Fighting at Harriet's Chapel

On December 14, Union troops overwhelmed the Confederate line at Harriet’s Chapel. After making a determined stand, the outnumbered Confederates withdrew, fighting as they pulled back toward Jones Bridge. Union Gen. Henry Wessells spent hours maneuvering his regiments into the swamp, and artillery pounded the Union soldiers as they formed in line of battle. Wessells planned to flank the Confederates and force them out of their fortifications, using the same strategy that had succeeded at Southwest Creek the day before. As the Union troops advanced, the Confederates struck them with volley after volley of shot and canister, but unable to stop the Federal forces, they withdrew. The infantry fell back in a fighting retreat, protecting the artillery as it made for Jones Bridge. After the battle, Harriet’s Chapel was left perforated by fire from Minie-balls to thirty-two-pound shells, the trees had their bark stripped away, and dead and wounded lay around the church.

North Carolina · United States