The following is an extract from a letter written by a resident of
Chicago, Major Chas. A. Hale, who has the honor of having served in the
Fifth New Hampshire, a regiment which fought gallantly at Gettysburg,
and is distinguished for having sustained the greatest losses in battle
of any infantry or cavalry regiment in the whole Union army:
“There is not a shadow of a doubt in my mind but that the sons of
North Carolina, Tennessee and Mississippi carved on the tablets of
history equal laurels with the sons of Virginia in the great events
of that supreme attempt to gain victory on Cemetery Ridge. Pettigrew
and Trimble deserve equal honors with Pickett, and if we weigh with
judicial exactness more, for impartial evidence proves that they
suffered in a greater degree, and forced their way nearer the lines
where pitiless fate barred their entrance. The nearest point reached
by any troops was Bryan’s barn; this is made conclusive by evidence
on both sides. If there were a thousand Confederates inside the stone
wall at the angle more than two-thirds of that number must have been
Pettigrew’s men.”
* * * * *