Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 23.djvu/49

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The ivginu-nt, therefore, went into service early in May among the troops for the defence of Wilmington with the following organi- xntion :

Colonel Collett Leventhorpe, Lieutenant-Colonel W. J. Martin, Major Egbert A. Ross, Surgeon John Wilson, Assistant-Surgeon J. Parks Mi Combs, Assistant-Quartermaster John N. Tate, Assistant- Commissary of Subsistence Pat J. Lowrie, Adjutant H. C. Lucas, Chaplain A. S. Smith, Captain W. L. Hand, Company A, Mecklen- burg; Captain M. D. Armfield, Company B, Burke; Captain F. W. Bird, Company C, Bertie; Captain C. S. Brown, Company D, Burke; Captain J. S. A. Nichols, Company E, Mecklenburg; Cap- tain E. A. Small, Company F, Chowan; Captain J. A. Jennings, Company G, Orange; Captain W. L. Grier, Company H, Mecklen- burg; Captain A. S. Haynes, Company I, Lincoln; Captain J. M. Young, Company K, Buncombe.

FRANKLIN.

We served around Wilmington and at various points on the coast until the ist of October, when we were ordered to Franklin, Va. , and took a prominent part in the defense of the Blackwater, engag- ing in numerous skirmishes with the enemy operating from Suffolk. The line to be guarded was so long and the troops to guard it so few, that forced marches were of constant occurrence, and the term foot-cavalry facetiously applied to us aptly described our role.

WHITE-HALL.

On the 1 2th of December we were ordered to Kingston, N. C. , but before we reached it the enemy had taken the town and sent a force up the south side of the Neuse to cross at White-Hall, and take the Confederate troops in the rear. We, with portions of three other regiments and a section of artillery, all under Brigadier-General Robertson, were hurried up to White- Hall bridge, and arrived in time to burn it before the enemy could cross. Here the regiment had its first real baptism of fire. Posted along the river bank, from which another regiment had just been driven back, it was pounded for several hours at short range by a terrific storm of grape and canister, as well as by musketry; but it never flinched, and gained a reputation for endurance and courage which it proudly maintained to the fateful end at Appomattox. The enemy finally desisted from the effort to force a passage and drew off toward Goldsboro.