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PAGE 2—THE HERALD. Ahoskie. N. C.—MILESTONE YEAR 1959
Youthful Gates Corporal Became General:
Two Companies of R-C Troopers In
Service With Famed 19th Cavalry
Roanoke - Chowan men in the
spring of 1861 wanted to be
cavalrymen with the newly-forming
Confederate army.
Many did, and fought as horse
soldiers for the entire war with
one of North Carolina’s most fa
mous cavalry units—the 19th Regi
ment {Second Cavalry).
Two companies—one composed of
men from Gates and Hertford,
another of men from Northampton
and Bertie—joined other horsemen
from throughout North Carolina
gathered near Raleigh in the sum
mer of 1861.
John Booth of Gates County was
captain of Company C, made up of
Gates and Hertford men. John
Randolph of Northampton com
manded the men of Company H,
mostly Northampton troopers, a
few from Bertie.
Among the youngsters of Com- ■
pany H, William P. Roberts, not
yet 20 years old, was proudly
wearing the stripes of First Ser
geant. Young John Wheeler Moore,
scion of a famous Hertford family,
was a captain and was named com
missary officer for the regiment.
Col. Samuel B. Spruill of Bertie
was elected commanding officer
of the regiment.
Lacking many accoutrements of
battle, the regiment wasn’t fuUy
organized until September. In Octo
ber, its companies were divided,
and the Roanoke-Chowan men were
sent as a tiny command guarding
the approaches to New Bern.
In March, 1862, federal forces
seized the town, and for more
months, the tiny units of Hi-armed
horsemen patroUed the outposts of
the federal army, watching for
signs of Union at activity.
By midsummer, 1862, the
regiment was receiving enough
equipment to join the armies in
Virginia. The Gates-Hertford men
were detaHed with another com
pany to protect their home county,
stationed at HamUton on the Roa
noke River.
The other companies moved
north as Col. SpruiU retired his
command to Col. Sol Williams.
First Blood
Then came first blood, as the
regiment participated in the battle
at Fredericksburg in December
1862. A few days later the North-
ampton-Bertie men marched north
with a force commanded by famed
Cavalryman Jeb Stuart, bent on
raiding Union depots in Maryland.
MeanwhHe, men of Company H
, had seen battle with federal caval
rymen. On December 1, near
Washington, N. C. Captain Booth
was severely wounded. The com
mand fell on Captain James M.
Wynns of Hertford. W. P. Roberts
became a lieutenant. Abram Har
rell and L. R. Cowper were junior
lieutenants.
The two-company unit fought
some more as it served on picket
duty around Petersburg. In March,
1863, it went on a foraging sweep
with Confederate forces in the Suf-
fork area. The supplies would be
used for the Army of Northern
Virginia as it moved northward
in a summer invasion of Penn
sylvania.
Finally, on May 20, 1863, the
Northampton-Bertie unit joined
the main part of the 19th at Cul
peper, Virginia. General Stuart
■■■■
the southern advance. George
Roundtree of Gates County was
mortally wounded. James H. Bunch
of Bertie died with a Union car
bine bullet in his body.
Col. Williams was hit in the
head, and died almost immediately.
Depleted, the regiment was to
see worse action as the rebel
cavalry column crossed the Poto
mac into Maryland.
On June 21, after several days
of continual skirmishing, the 19th
met its bloodpath at a Virginia
town named UppervUle.
Captain Miles Eure of Gates
County, who had been serving as
captain of Company G, was another
who feU wounded at Hanover. He
was captured and was to spend
the rest of the war in northern
GErt. W. P. HUBERTS
A Gates County native, Rob
erts was another of the Confed
eracy’s youngest high - ranking
officers. He was named a brig
adier-general of cavalry at 23.
Born in July, 1841, Roberts
joined the CSA army as a first
sergeant in the 19th Regiment
(Second Cavalry). His Gates
County neighbors soon elected
him captain in late 1883 after
the regiment had fought
through the Gettysburg cam
paign.
As the CSA cavalry force
dwindled in the late years of
the war, Roberts climbed the
rank ladder steadily, and in the
late spring of 1864, was named
Colonel of the Second Cavalry.
He was 22 years old.
The small regiment fought
brave actions in the last year
of the Confederacy, mostly in
dismounted actions. In Febru
ary, 1865, General Robert E.
Lee presented young Roberts
his riding gloves as Roberts was
named brigadier-general.
The small remaining mount
ed units fought one of the last
actions of the Army of North
ern Virginia as the army re
treated from Petersburg to Ap
pomattox. Roberts surrendered
with his tiny brigade there.
The youthful general came
back to Gates County and serv
ed as a member of the state
legislature. He then served as
state auditor for several years
and later as a United States
consul in Canada.
He wrote the history of his
'brigade while serving as con
sul in Victoria, British, Colum
bia, in 1897.
was preparing to move north,
screening the movement of Gen
eral Lee’s grayclad columns.
The North Carolina cavalrymen
did not have long to see action
against the crack cavalrymen of
the Union army. On June 9, the
Confederate horsemen fought
bitter battle at Brandy Station as
the Union forces sought to halt
Confederate Campground
Liffle Garysburg Was
Fort Bragg' of War
Garysburg in Northampton
County was the “Fort Bragg” of
eastern North Carolina during the
Civil War.
No less than nine North Caro
lina Confederate regiments organ
ized and trained at camps near
Garysburg.
When the first drums of war
sounded in the state, hundreds of
men flocked to join volunteer
companies organized in counties
throughout the state.
As soon as these companies
were organized, they marched, or
rode trains, to camps run by the
state, where they were organized
into regiments.
Main camp of organization was
at Camp Mangum at the state
fair grounds in Raleigh.
But Garysburg, nearby the rail
road which ran to Richmond
where the armies of the Confed
eracy were gathering, was also an
important camp of instruction for
the hundreds of volunteers who
gathered in the spring of 1861.
In those warm days, more than
6,000 men poured into hastily pre
pared camps around the little
Northampton community that was
a stop of the important raHroad.
They included the Second and
Fourth regiments. Mon from
Jones, Craven, New Hanover, Wil
son, Wayne, Davie, Beaufort, Ire
dell, Rowan and Cumberland
were in the companies which
camped in the cotton fields.
The Fifth Regiment, including
men from Bertie and Gates, also
camped at Garysburg, training its
raw troops and preparing to board
train to join the Army of North
ern Virginia.
The 12th and 14th regiments
also joined the throng of volun-
tcor'^ •• L Garysburg
ill i\!i> .i.id June oi 1861. Hero
prison camps.
Already, a day before at Mid-
dleburg, James Blythe of Hertford
had been killed. Joseph Baddy and
Simeon Been of Northampton had
ceen shot down.
Assistant Regimental Surgeon
C. E. Worrell of Hertford already
had his hands full.
But then came Upperville.
Union troops behind a stone
wall decimated Confederate ranks.
Young W. P. Roberts was cited for
bravery as he rallied a portion of
his unit to fight off a Union at
tack that threatened the CSA artH-
lery train.
C. W. Smith and Hiram Lassiter
of Northampton fell dead. Others
fell wounded. Some were made
Captain Harrell led his men in a
final wHd charge.
In winter quarters, the regiment
counted only a handful of men
left. On February 21, 1865, young
Roberts, only 23 years old, wa?
promoted to brigadier-gi neral. His
entire brigade was smaller than
the regiment had been a few years
before.
The end was soon near. As
Union forces broke the Confederate
lines, and the Army of Northern
Virginia gathered for its final
march the son of Roberts’s
brigade, including the 19th Regi
ment, made -a final charge.
On the morning of the Appo
mattox surrender, the little bri
gade captured four Union cannon
blocking a forlorn escape route of
the southern army.
A few hours later, the horse
soldiers laid down their arms, and
straggled for home, riding their
bony mounts which Union General
Grant had allowed them to keep
in order to break ground for crops
a new - prostrate south.
were men from Catawba, Halifax,
Nash, Warren and Granville.
Finally, the 15th Resiment gath
ered at the Garysburg camp of
instruction. It included men from
Northampton County itself, others
from Union, Cleveland, Alamance,
Franklin, Edgecombe, and Har
nett.
More In 1862
In the spring of 1862, other com
panies of untrained Confederate
troops gathered at Garysburg.
The 49th Regiment organized
there in the summer. Then horse
men of the 59th Regiment (Fourth
Cavalry) trooped to the camp.
They included men from Hertford
-nd Bertie counties, others from
;he rural areas of other eastern
North Carolina counties.
At the same time, raw troops
from Georgia, hurrying north to
the battles gathering in Virginia,
.stopped off at Garysburg to or-
.ganize the 62nd Georgia Cavalry.
From Garysburg, the Georgia
unit, which included a large group
of North Carolinians who joined to
swell its ranks, went to Suffolk.
For two years it was to serve
along the Blackwater River, pick
eting against federal raiders bent
on wrecking havoc in northeastern
North Carolina.
After this great rush of raw
volunteers, the camps at Garys
burg were used throughout the
war as winter quarters for various
North Carolina units.
In the summer of 1863, the vast
system of bivouacs around Weldon
and Garysburg became the stag
ing area for large numbers of
troops gathered to resist deter
mined Union efforts to cut the
vital railroad that ran through the
towns, connecting WHmington and
Nb h’r.ord -the “Lifeline of the
Coiitederucy.''
prisoners.
Die In Prison
On June 30, more than half of
the regiment was made prisoner
as it fought a rearguard action
near Hanover, Pa. Isaac Peel of
Northampton died in the confused
action. So did John B. Jordan of
Gates.
Captured were W. R. Grant, J.
B. Foster and W. H. Sumner of
Northampton. All were to die in a
Union prison camp.
The battered remnants of the
regiment joined Lee’s army on the
second day of the battle of Gettys
burg, and returned with the de
feated Confederates to Virginia.
In August, reorganization took
place.
Young Roberts, now 21 years old,
was named captain of Company
H, replacing Captain Wynns, who
had returned to Hertford County to
raise cavalrymen to serve in North
Carolina.
The tiny regiment was stiU t4
see action in the exciting summer,
of 1863, working with the battered
cavalry column of the Army of
Northern Virginia as it guarded
the retreat of that army. At Jack’s
Shop in Virginia, W. B. McCabe of
Hertford was killed in action.
During the winter of 1863-4, the
regiment continued its picketing
duties as the Army of Northern
Virginia gathered its strength for
another year of campaigning.
As the spring came, another re
organization. Roberts became ma
jor. Abram Harrell of Gates be
came commander of little Com
pany C. Samuel N. Buxton took
command of Company H as Cap
tain Randolph retired his com
mission.
As the Union Army of Grant
closed with the southerners under
Lee in early spring. 1864, cavalry
men clashed in skirmishes. Ro
berts was wounded in the head at
little Hawe’s Shop. Captain Harrell
was wounded, and young L.
Cowper, who had risen from the
ranks of Gates County men, be
came commanding officer of Com
pany C.
In a series of actions, the regi
ment saw full service, until it was
routed at an action near Hanover
in May.
Roberts admits he was “in rout
with the rest.” When a brave pri
vate handed him the regimental
flag, the youthful major said
“damn the flag, Ramsey, I don’t
want it.”
But the courageous enlisted man
was adamant. Roberts seized the
standard and was able to rally a
few troopers. His act established
him as the regiment’s leader, de
spite his youth.
In action at Black and White’s
a few days later. Sergeant Ni
cholas Harrell of Hertford, first
sergeant of Company C, displayed
meat bravery in hand-to-hand
combat, killing six Union troopers
in one day’s action.
In August, young Roberts, just
turned his 23rd birthday, was nam
ed colonel of the little regiment
upon the death of the Colonel.
The fast pace of cavalry skirm
ishing did not let up.
Cowper Killed
In October, the regiment barely
escaped another wholesale capture
near White Oak Swamp. In the
confused fighting. Captain Cowper
died.
Roberts mourned him: “he and
I had left home together, had been
noncoms together, he was my per
sonal friend: always jolly and in
splendid humor.”
For young men, it was a time
of mourning as the shadow of
defeat fell across an exhausted
southern army.
Captain Harrell returned to com
mand the battered remnant of
Company C. Captain Buxton ral
lied his few Northampton men
Company H.
On December 8, near Belfield
south of Petersburg, the 19th fought
its iinal skirmish of the long year
Mostly from Northampton;
1st Cavalry Had R-C Men
I.-
t
UNITS
(Continued trom Rage 1)
1864, of men previously under age
for service.
12th BATTALION OF CAVAL
RY — Company B composed of
Hertford and Bertie men, Klnown
as Wheeler’s Cavalry. Companies
organized independently in 1862,
mto battalion in summer of 1863.
Later transferred to 59th Regi
ment (Fourth Cavalry).
Gales County
FIFTH REGIMENT — Compa
nies H and B from Gates County.
Organized July, 1861.
19th REGIMENT (Second Cav
alry) — Company C from Gates
and Hertford. Organized summer
of 1861. W. P. Roberts captain oi
one company, later colonel of
regiment and brigadier-general.
33rd REGIMENT—Company E
from Gates County. Organized in
September, 1861.
52nd REGIMENT — Company
C from Gates and Chowan coun
ties. Organized spring of 1862.
68th REGIMENT—Company I
from Gates. Organized in summer
of 1863 when federal invasion
threatened to erupt from eastern
North Carolina bases.
Ncrihampton County
FIRST NORTH CAROLINA
REGIMENT — Comttany F £^ni8
GENERAL MATT HANSOM
posed of Northampton County
;men and some from Hertfbrd. Or
ganized spring, 1861.
NINTH REGIMENT (First Cav
alry)—Company B from North
ampton. Organized spring, 1861.
16th REGIMENT—Company A
from Northampton. Organized
.summer, 1861, as Fifth Volun
teers. Later reorganized as ISth
Regiment.
19th REGIMENT (Second Cav
alry) — Company H from Bertie
and Northampton (mostly North
ampton). Organized summer,
1861.
32nd REGIMENT—Company C
and Company D from Northamp
ton. Organized into independent
battalion in summer, 1861. Into
regiment in summer, 1862.
54th REGIMENT—Company D
from Northampton. Organized
May, 1862.
56th REGIMENT—Company E
from Northampton. Paul F. Fai
son of Northampton was com
manding colonel. Organized in
.ummer, 1862.
70th REGIMENT (First Junior
Reserves)—Company K had some
Northampton men. Composed of
underage youngsters. Ofganizeo
in May, 1864.
THIRD BATTALION OF
LIGHT ARTILLERY—Company
A from Northampton. Organized
summer of 1861.
12th BATTALION OF CAVAL
RY—Company A and Company
C from Northampton. Organized
as “Wheeler’s Cavalry” in 1863.
Companies organized independ
ently year before. Later assigned
to 59th Regiment (Fourth Caval
ry).
15th BATTALION OF CAVAL
RY—Known as “Wynns’s Caval
ry.” Organized in summer of 1863.
Other Northampton men serv
ed in some southside Virginia
cavalry companies. One company
of 10th Virginia Cavalry Regi
ment composed of Northampton
men.
Matt Whitaker Ransom was by
all odds the Roanoke-Chowan’s
most noted contribution to the
Confederate army, and to North
Cai’olina politics of a later day.
Thiry-five years old when war
began, Ransom was already an
important leader in the st^te.
Born in Warrenton, educated at
the University of North Carolina,
he was named state attorney-gen
eral by the Democratic Party in
1852, at the age of 26. The next
year, he inarried Martha Anne
Exum, daughter of a Northamp
ton County planter.
In 1856, he resigned from the
state post and came back to Ve
rona, the Northampton planta
tion, and settled to the life of a
country squire.
When war drums sounded,
Ransom went to the colors. He
was elected Lt. Colonel of the
First North Carolina Regiment
and marched, in July, 1861, to
Richmond.
Service in northern Virginia
followed, In the spring of 1862,
the regiment returned to North
Carolina and Ransom was named
Colonel of the 35th regiment, a
unit which had been badly maul
ed at the battle of New Bern,
when federal troops had seized
the town.
Ransom, a citizen-soldier, was
brigaded in a brigade under the
command of his brother, Robert
Ransom, a West Pointer and later
Major General in the Confederate
army.
As Colonel, Ransom led his
men in the bloody Seven Days
Battles around Richmond in 1862,
and at even-more-bloody Ante-
tiem in September the self-train
ed Colonel was in temporary
command of his brother’s brigade.
Ransom became general of, the
A proud troop of eastern North
Carolinians marched in the sum
mer of 1861 to join North Caro
lina’s First Regiment of cavalry.
Company B included many
Northampton horsemen, others
from Hertford, Gates, Bertie. As
ir. marched to join other compa
nies of the regiment, formed in
Warren County, more horsemen,
from Wake and Granville coun
ties, added to the ranks.
Captain John H. Whitaker was
a Northampton planter. Lt. John
Peele was another, Under theii
command was the finest flower of
young eastern North Carolina
manhood, men who had sworn to
be Confederate soldiers for the
duration of the coming war.
Few thought the road would be
as hard, the story as dismal, as
it was to be.
The proud regiment which the
Northampton men joined was one
of the best cavalry units organiz
ed in the Confederacy. Its colonel.
Robert Ransom, was a former
United States cavalryman, So was
its Lt, Colonel, L, S. Baker, a
Gates County native, graduate of
West Point,
First Sergeant James P. Las
siter of Northampton was one of
the young men of Company B
who were in high spirits as the
mounted unit marched to al
ready famous Manassas Junction
in northern Virginia. It was Oc
tober, 1861, and already the South
had won the war’s first major bat
tle at that junction. The First
Cavalry (Ninth North Carolina
Regiment) was detailed to guard
•iiuge piles of storfes captured in
that fight of the previous spring,
Under Sluari
The regiment became part of
the famous cavalry column of
General Jeb Stuart, the South’s
dashing cavalier.
Meanwhile, Lt. Col. Baker had
become commander of the regi-
brigade in June 1863, was pro
moted to brigadier.
From then until the end of the
war, Ransom led the brigade.
It fought in North Carolina,
helping the recapture of Ply
mouth in the spring of 1864. Ii
fought at Boone’s Mill, within
sight of Verona. It fought in the
lines around Petersburg in the
waning months of the Confeder
acy. It surrendered at Appomat
tox.
Ransom went on to be long
time United States Senator from
North Carolina. The soldier-farm
er-politician’s death came in
]904.
ment, as Col, Ransom took rank
as a brigadier-general, and com
mander of an infantry brigade.
The regiment was ready for
war.
It went back to North Carolina
for its first taste.
In the spring of 1862, federal
forces had seized Roanoke Island,
moved to capture other North
Carolina coastal strong points.
The regiment came back to join
the picket line in front of small
North Carolina forces retreating
from battles which saw New Bern
and Washington fall to the ene
my.
In June, the regiment was
again with Stuart’s command,
just in time to participate as the
eyes and ears of the Confederate
army in the Seven Days’ Battle
around Richmond, a summer fight
that saved the southern capital,
stopped the mighty Union army
of McClellan, and saw Robert E.
Lee take command of the Army
of Northern Virginia.
Then, the Stuart horsemen
headed north, helping Lee’s army
maneuver toward the northern
homeland. The grayclad columns
fought continual skirmishes with
Union pickets, Union cavalry
guards.
In early September, the regi
ment participated in the capture
of Harper’s Ferry as the Confed
erate army prepared for the
bloody battle at Antietam Creek.
After the carnage of - that drawn
fight, Stuart’s cavalry guarded the
retreat of the Confederate forces,
fought again at Fredericksburg
in December, and spent a winter
of patrolling and picketing.
In the spring of 1863, Stuart
turned his legions north from the
battlefied of Chancellorsville and
headed again for Maryland.
The North Carolina horsemen
were in the column which first
had to batter itself past Union
horsemen at the river crossing of
Beverly’s Ford.
From there, the gray horsemen
kept steadily north, fighting con
tinual actions with Union troopers
covering their march.
Major John Whitaker (he had
risen in rank before the regiment
moved out for the northern
march) was busy commanding
picket units. In a confused fire-
fight near Upperville, a Union
bullet found him, penetrating his
lungs. The youthful Northampton
cavalry officer died on July 1
1863, as the Confederate cavalry
rode toward the town of Gettys
burg where the North and South
were preparing to lock in arms in
a fateful battle.
Captain A. B. Andrews, who
had led Company B in its fa
mous “battle with the gunboats”
the previous summer, took com
mand of the unit.
Col. Baker was another who
was soon wounded, hit in the arm
as the regiment fought at Brandy
Station on the retreat from Get
tysburg.
Peele Killed
The regiment went into winter
quarters in the winter of 1863
with many of its companies de
pleted from continual action.
Among the names missing from
the rolls of Company B were
those of brave young Lt. Peele,
killed at Raccoon Ford along with
Lt. William Williams on Septem
ber 16.
Captain Andrews had suffered
wounds in the same action.
As spring came in 1864, Stuart’s
horsemen marched out to meet a
cavalry army of 12,000 bluecoats,
commanded by crack General
Phil Sheridan. For the next
month, the depleted Confederate
horse units fought continually as
Grant’s mighty army sought to
destroy Lee.
The regiment lost another
colonel, more men fell.
For the next year, the small
force of Confederate horsemen
fought continually as the ever-
increasing might of the Union
army drove the Army of North
ern Virginia into the trenches
around Richmond and Petersburg.
It was a time of despair, especial
ly among the horsemen of the
Confederacy. Their famous com
mander was killed. Horses be
came gaunt, equipment was no
match for the excelent carbine
of the Union cavalry.
As the fateful spring of 1865
began, the regiment, reduced to
only a few score troopers, joined
in the covering force guarding the
remnant of Lee’s army as it mov
ed out of the Richmond lines and
started its final retreat toward the
little courthouse village of Ap
pomattox.
Less than a dozen Northampton
men of Company B were on hand
as the Confederate army laid
down its arms. Captain Andrews,
who was to go on to be president
of one of the state’s' great rail
roads, traveled with some of the
Northampton men as they made
their way back to their home
county. He stopped in Granville
County to reunite with his loved
ones,
The war was finished for the
gay young horsemen who had rid
den away from their plantation
homes in the gay summer of 1861.
FIFTH
(Continued from Page 1)
By now, the Fifth was little more
than a company. More than 100
toanoke-Chowan men of its original
number had been killed in action.
For the next 12 months, this tiny
band continued to serve 'in the
thick of action with the dwindling
Army of Northern Virginia.
When Leo’s army laid down its
arm at Appomattox in April, two
men of Company B, Lt. George
Parker of Company H, four pri
vates of Company F, and seven
privates of Company H were men
from the Roanoke-Chowan who re
ceived paroles from the Army of
Northern Virginia. They were the
remnants of more than 300 men,
mostly from Gates County, who
had jrirccl the (Jo'’'federafe forces
lour years earlier.
1934-1959
We Celebrate a Milestone, too . . .
th
OUR
2S
YEAR m AHOSKIE
Since June 1934 our store has been growing with Ahos
kie and Hertford County. As the county celebrates its
200th Anniversary we want to thank the folks of fhe,Roa
noke-Chowan for making our 25 years here happy, friend
ly and successful. We are proud fo be a port of the Roa
noke-Chowan.
5-io