EIGHTH BATTALION.

(NETHERCUTT’S PARTISAN RANGERS. )

By THE EDITOR.

This battalion began as a company of Partisan Rangers
under Captain Jno. H. Nethercutt 9 Off. Rec. Union and
Confed. Armies, 473, but was soon increased to a battalion.
Its commander, Major John H. Nethercutt, was a blunt, but
brave and enterprising officer, and his command rendered
service principally in the New Bern section. If all the
stirring incidents of its career could be told it would be a
most interesting narrative. On 20 April, 1863, it was in a
hot skirmish at Sandy Ridge, 26 (Serial) -Vol. 255. On 27
May he had 500 men, same Vol., 1074.

In August, 1863, this battalion was combined with the
Fourth (Wright’s) Battalion and some independent compa-
nies and formed the Sixty-sixth North Carolina Regiment,
of which Major Nethereutt was made Lieutenant-Colonel.
The regiment was assigned to Martin’s, afterwards Kirk-
land’s, Brigade, and its story, told by Adjutant George M.
Rose, appears in Vol. 3 of this work. On the death of Colo-
nel A. D. Moore, in front of Petersburg, Nethercutt became
Colonel and 15 March, 1865, was assigned to the command
of the brigade of Junior Reserves which he held at Benton-
ville and up to the surrender of Johnston’s army. Colonel
Nethercutt was assassinated at his home in Jones County
after the war while sitting at supper with his family by some
traitor who wished to avenge punishment received during the
war. He was a most gallant, capable officer.

There was another Kighth Battalion (Reserves) command-
ed by Major J. B. Ellington, which in January, 1865, was
merged into the Seventy-second North Carolina (Third Jun-
ior Reserves. )

The battalion given as the Highth in Moore’s Roster (Vol.
4, pp. 359-372) was officially known during the war as the
Tenth Battalion and as such its history is herein given.