88 NortH Carorina Troops, 1861-65.

morning Colonel Leventhorpe relieved his” two companies
which had been engaged (Captains Bird and Small), with
two other companies of the Eleventh North Carolina wide
were placed under command of Captain M. D. Armfield a
noble old man, and a soldier of the purest. type, who aties
wards, as a Gettysburg prisoner, and in confinement at John-
son’s Island, gave his life for the cause which he had espoused.
The enemy’s preparations being complete his guns began
to open quite briskly upon the pickets in the swamp. Gea
eral Robertson formed his troops in line, and within easy
support of. the pickets should there be any intention exhib-
ited, on the part of the enemy, to cross the river on pontoons.
Some casualties occurred amongst the dismounted cavalry.
and two men of Captain Bryce’s company, Colonel F erebeo’s
Regiment, were killed by a shell. General Robertson ordered
Jordan’s Regiment into the swamp to relieve Leventhorpe’s
picket companies. This intention, however, was changed.
Colonel Jordan was counter-ordered, and Colonel Leven-
thorpe instructed to join his two’ picket companies, with
his eight remaining companies, and to use his judgment
as to the best mode of engaging the enemy, but, in any peat
to resist the crossing of the Neuse river to the last ex:
tremity. The Eleventh Regiment moved forward at the
double-quick, filed to the right through the timber on the
river bank. It was halted, and fronted towards White
Hall in rather extended order, to meet the large front shown
by the enemy, as well as to lessen, by the extension of the files
the danger of loss by his artillery. In the meantime sb
though there was no vantage ground for artillery in the Gore
federate position, General Robertson placed two small guns
his sole ordnance, and directed the Lieutenant (Nelson Me-
Clees) who commanded, to engage the enemy’s batteries.
Some seven hundred men, therefore, of the Eleventh
Regiment and two small howitzers of this North Cac-
olina battery (Company B, Third North Carolina Bat
talion), formed the only fighting force opposed to thirty
pieces in position, and Foster’s whole command. The
other Confederate troops, which were present, are ney-
ertheless entitled to their full share of the credit

 

Barrie or WuHite HALL. 89

of this engagement, as they were placed under circum-
stances of peril highly trying to their steadfastness, without
that stimulus of action which renders most men insensible to
danger. A lull in the firing enabled the officers and men of
the Eleventh to hear the order of their commanding officer,
which was to keep their order, but avail themselves of such
shelter as the ground afforded, and to commence independent
firing. The answer came in that wild cheer, which many
have heard and know as the Southern soldier’s expression of
ardor and determination. The enemy’s guns were arranged
on the heights at and around White Hall in a kind of semi-
line so as, without actually enfilading the swamp, to expose
those who held it to a direct and oblique fire. The infantry
which engaged the Eleventh Regiment was drawn up in line.
on the high ground fronting the swamp. The thirty guns
opened at once, and fired as fast as they could be loaded and
fired, for four hours without intermission. The Federal in-
fantry fired by volleys and at the word of command. They
were answered by the file-firing of the Confederate Regiment
and by the section of a battery which might be heard ocea-
sionally through the din of battle in its unparalleled strug-
gle against odds. ‘The position of the enemy’s infantry, as”
well as that of his batteries, although commanding that of the
Confederates, had this disadvantage that it was necessary to
depress the aim. In fact the Southern riflemen were too
near their enemy, and his artillery and infantry overshot the
mark. Had the thirty guns been more depressed, or had the
Southern infantry been a hundred or even fifty yards further
to the rear, it really seems impossible that any troops could
have endured such a fire. The enemy’s infantry fought well
for four hours under a destructive fire. Their line, how-
ever, was frequently broken, and as frequently reformed.
Seme regiments faltered and withdrew in disorder, as their
files were thinned by the Confederate rifles, but others sup-
plied their place. At length the Federal commander con-
ceded a repulse, withdrew his guns, and then his infantry,
and was seen moving in the distance, with a long ambulance
train containing the wounded. Leventhorpe’s Regiment,
the men’s cartridges all spent, was relieved by Jordan’s,