- Joined
- Dec 3, 2011
- Location
- Laurinburg NC
"Assistant Surgeon William W. Gaither. This officer who most faithfully and acceptably served with the regiment [26th North Carolina] until December, 1864, when he was promoted to be Surgeon of the Twenty-eighth North Carolina Regiment, graduated from the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia, in the class of 1860. Enlisted as a private in the 'Hibriten Mountaineers,' which became the afterwards famous Company F, in the Twenty-sixth Regiment. At first, serving as Hospital Steward, he was soon commissioned Assistant Surgeon, assigned to the regiment and put in charge of the hospital at Carolina City, below New Bern.
At Gettysburg, Dr. Gaither was all night getting the wounded from the field of the first day's fight and worked with them all the next day and night. On the afternoon of the third day, went to the regiment in line of battle. Under date of 5 September, 1900, Dr. Gaither writes: 'I was on the field, saw the futile charge on the Cemetery wall, and the recoil. I got only three of the slightly wounded. When we got to Hagerstown, I went to sleep and slept for two entire days, so utterly exhausted I was."
Assistant Surgeon George C. Underwood - 26th North Carolina.
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