Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 31.djvu/243

 Pickets Charge. 235

I wish to mention here that Captain William I. Clopton, now judge of Manchester, told me after the war that while General Pick- ett was trying to guard his left, he saw twenty-seven battleflags, each with the usual complement of men, move out on our right flank, but we did not see this, as all our thoughts were fixed on our left flank.

Captain Symington and Captain Baird could each give many in- teresting incidents if they could be induced to write for publication. My article of the loth of December, 1903, in The Times- Dispatch^ should be read before this account, to show how and when General Pickett's command reached Gettysburg.

PERSONAL.

Should I write again, it will be about the 4,000 prisoners we guarded back to Virginia, Kemper's supposed death bed, and General Lee's note to General Pickett a few days after Gettysburg. To those seeking the truth about this great battle, I will say, the very great losses in other commands occurred on the first and second days. The third day, at this exhibition, was most decidedly Virginia day, and a future Virginia Governor, Kemper by name, was present. I wish here to state that some of the men of Garnett's Brigade told me they saw up at the stone wall, fighting with them, some men and officers, mostly the latter, of two other States, and in answer to my questions as to numbers and organization, answered, numbering in all, less than sixty, and without formation of any military kind, Ala- bamians and North Carolinians.

Now, as to the position of Armistead's Brigade in the charge. He was ordered to go in on the left of Garnett, but Captain Win- free, a most gallant officer of the I4th Virginia, now living in this city, agrees with my memory, that Armistead's brigade went in be^ tween Garnett and Kemper. I also wish to give such information as I can to Senator Daniel, who asked for it in the Confederate col- umn of Sunday's 7 tines- Dispatch, 24th of January, about the losses of Pickett's three brigades on the third day. No official returns came to us until long after the battle, because no one was left to make report, and hardly any one was left to receive such report. General Pickett's staff officers who encamped the command on the night of the third day counted sixteen hundred. I find Senator Daniel since the war always turning from Washington to Virginia, like the needle to the pole, but, strange to say, during the war I