654 Norrs Carouina Troops, 1861-65.

Captain Erwin died 19 March, 1901. I have a letter be-
fore me now written by him to me 28 April, 1900. In it he
says: “I took command at Chamberlain Run, after the
death of McNeil and Shaw (Harris being wounded in the
same fight), and held commmand to the finish, * * *
The regiment was at Pannell’s bridge on Staunton river,
when the news of the surrender reached us. We went to
Danville, but without orders, and after we reached there each
Captain took command of his company and inquired the near-
est way to their respective homes.” And this is the quiet,
modest conclusion of the history of the Fifth North Carolina
Cavalry.

FAREWELL.

Comrades of the Fifth North Carolina Cavalry:

At the request of many of you, I undertook this “‘ove’s
labor” for our great regiment. As you, who asked it, well
know, I shrank from it till the last, too long, in fact, with
hope that some other would do the work of this “additional
sketch.” It is finished as best I could, under the cireum-
stances. I would now be false, utterly false to my own heart
if, before leaving it and giving it to you, I did not here ex-
press some feelings overwhelming me. Feelings of thanks.
In what I have done, I have been greatly aided by Lieutenant
Wiley, Baxter Caldwell, John Cahill and others of Company
F, who met me in Charlotte, N. C., several times for entire
days. My thanks to them are sincere and everlasting.

To my old friend and company-comrade, Denson A. Cald-
well, of Concord, always true and faithful and brave, I owe
a debt of gratitude that can never end and that words can
never tell.

Henry Hobson and Foard and Hodges, of Company H,
though in another county, have helped me greatly; and
all along, as I have labored, I could feel the touch and con-
tagion of their exalted enthusiasm, and every old soldier
knows what that means in time of trial. With all my soul I
thank them.

I do not know how I could have gotten along without the
Sketch of Company H, written by Captain Pearson. I cer-

Sixty-Tuirp REGIMENT. 655

tainly never could have told of the death of our much loved
Colonel McNeill as I have without Captain Pearson’s man-
uscript to his company-comrades. As he measured out his
help to me, I now mete out my gratitude to him. He is the
son of Giles William Pearson, whose brother was Chief
Justice Pearson, and his mother was a daughter of An-
derson Ellis, a sister of Governor Ellis; the true blood in his
veins produces good, gracious deeds “when he is old” as it
always will when properly “trained up.” I ask every heart
of yours, comrades, to salute Captain Charles W. Pearson, as
mine does.

Captain Rankin’s sketch of our regiment, unfortunately,
never given in for publication in these histories, was used
freely and most helpfully, and so was Major Galloway’s. I
thank both most sincerely. Mr. Coltrane, here in Concord,
aided me often and well. As he knows, I am greatly grate-
ful.

Thos. B. Bailey, in arranging a meeting between me and
members of Company H, in Mocksville, helped me, as he,
with his Christian modesty, can never realize, and I thank
him most cordially. “Charlie Haigh” and “Bugler Rose,”
by long, personal interviews and courtesies in Fayetteville,
and by much writing most intelligently and cheeringly aided
me; and imy truest tribute of thanks is always theirs. And
a great pile of letters, here too numerous to name, signify the
unselfish aid to me and love for our “cause” of many men
and women, when “the world” says that such love and aid do
not exist. With many, many millions such qualities do not
exist. With millions, who “are the salt of the earth,” they do.
We should try to increase the latter millions.

Senator James D. MeNeill, nephew of Colonel MeNeill,
and his lovely wife, a daughter of Captain James William
Strange, of the “Old Nineteenth,” by their generous, beauti-
ful hospitality at their home in Fayetteville and the presence
there of Colonel McNeill’s daughter, Mrs. Kate Roulhac Ut-
ley, and the intense interest of all of them in our regiment
was a high and helpful inspiration to me in my efforts for
you and their valuable information, which I could not have
obtained elsewhere, aided me beyond all measure and I thank