- Joined
- Dec 3, 2011
- Location
- Laurinburg NC
by Alfred H.H. Tolar, Captain Company K, Eighteenth Regiment North Carolina Troops.
"As an eyewitness to the affair I desire to make some statement of facts as they have impressed themselves on my mind and to call as witnesses for concurrence the gallant Major T.J. Wooten, of the Eighteenth North Carolina Troops, the chivalrous Captains V.V. Richardson and Thomas L. Lewis, of the Eighteenth North Carolina Troops, and other officers of that regiment who were in line at the time this sad affair was enacted.
Under the circumstances it would have been utterly impossible for anyone to know who fired the fatal bullet or bullets. That the wounds were from the firing of the Eighteenth North Carolina Troops, officers and men of that regiment will testify with regret. If memory serves me true, the Eighteenth regiment was the only regiment on the left of the Turnpike, the remainder of the brigade (Lane's) being on the right of the road as we faced Chancellorsville. About dark, General Jackson and staff, accompanied by General A.P. Hill and staff, rode down the Turnpike in advance of our line of battle, and, coming closer to the enemy's line than they expected, were fired on from a regiment of infantry; and then some batteries of artillery turned loose with a heavy firing, sending shot and shell down the pike. The General and staff left the road, and the two Generals (Jackson and Hill), with staffs and couriers, came down on the Eighteenth at a rapid gait.
The night was calm and the tramp of thirty horsemen advancing through a heavy forest at a rapid gait, seemed to the average infantryman like a brigade of cavalry. Noting the approach of horsemen from the front, with no line of pickets intervening to give the alarm, the brave Colonel Purdie gave the order 'Fix bayonets; load; prepare for action!' as fast as the command could be given. When the supposed enemy was within 100 yards, perhaps, of our line, the Colonel gave the command, 'Commence firing,' and from that moment until notified by Major Holland (or Harris) of General Jackson's staff, that we were firing on our own men, the firing was kept up by the entire regiment with great rapidity. The horse of Major Harris (or Holland) was knocked down with a blow from the butt of a gun in the hands of Arthur S. Smith, Company K, Eighteenth North Carolina Troops, and at that moment we were notified by the Major of the sad mistake that had been made.
It was during this continuous firing that General Jackson received his wounds, and if any other troops except the Eighteenth fired a shot I did not hear it. The soldier on the firing line knows how impossible it would be for anyone to know who fired the fatal shot, and the man who would attempt to set up such a claim would certainly presume on the intelligence of the average Confederate soldier."
"As an eyewitness to the affair I desire to make some statement of facts as they have impressed themselves on my mind and to call as witnesses for concurrence the gallant Major T.J. Wooten, of the Eighteenth North Carolina Troops, the chivalrous Captains V.V. Richardson and Thomas L. Lewis, of the Eighteenth North Carolina Troops, and other officers of that regiment who were in line at the time this sad affair was enacted.
Under the circumstances it would have been utterly impossible for anyone to know who fired the fatal bullet or bullets. That the wounds were from the firing of the Eighteenth North Carolina Troops, officers and men of that regiment will testify with regret. If memory serves me true, the Eighteenth regiment was the only regiment on the left of the Turnpike, the remainder of the brigade (Lane's) being on the right of the road as we faced Chancellorsville. About dark, General Jackson and staff, accompanied by General A.P. Hill and staff, rode down the Turnpike in advance of our line of battle, and, coming closer to the enemy's line than they expected, were fired on from a regiment of infantry; and then some batteries of artillery turned loose with a heavy firing, sending shot and shell down the pike. The General and staff left the road, and the two Generals (Jackson and Hill), with staffs and couriers, came down on the Eighteenth at a rapid gait.
The night was calm and the tramp of thirty horsemen advancing through a heavy forest at a rapid gait, seemed to the average infantryman like a brigade of cavalry. Noting the approach of horsemen from the front, with no line of pickets intervening to give the alarm, the brave Colonel Purdie gave the order 'Fix bayonets; load; prepare for action!' as fast as the command could be given. When the supposed enemy was within 100 yards, perhaps, of our line, the Colonel gave the command, 'Commence firing,' and from that moment until notified by Major Holland (or Harris) of General Jackson's staff, that we were firing on our own men, the firing was kept up by the entire regiment with great rapidity. The horse of Major Harris (or Holland) was knocked down with a blow from the butt of a gun in the hands of Arthur S. Smith, Company K, Eighteenth North Carolina Troops, and at that moment we were notified by the Major of the sad mistake that had been made.
It was during this continuous firing that General Jackson received his wounds, and if any other troops except the Eighteenth fired a shot I did not hear it. The soldier on the firing line knows how impossible it would be for anyone to know who fired the fatal shot, and the man who would attempt to set up such a claim would certainly presume on the intelligence of the average Confederate soldier."