North Carolina Newspapers

MiiiMilAM MIMAiiiiiaMlitilliiMMiilitiMM liiaillilHilliillillillllllliltliiaitIMIIMI f>AGE 4-:~THRHEHAm Ahoski®. N. C.—MILESTONE YEAR 19S9 Berfie, Hertford, Provided Troopers: R-C Cavalrymen of 59th Regiment Rode to Battle With Jeb Stuart Horse soldiers from Bertie and Hertford counties gathered with other cavalrymen at the big Con federate training camp in Raleigh in the busy summer of 1862 to become members of the Fourth North Carolina Cavalry Regi ment. known as the 59th North Caroliiia. The' men from Hertford were in Company D, commanded by young Captain William Sharp. The Bertie men were in Company F, commanded by Captain Joseph B. Cherry. Hertford lieutenants included Lt. Thomas Ruffin, a Bertie man, and Daniel W. Lewis. In the Ber tie company, George Cherry, Lewis Sutton, and Charles Spell er wore the bars of lieutenant rank. The unit was served by other Hertford and Bertie men in its medical department. Dr. John Hutchins, a Murfreesboro physi cian. was regimental surgeon. Dr. J. W. Sessom.s of Bertie was his assistant. The quartermaster of the unit was Capt. W. D. Holloman of Hertford. The horsemen rode first to a nearby place—the banks of the Blaekwater River in southeastern Virginia. Here, during the sum mer and fall of 1862, the Roan- oke-Chowan men picketed the river, guarding against federal cavalrymen who were wont to raid across the river into the rich agricultural area which was supplying large qftahtities of food to the Confederat«iarmy in Virginia. - Later in 1362, the unit saw fierce action in eastern North Carolina, as it blunted the attack of federal cavalrymen seeking to attack Goldsboro. As spring came ih 1863, the North Carolina troopers' turned north to join the gathering forces of General Lee. The regiment be came part of Jeb Stuart’s famous cavalry corps, the eyes and ears of the army of Northern Virginia. Charles D. Scott of Hertford, first sergeant of the Hertford men, looked over the ranks, satisfied with the training of his men, who had first begun their drills near Ahoskie Baptist Church in cen tral Hertford in the previous sum- Ride North Then, the cavalrymen rode north, into the jumble of action as Stuart’s column swept into Maryland and Pennsylvania, fighting bluecoated troopers, leading the Army of Northern Virginia into the northern home land. Both Roanoke - Chowan compa nies sustained heavy losses in these brash battles. Captain Sharp was captui'ed, to spend the rest of the war in a northern pris on stockade. George W. Outlaw of Bertie, the regimental bugler, was busy sounding the high-pitched calls that sent the unit into action nearly every day of the month. As the armies clashed at Get tysburg in early July, the 59th and other cavalrymen .fought skirmishes with federal troop ers. Then, as the southern army fell back from the bloody battle ground, the horse soldiers served as rearguard. Lt. Lewis was cited for commanding a rearguard post in the face of heavy enemy at tack In the befuddled fighting, young Lt. Ruffin was wounded, made prisoner. In September, his col leagues heard he had died of wounds in the federal prison at Johnston’s Island. With more than half of its men gone, the 59th retired from the battlefield in the fall of 1863 to regroup and replenish its ranks. Young W. P. Shaw of Winton was named new commanding offi cer of Company D. By now. Sur geon Hutchins and his assistant had retired, gone home to join a Home Guard regiment that was being formed to guard the Roan- oke-Chowan from increasing fed eral cavalry raids. The regiment was assigned to the North Carolina Brigade of cavalry, commanded by General L, S, Baker, a Tar Heel cavalry commander. The regiment was ready again in the spring of 1864 to take part in the action as Grant’s army closed on Richmond, and the giant Battle of the Wilderness sapped the strength of both north ern and southern armies. For the next ten months, the regiment fought in the myriad cavalry encounters around Rich mond and Petersburg, its ranks thinning day by day. By March, 1865, the Confeder ate cavalry force was reduced to a tiny column, badly mounted and no match for the increasing bluecoated hordes of General Sheridan, the federal cavalry commander. The 59th was assigned to a tiny brigade commanded by Gen. W. P. Roberts, the youthful Gates County officer who had risen from an enlisted man’s rank to top Confederate command. Cherry Killed Under the young Brigadier’s command, the unit fought man fully. On March 29, young Cap tain Cherry of Company F was seriously wounded in a charge of the small force. He was to die in a military hospital in Petersburg just as federal troopers were pounding through the ruined streets. Finally, the small regiment joined the others of Roberts’s force in the rearguard of Lee’s army as it made its final retreat to Appomattox, Capt. Shaw of Company D was one of those who laid down his saber at that little courthouse community. George Cherry sur rendered with the remnants of Company F, Young Shaw was to live for more than four decades, to write a history of his famous unit. Cap tain Sharp, released from a fed eral prison, died in 1881. Others of both units lived on into the 20th century, remembering the stirring days of 1862-65 when they rode with the cavalry col umns of the Confederate army. Heroes at Gettysburg: P - I’ NORTHAMPTON CONFEDER ATE—Cap’n Bob Peebles was to live many years after his Civil War service with the Con federate army. A young North ampton man when the war came, he was a lieutenant in one of the first companies of Northampton men raised for seiwice. He spent- most of the war as adjutant in the 35th Regiment, commanded early in the war by Matt Ransom of Northampton, with whom Peebles was to become a friend ly political rival and Civil War raconteur. At Winton, Too: Bertie. Northampton Men Saw Washington Company C of 11th Bertie's Proudest Men from Bertie and North ampton counties who watched fed eral troops burn. Winton, later saw Washington tremble under' the threat of their own firebrands. Men of companies C. D. and G of the 32nd North Carolina Regi ment were guarding Winton when federal troops stormed the town in February, 1862, burned it, and put northeastern North Caro lina in panic, Two and a half years later, some of the same men looked down on Washington from heights across the Potomac River, as members of General Early’s Confederate army which pene trated up the Shenandoah Valley in the summer of 1864 and ap proached within cannonshot of the Capital, Northampton men made up companies C and D. Bertie pro vided the men of Company G. When the regiment looked down on Washington, Col. David G. Cowand of Bertie was in com- mand- The companies had organized in the summer of 1861, had been formed into an independent bat talion with other eastern North Carolina companies. When fed eral forces overran the Outer Banks and Roanoke Island in early 1862, the battalion was ordered to Murfreesboro as a de fense force. Thus, on February 19-20, when a federal gunboat force ascended the Chowan River companies of ■the unit were on the bluffs at Winton. They fired on the Union forces, fell back toward Murfrees boro, The bluecoats landed, burn ed Hertford’s courthouse and other buildings of the county seat village. The regiment was formed shortly afterwards and stationed near Petersburg for more than a year. In the spring of 1863, it par- •ticipated in abortive Confederate attempts to retake eastern North Carolina towns held by Union forces. By this time, John K. Ottway was commanding the Northamp ton men of Company C, William J. K. Stephenson was captain of Northampton’s Company D. Solo mon H. White of Bertie com manded Bertie men of Company G. Then, oii May 17, 1863, the regi ment, with others of Daniel’s bri gade, marched north to Rich mond, joined the Army of North ern Virginia, Two weeks later, the regiment was in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, part of an expedition of Lee’s in vading army which wa."?, sweeping through southern Pennsylvania towns, penetrating farther north than any rebel units of the entire war. In the afternoon of July 1, the 32nd entered on fateful duties in the opening round of the battle of Gettysburg. In an assault on fed eral lines then forming near the little college town, the regiment suffered its first losses. John T. Edwards of Northamp ton, Joseph Newell of Company' D, and William H. Vick of the same unit, died under the hail of Union lead. Henry Mitchell of Bertie was wounded, later to die of wounds. Joseph E. Perry of Bertie also had mortal wounds. Joseph Outlaw, James New- bern, Jacob Butler, John T. Dud ley, James Slade, and Hugh Spell- — air Bertie men — suffered wounds. Captain White suffered wounds of which he was to die on July 15. On the second day of the Get tysburg fight, the regiment rested, but lost men to Union artillery fire, Then, on the fateful third day, the regiment went up to hold some captured entrenchments, And then fell its most famous corporal, Private Joe John Cow and of Bertie. This handsome Bertie man, beloved by his com rades, has left a legacy of rich words, written to his Bertie cou sin, which tell of the day-to-day life of the Bertie men of Company G. The letters are in the Duke University Library. A year later, the regiment went through another blood bath as it participated in the opening bat tles between Grant’s giant Union army and the -defending forces of Lee around Richmond. In these actions. Col. E. C. Brabble, who had commanded the regiment since its beginning, died, and Col. Cowand, a Bertie native, took command. On June 13, 1864, the regiment joined the forces of CSA General Jubal Early, ordered by Lee to make a major diversion in west ern Virginia, a -diversion that could relieve the massive pres sure of Grant’s invading hordes. The expedition met with great success in its early stages, and by July 11, the men of the 32nd— dusty, worn by marching—looked down on Washington and the great defenses of the Union capi tal. But, worn with its march, Early’s force could not push its advantage. Falling back down, the Valley, it met with a crushing de feat at Winchester. By December, the 32nd had returned to the great trenches around Gettysburg. From these, during the final months of the Confederacy's life, the dwindling number of Roan oke - Chowan men shared the hardships of 'the Army of North ern Virginia, fought off increas ingly powerful federal attacks. Then, as spring, 1865 came, the end neared. The 32nd was in the battered remnant of Lee’s force which pulled out of Petersbui'g in early April, headed for the little village at Appomattox courthou.se. The regiment, less than 50 men, surrendered with the tiny force that remained on April 9. Company C of the 11th North Carolina regiment was Bertie County’s Civil War pride. The company joined the 11th— successor to the famed “Bethel Regiment’’ — at a reorganization in Raleigh in March. 1862. From then until the end of the war, the Bertie fought in the Petti grew Brigade of North Carolina. The company was commanded by Captain Francis W. Bird. Thomas Cooper was a lieutenant, so was Edward R. Outlaw and Ed ward Rhodes. The 11th spent its first months, in defense of its home state, serv-;; ing at Wilmington until October, 1862, and then as a guard regi ment along the Blaekwater River in southeastern Virginia. Even be fore it went into action with the Army of Northern Virginia, some of its Bertie boys had died of camp diseases, among them Sam Jernigan and Doctrine Jenkins, John Mizell and James C. Castel- low. Tho regiment came under first heavy fire in December, when ordered back to central North Carolina, it fought off a federal at tack along the Neuse River at White Hall near Kinston. Then, the regiment headed north, to Blount’s Creek to take part in a Confederate demonstration to ward Union-held Washington, N. C. On Blount's Creek, just across the Roanoke River from their home county, the Bertie men fought a sharp engagement with blueclad forces seeldng to reinforce the Washington garrison. Toward Gettysburg Early in June, 1863, the regi ment joined the Pettigrew Brigade in the Army of Northern Virginia, and started a fateful march to ward Gettysburg. On the slopes of Gettysburg’s rolling hills. Company C had its great moment as a key unit in the Confederate attack late on the first day of the three-day battle. Pettigrew’s North Carolinians charged up the Gettysburg hills at a position held by the Iron Brigade of the Union Army. Down the line, the famous 26th North Carolina, under youthful Col. Harry King Burgv;yn of Northampton, moved to the attack with men of the 11th. More than a dozen men of the 11th fell dead, among them young Lt. Cooper, and Lt. Rhodes, Pri vates Benjamin Carter, James Cas per, J. P. Mitchell, William G. Parker, Thomas Peel, and James Pierce. The battered regiment and the gallant Bertie men still had more glory, and more death, fated for them at Gettysburg. Resting on the second day, the regiment charged federal positions on Cemetery Hill on the third day of the battle as Lee threw the forces of Pettigrew and Pickett up the slopes of the already-red-flow- ing hills. In this famous charge, the living men of Company C were reduced to a handful. William Hoggard, fourth Sergeant, was fatally wound ed. Tom Holder and Napoleon Rice received wounds. Rice was not to recover. Some Bertie men who lived through the storm were Elisha Todd, Joseph Pritchard, George B. Harrell, and William T. Culli- pher. William Madrc. ordnance ser geant, also made the charge, as did newly-commissioned lieutenants : William H. Todd, Clingman Craig, and Patrick H. Winston, a boy in his teens. A single flag of the brigade made it back down the corpse- strewn hill. It was a shattered staff in the hand of. Captain Bird. Company C was the regiment’s color guard. Eight Bertie men fell carrying the starred-and-bar- red flag up the hill. Captain Bird brought it back. The battle so battered the regi ment that its orgahization was never completely reshaped after ward. Bird became a major of the 11th, Outlaw became commaftder of the litt.e Bertie Ljtit. ' ' The regiment saw limited action during the remainder of 1863 as General Lee’s army fell back to lines near Richmond. Then, as spring, 1864, came, the 11th stepped out with other gray clad units to meet the advance of the giant Union Army under Gen eral Grant. The 11th narrowly escaped dis aster when aid failed to show up just as a massive federal attack came. General Lee himself rallied the troops. For the remainder of the year, the 11th was in the thick of fight ing as Grant slowly maneuvered around Richmond, driving the Con federates into trenches around Richmond, On August 24, former captain Bird, now Lt. Colonel of the regi ment, gave his life in an action at Reams Station as the regiment charged federal lines, one of the more than a dozen times during its career that Company C was called on to move into the face of the enemy. During the winter and spring of 1864-65, the 11th battled against federal charges from the trenches around Richmond. And, as spring, 1865, came, the regiment, reduced to a corporal’s guard, stepped out of the lines and joined the tiny remnants of the army for the final march to Ap pomattox courthouse. Captain Out law was given the task of saving the famous flag of the Bethel Regi ment from surrender. Outlaw and Captain J. M. Young hid the flag in their belongings, and after the surrender, retired to a small woods to burn the flag that had flown over North Carolina’s first gather ing of men-at-arms. The few men of Bertie who had outlived the flag turned their foot steps toward home. NUMBERS (Continued from Page 1) men altogether. Most Roanoke-Chowan men an swered the Confederate call early, joining locally-organized compa nies in the spring of 1861 soon after the state seceded from the Union. Roanoke-Chowan soldiers served in 15 different North Carolina regi ments, and three independent bat talions. Ten of the units were organized in 1861. Five more organized in 1862. In 1863, one regiment and one battalion containing Roanoke-Cho wan men were organized. And, in 1864, some other area men joined a regiment of Junior Reserves, made up of men under tile soldiering age limit. The regi ment was used for local duty in North Carolina. In the ten larger units organized in 1861, there were 17 Roanoke- Chowan companies, including four each from Hertford and Northamp ton, three' each from Bertie and Gates. Mixed units of Gates-Hert- ford, Bertie - Northampton, and Hertford - Northampton men were organized. This total of 17 compa nies probably included 1,500 or more men. In 1862, there were eight com panies organized in the area, in cluding four from Northampton, one each from Bertie and Hertford, one mixed Hertford-Bertie company and a unit composed of Gates and Chowan County men, 1863 Units The units organized in 1863 con sisted mainly of the 68th Regiment, raised for the protection of the state in a summer when federal forces were contemplating large scale operations toward the interior of North Carolina from bases in eastern coastal towns. The 68th in cluded three Hertford companies, one each from Bertie and Gates. Wynn’s battalion of cavalry was also organized locally in the early summer of 1863. It included a com pany of men from Hertford and another from Northampton. Mojor Moore Was Commander: R-C Men Served Artillery For Third N.C. Battalion Roanoke-Chowan men who serv ed artillery guns of the Confederate army organized under the com mand of young John Wheeler Moore, scion of the Hertford Covin- ty’s rising Democratic family. The young major, who had al ready been commissioned a year earlier, came back to Hertford in early 1862 to organize an artillery battalion. He drew men from Northampton for one company, men from Hert ford for another. Tyrrell and Cho wan counties provided men for an other. Young Andrew Ellis, later to be a beloved physician at Garysburg, was commander of the Northamp ton company. W. J. Rogers, J. N. Ramsey and John M. Webb were lieutenants. Julian G. Moore was commander of the Hertford company. His junior officers were John Sutton, Alfred M. Darden, and John Powell. Pow- eD and Sutton were from Bertie County. Alfred Trader of Hertford was quartermaster of the unit. For several months, the would- be gunners were without pieces to serve. The battalion went to Vir ginia without guns, and served with Lee’s army for several months between battles before it was equip ped. Then, in winter of 1862, the unit went back to North Carolina for seiwice. Still without guns for all but two of its batteries, it remain ed near Wilmington. In March, 1863, it finaDy was equipped and spent the entire year in positions near Wilmington. In the early spring, Capt. Ellis’s company, along with Major Moore, was ordered in position along a de fense line north of famed Fort Fisher at the entrance to the Cape YIAJ- JNO, W. Mrt.OKK., MAJOR JOHN WHEELER MOORE Fear. Battery C, under Capt. Julian Moore, was ordered to Fort Cas well, the big bastion guarding Southport. In early 1864, Capt. Ellis’s unit was used in a Confederate force which tried unsuccessfully to re capture New Bern from the Union forces. Ellis Cited In this action, young Ellis was cited for leading a charge of a small detachment of his gunners against a federal gun position. The companies were reunited at Wilmington in late 1864, only to be shattered again in early 1865 when a giant federal force descended on the coastal city. Most of Company C—the Hert ford men—were captured in the fall of Fort Fisher. Lt. Darden managed to escape with a few of the men and joined the other two companies as they helped guard the Confederate army which fell back from Wilmington. I Battery A, the Northampton men, hurled shell at’Union lines in the battle of Bentonville in the biggest engagement of the war in North Carolina. The unit surrendered near Greensboro W'ith the army of Gen eral Joseph S. Johnston, The commander of “Moore’s ar tillery’’ went on to become the compiler of tho famed “Moore’s Roster,” the official list of North Carolinians who served in the Con federate army. He wrote the bat talion’s history in 1901. Fought at Ellyson's Mill, Antietam, Gettysburg: Hertford Grays' Marched With 1st The “Hertford Grays” they de cided to call themselves, that fine May day in 1861 when the group of ' eager young Confederates gathered at the Meherrin River village of Murfreesboro. Already another company of Hertford men had gathered to gether to march off to war, or at first, to the great cantonment of North Carolina soldiers gathering at the Fairgrounds near Raleigh. The name of the second volun- ter company was bold, if a little too presumptions of the Hertford men. Of the more than 150 enlisted en, less than a third were from Hertford. Most of them were sturdy youngsters from North ampton, a few were from Bertie County. But most of those who wore the braid of officer rank were Hert ford men. Captain Jarrett Harrell was a Hertford man. Lt. W. S. Shephard was living in the county at the time. Lt, Cicero Lyon, a Pasquo tank native, was a schoolteacher in a tiny Hertford public school. Lt. James Jenkins was of the Northampton men. First Sergeant of the unit was 20-year-oId Thomas D. Boone of Hertford, also a schoolteacher. By early summer, -the mixed Roanoke - Chowan company had become Company F of the First North Carolina regiment, com manded by Mumford Stokes of the mountain County of Wilkes, a former officer in the United States Navy. The Roanoke - Chowan men were to miss the first stirring ac tions of the war in Virginia. The regiment guarded lines near Rich- mond, served a while in eastern North Carolina in the winter of- 1862. Inlo Action It went into action in late June, 1862, as the new Army of North ern Virginia moved out to attack the giant Army of the Potomac under General McClellan. As Lee’s army maneuvered to the attack, the grayclad forces of General D. H. Hill met the feder- als in action at little Ellyson’s Mill, just outside Richmond, The Hertford Grays saw wax, they saw death. Lt. Lyon was hit. Private Wiley Hunter of Northampton was kill ed. Hertford Private J. T. Nelson died in the hail of musketry. Young Pipkin Vaughan of Hert ford, a private of less than month’s service, died in his first action, Northampton’s James L. Ricks 'died. Benjamin Whitley of Hertford fell mortally wounded. James Taylor of Hertford suffer ed a wound from which he was not to recover. More than half the regiment became casualties, including Col, Stokes, mortally wounded. Licking its wounds, the regi ment was allowed to rest as the army moved, north toward Mary land, seeking to deal a knockout blow to the battered enemy. But as the Confederate army drew up along the little creek known as Antietam in Maryland, the First North Carolina was call ed into position. In the bloodiest battle of the young war, more Company P men fell. Lt. Shephai-d died there. Pri vate William Lee of Hertford died. John Morris of Bertie fell, mortally hurt. Young Private Per ry Vincent of Northampton was listed as killed in action. Randolph Barham of North ampton was wounded in both legs. James Darden of Hertford suffered the first of three wounds that were to be his during three years of campaigning. Young Lt. Jenkins was wound ed. He was to die in an army hospital a few weeks later. Even before the battle was fought, Company F men had heard that another of their gallant young officers—Lt. Lyons—was dead of his wounds suffered at Ellyson’s Mill. But the slaughter was just be ginning. With Sergeant Boone now a lieutenant, the company and the regiment fell back through Vir ginia to the town of Fredericks burg, where General Leo stopped the final federal advance of the year, and both armies—bloody from a summer of furious action —went into winter quarters. As spring of 1863 came. Gen eral Stonewall Jackson’s corps, including the battered First North Carolina—moved to attack of fed eral forces near the little village of Chancellorsville. It was a bat tle in which Jackson was to die, victim of misguided bullets of his own command. Another Bloody Bath It was also another blood bath for the men of the Roanoke-Cho wan company. Captain Harrell was -hit. Wil liam Jelks, young son of a fa mous Hertford family, died in the furious action, So did Patrick Kiff of Hertford and John E. Joyner of Northampton. John D. Parker of Hertford was mortally wound ed. The regiment was commanded by a captain, so heavy were the casualties among officers of the First. There was no rest, however. Young T. D. Boone regrouped his battered company as the regi ment headed for the Shenandoah Valley and another assignment from General Lee. New Captain The youthful Hertford man had been elected captain of the com pany, as the wounded Captain Harrell was promoted to major. The little southern army met the enemy again at Winchester, where Confederate forces shat tered a federal mountain column seeking to harass the advancing army of Lee, which was already marching north toward Pennsyl vania. In this sharp fight, Northamp ton Private Cornelius Odom fell in the exchange of gunfire. The regiment arrived at Gettys burg in time to serve as a sharp shooter unit during the slow ac tion of the second day cf the three-day battle. On July 3, the fateful third day, the depleted unit was called on to assault Culp’s Hill, a bastion on the southern flank of tho federal line. Young Captain Boone led his men in the charge. After brief skirmishing during the southern retreat from Gettys burg, the regiment went into win ter quarters on Rapidan River north of Richmond. Here, Major Harrell returned to duty and became Lt. Colonel of the regiment. New enlistees joined the depleted ranks. Spring, 1864, came with the sound of guns echoing near Rich mond. General Grant’s huge army maneuvered to smash the gray legions of Lee. Most Captured Fate dealt a dark hand to the First North Carolina at the bitter fighting at Spottsylvania Court house. On May 12, 1864, more than two-thirds of the command was captured as overwhelming Union forces breached the Con federate lines. The regiment’s flag went to a northern prison camp, tucked in the gray military blouse of young John Reams of Company F, who had seized the tattered banner from the hands of a mor tally-wounded bearer. The regiment was reduced to a company-sized unit, its top of ficers gone. - Yet it preserved its -organiza tion, and as fall approached, it was assigned to the Shenandoah Valley army of General Jubal Early, charged with the job of taking the federal pressure off Lee’s army before Richmond. Moving swiftly up the Valley, the little army soon looked down on the outer defenses of Wash ington, But, too weak to attack, it began to fall back down the Valley. At Winchester, disaster came. A federal force caught up with the tired Confederate column, and on, September 19, 1864, dealt it a punishing blow. Captain Boone was hit in the side by a Minie ball, his second wound of the war. The battered Confederate army fell back, joined the Ai-my of Northern Virginia as it retreated into the defense lines around Richmond and Petersburg. The little regiment fought off federal assaults in February, 1865. Then, as April came, Lee’s army moved out of the lines, headed for Appomattox. Late in the day of April 8, the thin lines of General W. R, Cox, composed of a few hundred North Carolinians — the tiny remnant of First Regiment among them—fired a rearguard volley at advancing federal caval ry. It was one of the last actions of the war for the Army of North ern Virginia. Next day, the army surrender ed. The few Roanoke-Chowan men remaining headed down the dusty road toward their home in the Carolina tidewater. MILESTONE 1759'•1959 THE HERALD I909'1959 Copyright, Parker Bros., Inc., 1953