In the assault Davis’ brigade had about sixty per cent. killed and wounded. It is probable that Pettigrew’s brigade had even a higher per centage, as they were somewhat longer under fire. It is possible that Pickett’s was twenty-five. But whatever it was, after all, their pretty wheelings and lovely drum major’s airs, that the enemy should have been so ungrateful as to shoot at them, so wounded their feelings that they had to be sent out of the army and they did not re-join it for nearly a year afterwards.
If a line of good soldiers can be formed in rushing distance, almost anything can be carried. But if a wide and open field has to be passed and there is to be a loss from twenty-five to seventy per cent. and the consequent disorganization, nothing but useless bloodshed can be expected. This would appear to be a truth so self-evident that the merest tyro could comprehend it. But yet Burnside and Hancock (’till too late) do not appear to have done so at Fredericksburg. General Lee did not at Malvern Hill and Gettysburg, and, in ignorance of this law, the gallant Schobelef sacrificed the best division of the Russian army at Plevna.
Bodies in motion, by their momentum, advance in the direction of least resistance. A body of soldiers making an attack forms no exception to this law of physics. When the Philadelphia brigade of Gibbon’s division, which had been roughly handled the day before, gave way as our men got in charging distance, this point of least resistance was filled by Confederates—a disorganized mob of about 1,000—in which several brigades had representatives, and this is very foolishly called the “high water mark of the Confederacy.” Why, there was not a fresh regiment in the Federal army which could not have defeated this body, and there was a whole corps of fresh regiments at hand. The Sixth, which by many was considered the best in the army had hardly fired a shot. If there was any high water mark connected with this battle it was reached the afternoon before, while McLaws, Hood and Anderson were doing their fighting—and the precise time was when Wright’s brigade, of the last named division, having driven the enemy before them, had carried a battery of twenty guns. Shortly afterwards one of McLaws’ brigades gave way, and with its defeat went our fortunes. Every shot fired by us the next day was one more nail in the coffin of the Confederacy.—Scotland Neck Commonwealth.
Transcriber’s Notes
Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed.
Simple typographical errors were corrected; occasional unbalanced quotation marks retained.
Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained; occurrences of inconsistent hyphenation have not been changed.
Inconsistent possessive forms of Proper names have been made consistent, using a government Roster of Commanders to resolve ambiguities. In particular, General J. D. Daniel’s surname often was misprinted as “Daniels” or “Daniels’”.
In the original book, omitted names were indicated by a series of periods. In this eBook, four dashes (or a long em-dash) are used.
Page [51]: “Christie” was misprinted as “Chirstie”; corrected here.