414 Nort Carotina Troops, 1861-65.

from the Gosport Navy Yard before its evacuation 10 May,
1862. For even these, it was difficult to obtain ammunition.

Colonel Fremont was an officer who had resigned some
time before the war from the United States Army, and had
won reputation as an architect and railroad engineer; Major
Hedrick was a brave and skillful artillery commander, and
with Major Radcliffe, who had a military training, and was
superintendent of a military academy in Wilmington, and
Captain John C. Winder, who had been a skilled engineer
employed on the Croton acqueduct, but resigned at the out-
break of the war to return to his native south, were all in-
dustriously at work on the southeastern coast.

Brigadier-General R. C. Gatling, a native of North Caro-
lina, a graduate of West Point in 1832, had been a veteran
of the Florida and Mexican wars, wounded and _ breveted
Major for gallantry. Upon resigning and returning to his
State, and appointed Colonel in the Confederate States
Army, he was made Adjutant-General by North Carolina,
and was assigned 1 July, 1861, to the coast defence, with the
charge of the general engineering, being promoted to Briga-
dier-General in August, 1861.

Perceiving the troops enrolled and armed, to be called at
once to Virginia, he made repeated calls for sufficient forces
to man the hasty works thrown up at important points in the
East, but without success. Hatteras was taken 29 August,
1861, and Roanoke Island and New Bern fell in February
and March following. His statement in his final report, in
expressing his disappointment, reads thus:

“We failed to make timely efforts to maintain the ascend-
ency on Pamlico Sound, and thus admitted Burnside’s fleet
without a contest. We failed to put a proper force on Roan-
oke Island, and thus lost the key to our interior coast, and
we failed to furnish General Branch with a reasonable force,
and thus lost the important town of New Bern. What I
claim is, that these failures do not by right rest with me.”

Relieved from duty during severe illness after the fall of
New Bern, and being advanced in years (born 1808) he re-

signed in September, 1862, but served afterward as Adjutant
and Inspector-General of North Carolina.

 

 

Corps oF ENGINEERS. 415

On 4 October, 1862, an important change occurred at Rich-
mond in the assignment to duty of Lieutenant-Colonel (after-
wards General) Jeremy Francis Gilmer (a native of Guil-
ford County, N. C.), as Chief of the Engineer Bureau. Gen-
eral Gilmer had graduated at West Point in 1839 with
high honors, becoming Lieutenant of Engineers and subse-
quently Assistant Professor of Engineering in the Academy.
In the Mexican war he was Chief Engineer of the Army of
the West in New Mexico. He resigned 29 June, 1861, at
San Francisco, where he was in charge of the defences of the
Bay. Made Lieutenant-Colonel of Engineers in the Confed-
erate States Army, he was Chief Engineer of General A. S.
Johnston, and severely wounded at Shiloh. Was promoted,
made Chief Engineer’ of the Department of Northern Vir-
ginia, and then became Chief of Engineer Bureau. In 1863
he became Major-General, serving as second in command at
Charleston and Atlanta, but resumed control of the Engineer
Bureau, serving until the close of the war.

Under his orders, 9 October, 1862, Colonel Walter Gwynn
(formerly of West Point, and afterward civil engineer of
distinction), was assigned to examine and defend the Neuse,
Tar, Roanoke and Chowan by obstructing their channels and
placing batteries, to command the obstructions. The Bureau
desired works at a point on the Neuse as low as Kinston, on
the Tar at Greenville, and the Roanoke at or near Hamilton.

Assistance was afforded by Captain C. R. Collins’ En-
gineer Corps at Caswell, and Lieutenant W. G. Bender re-
porting directly to Colonel Gwynn, and by others.

The authorities of the adjacent counties were asked for
labor, and funds provided by the War Department, and by
8 November, works were in progress, near Hamilton, in the
vicinity of Tarboro, and at Kinston, and such advancement
made that the Ordnance Department was asked for artillery
to supply the works. In January following, works were in
progress five miles above Greenville.

But it was afterward reported of these, as of previous
earthworks in this State, that they were too ambitious in
outline, requiring too many men for their proper defence,
while this extended work, resembling, on the Roanoke, an en-