636 Nortu Carorina Troops, 1861-’65.

in it as any man, because I saw and spoke to him then and
there and congratulated him on his safety.

On page 952, Hampton says: “I sent one regiment at
daylight the next morning to follow to the Nottaway river”
* * * and “withdrew my force to Stony Creek.”

The “Sketches” say: ‘Next day, 11 December, our cav-
alry all returned to camp, except the Sixty-third North Car-
olina Regiment, with which General Barringer followed the
enemy until they crossed the Nottaway, when he gave up the
pursuit. Thus ended the memorable campaign of 1864.”

And, according to the written records, it “ended” with this
remarkable coincidence: At White Hall, 6 May, 1864, the
Sixty-third North Carolina Regiment, with the Nineteenth,
was the first regiment, or part of a regiment, of our brigade in
battle and 11 December, 1864, it was, alone, the last regiment
of that great brigade to leave the field and the foe on the banks
of the Nottaway. And, according to my “Sketches,” ap-
proved by General Barringer and Colonel Cheek, as has been
shown, at White Hall “our loss was severe, especially in the
Sixty-third, which bore the brunt of the action and had eigh-
teen men killed and wounded.” And in saying this nor in
anything that I have said, the Sixty-third North Carolina
Regiment would not take one laurel from the glory-crowned
brows of the Ninth and the Nineteenth and the Forty-first.
Their glory is ours and ours is theirs in jointly glorifying the
North Carolina Cavalry Brigade.

On page 437, Vol. 1, of these histories, General Barringer
has summed up the losses of the brigade for the campaign of
1864. A child’s caleulation will show that the “losses” of
the Sixty-third were just fifty-five more than any other regi-
ment of the brigade.

And in this connection I quote from a letter of Dr. Paul B.
Barringer, Chairman of the Faculty of the University of
Virginia, and a son of General Barringer, written to the
widow of General Barringer from the University of Virginia,
Charlottesville, Va., 1 June, 1900. Dr. Barringer writes: “It
is strange, but a fact, that of all the men of father’s brigade
buried at this place, the old Sixty-third furnished more than
the other three regiments put together.”

Srxty-Tuirp Rreemment. 637

And here is another remarkable coincidence from the rec-
ords of the grave and of written history. And these were the
dead of the regiments of our brigade in the campaigns prior
to 1863. They were the dead of Middleburg, Upperville, Cul-
pepper, ete., killed in 1863.

THE CAMPAIGN OF 1865.

The hard winter of 1864-5 bore heavily and sorely on the
Army of Northern Virginia, but with especial severity on our
cavalry. We had to march over thirty miles to picket from
our winter quarters near Belfield. Frequent movements of
the enemy forced us to make long and hard marches; the
country was almost entirely exhausted of both long and short
forage, and raids of the enemy kept our communications cut
fully a third of the winter. But such was the heroic spirit of
the men and such their devotion to duty that they overcame
all difficulties and, when the campaign of 1865 opened, the
North Carolina Cavalry Brigade numbered 1,788 officers and
effective mounted men in camp present for duty.” My
Sketches and Vol. 95, p. 390.

The general reader can never see the “Official Records of
the Union and Confederate Armies,” to which I have referred
so often by citation of volume and page, and instead of making
such references now in order that such reader may see for
himself the truth from another source than my “Sketches,”
about the hardships of the winter of 1864-5, even at the peril
of being considered painfully prolix and of being criticised
for “not sticking to my text,” I quote from pages 1209-1210,
Vol. 96, the following:

“Hrapguarters Army or Nortuern Virginia,
“February, 8, 1865.

“Hon. James A. Seddon, Secretary of War, Richmond, Va.:

Str:—All the disposable force of the right wing of the
army has been operating against the enemy beyond Hatcher’s
Run since Sunday. Yesterday, the most inclement day of
the winter, they had to be retained in line of battle, having
been in the same condition the two previous days and nights.