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
