The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-06-12

i 1861. / wrote then, and [ reproduce
paragraph now. for another inter-
esting historic instance Of tall living
and stumbling ignorance. / wrote
then--now thirty-seven years since:
If we permit these attacks to pass
unchallenged, twenty-five years hence
all American history will represent
i the facts connected with Gettysburg
as do the works of Swinton. Pollard,
| McCabe, ct id omne genus Who has
not heard of the running of the North
| Carolina militia at Guilford Court
House, but who ever heard of the
lighting they did? And vet after
Botta, and Bancroft and others had
misrepresented their conduct at that
battle, and obloquy had rested upon
them for sixty or eighty years, a law
yer OF Fayetteville, a Scotchman by
birth, Banks by name, completely ex-
posed the long credited historic state
| ment, and proved by the very best
| evidence, that of undersigned coinci-
dence in two eye witnesses, that the
| Novth Carolinians there, as elsewhere
| did precisely what they were COM
manded to do-did their duty-and
| on that occasion received the onset of
the whole British army. But let the
gross fabricationS of the late war go
unexposed now, and who will guaran-
| tee that Pollard and his associates in
| historical DerverSion will be met by
| some future Banks?"
! But to return to the fair, generous.
gallant and able editor of the Peters,
I burg Index" He did not allow Nc
! Cabe to have it his own way. but re-
piled with convincing force and direct
ness. l copy from Col. Camerons re-
| ply:
His reliance upon SWinton we al
| luded to more than a month ago, and
as for Colonel Freemantle'S diary we
| have one upon our table now. kept by
an officer high in rank in Hills corps,
! which corroborates our statement in
| every particular. In addition, we
have a modest chronicle of our own,
which has the one merit of relating
| facts whose occurrence we were eye
| witness to-,
/ He also observes:
Further in regard to the compost
ton of Heth's division at Gettysburg.
Let us repeat: it's brigades We're Davis
Mississippi Archer's Tennessee; Wal
ker'S Virginia, commanded by Colonel
! Brockenbrough; PettigreW's North
Carolina. How does this which is an
Iindisputable fact tally with the au-
thors mostly conscripts from North
Carolina" or Swintons "inconsider-
able part of North Carolina troops
comparatively green" The division
was, until the Gettysburg campaign,
part of the lamented A. p. Hills ia
nous light division" and contained
few new troops"
AS to the conduct of the division
that the lamented Pettigrew COM
mand, the editor says:
I I'VE admit, as Mr.. McCabe shreWd-
ly suspects, that it was from a dist
ance of half a mile that we witnessed
it; but that distance was as little as
extended between Col. Freemantle
and the enemy, and less, we imapine,
than that at which either Swinton or
Mr.. McCabe surveyed the scenes
which they so glowingly describe.
Heth's division did not break in dis
may or fly from the field
Referring to the two Virginia. So
called historians, but badly equipped
it seems. 1 wrote in the Indicator"
in 1857:
"The old adage, that error travels
much faster than truth, has an ex-
emplification in the patronage which
has been so unworthily bestowed upon
| the productions of their pen. One
more remark. Pollard's Lost Cause
has not been punctured until quite re-
| Gently by a single North Caroiinian,
although it has been before the pub
lie in it's present form, for some nine
deliberate and unjust attack upon our
soldiers than Mr.. McCabe's bantling,
because in it are reproduced the old
ISLANDERS of his spasmodic war serials"
| The North Carolina press in the
! first decade or so after the termina-
! ton of the great war were not on
the alert in exposing the ISLANDERS of
our soldiers. Some few papers We're
prompt and active. The way to meet
error of any kind is to investigate its
| claims, and consult the real records
| and qualified Witnesses Allow error
to go unattached and uneXpoSed and
it will lift it's head again and again de-
| family, with brazen effrontery, and
proclaim itself the truth. The
Vicksburg (MssissippD Herald in
1857, noted the contention of the Vir-
ginians and the just retort and even
anger of North Carolinians. l quote
from it's editorial. 1t said:
''The North Carolinians are consid
erably stirred up by the charge of Mr..
McCabe, in his history of the cam
paigns of General Lee. that Petit
crews North Carolina brigade fled the
field at Gettysburg, causing the rout
of Pickett's division. The charge is
not true. 1t SO happened that Petit
grew advanced in front of Anderson's
division, in which was PoSey'S CATER
wards HarrisD Mississippi brigade,
and there are men now in Vicksburg
who We're present on the occasion,
who know that they did advance, and
did not fall back until Pickett was
driven out OF the enen1y's works. They
also know that when they were COM
PEELED to fall back. PettigreW with
drew in good order and rallied his
men inside of the Confederate works.
1t is also fact that Pickett never
succeeded up to the close of the war
in ever again making his command
effective. Pettigrew is dead, but the
least this matter is stirred, the bet
ter it will be for Pickett"
If the reader would learn more of
Pickett's Division after Gettysburg
read Capt. w. r. Bonds capital book
Pickett or Pettigrew." I wish now
to cite a few Northern opinions of
North Carolina soldiers. / wish first
to say that if possible the address of
Colonel John r. Lane delivered at
Gettysburg in 1908, and which ap-
peared in The Raleigh News and OBJ
server, should be read. He was the
third and last Colonel of the celebrat-
ed 26th Regiment, Pettigrew's Brig
ade. Vance was the first. Burgwyn