War-Time Reminiscences

After being paroled at Fort Macon on April 26th, 1862, I remained at Morehead City until July 9th. The reason for it was that my wife was boarding at Morehead when New Bern was taken, and could not get back to Goldsboro. She witnessed the bombardment, sitting with a large spy glass on the upper porch of the building in which W. L. Arendell now keeps boarding house.

When the remainder of my company were put aboard the steamer for Fort Caswell. I was promised by General Parke, that in a day or two he would give us a pass through his lines via New Bern. When I went for the pass he refused it, saying he had no recollection of promising it. I went to Beaufort once a week for several weeks, begging him for it but he invariably refused. I think his idea was that by constantly refusing I would become discouraged and he could prevail on me to take the oath of allegiance, several of the paroled men having already done so.

In the meantime Edward Stanley, of California, but who several years before had represented the Beaufort district in congress, had been appointed Military Governor of North Carolina, with headquarters at New Bern. Despairing of getting a pass from General Parke, I wrote to Governor Stanley, laying my case before him; he sent the pass, and I came out via Swansboro. I expected when I reached there to be able to get conveyance either to Kinston or Warsaw, but upon reaching there I found I would have to wait five days, and while it seemed good to be inside the Confederate lines again, I did not want to spend five days in Swansboro. So I hired a boatman to take us to Sneed's Ferry via Brown's Sound. This was the route that Col. Pool said two trips over it would give one the blind staggers on account of being so crooked. We left Swansboro on Thursday morning at sunrise. The boatman said he would put us to Sneed's Ferry that night, whereas we had to go ashore to a farm house and spend the night, reaching the Ferry at one o'clock on Friday. We were then forty miles from Wilmington and with no means of reaching there except an ordinary farm wagon, drawn by two mules. We left there at two o'clock, spending the night on the way, and reached Wilmington at two o'clock on Saturday, just one hour after the train had left for Goldsboro. We left Wilmington at three o'clock Sunday morning, arriving at Goldsboro at seven, just ninety-six hours coming from Morehead. Can make the trip now in two and a half hours.

The last week in August our company was exchanged, and on the thirty-first we entered service again, going to Wilmington. We camped at Green's mill, one mile out from the city. About the middle of September yellow fever broke out in the city, and soon became epidemic, and we moved camp to Wrightsville sound. The day we broke camp I went into the city three times on business and on the three trips I met 8 yellow fever corpses being carried to the cemetery. I got the impression on my mind that day that for a place no larger than Wilmington, the death rate was pretty large and I have never had much desire to live there.

I will have to tell one trick I worked on Captain Andrews. After being at Wrightsville a few weeks, the men got out of tobacco, and nay one who was ever in the army knows that when tobacco gives out there is something doing among the men. They came to me insisting that I should get some. (I had been keeping it for sale). I went to Capt. Andrews and explained the situation, and asked him to let me take his horse and go to Wilmington, eight miles after some. He told me I was crazy to ask such a thing with the fever like it was. Finding he would not grant the request, I then asked him to let me go to our old camp at Green's Mill and get Mr. Bridgers, an old man who lived hard by, to go into town and get for me. The captain finally agreed to this, so I went to Mr. Bridgers, but he had gone into town. I waited until about five o'clock and he did not return. I mounted the horse, rode to the edge of town, tied him and went up to Market street, bought a fifty pound box of tobacco, took it on my shoulder, went back, mounted my horse and put off for camp. I knew the Captain would ask me after Bridgers' health and I concluded I better see him before I went back, so I rode by his house and told him what I had done and made things straight with him, and carried the tobacco to the men. In a few weeks it was out again and I asked the Captain to let me go after more tobacco. He says "Sergeant, if you will promise to do just as you did before you can go." I promised and it is needless to say I carried out my promise to the letter. I never did let the Captain know that I had been in the fever stricken city, for he would have given me severe punishment if he had known it.

I was a wonder I did not get the fever. The day we broke camp to go to Wrightsville we had two men, Jessie and William Robinson (brothers) sick in camp with high fever that we supposed was billious. I helped them into an ambulance and drove them to the hospital in Wilmington. It turned out that both these men had yellow fever. In one of the trips into Wilmington that day I saw the city carts hauling dirt from the gas works, putting a cart load at each street corner as disinfectants. I took a lot of that dirt and put in my pockets and rubbed a lot of it in my hair. I had it on me so strong that when I got to camp the men complained of me, said I smelt like the gas works. Whether this helped me to escape the fever I cannot say, I only know I did not have it and did not feel but little fear of the disease.

Wayne County, NCGenWeb  Published 10 October 1996  Diana Holland Faust
This page added 12 October 2000    Last updated 16 February 2007