Leading Confederates on the Battle of Gettysburg.
We continue to give papers bearing on this great battle written by men who participated in it.
A few of our readers may weary of the discussion, but we have assurances from every quarter that this series is of deep interest, and of the highest historic value.
We take pleasure in giving the following from a gallant soldier who led gallant troops from the gallant "Old North State":
Letter from General James H. Lane.
Blacksburg, October 20, 1877.
Rev. J. Wm. Jones, Secretary Southern Historical Society,
Richmond, Va.:
My Dear Sir: As great injustice has been done my gallant old brigade of North Carolinians in all the published accounts of the battle of Gettysburg that I have seen, and as you are now publishing in the Southern Historical Society Papers the brigade-reports of that great battle, I hope you will also publish mine, which I herewith enclose. I am sure the public will consider this official paper, written about a month after the battle, more valuable historical document than the many recent articles written from memory, which is at all times treacherous, and, as every Confederate soldier knows, particularly so as regards the incidents, &c., of our heroic struggle for independence. For instance, General Heth, in his letter in the October No., 1877, of the Southern Historical Society Papers, in speaking of the fight of the 3d of July at Gettysburg, makes General Lee say, "I shall ever believe if General Pender had remained on his horse half an hour longer we would have carried the enemy's position," when the facts are, General Pender was mortally wounded on the right of his line by an artillery shot on the afternoon of the 2d of July, and was taken to the rear, where he was on the 3d of July, and could not even mount his horse. Surely General Heth could not have read the report of Geaeral A. P. Hill in the November No., 1876, of the Southern Historical Society Papers, in which he says: "On the morning of the 3d the divisions of my corps occupied the same positions as on the 2d. * * * I was directed to hold my line with Anderson's division and the half of Pender's, now commanded by Gen. Lane, and to order Heth's division, commanded by Pettigrew, and Lane's and Scales' brigades, of Pender's division, to report to Lieutenant-General Longstreet, as a support to his
