Little Washington is
on Tar River, and as one of the Yankee gunboats was trying to get in, one of our
cannon gave them a ball, which caused heavy firing all day, and, in fact, the
shells came very close to our flag, which made us dodge pretty smart. We have
Washington besieged. At 8 o'clock to-night Colonel Owens called for volunteers
to go as near the Yankees as they could, to see what they were doing. Tom
Tiotter and myself went. We got to within two hundred yards of Washington, when
we were compelled to halt, as we were near the bridge, where we could hear the
Yankee sentinels walking their beats very plainly—so we returned to camp and
reported.
SOURCE: Louis Leon, Diary of a Tar
Heel Confederate Soldier, p. 21
