538 NortH CARoLIna Troops, 1861-65.

Lieutenant A. Leazar, of the F orty-second North Carolina
Troops, and Adjutant George M. Rose, of the Fiftieth North
Carolina Troops, were both Speakers of the General Assem-
bly of North Carolina.

Captain Lucien D. Starke, our faithful Commissary, dis-
tinguished for gallantry in battle while acting also as Inspec-
tor-General, removed to Norfolk after the war and engaged in
the practice of law. He soon became one of the leaders of
the people, represented the city in the General Assembly of
Virginia, took a high stand in his profession and enjoys the
highest esteem and confidence of a large circle of friends and
clients in both States.

To the field officers of the regiments was largely due the
efficiency of Martin’s Brigade. Colonel William F. Martin,
Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas H. Sharpe, Lieutenant-Colonel
John C. Lamb, and Major Lucius J. Johnson, of the Seven-
teenth, Colonel John E. Brown, Lieutenant-Colonel Charles
W. Bradshaw and Major T. J. Brown, of the Forty-second ;
Colonel A. D. Moore, Colonel John H. Nethereutt, Lieuten-
ant-Colonel Clement. G. Wright and Major David S. Davis,
of the Sixty-sixth were each and all brave, intelligent, faith-
ful and true under all cireumstances, Nearly all of these are
now “resting from their labors.”

RETURN TO NORTH CAROLINA.

During the fall and winter of 1864 Longstreet’s Corps,
composed of the divisions of Field, Kershaw and Hoke, de-
fended the lines on the north side of James river confronted
by General B. F. Butler’s “Army of the James.”

Late in December Butler’s army was sent on its expedi-
tion against Fort Fisher, N. C., and Hoke’s Division was or-
dered to proceed to Wilmington to meet Butler. Kirkland’s
Brigade, the Seventeenth, Forty-second and  Sixty-sixth
North Carolina Troops, was moved first to Richmond. Hav-
ing been recruited in winter quarters, the command made a
fine appearance marching through the streets of the capital,
with three brass bands and three drum and fife corps, its
steady step and fine bearing eliciting cheers from the people.
Officers and men felt the thrill which comes to the young sol-

 

THe Marrin-KIRKLAND BRIGADE. 539

dier’s heart from “the pomp and circumstance of war” and
the approving smiles of woman. The troops were very en-
thusiastic when told they were going to defend the soil of
their native State.

As the railroad from Petersburg to Weldon was closed to
us our only route was via Danville, Greensboro and Raleigh.

Leaving Richmond by the Richmond & Danville Railroad,
Kirkland’s Brigade reached Wilmington, N. C., after a long
and fatiguing ride on the cars in extremely cold weather, and
Kirkland marched at once with the two regiments which ar-
rived first, viz: the Seventeenth, under Lieutenant-Colonel
Thomas Sharpe, and Forty-second, under Colonel Brown, for
Sugar Loaf, a point a few miles above Fort Fisher. Our
horses and wagons had not come, so all of the mounted officers
were on foot (as an Irishman would say). On-the march at
night we heard a loud explosion and saw a great light towards
the ocean, which we thought was the bursting of a magazine
on one of the Federal ships, and the men gave three cheers.
But we afterwards learned it was the explosion of Butler’s
famous “Powder Boat,” which he thought would scare the
poor rebels away.

FIRST BOMBARDMENT OF FORT FISHER.

In the morning we halted at Sugar Loaf. The fleet had
been bombarding Fort Fisher, but the enemy had not landed.

The Confederate forces under Bragg, outside of Fort
Fisher, consisted of a small body of Senior Reserves, aged
from 45 to 50, and some little cavalry. It was pitiful to see
some of those gray-haired patriots dead in the woods, killed
by shells from the fleet. Among those who carried a musket
there was Mr. William Pettigrew, brother of the heroic Gen-
eral—since a venerable minister of the Gospel.

Kirkland placed one company from the Forty-second, un-
der Captain Koontz, in Battery Gatlin, a small fort on the sea
beach at the southern end of Masonboro Sound, and held the
rest. of his command on the road covered by the, thick woods
and dense undergrowth.

I had found a pony at an abandoned farm house and
mounted him, so as to convey orders, but he was new to the