DESERTION.
With the exception of South Carolina probably no State in the Confederacy had so few soldiers “absent without leave” as North Carolina. Owing to unfortunate surroundings neither the head of the army nor the administration ever realized this fact. The same harshness that forced thousands of conscripts into the army who were unfit for service, and kept them there until death in the hospital released them, caused more soldiers from North Carolina (some of whom had shed their blood in defence of the South) to be shot for this so-called desertion than from any other State. Though the military population of the Tar Heel State was not as great as that of at least two of the others, her soldiers filled twice as many graves, and at Appomattox, Va., and Greensboro, N. C., surrendered twice as many muskets as those of any other State. There was a singular fact in connection with these so-called desertions. In summer, when there was fighting or the expectation of a fight, they never occurred. Only in winter, when the men had time to think of their families, hundreds of whom were suffering for the necessaries of life, did the longing desire to see them and minister to their wants overcome every other sentiment, and dozens of them would steal away.
UNDESERVED CONTEMPT.
Wonder and surprise must be felt by any intelligent officer of any of the European armies who rides over that part of the lines held by the army of the Potomac which was assaulted on the afternoon of July 3rd, 1863. Wonder that sixty or seventy thousand men occupying the commanding position they did and supported by hundreds of cannon should have felt so much pride in having defeated a column of less than ten thousand. For had their only weapons been brick-bats they should have done so. Surprise that Gen. Lee should have had so supreme a contempt for the Federal army as to have thought for a moment that by any sort of possibility the attack could be successful.
A LEAF OF NORTHERN HISTORY.
No longer ago than last August a New York magazine contained an elaborately illustrated article descriptive of the Gettysburg battlefield. As long as the writer confines himself to natural scenery he acquits himself very creditably, but when he attempts to describe events which occurred there so many years ago he flounders fearfully. Of course Pickett’s men advance “alone.” Of course there is a terrific hand-to-hand battle at what he calls the “bloody angle.” In this battle he says that many of Doubleday’s troops lost from twenty-five to forty per cent. “The slaughter of the Confederates was fearful—nearly one-half of them were left upon the field, Garnett’s brigade alone having over three thousand killed and captured.” This is Northern history.
Now for facts: Pickett’s men did not advance “alone.” There was no terrific battle inside the enemy’s works. None of Doubleday’s troops lost there from twenty-five to forty per cent. There was not one regiment in Gibbons’ or Doubleday’s commands which, after the shelling, lost one-fourth of one per cent. As to Garnett’s brigade, as it carried in only two thousand or less and brought out a considerable fragment, it could hardly have had over three thousand killed and captured. It did have seventy-eight killed and three hundred and twenty-four wounded.
Gen. Doubleday in writing to ask permission to make use of the pamphlet in a history he was then preparing, suggested only one alteration, and that was in regard to Stannard’s Vermont brigade, which had fought only the day before, and not the two days as the pamphlet had it.
UNION SENTIMENT IN NORTH CAROLINA.
On the retreat Kilpatrick attacked our ambulance train and captured many wounded officers of Ewell’s corps. Among them was one from my brigade who, when in hospital, was asked by a Federal surgeon if the well-known Union sentiment in North Carolina had anything to do with the large proportion of wounded men from that State. Being young and inexperienced in the ways of the world he indignantly answered, “No.”