SEVENTY-SECOND REGIMENT.
(THIRD JUNIOR RESERVES.)
It affords the writer pleasure to respond to the invitation of Judge Walter Clark, himself a distinguished officer of the boy-soldiers, to make a lasting memorial of the courage and heroism of the brave and patriotic lads who composed the Third Regiment of Junior Reserves, known since the war as the Seventy-second Regiment of North Carolina Troops. It is to be regretted that the task has not been performed at an earlier day, before the stirring scenes in which these youths took so conspicuous a part have faded into the dim outline of a shadowy dream. Some inaccuracies must now necessarily creep into this sketch. The writer was Assistant Adjutant-General of Lieutenant-General Theophilus H. Holmes, who commanded the Reserves of North Carolina, and he has in his possession many valuable records pertaining to that office, access to which has been of great assistance in the preparation of this regimental history.
It is deemed not inappropriate here to narrate some things of a general nature concerning the Reserves.
The year 1863 closed with depression and gloom throughout our young Confederacy. Missouri, Kentucky, Louisiana, Tennessee and the Arkansas and Mississippi Valleys had been lost. Vicksburg, with its ill-fated commander, had surrendered. Gettysburg, in spite of the heroic efforts of Carolina’s best and bravest, had been turned by Longstreet’s default into a Union victory. All of our ports had been blockaded. Sherman with his army of bummers, was preparing for his infamous march through Georgia and the Carolinas, in which he emulated the atrocities of the Duke of Alva, proclaiming as his excuse that “War is hell,” and violating, with fire and sword, every principle of civilized warfare. Grant had been placed in command of all the Union armies and was preparing to take personal charge of a campaign of attrition against the Army of Northern Virginia, willing to swap five for one in battle, if need be, in order to exhaust his straitened adversary—a process by which with his unlimited resources of men, he knew he was bound to win in the end.
It was in such dire distress that the Confederate Congress 17 February, 1864, aroused to a full sense of the magnitude of the struggle, and recognizing the necessity for putting forth our whole strength in the contest for Southern independence, passed an act for the enrollment of the Junior and Senior Reserves—the former, lads between 17 and 18 years—the latter, old men, between 45 and 50 years—thus, in the language of President Davis, “robbing the cradle and the grave.”
Lieutenant-General T. H. Holmes was entrusted by President Davis with the organization of the reserve forces in North Carolina. General Holmes was the son of Governor Gabriel Holmes. He graduated at West Point in 1829, and was assigned to duty with the Seventh Regiment of Infantry. With this regiment he served with distinction in the Seminole War and also in the Mexican War, in which he was brevetted Major for conspicuous gallantry at Monterey. With his keen sense of honor, pure Christian character, devotion to duty and utter forgetfulness of self, he was fit to be a companion of the knights who sat at King Arthur’s round table. A true son of the Old North State, he had promptly responded to her call, and resigning a Major’s commission in the United States Army, had been appointed by the President first Colonel, then Brigadier, then Major-General and finally Lieutenant-General. As courageous as a lion, he was as gentle as a woman. At the battle of Helena, Arkansas, amid a storm of shot and shell, with a coolness which the writer has never seen surpassed, he rode into Graveyard Hill, upon which was concentrated the fire at short range of fifty cannon and five thousand muskets. It was a daring and fearless ride. Like General Pettigrew, he was one of the few men who declined promotion. Well does the writer remember the receipt by General Holmes, when commanding the Trans-Mississippi Department in Little Rock, of a Lieutenant-General’s commission, all unsought and unexpected. He at once dictated a letter to the President, declining with grateful thanks the high honor and requesting him to bestow it upon a worthier man. It was only upon Mr. Davis’ insistence that the promotion was afterwards accepted.
Mr. Davis in his “Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government,” says of him:
“He has passed beyond the reach of censure or of praise, after serving his country on many fields wisely and well. I, who knew him from our school boy days, who served with him in garrison and in the field, and with pride watched him as he gallantly led a storming party up the rocky height at Monterey, and was intimately acquainted with his whole career during our sectional war, bear willing testimony to the purity, self abnegation, generosity, fidelity and gallantry which characterized him as a man and as a soldier.”
A truer, braver, purer heart never beat under the Confederate gray.
General Holmes on 28 April, 1864, established his headquarters at Raleigh, N. C., and undertook the task of organizing the Reserves of the State. His staff consisted of:—
Lieutenant-Colonel Frank S. Armistead, a graduate of West Point, as Inspector-General. He was later elected Colonel of the First Regiment of Junior Reserves and was afterwards assigned to the command of the Junior Reserves brigade consisting of the first three regiments. He was recommended by General Holmes for the appointment of Brigadier-General in terms of high praise.
Captain John W. Hinsdale, as Assistant Adjutant-General, who had served in this capacity on the staffs of Generals J. Johnston Pettigrew at Seven Pines, and William D. Pender, through the Seven Days’ Fight around Richmond, and also with General Holmes in the Trans-Mississippi.
First Lieutenants Charles W. Broadfoot and Theophilus H. Holmes, Jr., Aides-de-Camp. The latter, a mere boy, soon afterwards gave his young life to his country while gallantly leading a cavalry charge near Ashland, Virginia. The former, a member of the Bethel Regiment, rose from private to Lieutenant-Colonel of the First Junior Reserves, and is now the first lawyer of the upper Cape Fear.
First Lieutenant Graham Daves, appointed Aide-de-Camp after the death of young Holmes and the promotion of Lieutenant Broadfoot. He was a brave and efficient officer of scholarly attainments and high integrity.
A. W. Lawrence, of Raleigh, Ordnance Officer.
Major Charles S. Stringfellow, now one of Richmond’s most distinguished lawyers, succeeded Captain Hinsdale as Assistant Adjutant-General upon the latter’s promotion to the Colonelcy of the Third regiment of Junior Reserves.
A roster in the writer’s possession shows that the Medical Department of the Reserves was organized as follows:
Dr. Thomas Hill, now an eminent physician of Goldsboro, North Carolina, Medical Director.
Dr. G. G. Smith, Assistant Surgeon of the First Regiment of Junior Reserves.
Dr. A. W. Eskridge, Assistant Surgeon of the Second Regiment of Junior Reserves.
Dr. E. B. Simpson, Assistant Surgeon of the Third Regiment of Junior Reserves.
First Lieutenant J. M. Strong, Assistant Surgeon of the Fourth Regiment of Senior Reserves.
Dr. W. L. Glass, Assistant Surgeon of the Fifth Regiment of Senior Reserves.
Dr. A. W. Nesbitt, Assistant Surgeon of the Sixth Regiment of Senior Reserves.
Dr. David Berry, Assistant Surgeon of the Eighth Regiment of Senior Reserves.
Dr. G. H. Cox, Assistant Surgeon of the Eighth Regiment of Senior Reserves.
Dr. James S. Robinson, Assistant Surgeon of the Second Battalion of Senior Reserves.