- Joined
- Dec 3, 2011
- Location
- Laurinburg NC
Colonel Edwin Augustus Osborne - 4th North Carolina
Edwin Augustus Osborne writes of the 4th North Carolina at the battle of Seven Pines:
"It would be a privilege to record the list of the gallant men who fell in this fight, but time and space forbids. Their names may not be known to history or fame, but their comrades knew them and loved them. We believe the world is better and humanity is honored and ennobled by the lives of such men, and that both are the poorer by their untimely loss.
The figures in regard to the number of the men engaged and those killed and disabled are taken from Colonel G.B. Anderson's official report of the battle. In all this carnage these heroic men never for an instant wavered or showed the slightest trepidation. It was as if some superhuman spirit had been infused into them, and nothing but death itself could stop them. The writer shall never forget his feelings as he lay upon that bloody field wounded and helpless, and saw those brave men pressing on in the face of that death-dealing fire.
On they went, their ranks growing thinner and thinner, until within a few paces of the enemy's works, behind which masses of bayonets were gleaming. Surely they will all be made prisoners. But no. The forest of gleaming steel begins to waver, and then to move away in confusion; and the works are ours! Three color-bearers were among the killed, and Major Grimes then took the flag and carried it through the remainder of the fight."
Photo: Edwin A. Osborne.