When under a very heavy fire, we were ordered on Culps Hill,
to the support of Gen. A. Johnson. Here we stayed all day—no, here, I may say,
we melted away. We were on the brow of one hill, the enemy on the brow of
another. We charged on them several times, but of course, running down our
hill, and then to get to them was impossible, and every time we attempted it we
came back leaving some of our comrades behind. Here our Lieutenant Belt lost
his arm. We have now in our company a captain. All of our lieutenants are
wounded. We fought here until 7 P.M., when what was left of us was withdrawn
and taken to the first day's battlefield. At the commencement of this fight our
Brigade was the strongest in our division, but she is not now. We lost the most
men, for we were in the fight all the time, and I have it from Colonel Owens
that our regiment lost the most in the Brigade. I know that our company went in
the fight with 60 men. When we left Culps Hill there were 16 of us that
answered to the roll call. The balance were all killed and wounded. There were
12 sharpshooters in our company and now John Cochran and myself are the only
ones that are left. This day none will forget, that participated in the fight.
It was truly awful how fast, how very fast, did our poor boys fall by our sides—almost
as fast as the leaves that fell as cannon and musket balls hit them, as they
flew on their deadly errand. You could see one with his head shot off, others
cut in two, then one with his brain oozing out, one with his leg off, others
shot through the heart. Then you would hear some poor friend or foe crying for
water, or for "God's sake" to kill him. You would see some of your
comrades, shot through the leg, lying between the lines, asking his friends to
take him out, but no one could get to his relief, and you would have to leave
him there, perhaps to die, or, at best, to become a prisoner. Our brigade was
the only one that was sent to Culps Hill to support General Johnson. In our
rapid firing today my gun became so hot that the ramrod would not come out, so
I shot it at the Yankees, and picked up a gun from the ground, a gun that some
poor comrade dropped after being shot. I wonder if it hit a Yankee; if so, I
pity him. Our regiment was in a very exposed position at one time to-day, and
our General Daniels ordered a courier of his to bring us from the hill. He was
killed before he got to us. The General sent another. He was also killed before
he reached us. Then General Daniels would not order any one, but called for
volunteers. Capt. Ed. Stitt, of Charlotte, one of his aides, responded, and he
took us out of the exposed position.
SOURCE: Louis Leon, Diary of a Tar Heel Confederate
Soldier, p. 35-7