408 NortH Carontina Troops, 1861-’65.

a sign of confusion, and the line was formed as accurately as
if on parade; then at “quick step” it started for the enemy’s
line on the railroad. It was in full view of almost the entire
Confederate army on the surrounding hills, and of a larger
part of the Federal along the Bowling Green road. As it
started there came a cheer from the hills. The line moved at
“quick step,” with arms at right-shoulder-shift. The enemy’s
artillery redoubled its fire, but the marksmanship was bad,
and the regiment was receiving little punishment, and moved
as if on parade. At about 400 yards the enemy opened with
their rifles from the railroad, but the regiment had been or-
dered not to return the fire until the enemy broke, and so
they marched in silence. Then the files began to fall out,
killed or wounded sometimes from shells and sometimes from
the infantry fire, but the gaps were closed up and the regi-
ment marched steadily forward still silent. Then the bul-
lets flew thick and the ground in the wake of the regiment
began to be strewn with those brave men, thicker and thicker.
Then the fire became terrific, and at about 125 yards from the
railroad the order was given to “double-quick.” Then it was
that those men who had never seen a battle before, had never
seen Confederate troops in action, raised that Confederate
yell that seemed to be a part of the nature of the Confederate
troops. There was a sudden dash forward into the thunder
and smoke of guns, and the Fifty-seventh Regiment was at
the railroad with their guns loaded, and those of the enemy
who had not fled were captured then and there. The regi-
ment had received no orders to halt at the railroad, so Colonel
Godwin, in obedience to what he considered his orders,
planted his colors upon the far bank of the railroad, and im-
mediately the regiment was again in line and making towards
the Bowling Green road. It was now attacked upon its flank,
yet it never faltered nor hesitated until it had gone through
this ordeal, a distance of nearly 200 yards, and an order came
from General Law to retire to the railroad. Then was seen
what is rarely seen even with veteran troops. The regiment
faced about under a murderous fire, marched back and took
its position in the railroad cut without confusion. Just be-
fore this movement, Company F, from Cabarrus, which oc-

Firty-SEvENTtH REGIMENT. 409

cupied the left of the line, made a half turn to the left and
held the enemy in check upon Hazel Run while the regiment
was retiring to the railroad. It was one company standing
alone in the midst of a great battle field, and yet when its
task was done it went in good order to the railroad. The
struggle had lasted in all perhaps twenty-five minutes, and
in that time 250 of the Fifty-seventh Regiment were stretched
dead or wounded upon the plain. Of the officers, four of the
Captains were either killed or permanently disabled. Cap-
tain Miller and his two Lieutenants—Frank Hall and Law-
son Brown—were killed; Captain Cannon, of the Cabarrus
company, was permanently disabled, and Captain Speck, of
Lincoln county, lost a leg. Captain E. J. Butner, of Com-
pany D, from Forsyth, was also killed.

This was the first experience of this regiment in battle, and
the writer looks back now in wonderment how these raw
troops endured so manfully the shock of such awful battle.
They were nearly all conscripts and nine-tenths of them were
farmers or farmers’ sons from the counties mentioned above.
They fought under the eye of their comrades on the hills, who
cheered them with a mighty cheer when they came back to
the railroad. They fought, too, under the eye of their great
commander-in-chief, and he repaid them with a flattering
notice in an order issued the next day. This regiment
was engaged in many battles after this, and when it sur-
rendered at Appomattox its fame was still untarnished, but
it had no such trial as befell it upon the threshold of its
experience. The lesson that the writer drew from this ex-
perience was that, the high-spirited Scotch-Irish and the pa-
tient Germans of North Carolina are unsurpassed in the qual-
ities that go to make great soldiers.

It is not the purpose of the writer in any degree to dispar-
age the conduct of the Fifty-fourth North Carolina Regi-
ment, for it came across that awful plain in good order, but
the place assigned it was too far in the rear to break the force
in any great measure or the shock to the Fifty-seventh, but
it did all that it could do and all that it was required to do,
under the leadership of its gallant commander, Colonel James

C. S. MeDowell.