.
, but the following additions can but be welcome to our readers.
Reference may be made to
p. 33 and preceding volumes of the
Sir,—Enclosed are accounts of the charge at
Gettysburg by two officers of
Pickett's Division of high reputation for courage and reliability—the one being
Lieutenant-Colonel Rawley W. Martin, then of the 53d Virginia Infantry,
Armistead's Brigade, and the other
Captain John,
Holmes Smith, of the
Lynchburg Home Guard, who, after
Lieutenant-Colonel Kirkwood Otey, and
Major Risque Hutter, were wounded in that battle, commanded the 11th Virginia Infantry.
In 1897
Commander Sylvester Chamberlain, of an Association of
United States Naval Veterans, of
Buffalo, New York, wrote to
Colonel Martin (now
Dr. Martin, of
Lynchburg, Va.), asking him to recount the charge, saying:
‘The charge of
Pickett's Division outrivals the storied heroism of the Old Guard of
Napoleon.
They knew no such battle as that of
Gettysburg, and, I believe, the old First Confederate Army Corps could have whipped the best two corps in
Napoleon's army, taken in the zenith of his fame.’
Dr. Martin wrote this paper under the call from a Northern camp commander.
[
184]
Captain John Holmes Smith was with his regiment on the right wing of
Pickett's charge, under
Kemper, and struck the
Federal line to the right of where
General Armistead made the break.
The soldiers of
Kemper there took the
Federal entrenchments, and remained about twenty minutes in possession of them.
Twice couriers were sent back for reinforcements.
Slowly, but surely, the details of this magnificent exploit of war come to light; and the more brilliant does it appear.
Slowly, and surely, also do the evidences gather that point toward the responsible agents of the failure that ensued.
Respectfully,
