Again we proceeded on our march, and, after marching ten miles, we halted at six P. M. and prepared for the night. We were allowed to build fires, make coffee and enjoy a good warm supper. To reach and cut communications between Wilmington and Goldsboro was our objective point, so that the rebels could not send re-enforcements, while General Dix attacked the rebels at Blackwater.
December 16th we resumed our march, reaching Everettsville about twelve o’clock, where we encountered quite a strong picket force. These men escaping to the woods our batteries shelled the same. The Third Regiment was ordered to take position near the railroad and on a line parallel with it. Here we remained until an iron-clad car with a battery was demolished and the bridge across the river was fired. At one time I counted nine shells fusing within two hundred feet of Company A, yet no one sought shelter behind the many great stumps of trees where we were lying (according to orders) on the ground. The main army retiring, our brigade was ordered to remain on the field to make sure that no rebels would harass our rear.
After the demolition of the iron-clad, the Third Regiment was ordered to stack arms, overturn the railroad track and set the ties on fire. This was so expeditiously done that in half an hour the ties were on fire as far as one could see. A mill also did not escape the flames. During this time General Magruder, coming from Wilmington on the cars with ten thousand men and finding the railroad on fire, disembarked his men and batteries, and marched them to the scene of action, on a road parallel to the railroad and on the opposite side of it. We did not know this then as well as we did one hour later. The Third Regiment, having done as ordered, marched to the rear just over the brow of the rising ground. Hardly had we gained this position when we were told that the rebels were advancing with a flag of truce, and a battalion of cavalry went to receive it. When near the railroad, which was six feet high at this point, a brigade of rebel infantry fired a volley without hitting either man or horse. The cavalry returned the fire and then returned to cover.
At this time I was standing near Colonel Richmond and Captain Belger. The rebel brigade lost no time in getting over the railroad, and with charged bayonets they came up the slope on a double-quick. “Action front!” shouted Captain Belger, “Double canister! Load!” Never did soldiers present better alignment than that rebel brigade; but when they saw that Belger’s battery was supported by infantry, they made the fatal mistake of making a right half wheel. “Aim! fire!” commanded Captain Belger, when the rebel bayonets were not more than two hundred yards from his battery. As the battery sent forth its deadly contents great gaps were made in the rebel ranks. Three times the colors were shot down and three times they were raised; but the fourth time they remained on the ground for want of any one to raise them. Some fifty of the men who had taken refuge behind a stack of fodder were served with grape and solid shot. It took but a moment to send both stack and men flying towards the woods; fifty men becoming entangled by a fence were treated to spherical case, which bursting in their midst killed many of them.
During all this time the rebel batteries on the opposite side of the railroad were raining shot and shell at us, the most of which passed harmlessly over our heads, enough, however, falling short to give us a sprinkling of “the sacred soil” of the South. We were ordered to lie down, and this order was so effectively obeyed that no daylight could penetrate between us and “Mother Earth.” Looking to the left, I saw three other brigades approaching our left center. These were about one hundred yards in the rear of each other. The Twenty-seventh Regiment lay as quiet as death until the first brigade showed breast high, when rising they poured such a withering volley into the rebel ranks that those who could turned and ran, reaching the second brigade; that turned and ran; and these two brigades reaching the third brigade, that turned and ran. Neither Belger’s nor a thirty-two-pounder brass battery of six guns allowed them to run without helping them to run faster. Darkness drawing its mantle over the scene we were ordered to march back to the main army. The rebels left their dead and dying on the field.
The brook over which we had come dry shod was now a roaring torrent, and we, for the first time, saw the trap the rebels had set for us by opening the gate at the mill-pond. In their charge they no doubt expected to drive us into the brook, and there slaughter us at their own sweet will and pleasure; but we had punished them so severely that they thought it best to let the Yankees alone. But through the brook we had to go; and those who were sure-footed went, with the water up to their arm-pits. These, both officers and men, did heroic service in rescuing those who were carried down with the raging current. With all our cartridges wet and our clothing frozen, we had to stand and patiently wait for the whole brigade to cross the flood before we were ordered to march, and were only too glad when told that we would have to march several miles before we would bivouac for the night. Being ordered to build no fires, we stretched ourselves on the frozen ground, slept like tired, healthy children and arose at daylight, our clothes steaming, and commenced the weary homeward march.
No one but a soldier can tell how mean it makes one feel to be in an enemy’s country without ammunition to defend oneself with should an attack be made; but we neither saw nor heard any rebels on the homeward march. On this march Company A was three days without food. Toward evening of the third day, the writer, leaving the marching column, marched straight for a sweet potato mound, and, taking all he could carry, hastened to his company. This was no easy matter as the column was marching nearly as fast as himself. But fortune favoring the brave, he regained his place at dark. Nearly all the potatoes were divided among the boys, and I can say that the best thing I ever tasted in my life was a sweet potato, skin, dirt and all. After dark I secured two hogs’ heads, and these with the sweet potatoes made an excellent stew for several of the men, including the commissioned officers of Company A.
Nothing special occurred on our return march. The footsore boys left at Kinston were ready to resume the homeward march. The last night of the march we slept on the ground where the water in the ditches made ice one inch thick. As often as we awoke shivering with the cold, we would up and run until bodily heat would allow us to sleep again. We arrived in Newbern at 12.30, Dec. 21, 1862. Not long after our return, Company A with another company of the Third Regiment, were ordered on picket duty at Deep Gully, where the rebels had made an attack. Here we stayed two weeks, when we were relieved by the other companies sent from Newbern.
On Tuesday, Jan. 27, 1863, our regiment was moved from our first place of encampment to Fort Totten. Here we were protected by an embankment twelve feet high and forty feet wide at the base. Our marches from this place to various points, especially that to Swansboro over almost impassible roads, will never be forgotten by Company A. When, in the language of Colonel Richmond, “eight men make a company,” Company A was always sure to exceed that number, notwithstanding that the mud was so deep that we made but five miles in ten hours.
Wednesday, April 8th, we crossed the Neuse River and commenced our march to Blount’s Creek, where we encountered quite a body of the enemy; but after an artillery demonstration for one hour, both armies began a retreat at the same time, and neither knew why the other retreated, unless it be that the rebels caught sight of General Spinola (our commanding general) with his high red shirt collar, and, mistaking him for Sitting Bull, imagined retreat the better part of valor. I remember his saying to Colonel Richmond, “Colonel, your men stand as straight in battle as old veterans of the regular army.” In this battle Captain Belger had his horse shot from under him and he himself was badly wounded; but as he was being led past the Third, he said, “Give it to them, colonel, we will pay them for this.”