History of Lane's North Carolina Brigade.
By Brigadier-General James H. Lane
THE GETTYSBURG CAMPAIGN
[For General Lane's report of Gettysburg, see Vol. V, Southern Historical Society Papers, page 41, and for his account of other details see his letter in the same volume, page 38. And for further mention of the operations of this gallant brigade, see the report of their corps commander, Lieutenant-General A. P. Hill, which was published in our Papers, Vol. II. page 222. We regret that our space will not permit us to reprint these documents, even to preserve the continuity of General Lane's narrative; but we give with pleasure the following letter from the gallant General Trimble, of Maryland, under whose immediate eye these brave North Carolinians fought on the third day at Gettysburg.]
LETTER FROM GENERAL TRIMBLE
S. D. Pool,—I see by your October number of "Our Living and Our Dead," that you defend the reputation of the North Carolina troops as earnestly as ever, while doing full justice, as you do at all times, to those from other States.
On page 457, October number, under the heading, "Another Witness—Gettysburg," you have taken in hand the now stale, though yet oft-repeated, assertion, that Pickett's division was repulsed on the 3d of July, because not supported by other troops, and have shown that the erroneous statements first made by writers, both from the North and South, are still blindly adhered to by all who attempt to describe the operations of that day.
No account of the three days' fighting at that noted town has yet been given that is not full of errors of fact and errors of inference, and a truthful relation of the occurrences of those days has yet to be given. The reason why these mistakes have been made, is, that no careful study of the subject, with documentary and other evidences at hand, has as yet been made by a competent writer. Those who have treated the subject have been eye-witnesses of but a part of the lines, near six miles in circuit, and hence to make up a full relation of the whole, must adopt the hasty and erroneous accounts of others, or even
