again. Especially did the loss fall on North Carolina, for here thousands of her bravest, noblest sons found a soldier's grave. Not only did General Pender, full of gallantry and spirit, but Colonel Isaac E. Avery, J. K. Marshal also fell in this battle, General Pettigrew was wounded, a few days afterwards, died, General Scales, Colonel Lowe, and others of equal merit, were wounded. Of the ten thousand men lost by the confederates, the larger portion were North Carolinians. Of Colonel Burgwyn's command, who was killed, (the Twenty-sixth North Carolina regiment,) five hundred and forty were killed out of eight hundred. The heavy loss of the union army could be easily replaced, but the great gaps in the confederate ranks could never be closed again.
In reply to a recent letter of General Scales and Captain J. J. Davis, Colonel John B. Bachelder has given a graphic account of this desperate conflict, which, with the diagrams, affords an intelligible and reliable account.
Joseph A. Englehard, the only son of Edward Englehard, was born at Monticello, Mississippi, September 27, 1832.
He was an educated man and graduated at the University of North Carolina, with the first honors, in 1854, in the same class with William L. Saunders, and others. He then studied law at the Harvard law school, and with Judge Battle; in 1856 he was licensed to practice. He settled at Tarboro, where he had married in 1855, Margaret, daughter of John W. Cotten.
He entered the army in May, 1861, as captain and quarter-master of the thirty-third regiment, and the next year he was promoted to quarter-master of General Branch's brigade, with the rank of major. He was transferred in December, 1862, to Pender's brigade and became adjutant-general, and in May following he was made adjutant-general of Pender's, afterwards Wilcox's division, and participated in all the battles fought by this noble army of Northern Virginia, until the curtain fell at Appomattox, on the bloody drama.
After the war, Major Englehard resumed the practice of the law at Tarboro, and in addition to his professional duties, exercised those of the clerk and master in equity.
He purchased, in 1865, James Fulton's interest in the Wilmington Journal, and became the successor, from March, 1866, of that able editor, and so became a citizen of Wilmington, then wielding a powerful influence throughout the state.
In June, 1876, he was
nominated at Raleigh, by the democratic state convention for secretary of state.
He entered with energy and ability into the canvass. He stood before the people
almost every day, and with a power of elocution rarely surpassed, and an
oratory
He performed all the duties of his position with satisfaction and intelligence, established order out of chaos, and system from confusion.
Major Englehard was a devoted friend to the cause of education. He delivered the Alumni address at the university, where his son had recently graduated. But this usefulness was soon to end, and after a short illness he died on February 15, 1879, at the Yarboro House, Raleigh. His death was the regret of his friends, and an irremediable loss to the state.
Robert Rufus Bridgers, is a native of this county. He was born on Town Creek, November 23, 1819.
His early education was conducted by Benjamin Sumner, and finished at the university in 1841, when he graduated in the same class with Governor Ellis, Samuel F. and Dr. Charles Phillips, Judge Clarke, William F. Dancy, John F. Hoke, and others. To receive honors in such a class was no light praise.
| Index - Contents |
 |
|
| ||
|
||