256 Norra Cakotina Troops, 1861-65.

musket taken from a sick boy at the start, with whom my

horse was left. Believe it was with effect, as it caused a ~

pause in the line behind and delayed a down pouring fire
until we got out of that horrible hole. As soon as:it was done
the men who had behaved like veterans so far, became tempor-
arily demoralized. Then it was that the soldier loomed up
and plucked the flower safety out of the nettle danger, Junius
Daniel is the man referred to.

In his stentorian tones audible in command a quarter of a
mile or more away, he ordered the men to halt and reform on
him. This they did without regard to company or regimen-
tal formation almost to a man, advanced at once and inflicted
a loss on the enemy, from all accounts greater than that which
they had just sustained. A sublime picture of heroism that,
on the part of commander and command. Lieutenant-Colo-
nel Andrews was killed and Major Hancock wounded while
gallantly leading their men and during the remainder of the
actions at Gettysburg the battalion was commanded by Cap-
tain Van Brown, of Company H.

Just then I was knocked down by a wound in the head and
had to go back to the field hospital. Here the scene was sick-
ening in the extreme. By sundown, hundreds of wounded
had arrived, and the horrid work of amputation was going
briskly on. Here I pause to pay brief tribute to an unpre-
tentious hero who did his duty as grandly as any other on
that bloody field although his only weapons were scalpel, saw
and bandage. Though Daniel’s Brigade had the largest
wounded list of any other at Gettysburg, the surgical staff
was something short that day. But there was one who was
a host in himself. For three days and nights with coat off
and sleeves rolled up, I do not think Dr. Frank Patterson,
my old surgeon, then brigade surgeon, relaxed in his bloody
work of mercy half an hour ata time. If he closed his eyes
in sleep during that dread ordeal, it eseaped my observation,
although in thirty feet and full view of the operating table.

“The Glorious Fourth” was a fateful day, not only for
that glorious army, but for the cause, for far away Vicksburg,
the key of the Mississippi, had fallen.

The retreat began in regular order on that day. Lieutenant

Ra a neve Bek Oe oe te ne Nay ee TROT ER EE TE Oat

ecg iets acco Bea neha illness oo

more agenten oo eatiee pteygcte saare er

Seconp BaTraLIon. 257

Wm. R. Bond, of General Daniel’s staff, now of Scotland
Neck, likewise wounded, and myself, were assigned to a one-
horse wagon driven by Guilford. The wounded train was
tacked on to a part of the ordnance. That night having to
pass through a long defile, it was subjected to an annoying
fire from above, Kilpatrick’s Division having ridden ahead
and taken position on each bank of the road. This doughty
hero should have been cashiered for not capturing that entire
train, for it was only guarded by two squadrons of cavalry.
As it was, he only took some thirty or forty ambulances and
ordnance wagons.

CAPTURED.

Shortly after getting through the deep cut of the road our
little mounted escort broke and went to the head of the train.
An ordnance wagon loaded with old guns, took off one of our
rear wheels in trying to pass, and before Bond and I could
pick ourselves up, a dozen revolvers were bearing on us. It
was then that volubility told. Guilford with a flow of words
unparalleled in his speech before or since convinced the gen-
tlemen on horseback that, “we surrender, we are prisoners,
for God’s sake don’t shoot.”’ Believing that the entire ord-
nance train was lost and all lost with it, it is within bounds
to say that his impromptu eloquence elicited but scant thanks
from either of the two “prisoners.”

Thence were carried to the hospital at Frederick; from
there to Fort McHenry, thence to Fort Delaware for a while
and from there to Johnson’s Island in Lake Erie, which con-
tinued to be the residence of most of the officers until near
the surrender. My cartel was, I believe, the last one ante-
cedent thereto. Many projects for wholesale escape had been
formed during our imprisonment, but were always frustrated
by some secret spy or cowardly informer.

But to return to the Second North Carolina Battalion at
Gettysburg. It fell short of a full regiment, and yet it is
doubtful whether any full regiment in that matchless army”
sustained the loss in killed and wounded that it did. One
hundred and fifty-three is authenticated record. Perhaps

17