Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1892-07-14

Carolinians fired away all their bullets
and took TO rifing the boxes of the
dead for more. And it got as good as
il gave. One of the wounded Of Row
| ,ey's brigade, who lay on the field when
the Carolinians passed on in pursuit OF
the retreating Union columns. said that
they didn't charge in line of battle. but
| in squads, so hot was the Union ire.
The Twenty sixth showed no line OF
/ battle when it finally advanced over the
| field it had won, because there were only
/ ten isolated squads where formerly the
ten magnificent companies had been.
| Over 600 of the 500 men had caught
| hot bullet apiece and some of them two
or three. The roll call that evening
showed exactly PIG men uuhurt.
1t might be thought that another fur
| Tough would fall to the lot of a regiment
so terribly punished. No; it took its
place in line on July 3 to support Pick
ett's charge on the left of the column.
| It's place that day was the right OF
Pettigrew's division joining the left of
| Pickett. a connecting link between the
two AS Pickett advanced the uneven
ground broke the formation Of the line,
the right and chung close to Plckett's
column. They kept in step with his
line over the meadows, across Emmits-
burg pike, on, on up the slope to the
stone wal north of the angle. At that
point the wall receded toward the Union
line and compelled them to 20 farther
than Pickett in order to reach
Hancock's work. Bravely the little
remnant. spared 10 come
From the Jaws Of death,
Back from the mouth OF hell
on ;he first day, held their grip on the
flank of Pickett's pound stepping batta-
lions, like the little boys on the flying
end of the line in ''Snap the Whip
bravely they faced the whitening blast
of fire that greeted the charge, and
bravely they leaped the stone wall aud
struggled few PAGES beyond it, carving
the true high water mark of the rebell-
ion; then the color bearer fixed the staff
among the loOses stones and fell dead
across the wall.
During the charge up the slope the
regiment had fired but few shots, but at
the wall the rifles were busily plieG
until countercharge on the flank and
rear showed the hopelessness of their
daring effort Looking to the left Union
Drigades and batteries were sweeping
the field Not a mounted officer sur
viyed in the Carolina brigade. Looking
to the right they saw Pickett's line
broken and his men retreating.
The commander. Maj. Jones. got to
gether 90 men and led them back to the
startinE point. Describing the expert
ence Of the Twenty sixth during the
charge he said: when we had crossed |
about half the intervening space the
enemy opened upon us a tremendous
shower of grape and canister but on
we dashed When we had gotten within |
about 200 yards of the enemy's works
we commenced firing, but still advanc- |
ing The storm of lead which now met
us is beyond description. Grape and I
canister, intermingled with minies. The
smoke was dense, and at times | could |
scarcely distinguish my own men from
Pickett's. On we pushed, and were |
now right upon the enemy's works, |
when we received murderous fire upon |
our left flank. looded to see where it |
came from and 10! we were completely
ilanked upon our left, not only by
infantry, but by artillery.
AT the very moment | thought vic |
tory ours, saw it snatched from our
hands. With no support on the left
asked myself what should we do. | had I
only sixty men left in my regiment and |
that small number was diminishing |
every moment The order came from
the right TO fall back. We did so at the |
same time with Pickett. The day was
lost BY way of apology for retreating
from the angle he said, with our
thinned ranks in such position it |
would have been folly to stand against
sucl. odds
There We're PIC in the band when it
started to climb Cemetery Ridge, and
that night so answered TO roll call,
many of them wounded In one COM
pany that mustered 81 on July /, only
the orderly sergeant was left. and he
wore bullethole in each lee. In
another company sergeant and men
were left, every last man of the absent
being killed or wounded So It was
throughout the regiment. When the
official count was made Sc were knowa
to haue been killed outright SOP
wounded and 100 were missing. All of
the missing were in Pickett's charge.
and many of the them should be added
to the killed and wounded.
Three months after Gettysburg. the
Twenty sixth lost 80 killed and wound
ed in a charge at Bristol Station, Va,
but in spite Of its many disasters KEEP
the field to the end and was among the
elect found fighting in the Confederacy's
Last Ditch. GEORGE L. KILMER.