D. H. Hill, Jr., Confederate Military History, a library of Confederate States Military History: Volume 4, North Carolina
Clement Anselm Evans, Ed.

[151] Thomas' legion in the mountains. The field returns for January show that the forces scattered over the State aggregated 31,442 men.¹ This large number of soldiers was collected in the State because it was thought another strong expedition was about to descend upon Wilmington, or some point on the coast. Upon the opening of the spring campaign, these troops were sent in all directions.

After General Foster's return to New Bern from Goldsboro, his force around New Bern showed little activity. Some expeditions were occasionally sent out, resulting in skirmishes or minor engagements. At Sandy Ridge, on the 13th of February, the Fifty-eighth Pennsylvania infantry had a skirmish with a detachment from the Eighth North Carolina regiment, in which 4 North Carolinians were wounded. An expedition under Capt. Colin Richardson, of the Third New York cavalry, engaged some militia near Swan Quarter and Fairfield on the 4th of May. In these two skirmishes the Federals lost 18 men.

During this spring, enormous supplies of meal and meat for the maintenance of the Confederate armies were drawn from North Carolina, and military operations in Virginia and North Carolina were made to so shape themselves as to facilitate the collection of these supplies. Shortly after General Longstreet was assigned to command the department of Virginia and North Carolina, he learned

that there was a goodly supply of produce along the east coast of Virginia and North Carolina, inside the military lines of the Federal forces. To collect and transmit this to accessible points for the Confederates, it was necessary to advance our divisions so as to cover the country, and to hold the Federal forces in and about their fortified positions while our trains were at work. To that end I moved with the troops in Virginia across the Blackwater to close lines about the forts around Suffolk, and ordered the troops along our line in North