THREE WHO FOUGHT WITH GEN. PICKETT LIVE IN COLUMBUS
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Partcipated in famous charge but only one of them will attend reunion
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All were Virginians
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Captain Newton Kidwell, Lieutenant Worrell and Private Kendall made up the list. (by Mary Robbon M'Gill)
"Much has been written of the Ohio soldiers who intend to go to Gettysburg to view again, perhaps for the first and last time in fifty years, the battlefield where they won deathless fame, but it has all related to Union soldiers, for the Confederates who took part in that battle and who now live in the Buckeye state have not been forgotton that in the capital city live three survivors of Pickett's charge.
One of the soldiers who took part in that incomparable assault is Capt. Newton Kidwell, who lives on the South Third street. He left Tuesday for Gettysburg but will stop enroute at Roanoke and Front Royal, where he will meet with former commrades and proceed with them to the battlefield.
When I called to ask Captain Kidwell if he intended to take this trip to Gettysburg he was standing near the door of his home talking to a Union soldier who was in the battle, William Guy, of the sixty-sixth Ohio, and they were discussing their proposed visit to the former scene of mortal combat.
Captain Kidwell invited me into his home and introduced me to his wife, a pleasant faced woman. Tall, thin, gray he stood, every tone and movement bringing the southland near, for beneath the quiet manner and voice was the trace of the fire and electric energy that go with southern blood though covered by a calm exterior. One felt the force that had carried such men as he forward with Pickett until the soldiers in blue all but ceased their death dealing fire on such a splendid foe.
MAKES THE TRIP ALONE
In speaking of the contemplated trip Captain Kidwell said, ""So far as I know, I wil be the only one of Pickett's men to go from Columbus. I go alone.""
""But you will go with the Union soldiers?""
""No, for none but Union soldiers will be permitted to go on their train.""
"" How strange that you cannot ride on the same when going to a reunion of the Blue and the Gray."" "" It takes an Ohio legislature to muddle things. Union soldiers would not be so inconsiderate of survivors of Pickett's charge.
If they were it wouldn't be much of a reunion, would it? But perhaps they thought there weren't any of us left,"" he said, with a touch of humor that tralled off into wistfulness as he added:
""There are so few of us, you know."" Few indeed are the men who followed the flash of Pickett's sword who will go to Gettyburg. They are there. They've been sleeping there for fifty years, waiting for the last reunion.
Illustrative of this was Captain Kidwell's reply to inquiries. With soldierly simplicity, he added
BUT SEVEN RETURNED
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""My regiment was the Eighth Virginia. When the order came we moved forward, three hundred and fifty-two in line. Only seven returned to our line and of the seven five were wounded, several mortally.
For a few moments there was silence and the deep deathless grief of fifty years ago was reflected on the face of the soldier."" Then he continued:
""My brother, Thomas Kidwell, whom was the eighth man in our regiment to take up our colors after seven men had been killed in a distance of a hundred yards.
Here's a better description of the battle than I can give to you"" said Captain Kidwell, taking from a desk a small red book from which he read: """Flower of the south and Longstreet's pride."""
But no poem I have ever read no matter how thrilling, no representation I have ever seen, though one in Battle abbey in St. Louis was very graphic, ever conveyed such a clear concept of that carnage as the quietly spoken words of the gray-haired captain: for through his words ran the feeling of one who had lived through the heart-breaking experience known only to Pickett's Division.
TWO OTHER SURVIVORS
Lieutenant Worrell is another survivor of Pickett's charge, who will be at the reunion of the blue and the gray. Lieutenant Worrell is in Pennsylvania now and will not return until after the event. He, too, was a member of the Eighth Virginia, a regiment brilliant in service.
Henry Kendall, of Oregon avenue, is another soldier of the Eighth Virginia who followed the flash of Pickett's sword. In appearance Mr. Kendall is the typical southern, soldier more than six feet tall, thin, dark-haired, but his flashing blue eyes and clear, slightly-bronzed complexion are suggestive of English ancestry.
""No, I'm not going to Gettysburg,"" said Mr. Kendall, while seated in a porch swing at his home. ""I'd like to go and see where my company charged but I won't be there.""
Mrs. Kendall, motherly faced with beauiful gray hair invited us into the house to escape the noise from the street where Mr. Kendall, who had not seemed inclined to talk about Gettysburg, became interested and gave a graphic word picture of it.
A GRAPHIC PORTRAYAL
""We did not get there until night of the second day's battle. We had come on a forced march from Chambersburg and were exhausted but we were ready to go wherever Pickett led as long as we could move. In the early morning he led us out into what seemed to be the very center of everything for thousands of soldiers as far as we could see were on every side. Then for hours all we could do was to wait in the burning sun for some word but we could do anything for General Pickett. Ah, but he was a fine looking man with his curling black hair. When he rode past our lines we could charge anything.
It's fifty years ago and I haven't talked much about the war since I left the southland and I seldom mention our last charge so I haven't kept my memory fresh on the details preceding it but share one part I'll not forget. I was captured.""
Mr. Kendall then gave a thrilling account of the last supreme struggle when he with about fifteen members from various companies had gained a place less than fifty yards from the stone wall from which poured the unceasing and deadly fire of the blue for they had gained the slight shelter of a little ledge from which they looked on either side and saw their officers and comrades either motionless or writhing in the pain of death wounds. In one instance, one man moved ever so slightly from the shelter and his head was instantly blown off.
At this point in his narrative, Mr. Kendall's eyes were shadowed with the horror of remembrance but after a few moments he said:
NOT A MAN STANDING
""All around us on either side and as far back as we could see not a man was standing. All were dead or dying. Then down around us on one side came a regiment in blue and formed a line below us in a circle. We hadn't the slightest hope of reinforcements. Not a living man in gray was in sight, so when that whole regiment advanced on us from below and we knew what was above we decided that less than fifteen could not fight the whole Union army, so we surrendered.""
Mr. Kendall voice faltered slightly in this last sentence but in an instant with flashing eyes and his tall form rising to his full height, he added, ""If only Lee could have formed one more line we'd have gone over that wall.""
Prolonged silence that it were almost sacrilege to break followed Mr. Kendall's last words, then he said as if he had not ceased speaking:
""We supposed that we were the only ones captured until we were taken back to a field whre there were thousands of Confederates prisoners."" ""Then what happened?""
FELL ASLEEP ON MARCH
""We were taken to Balitmore and from there to Fort Henry. Pickett's Division had been in forced march without sleep for so long before the charge that we were completely exhausted but we did not realize this in the wild excitement of the fight but after it was over we were so near dead from fatigue we dropped asleep on the march to Balitmore and had to be prodded by the Union men every little while.""
""When near Fort Henry at 3 o'clock in the morning we were permitted to pause. I sank into a hole all but dead for sleep and awoke with water all around me, my face just out for my head was on a slightly raised place. The hole where I had fallen asleep had filled with water from a three hour rain that had beaten and flown in my face without waking me. From that point we went on to the fort and that was the end of the war for us.""
""After the war I captured a Yankee"" waving his hand toward Mrs. Kendall who was Miss Caroline Wilkins of Zanesville.