94 — Norra Carona Troops, 1861-65.

Brigadier-General Roberts, of North Carolina, was assigned
to a new brigade composed of our regiment and the Fifty-
ninth North Carolina in February, and commanded us till
the end. In December, 1864, we were moved from General
Lee’s right, near Dinwiddie Court House, and went into win-
ter quarters at Belfield, Va. We built nice, cozy quarters
and hoped to pass the winter in resting our tired and run-
down horses, but there was hardly a week we hae not have -
meet a raiding or scouting party of Grant's cavalry. In
February we hurriedly marched to Dinwiddie Court House
and for five days we were in the worst snow and sleet of the
winter and what was worse, were absolutely without food of
anv kind for men or horses. Some of the men found
spoiled corn where artillery horses had been fed and eat : a ,
For four days the writer never tasted even corn. It was fea1
but the men did not complain.

ithe brigade returned to Belfield for only a short time. ve
went back to General Lee’s right flank and were there vie
March when Grant began his flank movement which force

the Confederates back till we were on the White Oak road.

The Seventy-fifth was engaged every day from the 28th till
Richmond and Petersburg were evacuated and the retreat -
Appomattox was begun, and on 31 March in a — is ve
on a portion of Sheridan’s cavalry, captured a beaut pe
flag, which is now in the possession of a pon (es 7
old company. On 1 April Captain B. C. gers: a ie
geant, and thirteen men, were captured by a sma ge :
the enemy who had gotten in our rear. 95 (Serial) Vol.

L ies, 827.
Off. Rec. Union and Confed. Armies, ‘
foot the 30th our commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Edelin

charged a solid line of battle by himself. We — aia i!
jn line of battle expecting to either make an assault or 7 -
one when Colonel Edelin drew his sabre and charged a . :
directly upon a large body of cavalry. The — Ce 2
opened ranks and our brave Lieutenant-Oolonel rode rm : .
waving his sabre and yelling like a maniac. That was

y y or heard of him. :
: Major Pitts took command and held it till rer 2 cgay:
when he literally broke down from exhaustion and was sup

SEventy-Firru REGIMENT. 95

posed to be captured. On the morning of 28 March the Sev-
enty-fifth had about 315, rank and file, but the constant fight-
ing, marching and the want of rations and sleep had caused
all but the strongest to give out, and by 5 April I am sure
there was not over one hundred men for duty. The losses con-
tinued till at the surrender we numbered only 51. On 3
April General Roberts with our regiment, stopped a stampede
which, if allowed to have gone further, would have ruined
General Lee’s chance of ever getting his army beyond Amelia
Court House.

Our brigade was the rear guard on the county road just
south of the Appomattox river, and another regiment had
been posted with orders to hold the Yankees in check while
ours fell back to another position. We had not gone a mile
when a cavalry regiment hastily pursued by a squadron of
cavalry came at a dead run and in wild disorder upon us.
Our regiment got panic-stricken and joined in the race, but
General Roberts placed himself in the road in their front and
managed to halt about fifty men; he had us to about face and
in a hurry we sent the pursuing force back on their main
column. If General Roberts had not halted us when he did
there is no telling what the result would, have been—disas-
trous certainly. That day General Roberts placed the writer
in command of the regiment and he held it till 9 April.

There was not a mile that we did not fight over from the
time the retreat begun till we reached Appomattox Court
House. The losses from wounds were not very heavy, but
the constant fighting and marching day and night just wore
men and horses completely out. On the 5th the writer was
shot from his horse, but was not severely wounded, and did
not leave the command.

On the night of 8 April the brigade halted about half a
mile east of the Court House, at daybreak on the 9th we were
mounted and marched to the west side of the village, and at
sunrise were in line of battle. Shortly after a battery in
our front opened on us and General Roberts promptly
ordered a drawn sabre charge. We as promptly made it and
captured the battery (four brass guns) and about fifty of Sher-
idan’s dismounted cavalry. We took the guns and prisoners