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CHAPTER 8 “The Sickening Horrors of War” Private William Cheek headed back down McPherson’s Ridge, trying to shake off the effects of a Federal artillery shell that had exploded nearby. The round had landed near the edge of the woods moments after the Yankee line had broken. The concussion had flattened Cheek and had temporarily clouded his vision. Dazed, he had joined other wounded from the 26th who were limping to the rear. As he retraced his steps through the shot-scarred woods, however, he encountered a sight that made him forget his condition. Two privates were trying to carry Colonel Burgwyn off the field in a blanket— and Burgwyn appeared to be seriously wounded. Cheek hurried to Burgwyn’s side. The colonel looked up, recognized the private and asked him to lend a hand. Cheek promptly grabbed the blanket and helped carry the colonel down the slope.1 The three enlisted men decided to take Burgwyn back to the woods on Herr Ridge where the regiment had formed its battle line. They carefully headed down the steep slope toward Willoughby Run. On the way, a lieutenant from a South Carolina regiment grabbed the blanket and helped moved Burgwyn toward the rear. The lieutenant was unknown to Cheek and the other privates; he may have been a straggler from Pender’s Division. The three enlisted men accepted his help without comment, however, as they descended the slope. Seeing the unidentified officer alongside, Colonel Burgwyn asked the lieutenant to pour some water on his wound. The privates stopped, placed Burgwyn on the ground, got their canteens and removed the colonel’s frock coat so that they could bathe his wound. When the coat was off, Cheek spotted Burgwyn’s treasured pocket watch hanging by a silk cord from his neck and reached down to remove it for safekeeping. As Cheek fiddled with the cord, the lieutenant suddenly snatched the watch, tucked it in his pocket and began striding away. Cheek yelled at the man to bring back Colonel Burgwyn’s watch. When the lieutenant ignored him, Private Cheek aimed his rifle at the officer and cocked the hammer. “I demanded the watch,” Cheek would later report, “telling the officer . . . that I would kill him as sure as powder would burn.” The lieutenant halted, turned around and returned the timepiece. Cheek took back the watch, called the officer a thief and ordered him away. When he brought back the watch, Cheek found Burgwyn looking up at him with an expression of gratitude. “Colonel Burgwyn said to me that he would never forget me,” Cheek would recall, “and I shall never forget the look he gave me as he spoke these words.”2 Captain Louis Young, now on foot, appeared at Burgwyn’s side. So did Captain Brewer. Sitting down, Young lifted Burgwyn onto his lap and cradled him in his arms. From the severity of the colonel’s wound, the men around Burgwyn realized the young officer would probably die. “I regret to see you wounded as you are,” Young said. “The Lord’s will be done,” Burgwyn replied. “We have gained the greatest victory in the war.” He too seemed to realize his wound was mortal. “I have no regret at my approaching death,” he told Young. “I fell in the defense of my country.”3 The Federal artillery was now shelling the troops of Pender’s Division as they moved across the meadow against the new Federal line on Seminary Ridge. An enemy shell overshot Pender’s men and exploded in the woods just yards away. A shell fragment took off the top of Captain Brewer’s hat, and the group decided they should move Colonel Burgwyn further to the rear. Private Cheek was dispatched to find ambulance attendants and a stretcher so that the colonel could be moved more comfortably across the creek and into the woods on Herr Ridge. While the men waited, huddled around the fallen commander , Burgwyn appeared to be lapsing into unconsciousness. In the colonel’s uniform someone found the flask of French brandy Burgwyn’s father had sent him. Captain Young managed to get Burgwyn to swallow some of the liquor, which seemed to momentarily revive him. He looked up at the concerned faces peering over him and wished the men good-bye. Would they please send his love to his mother and father and sisters and brothers? The small circle of soldiers watched his every breath and memorized his final sentences as...

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