The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1895-09-01

iIGSu lAbODS LAOla AAAS ASAts w AOA AACO
in line with them on their right
and were hotly engaged in the battles of
that afternoon, driving the enemy before
us and capturing a number of prisoners.
At shutdown we were in the edge of Get
tysburg, and the regiment was placed
behind the railroad embankment just in
front az the seminary. In the afternoon
Lieut.. Col. Smith, while this regiment
was waiting in reserve, walked towards
the right 10 recOnnOitre and was NOR
tally wounded and died that night.
Mai. Belo was also severely wounded in
the leg just as the battle closed that
evening. Davis brigade, during the
night, was moved from its position on
the railroad cut near the seminary to a
piece Of woods across WillOughby Run,
west of the mineral springs, ard there
rested during the I'd. On the night of
the second it was moved to its position
on the Confederate line known as Semi
nary Ridge, on the right center, and
stationed in Mentions woods. Our
division being on the left of LOngstreet,
and our brigade being the left center Of
our division. Gen. Heth's had been
wounded on the 1st, and Gen. Pettigrew
was in command of our division. Gen
Pickett's division Of LOngstreet's corps
was on the right of our division, and
occupied a position just in the edge of
Spangler's woods. And it was from
these positions that we moved out to that
last fatal charge, on the afternoon Of
July Sd. Our division was not support
ing LOngstreet as has been repeatedly
published, but was one line with his
troops. Our regiment had suffered so
greatly on the 1st that in this charge it
was commanded by a captain, and some
of the companies were commanded by
non-commissioned officers. But the men
came up brayely to the measure of their
duty, and the regiment went as far as
any other on that fatal charge, and we
have good proof of the claim that a por-
ton OF the regiment led by Capt. Satter-
field, who was killed at this time,
reached a point near the Benner barn
which was more advanced than that
attained by any other of the assaulting
columns. Lieut.. 7. D. Falls, of Com
pany O, residing at Fallstown, Cleve-
land county, and Sergeant Augustus
Whitley, of Company E, residing at
Everitt's, in Martin county, who were
with Capt. Satterfeld, have recently
visited the battlefield, s,aad have made
affidavit as to the point reached by them.
The place. has been marked by the United
States commission, and the map below
will show the position attained by these
men of the 55th Regiment, in relation to
other known objects on the battlefield
such as the Benner barn and the Bronze
Book which marks the high-water mark
Of the struggle for Southern independ-
ence. The measurements for the map
were made by the late Col Batchelder,
of the United States commission, and by
Col. E. W. Cope, United States engineer,
for this field.
The forces engaged in this last charge
which settled not only the result Of the
battle of Gettysburg, but the fate of the
COnfederacy, were as follows
LoDgstreet's Corps, composed Of:
/. Picketts Division.
Kemper's Brigade, 1st, Sd, 18th, 18th
and Gath Virginia regiments.
Garnett's Brigade, 9Th, 18th, 10Th,
28th and seth Virginia regiments.
Armlstead's Brigade, 9th, 14th, 38th
and 57th Virginia regiments.
2. Heth's Division, commanded by
Brigadier General Pettigrew.
Archers Brigade, commanded by Col.
Fry, 18th Alabama regiment, 9Th Ala
bama battalion, and the list, It'll and
14th Tennessee regiments.
Pettigrew's Brigade commanded by
Col. Marshall, 18th, 26th, 9th and send
North Carolina regiments.
Davis Brigade, 2nd, 18th and 42nd
Mississippi regiments and the 55th North
Carolina regiment.
Brockenborough's Brigade, 40th, 47th
and 55th Virginia regiments, and 22nd
Virginia Battalion.
Bird. One-half of General Pender's Di-
vision.
Scales Brigade, commanded by Col.
Lawrence, 18th, 10th, 22nd, 34th and
38th North Carolina regiments.
Lanes Brigade, 9TH, 18th, 28th, 33rd
and 37th North Carolina regiments.
SO there were eighteen regiments and
one battalion from Virginia, sixteen regl-
ments from North Carolina, three regi-
ments from Mississippi, three regiments
from Tennessee, and one regiment and
one battalion from Alabama, in the as
saulting columns.
The contention between Pickett's di-
vision and Heth's division, the latter
commanded then by Pettigrew, has
doubtless arisen from the following:
The portion of the enemy's forces just in
front of Pickett's division was behind
low rock wall which terminated at a point
Just about opposite Pickett's left. About
eighty yards to the rear of this point
there was another stone wall which COM
menced there and ran along by Bonner
barn towards the cemetery, and the
enemy, instead of continuing his line to
his right from the termination Of the
first wall, and through tn field, drop
ped eighty yards to the second wall, and
continued his line behind that. So to
have reached the enemy in our front,
we must have marched eighty yards be-
yond continuation of their line from
the point where Pickett reached the
enemy In his front. Some of Pickett's
men passed over the first line of the
enemy and few of them reached a
point some forty yards in the rear of the
line and near the Federal battery.
Some of our regiment reached point
within nine yards of the rock wall in
front of us. That was seventy-three
yards beyond continuation of the line
of the first wall, and allowing two yards
for the thickness OF the first wall, and
adding to that the forty yards beyond the
rock wall to the point reached by some
of Pickett's men, and running line par