“
[200]
enlisted men, and that every man was killed or wounded,” is so unparalleled in the annals of war, that the claim will not be admitted unless there is irrefragable proof of its truth.
Happily the Captain of the company, and now a Presbyterian minister located at Collierstown, Va., has preserved the record.
In a letter to the writer, dated October 4, 1900, this gallant officer, now the Rev. Mr. Tuttle, thus writes:
Your letter came duly to hand, and I set to work to settle forever the contest as to Company F.
Fortunately, and even more, for it seems like a special Providence, I had preserved my report published in the Virginia paper (Richmond Enquirer or Examiner). I had pasted it long years ago (during the war), in the back of my sister's album, and it is still clear and legible.
I have had to amend it in four names only, using just a little later information.
The proof is now, irrefragable, I give, you will observe not only the names, but the exact wounds received, just what I sent to the Richmond paper soon after the battle.
I was detained in a hospital in Richmond some weeks after the battle.
The orderly Sergeant's statement as you will see, fully agrees in all essential features with my report.
These papers will, I think, enable you to clinch every claim we make for Company F.
Yours truly,
There was enclosed in the above letter a statement signed by J. T. C. Hood, Orderly Sergeant, Company F, 26th Regiment North Carolina Troops, as follows:
Company F, 26th Regiment, North Carolina Troops, went into the fight at Gettysburg, Pa., with eighty-eight answering to roll call on the morning of July 1, 1863, besides three commissioned officers (one private being detailed to guard our knapsacks). Having been wounded on the first day in both leg and foot, I hobbled to the stone bridge two miles south of Gettysburg, where I had an opportunity of seeing a great many of the wounded of the first day's fight, and from what I gathered from them and saw myself, the loss of Company F, on the first day was about twenty-five killed and sixty wounded. Also, after the second and third day, there was not a single man left, all being killed or wounded.In addition to the above, the writer has before him the muster and pay roll of the Company, giving its condition on June 30, 1863, as
