re ee

 

 

 

 

376 Nortu Carortina Troops, 1861-65.

Captain Harrill. Captain W. G. Graves was disabled for a
time by a shell wound.

Nothing can abate the grim humor of the Confederate sol-
dier. A gentleman appearing on the line in a silk hat was
seriously condoled with upon the loss of his cow. Upon re-
plying that he had never owned a cow, he was asked: ‘‘Well,
then, what are you doing with that churn upon your head in
mourning?” <A little further on he was: requested to con-
tribute that stove pipe to complete a bomb proof. The heal-
ing balm was applied when in sympathetic tones he was told
not to mind those fellows; that they were teasing every fool
that passed by. But the witticisms of the time, running
from grotesque to the pathetic, would make a separate volume.
Behind their flashes may be found the esprit de corps of the
veterans who, in the trenches, faced death almost continu-
ously for ten months.

THE TAR HEELS.

The following, familiar to all the Army of Northern Vir-

ginia, illustrates the complacent pride with which the North
Carolina soldiers adopted the distinctive sobriquet of Tar
Heels, first banteringly given them. Historians had gen-
erally ignored our first. steps in the contest with Great Bri-
tain and disposed of our later domestic status with the
statement that the principal productions of North Carolina
are ‘‘tar, pitch and turpentine’’—which, of excellent quality,
are found in about one-fifth the area of the State. Thus
after one of the fiercest battles, in which their supporting
column was driven from the field and they successfully
fought it out alone, in the exchange of the compliments of the
oceasion the North Carolinians were greeted with the ques-
tion from the passing derelict regiment: “Any more tar down
in the Old North State, boys?’ Quick as thought came the an-
swer: ‘‘No; not a bit; old Jeff’s bought it all up.” “Is that
so; what is he going to do with it?” was asked. “He is going
to put it on you’ns heels to make you stick better in the next
fight.”

20 August. Ransom’s Brigade, under Lieutenant-Colonel
Harris, of the Twenty-fourth, Captain R. D. Graham in

Firry-SixtH REGIMENT. 377

command of the Fifty-sixth, marching through Petersburg
to the extreme right, reported to Major-General Henry Heth.
General Grant, persisting in his left flank movement, is now
uncomfortably near the Weldon Railroad.

BATTLE AT THE DAVIS HOUSE.

21 August. General Heth moves forward to the assault,
with Dearing’s Artillery behind us, playing over the woods
in our front upon the enemy on the far side. Lieutenant-Col-
onel Harris, leading the brigade and Captain W. G. Graves,
who has just returned after recovering from his wound, act-
ing as Colonel of the Fifty-sixth Regiment, with Captain R.
D. Graham acting Lieutenant-Colonel. The five regiments
move forward in splendid style by company front, with inter-
vals corresponding to regimental strength, across the open
field at the Davis house, and just to the east of the Weldon
Railroad. At the skirt of the woods each is thrown forward
into line on its right company, and the battle opens.

As we drive the enemy’s skirmishers before us, their artil-
lery far out in the open field beyond the woods in front and
Dearing’s from our rear, exchange shots, which pass each
other above our heads. Abatis impede our advance; but
once through this, the alignment is quickly restored under a
galling fire, and the movement is steadily forward again.

And now in face of the foe, who are still doing all the
shooting, our line of battle, under the severe punishment it
is receiving at short range, staggers and writhes like a mon-
ster serpent, mortally wounded, and as if about to snap at
every vertebra. A beardless youth shouts: “On with the
yell, boys; on with the yell.”

It had been observed that a soldier never turned to the
rear with this shout of defiance and victory on his lips, and
that its effect was two-fold; subjective, in that it raised to
the highest pitch the enthusiasm of the advancing column ;
and objective, in that it had a correspondingly demoralizing
effect upon the line thus assaulted by a foe who assumed vic-
tory as already assured to them. It does not fail on this oc-
casion. The old Fifty-sixth, in the centre, responds with a
will and volume that the Comanche tribe might have envied ;