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352 Norts Caroxina Troops, 1861-’65.

ous loss. Throughout the 21st the skirmishing was very
heavy, and late in the afternoon a large force of the Federal
Seventeenth Army Corps, by a superhuman effort, broke
through our line on the extreme left, and hurled it back in
dire confusion. The moment was critical; the loss of the
bridge over the creek in our rear would deprive Johnston’s
army of its only line of retreat. A section of Starr’s Battery,
under command of Lieutenant J. D. McLean, was rushed
from the right of the line to the scene of the contest, and, sup-
ported by General Wade Hampton with the force of cavalry
and infantry massed to strengthen the threatened point, gal-
loped to a position on the field. The enemy’s stubborn effort
was foiled, and one division of the Seventeenth Union Corps
especially suffered heavily.

In the battle of Bentonville the Confederate losses were
nearly 2,400, while those of the enemy could not have been
less than 5,000. General Wade Hampton has said of this en-
gagement that, as it was almost the last, it was one of the
most remarkable of the Civil War, and that its conception and
conduet by General Joseph E. Johnston was a masterly stroke
of military genius—where less than 15,000 men under three
commands successfully held the field against 60,000 of the
finest equipped troops in the world.

From the 22d of March Starr’s Battery remained in camp
near Smithfield for some days, during which there was a
general review of the troops, and a notable event of camp life
was a visit, 6 April, from Governor Vance, with one of his
wonderful speeches to the veteran soldiers.

Starr’s Battery marched from Bentonville, via Raleigh, in
the hospital of which John Murphy died, arrived at Haw
River on 18 April, and thence proceeded to a point near old
Centre Meeting House in Randolph County. While in camp
Lieutenant-General Hardee’s Quartermaster-General divided
equally among the Confederate soldiers there assembled a
quantity of silver sent from Greensboro, which gave to each
one, officers and men alike, $1.25. At that time the battery
was attached to Hoke’s Division in a temporary battalion
commanded by Major Basil C. Manly. 100 Off. Rec. Union

and Confed. Armies, 7388.

THIRTEENTH BATTALION, 353

On 26 April, General Joseph E. Johnston formally sur-
rendered to Sherman and on the 29th the officers and men of
Starr’s Battery, mournfully leaving guns and caissons in
park, betook themselves to their desolated and impoverished
homes, most of thein taking the route over the old Western
Plank Road to Fayetteville, and carrying with them many an
old war-horse, afterwards condemned to ignoble toil at the

plough in the corn and cotton fields of Cumberland and Robe-
son counties.

COMPANY D.

Was raised originally in Beaufort County by Rev. Charles
P. Jones, who became Captain. After a few months service
the battery was reorganized 21 April, 1862, by electing Z. T.
Adams, Captain; C. H. Latham and Samuel H. Forbes,
First Lieutenants; Jos. B. Bryan and Geo. W. Bryan, See-
ond Lieutenants.

The battery was at Tarboro in March, 1862, and thencefor-
ward served in Eastern North Carolina, taking part in the
various expeditions against Washington and New Bern and
aiding to repel the raids made by the enemy in return. In
July, 1863, it was ordered to Wilmington and served in that
vicinity. On 26 June, 1864, it was permanently assigned to
Starr’s Battalion and in September, 1864, it was at Kinston.
88 Off. Rec. Union and Confed. Armies, S224.

The company was at Batteries Purdie and Bolles
near Fort Fisher in the first attack 24 and 25 December,
1864. In the second attack by General Terry 15 January,
1865, most of the company and all their guns and horses
were captured at the fall of Fisher. The few men left were
attached to Hagood’s Brigade and fought as artillerymen
at Bentonville and surrendered with Johnston’s army.

COMPANY E.

This company was raised in Orange County, in the early
Spring of 1862. William Cameron was Captain; James F.
Cain and Alex. M. Kirkland, First Lieutenants; Henry Dick-

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