See You In The Field

 (C) 2015 Rick Walton, Historian of the 6th North Carolina State Troops I am sitting in my office today, in Wendell, N. C.,  reflecting on why I'm not with my comrades at Appomattox and lamenting a bad back that kept me out of the field on this sesquicentennial anniversary. Outside my window, dark clouds drift overhead making the day as somber as this occasion calls for. Of the more than 2,000 boys and men that served with the 6th North Carolina State Troops over the course of the war, Only 181 received paroles at Appomattox on this day. Only 72 still carried arms! Two questions arise: Why so few men and why so few arms? As part of Lewis' Brigade, The 6th North Carolina participated in a desperate attack on Fort Steadman in Petersburg on March 25, 1865. Although successfully getting into the Fort as the Yankee defenders fled, a counter attack made their position untenable and their retreat deadly. William J. Walker, of company K, 6th NCST, wrote, "... it looked almost impo