612 Norru Carorina Troops, 1861-65.

(or his father’s family) was from Fayetteville, N. C., Shep-
herd himself being also a Fayetteville man. This fact no
doubt interested him. © Thereupon I went forward and found
you lying a little beyond the crest of the ridge, and about the
spot where I stood the other day at Gettysburg. After some
conversation and doing what I could in your behalf, I caused
you to be carried to the building near by, in which the
wounded Union soldiers were placed for immediate treat-
ment. I think it was the large brick Seminary building. And
shortly afterwards one of my men handed me a pair of splen-
did spurs which he said you had presented to me. I sent them
home and have prized them highly ever since. I well remem-
ber telling you that ‘You are now my prisoner, and I’ll treat
you well; I may be yours later on.” And so it happened, for
I was wounded on Culp’s Hill on 3 July, taken off the field,
placed in an ambulance and captured on the retreat on the
night of 4 July, with many other wounded Confederates, and
was a prisoner until the war closed.

I hope we will meet at Gettysburg again, not on a hostile,
but on a friendly historic field, when our performances will
be impressed with a character different from that of 1863.
A committee has been appointed by the government, charged
with the duty of marking the lines of the Confederate troops
in the interest of history, and I have been in correspondence
with Colonel Bachelder, its chairman, in reference to that
matter. I may therefore go to Gettysburg again, and, if so,
will write you, and request your presence at that time.

I will be pleased to learn your military career after the
time referred to above. The Adjutant-General of your State,
upon my application, gave me your address.

Yours truly,
Tuos. S. Kenan.

To this letter the following reply was received :

Lancaster, Wis., 3 September, 1893.
Colonel Thos. 8S. Kenan, Raleigh, N. C.:
My Dear Cotonei:—Your favor of a recent date is be-

fore me and its contents highly appreciated. It contains
convincing evidence of the fact that we met in deadly combat

 

Aw Inoiwent at Gerryszura. f 613

on the historic field of Gettysburg 1 J uly, 1863, over thirty
years ago—I now carrying a souvenir in the shape of a
minie ball in my right lung, and you bearing honorable scars,
evidencing the fact that we both fought desperately for the
causes we individually thought just. And now after thirty
years we are exchanging friendly greetings. Thus it is para-
tur pax bello. I have always admired a gentleman who never
forgets that he is a gentleman ho matter what his environs
may be, and must say that I took you to be such, when you
kindly treated me as your prisoner of war on the field at Get-
tysburg, hence the presentation of my spurs, I thinking I
would have no more use for them. I was doubtless somewhat
delirious with pain when you came up to me, but the facts
were so indelibly fixed on my mind that they are as fresh to
me as though they were of yesterday, and are as follows:
On the morning of 1 July, 1863, about 9:30 o’clock, the Iron
Brigade, composed of the Second, Sixth and Seventh Wiscon-
sin, Nineteenth Indiana and Twenty-fourth Michigan,
charged General Archer’s Brigade on Willoughby’s Run and
captured General Archer and most of his brigade. In this
charge my horse was killed and I was slightly wounded, and
not taking time to shed my spurs, I went in on foot. We
held Willoughby’s Run until 3 o’clock in the afternoon, when
we found ourselves in the little end of a “V” being flanked
on the right and left by A. P. Hill’s and Ewell’s Corps. Gen-
eral Reynolds, of our first corps having been killed and Gen-
eral Meredith, commanding our brigade, and most of our field
officers, having been wounded or killed in the morning, what
was left of our brigade was in a tight place. We moved by
the right of companies to the rear, making the Seminary on
the Ridge our objective point. Being closely pursued by the
Confederates, we faced, wheeled into line and fired; then
again by the right of companies to the rear, loading on the
march, and, as before, wheeled into line and fired. We exe-
cuted the same movement with terrible effect.

Many a brave North Carolinian bit the dust in that move-
ment before we reached the Seminary. At this juncture I
was shot in the right breast, the ball entering my lung, where
it still remains. Captain Hobert, of my regiment, made a