Col. Fox, of Albany, N. Y., has published a work entitled, “Regimental Losses.” In it is seen a list of the twenty-seven Confederate regiments which had most men killed and wounded at Gettysburg. Readers of the histories of Pollard, Cooke and McCabe will be rather surprised to find only two Virginia regiments on this list. Those who are familiar with battlefield reports will not be surprised to see that thirteen of these regiments were from North Carolina and four from Mississippi. Three of the last named and five of the North Carolina regiments met with their loss under Pettigrew.
The North Carolina brigade had in killed and wounded eleven hundred and five, which is an average to the regiment of two hundred and seventy-six. There was not a Confederate regiment at either First or Second Manassas which equalled this average, and no Virginia regiment ever did.
This brigade on the first day met those of Biddle and Meredith, which were considered the flower of their corps, and many old soldiers say that this corps--the First--did the fiercest fighting on that day of which they ever had any experience, and the official records sustain them in this belief. Biddle’s brigade was composed of one New York and three Pennsylvania regiments. Meredith’s, known as the “Iron” brigade, was formed of five regiments from the west. (By the way, the commander of this body, Gen. Solomon Meredith, was a native of North Carolina, as was also Gen. Jno. Gibbon, the famous division commander in the second corps, and North Carolina luck followed them, as they were severely wounded in this battle.) Pettigrew’s brigade, with a little assistance from that of Brockenborough, after meeting these troops forced them to give ground and continued for several hours to slowly drive them ’till their ammunition became nearly exhausted. When this occurred the Federals had reached a ridge from behind which they could be supplied with the necessary ammunition. But not so with Heth’s troops. The field was so open, the contending lines so close together, and as every house and barn in the vicinity was filled with sharp-shooters, they could not be supplied and were in consequence relieved by two of Pender’s brigades. In the meantime the enemy was re-enforced by a fresh brigade of infantry and several wonderfully efficient batteries of artillery, and so when the brigades of the “right division” made their advance they suffered very severely before their opponents could be driven from the field. Meredith’s brigade this day had 886 killed and wounded and 266 missing; Biddle’s 642 killed and wounded and 255 missing. The loss in Brockenborough’s Virginia was 148. For the whole battle, as said before, Pettigrew’s killed and wounded amounted to 1,105; probably two-thirds of this loss occurred on this day.