524 NortH Caroxtna Troops, 1861-’65.

and ammunition, expecting a collision as we went out, and
being thus prepared, an immediate dash was made by our
men. Having the decided advanage of position, we forced
the Federal cavalry to retire and were permitted to pass
on, the Federals returning to the Gap, after burning the
little town of Jonesville, in Lee county, Va. We made our
way to Bristol, Tennessee, and Zollicoffer, and I at once re-
ported the surrender to Major ©. S. Stringfellow, Adjutant-
General, and awaited further orders from the General com-
manding.

CAMP ON PIGEON RIVER.

After the surrender of Cumberland Gap, the men of the
Sixty-second Regiment who were at home on furlough, and
all those who escaped capture went into camp at Pig-
eon river, in Haywood County, N.C. After remaining there
for a few days, they entered again into active service and
never for one moment flinched from any duty assigned them,
nor from constant danger to which they were exposed, to the
end of the war. In April, 1864, the fragment of the regi-
ment was at Asheville under command of Captain Aug. B.
Cowan and reported 178 men.

About this time Colonel Love resigned as Colonel of the
regiment, and Lieutenant-Colonel Clayton was raised to the
rank of Colonel, and the writer to the rank of Lieutenant-
Colonel, and Captain Rogers, of Company A, to the rank of
Major.

This regiment (and by this I mean that portion which es-
caped capture) engaged in all the East Tennessee campaigns
under General Breckinridge, General Vaughn and General
Williams. The men of this regiment were the very last men
to lay down their arms and very many of them never did
take the oath of allegiance, which was required as every one
knows, of all Confederate soldiers at the close of the war.

Immediately after the surrender of Cumberland Gap, Gen-
eral Frazer and the men who did not escape from the Gap,
were removed to Federal prisons, ‘where those who did not
die from disease remained until the close of the war. On 30
December, 1863, there were 443 of the Sixty-second in person

Srixty-Seconp REGIMENT. 525

at Camp Douglas, 119 Official Records Union and Confeder-
ate Armies, p. T97. What became of General Frazer the
writer does not know. After the surrender of the Gap, so
far as I am advised, he was never heard of again beyond his
lying report above cited, which purports to have been written
at Fort Warren, in Boston harbor, November, 1864.

General Frazer in his report of the surrender of the Gap,
reflects severely and most unjustifiably upon the character of
the troops and morale of the command. I was at my post of
duty from the day the regiment arrived at the Gap till the sur-
render, and knew as much of the morale and character of the
command as General Frazer, or any one else, and do most
positively deny his charges.

On page 611, Vol. 51, Official Records Union and Confed-
erate Armies, he says: ‘“The Colonel was absent and soon
after resigned and became an open advocate of reunion in his
county.” This, of course, refers to Colonel Love, who did
later on resign on account of extreme bad health, from which
he died, as stated herein. But the allegation of his entertain-
ing Union sentiments as published by General Frazer, who
was then in prison and who never saw or heard of Colonel
Love after the surrender of Cumberland Gap, is unfounded
in fact. It is due to the memory of Colonel Love, who was
loyal to the cause of the south, to the very end, and even after
all hope was lost, to denounce this statement as absolutely
untrue.

There are now numerous living witnesses to attest the
truth of the foregoing. It is astonishing to think how do-
cile, loyal and obedient were the men to their superior offi-
cers. It was such a surprise however, that no one had time
to think, ere we were in the hands of our enemies.

General Frazer was bitterly denounced by his broth-
er officers after going to prison, and we are told by good
men like Lieutenant J. M. Tate, Lieutenant R. A. Owen, W.
H. Leatherwood of Haywood county, and others, that the
indignation was so great against him that the Federals chang-
ed him to another prison and permitted him, doubtless glad-
ly, to slander his own men. Indignities were offered to
these brave men all along the way to prison. At Aurora,