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The 26th Regiment North Carolina
Troops
A History by David McGee
CHAPTER IV "UNPARALLELED LOSS"
The 26th North Carolina's journey to Virginia began ominously. At 10 p.m., May 1, the troops boarded two trains for Richmond. During the night, the one carrying the "right wing" of the regiment halted to let a mail train pass. As the first train waited on a sidetrack, the one behind, transporting the 11th North Carolina, failed to stop and crashed into the first. James Wright (of Company C) reported that "a great many freight boxes and flats were badly injured both before and behind me . . . one poor fellow in Company G had his head mashed all to pieces . . . another poor fellow was caught between the boxes at his hips." The accident killed two men from the regiment. Another eight or nine were injured. After the wreckage was cleared, the regiment continued on to Richmond and on the morning of May 3 reached the city.
Most of Pettigrew's brigade stopped in Richmond, but the 26th North Carolina continued on to Hanover Junction. The junction was about twenty-five miles north of the capital. There the Central Railroad met the Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac line. Burgwyn received orders to have his troops guard the bridges over the North Anna River against Federal cavalry under Gen. George Stoneman. The Union troopers made up part of a diversionary force dispatched by Gen. Joseph Hooker during the Chancellorsville campaign. By sending them into the Richmond area, Hooker hoped to prevent Confederate troops away from reinforcing Lee's army.
The regiment narrowly missed encountering part of Stoneman's column. Shortly after the troops arrived at Hanover Junction, Federal cavalry struck Ashland Station, halfway between Richmond and the junction. Burgwyn's men remained on alert for several days as rumors had Stoneman's whereabouts in several places at once. However, the only encounter the soldiers had with the raiders came when they captured a few stragglers.
Once the danger of combat passed, the troops settled down to enjoy their new post. In letters to their families, the men spoke of how much they liked the location. T. W. Setser told his uncle that he would "a heape druther Stay her[e] than in the estern parte of North Carolina a mong them frog pons." One thing Setser and other soldiers noticed was that the water tasted much better in Virginia.
While the regiment remained at Hanover Junction, the Confederate Congress "in the plentitude of their legislative wisdom," changed the design of the flag. To show his "appreciation of its beauty," Burgwyn asked his sister Maria to make a new silk flag for the unit. He told her that, if necessary, she or one of her "sufficiently patriotic" friends should sacrifice a silk dress for the material.
During this period, changes in the Army of Northern Virginia made the 26th North Carolina an official part of it. Robert E. Lee decided to reorganize his army into three corps following the death of Gen. Thomas J. Jackson. He appointed Gen. Ambrose P. Hill to command the Third Corps. This corps consisted of the divisions of William Dorsey Pender, Richard Anderson, and one newly created for Henry Heth. Heth's division contained two veteran brigades led by James J. Archer and John M. Brockenbrough. The brigades of Pettigrew and Joseph R. Davis were added to complete the division.
On June 7, Pettigrew's troops moved north to Hamilton's Crossing, near Fredericksburg. There they occupied breastworks south of town. The men formed part of the extreme right of Lee's army. The Gettysburg campaign began in mid-June when Lee sent the corps of James Longstreet and Richard Ewell toward the Shenandoah Valley. The Third Corps remained in the town's defenses in an effort to divert the Federal commanders.
The 26th North Carolina remained in the trenches one day, then moved eight miles down the Rappahannock on picket duty. While along the river, the troops came into contact with Federal pickets on the other side. According to W. E. Setser, "they talk and quarel with each other; We changed Some harpers with them yesterday; We have orders to not shoot at each other unless eather Side advances." The exchanges ended on June 14, when the regiment returned to the breastworks.
The next day, Heth's division left Fredericksburg and followed the rest of the army. The men of the 26th North Carolina were resting when the long roll of the drums summoned them to take their place in the line of march. Thomas Perrett described the scene. "The Regiment made a fine appearance as it marched out from its bivouac that beautiful June morning with the men beaming in their splendid gray uniforms, the colors flying, and the band playing; everything seemed propitious of success."
The men passed through Chancellorsville, where a fierce struggle between the two armies had taken place a few weeks earlier. For new recruits, this provided their first view of a battlefield. James Wright described in a letter to his family the torn timber, the bloated bodies of horses, and the partially unburied soldiers to his family. The scene was "a great sight to me," he concluded.
The column continued toward Culpeper Courthouse. While the troops knew their immediate destination, they speculated on where the army would go. Some believed it would halt at Winchester; others expected Lee to invade Maryland or Pennsylvania. Whatever direction the army traveled, some men decided they did not want to go with it. As the army left Fredericksburg, the number of desertions in the regiment (and Pettigrew's brigade) rose dramatically. One soldier reported that on June 16, fourteen men slipped away from the regiment. A little later, he told his family that sixteen left the 52nd North Carolina in one night. In all, twenty-one deserted the 26th North Carolina on the march to Gettysburg.
On June 17, the troops arrived at Culpeper Courthouse. They could see the Blue Ridge mountains in the distance. When the march resumed next morning, the column continued in a northwesterly direction. Two days of steady marching brought the men to Chester's Gap.
After they set up camp that night, a peculiar rattling sound told the soldiers they had chosen a particularly bad location to bivouac. A rattlesnake den lay somewhere close. Before the men lay down for the night they killed at least six of the reptiles. One snake, slain on the spot where Col Burgwyn's tent was set, had sixteen rattles. J. A. Bush remembered that everyone found a place to lie down and kept quiet for the night. Early the next morning, the men "were up in arms, chasing in deadly combat the hideous sentinels of the night before." The troops gladly left camp and resumed their march.
Pettigrew's brigade crossed the mountains and arrived at Front Royal. As the soldiers passed through town, their spirits rose when "ladies of the town" cheered and threw them bouquets. A short time later, they forded the Shenandoah River just above the point where the north and south forks merged. Their line of march now pointed north. On June 21, the regiment stopped near Berryville, just east of Winchester. The men spent the next day resting and cooking rations.
In the pre-dawn hours of June 23, the 26th North Carolina resumed its journey. Because of the heat, the troops usually started marching around 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning and stopped by early afternoon. The regiment crossed the Potomac on June 25 and entered Maryland with the band playing "Maryland, my Maryland." (Years later, Thomas Perret recalled that the tune was taken up by "many voices and sung with much fervor and pathos.") The soldiers then marched through Sharpsburg and on to Hagerstown. As the army neared Pennsylvania, I. A. Jarratt told his mother that the men remained in good spirits. He also reported that there was little of the straggling that "ruined our army last summer."
At 1 p.m. on June 26, Pettigrew's brigade crossed Antietam Creek into Pennsylvania. Several hours later the troops stopped for the day near a farm. Although Gen. Robert E. Lee had issued General Orders No. 73, restricting foraging by individual soldiers, it was not long before some Tarheels disobeyed orders and "pressed chicken, vegetables, etc." into Confederate service.
The next day the regiment pushed through Waynesboro and stopped at Fayetteville. On Sunday, June 28, the regiment remained in camp, where the chaplain held religious services for the men. Julius Leinbach stated that the minister preached a "very forceful and appropriate sermon on the text 'The harvest is passed, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.'" After the service, a band member noted that Col. Burgwyn appeared "deeply impressed" during the preaching. The musician believed that the regiment would lose the colonel on this trip. [Map 4. Route of the 26th North Carolina During the Gettysburg Campaign.]
By 5:00 a.m. on June 29, the soldiers were marching east out of Fayetteville in the direction of South Mountain. They reached the top of the mountain after a six mile trek. From there, they could see the town of Gettysburg to the east. The regiment bivouacked that night at New Salem, near Cashtown. The next morning, the soldiers mustered to receive their pay. The rolls from that day show that 902 officers and men were present with their companies.
After the muster, Gen. Pettigrew started with three of his regiments (including the 26th North Carolina) toward Gettysburg. Thinking the town undefended except by militia, he planned to requisition supplies for the army's use. Pettigrew issued orders that everyone was to leave knapsacks in camp; anyone unable to make a forced march should remain behind. Despite the muddy road (from rain the night before), the troops covered the nine miles to Gettysburg quickly. On the outskirts of town, the brigade encountered a strong picket of Federal cavalry. Pettigrew had orders not to bring on an engagement, so he withdrew and marched his troops back to camp.
While Pettigrew reported his findings to Gens. Heth and Hill, the men of the 26th North Carolina collected their knapsacks and returned towards Gettysburg. The regiment marched to within three and a half miles of town. Burgwyn halted the troops on the west side of a small creek that ran across the turnpike. The men, "all worn out and broked down" from their marching, set up camp in a small grove to the right of the road. That night, Lt. Col. Lane had charge of the pickets. After he established his line, two women, "much distressed and alarmed, because they were cut off from their houses," approached him. The lieutenant colonel assured the ladies that Confederates did not make war on females. He then advanced his picket line beyond their houses and allowed the women to reach their homes.
At 5 a.m. on July 1, Heth started his division toward Gettysburg to get badly needed shoes. Archer's brigade led the column, followed by Davis', Pettigrew's, and Brockenbrough's units. Although neither Hill nor Heth expected to encounter anything more than Federal cavalry and local militia troops, William Dorsey Pender's division was sent to provide support if serious resistance developed. The last instruction Hill gave Heth was: "Do not bring on an engagement."
As the soldiers marched through the morning mist, they crossed Marsh Creek about three and a half miles west of Gettysburg. A vidette from Gen. John Buford's Federal cavalry division fired a warning shot. Immediately the brigades of Archer and Davis formed a line of battle along the road. Three lines of skirmishers moved to the front. While the lead Confederate units pushed forward against the enemy cavalry, the troops under Pettigrew and Brockenbrough continued down the pike.
As the head of the 26th North Carolina crested the first hill east of Marsh Creek, Union artillery fire swept the road. Some excitement filled the ranks but was soon quieted. The brigade filed off to the right of the turnpike about 100 yards. As the regiments passed Pettigrew, he gave the command: "Echelon by battalion, the 26th Regiment by the left flank." As each unit passed the one in front of it, the command "By the left flank, march" was issued. In a short time the brigade had formed a line of battle. Pettigrew halted the troops and awaited further instructions.
Meanwhile, Archer and Davis continued their advance. They pushed the dismounted cavalry off Herr Ridge, past Willoughby Run, and up the slope of McPherson Ridge. By 10 a.m. the Confederates were only a mile from the center of town. At that moment, soldiers from Gen. John Reynolds' I Corps reinforced Buford's troopers. Archer's men pushed through McPherson's Woods and ran straight into the famed Iron Brigade. This battle-hardened unit chased the Confederates back through the woods, across the creek, and up Herr Ridge. To the north of Chambersburg Pike, Joseph Davis' troops received much the same treatment.
Pettigrew moved his brigade forward to the western slope of Herr Ridge. For about half an hour, the unit remained behind the guns of William Pegram. The troops then crossed the top of Herr Ridge and took a position in a strip of woods facing McPherson's Ridge. After throwing out skirmishers, the men tried to find cover from enemy fire. Details were sent to the rear to bring back water. Officers worked their way among the ranks, offering words of encouragement and sometimes joking with soldiers. To the north, Gen. Richard S. Ewell's corps could be seen advancing against Union positions on Oak Ridge. According to Lt. Col. Lane, "Never was a grander sight beheld. The lines extended more than a mile, all directly visible to us."
While the 26th North Carolina waited for orders to advance, the companies on the right of the unit were harassed by snipers on top of a farm house in their right front. Lieutenant J. A. Lowe, of Company G, volunteered to "take them down." He crept along a fence until reaching a position from which the "sharp shooters" could be seen. Lowe soon silenced the riflemen with a few shots.
Pettigrew held his position while Heth conferred with A. P. Hill and Robert E. Lee. Finally, around 2:30 p.m., Lee ordered Hill to commit the divisions of Heth and Pender. For the men of the 26th, the order came at a most "inopportune" time. The troops had watched the enemy prepare their position in McPherson's Woods and knew "the desperateness of the charge" that lay ahead.
All along Pettigrew's line the command "Attention!" could be heard. "With the greatest quickness" the troops rose and prepared to advance. As the brigade stepped from the woods, the 26th North Carolina stood at the left of the line. To its right came the 11th, 47th, and 52nd North Carolina regiments. On the left of Pettigrew, Brockenbrough's brigade advanced toward the farm building on top of McPherson's ridge.
Burgwyn stood at the center of the unit, with Lane on the right and Maj. John Jones on the left. Four paces in front of the center stood Color Sgt. Jefferson B. Mansfield with the regimental flag. Accompanying him were the eight men of the color guard. At the command, "Forward March," the troops moved towards McPherson's Woods in "beautiful style, at the quick time." As they advanced through the wheat field the enemy opened fire. Although a few men were hit, most of the bullets passed over the line. As the regiment neared Willoughby Run, the Confederates began shooting at the Federal force in the woods.
The veterans of the Iron Brigade waited across the creek. They prepared to hold their position "at all hazards." Directly in front of the North Carolinians stood the 24th Michigan and 19th Indiana. According to Col. Henry Morrow, commander of the Michigan troops, his men held their fire until the Confederates were at close range. Even then, the woods, brush, and slope of the hill prevented their shots from being very accurate.
As the 26th North Carolina reached Willoughby Run its casualties mounted steadily. Not only was the rifle fire from the front becoming more effective, but shells and canister from James H. Cooper's Pennsylvania artillery battery raked the right flank. The left and right portions of the regiment found gaps in the briars and underbrush and crossed the creek with little difficulty. Along the center, however, the loss "was frightful" as men crowded along a few narrow paths to ford the branch.
Once across Willoughby Run, the regiment reformed its ranks and continued to advance. The fire from the Federal troops took a very heavy toll among the men. One officer reported that "bullets were as thick as hailstones in a storm." The first Union line, on the brow of the hill, gave way. Colonel Morrow reported that the Confederates "came on with rapid strides, yelling like demons." As Lane hurried from his position to the center of the line, Burgwyn met him and stated that "it is all right in the centre and on the left; we have broken the first line of the enemy."
Halfway up the hill the regiment encountered the second line of the enemy. The men from Michigan and Indiana made a desperate stand. Opposing forces closed to within twenty yards of one another and traded volley after volley. Dead and wounded from both sides lay intermingled with one another.
By this time, the colors of the 26th North Carolina had fallen nine times. The entire color guard lay dead or wounded. Captain W. W. McCreery, of Pettigrew's staff, rushed to Burgwyn with a message from the general. "'Tell him' says Gen. Pettigrew, 'his regiment has covered itself with glory to-day.'" McCreery saw the flag on the ground. Taking the fallen ensign, he waved it high in the air and advanced. He fell dead instantly as a bullet pierced his heart. Lieutenant George Wilcox, from Company H, pulled the blood-soaked standard from underneath McCreery's body and started forward. He too fell after taking only a couple of steps.
During this same period, Lt. T. J. Cureton of Company B became aware of the heavy losses in the regiment. Captain Lewis G. Young, Pettigrew's Asst. Adjutant General, ordered Cureton to close his company on the colors. When the lieutenant looked to his right, he saw no more than three men where Company F had been.
The North Carolinians now faltered. Burgwyn realized that the flag must advance to get his troops moving again. He called on Cureton's company for someone to bear the standard. Cureton ordered Frank Hunneycut to the colonel. As Burgwyn turned to hand the colors to Hunneycut, both men were struck almost simultaneously and fell to the ground mortally wounded. The regiment recoiled from the "murderous fire" from the enemy.
Lieutenant Colonel Lane moved to the right and ordered the troops on that side to close on the center. He then gave the order to fix bayonets. As the line reformed, Lane raised the flag and shouted "Twenty-Sixth, follow me."
With a cheer, the soldiers advanced through the smoke filled woods. They pushed the Federals from their second position. Rushing onward, the men struck the enemy's third line at the top of the hill. The 24th Michigan and 151st Pennsylvania made a brief stand, but frontal fire from the 26th North Carolina, combined with a flanking movement by the rest of Pettigrew's brigade, forced the Union troops to retreat. As the Federal troops fell back, a Michigan sergeant took careful aim at Lane. As Lane turned to see if the regiment was following him, the sergeant fired, hitting Lane in the back of the neck. For the fourteenth and final time that day, the regimental colors fell to the ground.
As Federal forces retreated toward Seminary Ridge, 400 yards to the east, the men of the regiment tried to regroup. They had used most of their ammunition in the drive through McPherson's Woods. The soldiers searched the cartridge boxes of the dead and wounded that lay about. As they prepared to advance again, Dorsey Pender's fresh division passed through the ranks and relieved the exhausted troops. The day's fighting came to an end for the 26th North Carolina.
According to Gen. Pettigrew, the regiment faced at least three Federal units and perhaps as many as five, forcing them to retreat from a strong position. Although the regiment won the "red field" of McPherson's Woods, it paid a terrible price in killed and wounded. It entered the battle numbering around 800 men under arms. When roll call was taken the next day, fewer than 250 men answered. According to William W. Fox, in Regimental Losses in the Civil War, the 26th North Carolina lost 86 killed and 502 wounded in action on the first day at Gettysburg.
Major John T. Jones, now commanding the regiment, received orders to return to Herr Ridge. As the survivors moved through the woods they encountered fallen comrades at nearly every step. After tending to the wounded (Confederate and Federal) as best they could, the troops made their way back to the woody area on Herr Ridge and bivouacked for the night.
On July 2, Lee continued his assault on the Union lines. In late afternoon, three divisions from Gen. James Longstreet's and A. P. Hill's corps attacked enemy positions along the southern half of the battlefield. Federal troops managed to stop the Confederate advance after several hours of heavy fighting. Later in the evening, several brigades from Gen. Richard Ewell's corps charged Federal strongpoints on Culp's Hill and Cemetery Hill. The Northern forces repulsed this assault also.
Pettigrew's troops spent the second day at their bivouac on Herr's Ridge. While the men recuperated from the rigors of the first day's fight, Pettigrew (now in command of the division after Heth had been wounded on July 1) worked diligently to add more troops to his ranks. He went around to the hospitals and returned all the slightly wounded to their units. The general also armed the cooks and other men on special duty and put them in the ranks.
During the night of July 1, members of the regimental band helped surgeons tend the wounded. According to one musician, they worked until they were exhausted, slept a little, then returned again. In the afternoon of July 2, Pettigrew ordered the band (along with the musicians from the 11th North Carolina) to play for the troops. Samuel Mickey, the bandleader, later stated that "the two bands played numerous pieces which seemed to cheer and enliven the soldiers." The performers finished the concert and returned to their duties tending the wounded.
Late in the afternoon of July 2, the brigade moved from Herr Ridge to a new location on Seminary Ridge, about a mile to the southwest. The men encamped that night along the western slope of the ridge. Early the next morning, the troops advanced into McMillan's Woods. There Col. James K. Marshall, commanding the brigade, placed his soldiers in a small hollow where they would be somewhat sheltered from the scattered fire of artillery and skirmishers.
At the same time the remainder of Heth's division filed into place. From left to right were the brigades of Brockenbrough, Davis, Pettigrew (Marshall), and Archer. General George E. Pickett's division of Virginians took up position to the right of Archer. About 100 yards behind Heth's men were the North Carolinians under Alfred M. Scales and John H. Lane from Dorsey Pender's division. In front of the Confederate lines stood the massed artillery of Hill's and Longstreet's corps.
Lee selected these units, nine brigades in all, for an assault against the center of the Federal line on Cemetery Ridge. After the attacks against the Union left and right flanks failed on July 2, Lee decided to hurl his troops against the middle of the enemy's position. He placed Longstreet in overall command of the strike force.
While commanders made their final preparations for the advance, Capt. Samuel Wagg and Lt. T. J. Cureton walked to a position in front of the artillery. From there they observed the field which they would cross. Cemetery Ridge lay about a mile to the east. Cureton described the intervening ground as ". . . a beautiful field covered with Grass etc., a lane fence reaching through rather diagonally across, nothing or anything, not even a hill to protect a charging line from artillery etc.--only the commerce lane fence." A low stone wall ran along the length of Cemetery Ridge. Their target, a small cluster of trees, stood less than fifty yards behind the center of the wall.
The 26th North Carolina remained in McMillan's Woods throughout the morning. While the soldiers waited, they could hear the sounds of religious services being held in Pickett's division. Because their own chaplains were tending the sick and wounded in the hospitals, the men took solace in singing hymns and listening to Pickett's ministers. [Map 7. Position of Opposing Forces at Gettysburg, Morning, July 3.]
Sometime shortly after 1 p.m., two Confederate artillery pieces fired on Cemetery Ridge. These shots signaled the beginning of the greatest cannonade seen in the United States. For two hours, the guns discharged so rapidly that it became impossible to distinguish between individual blasts.
The men of the 26th North Carolina lay in the woods not more than "twenty Steps" behind their batteries. As they hugged the earth, "the very ground trembled as if an Earth Quake." One shell exploded among the guns in front, killing five horses in an instant. A number of caissons (holding artillery rounds) took hits and exploded. Despite the violence of the barrage, the regiment suffered few injuries because of their position behind a hill.
Around 3 p.m., the artillery fire ceased. Infantrymen rose to their feet and moved in front of the guns. As the troops formed ranks, Pettigrew rode up to Col. Marshall and exclaimed, "Now Colonel, for the honor of the Good Old North State, forward!" Officers echoed the command throughout the brigade.
The grayclad troops stepped forward. Heth's four brigades made up the left half of the front line, with two from Pickett's division forming the right. About 100 yards to the rear came the two units under Trimble's command and Pickett's third brigade. As Lee watched the movement, he noted the bloody bandages worn by many among Pettigrew's and Trimble's ranks. He told Trimble that "many of these poor boys should go to the rear; they are not fit for duty."
Confusion developed as soon as the advance began. On the left of Heth's line, Davis' and Brockenbrough's troops were slow to emerge from the woods and rushed to catch the main body. The right of the division moved diagonally to the right to connect with Pickett's left brigade just as that unit shifted left to connect with Heth. Officers quickly corrected the alignment and the troops drove forward screaming the "Rebel Yell."
The men strode across the open valley at the quick step--the standard rate of march. T. J. Cureton stated that "as far as the eye could see on either side, [he] saw that splendid sight of perfect line of Battle." As Confederate infantry closed to about a half-mile of the Federal position, enemy artillery shelled them with "grape and canister." The brigades on the left of the line (under Brockenbrough and Davis) came under a severe flank fire. These two units soon faltered, then fell back. Marshall's men now formed the left of the Rebel line.
The men of the 26th North Carolina reached the post and rail fence along the Emmitsburg Pike. They were now within 250 yards of the stone wall. Once through the fence, the soldiers reformed their ranks in the road. At this point, the Union infantry greeted the Confederates with a "perfect hail-storm of lead." A Northern officer observing the charge later wrote: "Their graceful lines underwent an instantaneous transformation; in a dense cloud of smoke and dust, arms, heads, blankets, guns, and knapsacks, were tossed in the air, and the moans from the battlefield were heard from amid the storm of battle." The Southerners returned the fire and pressed forward. By the time they were about forty yards from the stone wall, casualties had reduced the regiment to the size of a "skirmish line."
Directly in front of the regiment stood William Arnold's battery of Rhode Island light artillery, supported by the 14th Connecticut and 1st Delaware regiments. A Federal artilleryman, Sgt. Amos Olney, watched as men from the 26th North Carolina charged toward one of the guns. When they had almost reached the stone wall, "Olney cried out: 'Barker, why the d---l don't you fire that gun! pull! pull!'" The gunner yanked the lanyard and a double load of canister tore a gap in the "North Carolina line [that] was simply terrible." [Map 8. The Pickett-Pettigrew-Trimble Assault, Afternoon, July 3.]
A few Tarheels continued to advance in scattered groups. Although one colorbearer had already fallen trying to reach the stone wall, J. M. Brooks and Daniel Thomas, from Company E, carried the flag forward and planted it on the wall in front of the enemy. The Union soldiers mercifully held their fire; one called out "Come over to this side of the Lord!" Brooks and Thomas surrendered.
As units to the left of the regiment fell back under the fierce fire from their front and flank, the remnants of the 26th also gave way. Those who could escape fled "as quickly as possible" from advancing Federal troops. Many others fell prisoner. Several officers tried to regroup the men along the Emmitsburg Pike. Most kept on going toward Seminary Ridge.
Once the survivors had reached the relative safety of their own lines, Pettigrew ordered them to "rally and form" behind the Confederate artillery. By nightfall, Pettigrew's brigade could form a "pretty good skirmish line" to protect the cannons. The 26th North Carolina numbered nearly 230 men (counting the cooks and extra duty men) when the charge began. Only three officers and sixty-seven men answered roll call that night.
The regiment was shattered. Of the more than 800 men in the ranks on July 1, 734 fell or were captured in less than two hours of combat. Among the casualties were Col. Burgwyn (dead), Lt. Col. Lane (severely wounded), all twenty men who had carried the regimental colors, eighty of the eighty-two men in Company E, and all ninety-three men of Company F. This last company contained three sets of twins. At the end of the battle, five of the six lay dead. The losses suffered by the 26th North Carolina at Gettysburg were the highest of any regiment in a single battle during the war.
The command structure of the regiment (and the brigade) also suffered greatly. Major Jones was the only uninjured field officer left among Pettigrew's unit. As such, he temporarily led the brigade. Captain Henry C. Albright commanded the regiment. Three lieutenants remained able for duty and took charge of their respective companies. Non-commissioned officers led the remaining troops.
The Confederates held their position throughout the next day. They expected to be attacked at any moment by Federal troops on Cemetery Ridge. Yet with the exception of occasional skirmishing between pickets, the field remained quiet. During the afternoon a heavy rain began to fall. The ambulances and wagons of the army started toward the passes through South Mountain. Shortly after dark, Heth's division marched westward down the Fairfield Road. The retreat to Virginia had begun.
For the next three days soldiers wearily slogged their way through mud and water "full knee deep." On July 7, they arrived at Hagerstown. Although the army had reached the Potomac, it could not cross over because heavy rains had swollen the river to near-flood stage.
The men spent the next two days resting. About 2 p.m. on July 10, the 26th North Carolina left its bivouac and marched about twelve miles from town. Pettigrew's brigade formed a line of battle against a possible attack by Federal cavalry. Although the sounds of cavalry and picket fighting could be heard nearby, the regiment did not become engaged in the action. Later that evening, the regiment moved to another position about eight miles away. There the troops again formed their ranks and began digging fortifications. The men remained in the trenches, expecting Meade's army to attack, for the next two days.
About twilight on July 13, Heth's division "absconded" in the direction of the Potomac. As a thunderstorm raged about them, the soldiers marched all night without halting, through mud and water "half leg deep." It took Heth's men twelve hours to cover seven miles. Around 8 a.m. on July 14, A. P. Hill halted the column at a farm clearing about a mile and a half from the river. He ordered Heth to form his unit in a line of battle across the road. The exhausted infantry stacked their rifles and lay down to rest. The men soon fell asleep, feeling secure "as there was a force of cavalry between us and the enemy."
Shortly after 11 a.m., as Heth and Pettigrew stood conversing in the farmyard, a troop of about fifty cavalry emerged from the woodline and rode straight at the officers. Someone gave the command to fire. However, Heth, believing the cavalry to be Confederates, countermanded the order. By the time someone realized the horsemen were Federals, the troopers were nearly in the midst of the Confederates.
Infantrymen scrambled to their feet and grabbed rifles. Unfortunately, most of the weapons were unloaded. One officer called the ensuing struggle "a hand to hand fight as is seldom seen in this war." Men clubbed Yankees from their horses with the butts of their guns, fence rails, and even an axe. In a short period of time, most of the mounted troopers had been killed or captured. Only two or three escaped.
During the melee, Pettigrew pulled out a small revolver and advanced on one of the Federals. He pulled the trigger, but the gun misfired. The cavalryman shot Pettigrew in the stomach. Seeing this, Nevel B. Staten, of Company B, "seized a big stone and crushed the breast of the Yankee, killing him."
In a matter of minutes the fight had ended. Major Jones called it "the funniest affair I have ever been in." The Federal cavalry had charged believing that only stragglers remained in front of them. Too late they discovered that they were riding into the midst of a full division. Although the Confederates suffered few casualties in the skirmish, Gen. Pettigrew was mortally wounded.
Heth finally moved his men down the road toward the river. As they waited to cross the pontoon bridge, a larger force of Federal horsemen attacked. The Confederates drove them off, but about 500 of the Southern rearguard fell prisoner. Among that number were fifty-five men from the 26th North Carolina. The remainder of the regiment crossed the Potomac just as the bridge was cut loose from its moorings on the north bank.
Once they crossed the river, the men had time to reflect on their performance at Gettysburg. They believed the regiment had proven itself during the battle. In the first day's action in McPherson's Woods, they fought units from one of the premier brigades in the Union army and drove them from the field. The number of killed and wounded in that struggle attested to the courage and discipline of the soldiers as well as the tenacity and marksmanship of their opponents. The long months of daily drill by Col. Burgwyn had paid off.
The troops held mixed emotions about the charge against Cemetery Ridge. On one hand, they took pride in what they saw as the "unparalleled bravery" of the assault. Yet at the same time, the men angrily denounced reports in the Richmond newspapers that blamed Pettigrew's men for the failure of the attack. Major Jones informed his father that these reports were lies. He stated: "Tell a man in this army that North Carolinians failed to go where Virginians went and he would think you a fool."
