326 Nortu Carorina Troops, 1861-’65.

fought the Eleventh Regiment at White Hall across the river,
the bridge being burned down. The 16th they fought our
forces on the Wilmington & Weldon Railroad south of Golds-
boro and south of the Neuse river, burning the railroad
bridge. At the same time a part of their forces fought Bunt-
ing’s Battery and the Forty-fourth Regiment, Major Sted-
man commanding, across the river at Spring Bank. Bunt-
ing’s Battery in the three days’ fighting, lost nineteen men
killed and wounded; at the writer’s gun, of six cannoneers,
one was killed and two badly wounded; three horses out of
four at the gun shot—no men captured. General Foster
paroled all his prisoners. He was formerly Superintendent
of the Fentress copper mine in Guilford County, N. C.

In February, 1863, the writer was transferred to the En-
gineer Corps with rank of Lieutenant, soon thereafter was
elected Lieutenant in Company A, Tenth Battalion (Second
Heavy Artillery), and reported for duty in April, 1863, at
Wilmington.

Malarial fever prevailed around the city; yellow fever in
1862. Company A buried twenty-nine of her men at and
near Wilmington. When a cavalry regiment of Federals
from New Bern made a raid on the Wilmington & Weldon
Railroad, burning the depot at Burgaw, the Tenth Battalion
pursued down below Richlands—heavy artillery pursuing
cavalry—the cavalry came in on the “home stretch” by all
odds ahead.

The battalion was at Fort Caswell some months in 1863.
While there the ‘“‘Ad-Vance,” State blockade runner,
grounded on the bar, off the fort one and a half miles. The
writer, Sergeant Harris and fifteen men were sent aboard
to keep the Federal gun boats off; a storm coming up
we were not relieved for three days. The steamer was
loaded down with stores for our North Carolina soldiers; we
did not know for some time whether we were going to Hart’s
Island or “Davy Jones’ locker.” While out there a blockade
runner passed by and entered the Cape Fear at 10 a. m. Gov-
ernor Vance presented the writer with a suit of English grey,
a small fortune at that time.

There being yellow fever in Bermuda, in the fall of 1864,

 

Trento Barration. 827

Company A was detailed to do quarantine duty at Fort An-
derson; all blockade runners having yellow fever on them
were unloaded there; the officers had to go aboard and ex-
amine their manifest. No soldier was allowed to leave the
fort on furlough during this time.

In November, 1864, the battalion, with half of the Fortieth
Regiment (Third Artillery), was ordered to Augusta, Ga.,
which Sherman was then threatening on his march from At-
lanta to Savannah. We remained only: a few days; he did
not come nearer than Millen. The Confederate powder mill
was being torn up and moved to Columbia, 8. C. The writer
was placed in command of Battery No. 4, near the mill.
Then the battalion was moved to Charleston, thence to Savan-
nah and up the Central Railroad forty-five miles towards
Macon, was engaged with Sherman’s advance at Jenks’
bridge, had a few men wounded and the writer and twenty-
‘four men captured ; part of Company A was placed two miles
out to watch the Ogeechee river, fearing the Federals would
cross on pontoons to our rear, and were not ordered in until
the rest of the command had gotten on the train and moved
back to Savannah; was at Fort McAlister soon after it fell.

There mines had been made and powder placed which did
execution when the fort was charged. Was then sent with
other prisoners to Hilton Head, there was confined two
months with 160 Confederate officers on “retaliation”—one
pint of corn meal a day and some pickles, no meat, no fire in
the buildings, meal old and bitter, bran and bugs in it. One-
third of the officers could not walk when moved north to Fort
Delaware.

Little has been said about that “retaliation,” but it will
never be forgotten by those who suffered at Hilton Head.

This battalion kept to the rear for two years, faithfully
obeyed all orders, guarded millions of dollars worth of stores
for the army at the front, and with sleepless vigilance watched
and kept the enemy back at the mouth of the Cape Fear
(when for a long time it was the only port a blockade runner
could enter) so rations and munitions of war could be brought
in for Lee’s brave men. No better guards were in our army ;
nothing was taken or lost, though often short of rations and