Disinterred

Chapter Eight- A Walk in the Park

     Hi everyone, I am Park Ranger Bob and I will be taking you on your tour through Gettysburg National Military Park today.   Today we will be examining one of the most costly and famous battle attacks in American history, Pickett's charge.  Today we will be following in the foot steps of the brigade of James Johnston Pettigrew.  

    Please be careful as you walk through the field because there is some standing water out there, as well as ticks.  So make sure to give yourself a good look over for ticks after we finished the walk okay.  It is pretty hot out today and the walk is a pretty long one without any shade.  So I hope you brought your sun block folks.   

   Now when I started to prepare for today's program I looked out onto the field and realized that I could take this any many different directions I could talk about the size of the attack, or Robert E. Lee's perspective of the attack or we could even spend some time talking about what happened in the middle of the fields.  

    However, today we are going to talk about what happened to Pettigrew's brigade when it got into the middle of the field and my big question is how do you lead soldiers across a big open field like this without them breaking ranks. So today we will be  looking at the battle through the eyes of the confederate commanders.  The generals, the colonels, and even the captains. 

    So to start off let's talk about the brigade commander General James Johnston Pettigrew.  He was born on July 4th, 1828 on the coastal plains of North Carolina.  The first place he attend school was a place called Bingham Academy which was a real small military academy.  

    Once he finished up there he decided he wanted to attend UNC at the age of 14.  He then graduates from there at the age of 18 with honors.  Yes, he was first in his class at the age of 18, but he didn't stop his learning there.  He was apparently obsessed with education folks.

    He then begins to study abroad in Europe independently about military tactics.  He then came back here to America settled in South Carolina and by then had learned six languages.  Two of the languages being Arabic and Hebrew.  

     He was very in favor of the south's secession and back the south all the way.  He enlisted as a private and stuck out like a sore thumb.  Imagine the other privates to his left and right may not have even known write english and here he can not only speak, but read and write six languages.

    So of course he is discovered by his commanders and is made a Colonel of a full regiment.  So he jumps from a private to a Colonel that fast.  He does have a lot of success as an officer in the Confederate army.  So he rises very quickly from Colonel to Brigadier General in the Confederate army.  He was wounded and left behind at the battle of Seven Pines.

    He is shot through the throat and bayoneted before he is taken prisoner by the Union army.  Dad don't get me wrong I'm having a great time, but what does any of this have to do with my case?  Quit son, we are just getting to the meat of this thing.   

    He spends a short time in a hospital before being returned to the Confederate army.   So as you can probably tell at this point that Pettigrew was a very capable and competent officer.

    So now I want to talk about how these regiments are formed.  Each regiment has a number assigned to it and how they are given this number has to do with the chronology of how these units are recruited.  The first 1,000 men that show up for duty become the 1st North Carolina infantry.  And so on and so on.

   The 11th and 26th were recruited in early 1862.  So the higher the number the unit means the newer they are to the army.  The lower the number of unit means they have spent longer in the army and they are more experienced.  Lower numbers are volunteers and higher numbers are drafted.