The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-07-02
The Sixth Al GETTYSBURG.

Especial Correspondence.)
Messenger Bureau. Park Hotel.

tSpe9Gal cores poCg2TCe1
Messenger Bureau. Park Hctei.
Raleigh. n. c. June -
In Governor vance's war letter books
appears the following letter from Colonel
s Mcdowell Tate. commanding the Sixth
North Carolina regiment. II is dated
July $, 1sS: In Bivouac. near Hagers-
town. Nd" and is just now OF special
interest:
My Dear Governor-Excuse the neces-
sity o. writing with pencil and the famiil-
arity with which / address you. but mo-
ments are precious and while I am yet
spared ! must hasten to perform a sacred
duty to you as the honored head OF North
Carolina and TO Ler brave citizen soldiers.
especially those under my The
great reason for this is the fact that il
was North Carolinians only who sue
ceeded in entering the eneny's works at
Gettysburg: that our brigade commander
was slain and We have no friends who
viii tell OF our success on the night of the
md OF July. because ali but the Sixth
ISeglHent tailed our ~brigadier General
Hoke. being absent. wounded since the
battle OF Fredericksburg. ith OF MAY.
Colonet Avery was acting in his stead.
Lieutenant Colonel Witt. absent. sick in
virginia. left me in of the Sixth
in the Pennsylvania campaign. but this.
with the fear OF being suspected Of a de-
sire to claim more on that account shall
not deter me for complying with a
promise / have made the regiment 10 ac-
quaint you. as their governor. with the
truth. that history may hereafter speak
truly or them. Let me say at once that |
desire nothing and wish no notoriety. but
l do want the glorious band OF veterans in
this regimen to be appreciated and hon
ored at home. They are rapidly passing
away. but North Carolina will have rea-
son TO point with pride 10 their gallant
deeds.
o the 1st of July the confederate
army made a general attack on the enemy
posted in front of Gettysburg. OF Early's
division, the Louisiana and Hoke's brig
AIDES We're advanced to charge the enemy
behind fences. 1t was rapidly done tand
as is our usual fortune. Immediately I'm
our front it was a stone fence). the enemy
driven before us through the town to
their fortified heights behind. In this
charge we lost a number of gallant OFF,
GERS and men tmore than the balance of
the brigade) and captured a battery near
the fence. This battery will be credited
to Early's Division-see if it don't. The
Virginia and Georgia brigades were held
in reserve. Next day (2nd) we were ord
cred Louisiana and North Carolina
is proper to say there are a series of
heights, upon which the enemy had been
driven from all around. Longstreet
charged on the south face and was re-
pulsed. A. p. Hill charged on the west
face and was repulsed. Our two brigades
were ordered, late in the evening. to
CndrSe the north 'front.', ana after "a
struggle such as this was has furnished
no parallel TO, seventy-five North Caro-
linianS of the Sixth regiment and twelve
Louisianians of Hays brigade scaled the
walls and planted the colorS of the Sixth
North Carolina and Ninth Louisiana on the
guns. 1t was now fully dark. The enemy
stood with a tenacity never before dis
played by them, and with bayonets, club
bed muskets. sword and pistol and rocks
from the wall, we cleared the heights and
silenced the guns. In vain did / send TO
the rear for support; 1t was manifest
that ] could not hold the place without
aid, for the enemy were maSscd in all
the avine and adjoining heights and we
were fully half a mile from our lines.
Finding the enemy We're moving up n line
1 ordered the small band of heroes to fall
back from the crest to a stone wall ON the
side of the hill. where we awaited their
coming. Soon they came over the hill in
pursuit, when again we opened fire on
them and cleared the hill a second time.
Very soon / found they We're very numer-
Gus in the flats in my rear and now came
the question of surrender or retreat?
There was a calm and determined resolve
never to surrender zone of our North
Carolina regiments had done SO the day
before and under cover of the darkness L
ordered the men to break and risk the
fire. We did so and lost not a man in
getting out. On arriving at our lines ] de-
manded to know why we had not been
supported, and was cody told it was not
known we were in the works.
Il have no doubt the major general will
report the attack OF the WOTkS by ftOke s
and Hays b~rigades, which could not be
taken. Such monstrous injustice and de-
probation of our efforts is calculated to
be of serious injury, and then always to
divide the honors due to us among our
division is a liberality which is only
shown in certain cases. Of course the re-
ports are not written out, but | know the
disposition SO well that i look for no
special mention Of our regiment, while 1t
is the only one in the Army of Northern
Virginia which did go in and silence
the guns of the heights, and what Is more
if a support of a brigade had been sent
corps, on the day following, would have
been prevented. / still have 500 men. Col
onel Avery, a gallant officer, fell in front
of the heights. mortally wounded. He
died thirty-six hours afterward.
This regiment has had a reputation,
you know, and / fear no harm to Ii while
any are left, but it is due the noble dead
as well as the living that they would be
noticed in some way. i assure you It Is
no sensation or fancy picture. Such q
fight as they made in front and in the
Notifications has never been equaled. In
side the works the enemy were left lying
in great heaps and almost all with
bayonet Wounds. and many with skulls
broken by the breeches of our guns. We
left not a living man Of our enemy on the
hill.
Il write this now, fC. fear I will not
Tive to write at leisure hereafter. With
more than that this cannot be exactly an
official document. for it has no form. nor
beginning nor ending, but ii is a simple
story badly told. All we ask Is, don't
let old North Carolina be derided, while
her sons do all the fighting"