The command had moved about fifty yards in the charge.
General Pickett and staff were about twenty yards in rear of the column.
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When we had gone about four hundred yards the
General said: ‘
Captain, you have lost your spurs to-day, instead of gaining them.’
Riding on the right side, I looked at once at my left boot, and saw that the shank of my spur had been mashed around and the rowel was looking towards the front, the work of a piece of shell, I suppose, but that was the first I knew of it. Then I remembered the
Irishman's remark, that one spur was enough, because if one side of your horse went, the other would be sure to go.
When we had charged about 750 yards, having about 500 more to get over before reaching the stone wall,
Pettigrew's Brigade broke all to pieces and left the field in great disorder.
At this time we were mostly under a fierce artillery fire; the heaviest musketry fire came farther on.
General Pettigrew was in command that day of a division and his brigade was led by
Colonel Marshall, who was knocked from his horse by a piece of shell as his men broke, but he had himself lifted on his horse, and when his men refused to follow him up, he asked that his horse be turned to the front.
Then he rode up until he was killed.
If all the men on
Pickett's left had gone on like
Marshall, history would have been written another way.
General Pickett sent
Captain Symington and
Captain Baird to rally these men.
They did all that brave officers could do, but could not stop the stampede.