Today in History:

164 Series I Volume XLVII-I Serial 98 - Columbia Part I

Page 164 OPERATIONS IN N. C., S. C., S. GA., AND E. FLA. Chapter LIX.

January 25. -We arrived there at night and since have been quartered at the Soldiers' Rest.

February 1. -Brigade in camp at Alexandria, Va.

February 4. -Embarked on steam-ship Atlantic for Fort Fisher, N. C.

February 8. -Arrived there; participated in the engagement before Wilmington, resulting in the capture of that place.

February 23. -Moved into the city and there remained during the month.

March 1. -Brigade lying in camp at Wilmington, N. C.

March 6. -Broke camp, moving in the direction of Kinston.

March 14. -Arrived within three miles of Kinston; brigade went into camp, where it remained until the 20th.

March 20. -Broke camp, moving to Goldsborough.

March 21. -Arrived there.

March 23. -Took a position; brigade building works and remaining in same position during the month.

March 31. -Brigade made a reconnaissance, going out six miles; brisk skirmishing; no casualties in brigade.

April 1. -Lying in camp at Goldsborough, N. C.

April 2. -The Seventeenth Massachusetts Volunteers assigned to Third Brigade, per Special Orders, Numbers 1, headquarters Twenty-third Army Corps.

April 10. -Broke camp, moving in the direction of Raleigh.

April 14. -Arriving there, went into camp.

April 20. -Companies A, B, C, and D, Sixty-third Indiana Volunteers, ordered to Indianapolis, Ind., to be mustered out of service, per Special Field Orders, Numbers 36, headquarters Department of North Carolina.

April 25. -Lieutenant Henry G. Hyde, Seventeenth Massachusetts Volunteer, detailed as acting provost-marshal, per Special Orders, Numbers 17, headquarters Third Brigade.

Remained in camp at Raleigh, N. C., the remainder of the month.

District of Wilmington.

March 1. -Major-General Schofield constituted the District of Wilmington to comprise all the territory under military control in rear of the army operating from Cape Fear River as a base. Brigadier General J. R. Hawley, U. S. Volunteers, was assigned to the command and made responsible for the protection of the depot at Wilmington, Cape Fear Harbor, and the line of railroad in rear of the army, and also appointed provost-marshal-general for the district.

The Second Brigade, First Division, Twenty-fourth Corps (formerly and now again Second Brigade, First Division, Tenth Corps), Bvt. Brigadier General Joseph C. Abbott (colonel Seventh New Hampshire) commanding, was ordered to report to Brigadier-General Hawley for duty in the district.

On the 1st of the month Major-General Schofield, with a portion of the Twenty-third Corps, and Major-General Terry, with the Provisional Corps (afterward reorganized as Tenth Corps), were in the district, but soon moved northward to combine with General Sherman at Goldsborough.

About 8,600 Union prisoners were released on parole at Northeast Bridge, ten miles above Wilmington, and cared for at Wilmington, and thence transported North; several thousand of them were put into hos-


Page 164 OPERATIONS IN N. C., S. C., S. GA., AND E. FLA. Chapter LIX.