"No Man Can Take Those Colors and Live"

"As the state grows, one’s sense of self-ownership is destroyed, liberty is traded for "security," the human spirit diminishes, and the citizenry increasingly thinks and behaves like dependent children."
--Eric Englund, in an essay titled Income Taxes, Obesity, and Other Maladies of Nanny Statism, 2005.
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"No Man Can Take Those Colors and Live"

26th North Carolina
Colonel Henry King Burgwyn, Jr., Lt. Col. John R. Lane, Sgt. Jefferson Mansfield, and Pvt. John Vinson Pettigrew’s Brigade - Heth’s Division - Hill’s Corps

The 26th North Carolina Regiment started the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg with 800 men. By sunset, 588 of them were either dead or wounded. Yelling like demons, they had courageously charged and taken the formidable federal position on Seminary Ridge. Fourteen colorbearers in the 26th were shot down in succession. One of them was 21 year old Henry King Burgwyn, the youngest colonel in the Confederate army, who stained the flag with his blood as he fell wrapped in it’s folds.

Within seconds a bullet entered his heart and the officer pitched forward drenching the standard with his blood. Lt. George Wilcox pulled the blood soaked flag from underneath Mcreery’s lifeless form and pushed ahead into the maelstrom. After a few steps, two rounds pierced his chest, but he survived.

Fearing that his troops might falter at this critical juncture Burgwyn seized the flag staff from Wilcox. With his outstretched sword in one hand and the flag in the other, he ordered the regiment to "Dress on the colors". Mortally wounded Col. Burgwyn is said to have whispered, "I know my gallant men will do their duty. Where is my sword?" Then he was gone.

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Fourteen different color bearers from the 26th North Carolina, including their "boy colonel", Henry Burgwyn had been killed or grievously wounded holding aloft the regiment's colors.

Despite suffering enormous casualties in their fight with the 24th Michigan and the rest of the Iron Brigade, Lt. Col. J.R. Lane lifted the flag once more and yelled, "twenty-sixth, follow me!" The fight for Herbst Woods proved to be the bloodiest regimental fight in the Civil War's bloodiest battle. The 26th North Carolina lost 687 out of 843 men at Gettysburg and the 24th Michigan suffered 73% casualties. These two units suffered more casualties than any other regiments in their respective armies.

Now we have the opportunity to join with our friends at the Conservation Fund to save the very ground that the Iron Brigade and the 26th North Carolina trod during their epic struggle on July 1, 1863. This long sought-after ground, coupled with a separate preservation effort at the Josiah Benner House property, makes this one of the most exciting opportunities in our history.

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• $30 and higher donations will receive a Civil War Trust hat

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$29 to $1

Our Goal

$70,000