The quiet afternoon and long night's rest refreshed us most wonderfully, and we woke the next morning, Sunday, the fourteenth, free from all fatigue. It was a bright, beautiful day, and we broke camp in high spirits, ready for whatever might happen, and yet with no conception of the dread realities actually before us, and in which we were to enact a part.

After marching two or three miles, firing once more commenced at the front, and hurrying on, the regiment was halted at the corner of a road which ran directly to the river Neuse. Presently, a section of artillery arrived, and passing into a field just before us, began to shell the woods.

As we waited there, momentarily expecting to enter the fight already begun, one of our number, amid the roar of artillery and occasional roll of musketry, began the hymn, forever associated in the minds of those present with that scene, "Ye Christian Heroes go Proclaim," in which we all joined. It was his last song upon earth, but how nobly did he earn the title of "Christian Hero," and what death more glorious than with such words yet lingering on his lips, to freely surrender his life at the altar of his country's liberty. His name will ever be cherished with love and reverence by all who knew him, and we can rejoice with his friends who mourn his loss, that he is enjoying his fit reward, an immortal crown of glory.

Soon the order came for the 45th to advance; so, marching by the right flank, we left the road and entered the woods, passing directly in front of the battery, and most unfortunately in its range. Before notice could be given to the officer in command, two successive shells had killed three of our number, besides slightly wounding others. It was a sad omen with which to enter the fight, but on we pushed and soon faced to the front and advanced, deployed as skirmishers.

We quickly found ourselves in the midst of a regular North Carolina swamp, which in ordinary times would be considered impenetrable. Mud and water waist deep, how much deeper none stopped to see, roots to trip the careless foot, briers innumerable to make havoc with our clothes, to say nothing of an occasional stray bullet, which, finding its way through the trees, whistled over our heads, and contributed to the pleasantness of the position. But it needed more than mud and water, or even a stray bullet, to check us, and so on we crept, crawled and waded, the bullets becoming thicker as we advanced, until we conquered the swamp and gained a position where the ground rose slightly towards the enemy, and was thinly covered with young oaks and underbrush. Here we quickly obeyed the order "Lie down!"

The regiment formed in a sort of semi-circle around the edge of the woods, but the line was too much extended to be efficient in a charge, as we soon found. We retained this position for about an hour amid an unceasing storm of bullets, shot and shell, which, thanks to the elevation of the ground, passed in a great measure just above our heads and riddled the trees in our rear. Too many, however, found a resting place in a soldier's body, and the dead and wounded lay in every direction. We fired at will, as we found opportunity, our regiment, the 10th Connecticut and 103d Pennsylvania, who following in our footsteps had gained the same position, all lying together, regardless of company or regiment.

At last, the order came to fix bayonets, and then to charge. The left wing, together with the Connecticut and Pennsylvania troops, sprang to their feet, and with a loud cry broke from the cover. At the same moment, the enemy gave way and retreated post-haste across the bridge which leads to Kinston. But the extended line of our regiment, scattered as it was through the woods, and the impossibility of conveying an order in the din of battle, simultaneously to all parts of the line, prevented a united movement, and those who had received and obeyed the order to charge were soon halted, to enable the scattered ranks to reunite.

But the day was won, and the rebels, in full retreat across the river, received an occasional reminder in the shape of a shell from our guns, which hastened their speed till it became a run.

We discovered, on emerging from the woods, that the enemy had been sheltered behind fences on both sides of the road. This enabled them to concentrate upon us a cross fire. An old barn-like church had also served to protect them in a measure. It was perforated with holes of all sizes, from that of the Minie-ball to the one caused by the thirty-two-pound shell. Dead bodies lay scattered about the floor, and our surgeons immediately appropriated it for a hospital.

After a time, we marched down the road to the river, and turning down the Neuse road in the direction of Newbern, went into camp a short distance from the bridge. Expecting to bivouac here, we commenced our preparations for the night. Some of us, meantime, returned to the swamp to recover our blankets, overcoats and haversacks, cast aside at the commencement of the fight, and were fortunate enough to recover most of them. The dead and wounded lay scattered through the woods, and with sad hearts we rejoined our comrades, thankful that our lives had been spared. But our day's work was by no means ended, for scarcely had our party returned to the camping-ground, when the order came to fall in, and off we started across the bridge, which the rebels had made a vain attempt to burn in their retreat, and marched along the banks of the Neuse, till we reached the town of Kinston.

The strategy which enabled General Foster to win this battle as easily as he did, was apparent when we came to understand the nature of the country and the works of the enemy. The rebels had evidently expected us to advance by the Neuse road, which runs along the riverside; for, some distance from the bridge, a strong earth-work had been thrown up directly across the road, flanked on one side by a pond, on the other by a swamp. A long earth-work had also been erected on the Kinston side of the river, commanding both roads and the bridge.

The road taken by General Foster rendered the first mentioned work wholly useless, and the garrison was compelled to abandon it to prevent their separation from the main command. The road taken by the main body of our force makes a bend, which brings it to the bridge at right angles to the river. Nearly a quarter of a mile from this bend, a small cross-road connects with the Neuse road, thus enclosing a square, in which the enemy made their stand, compelled to fight on what, to them, was the farther side of the river, and thus they were made dependent on the bridge for a means of retreat.

The plan was to divide our force, the main body keeping straight forward, towards the bridge, and thus bring on a general engagement, while meantime, a strong force was sent down the cross-road, in order to gain possession of the bridge, and so cut off their sole means of escape. This manoeuvre was only partially successful, as the rebels, discovering their imminent danger, gave way before the flanking force had reached the bridge. However, some five hundred prisoners were captured, as it was, and eleven cannon fell into our hands, to say nothing of small arms and commissary stores.

Some seven thousand of the enemy, under command of General Evans, were engaged, and not many more on our side, as many of our regiments took no active part in the battle. When compared with many other battles of the war, it was a mere skirmish; but veterans from the seven-days fight before Richmond, from Roanoke, and from Newbern, were unanimous in pronouncing the fire that day, to have been sharper than was experienced by them in any former battle. General Foster, in his despatch, speaks of the "terrible fire" to which we were exposed.

Kinston is rather a pretty place, regularly laid out, well shaded, and altogether very New England like. It is built directly on the Neuse, whose banks are high and steep at this point. We marched through the town, and halted at the outskirts, on the line of the railroad, which runs from Newbern to Goldsboro, and on which most of the enemy made good their retreat.

After the camp had been selected, and our goods and chattels deposited, the band gave an impromptu concert, in honor of the victory, after which most of us started on a foraging expedition, seeking what we might devour. In this quest we were eminently successful. Our mess supped on broiled chicken and apple-jack, and others fared even more sumptuously. A large quantity of tobacco was also discovered and speedily confiscated.

Hardly had we finished supper, and laid ourselves out for the night, when the order came for four companies to "fall in," and patrol the town. A house in the middle of the town had been fired, and as the flames had extended to one or two of the surrounding buildings, there was a fair prospect of seeing the whole place in ashes before morning, unless the progress of the fire was arrested. Fortunately there were enough firemen to check any further spread of the mischief, and it devolved upon us to pass the greater half of the night patrolling the streets, preventing all disorder, and returning stragglers to their regiments. We found one fellow in a most happy frame of mind, seated in a horseless chaise, evidently enjoying his ride intensely, and urging on the imaginary steed, as if on a race track, apple-jack, without question, having got the better of him.

The moon came out in full splendor, to light us on our weary pilgrimage, as we traversed the streets back and forth, round and round. The captain occasionally coming to a halt, some of us employed the time by taking a nap on the sidewalk, or in the road, just as it happened. A colored gentleman accompanied us during part of our wanderings, showing off the place, pointing out the slave market, and other objects of interest. However, our desire for a more intimate acquaintance with the town was not so great but that we were ready to return to camp, somewhere in the small hours, and wrap up in our blankets for a short nap, after our day's work.

We were up bright and early the next morning, and to our surprise, and the enemy's as well, Kinston was abandoned, and the river recrossed. The rear guard destroyed the bridge, which had cost us so much effort to save the day before, and we started once more in the direction of Goldsboro. It was very warm and dusty, and the march long and wearisome, but the country grew pleasanter the further inland we advanced, and the plantations appeared much more flourishing, so that we were more than usually rejoiced to reach the camp that night, and rest after our two days of hard work.

After marching three or four miles the next morning, Tuesday, the 16th, the boom of cannon, now quite familiar, was heard in the distance, and orders came for the 45th to hasten forward to the scene of action. The road runs for some distance parallel to the river, through a large clearing, and then turns abruptly towards a bridge which spans the Neuse, leading to the town of Whitehall. The land rises to some height on the left side of the road, the brow of the hill being thinly covered with forest trees, while on the right it slopes to the wooded bank of the river.

On the approach of our cavalry advance, the previous night, the rebels had crossed the river, destroying the bridge in their retreat, and the fighting was now going on at this point, the apparent object being to rebuild the bridge, and cross the river. The part taken in this fight by our regiment was rather passive than active, but none the less trying for that reason.

A portion of a New York battery being put in position on the rise of the hill, we were ordered to their support; so, marching along the road till opposite the battery, we formed in line of battle, and then lay down, facing the river, and not many rods distant from it. Our situation was anything but an agreeable one, for not only did the rebel shot and bullets fall thick around us, but the shell from our own guns behind, passed so near as to render a recumbent posture very desirable. An hour passed in this condition, without firing a gun, seemed, from the very inaction, much more like two or three; but at length the order was passed along the line to fall back to the other side of the road. So, crawling through, or scrambling over the fence which separated us from the field, we took up a new position, two or three rods further back, and directly the 3d Rhode Island Battery came thundering down the road, and unlimbering on the spot we had just vacated, began to pour a deadly fire across the river. While we occupied this position, our gallant Color Sergeant, Theodore Parkman, was struck in the head by a fragment of a shell, and almost instantly killed. But before the colors fell to the ground they were seized by the colonel himself, and though a mark for the deadly missiles of the sharp-shooters, which whistled close around him, he supported them till relieved by one of the color-guard.

It is true we accomplished the destruction of a gun-boat, which was in process of construction at this place, but all this apparent effort to cross the river was merely a feint to occupy the attention of the enemy, and thereby cover a raid of the cavalry upon the Goldsboro and Wilmington Railroad. It was most successful, for a battalion of the 3d New York having struck the road at Mt. Olive Station, took the people wholly by surprise. They came upon a crowd of passengers waiting for the train, which was, however, unavoidably detained on that day, at least, as they destroyed the track and telegraph for some miles, rejoining the main command without the loss of a man.

We marched on some hours after the fight was over, finding the country much more hilly, and decidedly pleasanter. The latter part of the day, a few of us, wearying of the monotony of the march, started ahead on our own account, passing regiment after regiment. An occasional meeting with old friends among the Massachusetts troops, with whom we rehearsed the events of the past two or three days, created quite a pleasant diversion, and relieved to a great extent the tedium of the way.