Among those who faced death in the desperate charge on the Union right
on East Cemetery Hill, July 2nd, Colonel I. E. Avery, of North Carolina,
in command of Hoke’s brigade, bore a gallant part. At the head of the
column he led his men up the slope of Cemetery Hill and, a conspicuous
mark, fell mortally wounded.
Unable to speak, he drew a card from his pocket and wrote the following:
“Tell father that I died with my face toward the enemy.” In the retreat
from Gettysburg, his body was taken along to be delivered to his family,
but when the army reached Williamsport the Potomac was too high to
cross. There, in the cemetery overlooking the river, the remains were
interred in an oak coffin under a pine tree. He was buried in his
uniform by the men who saw him fall.
Thirty years after, Judge A. C. Avery, of the Supreme Court of North
Carolina, a resident of Morgantown, and Captain J. A. McPherson of
Fayette, N. C., both veterans of the Confederacy, came to Williamsport
with the object of locating Colonel Avery’s grave. Their search was
fruitless.