The 49th Infantry Regiment was organized in March, 1862, at Garysburg, North Carolina. Its companies were recruited in the following counties: McDowell, Cleveland, Iredell, Moore, Mecklenburg, Gaston, Catawba, and Lincoln. Assigned to General R. Ransom’s and M.W. Ransom’s Brigade, the unit fought with the Army of Northern Virginia from the Seven Days’ Battles to Fredericksburg. It then served in the New Bern area and near the Chowan River in North Carolina. Returning to Virginia, it was active at Drewry’s Bluff and Cold Harbor, took its place in the Petersburg trenches south of the James River, and saw action around Appomattox. This regiment lost 14 killed, 75 wounded, and 16 missing at Malvern Hill, had 16 killed and 61 wounded during the Maryland Campaign, and had 9 wounded at Fredericksburg. Many were disabled at Sayler’s Creek, and it surrendered 11 officers and 95 men on April 9, 1865. The field officers were Colonels Lee M. McAfee and Stephen D. Ramseur; Lieutenant Colonels James T. David, William A. Eliason, and John A. Flemming; and Majors Pinckney B. Chambers and Charles Q. Petty.
Company G was from Cleveland County, North Carolina.
They were known as the “Kings Mountain Tigers”
Battle Flag of the 49th North Carolina Troops, captured at the Battle of the Crater
J.H. Falls was my 3rd great grandfather. Francis was his brother. They both served with the 49th NC, and they were both taken as Prisoners of War at the Battle of Hare’s Hill, on March 25, 1865.
“Another notable battle in which the 49th NC Regiment was engaged was the battle of Hare’s Hill, on March 25, 1865. In this battle the 49th NC Regiment lost fully one-half its number in killed, wounded, and missing. Somebody blundered here. On the morning of March 25th a corps of engineers and sharpshooters crossed over the space between the lines, and without the loss of a single man, captured the enemy’s works, including Fort Stedman, together with a largo number of prisoners. The main body of our army followed and took possession of the works and then lay down and waited until the enemy could reinforce their lines, and still waited until they came upon us in front and by flank in numbers so great that they could not be counted, then we were ordered to fall back to our own lines, which we did through such a storm of shot and shell as I never dreamed of before. How any man escaped death I have never been able to see. I remember starting on the perilous run never expecting to reach our lines, and the terrible thought would come to me, ”I am to be shot in the back.” I have always been able to find some sort of excuse for failures, but in this instance I stand today as I did on that day, and. unhesitatingly say, “Somebody blundered.”
** The above was written by former Capt. Benjamin F. Dixon on April 9, 1901, and provided as Pages 151-160, in the compilation known as “Histories of the Several Regiments and Battalions from North Carolina in the Great War 1861-’65 – Volume III,” edited by Walter Clark, and published by E. M. Uzzell, Printer and Binder, in 1901.
The Battle of Ft. Stedman aka The Battle of Hare’s Hill
Battle of Fort Stedman: Maps, histories, photos, and preservation news from the Civil War Trust
Battle of Fort Stedman Map and Order of Battle from beyondthecrater.com
