186 Nort Carotina Troops, 1861-65.

palisades had loop holes through which the enemy fired on
our line. At’this point-many of the men were shot through
the head. The regiment rushed up to the palisades, and as
the enemy pulled their guns out our men put theirs in and
fired at those on the inside. Such deadly work could not
last long. The Eighth Regiment swung a little further
around to the gate leading to the rear of the fort. The gate
was burst open. The regiment rushed in and the fort surren-
dered. “Three cheers for North Carolina” were given by
the regiment, thus announcing that the assault had been suc-
cessful.”

The question naturally arises, what fort was this? As
will be hereafter stated, the capture of ‘Fort Comfort” on
the right of the road was conceded by General Ransom to the
Thirty-fifth. Where the advance of the brigade began, the
Columbia road does not run parallel to the river, but vbliquely
to the right. The Twenty-fourth kept on both sides of the
road; the command given to the brigade had been “Guide
center.” There is a pressure to the left by the Thirty-fifth
to avoid the branch, canal and the swamp which the Twenty-
fifth and Fifty-sixth had to cross, and in this pressure the
Twenty-fourth passes ahead, and leaves the left flank of the
Eighth exposed to an enfilade fire from the left, and the regi-
ment naturally swings around in that direction to meet the
greatest danger and injury tothem. This brings them around
towards the fort south of Charles Latham’s house, less than
three hundred yards from Fort Comfort, and called “Conaby
Redoubt,” which was opposite or near the head of Third
street, and thus carried the Eighth Regiment to the extreme
left of the brigade, as stated in the contemporaneous account
given by “Lone Star,” and on the direct course to Fort Wil-
liams; and Conaby Redoubt answers exactly the description
of the Fort with palisades, which Mr. Ludwig says the
Eighth Regiment attacked and carried, and its capture is
claimed by no other regiment and would be otherwise unac-
counted for.

The graphic history of Mr. Ludwig continues: “But a
strong fort (Fort Williams) remained in possession of the
enemy. The Eighth Regiment formed and attempted to

THE CAPTURE OF PLYMOUTH. 187

storm that. The men charged up to the edge of the sur-
rounding ditch, only to find that it could not be crossed.
There was but one of two courses to take, to-wit: either to fall
back or to surrender. The regiment chose the former. When
the retreat began, the enemy poured a fearful volley into the
ranks, killing and wounding many of the men. This charge
was reckless and unnecessary. It was made under the flush
of victory, and not by order of the commanding general.
The fort being surrounded, would have had to surrender any
way, as it did a few hours afterwards.”

In the Fayetteville Observer of 9 May, 1864, it is said:
We have received a communication from an officer of the
Thirty-fifth North Carolina Troops complaining that the
Richmond papers have given to others the credit due to that
regiment. He says “Ransom’s brigade charged the Yankee
fortifications, and our regiment (Thirty-fifth) took the first
fort, the key to the position. Its Colonel, J. G. Jones, of Per-
son County, was the first to mount the fortifications and in
honor of him and his regiment, General Ransom changed the
name from Fort Comfort to Fort Jones. To Colonel Jones
the Yankee commander of that fort surrendered, and a detail
of that regiment took charge of the first prisoners captured

‘(on that day) at Plymouth, and conducted them to the rear.

Our three centre companies covered the front of the fort, and
our right and left wings completely surrounded it. Our dead
were around the fort, and the dead of no other regiment.”
I regret that I have no fuller account of the operations of this
regiment, whose noble Colonel, in less than two months af-
terwards, on the night of 17 June, 1864, yielded his life in
a heroic and successful charge at Petersburg made by Ran-
som’s Brigade to recapture works lost by another command.

Before the capture of Fort Comfort has been completed by
the Thirty-fifth, and the works in their immediate front car-
ried by the Twenty-fourth, the Eighth Regiment is found
doing equally effective work to the left of both of them, as
shown above. The Twenty-fifth Regiment after getting
through the swamp, finding the Fifty-sixth across its course,
obliqued to our right, and proceeded up Water street and be-
tween that and the river, and assisted in the capture of the