522 NortH Carotina Troops, 1861-’65.

to say, and will be a pleasure to me to know as long as I live,
that men never behaved with more coolness and courage than
did the men of the Sixty-second Regiment. Kain’s Battery,
commanded by Lieutenant O’Connor, was stationed on what
was known as the East Mountain, only a short distance from
where I was on duty with my regiment. We had been ad-
vised during the day of the 9th of the repeated demands that
had been made for the surrender of the Gap, and of General
Frazer’s refusal, and felt entirely confident that we would
not be surrendered, because it was utterly unnecessary owing
to the fact that he could take the entire command out of the
Gap at any time, against any odds. The situation was such
that he could not have been prevented from doing so; and he
well understood this if he understood anything. It was un
derstood all along the line that the battle would open at noon
on 9 September, 1863. Noon came, but no battle. The
writer went up on top of the East Mountain and found Lieu-
tenant Thomas O’Connor at his battery, from which point of
vantage we had a splendid view of Burnside’s army and all
that was going on. We both observed: that flags of truce
were passing in and out of the Gap rather too frequently to
make us feel comfortable, but we had no information, though
we suspected that something was wrong in some way. Just
about sunset that day, a courier come to me from General Fra-
zer with an order to report at the General’s headquarters, with
my regiment at once Then I began to realize that our suspi-
cions were well founded. I returned to the Gap with my
men, who had been on duty for nearly a week without inter-
mission or relief, but not a man had flinched from duty for
a moment. There I found General Frazer sitting in front
of his tent surrounded by his staff officers. All the command-
ing officers of regiments and batteries arrived at General Fra-
zer’s headquarters about the same time. That was abso-
lutely the only consultation called, and we were then informed
by General Frazer that we were surrendered. Every officer
bitterly opposed being surrendered, and some of them de
nounced it in the most vigorous terms as cowardly and un-
warranted by the conditions surrounding us at the time.

A detachment of sixty men (not one hundred and twenty-

Sixty-Sreconp REGIMENT. 523

five as stated by General Frazer), had been detailed from
the various regiments to guard a little mill which rested just
at the foot of the mountain on the south side, and which
served to grind meal for the army at the Gap. Immediately
in front of this little mill was Burnside’s whole army. The
Federal commander sent a force sufficient for the purpose,
which under cover of heavy artillery firing, attacked the guard
at this mill and dispersed it, the guard being utterly insuffi-
cient to meet the emergency. They could do nothing but
fall back on the command in the Gap, or stand and be shot
down like brutes, as they would have been, had they not fallen
back on their commands. And yet the gallant General Fra-
zer and his engineer, Rush VanLeer, would have according
to their own statement, 125 men hold this mill against Burn-
side’s whole army, numbering anywhere from 10,000 to
20,000 men.

ESCAPE,

When I was told by General Frazer that I had been sur-
rendered, and that I and my regiment were prisoners of war,
my indignation and that of my regiment knew no bounds. I
informed him that I would not be made a prisoner of war;
that it took two to make such a bargain as that under the cir-
cumstances, and that he could not force me to do so. Sharp
words were exchanged, and I called up all of the Sixty-second
Regiment who were willing to take their lives in their own
hands and all of the other commands in the Gap who were
willing to join us, and said to them, “If you will go with me,
we will go out from here, and let consequences take care of
themselves.”

In all about 600 responded, and led by Colonel Slemp and
a man from Abingdon, Va., whose name was Page, as I now
remember, both of whom were perfectly familiar with the
country, we moved out of the Gap, eastward, passing Kain’s
battery and pushing one rifle piece over the cliff as we went
along. We made our way along the north side of the moun-
tain, on the Kentucky side, until we reached a point opposite
Jonesville, where we encountered a pursuing force of Fed-
eral cavalry. Our entire escaping force had kept their guns