Tar Heel H
ISTORY
By Martin Wilson
The Real Leader
Of Pickett’s Charge
Pickett may have won fame for the notorious battle,
but a North Carolinian was the real hero.
When General Henry Heih was
wounded in the first day of
fighting at the Battle of Gettys¬
burg. command of his division fell
to General Janies Johnston Petti¬
grew of North Carolina. Though
the division had already suffered
losses of more than 40 percent and
shouldn't have been sent back into
battle. Pettigrew led it two days later
against murderous fire from Union
entrenchments on Cemetery Ridge.
The incident came to lx* known,
mistakenly, as "Pickett's Charge."
The following day, July 4. Pettigrew
celebrated his 35th birthday.
Though his hand was shattered
by grape-shot during the assault. Pet¬
tigrew stayed on the field with his
men throughout the battle. Ixisscs
were horrendous. More than 70
percent of his soldiers and officers
were killed or wounded. One entire
regiment, the Mississippi Greys
composed of University of Mississip¬
pi students, suffered 100 percent
casualties. Another regiment, the
55th North Carolina, made the far¬
thest advance of the day. thus pro¬
viding the middle of the North (iir-
olina boast: “First at Bethel, farthest
to the front at Gettysburg and
Chickamauga. last at Appomattox."
Ten days later, as la-e's army
withdrew southward to Virginia, a
contingent of Yankee cavalry —
possibly drunk — rode into the Confed¬
erate camp, probably by mistake. In the
melee that ensued. Pettigrew took a bul¬
let in the abdomen. Like the accidental
shooting of General Stonewall Jackson
two months earlier. Pettigrew's wound
could easily have been treated by modern
medicine. But this was 1863. and he died
three days later, on July 17 in Virginia.
“For none who fought so briefly in the
Army of Northern V irginia was there
more praise while living nor more
laments when dead," historian Douglas
Southall Freeman wrote of Pettigrew in
his book I ft's lieutenants.
Yet. incredibly, despite his bravery and
leadership that third day at Gettysburg,
Pettigrew's reputation was tainted almost
immediately by preposterous charges that
he had failed to support Pickett. The
charges apparently originated with Rich¬
mond newspapers, which portrayed Pick¬
ett. the golden-haired home-town boy. as
the intrepid leader of the charge. The
charge had failed, the papers said,
because Pettigrew's division hadn't done
its part. In fact. Pickett was one of three-
division commanders in the engagement
and, unlike Pettigrew, was not even at the
head of his men as they charged the
Union guns.
In time, the leading students of the war
— including Freeman and, more
recently. Shelby Foote — accorded
Pettigrew the credit he so obviously
deserves. Some historians have sug¬
gested the battle- lx- renamed the
"Pettigrcw-Pickett Charge." though
even this would detract from Petti¬
grew’s singular leadership that
sweltering afternoon.
For the most part. North Car¬
olinians have been left the lonely,
still-unfinished task of setting the
record straight. The state named a
park for him. and his alma mater in
Chapel I fill named one third of the
Battle-Vance-Pettigrew dor mitory
for him. But oncc-frequent refer¬
ences to Pettigrew have slowed to a
trickle in modern times. That's a
shame. North Carolina should take
pride in the memory of one of its
most gifted sons.
Born into a prominent plantation
family at Phelps lake in Tyrrell
( a>unty, Pettigrew absorbed a strong
sense of the* responsibilities that
came with his station in life. At the
urging of his father, a noted agri¬
cultural researcher, he applied him¬
self to his studies at the University of
North Carolina with an awesome
energy that classmates and profes¬
sors still remembered decades later.
I le graduated in 1847 with a perfect record
and, well into the 20th century, die univer¬
sity’s past president and historian. Kemp
Plummer Battle, called him "the ablest
man I ever knew."
Pettigrew did more than excel in his
t,
General James Johnston Pettigrew
The Stale/January 1992
14
ItMii lame, III il* N C ftum» ot Arthur, ml Him)