Capt. Bond’s pamphlet showing that Pettigrew and not Pickett is
entitled to the glory that graced the Confederate banners at the
battle of Gettysburg, is bearing fruit. It is bound to convince any
fair-minded man who will read it. A private letter to the author
from Asheville, says that the writer had a long conversation with
Gen. Doubleday, a Federal officer and brother of the Gen. Doubleday
mentioned in the pamphlet. “Gen. Doubleday contended,” continues
the letter, “that Pickett’s men did as so-called history says they
did, and reaped all the glory.” I asked him as a personal favor
to read the essay, “Pickett or Pettigrew?” He has just finished
telling his opinion. Said he: “It opened my eyes. Your brave men have
been slandered. Capt. Bond gives chapter and verse. It is a fine
essay.”--Weldon News.
* * * * *
Mr. O. W. Blacknall, of Kittrells, in a letter to the News and Observer
concerning the ceremonies at Winchester last Friday, pays a high
compliment to Capt. W. R. Bond’s book, “Pickett or Pettigrew.” Mr.
Blacknall mentions Capt. Bond’s book as being one of the documents
placed in the pocket of the corner stone, and adds:
“I will say in passing that the scholarly and profound brochure
of Capt. Bond--‘Pickett or Pettigrew’--has never received the
acknowledgment so eminently its due. Therein he clearly shows the
manner in which history was shaped to North Carolina’s detriment. The
Richmond papers seeking to please their patrons, chiefly Virginians, to
put it mildly, laid great stress on the services of Virginia troops and
little on their failures. They killed and made alive the reputations
of men as they saw fit. Pollard and other historians writing from the
Southern stand-point followed largely the Richmond papers, and thus
history was miswritten to our apparently irretrievable harm. Capt.
Bond’s pamphlet should be widely read and its substance preserved in
history.”--Scotland Neck Commonwealth.
* * * * *