On the 8th of September, private James Davis died at the fort.
On September the 28th, private Ed. Sterling, who was absent on furlough, died at his home in Greensboro, N.C.
On the 25th of October, the U.S. Steamer "Union" was wrecked off Bogue Banks near the fort. Her crew was brought to the fort and confined there for a short time. What is of more interest was, that we received valuable stores from the wreck, among others, elegant hair mattresses, which now took the place of our shucks and straw.
These days at the fort were our halcyon days, as the dark hours were to us yet unborn. The war had been so far a mere frolic. In the radiant sunshine of the moment, it was the amusing phase of the situation, not the tragic, that impressed us.
On the 7th of November, Lieut.-Col. John Sloan was ordered to report for duty, to his regiment at Newberne. Some time in December Col. George Singletary resigned and Lieut.-Col. John Sloan was elected colonel of the regiment; Maj. T. C. Singletary was elected Lieutenant-Colonel, and Lieut. John A. Gilmer, of the Grays--who had been acting as adjutant of the regiment at Newberne--was elected Major. The promotion of Lieut. Gilmer made a vacancy in the offices of our company, and Sergeant John A. Sloan--at the time sergeant-major of the fort--was elected to fill it.
On the 28th of February, 1862, we were ordered to join our regiment then encamped at Fort Lane, on the Neuse River, below Newberne, North Carolina. About mid-day we filed through the sally-port and bade a long and sad farewell to Fort Macon. We were transported by boat to Morehead City, and thence by rail to Newberne. We arrived at Fort Lane late in the evening, and in the pouring rain, marched to our quarters. Our position in camp was assigned us, and we began to make ourselves comfortable in our new home. We had much baggage, more than would have been allowed an entire corps a year afterwards. Every private had a trunk, and every mess a cooking-stove, to speak nothing of the extras of the officers. All this portable property we turned over to Gen. Burnside, later in the season, for want of convenient transportation.
We had scarcely made ourselves snug in our winter quarters when we learned that a large land and naval force, conjoined under command of Gen. Burnside, was approaching Newberne. The fleet arrived in Neuse River on the 12th of March, and the land forces were in our front on the following day. On the night of the 13th we left our quarters and moved down the south bank of the Neuse a short distance, where we were placed in line of battle, in entrenchments which had previously been constructed under the orders of Gen. L. O. B. Branch, commanding our forces--our regiment being the extreme left of the lines, and resting upon the river. The morning of the 14th broke raw and cold, the fog was so dense that we could not see fifty yards beyond our works. As soon as it lifted, a skirmish began upon the right of our lines between the opposing pickets. About the same time the gunboats, which were creeping slowly up the river, began to shell the woods. Under cover of this random firing the land forces advanced. Our pickets along the entire line were rapidly driven in, and the battle of Newberne began. It is not my purpose here to venture a description of this engagement or to make any remarks by way of criticism.