Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1861-10-23
gol1jsrs' 9syartment,


2sga REC \. C. volsa WILMINGTON. \. C.. Oct. ID 1861.
Enron SPIRIT o THE AaE:-supposmg that some Of your readers who have
aud relatives in the 18th Regimenswoaiaase to hear mon 'Aem'i VII give
ysa a short account Of the regiment
morning and eyening-he weather has been SO warmth the past week thatw We couldl
hardly drill at ALL but for the last two days It's considerably cooler We heart
rumored that there ares some yankees oil the coast somewhere ear swansooro'
in onslow county. The blockade is sta at the mouth of Cape Fear rver,h nt doea
no harm 1 suppose, for there are two British ships in port here ladened with tur-
pennne, and ready to sets sail for old England, with some OF tne proa0cs Of us
good old North State. The blockade does no interfere it seems with nr foreign
trade. We hear heavy eannonadng nw while am writing in the direction Of
the Fort. there may be something wrong there but we hope its all right.
Ithfnkthat If the authorities would arm the ssth Regiment with good m it
would be one of the strongest in the south. We have eleven hundred infantry
two fine cavalry and two artillery companies attached. n men aT ~ N soo
health excepta few cas- s Of drill fever. and a few of measles but lthnnkH they
e h to bear e love or Colonel Lane, ne Is o aa,t % "' am men of
ever saw Our officers generally are good men-men OF decision an men %
Since w1ihps the hove. We are called 0 n for two men from each company for
truth in the rumor than we had anticipated. But let them come, and if we d nos
get guns we will fight with stones and hrnkbats.
Very respectfully yours. Hal
CAMP MARTIN, ROANOKE ISLAND, Oct. sh, 1861.
EDITOR SPIRIT o F h Age: Col. Wright, of the Sd Ga. Regiment, who has
command Of the forces here,h having ascetained that therew asa Regiment IF Yam
KEGS At Chickimacomico, forty niles north of Haheras, determined to attack
Thursday evening, the fOrces were embarked and set sail, and when morning
dawned, " = We're in sight of the point where the enemy was supposed to be but
whether he had retrted or been reinforced was unknown.
It was known that the goth Regiment Indiana Vols. had landed there a few days
before: for the Curlew and Raleigh had captured their gun boat the Fanny IN
learned this from the prisoners.
larger boatsc could not get nearerth than sH miles but when they cam as near IS
possible, the cannon were loaded and fired into a tmcket where the enemy was
supposed to be. At the sam time a light draft steamer, with barge in to ran
nearer in, and on saw te enemy. A lew bombs, iron a * pe'es oAeu u
cowardy rmeals, SO that they took to their heels and fed, leaving every thing ut
their arms behind. Our men landed as as possible, and gave chase; nut tn
Yankees were such excellent racers that it was impossible to catch them. We
pursued them to within a few miles of Haheras light house, where they were
largely reinforced; and planted artillery. We had about 80 men o the beach,
tired out by long and tedious march through the sand; the enemy had more
than that number of fresh men besides the reneating regiment 1t ws now 3
O'Clock, Saturday morning; the probability was that we should be atacke from
the sea by the enemy navy; SO the order was given to march back About the
middle 81 the dav q Yankee steamer, Thought to be the Monticello, came up and
commenced throwing shot and shell, in a perfect shower, amongst tn men, which
she kept up till night; but strange as it may SEEM, not man WASH r.. n oomes
burst all around and among them, without doing the least harm. By the middle
of the night, all our men We're back to the place Of landing. Next morning we a
got on board and came back safely to our camp.
Col. Wright intended that the detachment of 400 men from the ShN n G. State
Troops, should land below the fugrves enemy, and thus cut off their escape and
there is n 10 doubt thatf Colonel Shaw had been able to get his men ashore, thu
whole Regiment would have been captured. But owingt the faetthata at the pac
where they were to land, there was a sand bar, beyond which he bages could no
&c. but O N the and sde Of (which hcmate wast too deep for fordmg, the poor cow
arny wrdches made their escape.
About As prisoners weret taken. We got all their camp equipage-every thin
they had except their muskets many of which they threw away in their flight
In fact the ground was strewn with articles thrown aside as they scampered ava
tits supposed that the property captured is worth a hundred thousand dollars
We found letters that had just been written, in which they say that they expects
Sin q few days to take Roanoke Island, and then they should visit son prtt
little towns farther up the country where they would winter"
We expect % strike them again. SEMPER VIRENS.