LIEUT. WOOD'S STRATEGY. 143 aground, they blew up the "Ellis," and started homeward in small boats. They reached Beaufort the 28th, with three schooners captured in Bogue Sound, one of which was loaded with cotton and naval stores. The six companies remaining at Plymouth under Major Bartholomew were several times called to arms by attacks on the picket line. Learning the whereabouts of a portion of Walker's cavalry, Lieut Pliny Wood of Company F, received permission of Major Bartholomew to attempt its capture. With a detachment of three non-commissioned officers and twenty privates of the various companies, and a negro guide, he left Plymouth at night for "up country." In spite of darkness, rain and snags, they toiled up the river through branches and creeks till three o'clock the morning of the 21st, a distance of twenty-five miles. After landing and finding the coast clear, they marched four and a half miles through woods and swamps to the main road to Williamston, a mile above, and in the rear of Shiloah Church where the cavalry were quartered. Finding the enemy quiet, Lieut. Wood divided his force into three squads; each under command of a non-commissioned officer, with explicit instructions. It was now gray dawn, and, advancing by the doublequick, they divided so as to command the three doors, and when within a few rods (though undiscernible from the church), Lieut. Wood shouted, "First Division, Halt! Front! Ready!" which was responded to by the second and third divisions on different sides of the church, "Halt! Front! Ready!" The confused rebels, before they had time to collect their senses, found the lieutenant at the door, demanding immediate and unconditional surrender. The rebel sergeant, in obedience to the demand, marched out with sixteen men, and while some of our boys secured their arms and equipments, others seized their horses picketed near by. At length the rebel sergeant asked, "Where in h―l are you uns men?" and when told to "see them," angrily exclaimed, "Is that all? If we had known that, we would have given you uns a merry fight, by —! You uns did that right pert, but you aint got the pickets yet!" The countersign was extorted from a prisoner, and Sergt. with Pri vates Hooper of A, and Madison of F, were detailed to relieve the pickets. This duty was successfully accomplished with four additional prisoners, and their horses. The party arrived at Plymouth about noon, with twenty prisoners, their arms and equipments, twenty-five horses, twelve mules, and forty contrabands; all without the firing of a gun. The regiment captured thirty-five other prisoners while upon scouts in the vicinity of Plymouth. December 2d, orders were received for the Twenty-Seventh Mass. Regt. to return to New Berne, where we arrived the 3d, having been away thirty-five days without overcoats, blankets or change of clothing. We had been absent from Plymouth just a week, when the garrison at that place was surprised at early morning, and driven to the cover of the gunboats. The enemy were in possession of the town nearly an hour, during which time they burned the larger part of the place, and, after having robbed her of several thousand dollars, murdered Mrs. John Phelps, an esteemed and defenceless Union woman. KINSTON, WHITEHALL AND GOLDSBORO. THE assigning of Gen'l Burnside to the command of the Army of the Potomac, upon the relief of Gen'l McClellan in November, awoke the Department of North Carolina to eager expectation, as the close relationship between the departments, and the value of our position as a menace to the enemy, led us to believe that any important movement by Gen'l Burnside would involve essential co-operation by us. In this we were correct; for the plan of assault upon Fredericksburg, December 13th, included a simultaneous attack by Gen'l Peck, upon Weldon, N. C., and also of Gen'l Foster upon Goldsboro; both being important positions on the enemy's seaboard line of communication, and favorable diversions for the more important movement on the Rappahannock. To guard against unfavorable contingencies, Wessel's Brigade at Suffolk, Va., was ordered to rendezvous upon the Chowan, and transportation was furnished them to New Berne, where they arrived December 9th. This brigade consisted of the Eighty-Fifth, Ninety-Second and Ninety-Sixth New York Regiments, Eighty-Fifth, One Hundred and First, and One Hundred and Third Pennsylvania Regiments, with an aggregate strength of twenty-one hundred men; and increased that of the department to about sixteen thousand infantry, beside cavalry and artillery. Detachments of the Third, Forty-Fifth and Forty-Sixth Massachusetts Regiments were despatched to the various posts and picket stations to relieve the veteran troops, and the Eighth Massachusetts placed in charge of New Berne and its fortifications; leaving an offensive force of twelve thousand men and forty-six pieces of artillery for the duty assigned. The army as now constituted, consisted of - Lee's Brigade. Third, Fifth, Twenty-Fifth, Twenty-Seventh and Forty-Sixth Mass. Regiments. Stevenson's Brigade. -Eighth, Twenty-Fourth, Forty-Fourth Mass., Fifth R. I., and Tenth Conn. Regiments. Amory's Brigade. Seventeenth, Twenty-Third, Forty-Third, Forty-Fifth and Fifty-First Mass. Regiments. Wessell's Brigade. Eighty-Fifth, Ninety-Second, Ninety-Sixth N. Y., Eighty-Fifth, One Hundred and First, One Hundred and Third Penn. Regiments. - Artillery Brigade, Maj. Kennedy. First R. I. Battery, F, Capt. James Belger, four ten-pound Parrotts, and two howitzers. Battery B, Capt. Morrison, six twelve-pound Napoleons; Battery E, Lieut. G. E. Ashby, two thirty-two-pound howitzers, two twenty-pound Parrotts; Battery F, Capt. Jenny, six ten-pound Wiards, rifled; Battery H, Capt. Riggs, six twelve-pound Napoleons; Battery K, Capt. Angel, six three-inch Rodmans, iron; and Battery I, Lieut. G. W. Thomas, four twenty-four-pound Parrotts; all of the Third N. Y. Artillery. One section Twenty-Third N. Y. Battery, Capt. Jay E. Lee, two twenty-four-pound Parrotts. One section Twenty-Fourth N. Y. Battery, Capt. Alfred Ransom, two twelve-pound Wiards, rifled. Battery C, First U. S. Artillery, four twenty-pound Parrotts. The Ninth New Jersey and Third New York Cavalry regiments were an independent column to act as the advance. Three hundred negroes from the contraband camp at New Berne, joined the expedition as pioneers under the direction of Henry W. Wilson, a master carpenter. At early morn, December 11th, in the midst of a fog so dense as to obscure objects ten feet distant, Gen'l Wessell's Brigade advanced by the "Trent road," followed in order SKIRMISHING BY THE WAY. 147 by Stevenson's, Amory's, and Lee's Brigades. At a distance of fourteen miles, the roads were found so obstructed by felled trees that the force bivouacked for the night, while the pioneers cleared the obstructions. The next morning, with the Ninth New Jersey as skirmishers, the column advanced to Vine Swamp Road, where Capt. Hall, with three companies of cavalry, was ordered to advance up the direct road to Kinston; while the main body went up the Vine "Swamp Road," flanking the enemy's works and obstructions. Capt. Hall, after a sharp skirmish, and the loss of two killed, drove the enemy from their position, capturing eighteen prisoners. The main column was delayed at "Beaver Creek," to replace the bridge, which, when completed, the Fifty-First Mass. and the Twenty-Third N. Y. Battery were left to protect, as well as to hold the cross-road, and support Capt. Hall if necessary. The Twenty-Seventh Mass. bivouacked late at night in a cornfield eleven miles from Kinston, and, with the main body, soon made fuel of every length of fence in the surrounding fields. By some oversight, Quartermaster Tyler failed to provide the usual rations of meat, and hard-tack with tea proved hardly sufficient to satisfy the cravings of soldiers in active service. It goes for saying it, every deficiency was fully made up by our foragers. On the morning of the 13th we again left the main road to the right, leaving the Forty-Sixth Mass., with one section of the Twenty-Fourth N. Y. Battery, to hold the position, and make a feint upon the direct road. About nine o'clock, Capt Cole's company of cavalry came upon the enemy at Southwest Creek, protected by earthworks and four guns. Finding it impossible to reach their position, the bridge being partly destroyed, Morrison's Battery was brought into position under cover of which the Ninth New Jersey crossed the creek and ravine above, and the Eighty-Fifth Penn., about half a mile below the bridge, supported by the TwentyThird Mass., when the Ninth charged the enemy's position, |