Service
The 46th was part of the Army of Northern Virginia from its initial muster through the end of the war, seeing action in the major eastern campaigns in Virginia and Maryland in 1862.
At Antietam, the 46th was involved in some of the heaviest fighting of the day. They had been ordered to hold West Woods, at "all hazards". According the Brig. General John George Walker's after-action report, the 46th "did good service". Joined to Ransom's Brigade, the regiment held the Woods "for the greater portion of the day, notwithstanding three determined infantry attacks, which each time were repulsed with great loss to the enemy, and against a most persistent and terrific artillery fire, by which the enemy hoped, doubtless, to drive us from our strong position — the very key of the battle-field."
After Fredericksburg, the 46th was shifted to garrison duty in South Carolina until June 1863, in that month being reassigned to northern Virginia. They returned north too late to participate in Gettysburg, but were back in the ranks of the ANV for the Bristoe Campaign of October, 1863.
The 46th finally surrendered at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865.
Read more about this topic: 46th North Carolina Infantry
Famous quotes containing the word service:
“Our chief want in life, is, someone who shall make us do what we can. This is the service of a friend. With him we are easily great.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Human life consists in mutual service. No grief, pain, misfortune, or “broken heart,” is excuse for cutting off one’s life while any power of service remains. But when all usefulness is over, when one is assured of an unavoidable and imminent death, it is the simplest of human rights to choose a quick and easy death in place of a slow and horrible one.”
—Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935)
“A man’s real faith is never contained in his creed, nor is his creed an article of his faith. The last is never adopted. This it is that permits him to smile ever, and to live even as bravely as he does. And yet he clings anxiously to his creed, as to a straw, thinking that that does him good service because his sheet anchor does not drag.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)