92 Norra CaroLina Troops, 1861-’65.

main weapon. The skeleton of its former self it returned to
the place whence it began its charge and began business with-
out a field officer, and during the balance of the day and the
succeeding night welcomed the return of several of our mem-
bers who, unscathed or wounded in various degrees, crawled
from the field of carnage, for the space between the armies
continued neutral ground, being covered by the wounded of
both. On the 4th General Pettigrew told us that had we
succeeded the evening before, no doubt our army would have
been on the road to Washington and perhaps negotiations for
peace would then be on foot. Surely the esprit de corps of our
regiment was undaunted. ,

On the night of the 4th we moved off leisurely toward
Funktown, where we stood up on the 11th to meet a threat-
ened attack which did not materialize, and on the 14th were
in the rear guard of the army at Falling Waters to cover the

_erossing of the Potomac. Here a drunken squad of Federal
cavalry rashly rode on us while resting. Of course they were
dispatched at once, but in the melee General Pettigrew re-
ceived a pistol ball in the stomach from which he died in a
day or two. Major John T. Jones, of the Twenty-sixth, was
now the only field officer left to the brigade, and as we began
to retire to cross the river the enemy furiously charged up

and took quite a number of prisoners mainly by cutting our
men off from the pontoon bridge.

BRISTOE STATION.

A few days rest was taken at Bunker Hill, thence we
marched to Orange Court House, where we recuperated rap-
idly by the return of those who had been wounded and a
goodly number of recruits from home. So that on 14 Oc-
tober the Forty-seventh carried quite a strong force into the
battle of Bristoe Station. In this battle Kirkland’s and
Cooke’s Brigades, being in the van of Lee’s army, overtook
Warren’s Corps of Meade’s retreating army, and without
awating reinforcements made a furious attack against it thor-
oughly entrenched. This was a gross blunder on the part of
our corps’ general (A. P. Hill) who sent us in. Let it be

Forty-SEVENTH REGIMENT. 93

recalled that the ground over which we charged sloped down to
the railroad embankment behind which were the enemy’s in-
fantry, and sloped up from their infantry to their artillery.
Under these circumstances their artillery would have driven
back any infantry in indefinite numbers. Of course we’ were
repulsed with heavy loss. An incident in this fight was
that the skirmishers of the Forty-seventh, forty strong, in
going in this charge, saw a space of the enemy’s front, not
reached by the left of our advancing line, passed the front of
the Eleventh or left regiment, and filled the space. The
ground was more favorable for us on this end of the line,
and the Eleventh and the skirmishers of the Forty-seventh
captured the breastworks with the enemy behind them. The
Confederates here were herding the enemy in squads to send
them to the rear as prisoners, when the rest of the line being
repulsed, these too, were compelled to retire. Our loss was
heavy, including General Kirkland among the wounded. As
on 3 July, at Gettysburg, we fell back to the point from which
we started the charge, and for the same reason as on that day
could not bring off our wounded who lay on the field of bat-
tle all night. The next morning, General Meade having
made good his retirement on the fortifications at Manassas,
we returned to the Rapidan. Here and at Orange Court
House we wintered without military incident, save in fre-
quent manceuvering; Meade and Lee, like two big bulls, each
trying to put his head into the other’s flank, and once at
Vidiersville an imminent battle was avoided by the two gen-
erals doing like the king of France who, “with 40,000 men,
marched up the hill and then marched down again.” The
Forty-seventh lost a man or two at Vidiersville by the en-
emy’s artillery.

The health of the men of the Forty-seventh is excellent,
perhaps in part, because of short rations, and by the spring
the regiment is pretty full again by returning convalescents
and recruits from home.

General Grant is now in command of the Army of the Po-
tomac, and by his hammering process proposes “to fight it
out on that line if it takes all summer,” which summer ran
sharply into the following spring. General Kirkland has