Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1863-07-28

the citizens of New York. an. Register. that
if by nothing else, BY the2a nave suffered anu
+hes1 and fsr.on, their reputation
go M. be Iss.sished By an anonymous ae,rspa
per correspondent no newspaper cores
pnndent can tarnish reputation by the state
ment Of a falsehood-and if a" has written
what is not fact he can be exposed by oh
enquiry, which, if demanded by Governor
Vance, we have no doaht will he granted by
Gen. Lee.
The simple fact is whether the division OF
Gen. Hcth, commanded on the Sd July. by
Gen. pettigrew, did support, as they were or.
dered, the assault made by Gen. Pickett p
Did Pettigrew's command ever reach the enc
my's position? Did they start, break and re-
| treat?
AS it is no part Of our desire to do any IL
justice, we rcpublish the "Register's" defence
Of Gen. Pettigrew's Brigade
"A correspondent of the Richmond En-
quirer,' in a letter giving an eccount Of the
battle at Gettysburg, does the grossest n-
Justice to Gen. Pettisrew's Brigade. IIererre.
Scnts it as breaking ut critical point in-thc
battle, and flying to the woods in spite Of Gen.
Pettigrew's efforts to rally them and lead
them against the enemy. For the following
reasons, we believe this account to be wholly
untrue: In the first place. the letter--the
last he ever wrotc-trIn General Petit
| grew, to Gov. Vance, and which we pull
| lished III our last paper, speaks favorably OF
| the conduct Of thise brigade, telling their
friends to be proud of them as'they deserve
it, In the second place. the list of casualties
shows that the llth, Goth and 4Ith regiments
all belonging to this brigade, suffered terribly
Ia the third place, the Enquirers' cores
pondent, by his own admission, although
standing upon an cminence,' was at some
distance from the scene OF action; and it is
utterly impossible that, through the smoke Of
Lof the conduct Of Pcitigrew's brigade.as that
general himself, who was with his hen i'll
the fight, and. who speaks well of their con-
duct in letter to the Chief Magistrate of the
State which sent them forth to the war 1t is 4
hard, that when they have suffered, and toiled,
and fought, and fallen, their reputation should
be furnished by Oh anonymous newspaper cor
respondent.
"Will not the Richmond Enquirer as an
act of justice, give place in its columns to
what we have written? We hope it will.
''Since writing the above, our attention has
been called to the fact that the 'Enquircrs'
correspondent speaks Of the diriSion under
command of Gen. Pettsrcw, not his brigade
particularly. Gen. Pettigrew was in COM
mand of Gen. Heth's division, and it is true
the correspondent of the Enquirer does say
d;cis,on, but his speaking of the troops under
Pettigrcw being moSty raw troops recently |
broug Int from the South, shows that he refer |
redmore particularly 10 Pettigrew's brigade |
and consequently our remarks are Just as ap |
propriate as if he had said 61Jyade instead of |
dirisioH.'
We have heard that the brigade Of Petit
grew. commanded hy Colonel --, tie iii, |
vision being commanded by Pettigrcw, did be-
have much better than any other brigade Of
that division. but owing to the gap created by |
the flight Of the other brisadcs of ;his division,
they could render no suprort--hnr' this is |
mere report.
II our correspondent has Gone any injustice !
to this or any other portion Of the army, the |
Enquirer will make the correction Us soon
us received, but unit! we nave more informa-
ti"n than that furnished in the denial of the
'Eegi>tcr,' we are boand to believe what our
correspondent -" whites.