332 Nortu Carotina Troops, 1861~’65. barefooted, said: “My Lord, is that you?’ I looked him over and recognized him as an old quarter-gunner that had been shipmate with me in the frigate Congress ten years be- fore, and among the wounded I was called to have a greeting from a young fellow, who had been a mizzen-topman in the same ship, and after the war got me to give him a certificate to secure his pension. Our casualties had been six killed, twenty-two wounded, all of them brought away. Two were missing and afterwards accounted for. The Federal loss was nine killed, eighteen wounded, and nineteen prisoners—about thirty of her ‘crew escaped. The wounded and prisoners were promptly taken care of by General Dearing’s command, and sent up to Kinston, Cap- tain Wood proceeded to Richmond at once. As soon as proper arrangements could be made the command was sum- moned to pay the last rite of burial of the dead. At 3 o’clock in the afternoon, under the stately pines that bordered the stream, I read the church service for the burial of the dead, and the bodies of our lamented comrades were tenderly laid in mother earth, there to rest until we shall all be summoned to the great assize. General Pickett’s plans miscarried, it was alleged, by the failure of one of his brigadiers to make an attack at the ap- pointed time on the Trent river side of the defense. He withdrew his force leisurely and retired upon Kinston. I could never understand why the other gunboats at New Bern did not attack the Underwriter after her capture by us. Instead of that, two of them got under way and steamed around into Trent river, as fast as they could go. While we were getting ready to abandon the ship, it worried us very . much to see one of those boats coming directly toward us, but she soon turned and went in the other direction, much to our relief. In speaking of our casualties, it was said that there were two missing, and itavas from laughable circumstances. When we took to our boats two of the men rushed to the stern where they saw a boat made fast, and they slided down into her. In a few moments other men piled into her, and “shove off” . r CAPTURE OF THE “UNDERWRITER.” 333 was the word. Tt soon developed that the boat had eight Yan- kees and two rebels on board, and these two poor fellows set up a fearful ery for help. We heard them howling from our boat, but could not see, nor imagine what it meant, ssa poor fellows were rowed ashore to New Bern by their Yankee prisoners—so to speak. They were afterwards exchanged and I met one of them in Richmond. He said he never felt so mean in all his life, and he almost split his throat halloo- ing us to get them out of the scrape. a sick wot New Bern was well planned, and we all know that the assault of that intrepid division was irresisti- ble, but here was another case where somebody had igisemese Tf General Pickett’s orders had been carried out, there woul have been another exemplification of the power of a navy, ed its very absence in this case; for the neutralizing of the has given by the Underwriter in the defense of New Bern w : : have made General Pickett’s assault upon the right flank o very differ ffair.* those defenses a very different al ee as Referring to this capture Admiral Porter, United States Navy, wrote at that time: “This was rather a — affair for the navy, however fearless on the part of the a federates. This gallant expedition was led by Comman¢ et John Taylor Wood. It was to be expected that with “cago clever officers, who left the Federal navy and cast eg : > tunes with the Confederates, such gallant action baer . 0 3 be attempted, and had the enemy attacked oi ging No chances are that they would have been successful, a : wart rison was unprepared for an attack on the river flank, most vulnerable side.” That night our command p fagged from four days of work back to our ships at Richmond. ulled up to Kinston, tired and and unrest, and so we went ’ B. P. Loyatt. Norro.k, VA., : 2 February, 1901. : ‘ h *Nore —General Pickett was evidently a favorite at Richmond and the i iti f the charge at Gettysburg, was Sr a ont a ae Pigher promotion. It is not improb- ‘ec, him down as unequal to his op- wy would have turned out under a Pender, or Hoke Ep.