Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 02.djvu/145

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General R. E. Rodes' Report of the Battle of Gettysburg.
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sabres got very scarce even among the cavalrymen, who relied more and more on their short rifles.

No soldiers ever marched with less to encumber them, and none marched faster or held out longer.

The courage and devotion of the men rose equal to every hardship and privation, and the very intensity of their sufferings became a source of merriment. Instead of growling and deserting, they laughed at their own bare feet, ragged clothes and pinched faces, and weak, hungry, cold, wet, worried with vermin and itch, dirty, with no hope of reward or rest, but each fighting on his own personal account, needing not the voice of any to urge them on, marched cheerfully to meet the well fed and warmly clad hosts of the enemy.


General R. E. Rodes' Report of the Battle of Gettysburg.

[General R. E. Lee's, General Longstreet's, General Ewell's and General Early's reports of the Gettysburg campaign have been published, together with General J. E. B. Stuart's report of those stirring and important movements which preceded and which followed the great battle.

We are indebted to the courteous kindness of Mrs. Rodes for the MS. of the original report of Major-General R. E. Rodes, whose division bore so important a part in that campaign. We are sure that many inquirers after the truth of history will thank us for giving (for the first time) to the world this report of the accomplished soldier, whose gallantry and skill won for him so high a reputation, and whose death on the field at Winchester was lamented as a sad loss to the army, and to the Confederacy.

We hope hereafter to publish others of the more important reports of this great campaign.]

REPORT.

Headquarters Rodes' Division, Orange C. H., 1863.

Lt. Col. A. S. Pendleton, A. A. General Second Army Corps:

Colonel—In compliance with orders, I have the honor herewith to submit a report of the operations of this division during the period which elapsed from the breaking up of camp at Grace church, in Caroline county, to its return to the Rappahannock waters.

During this period the division was organized as follows: Daniel's North Carolina brigade, commanded by Brigadier-General Junius Daniel, composed of the following regiments: Thirty-second North