.
Sir,—I will say that I was a member of Company E, Eighteenth Virginia Regiment,
Hunton's Brigade,
Pickett's Division.
I knew
Comrade S. W. Paulett very well.
I have made many long and weary marches with him. I don't think any troops made a longer march to reach
Gettysburg than we did—namely, from
Suffolk, Va., to
Gettysburg battlefield, and I would like to say that the Thirty-second Virginia Regiment was at one time attached to
Hunton's Brigade, and that was in the
fall and
winter of 1863-64.
Hunton's Brigade, with the rest of the division, came from
Orange county to the vicinity of
Richmond about the first of October, 1863.
Hunton's Brigade went to
Chaffin's farm, eight miles below
Richmond, and went in quarters vacated by
Wise's men. In about two weeks the Eighteenth Virginia Regiment was sent to
Petersburg to do provost duty in the town; at the same time we relieved the Thirty-second Virginia Regiment, who had been doing similar duty up to that time.
So the Thirty-second Regiment went to
Chaffin's farm and were attached to
Hunten's Brigade, and remained with them until the last of May or first of June, 1864, when at
Hanover Junction, when we rejoined our brigade and the Thirty-second went back to
Corse's Brigade.
In the meantime the
Eighteenth Virginia Regiment was with Corse's Brigade and left
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Petersburg with them about the last of January, 1864, and went to the vicinity of Newbern, N. C., and had quite an exciting time, capturing a good many prisoners and some fine guns and horses.
We captqred one complete camp of a New York regiment about five miles out from Newbern.
While in North Carolina we were at Goldsboro, where in February we re-enlisted for the remainder of the war. We were at Rocky Mount and Tarboro in May.
We returned to Virginia in time for the battle of Drewry's Bluff, May 16, 1864, after which we went to Richmond, and, lying on the green grass inside the Capitol Square, heard a speech from Congressman McMillan from Tennessee, and drew some chewing tobacco, after which we took the train for Guinea Station, in Spotsylvania, just in time to make the march with Lee's army for the North Anna.
Here we held Grant's vast army in check for some days, when we made the move to Cold Harbor, and there I made my last fight, being desperately wounded, and my career as an active Confederate soldier came to an end.
