Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 4.djvu/90

72 chief, was to concentrate everything that could be taken out of North Carolina and elsewhere against General McClellan’s army, and crush it before Burnside could move from New Bern. . . . The governor was informed that the defense of his State would be an easy matter after the defeat of McClellan s army, and would not be overlooked. The governor and adjutant-general went into the plan heart and soul, and did everything in their power to make it a success; they, and they alone, knowing what the Confederate government and General Lee expected them and North Carolina to do. About this time the State received a shipment of arms from England (2,400). . . . They were given to the troops now waiting for them. The Confederate government now came promptly to the assistance of the State in arming the troops at Camp Mangum, and before the 1st of June, every one of them was armed and ready for service. The troops serving in the State were gradually and quietly withdrawn and sent to Virginia. . . . When the struggle commenced at Richmond, General Lee was fearful that Burnside would find out the defenseless condition of North Carolina and move forward. Every night he telegraphed, Any movement of the enemy in your front to-day?&quot;

At the close of the Seven Days battles only two regiments of infantry, the Fiftieth and the Fifty-first, were left in the State, and the forces of the enemy on the coast could, had they been apprised of the heavy movement of troops, have swept without opposition over all of the State. A people less brave and patriotic would never have consented to incur such a risk with so strong an enemy at its doors. The governor exposed his own capital to save that of the Confederacy. He finally left only one regiment of infantry, one of cavalry, and two or three batteries of artillery between him and an army then estimated to be about 20,000 strong. At the close of this campaign North Carolina had forty regiments in Virginia. The fifteen regiments sent to Virginia were not sent back to the State after Malvern Hill, but Gen- —