A large field, stretching for nearly a mile to the left of the road, was streaked with long rows of fires, made of dry pitch-pine rails, and as the figures flitted about midst the fires, weird shadows were thrown against the black woods and sky beyond. It seemed like a glimpse into some other world, and when our regiment, and the many others in the rear, reached the fairy spot, and added their fires to the grand illumination, the heavens became red with flame.
Most of us were through with work for that night, and had no harder task to perform than to collect a few rails, boil some coffee, and after supper make ourselves comfortable for the night. But all were not so fortunate, for some were detailed for picket duty, and as for the poor pioneers, the enemy, in their retreat, had laid out several hours' work for them, by felling trees across the road for nearly half a mile, rendering it impassable for the artillery. The choppers had almost completed their job, and had left one huge old pine, beyond which, preparatory to commencing the attack, they had built a roaring fire in the middle of the road. Suddenly, up rode one of the 3d N. Y. Cavalry, leading a second horse, laden with a foraged bag of grain. He was very impatient to rejoin his comrades, encamped some distance in advance of the main body, and all advice to wait for the removal of the obstacle proved of no avail. Wheeling about, and riding back a few rods, he started the two horses on the full gallop, leaped the tree, directly into the fire, dashed on, and was quickly lost in the thick darkness beyond.
Refreshed by our night's rest, we were roused at early dawn by the reveille-call of the bugle, and soon the whole camp was astir. Breakfast, which, like both the other meals, consisted of hard-tack and coffee, except when a successful foraging tour increased our commissariat, was soon disposed of, and we started on the second day's march. Wading a broad stream, at the very outset, relieved us from all fear of wetting our feet, and enabled us to travel regardless of mud and water. We were all becoming more accustomed to the work before us, though whether that proved of any practical benefit in rendering the labor easier, is still an open question.
As we had loaded our guns before starting that morning, we confidently expected to meet the enemy before the close of the day; but, though occasional firing was to be heard at the front, the skirmishing of our advance with the rear of the enemy, nothing of the foe was to be seen, except some prisoners captured by the cavalry, several of them wounded. It was a sad spectacle, the sight of the poor rebels in their forlorn condition, so gaunt and filthy, most miserably clad, and above all, wounded and captive. The horrors of war were indeed becoming a dread reality and no longer mere printed words. Another sad sight was to see the men straggling. Poor fellows, who, reduced by fever in the summer, and but scarcely dismissed from the hospital, lined the road, utterly exhausted and unable to drag one limb after the other. Others, from our own ranks, unaccustomed to such hard work, and used up by the march of the day previous, were compelled to fall out and rest, after an hour or two of vain attempts to keep up with the hurrying crowd.
The country grew pleasanter as we advanced, and food seemed much more plentiful; the woods swarmed with wild pigs; cattle and poultry were quite abundant, and occasionally a hive of honey was discovered, and quickly dismounted and robbed, regardless of its fiery occupants. Halts were more frequent that day, and as the camping-ground was earlier reached, the bivouac was so much the more comfortable. The night was quite cold, and the ground stiff and frozen in the morning, but we soon thawed ourselves out before the rekindled fires. Some of the improvident ones awoke to a sense of their folly, in having emptied their haversacks at the end of the second day, not having considered the simple problem that if three days rations are eaten in two days, the third day they must either beg or starve.
We had a very easy day's work on the thirteenth, for after marching a few hours, firing commenced in the front, and orders came for us to hurry forward, as the enemy had made a stand. As we pressed eagerly onward, the cry was passed along from the rear, of "Give way, right and left, for artillery!" We were marching through a long, level stretch of pine forest, and as the men fell back on each side of the road, we could see the batteries approaching in the distance. As they drew near, the leader shouted, "Gallop!" and on they came, the horses on the full run, the guns rattling and jumping, the men clinging to their seats for dear life, to prevent being dismounted by some extra jounce, but smiling as if going to parade. Cheer after cheer greeted each successive piece as it rushed through our ranks on to the front, and we all felt sure that with such support we could brave any foe.
Leaving the main road, the regiment filed into a cleared space, where the advance had halted and was drawn up in line of battle with the rest of the brigade. The skirmishers advanced and disappeared in the woods, and we awaited anxiously our orders to move; but after a few shots from cavalry and skirmishers, the enemy fell back, leaving in our possession two small pieces of artillery. It was decided to halt for the night, to give the men a good rest, as our proximity to Kinston made a fight the next day almost inevitable.
KINSTON SWAMP