The Greensborough Patriot
June 12, 1862
Page 3
Correspondence of the
Patriot.
The Recent Battle.
Chickahominy, June 5th
1862.
As
our regiment, the 22nd, was engaged in the battle of Saturday last,
the 31st, I send you a statement of the loss of our company,
(L.) Our loss in killed, wounded and
missing is as follows:
Killed—Private
Absalom Welborn, left on the field.
Wounded—Corporal
James W. Stout, flesh wound in arm; Privates, Barney B. Brady, arm since
amputated at shoulder; Dobson Burrow, flesh wound in leg; J. Bibb Russell,
severely in the shoulder—left on the field; John C. Thornborough, very
slightly; Henry Lassiter, slightly in the hand, now on duty; Henry C. Steed,
slightly in the side and on duty.
Missing—Second-Sergeant
Wm. D. Bishop and Private George Patterson, probably taken prisoners.
Our
regiment was in the hottest of the fight, and suffered a loss of 25 killed, 95
wounded, and 24 missing. In addition to
the above, we lost our Col. Chas. E. Lightfoot, Lt. Col. John O. Long, and had
our Major, T. S. Galloway, wounded—making a total loss of 147 out of about 550
who went into the engagement.
Our
brigade and the Confederacy, met with a heavy loss in the fall of Brig. Gen.
Pettigrew, formerly Colonel of our regiment.
A truer man, a brave officer, or a truer patriot never trod a battle
field. He justly merited the appellation
of the “Southern Bayard”—a soldier “without fear and without reproach.” He fell about 5 ½ p. m. Our regiment with the others of Pettigrew’s
brigade, charged a masked battery situated on an eminence, in a dense wood, and
powerfully supported by infantry. We
were near two hours in the hottest of the fight, and for a considerable part of
the time within thirty yards of the battery.
Darkness coming on, we were ordered to fall back, and on that account
some of our killed and wounded were left in the enemy’s hands. Though we did not succeed in capturing the
battery, we have nothing wherewith to reproach ourselves, and are ready and willing
to strike again, and whenever opportunity offers, for the glorious cause in
which we are enlisted—confident that whatever may be the consequence to
individuals, our cause will triumph without doubt.
Our
brigade was engaged only on the extreme left of our line. The enemy was driven from every position
except the battery above named, and would have been forced from that, had not
night interposed. Some idea of the
strength of their position may be formed, from the fact that in order to reach
them, we had to charge about six hundred yards—part of the way through a swamp
thigh deep in mud and water, and through a forest of dense undergrowth, and
rendered more impassable by having timber felled all through it to prevent
approach.
UWHARIE.
