Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 3.

[185] brigadier), attacked the Confederates in their works at Gum Swamp, eight miles from Kinston. A portion of the forces, commanded by Colonels Jones and Pierson, in person, drove away the foe, and captured their intrenchments. They took one hundred and sixty-five prisoners, and with these and a quantity of stores, returned to the outpost line at Bachelor's Creek. There the exasperated Confederates attacked them,

May 23, 1863.

but were repulsed; yet they inflicted a heavy loss on the Nationals, by slaying Colonel Jones, one of the best and bravest soldiers in the Union army.¹ At the beginning of July another force destroyed an armory at Keenansville, with a large amount of small-arms and stores; and on the 4th of the same month General Heckman and his troopers destroyed an important bridge over the Trent River, at Comfort. Later in the month, General Edward E. Potter, Foster's chief of staff, led a cavalry expedition, which laid in ruins a bridge and trestle-work, seven hundred and fifty feet long, over the Tar River, at Rocky Mount, between Goldsboroa and Weldon, with cotton and flouring mills, machine shops and machinery, rolling stock, and other railway property, a wagon-train, and eight hundred bales of cotton. At Tarboroa, the terminus of a branch railway running eastward from Rocky Mount, they also destroyed two steamboats, and an iron-clad, nearly finished; also, mills, cars, cotton, and stores; captured a hundred prisoners, and many horses and mules, and liberated many slaves, who followed them back to camp. The country was aroused, and such efforts were made to cut the raiders off, that they were compelled to fight almost continually on their return. Yet their entire loss did not exceed twenty-five men. At about this time General Foster's command was enlarged, so as to include the Virginia Peninsula and Southeastern Virginia, which constituted General Dix's department. On account of the riots in New York and threatened resistance to the Draft there,² Dix had been sent to take command in that city, and Foster, leaving General Palmer in charge at New Berne, made his Headquarters at Fortress Monroe.

Let us now consider events farther down the coast, particularly in the vicinity of Charleston.

We left General T. W. Sherman in quiet possession of Edisto Island, not far below Charleston, from which the white inhabitants had all fled; and also Admiral Dupont, who had just returned from conquests along the coasts of Georgia and Florida, prepared to co-operate with General Hunter, the new commander of the Department of the South,³ in an attempt to capture Charleston.⁴ Hunter worked with zeal toward that end. Martial law was declared

April 25.

to exist throughout his Department. Giving a free interpretation to his instructions from the War Department, he took measures for organizing regiments of negro troops; and to facilitate the business of recruiting, he issued

May 9.

a general order, which proclaimed the absolute freedom of all slaves within his Department;