After starting late, Davis’s battle seasoned troops had boldly surged ahead of the rest of Pettigrew’s division, and they were first to reach the Emmitsburg Road. Despite the fierce fire now poured into their left flank, Davis’s North Carolinians and Mississippians ignored their losses and forged ahead. They scaled the fences, charged up the slope and headed for the enemy behind the wall. It was then that the men of Hays’ Division rose up and delivered their massive opening volley. It had a devastating impact on the lead troops of Davis’s brigade. “The front of the column was nearly up the slope. . . ," Colonel Sawyer would later recall, “when suddenly a terrific fire from every available gun. . . burst upon them.” Davis’s men fell in heaps. “That line went down like grass before the scythe,” a Federal officer would later recall.

 

Then the Rebel yell sounded over the roar of battle—it was Lane’s brigade, clambering over the Emmitsburg Road fences. Composing the left wing of Trimble’s division, Lane’s brigade had been rushed forward by Trimble even before he received Pettigrew’s summons from Captain Young. Seeing Mayo’s men turned back and fearing for Davis’s brigade, Trimble had ordered Lane’s brigade to “oblique to the left” and hurry forward. General Lane and his North Carolina regiments had rushed in behind Davis’s troops, reaching the Emmitsburg Road moments behind them. Lane’s men managed to push down at least one section of the first fence, but they found the second one too sturdy and had to climb it. “Several officers, myself among the number, sprang over the fence, followed by the entire command,” Lieutenant Thomas L. Norwood of the 37th North Carolina would later report. They spilled over the fences, merged with the stubborn survivors of Davis’s brigade, and surged up the slope together toward the stone wall—waved onward by the fallen wounded of Davis’s brigade. They poured a heavy fire into the enemy atop the slope—”with telling effect,” one of Lane’s men would attest—took their losses from the return fire, and pushed on toward the enemy line ahead. Seeing some Federal soldiers get up and run toward the rear, Lieutenant Norwood felt the flush of approaching victory. “I rushed forward,” he would later recount, “thinking the day was ours.”

 

Major Jones had never experienced such fire. It was beyond description— not even the fury of McPherson’s Ridge could equal it. The dead and wounded in the Emmitsburg Road lay in ghastly piles, while hundreds of unharmed troops paused beneath the hailstorm of deadly fire as if gathering strength for a final push forward. “Every man that reached the road in my view sank to the ground,” one of Pettigrew’s officers would report. They had been there only fleeting moments, but seconds seemed like minutes in such hellish conditions. Survivors would later insist that they had withstood this fire for 10 or 15 or even 20 minutes. Field officers moved through the crowded ranks of men, ordering the troops up, over the next fence and for­ward. Obediently, determinedly, most arose and began climbing over the sec­ond fence. Behind them, scores of dead lay unmoving where they had fallen, while countless wounded writhed or moaned. “Many of our comrades,” a sur­vivor would remember, remained in the road....

 

Excerpts from Rod Gragg’s terrific Covered with Glory, the 26^th North Carolina Infantry at the Battle of Gettysburg, HarperCollins Publishers, Copyright 2000 by Rod Gragg.