Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 19.djvu/235

 The First North Carolina Volunteers. 229

[Raleigh Standard, June, 1861.] OUR RECENT BRILLIANT VICTORY.

The letter of Colonel Hill, in another column, announcing his recent brilliant victory over the enemy, was recurred to in the Con- vention on Wednesday with every demonstration of joy. On motion of Mr. Badger the Convention unanimously returned its thanks to the Governor for the information communicated of this glorious result, and assured him of its wish to unite with him in such testimonials to Colonel Hill, and the men under his command, as may be thought appropriate and worthy of the State and of them.

Connected with this victory, we cannot refrain from alluding to some incidents suggested by the participation of some of the com- panies in the conflict. The Fayetteville Independent Light Infantry was formed in 1793 under the administration of Washington ; and it was but fit that it should bear a prominent part in achieving the first decisive triumph on Virginia soil defending the grave of Washington, whom, when in life, it was organized to protect from the assaults of Citizen Genet, of France. The Lafayette Light Infantry, of the same town, was organized a few years ago to perpetuate the memory of Lafayette ; and it was but fit that it should " flesh its maiden sword" and achieve its first triumph at Yorktown, the field in which the noble Lafayette earned his brightest laurels and highest military renown. Yorktown the scene of the surrender of Cornwallis to Washington is made more memorable by the first victory in this war, achieved mainly by North Carolinians.

Mecklenburg, too, whose citizens raised the first cry of Independ- ence in 1775, was represented by the Hornets' Nest Rifles and the Charlotte Greys. McDowell, the lineal descendant of one of the heroes of King's Mountain, led the Buncombe Rifles; Avery, the grandson of the first Attorney-General of the State, led the Burke Rifles ; Ashe, who inherits a revolutionary name, led the Orange Light Infantry ; and the gallant Bridgers, leading the Edgecombe Braves, had in his ranks an Owen, whose paternal and maternal grandfathers, Porterfield and Owen, did such signal service on the battle-fields of North and South Carolina in the old revolution. We regret that we lack the necessary information to continue these allu- sions, but, from the colonel to the private, they all bore themselves like heroes. Honor to them now and hereafter ! The old State is