artillery at every individual soldier who dared expose himself. When Colonel Lane, then in command of the brigade, General Branch having been killed at Sharpsburg, called to a litter to know who had been wounded and received the reply: "Lieutenant Long, of your regiment," he approached and expressed the hope that the lieutenant was not seriously hurt. The latter replied: "I have been shot in the back; the ball has gone through me and I am mortally wounded." Taking his colonel's hand, he put it inside of his shirt on the slug which was under the skin of his breast, and added: "I am a young man. I entered the army because I thought it right, and I have tried to discharge all my duties." Then that young hero, with his colonel's hand still on that fatal slug, asked in a most touching tone: Though I have been shot in the back, will you not bear record, when I am dead, that I was always a brave soldier under you?"

After this fight the regiment went into camp near Castleman's Ferry, or Snicker's Gap, in Clarke county, Va., where it remained for some time, doing picket duty in snow-storms and freezing weather. It subsequently camped near Winchester, where it remained until Jackson's Corps moved to Fredericksburg, November 22d. There it remained but a short time, and then took part in the great battle near that town, December 13, 1862. It held an advanced, open, unfortified position on the railroad, and fought with great coolness and gallantry, using all of its ammunition, including that from the boxes of its dead and badly wounded. All this, when the right flank of the brigade had been turned by a large force of the enemy going through that unfortunate opening and catching the intended support for the brigade with its arms stacked. After handsomely repulsing two lines of battle in its front, it was forced to retire before the third. Its loss was sixteen killed and forty-nine wounded.

In this fight, Private Martin, of Company C, coolly sat on the track and called to his comrades to watch the Yankee colors, then fired and down they went. This was done repeatedly. Captain Lovell, of Company A, the right company of the regiment, stood on the track all the time, waving his hat and cheering his men, and strange to say, neither he nor Martin was struck.

After the battle, when Captain Holland, of Company H, congratulated General Lane on his escape, he added: "And I am indebted to a biscuit for my own life." Running his hand into his haversack, he drew forth a camp buscuit about the size of a saucer, cooked without salt or "shortening" of any kind, and looking like horn

when sliced-something that an ostritch could not digest-and there was a Yankee bullet only half imbedded in that wonderful biscuit.

It was here that First Lieutenant W. W. Cloninger, of Company B, as he lay at the field hopital, called Abernathy to him and asked why he had been neglected so long. When told that he was mortally wounded, and the surgeons considered it their first duty to attend to those whose lives might be saved, he replied: "If I must die, I will let you all see that I can die like a man.” Folding his arms across his breast, that hero, far away from his loved ones, lay under that tree in Yerby's yard, and without a murmur quietly awaited death.

At 6:30 o'clock on the morning of the 12th, when the brigade was ordered to its position on the railroad, it passed the refugees streaming to its rear from that old historic town. As delicate women with infants in their arms and helpless little children clinging to their mother's dresses, all thinly clad, went by, some of those brave and chivalrous North Carolinians called out: "Look at that, fellows. If that will not make a Southern man fight, what will?"

The regiment spent that winter at "Moss Neck," below Fredericksburg. There it did picket duty on the Rappahannock, and helped to corduroy the roads when they became impassable, sometimes having to clear away the snow to lay the logs.

In the spring of 1863, when the enemy renewed his demonstrations at Fredericksburg, it occupied the second line of works near Hamilton's Crossing.

In the battle of Chancellorsville it accompanied Jackson in his flank movement, and on the night of the 2d of May it was on the left of Lane's brigade when formed for the night attack. After Jackson was wounded and the night attack abandoned, it was withdrawn from the left of the plank road, and placed on the extreme right of the brigade, with its own right resting on a country road leading from the plank road to a place called "Hazel Grove." About midnight, General Sickles, with two strong lines of battle, made his much lauded attack, and was repulsed by the Twenty-eighth and Eighteenth, and a part of the Thirty-third North Carolina regiments, chiefly by the Twenty-eighth. A number of prisoners, including field and company officers, were captured. Company E, of the Twenty-eighth, also captured the colors of the Third Maine Regi

ment.

Early next morning the Twenty-eighth, with the rest of the brigade, made a direct assault on the enemy's works and carried them, but could not hold them, as the brigade's support had broken in its

rear, and it was attacked by fresh troops before General Ramseur could come to its assistance. It subsequently joined in the charge which drove the enemy from "Fairview" and the Chancellorsville House," where it was much amused at that great cavalier, General Stuart, singing, "Old Joe Hooker, Get Out the Wilderness," while the battle was raging. Its loss was twelve officers, and seventy-seven

men.

Later, having replenished itself with ammunition, it went to the support of General Colquitt, on the extreme left. There it witnessed the most harrowing scene of the war. The woods, already filled with sulphurous smoke, had been set on fire by the enemy's shells. The dropped rifles of the dead and wounded and the enemy's shells with imperfect fuses. exploded in every direction as the flames swept over them; the dead of both armies were being burnt to a crisp, and the helpless Federal wounded begged to be taken out of the line of the rapidly approaching and devouring fire. The brigade itself was forced to halt to let the flames sweep over the ground where it was ordered to form, and when it did form the ground was uncomfortably hot. That night it literally slept in ashes under those charred scrub oaks, and when it was ordered back next day, it afforded great amusement to its more fortunate comrades, for never was there seen in any army a dirtier and blacker set of brave men from the general down. As General Lane lay in the ashes that night a pretty little Yankee dog, branded "Co. K," persisted in making friends with him. In all the subsequent movements of the troops in Jackson's Corps that little dog kept his eye on the "Little General" and followed him back to camp where he became a great pet at brigade headquarters. He proved to be a splendid little fighter.

After this battle the regiment returned to "Camp Greggi at "Moss Neck" below Fredericksburg, where it remained until the 5th of June, 1863.

Crossing the Potomac at Shepherdstown on the 25th of June, it reached Gettysburg the 1st of July. It behaved as it had always done in the first day's fight at that place, when Lane's Brigade was ordered from the centre of A. P. Hill's line to "the post of honor" on the right to protect that flank of the army from the enemy's cavalry while it fought his infantry in front.

On the 2d day of July it was under a heavy artillery fire several times during the day, and its skirmishers displayed great gallantry. It took a very conspicuous part in the so-called Pickett's charge of the 3d of July. The brigade occupied the left of the imperfect

second line, and when Davis' Brigade was repulsed at Brockenbrough's, did not get beyond the position occupied by General Thomas, it moved handsomely forward with the rest of "Lane's brave fellows" who took the position of those two brigades on the extreme left of the first line. Though a column of infantry was thrown against its left flank and the whole line was exposed to a raking artillery fire from the right, it advanced in magnificent order, reserving its fire in obedience to orders, was the last command to leave the field, and it did so under orders. Its loss was twelve killed and ninety-two wounded.

On the 12th it formed line of battle near Hagerstown, Maryland, threw up breast-works and skirmished with the enemy until the night of the 13th. The retreat from Hagerstown through mud and rain was worse than that from Gettysburg, which was awful." Some fell by the wayside from exhaustion, and the whole command was fast asleep as soon as halted for a rest about a mile from the pontoon bridge at " 'Falling Waters." On the morning of the 14th, Lane's brigade alone covered the crossing at "Falling Waters," and Captain Crowell, of the Twenty-eighth, commanded its skirmishers. After all the other troops were safely over the Potomac, the whole brigade retired in splendid order and the enemy opened with its artillery just as the bridge swung loose from the Virginia shore.

On returning from Pennsylvania the regiment camped for a short time at Culpeper Courthouse, and was then ordered to Orange Courthouse, where it did picket duty on the Rapidan at Morton's ford. It was next ordered to Liberty Mills as a support to the cavalry which was engaged at Jack's Shops. There it spent most of the winter doing picket duty on the Rapidan river and the Stanardsville road. Once during that winter it had a terrible march through sleet and snow to Madison Courthouse, trying to intercept some of the Federal cavalry raiders.

At Bristow Station, October 14th, this regiment was under fire but not actively engaged. There it helped to tear up the railroad, something at which it had become expert. As early as the middle of October, 1862, General Jackson complimented the brigade for the thorough manner in which it destroyed the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad at North Mountain Depot, where, beyond the cavalry pickets, it tore up about ten miles of the track; and the men amused themselves when the rails on the burning ties were red-hot by tieing "iron cravats" around the adjacent trees. The depot was not burned at that time because the wind would have endangered private property.

It remained in camp at Brandy Station until the enemy captured a large portion of the two brigades under General Early beyond the Rappahannock, on the 7th of November. When the corps formed line of battle near Culpeper Courthouse on the 8th of November, the regiment was with the brigade when it was ordered back on the Warrenton road, where it repulsed a cavalry charge with slight loss. After that it returned to its old and comfortable quarters at Liberty Mills.

When General Lee confronted Meade at Mine Run, November 27, 1863, the weather was intensely cold and the sufferings of the men were great. Not being allowed to have fires on the skirmish line, the men were relieved every half hour. The 28th was a part of the troops withdrawn from the trenches at 3 A. M. on the 2d of December and moved to the right to make an attack, but at daylight it was found that Meade had withdrawn.

Late in the afternoon of the 5th of May, 1864, the 28th went gallantly to the support of the hard-pressed troops in the Wilderness when Colonel Venable, of General Lee's staff, said to Colonel Palmer, of General A. P. Hill's: "Thank God! I will go back and tell General Lee that Lane has just gone in and will hold his ground until other troops arrive to-night." The brigade did more than hold its own; it drove the enemy some distance. The troops did not arrive that night as was expected, and next morning those brave men were compelled to retire before the overwhelming force of the enemy. The regiment lost four officers and eighty-four men.

The 28th also did its part nobly on the morning of the 12th of May, at Spotsylvania Courthouse, when Johnson's front was broken, and "Lane's North Carolina veterans turned the tide of Federal victory as it came surging to the right." It was also with the brigade the afternoon of the same day, when, under General Lee's orders and in his presence, it crossed the works in front of Spotsylvania Courthouse, and in that brilliant flank movement handled Burnside's Corps so roughly and relieved Johnson's front. Its loss in these two engagements was five officers and 121 men.

On the afternoon of the 21st it moved to the right of the Courthouse, and made a reconnoissance, in which Lieutenant E. S. Edwards was killed and two men wounded.

At Jericho Ford, on the 23d of May, the 28th advanced as far as any of the troops engaged, held its ground until relieved that night, and removed all its dead and wounded. Its loss was two officers and twenty-eight men.