Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 07.djvu/371

Rh shall hereafter reply more particularly to this complaint, but at present will notice other portions of the narrative.

After some explanations of his position with reference to certain redoubts to the left of our line on that day, Colonel Bratton says:

Now it is utterly impossible that this statement can be accurate—nay, it would be difficult to find an equal amount of error in a like compass—and however well intended the narrative may have been, its inaccuracy renders it valueless as a historical paper.

First. There was never a moment during the whole encounter when the Fifth North Carolina regiment was in position to "charge across the line of the enemy," or to "charge across the entire front of the enemy to the redoubt occupied by 'Colonel Bratton's' two companies." No moment of time occurred when any portion of the enemy was, or could have been, on the flank of that regiment. It was face to face with his line of battle long before it came within reach of his small guns, and it so remained until it retreated under the order of General Hill, and it several times turned and delivered fire and received that of the enemy while retiring. No such charge "across the entire front of the enemy" was made—no such "change of direction" as that described occurred; and no such