606 Nortu Carorina Troops, 1861-65.

recitals on the Union monuments are an enduring record of
facts that establish the fame and glory of the Confederate
troops. Whether intentional or not, the Northern people in
selecting Gettysburg and making it famous, and marking it
so well, as one of the battlefields on which their soldiers won
glory, have thereby made an imperishable record of the valor
and courage of Confederate soldiers. As we stood on East
Cemetery Hill during our recent visit, from which command-
ing position the well informed guide was explaining the
movements of the first and second days to a large party of
Northerners, some of them scholars, and as he closed with a
graphic description of the charge on Cemetery Hill by Hoke’s
and Hays’ Brigades, pointing out, from where he stood, the
line of attack and the spots where different leaders fell, one
of the party turned to me and said: “I am a Union nine

but it would have been a shame for the Union army to ie
been beaten here; they had so much advantage in position.”
IT tell this to show that any one looking over that field, even
those who are not skilled in war, are at once impressed with
the heroic qualities of the Confederates who came so near
winning the battle of Gettysburg.

I belonged to the Sixth North Carolina Regiment, which
was part of Hoke’s Brigade of North Carolina troops—Ear-
ly’s Division, Ewell’s Corps. General R. F. Hoke had been
wounded at Fredericksburg and was not present; Colonel
Isaac E. Avery commanded the brigade. The regiment to
which I belonged was on the right of the brigade and on our
right was Hay’s Louisiana Brigade.

On the first day, we came in on the north to northeast of
the town and fought along and across Rock creek, and near
the brick yard and railroad depot and through the eastern
part of the town. To show how severe was the contest on
that first day, I will say that our part of the line saw hand-to-
hand fighting ; and from what we could see and hear then,
and judging from what we saw on our recent visit to the
field, the fighting to our right and along Seminary Ridge

must have been much more severe—yet, the Confederates
carried every point.

 

 

CartTurEe oF CEMETERY Hut1. 607

After getting on the southeast of the town our part of the
line was in full view of Culp’s Hill and Cemetery Hill. We
were halted and reformed our lines along a little rivulet that
runs through an open field, Culp’s. There, we were held
under an annoying skirmish fire until the afternoon of the
second day, during all of which time the enemy were prepar-
ing for us. They had covered Cemetery Hill with artillery
and each gun was protected by embankments. They had
also artillery on a hill to the east of Cemetery Hill, towards
Culp’s Hill. Their lines of infantry were most advanta-
geously posted behind stone walls and in trenches which they
made in the steep sides of the hill, so posted that their artil-
lery could fire over the heads of their infantry. But in the
face of all this, when the afternoon was far advanced couriers
were seen hurrying to and fro, delivering messages to our
brigade and regimental commanders, and soon the order was
passed along the line and we were commanded to move for-
ward. We were to silence the guns on Cemetery Hill. As
we approached it, we were under a galling fire from the in-
iantry, which was protected by the stone wall and trenches
that ran around the hill. The artillery poured shot and shell
and grape and canister into us, and withal, the battery, on
the left toward Culp’s Hill, had an enfilading fire on us.
But our men still moved forward, climbed over the stone

- wall, drove the infantry away, went on up the hill, drove off

the cannoneers, spiked their guns, and took, for the time,
complete possession of East Cemetery Hill. We supposed
that we had won the battle, for the dense smoke and approach-
ing darkness made it impossible for us to see what was going
on to the right or left of the hill. Oh! the memory of that
charge—that hand-to-hand struggle—that storming and cap-
turing of East Cemetery Hill on the evening of the second
day at Gettysburg. And yet it was a success that did not
succeed. For we had been there but a short while when or-
ders were brought to us to fall back to our original position,
and to move back with as little noise as possible. The moon
was just rising over the trees on Culp’s wooded hill to our
left, and it shone through the battle smoke, with an enfee-