710 NortH CaAroLina Troops, 1861-65.

both on the river and railroad running from the former to the
latter place. Many of the men in this company were citi-
zens of Craven county and familiar with the country and
would doubtless have done good service had not the war prac-
tically ended a few days thereafter. They tore up the rail-
road at one point and captured and burnt a steamer and
two barges on the river, all loaded with supplies for the Fed-
erals. On 9 April Colonel Jno. N. Whitford made the follow-
ing report (98 Official Records Union and Confederate
Armes, 1134): “On 5 April Lieutenant Marshall, Com-
pany F, Sixty-seventh North Carolina, burnt the steamer
Mystic, near Maple Cypress. On the same day Captain Tol-
son, Company A, Sixty-seventh Regiment, destroyed a
transport loaded with commissary stores near Cowpen Land-
ing, and on the 7th instant four privates of Company
A, viz: George Hill, Turner May, William Salter and R.
Brewer, captured and burned a side-wheel steamer, the
Minquas, and two barges, all loaded with quartermaster’s
and commissary stores. Very little was saved from the
boats.” The four men named opened fire with their muskets
on the steamer which was immediately run aground on the
other sideof the river. Thecrew and passengers, of whom there
was a considerable number aboard, jumped into the mud and
water on the shore side and made their way into the swamp.
The captors having no boat, swam over to the steamer and
after securing the flag and papers of the steamer and a few
other articles, set fire to all three of the vessels and returned
to their own side of the river. The flag and papers were
brought to the writer of this sketch at Greenville.

In the same report Colonel Whitford further says: “On
the 5th instant Captain Joseph M. White, Company E, Sixty-
seventh Regiment, captured fifteen negroes and two Yankees
at Biddle’s Ferry engaged in trying to raise a sunken craft.
The reason I have not forwarded you a report of my com-
mand is because the companies and regiments are scattered
so far apart that it is impossible to get a report from them.”

These were bold operations in the rear of the whole Fed-
eral army. There were many other daring feats, but the
falling back of Johnston’s army prevented further official

Srxty-SEVENTH REGIMENT. TEL

reports and the lapse of time and the death of so many actors
prevent an authentic and accurate recital of them now. It
should be remembered that the Sixty-seventh and Sixty-
eighth were North Carolina Regiments, which were never
mustered into Confederate service and were paid by the State.

About this time some veterans of Lee’s army arrived in our
camp and told us the sad news of Appomattox. In a few
days the country was full of parties of disbanded Confederate
soldiers returning to their homes. Knowing that our cher-
ished cause was lost in all things except in the influence which
the heroic deeds, the cheerful endurance of hardships and
dangers by the Confederate soldiers and the patriotic and un-
selfish devotion of the women of the Confederacy would ex-
ert upon all who should hereafter read the true history of the
four years’ war, the Sixty-seventh was also disbanded. Most
of the officers and men were from the eastern counties of the
State and went directly to their homes. The writer with Cap-
tain T. M. Robinson, and a few officers and men who were
from the counties of Wayne and Green, made their way to
Stantonsburg in the latter county, and on 28 April, 1865,
were paroled by a detachment of Federals from Goldsboro.
The writer had been in the service four years less two weeks.

Many of the men and officers were much affected by this
termination of all our labors and sufferings in the cause of
self government. The writer well remembers the inconsola-
ble grief of Lieutenant John W. Aldridge, now a resident of
Pamlico county, a good soldier and man. May he live long

and prosper.
Rurvus W. Wuarton.

Wasuineron, N. C.,
28 April, 1901.