The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-08-25
HE s~EMI.WEEKLY MESSENGER: FRIDAY. AZ GUST Is. 1884.

than Virginia ENTHUSIASTICALLY or
quite one half Of the whole
We give the following very informing
extract from Professor Hills most
timely paper:
Hence Pettigrew's men being on
line with Picbett,s had farther 70
charge TO enter these works. General
Trimble, a sternly courageous Mary
lender, says They did get to the road
and drove the opposing line from 1t.
The loss here was fearful, and I knew
that no troops could live long to en-
dure Il. I was anxious &c know how
things went on with the troops on our
right, and taking a QUICK but deliber-
ate view of the field ove which Pickett
had advanced, I perceived tina. the en-
enmy's fire seemed to slacken there,
and men in squads were falling back
on the west side Of the Emmittsburg
road. BY this I inferred that Pickett's
division had been repulsed, and if so,
that it would be a useless sacrifice Of
life to continue the contest I, there
fore, did not attempt to rally the men
who began to give back at the fence
CLetter quoted in Moore,s History
H., p. 1885,
General Lanes testimony, the tesri-
mony Of a gallant V~irginian, is the
same. He says: AS soon as I could
dismount from my wounded, plunging
horse, l ordered Colonel &C. NJ Avery,
in Command of my left regiment, to move
to meet the forces above referred to.
when he quickly replied, My God,
I General, do YOU Intend rushing your
men into such a place unsupported
when the troops on the right are fall
ing back!' Seeing that it was useless
to sacrifice my brave men, I ordered my
brigade back (Rebellion Records ~,
PIP. 338-346.) The testimony Of scores
Of others to the same facts is on re-
cord"
That tells the story, and it Is not
fable or f%alsehood, but exact, stern
truth. But once more let Professor Hill
be heard, and it is highly interesting
and suggestive:
First the total confederate loss in
killed and wounded (not including
'missing') was 15,301; the total North
Carolina loss in killed and wounded
was 4,033, owe one-fourth of the total
loss. Four hundred in killed and
wounded is considered a severe brigade
loss. Only sixteen confederate brigades
lost over that number at Gettysburg;
four of these, one-fourth were from
North Carolina. The heaviest regi-
mental loss at Gettysburg, 558 men,
was incurred by the Twenty-sixth
North Carolina regiment. In the
whole of General Lees army only eight
regiment lost 200 men in killed and
wounded; three of these, the Eleventh,
Twenty-sixth and Forty-ifth, were
from the same state. Only eighteen
regiments had over n hundred and
fifty killed and wounded; seven Of
! those were likewise from North Car
Dina.
| Second, in Pickett's grand charge on
| the right there were fifteen regiments.
The total number Of killed and wound
ed in these fifteen regiments was 1,464.
In Heth's division, commanded on the
! Bird by P%ettigrew, there were five North
| Carolina regiments. The killed and
| wounded in these five regiments
| amounted in the two days that they
| fought to 1903. In other words, the
| killed and wounded in five North Car
| DINA regiments of Pettigrew's division
| lacked only 16 men of numbering as
| many as the killed and wounded in the
| whole fifteen of Picketts division