342 NortH Carouina Troops, 1861-’65.

and connected with our left flank as we struck the fortifica-
tions,—redoubt and entrenched camp.

Major Graham’s prisoners, some 300 of infantry and artil-
lery, were turned over to Captain Joseph G. Lockhart, when
under shelter of a ravine, uniting his. battalion with Hoke’s
Brigade, he swept down first the west and then the south in-
trenchments to Fort Williams, into which General Wessels
had withdrawn with the remnant of his army. The Twenty-
fourth came up on the other side. After consultation aie
Colonel Lewis, it was deemed unnecessary to assault it, as its
pian would be compelled by our artillery with itie aid of
: arpshooters being rapidly posted to overlook its interior

rom the windows and tops of the nearest houses. The two
opposing generals then met in a personal interview, and the
= to capitulate was refused. But the diecritabad was
pe ——— ~ raising a white flag, as we had silenced
3 cuca the part assigned to Harrill’s men, under their
earless leader, had been as effectually accomplished. Through
oe hip deep, they had crossed the canal and swamp ai
: st sae the river, passing around houses and bursting
ap gh garden and yard fences, they reached the rear of
sattery Worth, containing the 200-pounder, specially pro-
vided to anticipate the coming of our iron-clad fer
One volley was sufficient. The white flag was run up and the
battery, with some twenty artillerymen, surrendered to him
Taking the prisoners with them from this battery on the
river, they immediately charged to their left and thus struck
in the flank and rear the right section of the enemy’s line of
battle oceupying the breastworks, here on Water street, fac-
ing up the river. His demand to surrender was nino tl
complied with, and while Harrill here gathered in his a
ers, largely outnumbering his own rank and file. Gen men
who had held the attention of the enemy in ith front came
in at a double-quick over the causeway leading sistas the
swamp on the west of Plymouth passed Harrill’s ation
and joined Graham’s detachment at the upper ravi t ;
to the south, as above noted. splat eat aaisn

How does it happen, then, that the capture of Battery

Firry-SixtH REGIMENT. 343

Worth, or Fort Hal, noted above as by Company I, has been
claimed for Company B, with whom were Colonel Faison
and Colonel Dearing, a portion of the Twenty-fifth support-
ing the artillery? Both claims are literally true.

A correspondent to the Fayetteville Observer, 22 April,
1864, says: “On the river face of the town was a camp en-
trenched to resist any attack from the water, and a little lower
down an earthwork for the same purpose.” The latter, admit-
ted to be Battery Worth, we must observe the distinction be-

tween the two, though close together.
‘As to the time of the first movement, Captain Harrill’s re-

port is embodied in the foregoing narration. General Wes-
sells report: “At daylight the following day, 20 April, while
my right and front were seriously threatened, the enemy ad-

vanced rapidly against my left, assaulting and carrying the
penetrating the town along the river and

line in that quarter,
capturing Battery Worth.”
not yet captured, and as no other
that quarter at that early hour,

Battery Worth is thus affirmed.
From this point of time General Wessells thus continues:

“A line of skirmishers was formed from the breastworks per-
pendicularly towards the river in hopes of staying the ad-
vance. This effort succeeded for a time; but the troops
seemed discouraged and fell back to the entrenchments.”

The conduct of the Fifty-sixth was well calculated to create
such discouragement, as it broke through all obstacles, driving
the enemy from the streets, yards, houses, cellars, and bomb-
proofs from which Major Graham says they came out like a
colony of prairie puppies, or ground hogs on the 2d of Feb-
ruary. As those not captured in this charge were thus gradu-
ally pressed back to their double-faced entrenchments, the in-
fantry garrison in the entrenched camp at Battery Worth,

approach and, owing to the contour of the
s side of the fortifications when

before had taken the artillery-
now to have had their attention

Albemarle down stream
They now

This left the entrenched camp
Confederate troops were in
the claim of Company I to

guarding the water
ground, not in sight from hi
Capt. Harrill some two hours

men out of the battery, appear
diverted from the commotion of the

to their right and Hoke up the river to their left.