174 Norra Carorina Troops, 1861-’65.

legitimate in time of war, but the conduct generally through
the country traversed was wholly inexcusable, cowardly, and
infamous in the extreme. Where they visited plantations
they ordered the negroes to take the horses, wagons, buggies
and carriages and plunder their owner’s houses, taking what-
ever they wished and join the procession. General Potter,
in his official report, states that some three hundred of these
negroes reached New Bern with him. This is a very small
proportion of the number we intercepted and captured at the
“Burney Place,” where Potter succeeded in flanking us and
making his escape. Our object was to get between Potter
and New Bern, cut off his retreat if possible, or at least
harass and delay his return until reinforcements might reach
us by way of Kinston and effect his capture. Unfortunately
we had no cavalry except a small detachment of Colonel Ken-
nedy’s men. Colonel Faison, with the Fifty-sixth North Car-
olina Regiment, had been left to guard and hold Coward’s
bridge. This left only the Fiftieth Regiment and a portion
of Colonel Whitford’s Battalion to operate. The difficulty
of contending with the movements of cavalry in an open coun-
try can be fully appreciated, especially as they kept con-
stantly on the move all night. By destroying all the bridges
and by rapid movement, without rest, sleep or anything to
eat, we held them on the upper side of the creek for two days
and nights. After maneuvering all night of the 21st, cross-
ing plantations and traveling ufused country paths, they suc-
ceeded in escaping with the head of their column about
daybreak on the morning of the 22d. We succeeded, how-
ever, in reaching the point in time to intercept the rear of the
column consisting mostly of negroes, traveling in every con-
ceivable style. General Potter, in his haste to escape, with
his troops, abandoned his “contrabands,” as he calls them, to
their fate.

On reaching the “Burney Place” we opened fire on the
column with a small brass cannon mounted on a saddle
strapped to the back of a mule. This utterly demoralized the
“contrabands” who, in their mad rush to keep pace with their
erstwhile deliverers, but who were now fleeing for their lives,
failed to discover us. The shock was so sudden and unex-

FIrTIeTH REGIMENT. 175

pected that the effect was indescribable. The great caval-
cade, composed of men, women and children, perched on
wagons, carts, buggies, carriages, and mounted on horses and
mules, whipping, slashing and yelling like wild Indians, was
suddenly halted by our fire upon the bridge. This fire was
upon some negro troops who were in the rear of Potter’s
column. One negro Captain, who was driving a pair of spir-
ited iron-gray horses, attempted to rush past three of our men
who were lying in the yard and was shot dead as he stood up
in the buggy firing at them as he drove past. Many others
were either killed or wounded in attempting to escape through
the woods near by. In the excitement and confusion which
ensued many of the vehicles were upset in attempting to turn
around in the road and many others wrecked by the fright-
ened horses dashing through the woods. We scoured the
woods and gathered up several hundred negroes among the
number several infants and a number of small children who
had been abandoned to their fate. About 8 o’clock we started
in pursuit of Potter. For miles the road and woods on either
side were strewn with all kinds of wearing apparel, table
ware, such as fine china and silver ware, blankets, fine bed
quilts and all sorts of ladies’ wearing apparel which had been
taken from the helpless, unprotected women at the planta-
tions visited by the negroes, under General Potter’s orders.
The reason these things were strewn indiscriminately along
the road was that the few men of Colonel Kennedy’s Cavalry
and such as we were able to mount from time to time with

the abandoned horses, kept up a running fight with the rear
of the retreating column from the “Burney Place” to Street’s
Ferry, causing many of the spirited carriage horses to be-
come unmanageable and take to the woods, wrecking the vehi-

eles and scattering their contents. I saw a number of in-

stances where the carriages had been upset and the throats of

the horses cut to prevent their falling into our hands. The

Fiftieth Regiment, with the exception of the few who had

been mounted, performed the extraordinary feat of marching

forty-eight miles on this, 22 day of July, 1863, reaching

Street’s Ferry about two hours in the night, and this after

having been in line or on the march continuously for two days