Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 21.djvu/296

 288 Southern Historical Society Papers.

the works. I have positive information that so determined was our resistance .aat General Terry sent word to General Ames, command- ing the three brigades assaulting us, to make one more effort and if unsuccessful to retire. General Abbott, who commanded a brigade, and who lived in North Carolina after the war, told Captain Braddy that at one time during our fight only one colored brigade held Bragg' s army in check, and they were so demoralized that five hun- dred veteran troops could have captured them. But an all -wise Providence decreed that our gallant garrison should be overwhelmed.

In less than an hour after I refused to surrender, a fourth brigade (three were already in the fort) entered the sally-port and swept the defenders from the remainder of the land face. Major Reilly had General Whiting and myself hurriedly removed on stretchers to Bat- tery Buchanan, where he proposed to cover his retreat. When we left the hospital the men were fighting over the adjoining traverse, and the spent balls fell like hail-stones around us. The remnant of the garrison then fell back in an orderly retreat along the sea face, the rear guard keeping the enemy engaged as they advanced slowly and cautiously in the darkness as far as the Mound Battery, where they halted. Some of the men, cut off from the main body, had to retreat as best they could over the river marsh, while some few un- armed artillerists barely eluded the enemy by following the seashore.

When we reached Battery Buchanan there was a mile of level beach between us and our pursuers, swept by two eleven-inch guns and a twenty-four pounder, and in close proximity to the battery, a commodious wharf where transports could have come at night in safety to carry us off.

We expected with this battery to cover the retreat of our troops, but we found the guns spiked and every means of transportion taken by Captain R. F. Chapman, of our navy, who, following the example of General Bragg, had abandoned us to our fate. The enemy threw

a heavy skirmish line and sent their Fourth Brigade to Battery

^hanan, where it arrived about 10 P. M., and received the surren- der of the garrison from Major James H. Hill and Lieutenant George D. Parker. Some fifteen minutes before the surrender, while lying on a stretcher near General Whiting, outside of the battery, witnessing the grand pyrotechnic display of the fleet over the capture of Fort Fisher, I was accosted by General A. H. Colquitt, who had been ordered to the fort to take command. I had a few minutes hurried