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[324] offered his services to the State He acted as drillmaster and adjutant in the first camp of instruction near Raleigh, where he was elected major of the First North Carolina volunteers, Col. D. H. Hill. His first service was on the Virginia peninsula, where on July 8th, with a detachment composed of the Buncombe riflemen and one gun of the Richmond howitzers, he attacked and chased a marauding party across New Market bridge in full view of Old Point and Hampton, becoming responsible, as Colonel Hill publicly declared at the time, for the subsequent affair at Big Bethel. In that encounter he served in the salient before which Major Winthrop was killed. His regiment here earned the title of the ‘Bethel’ regiment, and he was dubbed the ‘Little Major’ and elected lieutenant-colonel when Hill was promoted. Not long afterward he was elected colonel of the Twenty-eighth North Carolina regiment, which he reorganized for the war, before the passage of the conscript acts. He was then again unanimously elected colonel, and at inspection near Kinston his command was complimented by General Holmes for being the first of the twelve months regiments to re-enlist for the war. He commanded his regiment at Hanover Court House when it was cut off by the overwhelming force under Fitz John Porter, and was praised by Generals Lee and Branch for the gallantry of the fight and the masterly extrication from disaster. At Cold Harbor he was wounded at the same time that the noble Campbell fell in front of his regiment, colors in hand, and at Frayser's Farm he received an ugly and painful wound in the face while charging a battery, but refused to leave the field. At Sharpsburg, when the brigade under Branch was hastening to the left, Lane and his regiment were detached by A. P. Hill and sent into the fight to support a battery and drive back the enemy. About dark Lane received an order from Branch to join the brigade, and when coming up met Major Engelhard, who, in response to an inquiry as to
Atlanta, Ga. 1899.
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