History of Pennsylvania volunteers, 1861-5; prepared in compliance with acts of the legislature, by Samuel P. Bates.

1863 CAMPAIGN TI NORTH CAROLINA. 287
surprised and routed. One hundred and forty-three prisoners were taken, four
of whom were wounded, and six were killed. The camp was burned, and the
command returned in triumph to its quarters.
On the 14th of March, the rebel General Pettigrew, with a heavy force of
infantry and sixteen guns, attacked Newbern. Colonel Jones* was in danger
of being cut off and captured. Small reinforcements were sent to him, and by
skillful dispositions and manoeuvring of his handful of men, he managed to keep
the rebels at bay, who finally retired without gaining any advantage. But the
enemy still continued to manifest much activity, and scarcely a day passed in
which some portion of the regiment was not out scouting the country between
the Trent and the Neuse. On the 15th of April two men of company I were
captured by a party of rebel scduts. On the following day a brigade from Newbern, on its way to the relief of the Union forces at Little Washington, passed
through the camp, and the Fifty-eighth was ordered out upon the Neuse Road
for the protection of the right flank of the column in its passage of the river.
In this movement the regiment encountered the enemy under General Ransom,
and a sharp skirmish ensued, in which the loss was one killed and three wounded.
Sending back to camp for a squadron of cavalry, the command bivouacked upon
the field for the night, during which the enemy withdrew. Holding the position
until the 20th, it fell back towards camp. At Cone Creek, on the Dover Road,
it was again attacked by a considerable force of the enemy. The engagement
lasted an hour and a half, the rebels giving ground, and finally withdrawing.
The loss was seven wounded.
On 27th of April, parts of two brigades, commanded by Generals Palmer
and Prince, consisting of the Eighth, Twenty-third, Twenty-fifth and Twentyseventh Massachusetts, Ninth New Jersey, with two batteries and a small force
of cavalry, arrived in camp, for the purpose of a demonstration upon Kinston.
The force advanced in two columns, one led by General Palmer upon the railroad, the other by Colonel Jones by the Dover Road. Company G and two
companies of the Twenty-seventh advanced as skirmishers. At Sandy Ridge
skirmishing commenced, the enemy retreating to Gum Swamp, where the Dover
crosses the railroad. Here he had a formidable line of breastworks erected
across the junction, flanked on either side by an impassable swamp. Upon
their arrival in front, the skirmishers attacked, but were soon checked by the
fire of the enemy from his well sheltered position. As soon as the main body
came up, dispositions were made, and after a sharp contest the works were
carried. The loss in the Fifty-eighth was one killed. A few prisoners were
taken, but most of the enemy escaped. The regiment immediately fell back to
camp, and Palmer's command to Newbern.
The enemy, still in force at Kinston, on the 21st of May a body of four infantry regiments, a squadron of cavalry, and a battery, joined the Fifty-eighth,
all under command of Colonel Jones, in another expedition for the breaking up
the rebel encampment. Leaving quarters soon after dark, the command proceeded to Cove Creek, where Colonel Jones with his own, and the Twenty-fifth
Massachusetts, struck into the swamp to the left, and by a long detour, march*' There are thousands at the North who curse the army for inaction, who, if they knew half
the brave things done by the men in the field, would be shamed to silence by their deeds of
valor. Colonel Jones and his heroes of the Fifty-eighth Pennsylvania, have done some splendid work,and by his vigilance has made the bushwhackers cry for quarter. " —Moore's Rebellion
Record, Documents, Volume VT, page 45i.