There was a store-house in the village of Swift Creek, containing a variety of articles in the dry goods, grocery and merchandise line. Some of the boys smelt the plunder, and proceeded to confiscate. The wife of the owner of the store suspecting what was going on, went to Col. Fellows and told him the men were breaking in, and he immediately repaired to the scene of operations to put a stop to such work. A member of Co. K, who had been left on the watch, gave warning of the colonel's approach, and the raiders hid. "What ho! there,--what does all this mean? What are you doing here?" (To Co. K man.) "I'm on guard, sir." "All right, madam," said the colonel; "you see there is a guard on." What plunder the boys obtained it would be bootless to relate. The expedition returned to Newbern, burning the bridge after them. The camp of the 17th was situated in what was formerly a cotton field, on the banks of the river Trent, affording excellent facilities for washing clothes and bathing, of which most of the men availed themselves,--and at all hours of the day men could be seen bathing in the river, or squatted along its margin washing clothes. It seemed at first sight to one unacquainted with the peculiarities of the climate, to be a well chosen and healthy location (and indeed it was about the best in the vicinity); but the hanging mosses that everywhere shrouded the few solitary cedars which still survived the ravages of the pioneer's axe, showed the unmistakeable presence of fever and ague--that pest of new and warm countries. About a couple of hundred yards up the river, close to the county bridge, a fort was in process of completion,--the work of 'contrabands,' numbers of whom I observed busily employed in and around it. Beyond this were encamped some light batteries; while still further on, and at the crossing of a deep, sluggish stream called Brice's Creek, a number of detailed men were at work constructing a block-house (a square-built fort, made of hewn logs, compactly put together--and most conveniently constructed to be knocked to pieces by a six-pounder about a poor devil's ears). Between the artillery camp and the block-house was a brick dwelling-house, once the property of Gov. Speight, the late owner and family of which fled after the battle of Newbern. This house was afterwards demolished to supply bricks for chimneys of barracks built near by in the Fall. To the rear of this house, about 75 yards distant, beautifully shaded by fine old trees, was the tomb of Gen. Speight, a revolutionary hero, and one of the early Governors of North Carolina. The plain on which the 17th were encamped is about two and a half miles long, and from one-half to two miles wide, and had, evidently, before the rude hand of war obliterated their boundaries and landmarks, consisted of two or three plantations. This plain was an excellent place for drilling, and nearly all reviews were held there.