128 Norto Carorina TROOPS, 1861-65.

down on the battlefield. Cicero A. Durham, of Cleveland
county, prior to the war a cadet of the Military Institute of
General D. H. Hill, at Charlotte, and who afterwards became
so famous throughout the army as the fighting quartermaster,
was appointed adjutant. He served in this capacity with
great efficiency and distinction until 2 May, 1863, when he
was promoted Assistant Quartermaster to succeed Captain
George, who was transferred to other duties. William H.
Dinkins, who had been Sergeant-Major, was appointed —
tant, and continued in that position during the remainder 0
the war, actively on duty until some time 1n the spring of
1864, when bad health caused his absence to the close of hos-
tilities. a

By reason of the losses in front of Richmond in this a
paign, both of officers and men, changes in the roster of of-
ficers were numerous.

It has been impossible at this late day to procure anything
like full or correct reports of the killed, wounded, or missing
in these battles. The aggregate was considerable, and the
casualties told the story of the fierce struggles in which the
command was engaged, but access to the reports cannot be
had.

George W. Lytle succeeded to the Captaincy of Company
A; Henry A. Chambers was, on 10 December, 1862, ap-
pointed to the command of Company C; Columbus H. Dixon
was made Captain of Company G, on 17 November,
1862, in the place of Captain Rufus Roberts; Charles F.
Connor, on 1 February, 1863, succeeded Captain W. W. Che
nault, of Company I, and George L. Phifer became Captain
of Company K, in the place of Peter Z. Baxter, on 24 J be
1863 ; changes oceasioned by the losses of 1862. Correspond-
ing changes ensued in the other grades of company officers.

SHARPSBURG.

From Richmond the scene of action was speedily trans
ferred by General Lee to the Potomac and beyond; and then
back to the capture of Harper’s Ferry, thence to Sharpsburg;
or Antietam, the command moved under the orders of
great figure in our military history. At Sharpsburg ?

Forry-NintH REGIMENT. 129

shared with the rest of the brigade the honor of retaking
and holding the famous “‘West Woods.” Here the gallant
Lieutenant Greenlea Flemming, brother of Lieutenant-Col-
onel Flemming, was killed and a dozen men of his com-
pany killed or wounded by a shell which fell in its
ranks as the brigade was moving by the flank to change its
position just before sunset. It was the rear company of the
Forty-ninth and Colonel M. W. Ransom and Adjutant Wal-
ter Clark, who were riding at the head of the Thirty-fifth,
were close behind and barely escaped the shell which was evi-
dently directed by the enemy’s signal corps at the moving
line of bayonets, glistening in the setting sunlight, for it
came from a battery on the other side of the Antietam.
Returning to Virginia, the regiment was in the battle of Fred-
ericksburg, beginning 11 December, 1862, where it took posi-
tion to the left of the plank road, and during the four days
that the fighting there continued it was subjected to heavy
cannonading and some infantry fighting, several officers and
men being killed and wounded.

After this battle the Forty-ninth remained in winter quar-
ters near Fredericksburg until 3 January, 1863, when it was
marched, by the Telegraph road, to Hanover Junction, thence
to Richmond, and from there to Petersburg, which it reached
on the evening of the 7th, and remained until the 17th, when
it left for eastern North Carolina.

From this time on until the spring of 1864, the regiment,
with the Twenty-fourth, Twenty-fifth, Thirty-fifth and Fifty-
sixth Regiments, composed Ransom’s Brigade which protected
the line of the Wilmington & Weldon Railroad from those
two terminal points, and that of the road from Goldsboro
to below Kinston; being constantly on the move, appear-
ing one day at the other end of the line from that at
which they were the day before, and vigilantly guarding the
territory of Eastern North Carolina, from which such abund-
ant supplies were contributed for the support of our armies.
Strategically, it was the right wing of the Army of Vir-
ginia; and General Scott, whose plan of campaign delineated

9