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Photo provided by g richard anderson
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Looking
for additional troops and a place to camp for a few nights of much needed
rest, the 35th Regiment found the Secrest Homestead in Waxhaw, NC. The sky was grey and showed signs of
rain. The curator of the property
agreed to let us pitch our tents for a few days and nights provided there
would be no trouble. Captain “Jack”
Flagg and Acting 1st Sergeant “Gus” Albritton arrived first on
site. Fences were erected with the
help of the local blacksmith, Mark. Afterwards, dirt was moved to make way for
the camp and then Gus set to making the flag poles for the 35th
Regiment. The wagon train began to
arrive bringing in tents and people during the night and into the
morning. Some folks came by to present
their stories and historical pieces for inspection which they left
In
the care of the curator of the property.
They were all dressed in black
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 and called themselves
Cliff, BJ, and Linda. Another lady, Patti,
showed up to wash our clothes and she brought the mail. The property was in much better shape than
we had remembered from the last time the war had brought us this way. Mark,
the  blacksmith, explained that he had found all manner of folks
in town to help in the construction effort.
The rain fell briefly cleaning the dust off of us from our
labors. On Saturday, the weather had
improved greatly and all was good in the camp as the women folk set to
cooking all manner of good things when the call went up from the center of
Town. A small group of Federals had
been sited in Town. We grabbed our
muskets along with a drummer and set off after them. We found them in the center of Town. Our drummer, Michael, commenced to beat on
that drum letting those blue devils and the local towns folk know that we
were about to make quick work of those Federals. We exchanged volleys and they ran from the
Town. We marched back to camp with
victory fresh in our minds. We found 2
Confederate soldiers in camp when we returned and many of the folk from town
followed us to camp to ask  a
variety of questions. We answered many
questions and then began to drill.
This time we recognized those Federals as the 2nd US
Infantry under the command of Dan Fulton as they emerged from the woods. They tried to take the Secrest Homestead
twice that afternoon but we stopped them each time. Our newest recruit, Austin showed great
courage under fire and never fell during that day. We did suffer some losses, 2 soldiers and a
drummer. Fortunately, another drummer
was found, Nicholas and another soldier, Pvt. Newt arrived to help with the
war effort. Pvt. Newt explained his
livestock had kept him from the field.
The women  finished preparing the meal and all were fed. The meal was fantastic, bread cooked in a
bee hive oven, stew, beans, chicken and dumplings, and some greens with
bacon. More food then we had all seen
in some time and better than any time during this campaign. Rich, a local historian of sorts, made images
of us. He also brought the stories
written about us in the local papers.
On Sunday, the clouds had completely given up and left the area. A soldier and man of the cloth arrived by
carriage. He gave his sermon and then
told us his days of taking the fight to the enemy were done. We thanked him for giving the troops
strength and asked him to stay in our midst.
A short time later, a  messenger sent word that Federal Troops
had been seen in Town. We returned and
again we chased them from the Town. The
remainder of the afternoon was the same as the day before as the Federals
tried again in vain to take the Secrest House. Many folks came forward asking about the
unit and a few said they might consider joining the cause. The curator was pleased but asked how much
longer we would be on the property as it seemed each day we only brought
trouble. We thanked her and told her
we were breaking camp as we believed the Federals had moved off towards Charleston, SC. We broke camp and packed up the
wagons. Several us met at a local
tavern were we traded stories of the battles and of future battles to come
over a fine meal and hearty laughter.
Advancing
forward under fire
Captain
R.M. "Jack" Flagg
35th
Regiment, North Carolina
Troops,
Company
F, Union County, Redwine Beauregards
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