3892 NortH Carotina Troops, 1861-’65.

make the procession more interesting as we returned. While
we had advanced and taken their second line, they had lessen-
ed the gap we had made in their first line, finally overwhelm-
ing and capturing half of Company I, with its gallant Captain
fighting to the last, and their trenches here were lined now
with men by whom we had to rush on our return without an
exchange of compliments. In this galling fire on our flank,
many good men went down, and it is a matter of sincere re-
gret that subsequent events have allowed no opportunity to
get a complete list of casualties even in any company. In
this enfilade, Major Graham fell, pierced through both legs
by the same ball, but was borne by his devoted men within the
lines, directed by the gallant Lieut. V. J. Palmer, and Capt.
W. G. Graves. On his way to the rear the stretcher was
stopped by a kindly word of General Lee, who inquired his
condition.

The behavior of the whole regiment and brigade was never
better than in this action of 25 March, 1865. Advancing
from a point in the lines that we had held all winter, and of
course considered impregnable against those people, and their
own seeming as strong as ours, no man had faltered in his
duty. The pluck of the Confederate soldier was probably
never better shown than to-day by our Ensign, James M.
Clark, of Orange county. Cut down in the terrible flank
fire, with a leg bone shattered below the knee, he delivered
the colors that he had borne aloft through so many storms of
battle, to Bedford McKee, by whom they were brought across
our lines. Then seizing between his teeth the folds of his
blanket, spread beneath him, he crawled over the ground until
safely back in one of our rifle pits. Standard and banner
had been ripped and rent, but never a stain upon its honor.
Company F went in under Captain Grigg with forty-four
men, and came out with only eight under Lieutenant Palmer.

Company I was on the extreme left of that part of the
lines held by the Confederates, and after the battle had been
raging for some time, Captain Harrill received an order
from General Ransom with his compliments, saying the
traverse there must be held. The defense of this traverse
for the time, checked the enemy rushing along their main line

Firry-SixtH REGIMENT. 393

to enfilade the regiment. About 9 or 10°o’clock, as the regi-
ment was withdrawing last from the field, the enemy made
another desperate charge in front and at the same time the
Second Michigan Regiment rushed along the main line and
captured Captain Harrill and about twenty of the company,
while Lieutenants J. M. Walker and P. H. Gross and some
twenty of the men escaped with the regiment. J. C. Gross
and Thomas Robbins were killed. Lieutenant Walker, in
command of the remnant of Company I, passed through the
battle of Five Forks and some skirmishes on the retreat to
Appomattox.

The post of the regiment was a most critical and impor-
tant one, protecting the flank and rear of others, withdrawn
one by one, ahead of it, and it might have surrendered with
honor after this was accomplished and itself almost sur-
rounded at close quarters. But it was needed back on the
line, and to the line it went, though with a loss of about 250,
over onehalf. Major Graham and Captain Graham were
taken from the Confederate hospital to be the guests of Mr.
Wm. R. Johnson, and received every attention from that ele-
gant and patriotic family, and the well known physician, Dr.
Lassiter. Here General Ransom was our earliest caller and
telegraphed our friends of the provision made for our com-
fort.

In this battle the gallant Captain Taylor, of Company B,
Fifty-sixth, from Fayetteville, lost a leg, and Captain White
was shocked by the immediate explosion of a shell.

It was said that Pickett’s Division had failed to make con-
nection with our left because of the breaking down of the
railroad trains furnished them. Exactly the dimensions of
this sortie, the writer has never learned, but it was evidently
a reconnoissance, possibly to be followed up by a last desper-
ate venture. (General Lee’s report sustains this view, and
says he found the enemy’s interior line too strong to be taken
without a costly sacrifice of life.) The loss probably fell
heaviest on the Fifty-sixth North Carolina, as it was the last
to retire; but we were in no condition to lose one man even
for four of the enemy. The Federal officers met during the
removal of the dead, were exultant and evidently found some