SOLDIERING
—IN—
NORTH CAROLINA;
—BEING—
THE EXPERIENCES OF A 'TYPO' IN THE PINES, SWAMPS, FIELDS,
SANDY ROADS, TOWNS, CITIES, AND AMONG THE FLEAS,
WOOD-TICKS, 'GRAY-BACKS,' MOSQUITOES, BLUE-TAIL
FLIES, MOCCASIN SNAKES, LIZARDS, SCORPIONS,
REBELS, AND OTHER REPTILES, PESTS AND
VERMIN OF THE 'OLD NORTH STATE.'
EMBRACING AN ACCOUNT OF THE THREE-YEARS AND NINE-MONTHS
MASSACHUSETTS REGIMENTS IN THE DEPARTMENT,
THE FREEDMEN ETC., ETC., ETC.
BY "ONE OF THE SEVENTEENTH,"
Thomas Kirwan
ILLUSTRATED.
BOSTON:
PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY THOMAS KIRWAN.
1864.
Entered According to Act of Congress, in the year 1864, by
THOMAS KIRWAN,
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts.
PREFACE.
The contents of the following pages are presented to thepublic as matters of fact. They embody some of the writer'sexperiences while serving his country in the "land of cotton."It is true his experiences are tame and unromantic when comparedwith those of some of the men of the Potomac or theCumberland; but they are the best he can offer, and need noapology, as the style does, which is rough and unpolished.
Besides giving an account of the 17th Mass. Reg't, and itsparticipation in the engagements at Kinston, Whitehall, andGoldsboro, something is said of the other old regiments in thedepartment, and the nine months' men,—also, an account ofthe contrabands, their habits and disposition—anecdotes, &c.
DEDICATION.
To the officers and men of the Seventeenth Massachusetts
Regiment, who, through no fault of theirs, have only
lacked the opportunities to render their organization
as famous as that of any regiment from
the old Bay State: whose services have
been mostly of that passive character
—upon the outpost picket, and
performing arduous duty in
the midst of a malarial
country—that suffers
and endures much
without exciting
comment or adding
to the laurels, of which
every true soldier is so proud:
THIS HUMBLE WORK IS DEDICATED,
By one who, with them, has braved the "pestilence that walketh
abroad at noonday," the fatigues of the march,
and the dangers of the battle.
PART 1.
ENLISTMENT—DEPARTURE—THE VOYAGE—HATTERAS—UPTHE NEUSE—NEWBERN—AN ACCOUNT OF THE 17TH—ONPICKET—DOING PROVOST DUTY IN NEWBERN, ETC.
It has been said that man is essentially a "fighting animal,"—thatin this "world's broad field of battle" his life, from thecradle to the grave, is one continued struggle against want andits attendant circumstances,—and that he is the greatest who,be his position what it may, acts well his part. If this be true—andI think it is—then the man who goes to the war onlyexchanges one mode of strife for another—"the whips andscorns of time," for interminable drilling, "hard tack and salthorse,"—"the oppressor's wrong," for the hardships of the marchand the dangers of the battle,—"the proud man's contumely,