262 NortH Caroitina Troops, 1861-65.

Tyrrell; First Lieutenant, John M. Jones, Chowan; Sec-
ond Lieutenant, David J. Gaskins, Chowan.

Company C consisted of men who chiefly were reared and
enlisted in Hertford. Its officers were then, Julian G.
Moore, Captain; John M. Sutton, First Lieutenant; Alfred
M. Darden, First Lieutenant; John R. Powell, Second Lieu-
tenant. Lieutenants Sutton and Powell were Bertie men.

AROUND RICHMOND.

The battalion having been sent to the front before getting
its equipment of light artillery when General McClellan drew
near Richmond with his immense army the command was
ordered from the camp of instruction and did its first ser-
vice by occupying Battery No. 7. This was an extensive
earthwork which was near the York River Railroad, and
commanded the highway leading from Mechanicsville, which
was only six miles away and was the nearest point of ap-
proach made by the United States Army. There General
McClellan had strongly protected the right flank of his forces
and several bloody conflicts occurred before the seven days’
of battle resulted in the defeat and withdrawal of the Fed-
eral forces.

The Third Battalion remained near Richmond for some
time afterwards and in September, 1862, was ordered to pro-
ceed to the Valley of Virginia and report to General R. E.

Lee. The battle of Sharpsburg had just been fought and

we met the Army of Northern Virginia in its cantonments
around Martinsburg. Having reported to Brigadier-Gen-
eral Pendleton, Chief of Artillery, the Third Battalion was
received into his corps and served therein until early in
December when General Burnside began his famous race for
the capture of Fredericksburg. We were in camp at Culpep-
per Court House one dreary winter evening when an orderly
brought orders for our instant departure for Fredericksburg.
The discomforts and haste of that movement exceeded any-
thing of the kind we saw during war. After pressing on for
two miserable days through the terrible roads crossing South-
western Mountains and reaching a point fifteen miles from
Fredericksburg, orders came for the battalion to proceed to a

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Tuirp BATTALION. 263

railroad bridge some miles south of Fredericksburg, where
defenses had been constructed for the security of the bridge.
We were sorely disappointed in not being permitted to take
part in the great battle fought a few days later, so near us,
but it was all important that no raiding party of the enemy
should be allowed to burn the bridge over which nearly all
the supplies for General Lee’s army had then to pass. We
remained at the bridge until Burnside’s defeat and in a few
days were ordered to the defense of our own State.

IN NORTH CAROLINA.

When the Third Battalion had reached Wilmington, that
is the main body of the men, we had more than a week of
waiting apparently before us, before our horses could reach
us by the long march overland from Richmond, Va. But on
Sunday morning after our arrival, General Whiting notified
Major Moore that his horses had arrived at Goldsboro and
that enough of them were in such condition that one of his
batteries could be properly horsed. He was ordered, there-
fore, to take the men and guns of one battery and to reach
Kinston as soon as possible and report to General French.
Two days before General Foster had left New Bern with
twenty thousand Federal troops and had been steadily driving
back the Confederate forces, but was as yet unable to cross
from the south side of Neuse river.

MOSELY HALL, N. C.

By reason of a defective engine, we were nearly all day
making the run to Mosely Hall, where we found General
French and our battery horses. Troops from Virginia and
other points were pouring in and the enemy was reported close
at hand across the river. Just before night, by General
French’s order, Lieutenant Nelson McCleese was sent with
the right section of Badham’s battery to the defense of the
bridge at White Hall, on Neuse river. These two guns were
supported by the Eleventh Regiment, the Thirty-first, Colonel
Evans’ Sixty-third (Fifth Cavalry), and Colonel Ferebee’s
Fifty-ninth (Fourth Cavalry) Regiment. At an early hour
Monday morning Foster drove in the Confederate picket