Newspapers / The News-Herald (Ahoskie, N.C.) / Jan. 1, 1959, edition 1 / Page 21
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Guarded Blackwater River Line: Wynn's Cavalry Was All R-C Unit An All-Roanoke-CHowan -team of amateur Confederate cavalry men organized in the summer of 1863 as federal horsemen caused panic in their region. The 15th Battalion of North Carolina Cavalry thus operated in the best tradition of the Minute Men, sworn to defend their hearthsides. James M. Wynns was Lt. Colo nel and commanding officer of the unit, which consisted of four tiny companies of Roanoke-Cho- wan mounted troops, ■ The unit gathered, in mid summer 1863 at Murfreesboro and then trotted to Weldon for some little instruction in the art of war. Many of the men in the little unit had already seen service in Confederate units. Sdme, still re covering from wounds in other battles, sat uneasily on their mounts. The commander of the unit had already seen service as a company commander in the second North Carolina Cavalry. Its quartermas ter was colorful Baldy Asburn Capehart of Murfreesboro, whose tales of Civil War demng-do were to delight audiences for sev eral decades after the battle. The surgeon was young Starkey Sharp, who had already seen service. The unit had come into being even as Yankee horsemen were landing at Winton, striking out for Weldon through Hertford and Northampton County. It, and the hastily-organized infantry com panies that were to become part of the 68th regiment, had gather ed at Murfreesboro as rumors of Saw Fought in Major Actions: Gates Troops io 33rd The sky was blue, the weather crisp, hope was high, as Gates County men arrived at Camp Mangum near Raleigh in the late summer of 1861. The third company of Confeder ate infantrymen raised in the little eastern county had , ernbarked on a long war career. Unlike the other two units which had march away six months before, this unit was composed of men enlisted “for the war,’’ and not just 12- month volunteers. Mixed in with the Gates men, were men of nearby Pasquotank County, and a sprinkling of Edt^e- combe men. An Edgecombe man was named captain, Lt. Riddick Gatling of Gates was the company’s second-in-command. Joe Boushell of Gates was First Sergeant. Soon the detached company was serving as a guard force in the vast swamp areas of eastern North Carolina. When Yankee troops overran the Outer Banks and Roanoke Island in early 1862, the company rejoined its regiment— the 33rd North Carolina—near New Bern. They arrived in time to see action as a part of the line of untried North Carolina troops fac ing a giant federal attacking force. The regiment fought in the battle of New Bern on March 14, and young Charles Carter of Gates was one of tliose killed as the federals broke the Confederate line. James Carter was wounded, permanently disabled. So was Daniel Webb of Gates. In May, the Gates men and their comrades turned north to ward Virginia and their war des tiny was set. As .a member of Branch’s brigade, they were lo fight in all the big-’ and bloody battles of that famo’us- army, They didn’t have long to wait. At Slash Church, Virginia, Gates men were among Confederates who repeUed one of the first federal moves aimed at Richmond. It was but a prelude to the Seven Days Battle around Rich mond, a fight in which the Con federate army stopped the advance of General McClellan and got in itself a new commander—Robert E, Lee. The 33rd fought under Stonewall Jackson in the confused action of Seven Days. It was - not called on for action in the heaviest fight ing. But the “quiet” timC.s Could not last. As the victorious Southern army moved out in Lee’s first offensive action against the North, the 33rd came into contact with the enemy. At Cedar Run on August 9, Hol loway Harrell fell under the feder al fire. James Pierce was mortal ly wounded. Mathias Johnson was mortally wounded at Ox Hill a few weeks later. John Porter was kUled. Then the regiment looked on Maryland, and the "' quiet fields around Antitiem Creek. On September 17, the regiment took part in the battle there that was to claim the life of its brigade commander. Thomas G. Benton of Company E and Gates County died on the Antitiem slopes, one of three men of the regiment who died there. Gatling Takes Company As the regiment turned south ward, ■ Lt. Gatling left his men to become company commander of H Comnany, a unit of Hyde Coun ty soldiers. First Sergeant Boushell put on the bars of a second lieutenant. Frederikburg was the next place where blood would spill. There, on December 13, Lee dealt a punish ing blow to the advancing Union army. Captain Gatling was compliment ed for his work on the picket line. James Wiggins of Gates County fell with a Union bullet in his chest, another who would never again see the flat, pine-covered land of his home. The 33rd went into winter quar ters with Lee’s army during the 1862-3 winter. Few Gates County men could take advantage of leave or fur lough. Their home county was a no man’s land, unguarded by Con federate troops, prey to maraud ing federal cavalry attacks. As spring. 1863, arrived, the Army of Northern Virginia stir red for another season of combat. The 33rd was in the front line of skirmishers on May 3, 1863, as Lee’s army advanced against the enemye at fateful Chancellorsville. The federals, sensing the south ern attack, smashed at the Con federate lines in two night at tacks. The 33rd was in the heart of the confused fighting. L t . Boushell fell, killed in night action. A few minutes later, young Wil liam K. Babb—new junior lieuten ant of the company — was killed as he led the Gates men in his first action as an officer. Private Charles Peel was another Gates man who gave his life in the fight in the dark. In the same battle the 33rd’s famous division commander— the incomparable Stonewall Jackson— was a victim of war, shot by mis take by his own men. The army moved north, toward the rolling hills around Gettys burg. During the three-day battle of Gettysburg, the Gates men per formed duties with the regiment as it supports various Confederate actions. No Gates men of Com pany E become casualties in the war’s most famous encounter. But death took only a breather. In the spring of 1864, the 33rd is part of a North Carolina brigade which blunts the first advance of the giant army of Grant. Two men are mortally wounded at Spottsyl- vania Courthouse—Theopolis Cross and Jesse Savage. For the next few weeks, the regi ment is buffeted by continual fire in the great Battle of the Wilder ness. Thoma.s Jones is killed on impending federal attack drifted through the almost undefended Roanoke-Chowan counties. Before Wynns’s little unit could get completely organized, the fed eral activity subsided. 'The cav alrymen were ordered north to the west bank of the Blackwater River in southside Virginia. Their job: protect the riverline against crossings by federal horsemen based in Suffolk and Norfolk. For the remainder of the war, the Roanoke-Chowan men, under Captains J. G, Holliday, M, M. Wise, Adjutant J. W. Perry, J. T. Beaman, and Lts. J. F. Branch, H. J. K, Jenkins and J. A. Allen, skirmished with Union troopers, guarded- fords, river crossings. Capehart remembered after the war how the unit took part in a little - publicized phase of the fighting. The battalion traded with the enemy under orders from General Lee. In exchange for federal prisoners, the Confed erate commander received badly- needed hospital supplies from Union depots. The clandestine trading was carried out by men of Wynns’s unit, who met Union gunboats on the Nottoway River to exchange the prisoners and pick up the medical supplies. The unit went on some long 'rides, at one time galloping all the way to Dismal Swamp in search of Union cavalry patrols. Other companies of the com mand operated all the way south to Colerain, picketing the Cho wan River against Union cross ings and the depredations of gangs of outlaws, known as “buf faloes.” As the end came in the spring of 1865, the little unit was called to greater service. It was ordered to join the arm of General Joseph Johnston, poised to meet the ad vance of Sherman’s hordes in central North Carolina. But before Wynns’s unit could move out, the end came. Col. Wynns tells the story: “the battalion was raised to protect eastern North Carolina from the enemy’s raids ... we did it—to the very best. When the end came, we took no parole, but went home and took our guns and horses with us.” S. N. BUXTON A young Northampton man who enlisted in the Confederate cavalry with his hometown company as a sergeant, S. N. Buxton, rose to captain of Company H of the 19th Regi ment (Second Cavalry). He served as head of the Northampton troop as it fought near Gettysburg in the summer of 1863, and surrendered with his small unit at Appomattox. He lived for many years after the war, serving in various political offices in Northampton County, and helped write the history of his regiment in 1897. He was a citizen of Jackson throughout his life. May 6. Solomon Baker is a victim of war on July 14. As the deadly fighting of 1864 ground to a stop in the winter months, the regiment goes into the trenches around Petersburg. It is the twilight of the Confeder- :3cy. Fighting continually as spring came, the regiment; now reduced to a handful, joins the final re treat from the trenches. On April 9, at Appomattox, the Gates men lay down their arms with Lee’s forces. Captain Gatling and a tiny group of fellow, Gates men turn their faces southeastward, walk ing back to Gates and the land they have left nearly four years before, vowing to fight “for the war.” BERTIE CAVALRYMEN—These two Bertie County men seiwed as horse soldiers in the famous Fourth North Carolina Cavali-y. Young Joseph B, Cherry (loft) was captain of Company F, com posed of Bertie men. In his. 20’s, he died in a Confederate hospital of wounds received in fight ing less than a month before the end of the war. Lewis Sutton (right) replaced Cherry as com pany commander; and lived many years after the war. He fought as lieutejiant with the famous regimenc in all il.s campaigns of the Army of Northern Virginia. Northampton Men Fought As Infantrymen for Lee's Army Men of Nortliampton County served in companies of two North Carolina Confederate regiments organized in the spring and sum mer of 1862, the second year of the Civil War. Company D of the 54th North Carolina v/as composed of North ampton men under the command of Capt. J. A. Rogers when the regiment organized at Camp Man- gum near Raleigh in May of 1862. In the same camp, the 56th North Carolina was organizing. Its company E was composed o f many men from Northampton, with others of Orange, Wake, and Moore counties. Capt. Joseph G. Lockhart was from Northampton, as were the lieutenants, Jacob Ja cobs, William Moody and youthful Robert Peebles. Paul Faison, a Northampton na tive who had already seen a year’s service as major in the 14th regiment, was regimental corh- mander. The youthful colonel had graduated from West Point i n 1861, in time to come to the colors of the new Confederate States of America. The men of these two units were to spend much of their service in their home state. The 54th spent its early months in eastern North Carolina before joining the Army of Northern Vir ginia for the battle of Fredericks burg in December, 1862. From there, it marched to Chancellors ville, in spring, 1863, where men feu in a brilliant charge at the crumbling Union lines. Captain Rogers was promoted major after the battle, and Junius DeBerry became captain of the Northampton men. The unit marched up Shenandoah Valley as the main army fought at Gettysburg. Many Prisoners In the winter of 1863-4, the North ampton men of the regiment were engaged in a bloody action at Rap pahannock Bridge in which most of the unit fell prisoner. Capt. De Berry was listed as missing in ac tion. From then on, the regiment was little more than a company. It THE HERALD, Ahoskie, N. C.—MILESTONE YEAR 1959—PAGE 7 served in eastern North Carolina and served in the successful as sault on Plymouth in AprU, 1864, when, aided by the ironclad Albe marle, Confederate forces recap tured the Union-held river town. From its quarters in its home area, the regiment marched i n May, 1864, to join the army at Richmond. It helped as Confeder ate forces bottled up the forces of Union General Benjamin Butler south of Petersburg. In the battle, Major Rogers fell, shot down by two Union musket balls. From Richmond, the regiment moved to the Shenandoah Valley again, and along with others of Jubal Early’s tiny command, it marched to within sight of Wash ington, then battled back down the Valley against overwhelming feder al forces. From then on, the battered unit served in the trenches around Rich mond, retreated to Appomattox to surrender with the remnant of the Army of Northern Virginia. 36tli Regiment Col. Faison’s 56th regiment serv ed in many of the same actions qs that of the 54th and Northampton men of the two units saw much of each other. The unit served in eastern North Carolina and along the Blackwater River in southeastern Virginia dur ing the remainder of 1862 after it was organized. Then, it joined the army around Richmond, guarding the Confeder ate capital while the Army o f Northern Virginia marched to Get tysburg and back. For the next several months, the regiment guarded the Blackwater and helped recapture Suffolk in March, 1864. Then it went to North Carolina to help recapture the town of Plymouth. In the spring of 1864, it returned to Petersburg in lime to take part in the “bottling up” of Butler’s Union army. In the action o f June 17, 1864, Lt. Cornelius' Spivey was killed in action. From then until the end of the war, the regiment served in t h e Confederate trenches. Capt. Lock hart retired in the fall of 1864 and a Cumberland County captain took over the unit. The handful of Northampton men remaining in Company E sur rendered at Appomattox in the same line with men of the North- i^pton unit of the 54th regiment. Rolling in Hertford County for 18 Years I he ability to get from one place to another h meant progress to the citizens of the Roanoke- Chowan. We are proud that we have been a part of that progress. ATLANTIC DISCCUNT COR PORATION has assisted many folks in Hertford County in financing the purchase of their auto mobiles. We appreciate the confidence the peo ple have placed in our company and we stand ready to assist ail the people of this area in the future as in the past, COME IN AND FINANCE YOUR NEW CAR WITH A LOW COST AUTO LOAN FROM US. » tr ■ in Our f fi in Celebrating the 200th ANNIVERSARY of HERTFORD COUNTY
The News-Herald (Ahoskie, N.C.)
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Jan. 1, 1959, edition 1
21
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