674 Nortu Carqguina Troops, 1861-65.

assigned to duty in the Sixty-fifth Regiment, but in conse-
quence of wounds received in a battle in Maryland in Septem-
ber, 1862, being prevented from-active duty he resigned and
was succeeded by Major J. J. Spann. A number of privates
from Company A, of the Ninth Regiment, were also trans-
ferred to the new regiment, these assigned chiefly to Captain
Council’s Company B, Sixty-fifth. Captain Council himself
(a native of North Carolina) came as the commander of Com-
pany B from a South Carolina Regiment which had done
valiant service in the armies of the Confederacy at Fort Sum-
ter, Manassas, Chickamauga and elsewhere. Major J. J.
Spann had resigned a position in the old United States army
from a station on the Western frontier; and being commis-
sioned Major by the Confederate Government, came to the
Sixty-fifth. Major A. H. Baird, of the Fifth Battalion, was
promoted Lieutenant-Colonel of the new regiment.

In the official roster of the North Carolina troops edited by
Major J. W. Moore—a work confessedly defective— there
occur many errors, wrong figures and repetitions, especially
about the Sixty-fifth Regiment. These transfers from other
commands to this regiment as well as the confusion incident
to consolidations of the two battalions into the new regiment,
and the subsequent reorganizations, have been a fruitful
source of many of these errors.

One company appears to have been counted twice, once as
B, and then again as F, Captain W. P. Moore. This error
and others must be explained through the confusion incident
to consolidations and reorganizations, and in the various
changes in the letter designations of the different companies
which went from the two battalions into the one regi-
ment. The distinctive organizations of three companies,
those originally commanded by Captains Lusk, English and
Gillespie, almost entirely were broken up and absorbed
by other companies, after the capture of two of these of-
ficers by the enemy in 1862. The names of many of the
men captured were finally dropped from the rolls. It is due
to the memory of these men for me to state that my connec-
tion with the command began at a date subsequent to their
capture in battle; and I have been unable up to this writing

Sixty-Firra Reaiment. 675

to obtain from any of the survivors the proper data necessary
for representing them fully in this history.

Captain J. S. Folk’s command was originally an artillery
company composed largely of men and officers from Tennes-
see and Virginia. Captain Folk himself was a Virginian,
and never at any time a resident of North Carolina. In the
final reorganization of the regiment, his company, merged
into a cavalry command, received many accessions in men
and officers from the broken ranks of the companies above re-
ferred to, this after it had become known that General Grant’s
orders forbidding further exchange of prisoners was perma-
nent.

In the final reorganization and lettering of the companies

of the Sixty-fifth regiment they appeared in the following
order:

Men. Officers. Total.
Co. A—Capt. B. R. Brown, 89 r oo.

Co. B—Capt. W_ B. Council, 89 4 93
Co. C—Capt. James Cansler, formerly 27 5 ‘
Capt. Joseph Dobson, } ‘ ? ”
Co. D— apt. J. W. Cash, 56 3 59
Co. E—Capt W_E. McDowell, formerly 3 rp
Capt. J. W Siler, j aA
Co. F—Capt. W. P. Moore, 46 4 50
Co. G—Capt. J. S. Folk, estimated. 50 3 53
Co. H—Capt. Junius C. Tate, estimated, 55 3 58
Co. [ —Capt. V. S. Lusk, 13 1 14
In Moore’s Roster, Captain Brown’s company is given as
M; Captain Councill’s company is L; Captain Dobson’s C;
Captain Gash’s is E; Captain Siler’s is A; Captain Moore’s
appears as both B and F. Captain Gillespie appears there
as commanding Company D; and Captain English as Com-
pany K. Captain Lusk was never with the regiment after
its organization. I trust that a history of the operations of
his battalion previous to the consolidation will appear from
the pen of some one competent to impart justice to the sol-
diers. What has been said in this sketch in regard to the
errors of other reports must not be regarded as the inspiration
of a censorious spirit. Major Moore, in the various foot notes
and elsewhere in his work, has confessed to his inability to
impart clearness and the fullest truth at all times to his sub-

ject, and especially in regard to the facts pertaining to the