368 NortH Caro.ina Troops, 1861-65.

“Some prominent writers, even historians like Swinton
and Lossing, have said that the left of the line (Pettigrew’s
and Trimble’s Divisions) did not advance as was expected,
and that it was because these troops were not of the same
‘fine quality’ as those upon the right; that they were raw
and undisciplined, ete., ete. Yet, but two days before, these
same soldiers of Pettigrew and Trimble had fought around
Reynold’s Grove (McPherson’s woods) for six hours in a
struggle with the First Corps that is unsurpassed for bravery
and endurance, and where so many of their numbers had
fallen. There were in fact no better troops in the Confed-
eracy than they. Is history repeating herself? If the event
is correctly recorded, there were at Thermopyle 300 Spar-
tans, 700 Thespians, and 300 Thebans. It is said the lat
ter went over to the enemy, but the Thespians died to a man
at the pass with the Spartans. Yet for nearly twenty-four
centuries, Epic song and story have well preserved the mem-

ory of the Spartans, while the devoted Thespians are for-
gotten.”

INCIDENTS OF THE BATTLE.

On the first day while the Twenty-sixth Regiment was in
line awaiting the order to charge the enemy in McPherson’s
woods, Lieutenant-Colonel Lane, who had been up all the
night previous in charge of the division skirmish line,and had
eaten but little, but had drunken freely of muddy water, was
seized with an intolerable nausea and vomiting. Colonel
Lane thus speaks of the incident: “TI asked permission uf
Colonel Burgwyn to go to the rear. The latter replied: ‘Oh,
Colonel, I can’t, I can’t, I can’t think of going into this battle
without you ; here is a little of the best French brandy which
my parents gave me to take with me in the battle; it may do
you good.’ T took a little of it under the circumstances, though
T had not drunk any during the war, and I may add, neither
had Colonel Burgwyn. In a few minutes I was somewhat
relieved and said: ‘Colonel Burgwyn, I can go with you.’
With his usual politeness, he replied: ‘Thank ‘you Colonel,
thank you.’ Continuing the conversation, he said: ‘Colonel,
do you think that we will have to advance on the enemy as

TWENTyY-SIxtH REGIMENT. 369

they are? Oh, what a splendid place for artillery. Why
don’t they fire on them? He saw and realized the very de-
cided advantage their position gave them over us.”

James D. Moore, private in Company F, was the 85th man
of his company shot on the first day’s fight. A ball passed
through his leg. When taken to the field hospital the sur-
geon said he had been fighting cavalry, as the wound was
made by a carbine 44 calibre, and not by an Enfield rifle, 56-
calibre. After the war Moore went to live in Indiana at a
place called Winnamac. He there met a man named Hayes
who was a member of the Twenty-fourth Michigan Regiment
and in the battle of Gettysburg. Hayes had lost his Enfield
rifle on the forced march of the night before, and as his regi-
ment was going into action on the morning of 1 July,
he picked up a carbine dropped by one of Buford’s cavalry,
and used it during the fight. It was the only carbine in the
Twenty-fourth Regiment and just before he retreated, when
the colors of the regiment charging him was fifteen or twenty
paces distant, he fired in their direction. Moore at the time
was alongside the flag and received Hayes’ shot. They be-
came good friends and Hayes was of material assistance to
Moore so long as the latter lived in his town.

When taken from the field, Colonel Lane was carried to
the field hospital, a brick house. A wounded Georgia officer,
who was lying near the door of the room in which Colonel
Lane was, had been delirious all the morning. He finally be-
came quiet about 1 p. m. and after a silence of some minutes,
Colonel Lane heard him say in a perfectly rational tone of
voice: “There now, there now. Vicksburg has fallen, Gen-
eral Lee is retreating and the South is whipped. The South
is whipped.” He ceased speaking and in a few moments an
attendant passed by and said he was dead. General Lee did
not retreat from Gettysburg until the evening of the 4th of
July, and Vicksburg was not surrendered until the 4th of
July.

Tt is stated in Volume 67, page 514, Official Records Union
and Confederate Armies, that on 4 July, 1863, at 6:35 a. m.,
General Lee proposed to General Meade “‘to promote the com-

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