550 Nort Carorina Troops, 1861~’65.

lin Press, Macon county, N. C., 29 August, and 12 Septem-
ber, 1900, says this about its organization :

“Major White, a Virginian, connected with the ordnance
department at Greensboro, received authority from the See-
retary of War to raise a battalion of mounted men to be
known as ‘Partisan Rangers,’ to operate under ‘Stonewall’
Jackson in the Valley of Virginia. Four companies were
thus enlisted—three in the county of Guilford, to-wit: Whar-
ton’s, Faucett’s and Rankin’s, and one in Davie county, Cap-
tain Booe’s. In August, I think, these companies were mus-
tered into service, and soon afterward orders to report to Gen-
eral Robertson at Garysburg, near Weldon, N. C., were re-
ceived. My own and Captain Booe’s companies moved
promptly and reported to General Robertson as ordered, the
other two companies following a few days later. On our ar-
rival it was learned that a regiment was to be formed by unit-
ing our battalion and that of Major Evans, who had a similar
organization in the eastern part of the State. In fact, other
detachments were ordered to this point sufficient to form two
regiments, afterwards commanded respectively by Colonels
Evans and Ferrebee, composing Robertson’s Brigade and thus
instead of a body of Partisan Rangers, we became parts of
regiments of regular troops. The companies of Wharton,
Booe and Rankin were assigned to Colonel Evans’ Regiment,
and Faucett to Colonel Ferrebee’s.”

*Volume 69, page 1252, Official Records Union and Con-
federate Armies, General R. E. Lee, writing General Cooper,
Adjutant and Inspector General, 1 April, 1864, says:

“Your cirenlar of 23 March with reference to Partisan
Rangers has been received. The organizations of Partisan
Rangers with this army are the Fourth and Fifth North
Carolina Cavalry,” ete. “Of these, the Fourth and Fifth
North Carolina Regiments have been serving as regular cav-
alry, and will come under Act No. 19, published in General
Orders No. 29, Adjutant and Inspector General’s Office, cur-
rent series, being continued in their present organization as

*It will be remembered that all through this itati
to the Serial Volume, or No.—Ep. : ee

Stxty-Tuirp REGIMENT. 551

regular cavalry.” And in the same paper General Lee thus
expresses his opinion of Partisan Rangers:

“Experience has convinced me that it is almost impossible,
under the best officers even, to have discipline in these bands
of Partisan Rangers, or to prevent them from becoming an
injury instead of a benefit to the service.”

On page 194, Vol. 129, is found that part of ‘General
Orders No. 29,” referred to by General Lee. It thereby ap-
pears that the Partisan Rangers act of 21 April, 1862, was
repealed 17 February, 1864, and that all so-called Partisan
Rangers “acting as regular cavalry shall be continued in their
present organizations and shall hereafter be considered as
regular cavalry and not as Partisan Rangers.”

Thus, while the name of their enlistment seems to have
attached for some time to the Sixty-third (Fifth Cavalry)
as Partisan Rangers, according to Captain Rankin and the
record, they were in fact always “regular cavalry,” and thus
freed from the ill repute given Partisan Rangers by General
Lee.

The organization of the regiment occurred at Garysburg
in August, 1862, with Peter G. Evans as Colonel; Stephen
B. Evans, Lieutenant-Colonel; James M. MeNeill, Major; J.
Turner Morehead, Adjutant, and Charles Haigh, Sergeant
Major, and, shortly after on 10 October, 1862, this regiment
became a part of General Beverly H. Robertson’s Cavalry
Brigade at Garysburg, in accordance with orders in Volume
40, page 823.

SERVICES IN NORTH CAROLINA.

The regiment did duty in Eastern North Carolina until
May, 1863, when it joined the Army of Northern Virginia.
General Robertson was “a good organizer and instructor,” as
General R. E. Lee, himself, terms him dn Vol. 26, page
1088. And under his instruction and West Point discipline
the regiment was well drilled in cavalry tactics, perfected in
picket duty on outposts and trained in other elements of its
future greatness and was also in action in North Carolina.

THE FIGHT AT PLYMOUTH.

This was a very successful and in some respects peculiar