the
cavalier line after Grant’s mine was sprung, and at
skirmish distance. in the works held the Federal advance
at bay for three hours—the slender link by which
the two halves of General Lee’s army were united, until re
inforcements could be brought seven miles to retake the cra-
ter; both when disaster fell fast and fierce on the cause for
which they fought, as well as when before their steady charge
the foe gave way, and victory perched on their well-worn bat-
tle flag; when death had thinned its ranks and suffering made
gaunt the survivors, until at last its lines were crushed—its
shout and shot the last to be heard—on the field of Five
Forks. North Carolina, whose soil has been made sacred
by the ashes of so many great and strong men, her jurists, her
statesmen, her magistrates, her teachers, her ministers and

Forty-Ninto REGIMENT. 127

priests, her soldiers and her patriots, holds within her bosom
the dust of no nobler or more perfect man than that of
Stephen Dobson Ramseur.

The regiment was officered by men of education, and, for
the most part, in the full vigor of young manhood.

Its rank and file were taken from the Piedmont region of
the State, which then contained, as extended observation ena-
bles the writer to say, a population second to none for self-
reliance, integrity, just respect for authority and modest
worth and courage. Many of them were descendants of the
people who made the Hornets’ Nest of North Carolina a
fortress of independence and a terror to their country’s invad-
ers.

Soon after its organization Lieutenant-Colonel Eliason re-
signed, Major McAfee succeeding him, and Captain John A.
Fleming, of Company A, was promoted to Major.

MALVERN HILL.

When the operations of McClellan’s army around Rich-
mon, culminating in the seven days’ battles, began, the regi-
ment was assigned to General Robert Ransom’s Brigade and
participated in several of those engagements. At Malvern
Hill it bore a conspicuous part, leaving its dead and wounded
on the field next in proximity to the enemy’s works to those of
the Twenty-sixth North Carolina Regiment, then commanded
by Colonel Zebulon B. Vance.

In this ill-advised assault the command suffered heavily in
killed and wounded, Colonel Ramseur among the latter. His
handling of the regiment and its conduct during those con-
flicts led to his prompt promotion to Brigadier-General, and
to his assignment, as soon as he recovered from his wound, to
another command.

On 1 November, 1862, Lieutenant-Colonel McAfee was
commissioned Colonel, Major Fleming was promoted Liev-
tenant-Colonel, and Captain Pinckney B. Chambers, of Com-
pany C, was made Major. During the summer of 1862 Ad-
jutant Richmond fell a victim to typhoid fever, and the life
of this brave and capable officer was thus destroyed—no less
an offering on the altar of patriotism than if he had laid it