Part 38 (1/2)

14. What is said of the events at this period?

CHAPTER LVII.

THE WAR CONTINUES.

A. D. 1862.

Amid the exultation that filled the hearts of the people of North Carolina for the victories around Richmond, there was grief in many families for heroes fallen in the discharge of duty.

Colonels Stokes, Meares, Campbell and C. C. Lee, like a great host of their compatriots, were gone to come no more. It seemed that the superior numbers and resources of the United States forces were to prove powerless before the fiery onsets of the Confederate troops.

2. In the month of August, 1862, Zebulon B. Vance, of Buncombe, then Colonel of the Twenty-sixth Regiment, was chosen Governor of North Carolina over William Johnston, of Charlotte, who had been of late Commissary-General of the State. By an ordinance of the Convention, Colonel Vance entered upon his duties as Chief- Magistrate on September 8th, 1862. He was to evince great zeal in the discharge of his official duties.

3. The first Maryland campaign, which occurred in the fall of the year, was the next event of general interest. In the battles fought in that memorable campaign the North Carolina regiments won great reputation, but a terrible loss of life. General Branch was killed and General Anderson received wounds at Sharpsburg of which he soon died, and left grief in many hearts for their untimely end. Colonel C. C. Tew also fell in the same great battle, and increased the grief of his people at the loss by the mystery of his fate. He disappeared amid the storm of conflict, but exactly how and when was never known.

4. In North Carolina there had been comparative quiet through the spring and summer months. The Federal garrisons at Plymouth and New Bern were watched by small bodies of Confederates, but no fighting occurred except in Plymouth, which town was taken and held for a few hours by Colonel Martin, with the Seventeenth Regiment, and then abandoned because of the Federal gun-boats.

5. On Blackwater River, just below Franklin, in Virginia, there was a gallant conflict of a few cavalrymen under Lieutenant Thomas Ruffin, of the Fourth Cavalry, and a Federal double-ender.

The crew were all driven from deck and the s.h.i.+p lay at the mercy of the a.s.sailants until her consorts came up the stream from below and sh.e.l.led the victors from their prey.

6. By the 1st of December the Federal army, this time under command of General Burnside, was confronting General Lee at Fredericksburg, Virginia. On the 13th, Burns attempted to carry our lines, but after repeated and desperate a.s.saults and terrible slaughter, withdrew his troops. It was this battle that Marye's Heights won its b.l.o.o.d.y fame. The gallantry of the enemy, especially of Meagher's Irish Brigade was magnificent.

7. Simultaneously with the attack of General Burnside of the army of General Lee at Fredericksburg, the South Carolina Brigade of General Evans, then stationed at Kinston, North Carolina, was surprised to see a few mounted Federal soldiers make an attack upon the position then held by them. The Federals were driven back and pursued in the direction of New Bern. Suddenly the South Carolinians found themselves confronted by more than twenty thousand foes.

8. In the speedy retreat that ensued, General Evans was unable to burn the bridges across the river, and effected escape with some loss. He was, the next day, reinforced and awaited General Foster's approach on the road leading to Goldsboro. But the Federals were seeking to intervene between that place and the one occupied by Evans. All Tuesday morning (December 16th) the ma.s.ses of the Union troops were seeking to cross Neuse River at White Hall; they were bravely met there by General Beverly H.

Robinson who, with the Eleventh, Thirty-first, Fifty-ninth and Sixty-third Regiments, and Battery B, Third North Carolina Battalion, withstood all their attacks and inflicted severe loss on the baffled invaders. The contest lasted for eight hours during which General Foster persisted in his efforts to drive off the Confederates, so that pontoons could be laid forming a bridge across the stream, in place of the one burned the night before.

9. Failing to cross Neuse River at White Hall, General Foster marched in the evening for Goldsboro, and, having reached the bridge of the Wilmington & Weldon Railroad, succeeded in burning it, in spite of the gallant efforts of General Clingman and his brigade to prevent.

10. General Foster retired in great precipitation to New Bern, and the burned bridge was his only trophy in an expedition which seemed so threatening at its inception.

QUESTIONS.

1. What was the feeling concerning the victories around Richmond?

2. Who was chosen Governor in 1862? When did Colonel Vance enter upon the duties of Chief-Magistrate?

3. What losses had North Carolina sustained in the battle of Sharpsburg? What increased the grief of Colonel Tew's people?

4. What was the state of affairs in North Carolina during the spring and summer of 1862?

5. Describe the engagement on Blackwater River?

6. Where was the Federal army confronting General Lee on December 1st? What occurred on the 13th?

7. Can you tell of the surprise at Kinston?