Newton County GaArchives News.....MR. MOSS'S DIARY AS KEPT DURING SIXTIES June 8 1916 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Phyllis Thompson mandpthompson@bellsouth.net February 1, 2004, 11:21 pm The Covington News "This Is As I Saw It. It May Be Different As Others Saw It" He Says of 3d Regiment, Company H. BEGINNING WITH THE YEAR 1861 August, 1861 1.....The boys all going to Portsmouth and Norfolk to have their pictures taken to send home. 2.....This line unreadable. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7....Nothing but drilling and eating cantaloupes and watermelons; only I had my money stolen and JAMES RICE'S money which was in my possession. I paid it back to him. I always knew who it was that got it, but he never came to camp any more during the war. 8.....Captain BLODGETT preparing to leave the regiment; owing to differences between Col. WRIGHT and him, he got transfer to another regiment. 9.....Capt. BLODGETT left for Richmond. Capt. JONES went to see him off. 10, 11....All quiet in camps. 12....Stood guard for the 2nd time. Capt. JONES got back from Richmond. 13.....Lieut. CARROLL started for home. The Davis Musketeers got on a general spree and commenced running away and shooting at each other. 14....I stood gurard for one of my men. 15....All quiet in camps. 16....Lieut. LUCKIE started home for furlough. JOHN O YARBRAY deposited 26 dollars with me for safe keeping. 17, 18, 19, 20....Drilling all the time the recruits. 21....I was on guard again. NAT BAGBY and CHARLIE KITCHENS started home on furlough. 22....JOHN H. LEVY started home on furlough. 23, 24, 25....All quiet until 12 o'clock the 24th at night, when the long roll was sounded and we fell in and marched out to the parade ground. We were ordered back. It was done for the purpose to see which company would get out first. The Young Guards, Company H., was the first. 26, 27, 28....All quiet. 29....Long roll was sounded at about 3 o'clock in the morning. News came that Fort Hateras had fallen into the hands of the Yankees and our regiment was ordered to Roanoke Island. The Athens Guards, Burke Guards, Dawson Greys, and Confederate Light Guards left on boats through the Dismal Swamp Canal. 30....The balance of us left on steamers, Empire and Curlew, with two barges and a few schooners. 31....We arrived at the Island about 2 o'clock, where the rest were, at Camp Hope. September, 1861 1.....Ten men of Company H, and Major LEE and Capt. JONES got aboard the steamer, Jennie Luskie, and went down towards Fort Hateras and Fort Oregon, cruising around. We got back to our landing place and went on guard on the barge, Faith. Staid all night. 2.....50 men went with Major LEE to Fort Oregon to fetch away the cannons there for our battery at Pork Point. Troops arrived from Hateras which had been captured and they were off at the time the captured party were captured. Paroled. 3.....Company H, was detailed to work on Battery. We handled sand from dark until midnight. We were relieved at that time and lay down and went to sleep in the sand. 4.....Took our tents from Camp Hope and moved to Camp Georgia and, as it rained powerful hard, we had a bad time putting them up. 5.....The first gun was mounted on Pork Point Battery. Part of the men who went with Major LEE returned from Oregon Inlet. 6.....Company H, went to work again on the Battery. Lieut. LUCKIE, LEVY and KITCHENS returned from home. 7.....Capt. HUNTER, of the Steamer Curlew, and Major LEE took 11 men and went Body Island to destroy the light house there and the balance of the old Fort Oregon. We fired the wood and the tar barrels created a terrible black smoke. The light house was or had 146 steps to the lamp. The glass was 1 inch thick and clear as crystal. Me and GEORGE LEVY pecked a hole into the outside wall with a pick and there was a vacancy between the outside and inside walls. We put about 25 pounds of powder in that vacancy and saturated some paper with gun powder and dried it in the sunshine and rolled up the paper in a long tube. I struck fire to it. The rest had got out of the way. I ran and got behind a bank of sand, and it blew up and fell full length on the ground. We then left the island to return to Roanoke Island. We captured a schooner on our way. The light house is said to have cost the government $300,000. 8, 9, 10....Hard at work on the Batteries. 11....WHEELER, BAGBY, ROBERSON and WELDON came to Roanoke Island. Me and MAHARY NIX and NELMS went on pickett one mile from Camp. JESSIE MOORE was corporal of the guard. We had some fun with Lieut. SANDERS, he was officer of the night, was tolerable green, etc. We called him Mutton Head SANDERS. 12....Pork Point Battery was finished all but turfing. 13....I was unable for duty with the piles. 14....I went to drilling on the Battery. 15....I was on guard. It rained powerful hard all night. 16....Rain and windy all day. 17....I was appointed chief of the 9th gun on the Battery to drill. 18....30 men from Company H, went on the other side of the sound to work on another Battery. After drilling on the Battery, I took my squad and drilled some in the magazine. 19....Drilling on the Battery and work going on in a hurry over on the other side of the sound. 20....Commenced a Battery out at the marshes for the Flying Artillery. To Be Continued. This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/gafiles/ File size: 5.7 Kb