Lee's Tar Heels: The Pettigrew-Kirkland-MacRae Brigade

Lee’s Tar Heels

Civil War America

GARY W. GALLAGHER, EDITOR

Lee’s TAR HEELS

The Pettigrew-Kirkland-MacRae Brigade

Earl J. Hess

The University of North Carolina Press

Chapel Hill and London

© 2002 The University of North Carolina Press

All rights reserved

Manufactured in the United States of America

Designed by April Leidig-Higgins

Set in Monotype Bulmer by Copperline Book Services, Inc.

The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hess, Earl J. Lee’s Tar Heels: the Pettigrew-Kirkland-MacRae

Brigade / by Earl J. Hess. p. cm.—(Civil War America)

Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.

ISBN 0-8078-2687-1 (cloth: alk. paper)

1. Confederate States of America. Army. Pettigrew’s Brigade. 2. North Carolina—History—Civil War, 1861–1865—Regimental histories. 3. United States—History—Civil War, 1861–1865— Regimental histories. 4. United States—History—Civil War, 1861–1865—Campaigns. 5. Pettigrew, James Johnston, 1828–1863. 6. Kirkland, William W. (William Whedbee), 1833–1915. 7. MacRae, William, 1834–1882. I. Title. II. Series.

E573.4.P48 H47 2002      973.7'456—dc21 2001048065

06 05 04 03 02 5 4 3 2 1

For Pratibha and Julie,

with love

Contents

Preface

ONE | The 26th North Carolina

TWO | Pettigrew’s Brigade

THREE | Back to Carolina

FOUR | New Bern and Washington

FIVE | North to Pennsylvania

SIX | Gettysburg

SEVEN | Fire and Blood

EIGHT | Back to Virginia

NINE | Bristoe Station, Mine Run, and the Winter of ’64

TEN | From the Wilderness to Cold Harbor

ELEVEN | Petersburg

TWELVE | Rebel Autumn

THIRTEEN | The Road to Appomattox

FOURTEEN | After the War

APPENDIX | A Military Profile of the Pettigrew-Kirkland-MacRae Brigade

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Maps

1.1 The Battle of New Bern, March 14, 1862 14

1.2 The Battle of Malvern Hill, July 1, 1862 26

3.1 Southeastern Virginia and Eastern North Carolina 59

4.1 Hill’s New Bern and Washington Campaigns, March–April 1863 88

5.1 Pettigrew’s Route to Pennsylvania 108

5.2 Hanover Junction and the Battle of the South Anna Bridge, June 26, 1863 110

6.1 The Battle of Gettysburg, July 1, 1863 123

7.1 The Battle of Gettysburg, July 3, 1863 143

8.1 The Battle of Falling Waters, July 14, 1863 163

9.1 The Battle of Bristoe Station, October 14, 1863 190

10.1 The Battle of the Wilderness, May 5–6, 1864 210

10.2 The Battle of Spotsylvania, May 10, 1864 220

10.3 The Battle of Cold Harbor, June 1–3, 1864 228

11.1 The Battle of Globe Tavern, August 21, 1864 245

11.2 The Battle of Reams Station, August 25, 1864 251

12.1 The Fifth Offensive, September 30– October 2, 1864 263

12.2 The Battle of Burgess’s Mill, October 27, 1864 272

13.1 The Petersburg Campaign, April 2, 1865 293

13.2 The Appomattox Campaign, April 2–9, 1865 300

Illustrations

Col. Henry King Burgwyn Jr. 3

Col. Zebulon Baird Vance 5

Samuel Timothy Mickey 11

Sarah Malinda Blalock 21

Malvern Hill 28

26th North Carolina Regimental Band 31

James Johnston Pettigrew 36

Brig. Gen. James Johnston Pettigrew 38

Brig. Gen. Collett Leventhorpe 44

Maj. Egbert A. Ross 45

Capt. Benjamin Wesley Justice 52

Lt. Col. Tazewell Lee Hargrove 112

Willoughby Run from McPherson’s Ridge 126

Col. John Randolph Lane 131

Herbst’s Woods 135

The approach of Pettigrew’s brigade on July 3 146

Col. James Keith Marshall 149

26th North Carolina marker, July 3 150

Flag of the 26th North Carolina, captured at Gettysburg 153

James Johnston Pettigrew’s frock coat 169

James Johnston Pettigrew’s sash 170

Henry King Burgwyn’s sword and scabbard 172

Brig. Gen. William Wheedbee Kirkland 186

Lt. Col. John Thomas Jones 217

John Thomas Jones’s vest 218

Brig. Gen. William MacRae 239

Col. William Joseph Martin 265

Flag of the 26th North Carolina, captured at Burgess’s Mill 275

The Three Colonels of the 26th North Carolina Regiment 310

Maj. Charles Manly Stedman 316

Preface

Pettigrew’s brigade was one of the most famous North Carolina units of the Civil War. Organized and led for nearly a year by James Johnston Pettigrew, a promising young officer, it spent the first nine months of its history operating in the backwaters of eastern North Carolina before it was thrust into the hard campaigning and tough fighting endured by Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. The brigade earned a bloody reputation for the work it did at Gettysburg, its first major battle. On July 1 it smashed two Union brigades (one of which was the famed Iron Brigade) and forced the Federal First Corps back to Seminary Ridge. The brigade took a leading role in Pickett’s Charge on July 3; some of its men surged to within a few feet of the stone fence, going farther than did Pickett’s Virginians. The brigade’s losses at Gettysburg were astonishingly high, but that was not the end of its long battle history. It went on to participate in nearly every major engagement of Lee’s army to the end of the war. The Tar Heels richly earned the praise of their superiors at Bristoe Station, the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, Globe Tavern, Reams Station, the Fifth Offensive at Petersburg, Burgess’s Mill, and the final actions that led to the fall of Petersburg. The brigade trudged faithfully all the way to Appomattox, where it was one of the last units to lay down its arms in the official surrender ceremony on April 12.

The brigade consisted of five battle-tested regiments. The 11th North Carolina joined Pettigrew four months after he organized the brigade. It was nicknamed the Bethel Regiment because many of its members had served in the 1st North Carolina (six months), which was engaged in the first land battle of the war at Big Bethel. The 26th North Carolina, the oldest and most famous of the five regiments, was organized early in the war and led by Zebulon B. Vance, who was elected governor of North Carolina in the summer of 1862. It had seen combat at the battles of New Bern and Malvern Hill before joining the brigade. This regiment was always the largest and most powerful of the five regiments, and it compiled an impressive record during the war. The 44th North Carolina missed Gettysburg because of an assignment to guard Lee’s railroad lines near Richmond, but it became the reliable foundation of the brigade in the terrible campaigns of 1864–65. The 47th North Carolina and the 52nd North Carolina, like the 44th, were organized in the spring of 1862 and served the needs of the brigade with faithful devotion.

This study came about as the result of several inspirations. Much of my previous work has been devoted to studying the Northern side of the Civil War, and I felt the need to understand more deeply the experiences of Confederate soldiers and their officers. By a happy coincidence I had the opportunity to do that with a research fellowship from the Appalachian College Association in the fall of 1995. I spent that semester on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where I had access to the extremely rich holdings of the Southern Historical Collection. Equally rich holdings were within reach in the Special Collections department of the library at Duke University and in the North Carolina Division of Archives and History at Raleigh. Taken together, all three institutions have by far the largest collections of unpublished personal accounts by Confederate soldiers in the United States, and their holdings are heavily dominated by the papers of North Carolina soldiers.

Another thread of the story came into play the year before my fellowship period at Chapel Hill, when I visited Gettysburg for my first intensive examination of the battlefield. I noticed the newly placed monument to the 26th North Carolina, just in front of the stone fence, commemorating the advance of a small group of that regiment to within twenty yards of the Union position. There they were blasted by a charge of canister from a single Union artillery piece. It conjured up a dramatic and painful image that impressed me greatly. I wanted to learn more about the unit and the men who filled its ranks, and my residence at Chapel Hill allowed me to do that. Gathering material on the unit that fall, I also had a conversation with Greg Mast, a reenactor and historian of North Carolina’s participation in the war, who suggested that a history of the brigade to which the 26th belonged might be a good idea. Thus the various influences that produced this book happily came together.

Studies like this one seem to have a timely necessity. It is astonishing that North Carolina and its people have played such a huge role in the Civil War, that there is such an abundance of primary material on that role, and yet that there are so few studies of that subject. When I began researching this project in 1995, one could literally count the number of significant books on North Carolina in the Civil War on the fingers of one, possibly two hands. Since then a few more books have appeared, but there are still far too few on such a large and important topic. Additional studies of other Tar Heel units, such as Lane’s brigade, Cooke’s brigade, Clingman’s brigade, and Barringer’s cavalry, are needed. Biographies of Tar Heels such as William Dorsey Pender and Lawrence O’Bryan Branch would flesh out our understanding of the leadership of Lee’s army. The major battles fought on North Carolina soil are being discovered by historians who have published recent books on Bentonville, but a number of secondary campaigns and engagements continue to exist in the shadows. It is my hope that this book will contribute to the growing awareness of the Old North State’s contributions to the Confederate war effort and to its crucial role in the drama of the Civil War.

A unit history is a unique part of Civil War historiography. In some ways it has a fundamental quality lacking in other kinds of war studies. The ideal unit history should be complete and definitive, covering all aspects of its subject. Thus it is more than a mere recounting of the unit’s battles; it should also describe the mobilization of manpower, the organization of the units, their acclimation to camp life, their initial combat experience, and the changing nature of the men’s attitudes toward war and the cause they fought to uphold. Ties to the home front, food, medical care, logistical support, political attitudes, social background, postwar life experiences, and many other topics ought to be covered, as far as the available sources will allow. Fortunately there are numerous collections of unpublished personal accounts from members of the brigade, and I have been guided by them and many other sources I came across in shaping the contours of this book. While the wealth of sources still did not illuminate everything, I hope I have covered all important topics as thoroughly as possible.

While all these areas are legitimate topics for a unit history, battle remains the primary interest of most readers and the major reason for the existence of any unit. The history of Pettigrew’s brigade is primarily the story of its battle experience. While it saw relatively little combat before Gettysburg, the brigade saw little else but combat after that terrible battle. During the course of the war the brigade engaged in twenty-one campaigns. It participated in at least twenty separate engagements, spread over as many days of fighting, during its two years and eight months of existence. In addition, three of its regiments fought in other battles separately. The 26th North Carolina participated in two extra campaigns, with four days of fighting, before it joined the brigade. The 44th Carolina and the 52nd North Carolina each had the equivalent of two extra campaigns and two days of fighting apart from the brigade.

All of this fighting led to enormous casualties. In a sense the unit was famous not so much for what it did on the battlefield (although that was in its own way very impressive), but for what was done to it by the Federals. A total of 8,256 men served in the five regiments; 58 percent of them became casualties. This figure was so high not only because the brigade suffered heavy losses at Gettysburg, at Bristoe Station, in the Overland campaign, at Burgess’s Mill, and on April 2, 1865, but also because it had an unusually large number of men captured in battle. This component of the losses was particularly high on July 3 at Gettysburg, at Bristoe Station, at Burgess’s Mill, and on April 2. In fact 35 percent of the members of the brigade were captured in battle, some more than once. The number of men who died as a result of combat was very high as well. The aggregate of those who were killed on the battlefield, died of their wounds, or died of disease or wounds while in Union prisons amounts to 1,202, or 14 percent of the total enrollment of the brigade.

In short, the Tar Heels fought hard and suffered a great deal. Thus I emphasize their battle experience above all other relevant topics covered in this book. The battle history of the brigade is absorbing and important, even without the high casualty rate. Gettysburg was its most famous battle, but the brigade really came into its own as a fighting unit in the Petersburg campaign. By then Pettigrew had long since departed; he was mortally wounded at the battle of Falling Waters during Lee’s retreat from Pennsylvania. The next brigadier, William W. Kirkland, was a good battlefield commander but not an inspirational leader. He was wounded twice while commanding the brigade and thus spent many months convalescing. His influence on the character of the unit was minimal. But William MacRae had a different and decisive impact. He took charge of the brigade in June 1864 and turned it into one of Lee’s most powerful striking units. MacRae and his men were primarily responsible for the stunning Confederate defeat of the Union Second Corps at the battle of Reams Station. They remained the foundation of Heth’s division during the last few months of the war, retaining their battle efficiency despite shortages of food, the debilitating effects of increased desertion, and the gnawing realization that the war was lost. As was typical of Lee’s army in general, the hard core of committed Southern patriots in MacRae’s brigade trudged blindly toward Appomattox when all else was crumbling in the Confederacy.

The organization of this book proceeds chronologically. Because the 26th North Carolina had a fairly long history before it joined the brigade, Chapter 1 is devoted exclusively to its experiences from May 1861 until August 1862. Chapter 2 details the organization of Pettigrew’s brigade, and subsequent chapters cover the unit’s history to the end of the war. The final chapter briefly surveys the postwar lives of the survivors, and the appendix offers a statistical look at the service records of the brigade. Based on the records faithfully compiled and published by the North Carolina Division of Archives and History, the appendix attempts to present what might be termed a military profile of the brigade.

I would like to thank several people for their aid in preparing this book. Greg Mast discussed the shape of the project early in my work and shared information on available sources. Noah Andre Trudeau supplied a copy of a significant source from his research files. Patrick S. Brady generously shared material on the unit’s role in the battle of Cold Harbor. Peter Cozzens also freely provided material that was relevant to my subject. Dale Floyd and Bruce E. Baker helped gather valuable sources. Steven Woodworth offered information; William Shea, A. Wilson Greene, and Arthur Bergeron encouraged me in pursuit of this topic; and Mark R. Terry shared his research on the capture of Confederate flags at Bristoe Station.

I wish to thank the staff members of all the archives listed in the bibliography for their help when I either visited their institutions or asked for material by mail. A special note of gratitude is due to John Coski at the Museum of the Confederacy, Richard Shrader of the Southern Historical Collection, and Nola Reed Knouse of the Moravian Music Foundation.

The Appalachian College Association’s John B. Stephenson Fellowship was of enormous help in enabling me to have access to essential manuscript material. Also, a part of the James F. Haas Fellowship, offered to me by the Harrisburg Civil War Round Table in 1998, helped me to finish some loose ends of archival research for this project.

Finally, I owe more than I can say to my wife, Pratibha, who has supported me enormously in this and all other work. She makes it all worthwhile.

Chapter 1

The 26th North Carolina

The building blocks of every Civil War brigade were its component regiments, and the oldest, most experienced regiment of Pettigrew’s brigade was the 26th North Carolina. It was organized on August 27, 1861, at Camp Crabtree, near Raleigh. The men came from eight different counties almost evenly divided between two geographic areas: the heartland of North Carolina, where the coastal plain met the piedmont, and the mountainous western side of the state.

The names of the individual companies that made up the 26th were colorful and expressive. The Jeff Davis Mountaineers from Ashe County became Company A; the Waxhaw Jackson Guards of Union County became Company B; the Wilkes Volunteers of Wilkes County became Company C; the Wake Guards of Wake County became Company D; the Independent Guards of Chatham County became Company E; the Hibriten Guards of Caldwell County became Company F; the Chatham Boys of Chatham County became Company G; the Moore Independents of Moore County became Company H; the Caldwell Guards of Caldwell County became Company I; and the Pee Dee Wild Cats of Anson County became Company K.¹

These companies were part of a great wave of reaction against President Abraham Lincoln’s call on April 15, 1861, for troops to suppress the rebellion. Like the rest of the Upper South states, North Carolina had refused to leave the Union before the firing on Fort Sumter, believing that the election of a Republican president was not sufficient cause to break up the nation. But the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter changed the dynamics of the secession issue. While the North unanimously supported a military solution to the breakup of the nation, most citizens of the Upper South refused to answer Lincoln’s call for troops. As a result, North Carolina and three other slave states seceded from the Union and joined the original seven Deep South states. Most of the companies that made up the 26th were organized in July, but the Moore Independents, the first company of the regiment to form, assembled on May 13 at Carthage.²

As the companies assembled at Camp Crabtree and were selected for inclusion into the 26th, the personnel began to meet and form relationships that would see them through the remainder of the war. Maj. Henry King Burgwyn Jr., commander of the camp, would be elected lieutenant colonel of the new regiment. He came from a planter family of Northampton County, North Carolina, and was descended from English aristocratic stock. Born on October 3, 1841, while his parents vacationed in Boston, Harry, as he was known, attended Burlington College in North Carolina and was tutored to enter the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. The necessary appointment never came through, so Burgwyn entered the University of North Carolina; he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1859. His taste for military training was so strong that he immediately enrolled in the Virginia Military Institute. Burgwyn was a staunch supporter of Southern rights. He advocated the state’s secession even before the firing on Fort Sumter and threw himself into war preparations when North Carolina left the Union. He was given command of Camp Crabtree on July 5, but a commission in a field unit suited his temperament and ambition much more closely. His election to the lieutenant colonelcy on August 27 was a prayer answered. Burgwyn was only nineteen years, nine months, and twenty-seven days old, probably the youngest Lt. Col. in the Confederate or U.S. service, he proudly noted in his diary.³

Capt. Abner B. Carmichael of the Wilkes Volunteers was elected major of the regiment; but the colonelcy went to a man who had no prior association with any of the companies at Camp Crabtree, and thus he would not even see his new regiment for several days after the election. Capt. Zebulon Baird Vance of the 14th North Carolina was given the nod by the company officers on August 27. He was a popular politician from the western counties of North Carolina and thus was well known by at least the three companies that hailed from the mountains. Born in Buncombe County near Asheville on May 13, 1830, Vance entered the University of North Carolina in 1852 but studied for only one year before he was admitted to the bar. He made a reputation as a lawyer, local politician, and editor of the Asheville Spectator before he was elected to the North Carolina House of Commons and the U.S. House of Representatives. Vance was a staunch Southern Whig, one of four Tar Heel Unionist congressmen before the attack on Fort Sumter. He deplored the pending breakup of the nation but was prepared to honor the Deep South’s decision to leave. When Lincoln called for troops to restore the Union, Vance denounced the policy and enthusiastically joined the Confederate war effort. He volunteered as a private in the Rough and Ready Guards of Buncombe County but quickly was elected their captain when the unit became Company F, 14th North Carolina. Vance’s men endured a summer of garrison duty at Suffolk, Virginia, before he was notified of his election to command the 26th. He was not unopposed. An anonymously published letter to the Raleigh Register, possibly authored by Burgwyn, urged the election of Rev. Cameron F. McRae, Burgwyn’s brother-in-law, but this suggestion fell flat.⁴

Col. Henry King Burgwyn Jr. Pictured front center in this image of cadets, class of 1861, at Virginia Military Institute, Burgwyn became the second colonel of the 26th North Carolina and died at age twenty-one while leading his regiment in its famous charge at Gettysburg on July 1. (Preston Library, Virginia Military Institute, Lexington)

Two other people who would rise to prominence before the war was half over entered the regiment in 1861 through the lower ranks. John Randolph Lane was born on Independence Day 1835 in what friends would later characterize as straitened circumstances. A contemporary, recalling that he was reared with the advantages of self-denial, believed this helped to shape his character. Entering the Chatham Boys as a corporal, he soon was elected captain of Company G. His hard work and ability to learn the science of military affairs catapulted him into the lieutenant colonelcy when Burgwyn rose to command the regiment. Both men would be hit on July 1 at Gettysburg; Burgwyn died, and Lane suffered untold agony from a horrible head wound. Yet the pugnacious Lane would survive, return to rebuild the regiment, and be wounded several more times before the war was over. He lived to see the turn of the new century.⁵

John Thomas Jones was another quick riser in the ranks. He was a twenty-year-old student at the University of North Carolina when Fort Sumter was fired on, but like Burgwyn, he was a strong supporter of secession even before Lincoln’s call for troops. The new Confederacy was fighting for the institutions of the whole South, he wrote home, and the South will yet sustain them. Who would rather be swung on to the tail end of a Northern . . . Republic than to be equals in a Southern confederacy[?] The safety of our institutions depend upon our being united; if we are divided where are we to look for success[?] An alliance between the Upper South and the North would lead to an abolition ticket here in this State. As for me I will never live in any such a country. Jones left the university just before graduation and volunteered as a private in the 1st North Carolina, a six-month regiment. He saw combat at the battle of Big Bethel on June 10, 1861, and organized the Caldwell Guards. Jones served the company as lieutenant and captain and was promoted major and lieutenant colonel by the midpoint of the war.⁶

The men who enlisted in the 26th North Carolina hardly spoke of their motivations to fight for the Confederacy, but defense of their native soil undoubtedly was the most important factor for the hundreds of men who made up the regiment. Lt. Henry Clay Albright of Company G offered some insight into their thinking when he wrote to a North Carolina newspaper, At the first sound of the war whoop, as it fell upon their ears from afar, these brave and chivalrous hearted men forsook the quiet of their farms, the happiness of the family circle, and all they held dear to them, and rushed as one man to the defence of their young Republic’s bright and unsullied honor. . . . They resolved to sacrifice their lives rather than submit to the tyranny of a wrong and misguided tyrant. Albright privately assured his sister that I’m willing to undergo any necessary hardship or privation . . . for my country’s cause, which is the foremost and dearest companion of my heart.⁷

Col. Zebulon Baird Vance. A prominent politician before the war, Vance led the 26th North Carolina in the battle of New Bern and then was elected governor of North Carolina, effectively leading the state for the remainder of the war. (Miscellaneous Photos, SHC-UNC)

Noah Deaton of Company H summed up this attitude in a letter to one of his female friends when he criticized the men who continued to stay at home while their neighbors enlisted. There are a great many young fellows that have no cares to keep them from going out in defense of their country but are such cowards that they would suffer subjugation rather than fight and I trust the ladies will not countenance such fellows. Deaton had the perfect remedy for anyone who was offended by his opinion: let them take up arms to defend there homes and not wait for others to do what they should do. Deaton paid a price for his patriotism. He was captured at the battle of Bristoe Station on October 14, 1863, and was not paroled until nearly the end of the war.⁸

John Randolph Lane would commemorate the memory of the fallen at every opportunity for the rest of his long life. Speaking to the North Carolina Society of Baltimore in 1903, Lane eloquently remembered the men of his old regiment. They were of good blood, he insisted. I do not mean that their parents were aristocrats—far from it; many of them never owned a slave. They were the great middle class that owned small farms . . . who earned their living with honest sweat and owed not any man. Lane called each of his comrades a patriot who was convinced that the cause for which he was fighting was just; he believed that he owed allegiance first to his home and his State. He was standing to combat an unjust invader.⁹

No sooner had the regiment completed its organization than orders arrived to move out. The Federals were responsible for the unit’s hasty departure from Camp Crabtree. It was scheduled to be sent to Virginia, but a joint army and navy force under Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler was even then attacking the outer banks of North Carolina. The state’s long coastline, indented by a number of huge sounds protected by a string of tiny barrier islands, was vulnerable. If the Federals could take these outlying islands, they would have access to the relatively calm waters of the sounds. Most of the major rivers of the coastal plain drained into these sounds, offering avenues of invasion for seaborne Yankee armies. Fully one-third of the state’s territory would be laid open to Northern incursions, a number of port cities would be cut off from European trade, and the Federals would be in a position to interrupt the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad, a vital link between North Carolina and Richmond.¹⁰

The 26th left Crabtree by rail early on the morning of September 2 and arrived later that day at New Bern, where it received orders to move south to Morehead City. The men were assigned to guard Fort Macon, a masonry fortification on the eastern end of Bogue Island that guarded Beaufort Inlet and the ports of Morehead City and Beaufort. Vance arrived on the evening of September 4 and took command of his new regiment as it made a difficult crossing of the sound. The men boarded a schooner that grounded well short of the beach, and they were forced to complete the journey in small boats. One Tar Heel was mashed to death a geting on the Boat, and another was injured very badly. The regiment spent its first few days on the island setting up tents and digging wells. Vance and Burgwyn agreed to name their first encampment in the field Camp Burgwyn, after the lieutenant colonel’s father, who was on Bogue Island acting as a volunteer aide for Governor Henry T. Clark.¹¹

The logistical problem was immense. Vance was told to rely on the commissary stores at New Bern, but they were inadequate. He wrote an imploring letter to Governor Clark describing the 26th as almost in a state of mutiny because it had not been paid in four months. Most of the men suffered from the want of ordinary articles of every day use and had no way to buy them from local merchants. Vance urged Clark to pay the men something or I fear I shall not be able to maintain discipline.¹²

Vance’s men retained their spirit and enthusiasm despite the shortages. W. E. Setser of Company F put it more boldly: the bois ar all aneious for a fight. we think we can whip six thousand yankees. the bois sais they can whip five a peace. i think i can whip six my self. If the Northerners landed on the island, we will feed them on canon plates and grape and musketry. They needed all the spirit they could muster, for soon after setting up camp on Bogue Island, the 26th was hit by a wave of communicable diseases. Measles, malaria, typhoid fever, and mumps ravaged the camp, and a special hospital was created on the mainland near Carolina City, three miles west of Morehead City. Nine men from one company died in one week. The sickness raged from September through December before it finally subsided.¹³

Despite the illnesses and lack of supplies, Vance and his regiment devoted most of their attention to the prospect of a battle. There were numerous scares and false alarms. John A. Jackson of Company H informed a friend, we cant tel what a day will bring forth[.] the next time you hear from us we may have had a hard battle or may be prisners bound for New York or some other port. The only contact with the enemy came as the result of an accident. A transport steamer, the USS Union, became separated from a fleet sailing south from Fortress Monroe and grounded on the shore of Bogue Island twelve miles west of Fort Macon on November 1. It broke apart, and several people on board were drowned. Eighty-one survivors approached Vance’s regimental camp with a flag of truce on November 2 and gave themselves up. Vance was criticized by his superiors for not adequately picketing the approaches to his camp, illustrating the laxness with which he tended to run the regiment. Although the ship was broken up, it contained a load of valuable articles, and Companies D, F, H, and K were detached for salvage duty. The work began on November 4 and lasted until the nineteenth. Horses, muskets, whiskey, champagne, coal, mattresses, pillows, clothing, and two rifled cannon were recovered. At times the men were fired at by Federal ships; but they took shelter behind the sand hills, and no harm was done.¹⁴

When it became apparent that the Federals had no intention of attacking Fort Macon, the regiment left Bogue Island to establish winter quarters on the mainland on November 26. Camp Vance was laid out near Carolina City. The men’s health improved with the onset of cooler weather, and the Christmas season passed quietly, save for several men who became drunk and rowdy and had to be placed in the guardhouse. While many enlisted men found their huts at Camp Vance to be clean and comfortable, Burgwyn thought the camp was in wretched shape when he returned from a stay in the hospital to recover from typhoid fever. Little care had been taken to police the area, so you may imagine the filth, he complained to his mother. Discipline seemed worse than ever. Although Burgwyn drilled the men four hours every day, he was not satisfied with their proficiency. He heard recitations on tactics from officers each day as he slowly raised the standard in my regiment. Burgwyn came to compare it favorably with all the other units in the area. My own is the best & if it had a good Colonel would be a most capital reg. Col. Vance is however a man without any system or regularity whatever & has so little of an engineering mind. . . . His abilities appear to me to be more overated than those of any other person I know of. Burgwyn was critical of several other officers as well, calling them exceedingly inefficient in tactics. He believed the quality of the 26th would be much improved if these officers could somehow be levered out of their positions.¹⁵

A long-awaited Union offensive into the sounds soon drew the regiment out of Camp Vance. Brig. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside commanded a joint army and navy force to seal off port cities and establish a major Federal presence on the coastal plain. Roanoke Island and New Bern seemed to be the most likely targets, so Confederate authorities began rounding up all the troops they could spare. News of Burnside’s expedition reached Camp Vance on January 24, and the order to move arrived two days later. Vance left immediately with six companies, and Burgwyn was to follow with the rest the next day. The regiment made Camp Branch their home for the next six weeks. Named for Brig. Gen. Lawrence O’Bryan Branch, commander of the District of the Pamlico, it was located four miles south of New Bern close to the Atlantic and North Carolina Railroad. Fort Thompson, on the west bank of the Neuse River, and a line of infantry works connecting it to the railroad were nearby. The threat to New Bern was real but not immediate. Rain set in with a vengeance, pouring down for four days running in mid-February. Sickness began to rise in the ranks; pneumonia and flux were among the afflictions, and Vance himself came down with a tough case of an undiagnosed illness. Vance knows nothing about the manege of a Regmt, concluded Burgwyn when the colonel refused to move the regiment to better ground.¹⁶

As the men continued to wait for action, they were pressed to reenlist voluntarily for an additional two years of service as soon as their twelve months were up. John Thomas Jones did not believe it was possible for his Company I to reenlist willingly. There are not more than 20 of my company that will go in without going home. William H. Glenn of Company B supported Jones’s view. I think I will go home befor I Stick mi name to a nuther paper, he wrote. Vance warned the reluctant soldiers that the Confederate Congress might pass a conscript law that would draft all soldiers to remain in the service.¹⁷

Ironically, the two highest-ranking officers were also eager to leave the regiment. The ambitious Burgwyn wanted a regiment of his own. I am exceedingly disgusted with my present position, he complained to his father. Vance is totally unsuitable in my opinion & I am heartily tired of being under his command. As for discipline not the faintest idea of it has ever entered his head. Vance himself wanted to recruit more men and form a legion, a unit that combined all arms. He dreamed of a second infantry regiment, two companies of cavalry, and a battery of artillery. This would make a handsome brigade with which I would like to take the field on active service. The authorities in Richmond were happy to see him raise additional units but refused to promise a commission as brigadier general.¹⁸

Vance did accomplish one thing in this period, the recruitment of a regimental brass band, but it was only by accident that he secured a group of musicians. The band had no connection to any of the counties that contributed troops to the regiment; its roots lay in the rich Moravian heritage of Forsyth County. The Moravian denomination originated as a reform movement in Bohemia nearly a century before the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. It grew dramatically under the sponsorship of Saxon nobleman Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf, who created a Moravian colony on his landed estate in the 1720s. The Unitas Fratrum, or United Brethren, expanded soon after that and established communities such as Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in 1741, which became the center of the Moravian Church in the northern colonies. Salem, founded in Forsyth County in 1766, became the center of the Moravian Church in the southern colonies. A high regard for education and a love of choral and instrumental music were two of the distinctive characteristics of Moravian life in America.¹⁹

Moravians from Salem were already in the regimental bands of the 21st and the 33rd North Carolina, and Samuel Timothy Mickey wanted to organize men for a third unit. He was in New Bern trying to find a regiment that was stationed on Roanoke Island but was stymied when Burnside captured the island. Mickey happened to meet Vance in the lobby of the Gaston House in New Bern. Vance recognized Mickey immediately. ‘You are the very man I am looking for,’ Vance told him. ‘You represent the Salem Band.’ The colonel talked him into committing his group to the 26th. Vance bypassed red tape and agreed to receive Mickey’s men as an independent band, . . . without being regularly enlisted. The musicians would be paid not by the Confederate government but by the officers themselves.²⁰

The group consisted of eight men, with Mickey elected as their captain. Several members of the band were accomplished players, but others were neophytes, including Julius Linebach. He had worked as a bookkeeper for the Haw River Mills in Alamance County and had always wanted to do his duty for the Confederacy, but he was not anxious to become a target for bullets fired by any one. So when someone suggested he quit his job and join the Salem Band, it seemed like a workable compromise. Linebach found that blowing a horn could be dangerous too. The mouthpiece of his brass instrument hurt his lips, and he thought his lung power was not up to the demands of the horn. His lips chapped, cracked, and bled at each practice, so that after every piece we played I could pour a spoonful of bloody water from my crook. He solved this problem by trading instruments with Joe Hall, who had a cornet. The band acquired a uniform of sorts before leaving Salem: cadet jeans with brass buttons, of which we were rather proud.²¹

Mickey’s band left Salem on the morning of March 5 and reached the regiment by rail two days later. The musicians set up tents the next day just outside the guard line so they could come and go freely, and they bought caps in New Bern to complete their uniforms. The band had to play for guard mounting at 8:00 A.M.; perform at the daily evening dress parade; give a short concert each night; play at regimental inspections every Sunday morning; and play at each brigade review. They practiced every morning and afternoon. One of the most difficult things to learn was how to play and march at the same time, and they had to acquire the ability to divide their attention between music, feet, & the ground. The condition of the parade ground did not help, for every stump, root, and hole tripped up a band member.²²

Samuel Timothy Mickey. Organizer and leader of the Salem Band, the regimental band of the 26th North Carolina, Mickey was the dependable foundation of the Moravian musicians. He is seen here, in a photograph probably taken before the war, holding his E-flat cornet. When the band members were captured on April 5, 1865, and the Federals confiscated their equipment, Mickey saved this instrument by hiding it in his haversack. He is also holding the cornet in the 1862 band photograph. (MMF)

The music that began to waft over Camp Branch failed to soften the news that Burnside was on the move. He landed on Roanoke Island and defeated the outnumbered Confederates there on February 8. The Federals now had access to the rivers that penetrated the coastal plain, and all of eastern North Carolina was seized with a panic. Burnside would launch the biggest attack of his campaign, using 8,000 men, in an effort to take New Bern. Branch had only about 4,000 volunteers and 2,000 hastily organized militia to defend it.²³

Two lines of infantry works protected New Bern. Most of Branch’s strength was gathered at the Fort Thompson Line, where the 26th was already stationed, but it ended at the railroad. Six miles farther south a work called the Croatan Line could easily be outflanked by troops disembarking at Fisher’s Landing, between the two positions. Branch sent the 26th and a battery to reinforce the 35th North Carolina on the Croatan Line when word of Burnside’s landing south of that earthwork reached New Bern. By the time the men got there by rail, the line had been evacuated, and the 26th, while retiring to the Fort Thompson Line, narrowly avoided a Federal force that had landed between the two lines.²⁴

The Confederates worked feverishly in a deluge of rain on the night of March 13 to prepare the Fort Thompson works. The line ended about forty yards short of the track opposite the head of a swampy ravine called Bullen’s Branch, which ran westward from the tracks for about one and a quarter miles into Brice’s Creek. When Branch decided to extend the line west of the track, he had to retire it 150 yards to the rear to take advantage of the higher ground north of the branch. The terrain here was in the shape of narrow fingers of land, each about ten feet higher than the bottom, pointing southward. Vance planned and built a series of detached redans at the farthest edge of these fingers. He could not have constructed a continuous line of trench unless he moved the position at least a half-mile farther north than the rest of the line east of the railroad, creating an even bigger gap at the track.²⁵

These redans, about eight in number, were hastily made and barely adequate for the task. The first was 200 yards west of the railroad, but the rest were only about 20 to 40 yards from one another and about 30 yards from the branch bed. Each one curved in a semicircle around the forward edge of each finger, was about 40 yards wide with no ditch or retrenchments, and had good parapets. The trees had been cut down in front of the redans and in the swampy branch bottom, which had been made even wetter by the partial damming of Bullen’s Branch and the rain that fell on March 13, so that three feet of water stood in front of the redans. Vance was put in charge of the irregular line west of the railroad. He stretched out the 26th North Carolina in the redans so that his right rested at Weathersby Road, and he divided responsibility for it among the regimental field officers. He posted himself in the center, placed Major Carmichael in charge of the left, and sent Burgwyn to see to the right. Carmichael had charge of Companies A, D, and G. Burgwyn had three companies of the 26th, two guns of Capt. T. H. Brem’s battery; Companies A and E of the 19th North Carolina (better known as the 2nd North Carolina Cavalry), which was dismounted; and Capt. Walter G. McRae’s independent company of North Carolina infantry.²⁶

After a day and a night of heavy rain, the morning of Friday, March 14, dawned with a dark, gray overcast. Patches of fog hung low in the woods fronting the Confederate earthworks. Burnside’s men advanced early in the morning with Brig. Gen. Jesse L. Reno’s brigade deployed along and to the west of the railroad embankment. Reno hit Vance’s line at 8:00 A.M., sending the 21st Massachusetts to slice through the gap in Branch’s line along the railroad and aligning the 51st New York, 9th New Jersey, and 51st Pennsylvania west of the railroad. The 21st Massachusetts gained a foothold in the gap but was temporarily stalled by Confederate reinforcements. The air was still foggy when the rest of Reno’s line approached Bullen’s Branch and Carmichael’s wing of the 26th opened fire. Vance was impressed by the very first volley his regiment fired in anger, calling it especially magnificent. . . . The blaze at the muzzle of the guns was bright and glorious. The firing began on the left and was taken up company by company to the right; but Reno’s line did not extend to Weathersby Road, and Burgwyn’s wing never became engaged. Four companies of the 33rd North Carolina under Col. Clark M. Avery reinforced the 26th in the redans while two other companies under Lt. Col. Robert F. Hoke reinforced Burgwyn’s men on the right.²⁷

The 26th North Carolina was engaged in a hot fight against three times its numbers, but the Federals were reluctant to press home their attack because of the obstacles presented by Bullen’s Branch. The heaviest fire took place on the left, where the Federals fired high at first, cutting the boughs from the tops of the trees in our rear, recalled Capt. Oscar Rand of Company D. Carmichael conducted himself magnificently. A quiet, nonobtrusive and rather slow man, he was exalted by combat. His face, form and bearing will remain in my memory as long as I live, remembered Rand, as I saw him that morning, moving slowly from one end to the other of Rifle Pit No. 2, his head just above the bank, observing the enemy and quietly telling the men where to put their bullets.²⁸

MAP 1.1 The Battle of New Bern, March 14, 1862

As soon as the Federals tried to cross the branch, the 26th met them with an uninterrupted, fierce and deafening fire. Many of the Yankees tumbled over, wrote Vance, and the rest toddled back into the woods. But the enemy began to gain the upper hand when reinforcements pushed forward along the railroad to help the 21st Massachusetts, and Major Carmichael was shot dead about 11:00 A.M. He and Colonel Avery were standing behind the left wing of the redan when a bullet entered Carmichael’s mouth and exited the back of his neck. Rand was standing next to him and saw that death was instantaneous. A feeling of bitter grief ran through the trenches as he fell, for there was not a man in the Twenty-sixth regiment who was not devotedly attached to him. It was possible that the Federal who fired this shot saw a small Confederate flag, three by four inches in size, that was mounted on a miniature staff attached to Carmichael’s cap. A woman in New Bern had given it to him, and that may have distinguished him enough to draw the attention of a sharpshooter.²⁹

To the east, the rest of Branch’s line collapsed under the weight of Burnside’s advance, and a general retreat ensued. Colonel Avery, in charge of the combined force on Vance’s left, instantly realized that retreat was his only recourse. Orders were shouted at each of the redans, and the men went out of the trenches amidst a perfect storm of bullets. Avery advanced northeast to the railroad embankment, where he was stunned to see four Federal guns and the 25th Massachusetts positioned across the track. The Yankees had succeeded in cutting off the retreat. Avery was forced to surrender 150 men. Rand later explained that the left wing of the regiment had received no orders from Vance to retreat, and it could have escaped capture if given more timely warning of the collapse of the rest of Branch’s line.³⁰

Vance received word of the deteriorating situation from Capt. Joseph J. Young, the regimental quartermaster, and ordered Burgwyn to retire, but he apparently ignored the left wing. The men in the center of the regiment jumped out of the redans and formed without confusion in the woods to the rear. Learning that the wagon bridge over Trent River, just south of New Bern, was already in flames, Vance struck out west to cross Brice’s Creek. It was swollen by recent rains to a width of seventy-five yards and was unfordable. There was only one boat to be found, capable of hauling only three men, so several Tar Heels threw away their guns and tried to swim over; three of them drowned before officers could restrain the rest. Vance spurred his horse into the chilly water and was thrown when it panicked; the colonel nearly drowned before strong swimmers came to his rescue. After catching their breath, Vance and his saviors walked a half-mile before they found three boats and balanced them on their shoulders as they carried them all the way back to the creek.³¹

Burgwyn soon joined Vance’s men on the east bank of Brice’s Creek. He pulled out after receiving Vance’s order to retire and naturally followed the colonel’s route. When I arrived at Brice’s Creek my heart sank within me, he later wrote. An impassable creek was [in front] of me & the enemy not far from us. He also searched up and down the stream for more boats and found one large enough to handle ten men. Everyone pushed and shoved to get aboard. The tension was eased somewhat when Vance arrived with his boats. Soon nearly everyone was over Brice’s Creek. Burgwyn was the last man to leave the east bank; he and a black servant rode in the last boat while swimming his horse. The crossing had taken three hours, and Federal skirmishers came into sight just as Burgwyn bid adieu to the east bank.³²

While the regiment narrowly made good its escape, the Moravian band was caught up in the anxiety that gripped New Bern. The musicians heard the heavy thud of artillery to the south while they waited with their baggage at the railroad depot. No word of the regiment’s fate arrived all day, but the artillery sounded again the next morning, March 15, as Burnside cautiously approached New Bern. Julius Linebach knew it was time to get out of town. The musicians took a train to Goldsboro, where they stayed overnight, then retraced their way back to Kinston, where Branch’s defeated army was assembling thirty-five miles from New Bern.³³

The band reached Kinston just in time to meet the regiment, which had marched by way of Trenton Court House to bypass New Bern. The men pushed on night and day, according to Vance, stopping at no time for rest or sleep more than four hours. They had only the clothes on their backs and a few guns. The band walked out to greet them and filled the air with Dixie, causing Vance to cry with emotion, when the 26th reached Kinston on March 16. The rest of Branch’s command limped into town, and encampments were created in the surrounding countryside.³⁴

The battle of New Bern was a disaster for the Confederacy, but the 26th North Carolina had performed well under difficult circumstances. The left wing had fired at least twenty rounds during the battle, the center had let fly at least ten rounds, and the regiment had stopped a Federal force three times its size. Vance found only one man who deserted his post in the redans before the order to retreat was issued. More than a month later two privates of Company D were court-martialed for cowardice at New Bern. One was drummed out of service, but the other returned to duty by July. The regiment lost 9 killed, 9 wounded, 1 wounded and captured, and 71 missing, a total of 91 men. Four of the wounded returned to duty, while 2 others died of their injuries. Fifty of the captured were exchanged to resume duty in the regiment, 6 died in captivity, and 15 were released to reenter civilian life. The regiment’s material losses were enormous. Most of its camp equipment and the personal belongings of its members were captured or destroyed by the Yankees.³⁵

A change of commanders took place following the disastrous battle. Branch was demoted to brigade command and Brig. Gen. Samuel G. French took over the District of the Pamlico. Fresh troops were rapidly shifted from other areas of North Carolina, and the 26th found itself in a newly created brigade commanded by Brig. Gen. Robert Ransom. It included the 24th, 25th, 35th, 48th, and 49th, all North Carolina regiments.³⁶

Members of the 26th tried to restore their spirits in the wake of the defeat. I see no reason why we should be in the least downcast or disheartened, asserted Burgwyn. The Yankees did not fight well & are no match for our men if properly led. Vance also tried to spread the word that his men were ready to fight again. I believe they would every one follow me into the jaws of certain death if I lead the way, he crowed. It is possible that Vance was right. W. E. Setser felt pugnacious right after the battle: we ar ready for the blasted thing again. . . . they may over pour us, but they cant Scear us.³⁷

Vance supervised the election of Capt. Nathaniel P. Rankin of Company F to replace Carmichael as major, but his most pressing problem was to resupply the regiment. A flood of donations from well-wishers all over the state came to Kinston; in fact, so much clothing arrived that Vance informed the newspapers on March 26 that no more was needed. He also made certain that the men expressed their gratitude to all by printing in the Raleigh North Carolina Standard the names of each donor and the articles they contributed. Company officers filed requisitions to obtain equipment that was not available on the home front. Canteen straps, shoes, jackets, trousers, haversacks, knapsacks, and caps eventually were drawn from Confederate military stores to complete the regiment’s refit.³⁸

The strategic picture around Kinston settled into a dismal stalemate. Burnside diverted his force toward Fort Macon and Elizabeth City, canceling the anticipated attack on Goldsboro. With no Yankee advance on the horizon, the regiment addressed the reenlistment problem that had vexed its rank and file for months. The soldiers of the 26th North Carolina were still grumbling about the scarcity of furloughs and continued to cite this as their major cause for not signing the reenlistment papers. A good proportion of the men had never been home since they joined the army. The time for hesitation came to an end on April 16, when the government passed a conscript law. Under its provisions all men in the regiment who did not voluntarily reenlist were drafted into the Confederate army for further service. There was widespread ranting about the tyrannical ‘conscription bill’