Oo IQR
468 Norrnu Carorina Troops, 1861-65.

the army. In the second day’s fight, its skirmishers under
that daring young Major, Brown, of the Thirty-seventh, elic-
ited by their dauntless bearing a written compliment from
General Ewell, who was in command of other troops. Next
day it was on the extreme left of the Pickett-Pettigrew
charge, and though flanked by a large force, it retired in order
and reformed in rear of the artillery by order of the battle-
scarred and experienced Trimble. How many of the bri-
gades in that bloody charge reformed as close and stood ready
to repulse the expected counter-charge :
A northern military writer informs General Lane that his
brigade has never had justice done it for its valiant part in
that great battle. :
After boldly confronting the enemy at Hagerstown while
the Potomac was “on a tear” in its rear, it withdrew in a rain
and after a weary night’s march, was ordered to act as rear
guard to that portion of the army which crossed the Potomac
on the pontoon bridge at Falling Waters. There it stood
alone, with the spirited young Crowell, of the Twenty-eighth,
in charge of the skirmish line unerringly picking off every
man that dared show himself too close, until every other com-
mand had crossed safely ; then it retired to the Virginia shore
in perfect order, and General Heth, in honor of such unusual
fortitude and success, doffed his hat to these veterans as they

proudly marched by him in columns of fours. Next day:

when Heth greeted Lane in the rain, while on the march, he
told him it was an unexpected pleasure, as he feared when he
ordered him to cover the rear that his whole command would
be killed, wounded or captured. ie

It was the guns of this brigade as it went into action in the
Wilderness, late in the afternoon of 5 May, 1864, that caused
Colonel Venable to remark to Colonel Palmer: “Thank God !
I will go back and tell General Lee that Lane has just gone
in and will hold his ground until other troops arrive to-night.
The brigade not only held its ground, but drove the enemy
some distance.

It was this brigade that left the works, formed a new line
and piled the Yankees in front of it at Spottsylvania een
House, early on the morning of 12 May, after they ha

Tur Brancu-Lane Brieapr. 469

broken through Johnson’s front. Its gallantry on that occa-
sion caused a London correspondent to write to his paper that
“Lane’s North Carolina veterans stopped the tide of Federal
victory as it came surging to the right.” Later, it was this
brigade that General Lee selected to cross the works and strike
Burnside’s Corps in flank, in which assault it captured be-
tween 300 and 400 prisoners, three flags and a battery of six
guns, but was unable to bring off the latter, as they were
without horses and could not be dragged through the woods.
General Lee acknowledged the receipt of the flags in a com-
plimentary note, written on the battlefield, which was read
to the command by the Brigadier in person, and was received
with the wildest rebel yells. Still later in the day it was
that splendid body of tried men—the sharpshooters of Lane’s
Brigade—under the dashing and accomplished Nicholson,
who were “requested” by General Lee, through their Briga-
dier, to make an important reconnoissance for him in front
of Spottsylvania Court House, though they had been fighting
all day, and there were fresh troops at hand.

At Jericho Ford this brigade advanced as far as, if not far-
ther than, any other troops and held its ground until relieved
that night.

At the second Cold Harbor it behaved as it did at the first.
Here General Lane was severely wounded—it was feared at
the time mortally—and had to be borne from the field.

Around Petersburg it was not kept in the trenches, but as
“flying infantry” or “foot cavalry,” under Colonels Barry
and Speer, it behaved with its accustomed bravery in the
fights at Riddel’s Shop, Petersburg, Gravel Hill and Fussell’s
Mill.

Under General Connor it was one of the three North Caro-
lina brigades that handled Hancock so roughtly in his en-
trenched position at Reams Station, after the failure of the
first attack by other troops. It was this fight that caused
General Lee to write that handsome letter to Governor Vance

about the gallantry of Cooke’s, MacRae’s and Lane’s Brigades,

Note.—On 3 August, 1864, Colonel Barry was made a (temporary )

Brigadier General but was soon after wounded, and after General Lane’s
return became again Colonel of his regiment.—Ep.