We then made a forced march to New Bern, N. C., and after a fierce combat, drove the enemy into his fortifications. Then we were hurriedly forwarded to Drewry's Bluff, where the regiment again met the veteran foe in another death struggle. The Federals were badly defeated and sent back to the protection of their gun boats on the James River. In this battle the regiment held it's position under very trying circumstances, being flanked both right and left.
COLD HARBOR
3 July, 1864, engaged in the great battle of Cold Harbor, where Grant was repeatedly repulsed with a slaughter never equaled. It is said on this occasion he lost 10,000 men. His men sullenly refused to renew the charge. At this time the writer was in command of the division sharpshooters who were a considerable distance in front of our works, the enemy making a sharp attack on the skirmish line on our right. They began to fall back when General Ramseur rode up to me and said: "Don't fall back, hold your position at all hazards." He immediately wheeled his horse and left. Just then a shell burst directly in front of my horse over a rifle pit, killing five men, among them Lieutenant B. Y. Mebane, of the Sixth North Carolina Regiment. No braver or truer man ever went down in battle. General Ramseur then reappeared, ordering me to fall back at once. Turning to start off his horse tripped and fell, throwing his brave rider who rolled over and over in the dust. Horse and man seemed to rise together, and went away amidst a storm of shot and bursting shell. 18 July, after a forced and very tedious march, we met Hunter at Lynchburg, who had made his murderous and marauding expedition up the valley, where many a fair mansion fell before the incendiary fire-brand. After a severe skirmish, he fled in the direction of Kanawha, W. Va. The regiment lost a few men in this fight.
A STREAM REDDENED WITH BLOOD
Then began the memorable march down the valley to Washington City, 9 July we engaged the enemy in the battle of Monocacy, Md., near a railroad bridge. The enemy being badly defeated, fled to his fortifications around Washington. General Gordon, in his report of this battle, said: "I desire in this connection, to state a fact of which I was an eye witness, and which, for it's rare occurrence,and the evidence it affords of the sanguinary character of this struggle, I consider worthy of official mention. One portion of the enemy's second line extended along a branch, from which he was driven, leaving many dead and wounded in the water and upon it's banks. So profuse was the flow of blood from the killed and wounded, that it reddened the stream for more than one hunderd yards below."