Edgecombe County, NC - J.M. Cutchin - A Soldiers Story

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[From the Cutchin Family Collection, No 476. East Carolina Manuscript
Collection, J.Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina University, Greenville,
NC. For research and study only; not for deposit in other repositories.
Most manuscripts are protected by copyright laws; permission to publish
must be requested]


                                       Whitakers, N.C. Jan. 16, 1915

         A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE SOLDIER LIFE OF J.M. CUTCHIN

   In 1861, at the age of 20, I joined the Edgecombe guard, which was a 
volunteer company, for six months, that company was company "A" of the Bethel 
regiment with Jno. L. Bridges as Captain of the company and D.H. Hill as Colonel 
of the regiment. We went first to Fort Macon, then to Raleigh, from there to 
Yorktown and from there down to Bethel Church where the Bethel fight occured and 
where Henry Wyatt was killed.

  At the expiration of our term of enlistment, six months, I volunteered and 
joined company "I" of the seventeenth North Carolina regiment, which company was 
commanded by A.J.M. Whitehead, Captain, afterwards W.H. Powell as Captain. 

   I served a short time as Orderly Sergeant of the company and was then elected 
a Lieutenant in the company, in which capacity, I served for the balance of the 
war. I was in nearly every battle the regiment was in up to the close of the 
War. I was severly wounded at the battle of Burmuda Hundreds near Petersburg, 
bled into virtual unconsciousness and was carried back to the doctors on the 
shoulders of four men. In the same fight my Colonel, Jno. C. Lamb, was mortally 
wounded.

   He was one of the most efficient and gallant officers in Hokes division. At 
the battle of the Crater, near Petersburg, I was in command of my company and 
withstood the most furious shelling of my experience. We were possibly two or 
three hundred yards from the Crater itself, and about two hundred and fifty 
yards from the enemy's brestworks, a forcible reminder of present conditions 
between France and Germany.

   It was there that Henry Philips, a member of my company, was struck in the 
back by a shell and literally torn to pieces, a handful of his intestines 
falling on my head ten feet away, his remains were taken up by the shovel full 
and carried away. Because of the immense number of shells thrown into our 
trenches and over us into Petersburg, this spot was called Mortar Hill.

   If I may be excused for a slight digression, I will relate a little incident 
that occured at our mess table. The Rev. Jesse H. Page, who was an own uncle of 
our present ambassador at the Court of St. James [Walter Hines Page], was 
Chaplain of the regiment and ate at our table and I had an old negro cook by the 
name of Willis Cutchin. 

   Coffee, sure enough coffee, was a rare thing with us, but old Willis, some 
how and somewhere, got us a little good coffee, we did not bother about how he 
got it, but Mr. Page, in saying grace that night, accidentaly knocked over one 
of Willis' cups of coffee, when old Willis cried out "La, Mr. Page, I wouldn't a 
gin that cup of coffee for three graces" and nobody laughed more than the 
parson.

   Just before the close of the war, Hoke's Division, to which out regiment 
belonged, was transferred to North Carolina to meet the advancing forces of 
Schofield from New Bern and Sherman from Wilmington. Just below Wise's Fork, we 
had a sever engagement, and from there we fell back to Bentonsville in Johnson 
County where we had, I believe, the last fight of the war. 

   We then moved back through Raleigh and Chapel Hill and on to Center Church in 
Guilford County. We knew then that General Lee had surrendered in Virginia and 
the War was over with us. It was sad at that old country church and in that hour 
of sorrow and distress to hear the eloquent speeches of General Colquitt, 
afterwards Senator Colquitt from Georgia, Colonel L.D. Starke and others bid 
farewell to old comrades who had stood with them so long.

   In closing this sketch, let me say that surely the hearts of the very few old 
survivors still left should well up in gratitude and thanks to the God of love 
and mercy who has blessed and spared us so long. 

                                         Signed  J.M. Cutchin

Jan. 16th 1915

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