HUMBUGGERY OF HISTORY.
Early in the war the best troops in the army of Northern Virginia could not have fighting enough. At that time they were simple enough to believe that there was some connection between fame and bravery. After a while they learned that a dapper little clerk of the quartermaster’s department, if he had the ear of the editor of the Richmond “Examiner,” had more to do with their reputation than their own courage. When this fact became known there was “no more spoiling for a fight,” but it was very often felt to be a hardship when they were called upon to do more than their proper share of fighting.
BROCKENBOROUGH’S VIRGINIA BRIGADE.
The 40th, 47th and 55th Virginia regiments and 22nd Virginia battalion composed this brigade. Up to the reorganization of the army after Jackson’s death, it formed a part of A. P. Hill’s famous light division. That it did not sustain its reputation at Gettysburg had no effect upon the general result of that battle. Their loss was 25 killed and 143 wounded.
LONGSTREET’S MEN.
If any searcher after the truth of the matter consults the records and other sources of reliable information, paying no attention to the clap-traps of Virginia writers, he will find, to say the least, that the troops of Ewell’s and Hill’s corps were the peers of the best and the superiors of a large part of the soldiers of Longstreet’s corps. In the battle of the second day if the four brigades of McLaw’s division had fought as well as did Wright’s and Wilcox’s of the third corps, we would have undoubtedly gained a victory at Gettysburg. Hood’s was the best division, but it was defeated at Wauhatchie, Tenn., by troops that the men of the second and third corps had often met and never failed to drive. As to Pickett’s “writing division:” From Malvern Hill to Gettysburg was exactly one year, and in this time the four great battles of Second Manassas, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, and twice as many of less prominence were fought by the army or parts of the army. In these battles Lane’s North Carolina, Scales’ North Carolina and Archer’s mixed brigade of Tennesseeans and Alabamians had three thousand six hundred and ten men killed and wounded. In the same period Armistead’s Virginia, Kemper’s Virginia and Garnett’s Virginia had seven hundred and seventy-two killed and wounded.
SCALES’ BRIGADE.
At Gettysburg where it had 102 killed and 322 wounded it was a small brigade, as at Chancellorsville only two months before it had met with a loss of nearly seven hundred. In the third day’s assault, General Scales having been wounded, it was commanded by Col. Lowrence, who was also wounded as was every field officer and nearly every company officer in the brigade. This gallant little organization consisted of the 13th, 16th, 22nd, 34th and 38th North Carolina. Its first commander was Pettigrew, who was severely wounded and captured at Seven Pines. Then came Pender, then Scales, late Governor of North Carolina. At Gettysburg it and Lane’s were the only troops who were required to fight every day.
Mr. W. H. Swallow, of Maryland, a Confederate soldier and a writer of some note, was wounded at Gettysburg, and in one of his articles descriptive of the battle, says: “Gen. Trimble, who commanded Pender’s division and lost a leg in the assault, lay wounded with the writer at Gettysburg for several weeks after the battle, related the fact to the writer (Swallow) that when Gen. Lee was inspecting the column in front of Scales’ brigade, which had been fearfully cut up in the first day’s conflict, having lost very heavily, including all of its regimental officers with its gallant commander, and noticing many of Scales’ men with their heads and hands bandaged, he said to Gen. Trimble: ‘Many of these poor boys should go to the rear; they are not able for duty.’ Passing his eyes searchingly along the weakened ranks of Scales’ brigade he turned to Gen. Trimble and touchingly added, ‘I miss in this brigade the faces of many dear friends.’ * * * * * In a few weeks some of us were removed from the town to a grove near the wall that Longstreet had assaulted. As the ambulances passed the fences on the Emmittsburg road, the slabs were so completely perforated with bullet holes that you could scarcely place a half inch between them. One inch and a quarter board was indeed a curiosity. It was sixteen feet long and fourteen inches wide and was perforated with eight hundred and thirty-six musket balls. I learned afterwards that the board was taken possession of by an agent of the Pennsylvania Historical Society. This board was on that part of the fence where Scales’ brave little brigade crossed it.”
STEUART’S BRIGADE.