Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 27.djvu/207

 /'/-,//./ /;////,///, "i 1 <;nr</. 199

ask of those who record history, while we make it, is simply justice. us this, and we ask no more.

" Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

11 DAVID LANG, "Colonel Commanding Perry' s Brigade"

P. W. A., in a letter to the Enquirer, written soon after, corrected the error into which he had fallen, using the following language:

" The mistake into which I was led, and into which it seems your own correspondent also fell, was a very natural one. Information reached me from so many different sources, as to leave no doubt of its correctness, that General Anderson's orders to his division were to advance and assault the enemy, the brigade on the right (Wil- cox's) leading off, and the others following in their order to the left. (Such too, was the general order of battle.) Three of his brigades Wilcox's, Perry's and Wright's did advance, were hotly en- gaged, were flanked for want of timely support, and suflered heavily; while the two other brigades did not advance their movements, we arc permitted to infer from the tenor of General Andersons card, having been arrested by their military superiors."

Another army correspondent, signing himself " S," had fallen into a similar error, which he subsequently corrected in a letter to the Advertiser and Register, paying a handsome tribute to the Florida troops, from which we make the following extract:

"No man, capable of performing his duty, can shun the field in this hour of supreme trial, without disgracing himself and his pos- terity, and endangering the cause so dear to every lover of liberty.

" Instead of abusing the furloughs which have been given them, or taking shelter in nitre bureaus, and behind frivolous and unmanly excuses for exemption, every able-bodied man who cannot better serve the cause at home than in the army, should esteem it a privi- lege to come at once to the field, without waiting to be called, and thus emulate the example of the brave Floridians, who have sent more men to the war than the number of voters in the whole State.

"And this reminds me that in my account of the great battle of Gettysburg, full justice was not done to Perry's Florida brigade. Its performance was not only creditable, but gallant, as is shown by its heavy loss, which, in proportion to the number engaged, exceeds that sustained by any other brigade on the field."