526 NortH Caronina Troops, 1861~’65,

Indiana, as our men passed under guard, a crowd of big
rough toughs, crowded around our men and belabored them
much as “miserable cowardly rebels,” ete. Captain Printer
of 55th Georgia, a big strong noble fellow finally said to the
guards, “Stop these cowardly curs, or we will.” They stop-
ped. Notwithstanding all these slanders about this Regi-
ment it can receive no higher endorsement, no greater meed
of praise, no more complete refutation of slanders, than the
fact that though in prison, the dreadful prisons of the North,
for 23 months, not a single man took the oath of allegiance to
the North, although it was offered to them often. Many of the
command were sick, starved, frozen to death. Shot down for
any or no pretense, all kinds of insults and indignity were
daily, monthly and yearly thrust into their faces. Disloyal
indeed! Great Heaven!! Who will dare say so again!!!

The whole history of the surrender of Cumberland Gap,
as given out by General Frazer and his staff, and one or two
others who seem to have fallen under his influence, was a fab-
rication intended to mislead the authorities at Richmond,
never dreaming, perhaps, that it would come to the eyes of
the public, and of those who were on the ground and so un-
justly slandered by his report.

We knew, or had been advised of the repeated demands for
the surrender of the Gap, and also that these demands had
been refused, and had not the most remote idea that we were
to be surrendered until I was notified, as I have hereinbefore
stated; and as I stated in my communication of 16 Septem-
ber, 1863, found on pages 636-37, Official Records of Union
and Confederate Armies, Vol. 51.

There was no insubordination among the troops of the
Sixty-second North Carolina Regiment, as far as I knew, and
had there been, I certainly would have known it. Further-
more, there was no want of courage, discipline or determina-
tion among the men. We expected the battle to come on
every moment, and at no time during the whole war did I
ever see, or know, men more disappointed than these were
when they found that they were surrendered without an exhi-
bition of their courage. Stalwart men actually cried like
children when they found that they were surrendered and

 

Srxty-Seconp REGIMENT. ” 527

had to submit to being made prisoners without defending
their right and reputation, that our commanding General
never lost an opportunity to defame.

THE CLOSING SCENES.

The Sixty-second North Carolina Regiment were the very
last men to surrender when the war closed. The fragment
left of the regiment composed part of Palmer’s Brigade at
Asheville 10 March, 1865, and under General Martin aided to
repulse Kirby’s Brigade near that town 5 April, 1865. Many
of them never did take the oath of allegiance. The remnavt of
this regiment, along with other brave and noble men of the old
North State, after General Lee’s surrender in Virginia, re-
sisted a Federal force on the French Broad, near Asheville,
and held them at bay for hours, until overcome by over-
whelming forces and when forced to withdraw, under Col-
onel Clayton, did so and went to their homes and never did
take the oath of allegiance as then required by the Federal
authorities. No braver or more noble hearted men ever lived
than those composing the Sixty-second North Carolina Reg-
iment of Infantry.

B. G. McDowett.

Bristout, TENN.,
30 May, 1901.