130 NortH Carorina, Troops, 1861-65. North Carolina; and yet in this instance, for some unaccount- able reason, they were made a mark for ignorant or vicious and false disparagement. In Heth’s Division, of the sixteen regiments present at Gettysburg, only five were from North Carolina, yet such stuff as this, conceived in the brilliant im- agination of Swinton, finds credence and is repeated in other histories of like kind. Says Swinton: “It happens that the division on the left of Pickett under command of General Pettigrew was in considerable part made up of North Caro- lina troops, comparatively green. To animate them they had been told that they would only meet Pennsylvania mili- tia; but when approaching the slope they received the feu denfer from Henry’s line, there ran through the rank a cry the effect of which was like that which thrilled a Greek army when it was said that the god Pan was among them: ‘“The Army of the Potomac.’ Then, suddenly disillusioned re- garding their opponents, Pettigrew’s troops broke in disorder leaving two thousand prisoners and fifteen colors in the hands of Henry’s Division.” Brilliant rhetoric, but not truth. Think of the audacity of the manufacture. It says of Heth’s Division, that it was “in considerable part made up of North Carolinians,” when they were only as five to sixteen; and then that they were frightened at a cry, “The Army of the Potomac.” This, two days after Pettigrew’s Brigade of North Carolinians had nearly annihilated the best brigade in the Northern army. Another matter of no little importance. The division, even by such authority as Colonel Walter H. Taylor, of Gen- eral Lee’s Staff, is spoken of as ‘‘Pettigrew’s Division.” Pet- tigrew had no division. The division was Heth’s, and should be so spoken of whether in praise or blame. ‘In war,” said Napoleon, “men are nothing, a man is everything.” Troops are what their commanders make them; and General Petti- grew had no hand in molding Heth’s Division. Nor is it fair to blame Heth for the shortcoming of Brockenborough’s Virginia Brigade, under Robert Mayo, the only troops on the ground which really behaved badly, for the division had been formed only a few weeks before, and had been constantly on the march since. There was not time for the influence of Sinn asl i ices enact Lent RA Ae RC nm se: srry fg enn errepsinneon i rceetitmne i wcersba ieee PeTriGgRew’s BRIGADE AT GETTYSBURG. 131 the commander to be felt. In this matter not even a suspi- cion of blame must be attached to the name of Pettigrew, whose genius was such that its influence inspired and became a part of the humblest soldier in his command. He had in a few months made of his brigade as fine a body of infantry as ever trod the earth, and his men would have followed him wherever he led, or gone wherever he told them to go, no mat- ter how desperate the enterprise. The brigade never lost the inspiration of his name, and from first to last was one of the very best in the army of the Confederate States. Its bap- tism of blood at Gettysburg prepared it for all subsequent hardships, and never, until included in the surrender of the 9,000 at Appomattox, did it fail to respond to the command to go forward. Its career was brilliant, and its history should be written and preserved. Its losses at Gettysburg attest its fierce struggle in that famous battle. On the morn- ing of 1 July it numbered 2,800 to 3,000, on the 4th 935. All the field officers, save one who was captured, were killed or wounded; and the brigade was commanded after the repulse from Cemetery Ridge by Major Jones, of the Twenty-sixth North Carolina, who had been struck by a fragment of a shell on the Ist, and knocked down and stunned on the 3d; Gen- eral Pettigrew was painfully wounded, two of his staff were killed,* and one so seriously wounded as to deprive the bri- gade of his services. On 1 July, Captain Tuttle, of the Twenty-sixth North Carolina, led into action two Lieuten- ants and 84 men. ‘All of the officers and 83 men were killed or wounded. On the same day Company C, of the Eleventh, lost two officers killed and 34 out of 38 men killed and wound- ed. Captain Bird with the four remaining, participated in the fight of the 3d; of these the flag bearer was shot, and the Captain brought out the flag himself. These I give as ex- amples to show how persistently our men fought. The losses in several other companies were nearly as great as these. In the engagement of 1 July we lost no prisoners. After * Captain W. W. McCreery, Inspector General, was killed on 1 July. Captain N. C. Hughes, A A. G., was mortally wounded on the 3rd when with the Brigade under Colonel Marshall. Lieutenant Walter H. Rob- ertson, Ordnance Officer, was wounded on the Ist.