690 Norto Caroiina Troops, 1861-65.

in a few minutes they would be perforated with bullets from
the Yankee sharpshooters; and woe to the man who exposed
himself within range or within sight of one of those sharp-
shooters. The picket lines of the two armies were within
speaking distance of each other, and frequent conversations
were had between them when the officers would permit it to
be done; and at all times, both day and night, solid shot or
mortar shells fell in the midst of our line. :

Here both armies settled for the rest of the summer, and
the regiment remained on Mortar Hill and near the memor-
able crater, until the latter part of August, when it was moved
to the right of Petersburg, where it remained until about 29
or 30 September, when Hoke’s Division took up its line of
march back to Richmond and down the river to take part in
the memorable fight of Fort Harrison. The brigade to which
the Sixty-sixth was attached was not actually engaged in that
fight, but remained in supporting distance and was ready, if
it had been ordered so to do, to take part in the assault.

Upon the resignation of W. G. Williams, who was Adju-
tant of the regiment up to that time, the writer, who had been
a cadet at the Virginia Military Institute, and who had re-
cently been appointed First Lieutenant in the regular Con-
federate Army, was assigned to duty as Adjutant of this
regiment. The facts given above were related to him by
the officers with whom he was associated ever.afterwards in
the regiment until the surrender at or near High Point. It
is to be regretted that some one who was familiar with the
gallant part the regiment took up to that time in the battles
around Petersburg and Richmond, had not been selected to do
full justice to the gallant officers and men of this regiment—»
than whom there were no better in the Confederate Army.
He has no personal knowledge, and has only gathered these
dates and facts from the records or traditions in the regiment
at the time of his assignment to it, and from facts gathered
since he was called upon to write a sketch of this regiment.
He joined the troops while in winter quarters on the Darby-
town road in September, 1864, and from that day until 2
May, 1865, was with the command the whole time, not being
absent a single day, and the facts given hereafter in the

Srxty-SixtH Regiment. 691

sketch are of his own knowledge, and the matters are known
to him.

NORTH OF THE JAMES.

Hoke’s Division after the battle of Fort Harrison, was
kept on the north side of the James, between what is known
as the Darbytown and the Charles City roads, and was left
there for the purpose of watching the movements of Grant
on that side of the river and for the purpose of holding a
considerable part of his command there, and preventing’ it
from taking part in the siege of Petersburg. It was assigned
to the work of throwing up breastworks, strengthening the
approaches, occasionally making demonstrations upon the
enemy and repelling assaults upon our line, though no very
serious action took place while occupying this position. The
division was composed of the brigades of Colquitt, Clingman,
Haygood and Kirkland, the Sixty-sixth being part of Kirk-
land’s Brigade.

New and comfortable winter quarters had been built ; the
line had been greatly strengthened ; abatis had been placed in
front of the breastworks, and the men were not only ready,
but anxious for an attack to be made upon them. Several
demonstrations were made and easily and gallantly repulsed.

While occupying these lines in N: ovember, 1864, word fre-
quently came that our division was to be ordered to North
Carolina. Whenever it became the duty, as was often the
case, of the officers to wake up the men at the sound of the long
roll in the night time and an order was given to prepare ra-
tions for three days, word would be given out along the line
that we were going to North Carolina. A shout along the
whole line would be raised and Gaston’s grand old song, “The
Old North State,” could be heard from every North Carolina
mouth in that division. On more than one occasion, how-
ever, instead of going to North Carolina as a division, the
order was given to “Unsling knapsacks and go over the breast-
works” upon some demonstration, or to engage in some skir-
mish to direct Grant’s attention in that direction.

On 27 October, or about that time, a strong demonstration
was made against us, and with a shout and a cheer the enemy