156 Nort Carotina Troops, 1861-65.

on our right having in the meantime been repulsed. Just
then the enemy opened on us a most heavy and destructive
fire, and as we began to retreat the enemy in our front rallied
and rushed down, crossing their breastworks, attacking us
also on our right. Our line on the extreme right (Pickett’s)
had given away before this, and we made the best retreat we
could. Our organization was well preserved up to the time
we retreated. I am absolutely confident that Lane’s Brigade
held its position at the enemy’s works longer than any other
command, and that we did not move towards the rear until
the rest of the line was in full retreat, the extreme right being
well advanced to the rear.”

The Seventh North Carolina and that part of the Thirty-
third which became separated from the rest of Lane’s Bri-
gade moved forward gallantly, drove the enemy. from the
stone wall, silenced the guns in their front and lost officers
and men at the stone wall, many being captured there.

In the brief minutes that had elapsed since the final rush
on the enemy’s works had begun the carnage had indeed been
terrific. Garnett had fallen near the wall. Kemper was
desperately wounded at the wall. Pettigrew was disabled by
a ball. Trimble was knocked hors du combat. Fry, Mar-
shall and Lowrance had fallen among the thousands of officers
and men whose life-blood was ebbing on that bloody field.

But if the Confederates had suffered fearfully, they had
also inflicted heavy loss upon their opponents. ‘Hancock
lay bleeding upon the ground, Gibbon was being taken from
the field wounded. Webb had been hit. Sherrill and Smyth
both wounded, the former mortally. Stannard had received
a painful wound, but his troops continued to pour volley
after volley into Pickett’s flanks.”

When the front line of Webb’s Brigade gave way under the
pressure of Pettigrew’s men on the flank, they had fallen
back, some to the cover of a clump of trees in the rear and
others to a stone wall that crossed the ridge. From these
points they maintained a desultory firing upon the Confeder-
ates, who having possession of the wall now used it as a pro-
tection for themselves. The projection was practically
cleared, but, though Archer’s and Scales’ and Pickett’s men

Sree neers eli om

THe PrerrigREw—PickEeTT CHARGE. 157

held the angle next to Pettigrew, there was no general effort
made to penetrate into the enemy’s line. In the meantime
regiment after regiment had hurried to cover the break in the
Federal line until the men stood four deep, ready to hurl back
the Confederates if they should seek to advance. Such was
the condition of comparative repose when Armistead’s Bri-
gade reached the wall in Garnett’s rear.

“Seeing his men were inclined to use it as a defence, as the
front line were doing,” Armistead raised his hat upon his
sword, and springing upon a broken place in the wall, called
on his men to follow him. Nearly one hundred of the gallant
Fifty-third Virginia, led by Colonel Martin and Major Tim-
berlake, responded with alacrity and entered the works, “only
four of whom advanced with these officers to the crest, pass-
ing, as they advanced, General Webb, who was returning to
his front line.” Armistead there received his mortal blow,
and forty-two of his men fell within the works as the enemy
rushed forward to recover the position. It was the work of
brief moments, for as the pressure on the Federal line had
been sharp the recoil was quick and decisive.

On the right Kemper had been driven back, and the battle
having now ceased in front of Hall’s and Harrow’s Brigades,
these were hurriedly advanced, at the moment the force col-
lected in the rear of Webb rushed forward, taking Garnett
and Armistead’s troops in the flank as well as front, and en-
tirely routing and dispersing them.

As the right was hurled back and the fragments of General
Pickett’s Division were hurrying to the rear, the battle be-
gan to rage more furiously on the left. The artillery swept
the front occupied by Pettigrew’s command and Hays’
Division renewed the contest with increased ardor. A Dela-
ware regiment on Smyth’s left sprang over the wall and pene-
trating the Confederate line opened a fire to the right and left
and hurried the drama to its close.

The remnants of Pettigrew’s and Archer’s and Scales’ Bri-
gades that could not escape, were taken prisoners by the victo-
rious columns closing in on them from the rear, while most
of Lane’s Brigade further to the left had the better fortune
of avoiding a like fate by a speedy retreat ; but they were the