needs, and he recovered. The North Carolina losses on this portion of the field, so far as they can be made out, were as follows: In the Sixteenth, 17 killed and 28 wounded; in the Sixth, 15 killed and 32 wounded. The Twenty-second does not report its loss separately, but Major Daves states it at 147.[1]
During General Smith’s action, Guion’s section of Manly’s battery was active just in rear of Whiting’s brigade, and one of his limbers bore to the rear the Confederate commander-in-chief, General Johnston, when he was wounded just at nightfall. Leaving out the Twenty-second, the total North Carolina loss at Seven Pines was, as far as reported, 125 killed and 496 wounded.
The movement of great lines of battle, the fierce onset, the bloody repulse, the bold strategy of generals, the immortal courage of desperate men these are the glorious side of battle. But there is a woeful side to which attention is rarely directed. William R. Gorman, a talented musician of the Fourth North Carolina, gives a glimpse of the dark side of this stern passage at arms. He writes: "How calm and still is everything since the grand battle of Seven Pines! Nature smiles sweetly, and the birds sing as enchantingly as though no deeds of blood and carnage had been perpetrated near this now peaceful spot. ... I went to the hospital and did all I could to alleviate the horrible suffering, till late at night. What sights I witnessed! Piled in heaps lay amputated arms and legs an awful scene, while from the bloody masses of flesh around the surgeons went up such piercing cries that the blood almost chilled around the fountain of life. . . . Though chloroform was administered, the pain was so intense that it had no effect, and the poor wretches broke the stillness of night with cries so heartrending that it seemed to me the very corpses trembled. And such a sight when the surgeons tasks were done arms and legs piled up like cord-wood! Our
- ↑ Regimental History.
