D. H. Hill, Jr., Confederate Military History, a library of Confederate States Military History: Volume 4, North Carolina
Clement Anselm Evans, Ed.

‘ [219] of inducements, enticed from the farms such of the negro men as were fitted for military duty..... To the infinite and undying credit of the colored race, though the woods swarmed with negro men sent back on detailed duty for the purpose of enlisting their comrades in the Federal army, there were less acts of violence toward the helpless old men, women and children than could have been possibly expected under the circumstances.’

In an effort to alleviate this state of affairs, a force of some magnitude was sent to North Carolina at the opening of 1864. Gen. George E. Pickett, with a division of troops, was sent to the State to co-operate with the forces already there. The dispersion or capture of the Federal garrison at New Bern seems to have been Pickett's objective. General Pickett had in his command Corse's Virginia brigade; Gen. M. W. Ransom's brigade, composed of these North Carolina regiments: Twenty-fourth, Colonel Clarke; Twenty-fifth, Colonel Rutledge; Thirty-fifth, Colonel Jones; Forty-ninth, Colonel McAfee, and Fifty-sixth, Colonel Faison; Clingman's North Carolina brigade—the Eighth, Colonel Shaw; Thirty-first, Colonel Jordan; Fifty-first, Colonel McKethan, and Sixty-first, Colonel Radcliffe; Hoke's Carolina brigade—Sixth, Colonel Webb; Twenty-first, Colonel Rankin; Forty-third, Lieutenant-Colonel Lewis; Fifty-fourth, Colonel Murchison; Fifty-seventh, Colonel Godwin, and Twenty-first Georgia. In addition, he had four unbrigaded regiments, including the Sixty-seventh North Carolina, Colonel Whitford, and five regiments of cavalry, including the Third North Carolina, Colonel Baker, and the Sixth, Colonel Folk. The artillery under Pickett's orders consisted of the Tenth North Carolina regiment, Colonel Pool's command, Starr's light artillery battalion, Robertson's heavy battery, all of North Carolina, and several batteries from other States. The field returns for February give his total effective strength as 13,308.¹