GDG- Re: 26th NC, Day One

[DShultz180 at aol.com]

> <<The 26th NC was engaged with the Iron Brigade in the first wave of the 
> Day One afternoon attack on Seminary Ridge. The monument position to the 26th 
> at the Wall (Angle) was the subject of a great article in Gettysburg Magazine 
> by GDG’s Bruce Trinque.>>
> 
> 
One of the chapters in our upcoming artillery work is titled: " COOPER'S 
WOODLOT."   In most instances, as suggested above, the 26th North Carolina 
basically confronted and battled the Iron Brigade. There is more to that fight than 
just the Iron Brigade. What the 26th North Carolina encountered once it crested 
McPherson's first ridge and moved toward the second was not only the 24th 
Michigan, and portions of other Iron Brigade regiments, but that of the feisty 
151st Pennsylvania. Here is an unedited excerpt:   

Truly remarkable was the furious fight then raging between the 26th North 
Carolina, 24th Michigan and 151st Pennsylvania to Coopers immediate front and 
right.   Unable to reopen Cooper and his men became spectators to the bloodiest 
infantry fight between any three regiments engaged at Gettysburg up to that 
point. The 24th and 151st retired slowly, pouring a desperate but no less 
withering fire into the faces of the 26th. The forty paces separating combatants was 
littered with dead and wounded with nothing but muzzle flashes indicating 
where each line stood. Ordering prolong and drag ropes hitched to each limber, 
Cooper rode up and down the line steadying the men, waiting for that opportunity 
to deliver one last round of canister. It was not to be. Once the 24th and 
151st crossed east of the rural lane (Reynold's Avenue) the captain could do 
nothing but watch helplessly as the North Carolinians reformed yet another firing 
line not 30-yards distant. Ordering caissons back to Seminary Ridge the three 
serviceable pieces were then hauled back into the wood a few yards before 
being hitched; it was time to get out. 

Correct me if I am wrong but did not the 26th NC, 24th Michigan and 151st PA 
sustain the most casualties of all regiments engaged at Gettysburg, as in the 
entire battle?   We have numerous accounts about the fight of the 26th NC from 
Cooper's men with few mentioning Iron Brigade. Most speak of the 151st PA.   
Not much is suggested other then they were indeed spectators and had to 
skiddadle not because of the 26th, but rather because Perrin's brigade had pressed 
back the 19th Indiana to Cooper's immediate left, south of his small woodlot.

Dave S.



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