Greetings Thomas:

I recently surfed on to your excellent web site concerning the subject memorial. I, too, have a kinsman whose name appears on the memorial's bronze plaque as "First Lieut. W.H. Winchester, Co I, 13th N.C."

It is my understanding that the 184 Confederate soldiers buried there were wounded and captured at Gettysburg, and subsequently died as prisoners-of-war in the Union Army Hospital at Chester, PA. The wounding and capture of Lt. Winchester, my great-granduncle, is graphically described by his first cousin, Captain Roland Sampson Williams, in a history of the 13th NC found in the highly-regarded set of books short-titled "Clark's Regiments," published in 1901. My great-grandfather, Private John E. Winchester, also served in Co. I, 13th NC, Scales' Brigade, and was among the mere handful of 13th NC survivors of Gettysburg.Please advise should you desire additional information about "Clark's Regiments."

As I recall, your kinsman's (Logan Bolch) regiment, the 28th NC was in Lane's Brigade which fought side-by-side with Scales' Brigade at Gettysburg. In fact, the two brigades were placed under the command of Maj. Gen. Isaac Trimble for the famous (or infamous) charge on the 3rd day at Gettysburg. Please note, that I refuse to call it "Pickett's Charge" for a number of valid reasons probably well-known to you. If anything, it should be called simply "Longstreet's Assault" since it would be entirely too cumbersome to refer to it as the "Pickett-Pettigrew-Trimble-Anderson Charge."

I was very much surprised to find at your web site the information about the memorial honoring the 184 Confederate veterans. About 1992, I found the rather obscure "Confederate Veteran" article about it while doing research at the Denver Public Library. At that time the article was used to supplement the information about Lt. Winchester I had obtained from the National Archives.

I would certainly like to hear from you again at more length. It would appear that we belong to a rather select fraternity of descendants of Confederate soldiers who were wounded at Gettysburg, who died in captivity at Chester, PA, and whose names appear on the monument at the Pennsylvania (formerly Pittsfield) National Cemetery. Have you had any contact with any other such descendants?

Best regards.

Richard L. "Dick" Reed

Civil War Roundtable of Colorado

Lakewood, Colorado

E-Mail: Rreed1924@aol.com