����White Hall was at that time, a small hamlet on the Neuse river which was spanned by a substantial country bridge. The river, though much narrower at White Hall, is deep and navigable. On the northern side the river has a gentle slope to the stream, which, in 1862, was bordered by a swamp in which there was a somewhat dense growth of tall timber. A quantity of this timber had been felled and cut into logs, which lay around the bank of the river, and through the swamp, affording admirable protection for riflemen, of which good use was made on the following day. A gun boat was in course of building, and stood, propped on rollers, in the upper end of the swamp, and near the river not far from the bridge. A bridge road ran through and about equally divided the swamp. There was perhaps a depth of rather less than a hundred yards of timbered swamp land on the left side of the bridge road, and between it and the river. The little hamlet of White Hall, built on the southern bank of the Neuse, consisted of two or three stores and warehouses and a straggling street with some neat dwellings and enclosures. The warehouses were on the bluff which is lofty on the southern side; and some eminences further from the river, and commanding the much lower level of the northern shore, gave great advantage to the former as a military position. The Confederate troops reached the neighborhood of the bridge about sunset and stacked arms whilst the mounted officers rode over the bridge to the village. Some scouts were sent out immediately on the Kinston road. They returned at sunset reporting the enemy advancing, and his scouts quite near. The bluffs were crowded with piles of crude rosin, and barrels of spirits of turpentine. By General Robertson's orders these combustibles were arranged on the bridge and a party detailed to fire them when the order should be given. As subsequent reports convinced General Robertson that the whole force of the enemy was advancing on him, he considered that it would be impossible, with his small force to prevent their crossing should the bridge remain undestroyed. It was therefore fired after nightfall, as the enemy came up and the burning fabric, thouroghly saturated with turpentine, fell into the Neuse and floated down its waters a blazing wreck. This work was scarcely accomplished when the enemy entered and occupied the village. A strong picket from the Eleventh North Carolina was posted in the swamp fronting White Hall. The Confederate troops bivouacked within a short distance. The enemy was active during the night, and could be heard throwing up works,and preparing for operations. Some sharp picket firing occurred during the intervals, and an occasional shell disturbed the sleeping Cofederates. About midnight the Federals burned the warehouses and some other buildings at White Hall. With what object this was done was uncertain, but, whether in order to avail themselves of the temporary light of this conflagration in directing their missiles of death, or whether from a wanton spirit of evil, the act proved highly disastrous to its perpetrators in the ensuing engagements, as it destroyed what would have been a safe shelter for skirmishers, and exposed the infantry, without cover on a high elevation, to the balls of the Confederate soldiers. In the morning Colonel Leventhorpe relieved his two companies which had been engaged (Captains Bird and Small), with two other companies of the Eleventh North Carolina, which were placed under the command of Captain M.D. Armfield a noble old man, and soldier of the purest type, who afterwards, as a Gettysburg prisoner, and in confinement at Johnson's Island, gave his life for the cause which he espoused.

����The enemy's preparations being complete his guns began to open quite briskly upon the pickets in the swamp. General Robertson formed his troops in line, and within easy support of the pickets should there be any intention exhibited, on the part of the emeny, to cross the river on pontoons. Some casualties occurred amongst the dismounted cavalry, and two men of Captain Bryce's company, Colonel Ferebee's Regiment, were killed by a shell. General Robertson ordered Jordan's Regiment into the swamp to relieve Leventhorpe's picket companies. This intention, however, was changed. Colonel Jordan was counter-ordered, and Colonel Leventhorpe was instructed to join his two picket companies, with his eight remaining companies, and to use his judgement as to the best mode of engaging the enemy, but, in any event, to resist the crossing of the Neuse river to the last extremity. The Eleventh Regiment moved at the double-quick, filed to the right through the timber on the river bank. It was halted, and fronted towards White Hall in rather extended order, to meet the large front shown by tbe enemy, as well as to lessen, by the extension of the files, the danger of loss by artillery. In the meantime, although there was no vantage ground for artillery in the Confederate position, General Robertson placed two small guns, his sole ordinance, and directed Lieutenent Nelson McClees, who comanded, to engage the enemy's batteries. Some seven hundred men, therefore, of the Eleventh Regiment and two small howitzres of this North Carolina battery (Company b, Third North Carolina Battalion), formed the only fighting force opposed to thirty pieces in position, and Foster's whole command. The other Confederate troops, which were present, are nevertheless entitled to their full share of the credit of this engagement, as they were placed under circumstances of peril highly trying to their steadfastness, without stimulus of action which renders most men insensible to danger. A lull in the firing enabled the officers and men of the Eleventh to hear the order of their commanding officer, which was to keep their order, but avail themselves of such shelter as the ground afforded, and to commence independent firing. The answer came in that of a wild cheer, which many have heard and know as the Southern soldier's expression of ador and determination. The enemy's guns were arranged on the heights at and around White Hall in a kind of semi-line so as, without enfiladig the swamp, to expose those who held it to direct and oblique fire. The infantry which engaged the Eleventh Regiment was drawn up in a line on the high ground fronting the swamp. The thirty guns opened at once, and fired as fast as they could be loaded and fired, for four hours without intermission. The Federal infantry fired by volleys and at the word of command. They were answered by the file-firing of the Confederate Regiment and by the section of battery which might be heard occasionally through the din of battle in its unparalleled struggle against the odds. The position of the enemy's infantry, as well as that of his batteries, although commanding that of the Confederates, had this disadvantage that it was necessary to depress aim. In fact the Southern riflemen were too near the enemy, and his artillery and infantry overshot the mark. Had the thirty guns been more depressed, or had the Southern infantry been a hundred yards or even fifty yards further to the rear, it really seems impossible that any troops could have endured such fire. The enemy's infantry fought well for four hours under a destructive fire. Their line, however, was frequently broken, and withdrew in disorder, as their files were thinned by the Confederate rifles, but others suppled their place. At length the Federal commander conceded a repulse, withdrew his guns, and then his infantry, and was seen moving in the distance, with a long ambulance train containing the wounded. Leventhorpe's Regiment, the men's cartridges all spent, was relieved by Jordan's, which engaged and drove away the skirmishers which General Foster had thrown out to cover his retreat.

����Such, on 16 December, 1862, was the egagement at White Hall between the Confederate and Federal forces.

����An examination of the field the next day resulted in the discovery of one hundred and twenty-six of the Federal dead, and nineteen horses left on the field. It is not probable that this was the sum of the killed, but only comprehended those whom it was inexpedient to remove under a galling fire.

����The exact object of General Foster in this engagement is doubtful. It seems nevertheless, as a pontoon train accompanied him that it was his design to cross the Neuse at White Hall, and advance from that point on to Goldsboro. It is hardly to be supposed that, in order to overcome an unlooked for resistance only, he should have sacraficed a day's time, and subjected himself to a loss of probably a thousand men in killed and wounded, with a vast expenditure of ammunition.

����The writer deeply regrets that General Robertson's report of this engagement, which resulted so honorably to North Carolina soldiers, fighting on their native soil, as well as the general orders of Major-General G.W. Smith and Major-General S.G. French, which were in his posession until lately, have been destroyed by fire. The section of artillery gave excellent aid in this fight. One of the two small guns was dsmounted early in the fight, and the gunners killed; but despite this discouragement the remaining howitzer was fought to the last against thirty opposing guns of large calibre, and made havoc amongst the enemy, particularly his horses, which were found lying thick around these batteries which received the special attention of this gallant subaltern.

����The Confederate loss was slight in the engagement at White Hall ( 10 killed and 42 wounded ), including a few men killed and wounded in the forces present, but not actually engaged. Of those engaged the writer believes that two men were killed in the command of Lieutenant of artillery when his gun was dismounted, and that the casualties in the Eleventh North Carolina were seven men killed and forty wounded. The total number of Confederates present was fifteen hundred.