Page:Confederate Cause and Conduct.djvu/182

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160
Official Reports of the


we have seen say that any North Carolina troops did this, which, as we have seen, is the real point at issue. We have already shown, and will do so more conclusively later, that Pickett's men or some of them, certainly did this. The report of Maj. Joseph A. Englehard, assistant adjutant general of Pender's Division, then commanded by Trimble, is substantially to the same effect as those of Gen, Lane and Col. Lowrance, and for that reason we do not quote what he says. That of Col. Shepard, of Archer's Brigade, after describing the charge, and saying our lines, both right and left, gave way, says:

"Archer's Brigade remained at the works fighting as long as any other troops, either on their right or left, so far as I could observe. Every flag in the brigade, excepting one, was captured at or within the works of the enemy." (Italics ours.)

This is the only official statement we have found which claimed that any other troops than those of Pickett entered the enemy's works. But since Archer's Brigade, which, Gen. Heth says, were the "heroes of Chancellorsville," was composed entirely of Tennesseeans and Alabamians, we hardly think our North Carolina friends can mean their claim to be mistaken for what the men of this brigade did.

The report of Maj. J. Jones, of the Twenty-sixth North Carolina, who commanded Pettigrew's Brigade after Col. Marshall was wounded, says:

"When within about 250 or 300 yards of the stone wall, behind which the enemy was posted, we were met with a perfect hailstorm of lead from their small arms. The brigade dashed on, and many had reached the wall, when we received a deadly volley from the left. The whole line on the left had given way, and we were being rapidly flanked. With our thinned ranks and in such a position it would have been folly to stand, and against such odds. We, therefore, fell back to our original position in rear of the batteries."

It will be seen that this officer does not claim that any of his men entered the works or that the troops on his right (Pickett's