In the second place, it is a rule of war, to which there are exceptions generally due to position, that the force that incurs the most casualties in killed or wounded is the force that stands most obstinately under fire and also inflicts the most loss on its adversaries. Tried by this rule, the soldiers from the North State have, according to Surgeon Guild's official report,1 much to show their bravery.
First, the total Confederate loss in killed and wounded (not including ‘missing’) was 15,301; the total North Carolina loss in killed and wounded was 4,033, over onefourth of the total loss. Four hundred in killed and wounded is considered a severe brigade loss. Only sixteen Confederate brigades lost over that number at Gettysburg; four of these, one-fourth, were from North Carolina. The heaviest regimental loss at Gettysburg, 588 men, was incurred by the Twenty-sixth North Carolina regiment. In the whole of General Lee's army, only eight regiments lost as high as 200 men in killed and wounded; three of these, the Eleventh, Twenty-sixth and Forty-fifth, were from the same State. Only eighteen regiments had over 50 killed and wounded; seven of these were likewise from North Carolina.
Second, in Pickett's grand charge on the right there were fifteen regiments. The total number of killed and wounded in these fifteen regiments was 1,364. In Heth's division, commanded on the 3d by Pettigrew, there were five North Carolina regiments. The killed and wounded in these five regiments amounted in the two days that they fought to 1,303. In other words, the killed and wounded in five North Carolina regiments of Pettigrew's division lacked only 61 men of numbering as many as the
