Corporal James E. Reid, U.S. Army, was on picket duty along Wilmington Road and present at the magazine explosion, but did not participate in either assault at Fort Fisher or in the Wilmington Campaign. He wrote a series of more than 100 installments about his experiences during the Civil War for the Ballston (N.Y.) Journal. I have made a digital copy of a scrapbook of these articles, and will share. As a souvenir of the battle at Fort Fisher, James was given a Bible that belonged to Herbert A. Sledge of the 36th North Carolina Regiment. In 1905 James returned the Bible to Herbert’s son, and the event was documented in a Boston newspaper as a sign of reconciliation.
