Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 27.djvu/201

 Florida Brigade at Gettysburg. 193

received its "baptism of fire" in a sortie in conjunction with the Second Mississippi battalion, made to dislodge a detachment of the enemy's sharpshooters near Fort Magruder; and in which they were successful.

As acting-adjutant of the Second Florida, in the engagement at Williamsburg, May, 1862, Lieutenant Fleming was severely wounded through the hip and was left in Williamsburg.

Upon the entrance of the enemy he fell into their hands, and in the latter part of July, was placed with other prisoners on the " Rip Rips" in Hampton Roads.

Having been exchanged, Fleming returned to his regiment to find himself without rank, the reorganization having taken place whilst he was a prisoner, and it was thought that he would not recover from his wound. He therefore took his place in the ranks of his old com- pany, but soon after the second battle of Manassas, he was appointed Captain of company G, of the Second Florida, and participated in the investment of Harper's Ferry and the battle of Sharpsburg. Upon the return of Lee's army to Virginia the Florida regiments, the 2d, 5th and 8th were formed into a brigade and placed under the command of General Edward A. Perry. The brigade did gallant service at the battles of Fredericksburg, December 13, 1862; Chan- cellorsville, May 3-4, 1863; at Gettysburg, as detailed; at Bristow's Station, October 14, 1863, and in other engagements Captain Fleming constantly participating. He sealed his devotion to the cause he loved so well, being killed while leading the Second Florida, in the engagement near Games' Farm, Virginia, June 3, 1864. He was buried in the woods on McGehee's farm, but on June 3, 1893, his brother, ex-Governor Fleming, having found the grave, had the remains disinterred and placed in Hollywood cemetery, Richmond, where they now rest.]

At Gettysburg the Florida brigade, participating in the desperate charges of the Confederate centre, under A. P. Hill, on the 2d and 3d of July, sustained fearful losses in killed and wounded, being pro- portionately greater than that of any other brigade engaged. And it is not too much to say that the charges of Perry's, Wilcox's and Wright's brigades, of Anderson's division, on the 2d, and of Perry's and Wilcox's on the 3d, were in every sense as brilliant and heroic as that of Pickett's division, which has been immortalized by Vir- ginia historians, is