84 Nort Carotina Troops, 1861~’65.

was stationed to guard the ford. The enemy crossed the river
at that point, and formed a line to cover the passage of their
artillery. They were repulsed there and at F ranklin, Col-
onel Leventhorpe was reinforced by several additional regi-
ments of infantry, and two Virginia batteries; and sane
heavy guns were sent from Richmond and placed in position.

The works about Franklin were enlarged and strengthened.

General Pryor assumed the command on the Blackwater
about 1 December. Soon after his arrival the General
learned by his scouts that the enemy had left Suffolk in large
force, and that Franklin was the supposed object of atiack,
Subsequent information was received that the enemy was
marching into Gates County, North Carolina. The desion
of this movement was not understood; but it was Enagined
either that a large foraging party had been sent into Gates,
or that the General was making a reconnoissance in anes.
With a view to determining this question, and diverting the
enemy from his object, whatever it might be, General Pryor
made a night advance towards Suffolk. At about 2 a. m.
and whilst the troops were in bivouac, heavy cannonading
was heard in the rear, and apparently at Franklin, which
was partially uncovered. General Pryor withdrew towards
his own lines. The cannonade, it was afterwards discovered
originated with a party of cavalry from Suffolk, 500 ston,
which had run a battery to the bank of the Blackwater to shell
a Confederate regiment encamped on the low-lands on the
opposite side. This party learned that General ‘Pryor was
in the ‘field in force, and retreated precipitately on Suffolk
affording, with the withdrawal of the Confederates towards
Franklin, the somewhat singular incident of the retreat of
two parties, by contiguous roads, each urged by the apprehen-
sion that their separate fastnesses had been attacked during
their absence.

On the following day it was known that the large Federal
force, last traced to Gates County, had erabarked on the
Chowan, and that it was destined to aid General Foster in
an expedition into North Carolina. Immediately after this
reinforcement reached him, General Foster marched from.
New Bern. He was encountered by General N. G. Evans be-

 

BarrLe or Warre Hatt. 85.

tween New Bern and Kinston, and delayed for several days
by the obstinate stand made by that officer at every point
where it was possible with his limited numbers, to oppose,
with any advantage, the overwhelming strength of the Fed-
eral advance. Intelligence of this movement was sent to Gen-
eral Pryor, who was ordered to dispatch Leventhorpe’s Regi-
ment immediately to Goldsboro. As General Evans was in
need of reinforcements General Robertson, commanding at
Garysburg, was ordered to dismount Evans’ (Sixty-third
North Carolina) and Ferebee’s (Fifty-ninth North Carolina)
Regiments of cavalry, and proceed to his assistance. At Golds-
boro, Colonel Leventhorpe received instructions to report to
General Evans, who, rumor stated, was contending success-
fully with General Foster. The train conveying the Elev-
enth North Carolina, was met on its way by an up train
which the President of the road was conveying out of dan-
ger, and, then, for the first time, the true condition of affairs
was known, and that General Evans, who had bravely dis-
puted every inch of ground, had been attacked by irresisti-
ble numbers, defeated, and driven from Kinston, which was
then occupied by the enemy. General Evans had been well
aware, from the first, that he could only delay the Federal.
columns. But he appreciated justly that every considera-
tion should be subordinate to this object. This resistance
gained time for General Gustavus W. Smith, and enabled the
latter to procure those reinforcements, which placed it in his
power to meet Foster successfully, and defeat the aim of his
expedition.

When the train had gone as far as its safety would war-
rant, it was stopped, and the troops bivouacked by the road.
General Robertson and Colonel Leventhorpe proceeded to-
gether on the engine to seek General Evans, who was quar-
tered at a house on the bank of a small creek a few miles dis-
tant from Kinston, his late headquarters. General Evans
explained his disaster to the two officers who visited him.
His little band of about two thousand men had been crushed
by the enemy, numbering twenty-two thousand men, and
having eighty pieces of artillery. When General Evans’ force
was broken it was partly dispersed, and the position of his