Boy Scout Troop 336 from North Wilkesboro visited the Gettysburg battlefield in Pennsylvania on Saturday, a week before the start of events marking the 150th anniversary of this pivotal battle of the Civil War.
The two-hour drive from the troop’s campsite on the Ritenour farm, between the northern Virginia towns of Strasburg and Front Royal, included crossing the Mason-Dixon Line (Maryland-Pennsylvania line) just south of Chambersburg, Pa.
On that same day 150 years earlier, thousands of Confederate soldiers crossed the Mason-Dixon Line under Gen. Robert E. Lee’s strategy to shift the fighting from Southern to Northern soil and help bring an end to the war.
The North Carolina monument was among the Boy Scout troop’s primary destinations at Gettysburg.
It helped bring completeness to a five-day trip that also included visiting war memorials and museums in Washington, D.C., and seeing Congress in session as guests of Rep. Virginia Foxx.
Mrs. Foxx explained some rules of Congress and current business when she met the Scouts and their leaders on the Capitol steps and escorted them to the House gallery.
The North Carolina monument at Gettysburg is smaller than many of the other monuments there, but it evokes emotion and is a powerful tribute to dedication and sacrifice.
Surrounded by dogwood trees (the North Carolina state flower), the monument features figures of North Carolina infantrymen advancing during the Pickett-Pettigrew charge on July 3, 1863. An injured officer kneels on the ground, pointing toward the enemy with his left hand while two men wield guns and look forward. A fourth man holds a flag in both hands as he looks ahead.
The statue was the work of Gutzon Borglum, sculptor of Mount Rushmore and the figures of generals Lee and Jackson and President Davis on Stone Mountain in Georgia.
Between the statue and the road is a stone monument with a list of North Carolina regiments and other units at Gettysburg and the following inscription, “To the eternal glory of the North Carolina soldiers, who on this battlefield displayed heroism unsurpassed, sacrificing all in support of their cause. Their valorous deeds will be enshrined in the hearts of men long after these transient memorials have crumbled into dust. Thirty-two North Carolina regiments were in action at Gettysburg July 1,2,3, 1863. One Confederate soldier in every four who fell here was a North Carolinian.”
The N.C. Division of United Daughters of the Confederacy erected the tablet.
Borglum designed the statue in Texas and posed Confederate flag designer Orren Smith as the flag bearer, while the other soldiers were sculpted from photographs of posed Confederate soldiers. It was dedicated on July 3, 1929.
President Kennedy left his car to visit the monument in April 1963, prior to the rededication on the 100th anniversary. A 1985 restoration required lifting by helicopter for shipment to Cincinnati and a fence was added in 1993.
North Carolina had nearly 6,000 casualties and provided the Confederate cause with 14,147 men at Gettysburg, the second most after Virginia.
These casualties included many men from Wilkes County, including members of the 1st, 26th, 32nd, 37th, 52nd, 53rd and 55th N.C. infantry regiments.
In Co. C of the 26th N.C., comprised mostly of Wilkes men, 10 men were killed, 34 wounded, 11 wounded or captured and four captured for a total of 59 casualties.
In fighting on the first and third days of the battle, the 26th N.C. suffered over 680 casualties out of over 840 men who entered the fight for a casualty rate exceeding 80 percent.
The 26th, 37th, 52nd and 55th were among 15 North Carolina regiments participating in the fateful Pickett-Pettigrew charge against Cemetery Ridge on July 3, 1863.
One Wilkes Countian, Capt. George Gilreath of the 55th, is credited with establishing the “high water mark” of the Confederacy by advancing the farthest during the charge.
A Civil War reenactor speaking Saturday at Gettysburg posed the question, “What would compel a man to make this charge” about 1,000 yards across an open field toward nearly certain death from an enemy on higher ground?
The speaker concluded that more than anything else it was the belief that they were defending their liberty and homes.
