The Eighth Battalion, three hundred strong, was organized at Camp
Vance, near Morganton, N. C., on 7 June, by the election of James
B. Ellington (First Lieutenant of Company D, Sixty-first North
Carolina Regiment), as Major. It was composed of the following
companies:
COMPANY A--_From Iredell County_--W. G. Watson, Captain; George
Rufus White, First Lieutenant; Amos M. Guy and Sinclair Preston
Steele, Second Lieutenants.
Captain Watson resigned in January, 1865, for the purpose of
joining a cavalry regiment in Lee’s army. He returned home to
procure his outfit for the service, but was captured by Stoneman
and sent to prison in Louisville, Ky. He is now the excellent and
popular clerk of the Superior Court of Rowan County. Upon his
resignation, Lieutenant White was promoted to the Captaincy.
COMPANY B--_From Catawba_--J. R. Gaither, Captain; J. M.
Lawrence, First Lieutenant, (both captured at Fort Fisher);
Charles Wilfong and J. M. Bandy, Second Lieutenants.
Lieutenant Wilfong resigned after the battle of Kinston, and
Lieutenant Bandy thereafter until the surrender, commanded the
company. He made a fine officer. After the war he was for a
number of years a professor in Trinity College. He now resides
in Greensboro, where as a civil engineer he ranks high in
his profession. Sergeant James M. Barkley was elected Second
Lieutenant and F. H. Busbee Junior Second Lieutenant. Both of
them were excellent officers. Lieutenant Barkley is now an
able and eminent minister of the gospel in Detroit, Mich. I am
indebted to him for many data which I have incorporated into this
sketch. Lieutenant Busbee is now one of the first lawyers of the
State--a brilliant advocate and a wise and learned counsellor.
COMPANY C--_From Burke and Caldwell Counties_--Lambert A.
Bristol, Captain; Marcus G. Tuttle, First Lieutenant; George T.
Dula and Horace W. Connelly, Second Lieutenants. Captain Bristol
is now the worthy Clerk of the Superior Court of Burke County.
George T. Dula resigned and John W. Harper was elected Junior
Second Lieutenant. He soon thereafter laid down his young life on
his country’s altar. He was killed at the battle of Kinston.
The battalion remained for some days at Camp Vance and was drilled
by Lieutenant Bullock, a drill master. On 24 June, it was ordered
to Raleigh and at Camp Holmes was uniformed and equipped with small
rifles, which were very inferior and quite dangerous--to the “man
behind the gun.”
On 26 June the battalion was ordered to Wilmington. It went into
camp at Camp Davis. It afterwards did picket and patrol duty on
Masonboro and Wrightsville Sounds under Colonel George Jackson.
On 4 August it was ordered to report to General L. S. Baker, at
Goldsboro, but returned to Wilmington 16 August and was again
placed under Colonel Jackson’s command at Masonboro Sound.
On 2 September, under orders from the War Department, Major
Ellington, who when elected Major was disabled from active service
by wounds, and who afterwards recovered, was relieved of his
command and sent to his company near Petersburg, Virginia. He was
soon afterwards killed at Fort Harrison, Virginia. Major Ellington
was a gallant officer and much beloved by the boys. It was a
mistake to have relieved him. General Holmes afterwards secured a
ruling of the War Department by which the officers of the Junior
Reserves after they reached the age of 18, were retained with their
commands. But the privates and non-commissioned officers were still
required to be sent to General Lee as fast as they became eighteen
years old.
Captain William G. Watson succeeded Major Ellington in the command
of the battalion. In the fall, the battalion was ordered to
Sugar Loaf, on the Cape Fear river, where for several months it
did picket duty, drilled, etc. On 10 December it was ordered to
Belfield, Va., under Colonel Jackson. Its further career will be
traced in connection with the Fourth and Seventh Battalions from
which it never after separated until Johnston’s surrender.