The Greensborough Patriot

June 12, 1862

Page 3

Correspondence of the Patriot.

The Recent Battle.

Chickahominy, June 5^th 1862.

As our regiment, the 22^nd, was engaged in the battle of Saturday last, the 31^st, 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.