[On November 14, 1861, all volunteer regiments were "re-designated" to have ten more added to their regiment number, thus the 4th NC Volunteers Regiment became known as the 14th NC Regiment (State Troops); however, this was not embraced by any of the regiments until their one-year enlistment was up and the officers were allowed to elect new leaders.]

Of the one thousand four hundred (1,400) officers and men of the regiment borne upon the muster rolls from the outbreak of the war until Palm Sunday in 1865, when the pale flag of defeat drooped over the guns which had upheld the life of the "New Nation," scarcely fifty (50) escaped wounds during their service.

Capt. James J. Cherry, of Company A (Roanoke Minute Men), a capable and promising ofiicer, died of wounds received in the early operations of the battle of Chancellorsville, VA.

Eli Freeman, Captain of Company C (Anson Guard), was killed at Bethesda Church, May 30, 1864. He was a native of the State of Ohio, who came South to work at his trade as carriage builder. He was a skilled workman in iron, a very handsome man, of pleasing address, with hair and beard of raven blackness. As soon as the interest of the living permitted I went to do the last sad duty to the dead captain. He lay upon the battlefield, and some kindly hand had drawn his hat over his face, leaving the same jaunty look which distinguished him in life, now mirrored in death. It was a beautiful day, laden with the breath of spring. As the wind came up from the deserted chambers of the South it ran its fingers through his beautiful locks and they vibrated as if still instinct with life.

William M. Weir, Captain of Company D (Cleveland Blues), a loyal and faithful officer, with a great body and a spirit as fearless as ever animated mortal man, perished in 1864.

Capt. William T. Poole, of Company E (Oak City Guards), the only son of a widowed mother, just and brave, full of intelligence, very shapely in his person, apparently anticipating the very order, was shot to death in front of Charlestown, WV, on August 24, 1864.

Capt. James R. DeBerry, of Company H (Stanly Marksmen), who was killed in the very forefront of battle, sprang from stock always dutiful, always honest, and he never questioned an order nor deemed any odds of battle as desperate in advance.

Capt. Wilson T. Jenkins, of Company A, was full of courage and cheerfulness. He is yet spared to the State and his friends.

Capt. James M. Gudger, of Company F (Rough-and-Ready Guard), which Zebulon Baird Vance, whose memory is ever green in the homes of our State, originally carried out and for some months commanded, was fearfully wounded and entitled to a discharge on account of the disability, but held on to his boys until the war was fought out. There was no man in the army of the South of his rank who was more reliable as an officer and soldier.

Capt. Thomas B. Beall, of Company I (Davidson Wild Cats), was as dear a soul as ever went to battle; as tender-hearted as the most refined woman, brave and pure. I fetch out of the very secret chamber of my feelings this testimony and put it on this white paper in these characters of mourning to stand after some time be passed, that Thomas B. Beall's was as beautiful a service as our humanity is capable of.

In the fighting at Fort Magruder near Williamsburg, the 14th NC Regiment lost eight (8) killed and nine (9) wounded. Sergeant Hamilton, of Wake County, lost both eyes, Henry Sanders, of Anson County, was very forward in the fighting. Henry W. Robinson, of the latter county, was upstanding through the fight in spite of entreaty and orders. Every man of the regiment behaved admirably. Though engaged in the bloody battle of Seven Pines, the losses were less than at Fort Magruder. I have always insisted that the troops from every State of the Confederacy were quite alike in courage and hardihood. All were at times less steady than their wont. I have no patience with the temper which points to the unbecoming pauses in the services of regiments.

The 14th NC Regiment attained very great perfection in drill and marching. Brig. Gen. Stephen D. Ramseur (NC) and Maj. Gen. Robert E. Rodes (VA) witnessed the drill of the regiments in the winter of 1863-'64. The command was inspired by the test and were as steady and uniform as a battalion could be. Brig. Gen. Ramseur declared in the presence of the Major General that the regiment performed with as much precision as the corps of Cadets at West Point. Every officer evinced personal pride in the command and exerted a moral influence in its government, so that in the hour of battle they went forward conscious of dependence upon each other and with faith that the line would stand together as long as endurance was a duty. It would fatigue the patience of readers if we gave in this sketch the minute details of soldier duty and soldier life.

The drum corps of the regiment was kept up all through the war. William Vaughn, the Fifer, could get more thrilling strains out of his instrument than any one I have heard, assisted by Albert Carter, James Puttick, James Lewis, and Albert Robarts; first and last, tattoo, taps and reveille were pieces of high art.

In the Seven Days' Battles around Richmond the regiment was commanded by Lt. Col. William A. Johnston, a brave officer, very capable and attentive to his duties. Col. Junius Daniel lay sick of a fever. The command acquitted itself with stout courage all these days. It was in one of these fights that Lt. William Marcellus Thompson, of Company E, son of Mr. George W. Thompson, of Wake County, who died a year or so ago at a very advanced age, possessing the confidence and esteem of the people of his county, was killed. He made an enduring impression on my memory by his agreeable manners, considerable sense of humor, keen appreciation of a joke,and fondness for the lottery of life. Having acted as commissary of subsistence for the regiment six months, I knew the command in its weakest parts, and insist that, with trifling exceptions, the command showed its good breeding and manners by suppressing disappointment over poor rations.

The first great baptism of blood in our regimental experience was at Sharpsburg, MD. Our position in the "bloody lane" has become historical and deserves immortality. In the most exposed part of the lane the regiment held its ground, repelling every stroke of the enemy from sunrise until late in the afternoon. It was a terrific battle. Nature was in her most peaceful mood; the autumn sun was without caprice. I watched the tide of this battle with intense interest while the combatants thundered away. The open fields to the left oblique of our regimental position were fought over and over with varying fortune. Now the flag of the Government was on the summit of a hill for which all were striving, then the tide went back and the ensign of the Confederate States was to the fore.

There must be something decisive in fetching the last squadron on the field. It is as decisive or more so than getting there first with the most men. With two hundred and fifty (250) mounted men, resolute in their courage, ready for "push of pike," thrown in the very crisis of these occasions, upon the indecision of either side, victory must have come. The commanding general may well consider the advantage of having attached to considerable bodies of infantry some force of cavalry for these lost opportunities. We came out of this battle baffled of victory, but we fetched with us a sense of superiority which nothing but exhaustion could shake. All the day long the soldiers of my command maintained their high sense of duty and exhibited the same exalted courage which is the pride of the South. None faltered; all did well; some outdid themselves. It would be difficult for any true soldier to name a day in his battle experience which he enjoyed more than the day at Sharpsburg. It was splendid.

The interval betwixt Sharpsburg and the first battle at Fredericksburg filled the ranks with brave men. There are moments in battle of extraordinary felicity, not so much from success as from the very grandeur of the situation. First Fredericksburg afforded such an occasion. The ridge extending from Hamilton's Crossing in a circle towards the town was then studded with great oaks. The enemy's guns were hurling shot and shell into this growth and advancing battalions from our side were hurrying to the chasm in our lines. The very sulphur from exploding shells was in the air. When Capt. Joseph Jones, of Company K, a genial soul with pleasing face and the heart of a lion, said to me: "Could you beat this?" I had time to say: "It's splendid." Here we had an opportunity to observe Major Pelham in charge of our artillery. It was the opportunity of a lifetime to see Lt. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson (VA) and hear him talk to this picturesque youth, who was manly and confident. He was a handsome boy, faultlessly dressed, and told without affectation the story of yesterday's dreadful ordeal. I ventured to ask Lt. Gen. Jackson what to do with some of my regiment for whom there was no room in the ditch. "Put them out of harm's way," was the laconic answer. "The enemy are gone, after a fearful punishment; they stole away in the night."

The winter of 1862-'63 was a trying one, spent in camp and picket duties, guarding the Rappahannock River.

In North Carolina some evil-disposed persons raised hue and cry against the war and thundered through their newspapers at the rear of Richmond. The articles of war and army regulations forbade regiments holding political meetings, but by a sort of pious evasion such a meeting was held in the 14th NC Regiment and resolutions passed which were printed in the Richmond papers. I recall one of these resolutions: "From our distant bivouac on the frozen banks of the Rappahannock, we conjure our fellow-citizens to beware, lest this struggle, already consecrated by much of the best blood of the State, be turned to our shame and humiliation." North Carolina soldiers were as brave and worthy as any who gave their services to the Confederacy, but candor constrains me to record the fact that some politicians of the State did much to embarrass the operations of our armies and defeat the establishment of our Government. "May their attainder never be reversed nor their crimes forgotten."

The spring of 1863 opened with the prospect of the Confederacy unclouded in the East. The men of the 14th NC Regiment hailed the dawn of the campaign with beautiful confidence in the future. (The regiment had cultivated every moral virtue, led by their capable and goodly Chaplain, Rev. W. C. Power, who is still in the service of our Gracious Master—most of them had joined the church). If I had then known that which experience has taught me, the regiment would have stamped sublimity upon the uniform of its conscripts. My ignorance, or misfortune, if you please to call it so, arrested the development of an irresistible engine of war, yet I did my duty as I saw it and understood it. I was not slothful; I was obedient and loyal to the cause and earned frequent mention in reports.

We were detained a day or so at Fredericksburg, while General Robert E. Lee penetrated the plans of Federal Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker, then we had swift orders to march to Chancellorsville. Ordinary minds recall only focal points of the far away past. In that march my regiment was the head of Lt. Gen. Stonewall Jackson's Corps. When we came into contact with the enemy. Brig. Gen. Stephen D. Ramseur (NC), under the eye of General Lee, formed his brigade in hollow square and at once pushed him. He retired within his breastworks, abandoning in the hurry piles of knapsacks and other impedimenta, thrown down by design when they first deployed to the front. We lost several men severely wounded. We were relieved by a Tennessee command and rested on our arms near the Catharine Furnace Road. Soldiers never moved in more precise order than our advance in brigade square. The morrow was destined to be a great day in strategy and battle.

"Punctuality," said the ancients, "is the cream of time."

The march around Maj. Gen. Hooker's front began at an early hour of the day and was sustained several hours. The enemy had but one glimpse of Lt. Gen. Jackson's Corps while this movement was in execution. This their commander accepted as proof of our retreat and he instantly advised his Government of our discomfiture and flight. The heavy woodland through which the route lay concealed our development and the roads from the enemy's front towards us were gorged with our cavalry. The men marched much of the way in silence. As a man who has a grave message to deliver, from his own consciousness sometimes lays his finger across his lips in token of his gravid state, so these men, about to give their stroke, communed in silence upon their purpose. We were at length in battle order, and from rank to rank the command was borne in underbreath along the fronts of regiments and we went forward. The first contact with the enemy found his flank and rear assailed. "He yields! He flies!" I recall one thing in that advance through tangled vines and undergrowth, shadowed by great trees: a turkey-gobbler, " free-born wanderer" of his native wood, arose in distracted flight and escaped without hue or cry in his pursuit.

The sublime had a close neighbor. The disordered retreat of the Federal Eleventh Corps became a rout. We pressed the enemy with eagerness and the Army of the Potomac was saved from panic by the cohesion and spirit imparted to it by the capable, accomplished and eminent but unappreciated soldier, Maj. Gen. Geroge B. McClellan, whom I regard as the most talented commander that served the Government in that Herculean struggle. Night proved the best ally of the enemy. Under cover of darkness he pushed fresh soldiers into positions and made new alignments of his forces. Their positions were strengthened by such breastworks as could be improvised on the spot. In this awful pause a calamity befell the Confederate States which the ordinary man could not then measure, but which is now painfully apparent to every man who in his conscience and spirit deemed the success of the Confederate States of stupenduous moment to its citizens.

The accident which struck down the corps commander in the exultant hour of victory did not stay the fierceness of the onset of our troops next morning. Brig. Gen. Ramseur's Brigade was ordered to replace some troops thrown into confusion by the loss of their commander. Into the heavy timber, over breastworks occupied by disordered and broken troops of different commands, we went forward. As I looked back to the scene it reminded me of an advance through a wide gateway along an avenue peopled with every agency of death and destruction. Shot and shell, buck and ball rained upon us. Nature herself took part in the tumult; exploding missiles broke off the overhead limbs of trees and discharged them in great loads upon those who in search of cover crouched at their roots; the earth echoed their commotion. The 14th NC Regiment never did more trying service than it did this day, nor did the courage of the regiment in any battle, except the awful day-long fight of the 12th of May, 1864, appear fiercer or more unrelenting.

Lt. Col. William A. Johnston was very active and impressed the command by his disregard of danger. The enemy, foiled at all points, drew back his lines from Chaneellorsville and planted them nearer the fords of the river. Under orders the regiment returned to the breastworks, having been saluted by Maj. Gen. Robert E. Rodes (AL) and publicly thanked on the field by him for its gallant conduct. It is impossible to single out the name of any soldier of the regiment and say he was foremost that day. While Federal Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker hesitated to recross the river, in the hope that his stay would break the fall and disappointment at the North, the sharpshooters were exposed to trying service. I remember Edmund Fenton coming in from these lines with his arm shattered by a ball and blood spurting from his wound every step. I tied a gallows string around his arm and he walked to the surgeon's knife with unruffled patience.

In general it is rash to say any single man has been indispensable in the accomplishment of any great end. Soldiers who served under General Robert E. Lee and Lt. Gen. Stonewall Jackson account the death of the latter a loss to our arms prodigious in measure. His enterprise, his official initiative, and the mystery which enveloped his person and plans, crowned with the intense and powerful seriousness of his manner, mind, and method, clothed him in public apprehension unrelentingly in earnest from first to last. History has assigned him a place among the tall forms of the century. He was a practical mystic.

In June of 1863, tried by the test of achievements, the Army of Northern Virginia was as tough and efficient as any army of the same number ever marshaled on this planet. I doubt if any army, great or small, has mustered among the rank and file so considerable a proportion of the best men of the land. While the six (6) or seven (7) centers of spontaneous civilization, from China to the two American empires, were in full flower, the militant ranks may have consisted of the very best citizens. Armies now are, for the most part, less respectable than during the war of 1861-'65.

The movement of the Confederate forces from Fredericksburg to Gettysburg was not an accident. The plan was well conceived, but in its execution, after the invasion of the enemy's country, miscarried in some particulars essential to success. Soldiers imbued with the true spirit of subordination never complain at the top of their voices because of such mistakes. A brave soldier has no ambition to stand in the front rank of critics after the events. I mean to say, if General Robert E. Lee erred in making the invasion upon the enemy's country, and error was apparent at the time or has become so since, it is a sorrow to the true Confederate instead of the subject of ill-tempered remarks. Likewise the observation made by some that the Confederate cause was foredoomed to failure is, in view of the temper of those times, the hesitation of a large part of the Northern people to enter upon the struggle, the attitude of the President and his advisers, the weight of intelligent opinion and the history of the first fifty (50) years of the Government, a gratuitous afterthought.

The enemy attempted, by a strong cavalry advance, to penetrate the Confederate movement. This brought on the very sharp engagement at Brandy Station. The 14th NC Regiment, under cover of timber, was kept as support for the cavalry. At night we began a very rapid and long sustained march towards Front Royal and in short order reached Winchester, where Federal Maj. Gen. Robert H. Milroy had his headquarters. We did not cut off every avenue of escape. He retreated in darkness, leaving a considerable garrison, which capitulated. The 14th NC Regiment marched by Berryville and the division enveloped the outlets from Winchester towards Harper's Ferry and Shepherdstown. We were the leading regiment on foot to enter Martinsburg, Brig. Gen. Albert G. Jenkins' (VA) Cavalry having gone ahead of us a little way.

I recall some stirring scenes. As we threaded the streets, byways and private lots a young lady of many personal charms, rushing to our head, seized my reins and told me in moving tones of the oppression endured by the citizens. In another direction a Dutch woman of strong Union brawn drew a paddling stick on Captain Gorman and began railing at the hungry Confederates generally: "You eats up everything; the Union soldiers fetch in something and you scoundrels wastes it." Gorman's situation was relieved by the arrival of 1st Lt. Frank M. Harney, of the Rough and Ready Guards, who told the woman, with affected severity, if she did not behave herself he would pull every hair out of her head. This glorious fellow will be heard from again. His career focalized at Gettysburg and his life was spent there in as brave and triumphant a burst of service as our annals contain.

Wading the Potomac River, we laid at Williamsport, giving time to the troops in the rear to close up. Thence we marched to Hagerstown, where two days were spent, then on to Carlisle, PA, where during Sunday, Dr. Lacy delivered before Maj. Gen. Robert E. Rodes' (AL) Division his address on Lt. Gen. Stonewall Jackson. The orders of the commanding general for the government of the troops in the enemy's country, read at the dress parade of the regiments, are worthy of the best records and traditions of our race—in strong contrast with the orders of the Shermans, the Milroys, the Sheridans and other legalized brigands of the Union Army. Our division had no contact with the enemy from the Potomac River to Gettysburg. We were on the alert every moment. The instructions to outposts at night were full and complete. The 14th NC Regiment was sent upon picket at night near Gettysburg, with orders to stop every living thing. Away down in the night Lt. Colonel White, with a battalion on horseback, came to our pickets. We let him in after wary examination of his account of his command. In the next twenty-four (24) hours the guns had fired the first shot at Gettysburg. We came uppn the battlefield about 2 o'clock in the afternoon of the first day. The enemy were then so far as our brigade front, extended behind a strong stone wall, such as are used as fences there. We assailed in front, the 14th NC Regiment lapping their right. We beat them quickly, capturing prisoners, with small loss to ourselves.

To our left the ground broke down from a high ridge to a level of twenty-five (25) acres. Over this ground the enemy was retreating in some order before Brig. Gen. George P. Doles' (GA) Brigade and other troops. As we routed these people from the stone wall a column of them, looking the size of a brigade, emerged from a depression in the ground to our right and marched in very quick time along a railroad embankment and track into Gettysburg. I am not certain where these troops came from, but I suppose they marched out of the railroad cut. Maybe they had withdrawn from the very high ridge to the right of the railroad into the roadway as offering a more protected line of retreat. The commander rode at their head and our artillery harassed their rear. I could almost hear their bones crunch under the shot and shell. It was a hot day and our men were much distressed by the heat and work. We straggled into town and then formed as quick as possible. Many of our command were overcome by the heat, and I go upon record now and here as saying that immediate and effective pursuit of the enemy was out of our power. The sharpshooters of my regiment, under command of 1st Lt. Frank M. Harney, pursued the enemy, and Lt. Harney captured with his own hand the colors of the 68th Michigan and sent the captured flag to President Jefferson Davis with his last breath. He was mortally shot in the bowels while in pursuit of these men. I think he was as reliable as any officer of his rank in the Confederate armies.

The 14th NC Regiment was moved forward the second day of the battle and occupied a road running through farms. It did not seem to be a public highway, but the road led straight away from the town and appeared open in peacetimes to all comers. Here we were exposed sometime to the enemy's sharpshooters, who had friendly lodgment in houses around the town and thence harassed the command. A number of the men were fatally hurt at the hands of these sharpshooters. Among the wounded was the Colonel of the regiment [the Author of this account], who was shot in several places seriously. This day, the third of the engagement, the troops engaged in the main assault upon the enemy suffered the loss of many brave officers and privates. We retired to prepare our revenge, and at Falling Waters near Hagerstown, with our line extended at considerable length, awaited the onset of the enemy. Here General Robert E. Lee issued his battle order and hortatory address, beginning: "Soldiers of the Army of Northern Virginia, your old enemy confronts you!"

The Army of Northern Virginia took position at and around Orange Court House during the summer of 1863. The Rapidan River was the immediate line of cleavage between the hostile forces. A considerable force was detached from Lt. Gen. James Longstreet's (VA) Corps and sent to the aid of General Braxton Bragg (LA). This force took part in the sanguinary victory at Chickamauga, GA. There were few serious contacts with the enemy until the advance upon Centreville, VA, when the unfortunate affair at Bristoe Station occurred. The line of the Rappahannock River was held some time by our forces. This we yielded to the enemy under severe pressure at several points. The 14th NC Regiment was at Raccoon Ford and seriously pressed by the forces under Maj. Gen. George G. Meade. We resumed the position south of the Rapidan River and were undisturbed by any advance of the Army of the Potomac until the affair at Mine Run near Payne's Farm.

The 14th NC Regiment was in winter quarters as part of the occupying forces during the winter of 1863-'64, except some weeks devoted to cutting lumber to make plank roads for army conveniences. At this lumber camp W. C. Power, Chaplain of the regiment, completed, by voluntary labor on the part of the men, a chapel built of slabs set upright and covered with plank. This building was consecrated on a Sunday. The regiment resumed its place at the front two weeks after the church was consecrated, built fresh winter quarters, and, by the perseverance and energy of the Chaplain and men, moved the "house in the woods" to the new regimental position, completed it, worshipped in it, and left it in the wilderness when the fierce blast of the spring fighting broke upon the peaceful face of nature. Here we performed the routine duties. We picketed, prayed, snow-balled, polished our weapons, and prepared our revenge. Desertions became serious this winter as a symptom and a loss. The 14th NC Regiment escaped this contagion to such a degree that it was detached and sent to the rear of the army at Bowling Green to check the defections.

Governor Zebulon B. Vance, with two or more of his personal staff, visited the army this spring and delivered several enthusiastic and hopeful speeches to the men and officers. He was then an advanced Confederate, having learned rapidly as events were accomplished in his view and under his intelligent observation. It became a family question among the regiments as to who should take the Governor to dine. This good fortune fell to the 14th NC Regiment, his original regiment. The Chaplain, who was a good provider, fetched his cook and provisions and joined his kettle and pans to the limited supply at headquarters, and by this fortunate union we laid covers for the company. The lack of seats and apprehension as to the supply on the table made it necessary for some of the headquarters to stand off and await developments. The Colonel served by standing and waiting. The fried tarts did the work and saved a remnant for the rear rank.

When the Army of the Potomac began the campaign of 1864 the brigade to which this regiment belonged was picketing on the south bank of the Rapidan River. The first contact of the hostile forces in that campaign was about the 5th of May. We laid that night upon the edge of the battlefield and next morning early the fearful fray burst upon us. We met part of Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside's Corps. Among the captures were copies of the Bible in the Ojibwa language. He had one or more companies of these people as sharpshooters. Every day we were fighting, killing, and being killed. Every virtue of the faithful soldier was exemplified in the conduct of our troops. As the flank movement of Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant became uncovered to laymen our soldiers vied in their efforts to be there when the enemy struck his blow. It was enough to stimulate men and officers on the march to meet a fresh phase of the enemy's movements to remind him that General Robert E. Lee was anxious to reach his destination in time to give him a warm reception. Thus it went day after day, night after night. No human intellect, no sterling, ardent soldier in our ranks or elsewhere will ever put upon record an account of our men, their spirit, their temper, their deeds and their valor which will equal in all respects the reality as it was.

I recall the long and rapid march of May 8, 1864, completed just in time to face the enemy as he rushed to envelope Brig. Gen. Benjamin G. Humphrey's Brigade of Mississippians. We struck them full in the face near Spotsylvania Courth House. That night we lay with our arms on us, one or two men of each company standing up and peering into the darkness, if perchance the enemy might be discerned. The night wore away with no noise in our lines louder than the wary walk of a trained soldier.

The next day, or the next day but one, Brig. Gen. David A. Russell's Division of the enemy, penetrating the thick cover of old field pines and other growth between us, suddenly emerged from cover in broken order and came upon us at the double. They struck a Georgia brigade and, mounting the works, flowed over into the trenches. Here they killed fifty-six (56) men with bayonet wounds, so I heard Colonel Willis, of Georgia, say. Our brigade was immediately to the Georgians' left and took care of the enemy's extreme right, which never reached the works. As quickly as could be, several brigades, under command of Brig. Gen. John B. Gordon (AL), threw themselves upon Brig. Gen. Russell, delivering a counter stroke, which sent the remnant of his command staggering back dreadfully punished. I saw six colonels of Brig. Gen. Russell's Division lying dead a little to the rear of our works an hour or so after his retreat. Just before the enemy delivered this assault General Robert E. Lee, whose headquarters were in a house a hundred (100) or so yards to the rear of our brigade, mounted his horse and in company with one or two officers went away at a walk. In ten minutes he was coming back at a very rapid canter, quickly dismounting and running into the house. He came out just as the head of Brig. Gen. Gordon's force got opposite the point where the enemy struck our works. I have often marveled whether General Lee divined the imminence of this attack from his interior consciousness as a military genius or acted upon reports of trusted subordinates. The one is as probable as the other.

The situation was daily and nightly strung up to the highest point of endurance. It was a relief to have an engagement open all along the line as it did the 12th of May at Spotsylvania. This is to me the most memorable day of our war. It opened with a serious reverse to our arms. Brig. Gen. Stephen D. Ramseur's (NC) Brigade was at once formed on rising ground and the peril of the situation was open to all as by sudden impulse. A section of the Richmond Howitzers, commanded by brothers named Jones, men of high courage, as shown there, was so exposed to the fire of the enemy that the gunners were driven off or disabled. Capt. Eli Freeman, 2nd Lt. George W. Murray, Private William McPherson and others, including Col. Risden T. Bennett, assisted to fire these pieces. Presently we went forward in battle order, wheeling to the left, the 14th NC Regiment to the left and the 30th NC Regiment the extreme right of the brigade. We drove the enemy in confusion from the first line of works and, taking a moment's rest, rushed for the next and stronger line, then held by the foe in great numbers. I record it with sore grief, little softened by the lapse of years, that Tisdale Stepp, of the Rough and Ready Guards, in the front rank, singing "The Bonnie Blue Flag," was shot dead by an awkward soldier in our rear rank. We reached the near side of these works while the enemy received us on the other side, his teeth firmly clinched for the struggle. I was told that the enemy pulled the Adjutant of the 30th NC Regiment over the works by the hair of his head and captured him. The colors of one of the regiments was pulled out of the color bearer's hands and carried off. The situation was extremely grave, especially in front of the 30th NC Regiment. They were doing all that mortal men could do to stem the fierce course of battle. Their brave, modest, high-minded Colonel had been disabled in the advance.

I asked Brig. Gen. Ramseur's leave to go with my command to the right half of the brigade and succor them if possible. He was a very brave officer, but hesitated, hoping some turn of fortune might relieve us without the awful risk of this moviement. Presently he told me to do as I liked. Communicating to the regiment the odds about to be faced, we went down the line and drove into the traverses by a front of fours. Out of there we expelled fhe enemy, giving him cold steel and other reforms. I can see in my imagination at the head of the column, as it drove into one of these bloody pens, a conscript from Edgecombe County in the very forefront, without a gun, using an iron ramrod as his support and weapon, shouting to his comrades to strike home. The boys had petted the old man, who complained all the time of his rheumatic pains and told the boys never to run away in a fight and leave him. I think he was tired of life; he perished gloriously. We beat the enemy, a reinforcement coming to his aid being almost annihilated. We pushed him away from our immediate front. It was midday by this time, and the spectacle around and about us was very unusual in battles which are not sieges. The air away up hundreds of feet was groaning with all the hideous deviltry of war.

Mortar shells, poising high above us with their discordant notes, came down with the unmistakable thud. About the middle of the afternoon a red oak many inches in diameter yielded to the storm of missiles and fell to the ground. A section of this tree, the lap of which brushed when falling a few yards from my regiment, is preserved at the war office of the enemy in Washington City. About 3 o'clock in the afternoon word came down from the horse-shoe in the lines yet held by the enemy: "Send us ammunition, or we must surrender." A call for volunteers was answered as quick as thought, and John W. McGregor and Charley Cox, of Anson County, Sgt. Ingram of Wake County, and Sgt. Dixon of Cleveland County, swung two boxes of cartridges on rails and delivered them to Brig. Gen. Nathaniel H. Harris, of Mississippi, at the very summit of the horse-shoe. The rattle of musketry was incessant and the day was long. Every part of our line taken by the enemy in the early hours of the day was recovered before sundown except the arch of the horse-shoe. There was not a man in my regiment this day who was not of heroic mold. The laggards were in the rear and did not take part in the exercises. I wish it was possible in our poor human speech to express the supreme conduct of the men and officers of the 14th NC Regiment on this day, which to them seemed to be the day of supreme unselfishness and inspired action.

Lord Houghton went to hear Reverend C. H. Spurgeon preach in the Tabernacle, and he says of the preacher: "When he mounted the pulpit I saw a hair-dresser's assistant, an hour hence I saw an inspired apostle." If there is such a thing in the world as the sudden transformation of masses of men from common-place beings, ordinary mortals, to the supreme beatitudes in life, it was accomplished that day in the 14th NC Regiment. I watched the men as they stood looking intently at the other side. I remember Edward Billingsley, who had a good name in the regiment as a soldier—he probably carried more baggage upon his person than any man of his weight—was looking with steady eye through a small crack below the top log of the works. He had killed a half dozen of these people. In an evil moment a ball penetrated the space, pierced his jugular vein and the good man and brave soldier was dead. About sundown a ball struck me full in the mouth and produced a painful hurt. I went to the field hospital and remained there until next morning.

Our people retired from the line just before light next morning. It was an unscientific and dangerous line from the start. It had been seized upon the spur of the moment and our people had held it with native courage and pertinacity. We left a number of our wounded men under the range of the enemy's fire, among them James Smart, who was shot through and through the chest and was again in the hands of his friends after three days of exposure. Our lines were taken up on a better position a few hundred yards to the rear of our original position along the horse-shoe curve. Here we awaited developments. Reinforcements were steadily pouring in to the enemy. About the 15th or 16th of May an advance of the enemy was made upon our fresh position. It seemed to be composed of new men, as they were attired in uniforms of spotless neatness and showed the good keeping of troops fresh from garrison work. They came on in good alignment until the first zone of effective fire was reached. Some of them, more forward than their general front, came into point-blank range of our field guns and were fearfully torn. They recoiled, and during the next day or so Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant began to reach out with his left flank for more room.

On the 19th May, Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell's (VA) command moved under cover of the heavy forest growth to the enemy's right and attempted to lap him and strike his rear. It happened that this attack was delivered just as a fresh brigade or division of reinforcements were coming to fill the enemy's ranks. The 14th NC Regiment was under the immediate command of Maj. Joseph H. Lambeth. I was with the troops, but not sufficiently recovered from wounds to take the regiment in hand. We had a stiff fight. I remember finding one of the Harris boys, of Company G, 14th NC Regiment, now a Baptist preacher, at the very front, so badly shot he could not get off. He was a good soldier and by timely help was fetched away to a place of safety. Henry Kendall, of Stanly County, was fearfully shot in the throat, and betwixt his struggle to keep from choking to death and to escape capture he suffered intensely. John W. McGregor was shot through the calf of the leg and I gave my horse to him and Henry Kendall and they got safely to our camp. Some of our men were so badly hurt that we had to leave them. Jack Smith, of Company B, a good soldier, and others quite as efficient, were in the number left.

From the 20th May until the staggering columns of the enemy were driven back at Cold Harbor we were in constant action. Every day we had a severe skirmish or skirmishes.

On the 30th May, at Bethesda Church, we pressed the enemy to uncover his purpose. We found him occupying the private houses upon and near the contested ground. We lost a considerable number of good men here. Capt. Eli Freeman was the only casualty in the 14th NC Regiment.

On the afternoon of June 1st we made an advance in force to draw the attention of the foe, then concentrating on his great blow to be delivered the next day away to our right. We drove him and but for the fall of darkness we might have scored a great success. The next day we were engaged in a heavy skirmish. I was shot while in command of Brig. Gen. Ramseur's Brigade and was so seriously hurt that I did not resume command of the regiment for sixty days. William Calvin Little, a very smart and brave soldier, was killed here.

When Maj. Gen. David Hunter threatened Lynchburg by his advance up the Valley, the 14th NC Regiment was part of the troops detached to meet his incursion. The command made the campaign to Washington City under the astute, brave, capable, loyal and great Lt. Gen. Jubal A. Early (VA). I was with him when fortune gave him victory and with him when fortune betrayed his courage. I wish to do some measure of justice to this famous captain as I saw him and, as I remarked, his cunning as a strategist, his daring as a man, and his fortitude in defeat. No more faithful, greathearted, and unselfish citizen served our blessed cause in the four years spent in blood and agony in the honorable endeavors to preserve for and transmit to those who come after us the spirit of the Constitution of the United States in its integrity, unsoiled by greed or dishonoring circumstances, and to vouchsafe to mankind here the inestimable liberty of local self-government. Poorly equipped and with paucity of numbers, he kept Maj. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan back; with eight thousand (8,000) muskets he parried forty thousand (40,000). Maybe time and the spirit of philosophy, the sense of justice and the progress of the human mind will bring thoughtful men to realize how true to constitutional principle the leaders in the Confederate movement were.

The campaign in the Valley was a failure, yet we struck hard and effectively here and there. At Charlestown, on August 21, 1864, we fought a good fight known as Cameron's Depot (aka Summit Point). David N. Bennett, a very admirable soldier, was fearfully wounded in this affair. I am not sure Charley Cox, of Anson County, got his death wound here. He was brave and eager and true. The third battle of Winchester, though a success for us in the forenoon, was, by force of overwhelming numbers in cavalry and other arms of the service, a serious defeat. The 14th NC Regiment fought with much spirit and admirable cohesion in this affair. While pursuing a broken brigade of the enemy we ventured into a wood in the immediate front of a battery and a division of the enemy. We were abandoned by our support and, after killing many of the enemy, Maj. Gen. David Russell of the number, the order was given to our men to save themselves. I was captured before sundown, and with my comrades, Joseph Gaddy, of Anson County, a good man, and Lt. Gay M. Williams, of Buncombe, a valuable citizen, suffered captivity until near the end at Appomattox.

In this battle Maj. Joseph H. Lambeth of the regiment, a faithful man, orderly and reliable, received a severe wound and was taken prisoner. Drummer Roberts, who had thrown up his drum and taken back his gun, was mortally wounded. I witnessed great changes in Roberts. He was at one time a rude soldier, with a growing contempt for authority, but under the power of heavenly grace he was as gentle as a little child, and I am sure he died in complete assurance of a blessed immortality. The soldier who feels in his soul the presence of the Holy Spirit is not afraid of battle in its most hideous form. The humiliations of defeat fell thick and fast upon the dwindling numbers of our people. Once they thrust themselves with their accustomed impetuosity into the ranks of the enemy at Cedar Creek, they had their revenge for a time.

The incessant watch, in the trenches about Petersburg, through the winter of 1864-65, was shared by the 14th NC Regiment. When the enemy made the eruption of our lines the regiment was part of the "noble remnants" in retreat, fighting daily rear guard actions with the forces of the Government. In one of these actions Lt. Col. William A. Johnston, who commanded the regiment in the trenches at Petersburg and on the retirement, was disabled by wounds. A successful affair with Gregg's Cavalry, in which Brig. Gen. John Gregg (TX) was captured, occurred on the day Farmville was reached. Constant skirmishing tried the courage and fortitude of our dwindling numbers.

On the night before the surrender the command lay near Appomattox. On the morning of the battle at Appomattox Court House, the regiment formed in battle line under command of Lt. John W. McGregor, the brigade being in charge of Major Scales, the only field officer then present for duty. The command charged at a double and captured the enemy's battery, scattering the supports of cavalry. We lost Ivey Ritchie, a brave and dutiful man, killed, and Atlas Dargan Lowery and Lt. John W. McGregor, wounded.

The supreme hour which comes to men and nations was at hand. Eight thousand (8,000) and odd muskets were surrendered. Of this number the paroles of the 14th NC Regiment, as printed in Volume XV of the "Southern Historical Society Papers," numbered one hundred and seven (107).

The elder D'Israeli, in his book on "Curiosities of Literature," devotes a chapter to the "Enthusiasm of Genius." He relates that Admiral Nelson, on the day of Trafalgar, perceiving the engagement at hand, went to his cabin and invested himself with all the medals, orders, and opulent decorations that he had conquered during his transcendent naval career. Thus inspired, he went to victory and death. The illustrious man, officer, and soldier who on this day surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia had a kindred inspiration.

My memory connects the years before 1861 with those which have since elapsed, fraught with a succession of "sorrow and joy." The noblest inheritance the South can cherish is the unmeasured nobility and unselfishness of those who led and those who fought the good fight for local self-government. "Though gods they were, as men they died."

I shall not dwell upon the details of the ghastly struggle, for my task has already been accomplished. "Nightly since I have dreamed of encounters" with these people. I have heard ringing in my ears, as if it were a death bell, Federal Maj. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan's boastful words: "That he had left the Shenandoah Valley so bare that a crow flying over it must carry his rations with him." I have heard Federal Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman, from the ashes of Atlanta, which he had burned in the excess of his power, writing Sawyer, of his staff, "that war was hell," and his saying to Mrs. Childs at Fayetteville: "Madam, I am a man of war, and can storm any place but Heaven." I have seen the blood of old men upon their own doorways, murdered by the wretches whom he turned loose with the bridle off. Of these I carry in the folds of my memory the name and sad fate of an uncle above seventy (70) years old, a Union man whom Sherman's followers shot to death on his own front steps without provocation. I am told that the Union is restored because Little Joe Wheeler, with the commission of a general officer in the Army of the United States and a commission as Congressman, and a dozen or so who were prominent Confederates, "either for bread or fame," helped to make war upon a Christian country and despoil it in its good name and estate upon its own soil and without defined cause.

I believe in my soul and upon my conscience that the crime of subjugating the people of the South and the enormous wrongs committed upon them in its consummation is the greatest crime of the last three centuries.

I have to apologize to the privates and non-commissioned officers of the 14th NC Regiment for the failure to name them and their valiant actions in this sketch. I have tried to get the Roll of Honor of the several companies, in which the conduct and characteristics of the men are set down upon the estimate of their own comrades. Company C alone preserves this list. A copy of the roll of that company is appended. In the absence of these authentic pages from the other companies, I name as worthy of all praise William Gudger, of Buncombe, Dick Lynch, a fine fellow from near the Warren County line. The Roll of Honor of the several companies of North Carolina Troops may have been carried away by the soldiers of the United States during their stay in Raleigh. I wish to set down the names of the following members of Company B, whose conduct is deemed worthy of special mention; they are furnished me by one of the company:

Lt. Cyrus P. Jones, killed at Spotsylvania; Sgt. Frank J. Britt, killed at Malvern Hill; William Baker and William J. Collett, mortally wounded at Winchester on September 19, 1864; 1st Lt. Lamma Wellborn, Rufus Baker, Henry J. Berrier, Dudley Lambeth, John M. Jordan, W. D. Veach, Andrew Sink, William H. Odell, and J. L. Schoup.

I make apologies to the good soldiers of the command whose names I am unable to give in this sketch. With my thanks to all the officers of the regiment, with a few beggarly exceptions, for their good service records, especially to Capt. Andrew J. Griffith, of Company G; Capt. William A. Liles, of Company C; Lt. George W. Murray, of Company F; and to the Adjutant, Quartermaster, Sergeant Major and Commissary of Subsistence, the lieutenants of the color guard and the ordnance officers, I commit this imperfect tribute to a brave regiment to the future in the confident hope of justice to its cause after some time be passed.

Risden Tyler Bennett.
Wadesboro, N.C.,
April 9, 1900.

The following are names taken from the Roll of Honor of Company C, together with the distinctions won by each man, as certified to by William A. Liles, the Captain of the company: Capt. Eli Freeman, a brave and good officer; J. W. Turner, 2nd Corporal, a good soldier; James A. Smart, an excellent soldier; J. H. Alford, a good man; H. Baldwin, in every fight during campaign, a No. 1 soldier; D. N. Bennett, a brave man, and worthy of promotion; E. A. Covington, a good hospital steward; B. C. Hutchinson, acted well; 1st Lt. John W. McGregor, acted very gallantly on all occasions, a good soldier; J. J. McLerdon, acted well on the field; A. S. Morrison, a most meritorious man, and deserved promotion; A. B. Morton, a most excellent soldier; G. A. Morton, a most excellent soldier; P. F. Morton, a noble soldier; W. H. Sanders, a most excellent man; J. H. D. Sanders, a splendid soldier.

The following are recorded each as a good soldier: J. I. Billingsley, John Bowman, J. C. Coir, C. H. Cox, E. D. Gipson, Gary Johnston, W. C. Little, A. S. McGallum, H. J. Napier, H. B. Sanders, G. L. Stanback, W. C. Threadgill, J. B. Waddill, J. M. Watkins, T. J. Watkins.