Showing posts with label 2nd NY Zouaves. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2nd NY Zouaves. Show all posts

Thursday, March 14, 2024

Diary of Private William S. White, June 8, 1861

MY FIRST FIGHT.

My gun, Fourth Detachment, Third Company, was ordered off to meet a party of the Yankees who had been committing daily depredations upon the inhabitants of Elizabeth City county. We were supported by thirty First North Carolina Infantrymen and twenty cavalrymen, making in all some sixty-five men. After marching five or six miles we came upon them, and immediately opened with our twelve-pounder howitzer, but the Yankees concluded not to fight and fled precipitately. We captured one prisoner, and he was wounded by an old Peninsula scout, whose name was Ben Phillips, commonly known amongst our soldiers as "Uncle Ben."

It is my impression that this was the first cannon shot fired at land forces in Virginia, and also that this was the first prisoner captured. His name was Mooney, and he belonged to the Second Regiment New York Zouaves.

Soon after we left another gun belonging to my company was sent out to reënforce us, and taking another road it came upon the Yankees before either party were aware of it. The Yankees, as before, made a hasty retreat, and our men captured another prisoner. Nobody hurt on our side.

SOURCE: William S. White, A Diary of the War; or What I Saw of It, p. 95-6