The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1900-02-20
Spirit of the Press.
WYATT THE FIRST CONFED-
ERATE KILLED IN ACTION.
fayetteville Observer.

l. ayetteVlIle observer.
We find the following in a highly es-
teemed contemporary, no doubt inserted
by inadvertence:
LET it be borne in min that Henry
Wyatt. killed at Bethel, was neither q
native of North Carolina, nor was he
the first soldier killed. Wyatt was born
in Richmond, Va. The first soldier kill
ed was in a Virginia cavalry company;
and it was some days before the Skin
mish at Bethel. North Carolina asks
for no donors that do not belong to her.
The matter was long ago thrashed OUT
at a time, too, when the events, OF
which this was such a conspicuous one,
were fresh in the public mind-and it
was settled that Henry Wyatt, a private
in Captain Bridgers's Company a
(Edgecombe Guards, Of the First North
Carolina Volunteers, C"Bethel) Regi-
ment, was the first soldier Of the Con-
federacy killed in battle. The incl
dent has passed into history, so far as
North Carolina is concerned, being cut
in the enduring granite ON the principal
face of the Soldiers Monument that
stands at the west front of the Capltoi
SQUARE at Raleigh, erected there by
the women Of North Carolina under the
authority and by the assistance Of the
NtdlS. IIt AA1SA So0S
Bethel, Last at AppomattoS.' The
meaning of this epigram, as we under
| stand, it is that the State won the first
battle Of the war at Bethel and gave
the first life in battle there: and thar
the first life in battle there; and that
pomattox, being the most numerous ans
also firing the last shots there.
That the truth is as We have stated
it. and that the matter may be accepted
as settled for all time, it is only neces-
sary to refer to the authoritative view
of what may be considered the other
party to the question. viz: the his
torians Of Virginia. On page 14O, OF
Volume Ill, of the Confederate Mill
tary History being the Virginia vol
ume of that great work, Major JED
Hotchkiss, the historian selected by the
Confederate Veterans of Virginia, says,
in his account of the Battle of Bethel:
I'm his report, General Magrudel
lauded the conduct of his men, adding:
Too much praise cannot be bestowed
upon the heroic soldier whom we lost.
He was one of four who volunteered
to set fire to a house in our front, which
was thought to afford protection to oui
enemy, and, advancing along between
the two fires, he fell midway. pierced
in the forehead by a musket ball. Henry
L. Wyatt is the name of this brave sol
der and devoted patriot. He was {
member Of the brave and gallant FRS
North Carolina Regiment 1t is gen
orally admitted (adds the Virginia histo
rian, Major Hotchkiss) that youns
Wyatt was the first Confederate soldier
killed in action in Virginia during tn
Civil War"
The whole matter, together with tn
long list of leaders whom this "favorit'
regiment" of North Carolina ave to tn
companies, regiments, ~brigades, divis
; ions and corps, that were organized af
ter or shortly before its disarmament
and the many other incidents which
; proved its worthiness of the primary 20
t sition assigned it by the State, are. a
+ we understand it, given in the "Histor,
of the First North Carolina Volunteers
or Bethel Regiment which is now be
ing published by the Raleigh News an
/ Observer under Judge Clark's direction
3 1t IS true. as stated in this regiments
? history Though not alluded to by Majo
a Hotchkiss in his) that Wyatt was Dor
;. in Virginia, his parents at the tim
| being residents Of Richmond, but 1
a and they We're citizens Of North Care
j lima when he volunteered as a private i
r the Edgecombe Guards. They remove
9 to North Carolina during his childhood