Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-05-30

Iout in and we had to RIDE right in and
Through the woods where the enemy
/ had been that day and where very
likely they then were. l know we
lexpected a sheet of flame to flash in our
faces any instant, and though we got
out of it all right you can understand
that couldn't relieve our apprehension
lat the time.' '
well, this interview with MI
Thorpe isn't quite as Interesting as it
was" remarked the reporter, but on
second thought it seemed better to let
him tell his story and here it is as pub
|lished in the Pittsburg Leader:
ben. it did its work; you may come
down now"
Nearly forty years ago on the morn
ing of the first day of July, 1853, these
words were spoken by Confederate
officer. and a lanky, beardless youth
clambered down from his perch in the
top branches of a cherry tree with a
rife still smoking in his hands.
Simultaneously. and only 900 yards
away, a gallant Union general, an army
corps leader, on whose shoulders
CLEANED the stars betokening his rank,
fell from his horse with bullet hole in
his head. and he died before his aids
could reach his side.
This is the story of the death of.
Major Gen. Reynolds, Pennsylvania
beloved soldier son. at the opening of
the first days battle at Gettysburg
told by the sharpshooter who had laid
him low and now published for the
first time. The incident has been hith-
erto almost unvoiced. for the man who
when only a boy of 16 years fired the
fatal shot has bitterly repented of it.
His name is Benjamin Thorpe, and he
is now. at the age of Sc, what he was in
the war. the crack shot of North Caro-
lima. and he still lives on his ancestral
acres just outside the village of Sat-
terwhite.
Ben Thorpe is not proud of his
achievement and only to his more init
mate friends will he talk of the shot
fired from the treetop that July morn
ing years ago. When he does speak of
lit there is poignant regret in his tone.
He regretted it the day he learned who
the distinguished target which his bull
let struck was. and he has never
Leased to regret it.
Lonely he lives upon his big planta-
|tion. his only companions, except for
Northern visitors, being a half score
of negro hands and twenty gaunt and
ferocious- looking deerhounds. He has
never married.
All day on the Both of June 1863, the
legiOns of Lee, Longstreet and Hill had
been sweeping up from the Southern
plains in the direction of Gettysburg,
intent upon destroying the Union army
of Hooker and Meade and opening up
1.-THE faireSt and richest valleys and
most populous cities of the North to
pillage.
In the van was the Confederate
brigands of Pettigrew and Archer, of
Heath's division, Hills corps, and
swinging up the Chambersburg road
this force. on the morning of July /,
had taken up commanding position
just below Seminary Ridge. In Nc
Pherson's woods and about an old
farmhouse which stood just beyond
them lay the Twenty-sixth North
lCarolina Infantry. each man n sharp
shooter, trained by long practice TO
pick a squirrel from the top of a tall
tree.
And q hundred or more of these
lsharpshooters lay snugly hidden in the
tops of the trees under orders to single
out Union officers as their quarry.
Facing them and holding a command
ling position on the crest of Seminary
Ridge were the Union artillery and
cavalry under Buford.
' tar CT at n IN
the morning of July 1, when General
| Reynolds, then commanding the First
Army Corps and holding the left of the
| Union line. came galloping along the
Emmetsburg road from his headquar-
tiers in advance of Wadsworth's divi-
sion. in which were included the Fifty
sixth Pennsylvania Regiment and the
Second Wisconsin. the famed Iron
Brigade; quickly he formed his plan of
battle. and as soon as the Second Wis
censin arrived upon the field west of
the seminary he ordered them to charge
the northern end of McPherson's
woods, where Archer's Confederate
brigade lay hidden, and capture the
position.
They obeyed and carried out the or
der given. but some idea of the cost
! NAV be gained from the fact that the
Second Wisconsin left 233 dead in the
woods. The death roll of the Twenty
| sixth North Carolina in that same
bloody ARRAY was 5SS.
AS the gallant charge was made Gen
Reynolds sat upon his horse on small
| eminehce near the northern end of tbs
woods issuing orders to his aides for the
| movements of other troops. He had jus
| turned his head to look for bis supporting
columns and hasten them on when rifle
/ ball struck him in the back of the head
, Freed from the firm hand upon the rein
his horse plunged few rods forward be
| fore his stricken rider fell to the grounc
dead.
officer seeing the fall. lowered the glasse
he had held to his eye and grimly said
Ben, it did its work
| Ben Thrope had been one of the hundre
sixth North Carolina, despite the fact tina
he was but 16 years old: and the position
assigned to him was in the top of a cherr
tree which commanded the low ground o
swale over which the Union troops mus
make their way to reach Mcpherson