136 NortH Caroiina Troops, 1861-’65.

and the way was opened to Drewry’s Bluff for the reinforce-
ments to Beauregard. As soon as we arrived there Ransom’s
Brigade was ordered to the right of our lines, and had barely
reached there and occupied the works when the first assault of
the battle of Drewry’s Bluff was made upon us. While re-
pelling this attack in front, but fortunately for the Forty-
ninth Regiment, which was on the extreme right, not till the
Federals in front were beginning to give way, a Federal line
of battle, which had extended around our right under cover
of a piece of woods, opened a galling fire in our rear, and ad-
vanced to the charge from the woods on our right. But brave
Durham had his skirmishers there; and though they were few
in number, he was ever a lion in the path of the foe. Foot by
foot he contested the ground until the charge in our front was
broken, when the Forty-ninth and Twenty-fifth Regiments
leaped over the works and poured a destructive volley into
the ranks of the flanking party, before which their line melted
away. Poor Durham—truly a Chevalier Bayard, if ever na-
ture placed a heart in man which was absolutely without fear
and a soul without reproach or blemish—received here a
wound in his arm, necessitating amputation, from which he
died. Occupying a position which did not call for his pres-
ence in battle, he never missed a fight; was always in the
thickest at the forefront of the tempest of death; he gloried
in the fray, and earned a reputation throughout the army as
the fighting Quartermaster, which added lustre to the valor
of our troops, and which North Carolina and North Caroli-
nians should not suffer to perish. He was but a boy, an
humble, devout Christian, as pure and chaste as a woman, and
in the intensity of his love for his State and the cause she had
espoused he counted the sacrifice of death as his simplest
tribute in defense of her honor.

General M. W. Ransom was here wounded in the arm, and

the brigade was afterwards commanded during the summer
and till his return at different times, by Colonels Clarke,
Rutledge, McAfee, Faison and Jones. The Fifty-sixth Reg-
iment being hotly assailed in falling back, lost a number in
killed and wounded ; but repulsed every assault with telling
effect. The Forty-ninth lost eleven killed. and a consid-

Forty-NintaH REGIMENT. 137

erable number of wounded in this engagement of the even-
ing of 18 May. Brave Captain J. P. Ardrey, of Company
F, was wounded, and left in the enemy’s hands, and died
before he could be removed. Lieutenant S. H. Elliott,
of the same company, was wounded, and Lieutenant Line-
barger, of Company H, was mortally wounded. Dr.
Goode, Assistant Surgeon, and three litter-bearers were cap-
tured, in attending upon the wounded. The 14th and
15th of May were passed in repelling repeated charges of
the enemy upon our lines and efforts to advance his own
from our outer line of fortifications, which had been aban-
doned to him on the evening of the 13th. Severe loss was
inflicted upon them in each attempt.

16 may, 1864.

The morning of 16 May was obscured by a dense fog.
Preparations began at 3 o’elock on the Confederate side for
an attack, and by daylight Beauregard moved his entire army
forward for an attack, en echelon by brigades, left in front,
the left wing being under the immediate command of General
Robert Ransom. Ransom struck the enemy on their extreme
right, carried their works, and turned their flank, each brig-
ade in turn assisting to open the way to the next attacking
one.

Blow after blow fell thick and fast on Butler’s army. All
parts of his line were heavily pressed, so that none could ren-
der assistance to the other, and before noon his army, largely
exceeding in numbers the attacking force, thoroughly
equipped and confident of victory, was completely routed,
and Beauregard had gained one of the best fought battles of
the war. In boldness of conception and execution, tactical
skill, thorough grasp of all the conditions of the situation, and
command of his forces, conducted by him in person on the
field, it was unsurpassed by any fight on this continent; and
but for Whiting’s moving from his position on the turnpike
in Butler’s rear, thus allowing him to escape without moles-
tation to Bermuda Hundreds, it would have resulted in the
capture of his entire army. It is difficult now to under-
stand how so many blunders could have been committed at