Reassignment Spared Unit

Jacob H. Idol (Eitel) was a private in the Confederate army. At some point, Co. A, 42nd North Carolina Infantry, were guards at the Salisbury prisoner of war camp. Some soldiers voted to go to the “Eastern Theatre” Army of Northern VA and saw action at Cold Harbor under Gen. Hoke’s command at Petersburg. Their position at Petersburg would become known as the “Crater,” where a Union mine went off. Had the 42nd not been sent to Wilmington, they would have been devastated by the mine. Company A was sent to Battery Anderson, “Ocean Front,” north of Fort Fisher, where the entire company was captured on Christmas Day in 1864. They passed through Fortress Monroe, then to the prisoner of war camp at Point Lookout, Maryland, and signed an “Oath of Allegiance.”