Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 36.djvu/371

Rh on the occasion of the dedication of a monument erected on the field of the surrender by the Old North State. The monument bore the following inscription: "First at Bethel; farthest at Gettysburg; last at Appomattox," and this legend was the theme of Governor Glenn's address. The writer of this editorial happened to be present on the occasion, and after the address was over he sought an occasion to speak upon the subject with the amiable governor, who is portly and good conditioned, with an aldermanic abdomen 'on good capon lined." We told him that although Wyatt, the youth who fell at Big Bethel, the first Confederate killed in actual battle, came to Virginia as a member of a North Carolina company, he was a native of Albemarle county, in this State, and went out with his father's family to the North State when twelve years of age. We then told him that his claim for North Carolina at Gettysburg contradicted the well-established facts of history since all the world knew that Pickett's Virginia division went farthest at Gettysburg, part of it having actually gotten over the stone wall on the crest of the hill. He said that he did not deny that and did not claim that the North Carolinians went farthest to the direct front, but that Pettigrew's North Carolina brigade made a detour to the left and went a greater distance than did Pickett's men. Suppressing our risibles as best we could at 'this lame and impotent conclusion,' we then informed him, and, indeed, pointed out to him where the Virginia battery( Poague's, if we are not mistaken) was stationed that fired the last shot at Appomattox. To this he had no reply to make since there is no contradiction of it than can be truthfully made. "There is no discount on the gallantry of the North Carolinians in war, but though they were first in many things, they were not in all."