The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1913-08-10
Replies 10 Cnptain ,Ict,.

started 70 reply to Captain Metts's
latest communication some time ago
but waited for little information as
10 one of his allegations.
] Will first briefly rccapitulate what
have partly stated before as TO
Picketts movements on July g. 1863
saw him time and again riding
through the guns OF behring's Artillery
during the artillery fire. on passing
behring's guns. John D. Terry. OF
down the line OF the Fourteenth Vir-
ginia and on 10 the left. Captain
Frank Bailey, OF the Ninth Virginia,
Scottsburg. Va. next to the left or
Armistead's Brigade. saw him 10 his
LETT and up at Garnetts line, appar-
entity trying to get through Henry
GULL, of Company 3. Eighteenth Vir-
GINA, South Boston. Va, saw him pass
ing back in front of Garnctts line
There was only one company from this
county in kempers Brigade and have
rot seen any OF kemper's men. but will
yet locate him as riding the entire
front or the division, and no one. not
even Captain Metts. has ever even init
mated IL was his duty to do that. Be
sides, a major-general leading 5000
men would have been seen by only n
rev of his front line and not at all
by his rear one Captain Metts says.
There is no evidence that Pickett led
OF Followed his command to the EN-
mettsburg Road" locating that out of
squirrel rife from the stone fence lie
quotes from Colonel Venable. but I
am willing to leave il to the public to
judge whether the testimony OF four
evcwitnesses whom ! locate and whose
reputation for veracity can he estab-
lished. Is not worth more than that OF
staff officer. however eminent. who
was not present.
little later Captain Metts shows
his animus. as the lawyers say: General
Lees letter TO General Pickett is re-
Duke in advising him TO destroy both
copies and the original report, and sub
.Itute one confined TO casualties mere
ly ION account OF reflection, etc"
This gives us the milk in the cocoa
nut The report destroyed charged
Heth's Division with failing to support
him. and hence the howl OF these jack
ais over the body OF the dead lion.
Let us take glance ut his famous
war records. He gives both ARMS tea d
and Garnett the Twenty-cichth Viz
ginia and makes its loss in Armistead' s
Brigade sixteen more than double what
u was In Garnetts Next time | hope
he VIII tell me in which brigade my
f"thcr-in-l law was killed He was
killed there in thar regiment lie gives
the killed OF the Fourteenth Virginia
60 SSNciil'cii st1li Nou a lt,t %
twenty -four. which | can qualify to
after the lapse Of fifty years. Com
pany n, Fourteenth Virginia, lost six :
teen dead or died from wounds. The
colonel. major and adjutant. also the
senior captain. were Killed, but as | can
only recall thirteen names of my com
rany, let us be liberal. Thirteen in
Company II. the four officers specified
or seventeen, and the other nine com
anies lost nothing according to Cap
tain Metts and his war records. Tho
Twenty second Virginia lost three men,
Brokenborough's Brigade and Petit
Crews Division.
l have letter from James ID. Beckett,
former clerk of Monroe County, w. Va.
stating that they were not there on
seeing him at Gettysburg he located
them positively on Governor Price s
farm. three miles west OF Lewisburg.
w. Va, on the Srd of July. 1863. What
terrible guns the captain must have
faced. The shots passed out of Penn
sylvania across Maryland. possibly
across part OF Virginia, took what is
now West Virginia lengthwisc and
killed three men in Greenbrier County.
within two counties Of the Kentucky
line. But this will show up the man in
his true light. Pettigrew was In the
first days fight. On the second they
lost the gallant captain. according to
his own account This settled 1t, and II
Lee had been the general he Is cracked
up to be, he would have rctrcated at