Part 2

Was it arrogance or was it ignorance which always caused Pickett’s men to speak of the troops which marched on their left as their SUPPORTS? It is true that an order was issued and it was so published to them that they should be supported by a part of Hill’s Corps, and these troops were actually formed in their rear. It is equally true that before the command to move forward was given this order was countermanded and these troops were removed and placed on their left. As these movements were seen of all men this order could not have been the origin of the belief that Pettigrew had to support them. Was it arrogance and self-conceit? It looks like it. That their division stood to Lee’s army in the same relation that the sun does to the solar system. But then these people, it not blessed with some other qualities, had brains enough to know that our army could fight and conquer, too, without their assistance. They did comparatively little fighting at Second Manassas and Sharpsburg, had only two men killed at Fredericksburg, did not fire a shot at Chancellorsville, for they were miles away, and it is no exaggeration to say that they did not kill twenty of the enemy at Gettysburg.

The front line of troops, the line which does the fighting, was always known as “the line.” The line which marched in rear to give moral support and practical assistance, if necessary, was in every other known body of troops called the supporting line or simply “supports.” Pickett’s division had Kemper’s on the right, Garnett’s on the left, with Armistead’s marching in the rear of Garnett’s. Pettigrew’s formed one line with Lane’s and Scales’ brigades of Pender’s division, under Trimble, marching in the rear of its right as supports. How many supporting lines did Pickett’s people want? The Federals are said occasionally to have used three. Even one with us was the exception. Ordinarily one brigade of each division was held in reserve, while the others were fighting, in order to repair any possible disaster.

To show how a falsehood can be fortified by Art, I will state that I visited the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia and there saw a very large and really fine painting representing some desperate fighting at the so-called “Bloody Angle.” Clubbing with muskets, jabbing with bayonets and firing of cannon at short range, was the order of the day. Of course I knew that the subject of the painting was founded upon a myth; but had always been under the impression that while many of Pickett’s and a few of Pettigrew’s men were extracting the extremities of certain undergarments to be used as white flags, a part of them were keeping up a scattering fire. While before the painting a gentleman standing near me exclaimed: “Tut! I’ll agree to eat all the Yankees Pickett killed.” Entering into conversation with him I learned that he had been at Gettysburg, had fought in Gordon’s Georgia brigade, and that he did nor have a very exalted opinion of Pickett’s men. As our Georgian friend was neither remarkably large nor hungry-looking, several persons hearing his remark stared at him. That he did exaggerate to some extent is possible, for I have since heard that among the dead men in blue, near where Armistead fell, there were six who had actually been killed by musket balls.

Col. Fox, of Albany, N. Y., has published a work entitled, “Regimental Losses.” In it is seen a list of the twenty-seven Confederate regiments which had most men killed and wounded at Gettysburg. Readers of the histories of Pollard, Cooke and McCabe will be rather surprised to find only two Virginia regiments on this list. Those who are familiar with battlefield reports will not be surprised to see that thirteen of these regiments were from North Carolina and four from Mississippi. Three of the last named and five of the North Carolina regiments met with their loss under Pettigrew.

The North Carolina brigade had in killed and wounded eleven hundred and five, which is an average to the regiment of two hundred and seventy-six. There was not a Confederate regiment at either First or Second Manassas which equalled this average, and no Virginia regiment ever did.

This brigade on the first day met those of Biddle and Meredith, which were considered the flower of their corps, and many old soldiers say that this corps--the First--did the fiercest fighting on that day of which they ever had any experience, and the official records sustain them in this belief. Biddle’s brigade was composed of one New York and three Pennsylvania regiments. Meredith’s, known as the “Iron” brigade, was formed of five regiments from the west. (By the way, the commander of this body, Gen. Solomon Meredith, was a native of North Carolina, as was also Gen. Jno. Gibbon, the famous division commander in the second corps, and North Carolina luck followed them, as they were severely wounded in this battle.) Pettigrew’s brigade, with a little assistance from that of Brockenborough, after meeting these troops forced them to give ground and continued for several hours to slowly drive them ’till their ammunition became nearly exhausted. When this occurred the Federals had reached a ridge from behind which they could be supplied with the necessary ammunition. But not so with Heth’s troops. The field was so open, the contending lines so close together, and as every house and barn in the vicinity was filled with sharp-shooters, they could not be supplied and were in consequence relieved by two of Pender’s brigades. In the meantime the enemy was re-enforced by a fresh brigade of infantry and several wonderfully efficient batteries of artillery, and so when the brigades of the “right division” made their advance they suffered very severely before their opponents could be driven from the field. Meredith’s brigade this day had 886 killed and wounded and 266 missing; Biddle’s 642 killed and wounded and 255 missing. The loss in Brockenborough’s Virginia was 148. For the whole battle, as said before, Pettigrew’s killed and wounded amounted to 1,105; probably two-thirds of this loss occurred on this day.

These facts and figures are matters of record, and yet with these records accessible to all men, Swinton, a Northern historian, in the brilliant description he gives of the assault on the third day says that “Heth’s division, commanded by Pettigrew, were all raw troops, who were only induced to make the charge by being told that they had militia to fight and that when the fire was opened upon them they raised the shout, ‘The Army of the Potomac! The Army of the Potomac!’ broke and fled.” As after the battle the Virginia division had the guarding of several thousand Federal prisoners, captured by Carolinians and Georgians, they are probably responsible for this statement.

But to return to the fight of the first day. The Honorable Joseph Davis, then a Captain in the 47th, late Supreme Court Judge of North Carolina, speaking of this day’s battle, says: “The advantage was all on the Confederate side, and I aver that this was greatly, if not chiefly, due to Pettigrew’s brigade and its brave commander. The bearing of that knightly soldier and elegant scholar as he galloped along the lines in the hottest of the fight, cheering on his men, cannot be effaced from my memory.”

Captain Young, of Charleston, South Carolina, a staff officer of this division, says: “No troops could have fought better than did Pettigrew’s brigade on this day, and I will testify on the experience of many hard fought battles, that I never saw any fight so well.” Davis’ brigade consisted Of the 55th North Carolina, the 2nd, 11th and 42nd Mississippi. The 11th was on detached service that day. The three which fought also faced splendid troops. Here, too, was a square stand up fight in the open. During the battle these three had, besides the usual proportion of wounded, one hundred and forty-eight killed. Only two dead men were lacking to these three regiments to make their loss equal to that of ten regiments of Pickett’s “magnificent Virginians.”

Cutler’s brigade composed of one Pennsylvania and four New York regiments was opposed to that of Davis, and its loss this day was 602 killed and wounded and 363 missing, and many of the missing were subsequently found to have been killed or severely wounded. With varying success these two brigades fought all the morning. The Federals finally gave way; but three of their regiments, after retreating for some distance, took up a new line. Two of them left the field and went to town, as the day was hot and the fire hotter. It is said they visited Gettysburg to get a little ice water. However that may be, they soon returned and fought well ’till their whole line gave way.

The ground on which these troops fought lay north of the railroad cut and was several hundred yards from where Pettigrew’s brigade was engaged with Meredith’s and Biddle’s. As Rodes’ division began to appear upon the field Davis’ brigade was removed to the south side of the cut and placed in front of Stone’s Pennsylvania brigade (which, having just arrived, had filled the interval between Cutler and Meredith) but did no more fighting that day. After securing ammunition it followed the front line to the town. Had the interval between Daniel’s and Scales’ been filled by Thomas’, which was held in reserve, neither of these Carolina brigades would have suffered so severely. The 2nd and 42nd Mississippi and 55th North Carolina of Davis’ for the battle had 695 killed and wounded, and about two-thirds of this occurred in this first day’s fight.

To illustrate the individual gallantry of these troops I will relate an adventure which came under my observation. It must be borne in mind that this brigade had been doing fierce and bloody fighting since nine o’clock and at this time not only its numerical loss but its per centage of killed and wounded was greater than that which Pickett’s troops had to submit to two days later, and that it was then waiting to be relieved. Early in the afternoon of this day my division (Rodes’) arrived upon the field by the Carlisle road and at once went into action. My brigade (Daniel’s) was on the right, and after doing some sharp fighting, we came in sight of Heth’s line, which was lying at right angles to ours we approached. The direction of our right regiments had to be changed in order that we might move in front of their left brigade, which was Davis’. The Federal line, or lines, for my impression is there were two or more of them, were also lying in the open field, the interval between the opposing lines being about three hundreds yards. Half way between these lines was another, which ran by a house. This line was made of dead and wounded Federals, who lay “as thick as autumnal leaves which strew the brooks in Vallambrosa.” It was about here that the incident occurred. A Pennsylvania regiment of Stone’s brigade had then two flags--state and national--with their guard a short distance in front of them. One of these colors Sergt. Frank Price, of the 42nd Mississippi and half a dozen of his comrades determined to capture. Moving on hands and knees ’till they had nearly reached the desired object, they suddenly rose, charged and overcame the guard, captured the flag and were rapidly making off with it, when its owners fired upon them, all were struck down but the Sergeant, and as he was making for the house above referred to a young staff officer of my command, having carried some message to Heth’s people, was returning by a short cut between the lines, and seeing a man with a strange flag, without noticing his uniform he thought he, too, would get a little glory along with some bunting. Dismounting among the dead and wounded he picked up and fired several muskets at Price; but was fortunate enough to miss him. Sergeant Price survived the war. His home was in Carrollton, Mississippi. Recently the information came from one of his sons, a name-sake of the writer, that his gallant father was no more; he had crossed the river and was resting under the shade of the trees. The parents of Mr. Price were natives of the old North State. Does any one who has made a study of Pickett’s “magnificent division,” suppose that even on the morning of the 5th, when only eight hundred of the nearly or quite six thousand who had engaged in battle reported for duty, sad and depressed as they were, it could have furnished heroes like Price and his companions for such an undertaking, as in spite of friends and foes was successfully accomplished? General Davis says that every field officer in his brigade was either killed or wounded. My old classmate, Major John Jones, was the only one left in the North Carolina brigade, and he was killed in the next spring’s campaign.

The following extract is taken from a description of the assault by Colonel Taylor, of General Lee’s staff: “It is needless to say a word here of the heroic conduct of Pickett’s division, that charge has already passed into history as ‘one of the world’s great deeds of arms.’ While doubtless many brave men of other commands reached the crest of the heights, this was the only organized body which entered the works of the enemy.” Pickett’s left and Pettigrew’s and Trimble’s right entered the works. Men from six brigades were there. Which command had most representatives there is a disputed point. As to the superior organization of Pickett’s men what did that amount to? In the nature of things not a brigade on the held was in a condition to repel a determined attack.

Just before the final rush two bodies of Federals moved out on the field and opened fire, the one upon our right the other upon the left. The loss inflicted upon our people by these Vermonters and New Yorkers was very great, and not being able to defend themselves, there was on the part of the survivors a natural crowding to the centre. The commander of a Federal brigade in his report says, “Twenty battle flags were captured in a space of one hundred yards square.” This means that crowded within a space extending only one hundred yards there were the remnants of more than twenty regiments. But Col. Taylor says that Pickett’s division “was the only organized body which entered the enemy’s works.”

The late General Trimble said: “It will be easily understood that as Pickett’s line was overlapped by the Federal lines on his right, and Pettigrew’s and Trimble’s front by the Federal lines on their left, each of these commands had a distinct and separate discharge of artillery and musketry to encounter, the one as incessant as the other, although Pickett’s men felt its intensity sooner than the others, and were the first to be crushed under a fire before which no troops could live. While Pettigrew and Trimble suffered as much or more before the close because longer under fire, in consequence of marching farther.” And again: “Both Northern and Southern descriptions of the battle of Gettysburg, in the third day’s contest, have without perhaps a single exception, down to the present time, given not only most conspicuous prominence to General Pickett’s division, but generally by the language used have created the impression among those not personally acquainted with the events of the day that Pickett’s men did all the hard fighting, suffered the most severely and failed in their charge, because not duly and vigorously supported by the troops on their right and left. It might with as much truth be said that Pettigrew and Trimble failed in their charge, because unsupported by Pickett, who had been driven back in the crisis of their charge and was no aid to them.”

Some time ago Gen. Fitz Lee wrote a life of his uncle, Gen. Robert E. Lee, and in a notice of this book the courteous and able editor of a leading Richmond newspaper gives a fine description of the part borne by Pickett’s division in Longstreet’s assault on the third day, but has little or nothing to say about the other troops engaged; whereupon a citizen of this State (North Carolina) wrote and wished to know if there were any North Carolinians upon the field when Pickett’s men so greatly distinguished themselves. In answer the editor admits that he had forgotten all about the other troops engaged, and says: “We frankly confess that our mind has been from the war until now so fully possessed of the idea that the glory of the charge belonged exclusively to Pickett’s division that we overlooked entirely the just measure of credit that Gen. Fitz Lee has awarded other commands.” Whereupon a correspondent of his paper, curiously enough, is in high spirits over this answer, and referring to it says: “It is especially strong in what it omits to say. The picture of the charge, as given by Swinton, as seen from the other side, would have come in perfectly; but it would have wounded our North Carolina friends and was wisely left out.”

Now, as to the impertinence of this correspondent who refers to what Swinton said, there is a temptation to say something a little bitter, but as the writer has made it a rule to preserve a judicial tone as far as possible, and in presenting facts to let them speak for themselves, he refrains from gratifying a very natural inclination. Probably with no thought of malice Swinton, in making a historical flourish, sacrificed truth for the sake of a striking antithesis. This of course he knew. Equally of course this is what the correspondent did not know. No one ever accused John Swinton of being a fool.

A distinguished writer in a recent discussion of this assault says: “History is going forever to ask Gen. Longstreet why he did not obey Gen. Lee’s orders and have Hood’s and McLaw’s divisions at Pickett’s back to make good the work his heroic men had done.” Not so. History is not going to ask childish questions.

A Virginian writer in closing his description of this assault has recently said: “Now, this remark must occur to every one in this connection. Pickett’s break through the enemy’s line, led by Armistead, was the notable and prodigious thing about the whole battle of Gettysburg.” If so, why so?

The commanders of Wright’s Georgia and Wilcox’s Alabama brigades report that when fighting on Longstreet’s left on the afternoon of the second day, they carried the crest of Cemetery Ridge and captured twenty-eight cannon. The truth of this report is confirmed by General Doubleday, who says: “Wright attained the crest and Wilcox was almost in line with him. Wilcox claims to have captured twenty guns and Wright eight.”

In another place he says, in speaking of a certain officer: “On his return late in the day he saw Sickle’s whole line driven in and found Wright’s rebel brigade established on the crest barring his way back.”

Late in the same afternoon over on our left in Johnson’s assault upon Culp’s Hill, Stewart’s brigade carried the position in their front and held it all night. Also late the same afternoon two of Early’s brigades, Hoke’s North Carolina and Hay’s Louisiana, carried East Cemetery Heights, took many prisoners and sent them to the rear, several colors, and captured or silenced twenty guns (spiking some of them before they fell back). And a part of them maintained their position for over an hour, some of them having advanced as far as the Baltimore Pike. It is an undoubted fact that even after their brigades had fallen back parts of the 9th Louisiana and 6th North Carolina, under Major Tate, held their position at the wall on the side of the hill (repelling several attacks) for an hour, thus holding open the gate to Cemetery Heights, and it does seem that under cover of night this gate might have been used and the Ridge occupied by a strong force of our troops with slight loss.

On the afternoon of the third day the men who were in front of the narrow space abandoned by the enemy, and some who were on their right and left, in a disorganized mass of about one thousand, crowded into this space for safety. (Less than fifty followed Armistead to the abandoned gun.) When, after about ten minutes, they were attacked they either surrendered or fled. No one knows what State had most representatives in this “crowd” as the Federal Col. Hall calls them, but the man who wrote that they did “the notable and prodigious thing about the whole battle of Gettysburg” thinks he knows. All soldiers now know, and many knew then, that in sending 9,000 or 10,000 men to attack the army of the Potomac, concentrated and strongly fortified, there was no reasonable hope of success.

The thing of most interest to readers of history is the question to which of the troops engaged on that ill-starred field is to be awarded the palm for heroic endurance and courageous endeavor. To know the per centage of killed and wounded of the different troops engaged in this assault, is to know which are entitled to most honor. Some of the troops in Pettigrew’s division met with a loss of over 60 per cent. The per centage for Pickett’s division was not quite 28. The 11th Mississippi, as said elsewhere, was the only regiment in Pettigrew’s or Trimble’s divisions, which entered the assault fresh. Most of the other troops of these commands had been badly cut up in the first day’s battle, and the exact number they carried into the assault is not known, but entering fresh the number taken in by the Eleventh is known, and the number it lost in killed and wounded is reported by Dr. Guild. Consequently there cannot be the slightest doubt that its per centage of loss for the assault was at least 60. It is fair to presume that the per centage in the other regiments of its brigade was equally great. It is also fair to presume that the brigade immediately on its right, which went somewhat farther and stayed somewhat longer under the same terrific fire, lost as heavily.

If the charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava in which it lost 35 per cent. has rendered it famous, why should not the charge of Davis’ brigade in which it lost 60 per cent. render it equally famous? And if the blundering stupidity of the order to charge has excited our sympathy in behalf of the British cavalry, is there not enough of that element in the order to the infantry brigade to satisfy the most exacting? And if Davis’ brigade deserves fame why do not all the brigades--with one exception--of Pettigrew and Trimble also deserve it?

Col. W. E. Potter, of the 12th New Jersey, Smyth’s brigade, Hay’s division, in an address delivered several years ago, after speaking in very complimentary terms of the conduct of the North Carolina and Mississippi brigades of Pettigrew’s division, says: “Again a larger number of the enemy was killed and wounded in front of Smyth than in front of Webb. Of this, besides the general recollection of all of us who were then present, I have special evidence. I rode over the field covered by the fire of these two brigades on the morning of Sunday, July 5th, in company with Lt. Col. Chas. H. Morgan, the chief of staff of Gen. Hancock, and Capt. Hazard. As we were passing the front of Smyth’s brigade, Col. Morgan said to Hazard: ‘They may talk as they please about the hard fighting in front of Gibbon, but there are more dead men here than anywhere in our front.’ To this conclusion Hazard assented.”

After the frightful ordeal they had been through it is not to the discredit of any of the troops engaged to say that when they reached the breastworks, or their vicinity, there was no fight left in them, for there is a limit to human endurance. This limit had been reached, and this is shown by the fact that there was not an organization upon the field which, when an attack was made on its flank, made the slightest attempt to change front to meet it, but either surrendered or fled. This being the case the only thing of interest is to decide which brigades received the most punishment before this limit was reached.