416 NortH CAROLINA Troops, 186165.

trenched camp, was not of sufficient strength of profile for
success in the event of persistent attack.

On the Neuse Colonel Gwynn asked for the means of com-
pleting a work requiring 10,000 men and 34 guns. But he
was instructed by the Chief of the Bureau that a fort with
strong land and water fronts, which one regiment could gar-
rison in full, was all that could be undertaken, so many were
the positions necessary to be cared for.

Half of ten thousand men, supplied with ammunition, in
Fort Fisher, would have changed the face of history.

Two points, Rainbow Bend on the Roanoke, and White-
hall on the Neuse, were to be especially provided with de-
fences to protect the building of gun-boats. The brilliant
eareer of the Albemarle, designed for the northeastern waters,
which was completed and commanded by Captain Cooke, of
the Confederate States Navy, is well known.

The great fortress at Fort Fisher, which was the result of
years of labor by successive forces, but chiefly the outcome of
the skill and energy of Colonel William Lamb, under the gen-
eral direction of General Whiting, was first begun by volun-
teer troops, largely the companies afterwards forming the
Eighteenth North Carolina, with Major John J. Hedrick,
and especially with the valuable engineering service of Cap-
tain John C. Winder, aided by Lieutenant S. A. Ashe. Of
this accomplished, but modest officer, Colonel S. L. Fremont,
Chief of Artillery and Engineers of the District of the Cape
Fear, under date of 1 October, 1861, when Captain Winder
was relieved to become Major and Assistant Adjutant-Gen-
eral with General J. G. Martin, wrote as follows:

“Captain Winder has been from the first occupation of the
public works by North Carolina, in the service of the Cape
Fear coast and river, where his efficiency has been testified to
by all observers. * * He has had the immediate charge
of laying out the batteries on the coast * * and the en-
tire charge of the construction of Fort Fisher has been con-
fided to him, until the guns on the water front were mounted.
He laid out the casemate water battery at that place.”

He built works at Camp Wyatt, on Zeke’s Island, and at
other points. He was the son of General Winder, of the

 

Corrs or ENGINEERS. 417

Confederate service, and a member of the distinguished fam-
ily of the name, represented in the old army from its earliest
history.

Major Winder remained in the State service throughout
1862, performing much duty as an engineer in addition to
his labors as Assistant Adjutant-General. In November of
that year, he was ordered to construct batteries near Hill’s
Ferry, on the Roanoke. Changes at headquarters in Raleigh
induced his acceptance of an appointment as military assist-
ant engineer under the Confederate States, in May, 1863,
and he was subsequently made Captain of Company A, En-
gineer Troops, assigned to North Carolina, which will be
hereafter more fully referred to.

The writer deeply regrets the fragmentary nature of a
sketch of the patriotism and accomplished officers who gave
their indefatigable efforts to the defence of North Carolina,
including those in the Engineer Corps, and from the Artillery
and the Navy or Marine Corps, whose scientific training was
available for this work. But in the course of forty years
they have nearly all passed away, the majority having
already at that time reached maturity of life in their profes-
sion. In many cases no publication remains that even en-
rolls their names.

Among these should be named Captain Wm. H. James,
Engineer Corps, Chief Engineer at Wilmington. He had
been a civil engineer of the United States Navy, and was
attached to the Navy Yard at Pensacola at the breaking
out of the war. He was a Northerner by birth, but married
in the South, and was true to her cause. His specialty was
that of a dock engineer, and as additional officers assumed
duty, he was much confined to headquarters in Wilmington,
having the control of the thousands of negroes impressed into
the service from the several counties to perform the heavy
excavations and embankment in building the great fortifica-
tions erected upon the original lighter lines. One slave in
five was taken from each plantation, with the consent of the
Governor, but none where the number was smaller than five.

Extensive quartermaster and commissary service was es-
pecially required for these laborers, who numbered five thou-

27