State

By MAINLY WADE WELLMAN North Carolina at Gettysburg I. Yankee Ground Military historians arc fond of com¬ paring Gettysburg to that other great decisive battle at Waterloo. A smaller army attacked a bigger, confident in its commander's brilliance to even the odds; each force advanced and with¬ drew; and the final issue was staked on a desperate charge that did not quite succeed. Robert E. Lee took some 77,000 men into Pennsylvania to fight George Meade's 101.000 Fcderals. They were shabby, gaunt, whiskered fighters of bitter courage and endurance, armed and equipped from Union depots cap¬ tured at Second Manassas. Fredericks¬ burg and Chanccllorsvillc. Among them were included 35 regiments of infantry and cavalry from North Caro¬ lina. four batteries of Tar Heel artillery and some non-combatants — perhaps 15,000 in all. not quite a fifth of the Army of Northern Virginia. A Walking Army Every fighting man walked all the way from Virginia to Pennsylvania, unless he rode or drove his own horse. It was a march of some twenty days. The longest walk of all was made by Dick Ewell’s Second Corps, which led the commands of Longstrcct and A. P. Hill into Yankee territory and penetrated all the way to Carlisle. Above the cavalry barracks there was flown the flag of the 32nd North Caro¬ lina. farthest North of any Confed¬ erate banner in history, until the recent displays by football crowds and motor¬ ing faddists. On that hot June 28 of 1S63. Ewell let his weary foot-soldiers relax in ranks. Birdlike and spry, he chirped good-humoredly to the staring Pennsyl¬ vania civilians. He even made a speech in the public square; so did Major-Gen¬ eral Robert Rodcs. a Viking man with sweeping blond moustaches, and so did Junius Daniel, one of Rodcs’ brigadiers, whose troops included the 32nd, 43rd and 45th Regiments from North Carolina, with the Second North Carolina Battalion attached. Also in Rodes' Division was Dodson Ram- sour’s North Carolina brigade, the Second. Fourth. 1 4th and 30th Regi¬ ments; and. under the Georgia briga¬ dier. Alfred Iverson, the Fifth, 12th, 20th and 23rd North Carolina. With Edgar Johnson's Division, at rest near by. the First and Third North Carolina held their places in George Stcuart's Brigade. In Early's Division were the Sixth, 21st and 57th North Carolina, led by Colonel Isaac Avery in place of Brigadier-General R. F. Hoke, absent with wounds. The fluttering star-crossed flag, the band playing "Dixie," and the oratory of the generals did not seem to offend Carlisle's citizens, and the invading infantry cheered as at a political bar¬ becue. One of the 32nd, handsome point-bearded Corporal Joe John Cow¬ and. twitched a piece of rough blue paper from his haversack and began a note to his pretty cousin, Winifred Cowand, back home in Bertie County. "I am in Yankeydom faring finely." he pencilled. "Plenty of something to go on but a long wais from home and I cannot tell you when you will hear from me again." And she never did. Another non-com was writing a let¬ ter — Orderly Sergeant George Wills of Company I. 43rd North Carolina. "1 feel like going on to New York on the occasion." he assured his sister Lucy, back near Enfield in Halifax County. Somewhere else, men trium¬ phantly donned new shoes taken from glum Pennsylvania militia captives. There was some talk that Ewell would strike for the state Capitol at Harris¬ burg. But that did not happen. Lee. ham- THE STATE, Vol. XX: No. J8. Entered a* sccond-cla*. nillfr. Juno 1. 19JJ. at the РоМоГПее at Ralelch. North Carolina, under the aft ot March 3. ISIS. Published by Sharpe PuMUhlnc Co.. Inc.. Lawyer. Bid*.. Ralelch. N. C. Copyrlcht. 19SJ. by the Sharpe PubUthlng Co.. Inc.