420 NortH Caroiina Troops, 1861-’65.

eral skirmishes with the cavalry of the enemy. It brought up
the rear of the army when it recrossed the Potomac, skirmish-
ing with the enemy, at intervals, but getting across the river
with no great loss. After crossing the men started for Win-
chester. At this time the regiment was in command of Major
Craige. On the march they met the enemy east of Winchester.
The action began with the sharpshooters of the brigade, com-
manded by Captain John Beard, and with this skirmish line
the enemy were twice driven back. They, however, suc-
ceeded in getting a body of cavalry in the rear, and Captain
Beard was ordered to fall back. In this action Major Craige,
commanding the Fifty-seventh Regiment, was severely
wounded in the knee and thereafter incapacitated for active
field service. The regiment participated in all the subse-
quent actions in the valley, the now historic contest between
Early and Sheridan for the mastery of that luckless region. |

THE WINCHESTER FIGHT.

On 19 September occurred near Winchester another very
serious engagement. General Pegram had been attacked
by a heavy force and General Godwin, with his brigade, went
in haste to his support. Pegram, overwhelmed, was retreat-
ing when Godwin came up. This for a time threw Godwin’s
Brigade in confusion, and here again the Fifty-seventh Regi-
ment exhibited its old-time steadiness. It rallied first in the
retreat and upon it the rest of the brigade soon rallied and
opposed the advance of the enemy. At this point General
Ramseur, in command of the division, finding the position
untenable, took up a new position about 600 yards to the rear.
Then ensued a very desperate and bloody fight. Time and
again the enemy assailed the line and time and again they
were repulsed with great loss. This continued until sun-
down, the fight having lasted nearly all day, when the Fed-
eral troops again turned our flank and compelled our some-
what precipitate retreat. From this battlefield and under
these circumstances Godwin’s Brigade, after an all-day’s des-
perate fight, and with the enemy threatening and pressing its
flank, came back in perfect order and without the slightest
sign of confusion.

Firty-SeventH REGIMENT.

GENERAL GODWIN FALLS.

It bore with it, however, the dead body of its beloved com-
mander, for General Godwin had fallen dead in the thickest
of the fight. Captain Beard tells how, after one of the many
attacks of the enemy had been repulsed, General Godwin
rode up to him and with his hand on his shoulder said: “I
am proud of the conduct of my old regiment, the Fifty-sev-
enth.” Before Captain Beard had time to reply a shell ex-
ploded just over them and a fragment striking him in the
head, he fell from his horse into Captain Beard’s arms, dead.
The writer has spoken elsewhere of this gallant gentleman
and brave soldier and would be glad, if space permitted him,
to say more here, but will add only this, that he was univer-
sally beloved as a man and universally admired as a soldier
by all his comrades throughout his entire service. A Vir-
ginian in command of a North Carolina regiment, and after-
wards of a North Carolina brigade, he was as much beloved
and admired by those under him as if he had been a North
Carolinian or they Virginians.

There died on that battlefield another man in humble
rank and far less famous, but none the less loyal and true,
He was a color-bearer of the Fifty-seventh Regiment—Geo.
B. Swink, of Company C, from Rowan county. After being
wounded, and his color-guard almost destroyed, he stuck his
colors in the ground and seizing a rifle fell dead, fighting for
the maintenance of his cause and his flag.

After this engagement the brigade fell back to Fisher’s
Hill. Sheridan having followed Early up the Valley the two

forces again confronted each other at Fisher’s Hill. There

was considerable and heavy skirmishing for twenty-four hours
at that place, in which the Fifty-seventh Regiment took a
prominent part. The Federal troops, however, succeeded in
turning General Early’s flank and getting partly in his rear,
and the Confederate forces were driven in confusion still
further up the Valley, with Sheridan still at their heels, till
they reached Brown’s Gap, where another stand was made.

END OF THE VALLEY FIGHTING.

About the middle of October, Early again moved down the