36 Norte Carorina Troops, 1861-65.

had been placed in command of all the Union armies and was
preparing to take personal charge of a campaign of attrition
against the Army of Northern Virginia, willing to swap five
for one in battle, if need be, in order to exhaust his straitened
adversary—a process by which with his unlimited resources
of men, he knew he was bound to win in the end.

Tt was under such dire distress that the Confederate Con-
gress 17 February, 1864, aroused to a full sense of the magni-
tude of the struggle, and recognizing the necessity for putting
forth our whole strength in the contest for Southern inde
pendence, passed an act for the enrollment of the Junior and
Senior Reserves—the former, lads between 17 and 18 years—
the latter, old men, between 45 and 50 years thus, in the
language of President Davis, “robbing the cradle and the

ave.” .
cae eae al T. H. Holmes was entrusted by Pres:
ident Davis with the organization of the reserve forces in
North Carolina. A true son of the Old North State, he had
promptly responded to her call, and resigning a Major’s com-
mission in the United States Army, had been appointed by
the President first Colonel, then Brigadier, then Major-Gen-
eral and finally Lieutenant-General. As courageous as 4
lion, he was as gentle as a woman. At the battle of Hele-
na, Arkansas, amid a storm of shot and shell, with a cool-
ness which the writer has never seen surpassed, he rode into
Graveyard Hill, upon which was concentrated the fire at short
range of fifty cannon and five thousand muskets. It was a
daring and fearless ride. Like General Pettigrew, he was
one of the few men who declined promotion. Well does the
writer remember the receipt by General Holmes, when com-
manding the Trans-Mississippi Department in Little Rock, of
a Lieutenant-General’s commission, all unsought and unex-
pected. He at once dictated a letter to the President, declin-
ing with grateful thanks the high honor and requesting him
to bestow it upon a worthier man, It was only upon Mr.
Davis’ insistance that the promotion was afterwards accepted.

Mr. Davis in his “Rise and Fall of the Confederate Gov-
ernment,” says of him:

‘He has passed beyond the reach of censure or of praise,

SEVENTY-SECOND REGIMENT. Sk

after serving his country on many fields wisely and well. I,
who knew him from our school boy days, who served with
him in garrison and in the field, and with pride watched him
as he gallantly led a storming party up the rocky height at
Monterey, and was intimately acquainted with his whole
career during our sectional war, bear willing testimony to the
purity, self abnegation, generosity, fidelity and gallantry
which characterized him as a man and as a soldier.” <A
truer, braver, purer heart never beat under the Confederate
grey.

General Holmes on 28 April, 1864, established his head-
quarters at Raleigh, N. C., and undertook the task of or-
ganizing the Reserves of the State. His staff consisted
of Lieutenant-Colonel Frank S. Armistead, a graduate of
West Point, as Inspector-General. He was later elected Col-
onel of the First Regiment of Junior Reserves and was after-
wards assigned to the command of the brigade consisting of
the first three regiments. He was recommended by General
Holmes for the appointment of Brigadier-General in terms
of high praise.

Captain John W. Hinsdale, as Assistant Adjutant-Gen-
eral, who had served in this capacity on the staffs of Gen-
erals Pettigrew at Seven Pines, and Pender, through the
Seven Days’ Fight around Richmond, and also with General
Holmes in the Trans-Mississippi.

First Lieutenants Theophilus H. Holmes, Jr., and Charles
W. Broadfoot, Aides-de-Camp. The first, a mere boy, soon
afterwards gave his young life to his country while gallantly
leading a cavalry charge near Ashland, Virginia. The lat-
ter, a member of the Bethel Regiment, rose from private to
Colonel of the First Junior Reserves, and is now one of the
first lawyers of the upper Cape Fear.

First Lieutenant Graham Daves was appointed Aide-de-
Camp after the death of young Holmes and the promotion of
Lieutenant Broadfoot. He was a brave and efficient officer of
scholarly attainments and high integrity. A. W. Lawrence,
of Raleigh, was appointed ordnance officer, and Dr. Thomas
Hill, now an eminent physician of Goldsboro, was appointed

‘Medical Director.