Covered with Glory: The 26th North Carolina Infantry at the Battle of Gettysburg

9. “ALL WERE WILLING TO DIE”

CHAPTER 9 “All Were Willing to Die” Captain Thomas Cureton stood in the edge of the sprawling field and studied the distant outline of Cemetery Ridge. To do so, he had to look toward the early morning sun, which was rising through a patchy haze of ground fog and campfire smoke. The day—Friday, July 3rd—promised to be another scorcher: The morning air was already sticky warm. Cureton was accompanied by Captain Samuel P. Wagg of Company A. Together they had walked out of the regiment’s wooded bivouac and onto the broad expanse of farmland that separated the Confederate and Federal lines. Behind them, the Army of Northern Virginia uncoiled along Seminary Ridge, fronted by an almost mile-long line of field artillery. In front of them, more than threequarters of a mile away, the Army of the Potomac was deployed along Cemetery Ridge, backed by formidable concentrations of Federal artillery.1 Cureton and Wagg had come forward to study their target. They could judge from troop deployments and rumors in the ranks that a major Confederate assault would be launched against the distant enemy line later this day. They were sure the 26th North Carolina would be involved—which meant they would be leading their undermanned and battle-torn companies over this field. For the twenty-five-year-old Cureton, the pending assault would come on his first full day as a captain. He had received a field promotion the day before, succeeding Captain Wilson—who had been shot dead on McPherson’s Ridge. Cureton had been wounded himself in the first day’s fighting—grazed on the left shoulder by a minié ball—but he was not seriously injured, and now he was commander of Company B. Cureton was a capable officer. He hailed from the Waxhaws, a farming region on the central border of North and South Carolina, which boasted of being the birthplace of President Andrew Jackson and had a reputation for raising men to be as tough as hickory nuts. Cureton and the thin ranks of the 26th would need a stiff dose of toughness this day: The upcoming assault appeared likely to be at least as dangerous as the charge up McPherson’s Ridge.2 The deadly difficulty of the task was evident when Cureton studied the proposed route of assault. It was a pastoral-looking scene—sprawling fields of clover, grass and some wheat, which sloped gently downward into a shallow swale and then rose gradually to crest on the distant ridge. On the far left of the ridge stood a small barn and a white-washed cottage. Behind the ridge to the far right, he could see the dark shape of a large, wooded hill and a smaller one beside it. The route of assault would take the regiment across the open fields, through a little orchard, past a sturdy-looking barn and an adjacent farmhouse, across a fenced road, and up a gentle slope to the crest of Cemetery Ridge—where the Yankees waited behind a fortified stone wall. Pettigrew’s Brigade, now commanded by Colonel Marshall, would hit the ridge somewhere between the cottage on the far left and a clump of hardwood trees near the center. Cureton thought the scene was beautiful; in peacetime the route across it would be a pleasant stroll. This day, however, the crossing would be perilous. The route through the open fields provided no protection from enemy artillery fire; it was intersected by post-and-rail fences that would have to be scaled—including a final set enclosing Emmitsburg Road—and the last leg of the charge would be uphill into the massed fire of the Federal infantry posted behind the stone wall. Based on what he had experienced on McPherson’s Ridge, Cureton could imagine what horrors possibly lay ahead. But the first day’s assault had ended in victory. He could hope for another triumph —at a much lower cost.3 Major John Jones also bore a heavier burden this July morning: The pending assault would be his first time to lead the regiment into battle. Men with their lives at stake would now look to him as they had once looked to Colonel Burgwyn. How would the men perform? Would the savagery of the first day’s fighting inhibit them or embolden them? Would they respond to his leadership with the same valor they had demonstrated under Colonel Burgwyn? And how would he perform? Would he lead well or...