x REvIEW AND CONCLUSION.

fices, the services, the sufferings of our glorious and heroic
women. The flight of time and the invincible modesty of
the sex prevented our securing one of themselves to narrate
that story and no man felt that his pen was equal to the por-
trayal. Like Emmett’s epitaph, it must remain unwritten
but its abiding remembrance is in the hearts of the soldiery
of the South. The dedication prefixed to the completed
work in this last volume comes from the heart. They are
not perfunctory words, but the expression of the sentimeuts
of the more than 125,000 soldiers, living and dead, whom
North Carolina sent to the front.

The pay of the Confederate soldier in the depreciated cur-
reney was wholly inadequate to be of any assistance to those
dependent upon him at home. Mention has already been
made of the cotton cards and other supplies brought in
through the blockade and distributed by the State to soldiers’
wives. In most, if not all the counties, the county authorities
procured supplies of corn, meat and salt which were stored in
warehouses and dispensed weekly by boards of elderly citi-
zens to the mothers, wives and children who needed assis-
tance. This was not charity but just compensation to those
who were absent fighting for the State without pay.
Where the counties neglected this just measure there were
of course large numbers of desertions. The soldier felt it
but just that the government should see that his aged mother,
his dependent wife and children were provided for by the
State since at its command they were deprived of his labor.

The salt was procured from the works at Saltville, Virginia, -

or from the ocean near Wilmington, the counties raising the
funds by the issue of what was known as “Salt bonds.” By
what now seems a singular decision the Supreme Court of
the State, in the Reconstruction era, held the bonds thus is-
sued in aid of the destitute and suffering women and chil-
a the State void “because issued in aid of the Rebel-
ion.

A most interesting chapter might have been added of the
operation of the “Tax in kind” by which provisions were

obtained for the support of our armies, but as that would
have required much elaboration and was a matter concerning

REVIEW AND CONCLUSION. xi

the Army as a whole rather than the North Carolina Regi-
ments and Battalions, the subject has not been treated herein.

A series of extracts from the Executive Letter Books and
the files of the Adjutant-General’s office 1861-5 would have
added interest to this work, but it had already swelled to five
volumes, and this as well as some other valuable matter was
necessarily foregone.

The legend on the cover is no idle boast, but is based upon
evidence given herein that is deemed worthy to be presented
to the great jury of the public and of posterity. Major
Hale’s history of the “Bethel” regiment proves, (if it had
ever been called in question) North Carolina’s claim to be
the First at Bethel. The histories herein by Brigadier Gen-
eral Cox, Major General Grimes and by Colonel Frank Par-
ker of the Thirtieth regiment abundantly establish that the
volley of Cox’s Brigade, of Grimes’ Division was the Last at
Appomattox, the last shots being fired by the Thirtieth Regi-
ment belonging to that brigade. The last capture of guns
by that gallant army was the 4 Napoleons taken by Roberts’
North Carolina Cavalry brigade the morning of the sur-
render. 3

Davidson’s history of the Thirty-ninth regiment, as well
as Major Harper’s history of the Fifty-eighth and Colonel
Ray’s of the Sixtieth fully demonstrate that our North Caro-
lina soldiers were Farthest to the front at Chicamauga and
they are corroborated by Captain C. A. Cilley’s report, here-
in reprinted, who was a Staff Officer of Vanderveer’s Brigade
which faced our North Carolinians on that well fought field.

At Gettysburg the history of the Fifty-fifth Regiment by
Adjutant C. M. Cooke shows that it went farthest to the
front on Cemetery Ridge. The best proof of how far a line
of battle went is where it left its dead and wounded. These
derelicts cast up by the bloody wave of war were found farth-
est in the front of that gallant regiment and this is shown by
the battlefield map prepared by the authority of the United
States government after years of careful investigation of
official reports and living witnesses from both armies. A
copy of this official map, on a reduced scale is printed in this

work.