Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 26.djvu/176

 166 Southern Historical Society Papers.

Colonel Lamb fell with a desperate wound through the hip, a half hour after the General; yet the troops fought on hour after hour, at each successive traverse. It was the struggle of of North Carolina patriots. Lamb, in the hospital, found voice enough, though faint unto death, to say, "I will not surrender!" and Whiting, lying among the surgeons near by, responded, " Lamb, if you die, I will assume command, and I will never surrender!"

But the ammunition had given out the Staff and the brave Chap- lain, McKinnon, had emptied the cartridge boxes of the dead, under fire, and brought in blankets such scanty supply of cartridges as could be found. The wintry night set in, and four hours thereafter those glorious sons of Carolina fought, until a little after 9 p. M.

The garrison retired to Battery Buchanan, taking their wounded officers; and its two heavy guns, uninjured, might have kept the land force at bay until they could have embarked in boats, but Lieu- tenant Chapman, of the Navy, had spiked his guns and taken him- self away, with all the boats (by whose order is not known); and thus the garrison was left to its fate.

It has been declared to be the glory of the army of Lee, that it placed hors du combat as many men of Grant's army in the campaign of the Wilderness as equalled its own numbers.

What, then, shall we say of the heroic band at Fisher? Colonel Lamb says, with burning eloquence:

" I had haff a mile of land face and one mile of sea face to defend, with 1,900 men. I knew every company present and its strength. This number included the killed, wounded and sick. If the Federal reports claim that our killed, wounded and prisoners showed more, it is because they credited my force with those captured outside the works, who were never under my command.

" To capture Fort Fisher, the enemy lost, by their own statement, 1,445 killed, wounded and missing. Nineteen hundred Confederates, with forty-four guns, contending against 10,000 men on shore (8,500 of the army and 2,000 of the navy), and 600 heavy guns afloat, kill- ing and wounding almost as many of the enemy as there were sol- diers in the fort, and not surrendering until the last shot was expended.

"When I recall this magnificent struggle, unsurpassed in ancient or modern warfare, and remember the devoted patriotism and heroic courage of my garrison, I feel proud to know that I have North Carolina blood coursing through my veins, and I confidently believe