Colonel H. H. Carrington. 219
tested battles of the war, and resulted in a glorious victory for the Confederacy.
Soon after the fight at Drewry's Bluff, Colonel Carrington was sent with his regiment to rejoin its own (Hunton's) brigade, then north of James river. It had for several months served with Corse's Brigade in North Carolina and around Petersburg. Under Hunton it had fought at second Cold Harbor and around Richmond, until late in June, when Pickett's Division (to which Hunton's Brigade belonged), was sent to the trenches around Petersburg, and front- ing General Grant's army.
For months after, although in feeble health, Colonel Carrington, with his regiment, stuck nobly to his duty, sometimes repelling assaults upon Lee's lines; at all times under fire and exposed to deadly peril.
In August, 1864, Colonel Withers, in consequence of the wounds received at Games' Mill two years before, was retired, and Colonel Carrington was promoted full colonel of the i8th Virginia regiment, General Hunton saying in his order enclosing the promotion to Colonel Carrington, that "it was as well deserved as it had been long delayed." While fronting the enemy about Petersburg, and notwithstanding the difficulties and perils to which it was subjected, the 1 8th Virginia, under the efficient management of Colonel Car- rington, was largely recruited, and became again one of the finest in the service.
In the early spring of 1865, Grant's ever-increasing army broke the lines of Lee's ever-decreasing army, and then commenced that disastrous retreat which presaged the downfall of the Confederacy. At Five Forks, at Dinwiddie, at Farmville, at Sailor's Creek and to the end at fateful Appomattox, where the star of the Confederacy went down in darkness and blood, Colonel Carrington with his i8th Regiment proudly sustained the splendid reputation, which for four years they had won through trial, privation and bloody carnage.
Colonel Carrington fought in twenty-nine pitched battles and in numberless lesser fights, and was never absent from his post of duty except when disabled by wounds or a prisoner of war. He was greatly beloved by his associates in arms, especially by the men un- der his command.
After the surrender, Colonel Carrington returned to his once beautiful, but now desolated, home and to those who were left of those so dear to him. Many fearful changes had taken place in and around his native place. Broken in fortune, but not in spirit, he
