CSA Colonel Isaac E. Avery’s Last Note To His Father

Via WiscoDave

The battle of Gettysburg, with 50,000 casualties across both sides, was the deadliest and most important in the American Civil War. The address of Abraham Lincoln that came afterward is perhaps the most iconic speech ever made by a US president

Isaac E. Avery was a colonel in the Confederate States Army. During the battle, he was shot in the neck and was partially paralyzed, unable to move his right arm. When the mortally wounded Avery was dragged from the battlefield, he was clutching a small piece of paper.

He’d been knocked from his horse and had taken a piece of pencil lead from his pocket. Though right-handed, he’d used his left hand to scribble a note that read: “Major, tell my father that I died with my face to the enemy. IE Avery.”

He died the following day in the hospital. The note is preserved in the treasures collection of the North Carolina State Archives