in the general column. The regiment numbered 641 enlisted men and 20 commissioned officers, not including surgeons and quartermaster. Upon mustering for the march on the second day I found that about 100 of the enlisted men who had started had been unable to stand the fatigue of the march, and had been sent back to New Berne by the surgeons.

In the forenoon of the second day (12th instant) Private John H. Montgomery, of Company I, who had straggled from the ranks into the wood, was shot through the foot by one of the enemy's scouts.

About noon on the 13th instant, the enemy having been discovered in force at Southwest Creek, my command was among the various infantry regiments ordered forward. The position assigned me was one on the left of the main road, facing the creek. I then deployed a company of skirmishers to ascertain the course of the creek and if there was any enemy in the front. Shortly after, by order of Colonel Potter, I marched my regiment across the creek at the dam and was then ordered to report to General Wessells.

That night the regiment was placed on picket duty in a swamp about midway between the creek above mentioned and Kinston.

During the afternoon of this day Corpl. William K. Worth accidentally shot himself through the hand.

The next morning I received orders to report to Colonel Heckman for skirmish duty, but owing to an unavoidable delay in receiving extra ammunition the order was countermanded and I was again placed in your brigade, where I remained until shortly after the commencement of the action before Kinston, when I was again ordered to report to General Wessells. General Wessells next sent me to report to Colonel Howell, of the Eighty-fifth Pennsylvania Regiment. In accordance with his orders I formed my line in the swamp on the left of the road and about 70 paces in the rear of the Eighty-fifth.

Although subjected to a heavy fire, being in the second line, my men were kept lying down and thus escaped with but 2 wounded, and those not severely. While marching forward I discovered a number of the enemy making through the wood, and immediately sent out a detachment, to which 2 officers and 58 enlisted men, belonging to the Twenty-second South Carolina, surrendered. They had thrown away their arms. Had I been permitted I could, undoubtedly, have secured a large number; but being in the second line and under the orders of the commander of the first I could not move forward without his sanction.

We left Kinston early on the morning of the 15th instant. Nothing unusual occurred on the road until about noon on the 16th instant, when, as we were approaching a place called White Hall, the firing in front denoted that we had again come upon the enemy.

The Seventeenth Massachusetts, having the right of the brigade, was the first regiment ordered in, and my regiment was immediately formed in line and shortly ordered forward. I marched it through a small piece of swamp under a heavy fire and came to the edge of the Neuse River, my left resting near where the bridge had been destroyed. The enemy were on the opposite bank, secreted behind trees and stumps, and opposite my left they had a log fort. I immediately commenced firing, which we continued until we had expended about 40 rounds of ammunition, when we were ordered out to give place to a battery which had been posted in the open space in our rear.

After the action at White Hall, our brigade being placed in the rear, we did not particulate in the action near Goldsborough.