May 7—Resumed our march at 8 A.M., got ten miles, and halted within one mile of the creek. We waded Gum Swamp, stayed there three hours, and turned about—marched nine miles to-night. This expedition was to tear up the Newbern and Kinston Railroad, and also bring some ladies and old men out of the Yankee lines, for they had been driven out of Newbern. There were about seventy in all. They were, of course, Southern people who would not take the oath of allegiance to the United States Government, and therefore were driven out of their homes.
Diary of a Tar Heel Confederate Soldier by Louis Léon
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