They Are Ours

Gettysburg – Pickett’s Charge – July 3, 1863

The High Water Mark
57th Virginia
53rd Virginia
38th Virginia
7th North Carolina
26th North Carolina
Armistead's Brigade - Pickett's Division - Longstreet's Corps.

Company and regimental organization were nonexistent by the time Armistead reached the front. A deep mass of mixed troops concentrated near the stone fence.

In the hellish confusion Sergeant Hutherson was shot and killed. An unknown soldier picked up his flag and continued onward. Colonel John Bowie Magruder, the commander of the 57th, went down with a mortal wound within 20 steps of Cushing's Guns, his last words were "They are ours".

As one Virginian later expressed his disappointment. - "We gained nothing but glory and lost our bravest men."

Many of these men died around their colors.