Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 32.djvu/52

 40 Southern Historical Society Papers.

T. Crew, E. C. Goodson, and W. T. White, and Privates S. Clarke and W. C. Taliaferro.

Killed and died of wounds, twenty-three; wounded and prison- ers, eighty-seven; prisoners and wounded left with enemy, marked
 * forty seven.

From all information obtainable it may be stated that the First Virginia Regiment lost in killed, wounded and prisoners, not less than 125 men out of about 160 that went into the charge.

GENERAL REMARKS.

Pickett's men could have gone into battle on the previous even- ing, when they reached Gettysburg. They were in fine condition. The march from Chambersburg did not fatigue them at all. Any- one who will visit Gettysburg battlefield will see the truth of these views. The writer calls to memory that just before the artillery opened he filled his canteen from a well -near which one of our bat- teries was posted. In talking- with the men of the contemplated charge, and, having the position pointed out to him, he remarked on his return to the line, ' ' He would not give twenty-five cents for his life if the charge was made."

He further recalls that one of the comrades, M. J. Wingfield, called "Monk," turned to him when about half way across the field, saying, "Where are our reinforcements?" On looking around nothing was in sight, except the three brigades of Pickett about 300 yards in rear of our skirmish line and now subject to a storm of shells, tearing great gaps into the lines. The writer then replied, " Monk, I don't see any," on which he replied, "We are going to be whipped, see if we don't." Alas, for the poor fellow, these were his last words, for a bullet ended his life only a few min- utes afterward.

The story here told is but a record of the excellence of all of the fifteen regiments of Pickett's division that charged on that historic day.