Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 26.djvu/171

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" The garrison consisted of two companies of the loth North Car- olina, under Major James Reilly; the 36th North Carolina, Colonel William Lamb, ten companies; four companies of the 4Oth North Car- olina; Co. D of the ist North Carolina Artillery Battalion; Co. C, 3rd North Carolina Artillery Battalion; Co. D, I3th North Carolina Artillery Battalion, and the naval detachment, under Captain Van Benthuysen."

Colonel Lamb affirms that at no time during the last and heaviest action were there in the Fort more than 1,900 men, including the sick, killed and wounded.

The activity of the blockade-running steamers stirred the Federal government to prepare a gigantic force for the long deferred attack. It was known that the Confederate steamer, R. E. Lee, had made twenty-one trips within ten months from the BritisTi port of Nassau, and Chicago bacon had become familiar in our ranks. Men of world- wide fame visited the port under assumed names. Among these was Hobart Pasha, the Englishman who afterwards commanded the Turk- ish navy; Captain Murray, who was C. Murray Aynsley, afterwards Admiral in the British navy, and others.

Rumors came thick and fast of the great expedition in prepara- tion, and in the midst of active movement the troops were thun- derstruck at the news that General Braxton Bragg had assumed command at Wilmington, superseding but not removing General Whiting, who remained second in command.

The speaker, whose duties in the engineer service called him to many points of the city and river defences, found the feeling of melancholy foreboding at this change to be universal.

General Bragg's career in the Mexican war, in the vigor of early lite, when captain of artillery, was most brilliant and honorable. But whatever may have been the cause, no matter what his ability or efforts, the fact was known that his record throughout the war, from the attack on Pickens to the day that he gave up the army of Tenn- e to Johnston, was one involving much slaughter and little suc- cess. Colonel Lamb says (in his address at Wilmington in 1893):

"This was a bitter disappointment to my command, who felt that no one was so capable of defending the Cape Fear as the bril- liant officer who had given so much of his time and ability for its de-

' The patriotic Whiting showed no feeling at being superseded, but went to work, with redoubled energy, to prepare for the impend-