meat by picking maggots out of dried apples and dried peaches as has
been the case sometimes in the past on our "Wild West Frontier." There
were potatoes, Irish and sweet, navy beans, onions, meat, stacks of
light bread, canned salmon, canned tomatoes, etc. These were not all
served at one meal, but all these articles and others go to make up
the army ration list.

The spirit and discipline of officers and men was admirable, and
reflected great credit upon the Old North State. There was an
enthusiastic spirit and buoyancy that made their discipline and
evolutions well nigh perfect. The secret of it all was confidence in
their leader. They believe in their colonel, and the colonel in turn
believes in his men. Col. James H. Young possesses in a marked degree
a quality of leadership as important as it is rare. He probably knows
by name at least three-quarters of his regiment, and is on pleasant
terms with his staff and the men in the ranks, and yet maintains a
proper dignity, such as befits his official rank.

[Illustration: PROF. CHARLES F. MESERVE, OF SHAW UNIVERSITY, RALEIGH,
N.C. (Who investigated and made report on the Third N.C. Volunteers.)]

On the last afternoon of my visit of inspection Col. Young ordered
the regiment drawn up in front of his headquarters, and invited me to
address them. The Colonel and his staff were mounted, and I was given
a position of honor on a dry goods box near the head of the beautiful
horse upon which the Colonel was mounted. Besides Colonel James
H. Young, of Raleigh, were near me Lieutenant Colonel Taylor, of
Charlotte; Major Walker, of Wilmington; Major Hayward, of Raleigh;
Chief Surgeon Dellinger, of Greensboro; Assistant Surgeons Pope, of
Charlotte, and Alston, of Asheville; Capt. Durham, of Winston; Capt.