664 Norra Carorina Troops, 1861~’65.

no new service for the fate of the Sixty-fourth seemed to be
“guard and march,” and “march and guard.” On — of
November the command was ordered to Hot Springs, N. C.,
and was on a forced march the whole day, but did not arrive
in time for the battle in which the noble Major Jno. W. Wood-
fin was killed; yet they marched more than forty miles that
day and part of the night, camping for the remainder of the
night at Marshall, fifteen miles up the river towards Ashe-
ville.

After the killing of Major John W. Woodfin, of the Four-
teenth Battalion, and the capture of General R. B. Vance, our
people were much depressed. Our army, under the peerless
Lee in Virginia, had fallen back from Maryland and Penn-
sylvania and Vicksburg with all our water line along the
Mississippi had surrendered.

The clouds were lowering around us. Our noble comrades,
now languishing on Johnson’s Island and Camp Chase, were
rapidly dying, heroically refusing to take the oath of allegi-
ance to the United States.

The heroic band of the Sixty-second, Sixty-fourth, with
parts of the Sixty-ninth and Eightieth North Carolina, were
practically always on the march, and only those familiar
with the mountains of East Tennessee and Western North
Carolina can have an idea of the hardships endured.

Our enemies were at home—knew all the roads, by-ways
and trails, and were much in heart over the success of their
arms elsewhere. There in East Tennessee we slashed them
every time we had a chance at them. They never gave us a
fair fight, square-up, face-to-face, man-to-man, horse-to-horse.
If they did, it was another Bull’s Gap (Bull Run in minia-
ture) as at Strawberry Plains, Morristown, Greenville,
Blountville or Rogersville, and the Dandridge stampede.

Some times the boot was on the other leg—we had to “hit

the grit,” as the boys say, but never when we had half, or one-
third of a chance.

FIGHTING BUSHWHACKERS.

Soon after the enemy had taken Knoxville, in East Ten-
nessee, and Major Kirk had gotten some recruits in Western

Srxty-FourtH REGIMENT. 665

North Carolina, the disloyal sentiment began to spread in sey-
eral counties and it required heavy scouting to keep the en-
emy down. So after the surrender of the Sixty-fourth Reg-
iment those who were fortunate enough to make their escape
from the enemy and recruited the service in Western North
Carolina, were not all in a body but in different squads. One
commanded by Captain Candler, of Company ©, one by Cap-
tain Anderson, of Company F, one by Lieutenant-Colonel J.
A. Keith, who later resigned. He was stationed most of the
time at Marshall, in Madison County, and did good service
in a hard place. The writer of this sketch was the senior
Captain and the field officers being prisoners of war, in the
absence of Lieutenant-Colonel Keith and after his resigna-
tion, had command of the regiment, or so much of it as was
together at any time and was stationed at different places in
Madison, Buncombe and Henderson Counties. From these
headquarters we made many hard scouts in different parts of
the country. No one except those who have tried it can real-
ize what those who do this kind of service have to undergo.
In some respects it is easier than being in the regular army,
but in some others it is not.

During the months of December, 1863, and January and
February, 1864, we made many scouts down into East Ten-
nessee. One of these I will endeavor to describe, which
might well be called a “bluff.” Colonel Palmer took about
two hundred men and one little mountain howitzer and made
a raid down as far as Russelville, five miles above Morris-
town. While there our cavalry began passing him and he
marched on up to Bull’s Gap, fifteen miles above Morris-
town, when it was discovered that all our cavalry had passed
us going back, and that the enemy’s cavalry were in pursuit,
so Colonel Palmer selected his battle ground, placed his little
howitzer, put a small protection before it, put out a line of
skirmishers and a picket which included all the men he had.
As the enemy advanced, our pickets fired and fell back. Then
our line of skirmishers gave them a few shots and fell back.
The howitzer then opened. That was more than they could

-stand, they no doubt thought it was a trap set for them and

expected the Confederate cavalry would cut them off, so they