Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 16.djvu/187

 The Wee Nee Volunteers of Williamsburg District. 181

G and, by order of General Hagood, reported to Colonel R. F. Graham, who, with these companies and three of his own regiment, started on the cars of the Wilmington & Weldon Railroad.

May jM. On the morning of this day the following order was received by me :

HEADQUARTERS EAST LINES,

JAMES ISLAND, May $th, 1864.

Lieutenant- Colonel PRESSLEY,

Twenty-fifth South Carolina Volunteers:

Have the rest of your regiment at the Wilmington & Weldon Railroad depot at 12 M. to take transportation to Richmond. By command of

Brigadier General HAGOOD. P. K. MALONEY,

A. A. G.

[This was the last written order ever received by me from our gal- lant assistant adjutant-general, and I have therefore kept it, and now insert a copy in these reminiscences. His own State was always uppermost in the mind of this noble Carolinian, and the force of habit caused him to forget that he had left her borders ; hence the mistake in dating his order "James Island" instead of "Wilmington."]

This order was promptly obeyed, and before the appointed time the remaining companies of the Twenty-fifth were at the station near " Camp Cobb," a place from which we always moved with pleasure. The recollection of that camp brings to mind nothing but discomfort. We were not detained very long. General Hagood and his staff went on the train with us. We had one car attached for their horses and for one horse for each regimental commander of the brigade. The rest of our horses and all of our baggage, except such as the men could carry and our camp equipage, were left to come on by wagon train in charge of Captain J. Elison Adger, our Quartermaster, and Captain R. Press Smith, Sr., Quartermaster of the Twenty-seventh regiment. There was no more efficient officer in the service than Captain Adger. Had every quartermaster in the Confederate army discharged his duties with as much promptness and fidelity, there never would have been any complaint of that department. Captain Smith, of the Twenty-seventh, was also a most excellent officer.

May 6th. At a point between Goldsboro and Weldon, we heard of the landing of Butler and his army at Bermuda Hundreds. Gen-