Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 4.djvu/242

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VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

equipped, mustered into the Confederate service and sent to the front in Virginia, until North Carolina finally furnished to the armies of the Confederacy more troops than any other state and more fig^hting men in proportion to her population than any other nation ever furnished in any war. To this wonderful effect General Martin labored before he took the field. He also, with the consent of Governor \'ance, instituted the system of blockade running, shipping cot- ton to Europe and getting in return cloth- ing and arms for his troops.

In the spring of 1862 Burnside captured Newbern and was threatening an advance from that base. On May 15 General Martin received a letter from General Lee enclosing a commission as brigadier-general in the Confederate army, asking its acceptance and that he would take command of eastern North Carolina "in this emergency." This (leneral Martin did, taking command of a brigade that he had mustered into the ser- vice from North Carolina, and Burnside was successfully checked. After this, al- though constantly in touch with and the adviser of the state government, he returned but once to his duties as adjutant-general remaining in the field until the close of the war. In the command of his brigade his West Point and soldier training came to the surface, and he drilled his troops hard and incessantly, despite their dissatisfaction at the rigorous discipline he enforced. With- out their knowledge, and decidedly against their will, he was transforming the crudest of raw material into one of the most depend- able brigades in the Confederate army, a brigade whose reputation for bravery and soldierly conduct under fire became known to all the army leaders.

The great efficiency and rapid movements of his brigade won favorable notice at Ber- muda Hundred. May 17. 1864, and on May 20. at the hard fought battle of Howlitz its quick and exact obedience did much to win the day. In this' engagement, while charg- ing the enemy under heavy fire, General Martin, perceiving the Sixty-sixth, the color regiment, pressing forward too eagerly and so disturbing the brigade alignment, sent an aide to Colonel Moore directing him to "dress the brigade on the colors." This or- der the colonel, seizing the colors in his own hand, proceeded immediately to exe- cute, and the brigade, in as perfect align-

ment as though on parade, swept on and carried the enemy's position. The general's gallantry had been so conspicuous during the day, and the success of his promptly given and faultlessly executed orders so complete, that in the evening the men, the scales fallen from their eyes and shamed by their earlier murmurings against his strict rule, relieved their feelings in a man- ner most unusual. Rejoicing in their steadi- ness under fire and the result of the fight and glorying" in their commander, they stormed headquarters and with ringing cheers carried him about the camp on their shoulders, a tribute to the general which was a shock to his soldierly dignity, but which afiforded him much inward gratifi- cation. A line officer, writing at the close of the war of this period, said : "And from this time on the general was greatly be- loved, the men having unbounded confidence in his military skill and admiration for his personal bravery, illustrated on every field of battle where they followed him." That this confidence and regard was mutual was proven a few days later, when General Lee, to hold a strategic angle at Cold Harbor, ofifered to replace his brigade with veteran troops, General Martin replying: "Say to General Lee, with my compliments, that my men are soldiers, and that he has no brigade in his army that will hold this place any longer than they will."

The complete history of General ]Martin's career in the war of 1861-65 fills many pages in the chronicles of that conflict, and the greater fullness in which it is depicted, the greater the appreciation of his services to the Confederacy becomes. Through him North Carolina bore such a noble part in the struggle, and it is General Lee who once said of General James Green Martin, "Gen- eral Martin is one to whom North Carolina owes a debt she will never pay." His name will ever live as one of the most loyal of patriots, bravest of soldiers, and ablest of leaders.

At the close of the war General Martin studied law and was engaged in its prac- tice until his death, thirteen years after the re-establishment of peace. He became a lawyer soundly based in his profession and ui)right in its practice, and in civil life was ]>rogressive and modern in ideas and ideals. The welfare of his church, the Protestant Episcopal, was always his great concern,