The 38th North Carolina Suffers Greatly at Gettysburg

This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 1/10/2013

A great battle of Gettysburg Confederate officer's letter, 4pp. 8vo., "Camp near Bunkers Hill, Va., near our old camp, July 21st, [1863]." by Lt. Alfred W. Dockery, Co. E, 38th North Carolina, Scales Brigade, Wilcox's Division, 3rd Corps, Army of Northern Virginia to Major Sanders M. Ingram 38th NC concerning their vigorous movements and casualties of the Gettysburg campaign, in part: "…things are quite different now…our rank & file has greatly diminished…have paid heir last debt…our little band has lost some of its best men. Our Regt…cannot muster more than 55 men…so you can form distant idea what the old 38th has gone through. We left the vicinity of Fredericksburg on or about the 13th or 15th day of June with a pretty smart Regt, some three [hundred] fifty, but the long and tiresome march & fights through Maryland and Pa has reduced our ranks to 55 men…the Richmond [County, NC] boys…some of them acted very bad, we left Fredericksburg with 20 odd, we marched two days and got in the neighborhood of Culpeper C. H. The march was very hard, the hardest that we have ever had. Some eight of nine of the boys dropped out and swore they would not march so nor…cross the Potomac, E. S. Garrett [MWIA Reams Station, whose letter we are selling elsewhere in the catalog], C[harles] Hicks, Wm. Meachum [WIA Mechanicsville, POW North Anna], Jno. Benoist [WIA Mechanicsville & Spotsylvania, deserted again 3/10/65, confined Washington, DC.], Green Hogans [never returned] & one or two are the ones that left. I was surpassed at their leaving especially Garrett, he had a nice little office and filled it very well and always appeared to be down against desertion. I received a note from Ned…written at Lynchburg saying that he, Hicks & Oliver [Pvt. James Oliver Hines, killed during the war] had given up. I am glad to hear it and hope they will be back to the Co[mpany] in a few days. Well, Maj. now I will tell you something about our wounded, missing etc. In the first place W[illiam] T. Tyson [WIA Pickett's Charge, died David's Island, NY] & K. M. Covington [WIA & POW July 2] were shot severely in their legs. The Dr. thinks they will both loss their legs. They were left in Pa. Jno. Shepard [MIA July 1] & N. R. Webb [WIA July 1] were slightly wounded. Sam Covington [POW Pickett's Charge], Wm. Harris [POW Pickett's Charge] & W. R. Covington [POW July 2] are missing and supposed to be prisoners. After three days hard fighting we fell back to hagerstown, Md. and there made a stand, threw up breastworks. The enemy soon come and threw up their breastwork in front of ours. We staid a day or two awaiting for the river to fall or rather to get our pontoons across, as the river was too full to wade…we retreated from Hagerstown in the night and made for the other side of Jordan, as the boys calls it. Our Div was in rear of…the army and [it] was late in the day before we got to the river with about three Brigades of Yankee Cavalry at our heels…we formed [a] line of battle about 50 times. There were so many Yankees that we could not keep them from flanking us. They come up on our ranks…". Unfortunately, the letter ends here and is unsigned making it a partial letter, but a fully signed 1894 reunion letter is also included, 4pp. addressed to former Major Sanders M. Ingram, reading, in part: "My dear Sir & old comrade…I would give all my power to comply with your kind invitation to be with the Richmond [county] boys…at their reunion, it would be a sad meeting to me to call the roll and hear no sound to some of [the] names of the best boys on earth. Yes, 3/4 of the 'Richmond boys' gave up their all to the cause of a defeated Confederacy. It is nothing but our duty to mark their graves and to keep them fresh with flowers and to teach our children what their Grand Fathers, uncles etc. died for…send me a list of your reunion boys and what you did…I was sorry to hear that our fiend jack McRae was dead…my two brothersTom & Jim are both doing well…I want you to send me a copy of those…words composed by yourself termed. The 'Richmond boy.'…I will never forget the day when you resolved…to strike a ten…with a splendid suit of new clothes on. When you dared any lousy devil to darken it etc, etc…". Both VG

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