Greensborough Patriot (NC)

January 8, 1863

Page 3

THE 24^th N. C. TROOPS AT FREDERICKSBURG—We are permitted to make the following extract from a letter from a Cumberland officer in this regiment:

“It was a terrible battle and our regiment was in front all the time. We were lying in an old ditch on the outer edge of the Town. The right of our regiment was behind the last houses of the street. On each side of this street was an open field up to the main body of the town a distance of about 800 or 1000 yards. The enemy charged through the fields and down the street to within 400 yards of our lines—the prettiest line you ever saw; every man had the step exactly, and as fast as we would cut them down they would close up as if nothing had happened. I never saw any thing like the dead in all my life. I believe I could have walked 200 or 300 yards on dead bodies without touching the ground. The enemy came up in column of brigade and as fast as we cut up and run off one, another would take its place. I think we killed more color bearers that day than we had men fighting; for as fast as they would pick up the colors we would cut them down and they never allowed them to hit the ground scarcely before they would catch them up. They fought as bravely as men ever did.”

--Fayetteville Observer—

[Transcribed by Sharon Strout]