The regiment, therefore, went into service early in May among the troops for the defence of Wilmington with the following organization :

Colonel Collett Leventhorpe, Lieutenant-Colonel W. J. Martin, Major Egbert A. Ross, Surgeon John Wilson, Assistant-Surgeon J. Parks McCombs, Assistant-Quartermaster John N. Tate, AssistantCommissary of Subsistence Pat J. Lowrie, Adjutant H. C. Lucas, Chaplain A. S. Smith, Captain W. L. Hand, Company A, Mecklenburg; Captain M. D. Armfield, Company B, Burke; Captain F. W. Bird, Company C, Bertie; Captain C. S. Brown, Company D, Burke; Captain J. S. A. Nichols, Company E, Mecklenburg; Captain E. A. Small, Company F, Chowan; Captain J. A. Jennings, Company G, Orange; Captain W. L. Grier, Company H, Mecklenburg; Captain A. S. Haynes, Company I, Lincoln; Captain J. M. Young, Company K, Buncombe.

FRANKLIN.

We served around Wilmington and at various points on the coast until the 1st of October, when we were ordered to Franklin, Va., and took a prominent part in the defense of the Blackwater, engaging in numerous skirmishes with the enemy operating from Suffolk. The line to be guarded was so long and the troops to guard it so few, that forced marches were of constant occurrence, and the term foot-cavalry facetiously applied to us aptly described our role.

WHITE-HALL.

On the 12th of December we were ordered to Kingston, N. C., but before we reached it the enemy had taken the town and sent a force up the south side of the Neuse to cross at White-Hall, and take the Confederate troops in the rear. We, with portions of three other regiments and a section of artillery, all under Brigadier-General Robertson, were hurried up to White-Hall bridge, and arrived in time to burn it before the enemy could cross. Here the regiment had its first real baptism of fire. Posted along the river bank, from which another regiment had just been driven back, it was pounded for several hours at short range by a terrific storm of grape and canister, as well as by musketry; but it never flinched, and gained a reputation for endurance and courage which it proudly maintained to the fateful end at Appomattox. The enemy finally desisted from the effort to force a passage and drew off toward Goldsboro.

After the battle of White-Hall the eleventh became a part of the brigade of General Pettigrew, and continued under his command until his death. The next three months were spent at Goldsboro, Weldon, Magnolia and Greenville.

BLOUNT'S CREEK BRIDGE.

From Greenville the regiment took part in the expedition of General D. H. Hill against Washington, N. C., and on the 9th of April, 1863, at Blount's Creek bridge, with the aid of a battery, it successfully resisted the attempt of General Foster to reinforce the garrison of Washington by that route, driving back after a spirited fight of several hours General Spinola's command, consisting of three brigades, besides artillery and cavalry. Our position was a very strong one naturally, we were well intrenched, and there were other troops in reserve; still it remains that Spinola's giving up the crossing of the creek as hopeless, and his return to Newbern after so brief a contest was pusillanimous, and he deserved the censure he got from his superiors in command. Towards the end of the month we marched by way of Hookerton to Kinston to meet a demonstration made by General Foster, apparently to distract attention from the projected movements in Virginia, and to keep as many Confederates as possible away from the real seat of war.

In the beginning of May we were hurried to Richmond to meet Stoneman's raid, and to protect the railroads and the bridges over the North and South Anna rivers. From there we went to Hanover Junction, and thence to Fredericksburg (Hamilton's Crossing), early in June. There the brigade was incorporated with Heth's Division, A. P. Hill's (Third) Corps, Army of Northern Virginia, in which relation we continued to the end of the war. When the army took up the line of march which ended at Gettysburg, Pettigrew's Brigade formed part of it, except the Forty-fourth, Colonel Singeltary, which had been left to guard Hanover Junction, and took a very prominent part in the bloody three-days' fight.

GETTYSBURG.

Heth's Division arrived at Cashtown, nine miles from Gettysburg, June 29th, being in advance of the corps. On the 30th Pettigrew with his brigade was sent to Gettysburg for supplies, but finding a large force of cavalry and infantry there, he was unwilling to hazard an attack with a single brigade, and returned without attempting to

enter the town. The next day, July 1st, Ewell's and Hill's Corps advanced upon Gettysburg by different roads, and Heth's Division, being in the advance of Hill's Corps, was the first to strike the enemy, whose strength was then unknown. Upon engaging them they were found to occupy in large force and strongly posted a position west of the town. A line of battle, consisting of the divisions of Heth and Pender, with two of Ewell's divisions, was formed for attack, one division of each corps being held in reserve, and drove the Federals through Gettysburg, with very heavy loss, to the range of hills south and east of the town. In this engagement Pettigrew's Brigade occupied the centre of Heth's line, and encountered the enemy in heavy force, breaking through his first, second and third lines. "The Eleveth North Carolina, Colonel Leventhorpe commanding, and the Twenty-sixth North Carolina, Colonel Burgwyn commanding," says General Heth in his official report, "displayed conspicuous gallantry, of which I was an eye-witness, and the whole brigade fought as well and displayed as heroic courage as it was ever my fortune to witness on a battle-field." In this attack Colonel Leventhorpe was wounded and subsequently made prisoner, and Major Ross was killed. The total loss in this day's fight I do not find recorded, but in the battles of the first and third days (it was held in reserve the second day) the regiment lost 50 killed and 159 wounded, and in the fatal charge of the third day on Cemetery Hill many were taken prisoners.

In the third day's fight Heth's Division, commanded by Pettigrew, whose brigade was commanded by Colonel Marshall, of the Fifty-second, and Pickett's Division of Longstreet's Corps, a fresh division not previously engaged, bore the brunt of the attack on Cemetery Hill, and in a perfect hailstorm of musketry, grape and canister, which made it a slaughter pen, succeeded in penetrating the Federal line, only to be promptly repulsed, leaving a large number of wounded and unwounded prisoners in the enemies' hands. At the close of this battle the regiment found itself reduced to a mere handful. Major Jones, of the Twenty-sixth, was the only field officer left in the brigade, and most of the company officers were either killed, wounded or captured. The companies of the regiment generally came out with a single officer, and several of them had none at all. Company A crossed the Potomac with a hundred men, and came out of the charge on Cemetery Hill with a lieutenant and eight men. The losses in the other companies were equally severe. Owing to the number of officers captured in the Gettys

burg battles and not exchanged, many of the vacancies could not be filled, and this defective organization continued to mar the efficiency of the regiment to the end of the war. Colonel Leventhorpe did not return to the command, and for some time Lieutenant-Colonel Martin was the only field officer. He became, upon the exchange of Colonel Leventhorpe and his promotion to be Brigadier-General of the North Carolina Reserves, Colonel of the regiment, and Captain Bird, of Company C, its Major. On the death of Captain Armfield, at Johnson's Island, who was entitled by seniority to the Lieutenant-Colonelcy, Major Bird became Lieutenant-Colonel. The ranking Captains were prisoners, and so we could not have a Major, and when Colonel Bird was killed at Ream's Station, Colonel Martin, for the second time, became the only field officer in the regiment, and so continued to the end of the war. In a similar way most of the companies were crippled in the matter of officers. In spite of this great hindrance, the career of the regiment continued to be in every way worthy of its glorious past, a fact which is infinitely to the credit of the private soldiers and their non-commissioned officers.

FALLING WATERS.

Pettigrew's Brigade was the rear guard when the Potomac was re-crossed at Falling Waters on the 14th, and about 11 o'clock-the men mostly asleep from exhaustion-a small body of cavalry, a squadron of the Sixth Michigan, made its appearance and was mistaken for our own cavalry and allowed to approach with 175 yards unmolested. They madly charged our lines and were annihilated; but in the melee General Pettigrew was mortally wounded by a ball from the pistol of the major in command. Subsequently a heavy force of the enemy came up, and the crossing of the brigade had to be done fighting, and some loss was sustained, including a few captured, doubtless because they were too much exhausted to keep up. As the brigade crossed about 12 o'clock, the pontoon bridge was cut loose, and for the first time for many days the command drew a free breath. Next day the brigade marched to Bunker Hill in command of Major Jones, where the army encamped for several days to recuperate and where Lieutenant-Colonel Martin, who had been. sent back to the hospital after the brigade left Fredericksburg, rejoined his regiment and took command of the brigade, being in turn relieved by Colonel Singeltary, of the Forty-fourth, when that regiment rejoined the brigade.

The army gradually moved southward, and by the 4th of August we occupied the line of the Rapidan, our brigade being stationed successively at Orange Court House, Culpeper Court House and Rapidan Station. At this time, September 7th, General W. W. Kirkland was assigned to the command of the brigade, a command which he actually exercised for a very few months. During the period of his connection with us, about nine months, he was wounded twice and off duty in consequence; so that, for a large part of the time between the death of General Pettigrew and the assignment of General McRae, the brigade was commanded by Colonel Singeltary, the ranking officer.

BRISTOE STATION.

On the 10th of October General Lee again took the offensive, and started a movement towards the right flank of Meade's army; but Meade declined battle, and withdrew across the Rappahannock, whereupon a race towards Washington ensued, Lee endeavoring to get around Meade's flank, and intercept his retreat. Our corps, with Heth's Division in front, crossed the Rappahannock near Warrenton Springs on the 13th, and camped within a mile of Warrenton. Early next morning we resumed the pursuit, Anderson's Division in front, passing the enemy's camp-fires and debris of breakfast evidently left in haste. At Greenwich Heth took the lead, and followed close upon the rear of the Third Federal Corps, picking up a number of stragglers. We overtook them early in the afternoon at Bristoe Station, a part moving off towards Manassas, and a part resting in the plain. In his eagerness to prevent the Third Corps from escaping him, General Hill failed to discover that the Second was there also, strongly posted behind the railroad embankment and in rifle-pits behind on the hill. He directed Heth to attack, and Kirkland's and Cooke's Brigades were formed on the crest of the hills, parallel to Broad Run and the railroad. Cook was on the right of the road and Kirkland on the left, the Eleventh being the extreme left of the line. As soon as we advanced the presence of the Second Corps became evident, and from their shelter behind the railroad embankment they poured in a deadly fusilade, while the Federal batteries, well posted, swept the field. Cooke was more exposed than Kirkland, and suffered more, and his regiments were driven back. Kirkland pushed on, and the left of his line, the Eleventh and part of the regiment on his right, the Fifty-second, I think, succeeded in reaching the railroad, and, dis