556 NortH Carolina Troops, 1861-65.

dered to Richmond, Va., during the seven days battles,
reached Virginia too late for those fights, went into camp
near Proctor’s Station midway between Petersburg and Rich-
mond and near Drewry’s Bluff. General Martin returned to
North Carolina to wind up his office of State Adjutant-Gen-
eral. He took with him the Seventeenth North Carolina,
commanded by his brother, Colonel Wm. F. Martin. This
regiment was replaced by the Twenty-sixth North Carolina,
transferred from Robert Ransom’s Brigade. General Petti-
grew took command of it at Petersburg, Va., in August,
1862.”

The regiments were well 6fficered and contained as good
material as ever goes to make the soldier. In organizing his
staff, General Pettigrew offered me the position of Assistant
Adjutant-General, but asked me not to accept it, for its duties
would interfere with our constant intercourse. We were
bosom friends. I, therefore, remained his Aide-de-Camp as
long as he lived. After several temporary appointments to
the office of Assistant Adjutant-General, among them that of
Captain L. D. Starke, of Norfolk, the organization of the
staff was completed as follows:

Captain N. Colin Hughes, A. A. G., New Bern, N. C.;
Captain Louis G. Young, A. D .C., Charleston, S. C.; Lieu-
tenant Wm. Blount Shepard, Volunteer Aide, Edenton, N.
C.; Captain Campbell T. Iredell, of Company C. Forty-
seventh North Carolina Regiment, Acting Ordnance Officer ;
Major Geo. P. Collins, Quartermaster, Scuppernong, N. C.;
Major Wm. J. Baker, Commissary, Elizabeth City, N. C.

Later there were added to the staff while in North Caro-
lina: Captain W. W. McCreery, Inspector-General, Rich-
mond, Va.; Lieutenant Walter H. Robertson, Virginia, Ord-
nance Officer.

Captain George White, Colonel Thomas Galloway and
Captain Starke Sutton were at different times and for short
periods, Volunteer Aides.

At first the brigade was oceupied in drilling and in build-
ing field works around Petersburg. In the master hand of
its accomplished General, it soon became a thoroughly well
drilled and disciplined command.

Tue PrerrigRew-KirKLAND-MaACRar BRIGADE. 557

The object of keeping troops in North Carolina was to con-
fine the Federal army to its holdings on the coast, so that the
resources of this abundant country might be garnered for the
use of our armies. Thus occupied, we were during the win-
ter of 1862-63 engaged in several expeditions against the
enemy, the most stirring of which was an attack on New Bern
and the besieging of Washington, N. ©. The orders under
which we were acting, forbade any enterprise in the accom-
plishment of which many lives would be lost. The troops
were in keeping for the coming campaign in Virginia—not
to be frittered away in attacks upon fortified towns—but, it
was thought that New Bern might be surprised and taken and
Pettigrew’s Brigade was sent to Capture Fort Anderson, on
the west side of the Neuse, if it could be done with little loss.
The fort could have been easily taken, and a few hundred of
the enemy captured, but finding that this could only be done
by exposing his command to greater loss than the result would
justify, General Pettigrew withdrew from before New Bern.
General D. H. Hill, in command of the department, then or-
dered the siege of Washington, N. C. This was conducted
by Pettigrew, and for some weeks the Federals were confined
to the city, and the neighboring country kept free from their
ravages. Here occurred one of the most brilliant little af-
fairs. Foster, the General in command of the Federals, or-
dered from New Bern its entire garrison to take us in the
rear. These troops, under General Spinola, consisting of many
regiments of infantry and ten pieces of artillery, were met
at Blount’s Creek by the Eleventh North Carolina, an addi-
tional company of infantry, and three field pieces of artil-
lery in position. These not only checked the advance of the
enemy, but so thoroughly defeated him that as was stated
in an eccentric and complimentary order by General Hill,
“When we thought the engagement scarcely begun, the enemy
was so beaten that he went back over the ten miles by which
*he had come, entting down the woods behind him, and making
such an entanglement that neither a dog or a sneaking
exempt could crawl through.” Marvelous as this may ap-
pear, we lost only one man, and he was in the rear when he
was struck by a fragment of a shell. The field of operation