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192 Series I Volume XVIII- Serial 26 - Suffolk

Page 192 NORTH CAROLINA AND S. E. VIRGINIA. Chapter XXX.

wounded by a shell from the enemy, not dangerously. The remaining batteries lost none killed and none wounded. From Captain Graham's battery there is 1 missing.

I am, captain, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOHN C. HASKELL,

Major, Commanding Artillery.

Captain [N. C.] HUGHES,

Assistant Adjutant-General.


Numbers 9. Report of Brigadier General John J. Pettigrew, C. S. Army.


HEADQUARTERS PETTIGREW'S BRIGADE,
Greenville, N. C., March 17, 1863.

GENERAL: The expedition intrusted to me having failed in accomplishing the hoped-for result, I submit the following statement of the causes:

I left Goldsborough on the 9th instant (Monday) with the portion of my brigade there stationed and arrived at Kinston on Tuesday afternoon. That night I received your instructions to take the two rifled guns of General Daniel, the four 20-pounder Parrotts of the reserve artillery, and the Whitworth gun in case it arrived, and to proceed to Barrington's Ferry; to get my guns in position without observation if possible; to open a concentrated fire upon the enemy's work, which it was thought would so demoralize the enemy as to induce am almost bloodless surrender. I was then to open on the Yankee shipping and barracks. It was important that the bombardment should begin on Thursday. The distance was 57 miles, and the heavy rain of Tuesday and Wednesday had swollen the swamps and put the roads in very bad condition. Many of the bridges broke down under the 20-pounders, all causing great delay, but I wrote you that I hoped to carry the work by moonlight on Friday morning with the bayonet, which I preferred, as the enemy in New Berne then would not know the result and I might thus be enabled to intrench the guns before the gunboats attacked. The infantry reached the camp, 8 miles from Barrington's, at dark, and I intended to start at midnight for the ferry, but a swamp some 3 miles in rear of the halt changed under the train into a quicksand. The men vainly worked all night in the freezing water to repair it. It was necessary to bridge the whole swamp in a new place, which was done under the superintendence of Lieutenant Koerner, of the Topographical Engineers, who offered his services and greatly aided me. About 3 p.m. Friday the bridge was finished. The infantry arrived at the ferry early in the night, but the 20-pounders having mired, the artillery was detained until late in the morning.

In a reconnaissance made by me and Major Haskell and my aides during the afternoon, Pettiford's Ferry had appeared a suitable point for attacking the gunboats and perhaps for enfilading the work. A rifled gun, under Lieutenant Rives, was placed there before daylight. The Twenty-sixth Regiment (Colonel [H. K.] Burgwyn), assisted by Captain Whitford's Rangers, were to capture or drive in the enemy's pickets. The Twenty-sixth supported by the Forty-fourth Regiment, if necessary, were to carry the work. I hoped then to intrench the 20-pounders and drive away the gunboats and the enemy from his intrenchments in front


Page 192 NORTH CAROLINA AND S. E. VIRGINIA. Chapter XXX.