After trying to fill a gap in the family tree, i found a living relative who was able to add some names and once i had that, the trail opened up.
After that
@Allie was kind enough to do some digging for me on the civil war person in the line. (Thank you so much)
She asked that i post a new thread for her to add the info she found.
So my direct several great grandfather i found was-
George W. Varner,
6th NC Infantry Reg, State Troops
http://www.archive.org/stream/cu31924092908536#page/n343/mode/2up
George W. Varner : 24 years old. Enlisted on 2/24/1862 at Orange County, NC as a Private. Mustered into "I" Co. NC 6th Infantry. POW 11/7/1863 Rappahannock Station, VA. Confined 11/10/1863 Point Lookout, MD (Estimated day). Paroled 2/25/1865 Point Lookout, MD (Estimated day). Transferred 2/25/1865 (place not stated) (Estimated day). Received 3/3/1865 Aiken's Landing, VA (For exchange).
Gettysburg after battle report:
Report of Maj. Samuel McD. Tate, Sixth North Carolina Infantry.
In Bivouac, near Hagerstown, Md.,
July 8, 1863.
My Dear Governor: Excuse the necessity of writing with pencil,
and the familiarity with which I address you; but moments are
precious, and while I am yet spared I must hasten to perform a
sacred duty to you as the honored head of North Carolina, and to
her brave citizen soldiers, especially those under my command. The
great reason for this is the fact that it was North Carolinians only
who succeeded in entering the enemy's works at Gettysburg; that
our brigade commander was slain, and we have no friends who will
tell of our success on the night of July 2, because all but the Sixth
Regt. failed.
Our brigadier-general (Hoke) being absent, wounded, since the
battle of Fredericksburg, May 4, Col. Avery was acting in his
stead. Lieut.-Col. [R. F.] Webb being absent in Virginia,
sick, left me in command of the Sixth in this Pennsylvania campaign.
But this, with the fear of being suspected of a desire to claim more
on that account, shall not deter me from complying with a promise
I have made the regiment to acquaint you as their Governor with
the truth, that history may hereafter speak truly of them. Let me
say at once that I desire nothing and wish no notoriety; but I do
want the glorious band of veterans in this regiment to be appreciated
and honored at home, They are rapidly passing away, but North
Carolina will have reason to point with pride to their valorous deeds.
On July 1, the Confederate Army made a general attack on the
enemy posted in front of Gettysburg. Of Early's division, the Louisiana
and Hoke's brigades were advanced to charge the enemy,
behind fences. It was rapidly done (and, as is our usual fortune,
immediately in our front was a stone fence), and the enemy driven
before us through the town to their fortified heights behind.
In this charge we lost a number of gallant officers and men (more
than the balance of the brigade), and captured a battery near the
fence. This battery will be credited to Early's division--see if it
don't. The Virginia and Georgia brigades were held in reserve.
Next day (2d), we were ordered (Louisiana and North Carolina
brigades) to charge the heights. Now, it is proper to state that there
are a series of heights there, upon which the enemy had been driven
from all around. Longstreet charged on the south face, and was repulsed;
A. P. Hill charged on the west face, and was repulsed; and
our two brigades were, late in the evening, ordered to charge the
north front, and, after a struggle such as this war has furnished no
parallel to, 75 North Carolinians of the Sixth Regt. and 12 Louisianians
of Hays' brigade scaled the walls, and planted the colors
of the Sixth North Carolina and Ninth Louisiana on the guns. It
was now fully dark. The enemy stood with a tenacity never before
displayed by them, but with bayonet, clubbed musket, sword, and
pistol, and rocks from the wall, we cleared the heights and silenced
the guns.
In vain did I send to the rear for support. It was manifest that I
could not hold the place without aid, for the enemy was massed in all
the ravines and adjoining heights, and we were then fully half a
mile from our lines.
Finding the enemy were moving up a line, I ordered the small band
of heroes to fall back from the crest to a stone wall on the side of the
hill, where we awaited their coming. Soon they came over the hill
in pursuit, when we again opened fire on them, and cleared the hill a
second time. Very soon I found they were very numerous in the flats
in my rear, and now became the question of surrender or an effort to
retreat. There was a calm and determined resolve never to surrender
(one of our North Carolina regiments had done so the day before),
and, under cover of the darkness, I ordered the men to break
and to risk the fire. We did so, and lost not a man in getting out.
On arriving at our lines, I demanded to know why we had not
been supported, and was coolly told that it was not known that we
were in the works. I have no doubt that the major-general will report
the attack of the works by Hoke's and Hays' brigades, which
could not be taken. Such monstrous injustice and depreciation of
our efforts is calculated to be of serious injury; and then always to
divide the honors due us among all our division is a liberality which
is only shown in certain cases. Of course the reports are not written
out; but I know the disposition so well that I look for no special
mention of our regiment, while it is the only one in the Army of
Northern Virginia which did go in and silence the guns on the
heights; and, what is more, if a support of a brigade had been sent
up to us, the slaughter of A. P. Hill's corps would have been saved
on the day following.
I still have 300 men.
Col. Avery, a gallant officer, fell in front on the heights, mortally
wounded. He died thirty hours afterward.
This hasty scraw I write to you as an act of justice, and in compliance
with a promise to the men, before I pass off, if fall I must.
We will have an engagement here or nearer the river in a day, or
less, perhaps. This regiment has had a reputation, you know, and
I fear no harm which can come to it while any are left; but it is due
to the noble dead, as well as the living, that these men be noticed in
some way. I assure you it is no sensation or fancy picture. Such a
fight as they made in front and in the fortifications has never been
equaled. Inside the works the enemy were left lying in great heaps,
and most all with bayonet wounds and many with skulls broken with
the breeches of our guns. We left not a living man on the hill of
our enemy. I write this now for fear I will not live to write at
leisure hereafter.
With your sense of propriety, I need not say more than that this
cannot be exactly an official document, for it has no form, no beginning,
no ending, but is a simple story, badly told. All we ask
is, don't let old North Carolina be derided while her sons do all the
fighting.
Your obedient servant,
SAML. McD. TATE,
Maj., Comdg. Sixth North Carolina.
Governor [Zebulon B.] Vance.
[P. S.]--All my company officers are good ones, but there are also
many vacancies; how are they to be filled--by election or appointment?
Source: Official Records: Series I. Vol. 27. Part II. Reports. Serial No. 44
Bringing the