EIGHTEENTH BATTALION.

(MACRAE'S BATTALION. )

By MAJOR J. C. MACRAE.

In the summer and fall of 1863, the condition of affairs in
the mountains of Western North Carolina became so disor-
dered by reason of the withdrawal of most of the men who
were loyal to the Confederacy for service in the two great
armies of Northern Virginia and of the West, that it was nec- —
essary for the government to organize the military district of
Western North Carolina, under Brigadier-General R. B.
Vance, and to send General Hoke with several of his regi-
ments to Wilkes and adjoining counties.

The troops at the disposal of General Vance, on the other
side of the Ridge, being insufficient to protect the people in
that section, in November, 1863, this battalion, composed of
picked men and experienced officers, then known as Mac-
Rae’s Battalion, was mustered in for temporary service by
General Hoke at Morganton.

It was composed of three companies of infantry, one com-
manded by Captain Thomas H. Haughton, then of Chatham ;
another by Captain John W. Mallett, then of Cumberland,
and the third by Captain Alex. McMillan, of Ashe. To this
command was attached a section of artillery under Lieutenant
Collins, Company F, Starr’s Battalion and two companies
of cavalry, one commanded by Captain A. B. Hill, of Hali-
fax, who soon resigned and was succeeded by Captain John
S. Hines, of Raleigh; and the other by Captain Hugh L.
Cole, of New Bern. Having no access to the rolls, I am un-
able to give the names of the other officers of these companies,
except Lieutenants Robb, of Tredell; Hal. Fetter, of Orange,
and John Hanks, of Chatham, of the infantry. Captain
Albert M. Noble, of New Bern, was Commissary and Quar-

termaster. :
Being apprised of a threatened attack upon Asheville by a