Ciineman’s Brigape. 491

490 Nortu Caroiina Troops, 1861-65.

bardment of Fort Sumter. Captain Ramsay fired the sec-
ond cannon that was aimed at the fort in the bombardment.

About 8 p. m. on the night of 15 May, orders came from
General Beauregard to be ready to attack early next morning.
At the given signal the brigade mounted its works, crossed
the ditch in front, formed on the opposite side under a hot
fire from the enemy directly in front, and advanced. So im-
petuous was the charge that we penetrated far into the en-
emy’s lines and unsupported were fired upon on either flank
hy the enemy now in our rear. . The brigade held its ground
however, and General Butler was soon thereafter seen with-
drawing from the field and we followed him in pursuit to his
entrenched camp at Bermuda Hundreds.

breastworks around Drewry’s Bluff on the right of General
Bushrod Johnson’s command. In the afternoon of 12 May
General Matt. W. Ransom, who had been ordered to the ex-
treme right of the breastworks with his brigade, was sud-
denly attacked from the rear by the enemy who had gotten
on his right flank under cover of the woods, and his men were
compelled to jump over on the opposite side of the works and
fight from that side. They made a most brave fight against
overpowering numbers. Here Captain Cicero Durham,
known in the brigade as the “fighting Quartermaster of
the Forty-ninth Regiment,” who had recently been put in
command of Ransom’s sharpshooters, was mortally wounded,
and Lieutenant Waverly Johnson, of General Ransom’s staff,
painfully shot. On 13, 14 and 15 May, Clingman’s Brigade
had some sharp skirmishing with the enemy who gradually s she i

forced our lines back, until finally Hoke’s Division occupied “ail but ‘the Editor has Rest a n0ten 9 Stree ee
the inner line of entrenchments around Drewry’s Bluff, with a - Aiea! 2 ve sey Ot AYER ee Bary ernon she
glide ot winks anne aeO pera sree a atts my ic ay after the battle. It is evident the account was never intended to be
dug in the ground. On the night of 13 May, General Beaure-
gard arrived and assumed command, bringing with him Col-
quitt’s Georgia Brigade and Colonel Baker’s cavalry regiment
(Forty-first North Carolina). The service of those in the

 

 

[Nore.—The above concise account of the part taken by Clingman’s
Brigade in this battle is probably sufficient from an historical point of

read by others than the writer’s immediate family; but as illustrative of
the conduct of thousands of our enthusiastic young Confederate soldiers
on just such occasions, and as showing how battles were fought and won
in those days, the Editor gives it just as it was written more than thirty-
seven years ago:

‘* About daybreak General Robert Ransom, on our extreme left, opened

 

 

picket lines at this time was very dangerous and trying.
The pickets could only be relieved at night, as the enemy’s
advance lines of sharpshooters were so close any one appear-
ing over our works was the target for a hundred rifles.

Captain T. J. Jarvis, of Company B, Eighth Regiment,
since Governor, United States Senator and United States
Minister to Brazil, while on duty on this picket line, received
a wound in the right arm, necessitating a resection of part of
the bone from which he has never fully recovered.

Captain Junius N. Ramsay, of Company I, also of the
Eighth Regiment, mounting the breastworks to get a better
view of the enemy, was painfully wounded, necessitating a
lengthy absence from service in the field. This officer and
Color-bearer Thos. L. Emry, of the Twelfth North Carolina
Regiment, were among the first soldiers to volunteer from
North Carolina. They joined the South Carolina Volun-
teers under General Beauregard and took part in the bom-

the fight with his division, and succeeded in driving the enemy before
him, capturing many prisoners and some artillery. General Bushrod
Johnson then engaged the enemy, drivingthem before him till he reached
the lines we evacuated on the morning of the 13th. General Hoke then
attacked with our (Clingman’s) and General Corse’s Brigades at about 9
am. At the word ‘‘Charge,”’ our two regiments. the Fifty-first_ and
Thirty-first—the Eighth and Sixty-first being temporarily detached—in
concert with Corse’s Brigade, but which, shortly after the charge com-
menced, faced to the right to meet the enemy on their flank, sprang upon
the parapet and with a yell started for the enemy. As soon as the word
‘‘Charge’’ was given. I sprang upon the parapet, waved my hat and
yelled with all my might. As soon as I could cross the ditch in front I
ran ahead of the regiment, waved my hat and called on the men to fol-
low, and nobly did they come on, though the enemy’s sharpshooters fired
as fast as they could pull trigger from rifles that shot seven times in suc-
cession (Spencer rifles). Though the line was considerably disorganized
in crossing the ditch and in going through the thick underbrush, not a
man faltered. About three hundred yards from our works, fearing the
enemy's fire and the bad ground before us might throw the men into
confusion, there appearing some hesitation in the advance, I seized the
colors of the Fifty-first Regiment and called on the men to follow Run-
ning in advance about 200 yards, we came to the enemy’s first line

sted by squads in pits. As we rushed upon one of these pits occupied

y four men and an officer, I fell exhausted, which probably saved my