The Columbus journal., 1903-07-01


Her big cousins noble eagle proudly
scars
While her beaver coyly eyes him.
And II he came. a lover. to her doors
She would surely not despise him.
In the starry sky she reads her destiny
Tis a bright and wondr0us story
of what the maiden. Canada. will be
When she sits beneath old glory.
Britannia may a tear OF sorrow shed
When her daughter wills to leave her:
But Columbia will pat the lions head
When the eagle weds the beaver.
New York Sun.
Death Of Major-Gen. Reynolds.
"Ben, it did its work: you may come
down now"
Nearly forty years ago on the morn
ing of the first day of July, 1868. these
words were spoken by Confederate
officer, and a lanky. beardless youth
clambered down from his perch in the
top branches of cherry tree. with q
rife still smoking in his hands.
simultaneously. and only 800 yards
away, a gallant Union general. an
army corps leader. on whose shoulders
cleaned the stars betokening his rank.
fell from his horse with a 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 Is years fired the
fatal shot has bitterly repented of 1t.
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 Carolina, and he still lives on
his ancestral acres just outside the
village of Satterwhite.
Ben Thorpe is not proud OF his
achievement and only to his more In.
innate friends will he talk of the shot
fired from the treetOp that July morn
ing years ago. When he does speak
of it there is pOisnant regret in his
tone. He regretted it the day he
learned who the distinguished target
which his bullet struck was, and he
has never ceased to regret it.
Lonely he lives upon his big planta-
ton, his only companions, except for
Northern visitors. being q half score
of negro hands and twenty gaunt and
ferocious looking deerhOunds. He has
never married.
All day on the 30th of June. 1863,
the !egions of Lee, Longstreet and Hill
had been sweeping up from the South
ern plains in the direction of Gettys-
burg intent upon destroying the Union
army of Hooker and Meade and open
ing up the fairest and richest valleys
and most populous cities of the North
to pillage.
In the van were the Confederate
brisands of Pettigrew and Archer, of
Heath's division, Hills corps. and
swinging up the Chambersburg road
this force, on the morning of July I.
had taken up commanding position
just below Seminary Ridge. In Nc
Pherson's woods and about an Old
farm house which stood just beyond
them lay the Twenty-sixth North Car
olina infantry. each man a sharpshoot-
er, trained by long practice to pick
squirrel from the top of a tall tree.
And a hundred or more of these
lay snugly hidden in the
tops of the trees under orders to sin.
gle out Union officers as their quarry.
Facing them and holding a command.
ing position on the crest of Seminary
Ridge were the Union artillery and
cavalry under Buford.
Thus matters stood at 9 O'Clock on
the morning of July 1. when Gen.
Reynolds. then commanding the First |
Army Corps and holding the left of |
the Union line, came galloping along |
the Emmetsburg road from his head |
quarters in advance of WadswOrth's |
division, in which were included the |
F'ifty-sixth Pennsylvania regiment and |
The Second Wisconsin. the famed ]
Iron" brigade; quickly he formed his
plan of battle, and as soon as the Sec. |
md Wisconsin arrived upon the field |
vest of the Seminary he ordered them |
o charge the northern end of McPher-
sons woods, where Archer's Confed- |
crate brigade lay hidden. and capture
he position.
They obeyed and carried out the
,rder given. but some idea of the cost
nay be gained from the fact that the
second Wisconsin left 233 dead in the
woods. The death roll of the Twenty
;ixth North Carolina in that same
bloody affray was 5SS.
AS the gallant charge was made
zen. Reynolds sat upon his horse on
small eminence near the northern
nd of the woods. issuing orders to his
lides for the movements of other
roops. He had just turned his head
o look for his supporting columns and
lasten them on when a rife bail
truck him in the back of the head.
reed from the firm hand upon the
eiIi, his horse plunged a few rods
c:ward before its stricken rider fell
0 the ground dead.
And. 900 yards away, the Confeder-
tie officer seeing him fall. lowered the
lasses he had held to his eye and
rimly said. Ben, it did its work"
Ben Thorpe had been one of the
undred sharpshooters selected from
he Twenty-sfxth North Carolina, de-
pite the fact that he was but 16
ears old, and the position assigned to
i'm was in the top of a cherry tree
'hich commanded the low ground O:
vale over which the Union trocps
,ust make their way to reach Nc.
'herson's woods. What followed is
est told in his own words:
Il had been in the tree top perhaps
alf an hour when the Wisconsin regi-
lent came charging across the low
round toward the woods, and hal :
lade a couple of shots. when the par
: of officers rode up on the little knoll {
nd halted.
81 waS frvinU fo yuaEo nm -:.S1