Captain Edward Fletcher Satterfield, (CSA)

Captain Edward Fletcher Satterfield (CSA)

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/27452653/edward_fletcher_satter...
https://docsouth.unc.edu/commland/monument/84

Confederate Officer. Satterfield, of the 55th North Carolina Infantry, was killed during Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg, on July 3, 1863, as he approached the Union line just south of the Bryan Buildings.

There's a monument to him on the courthouse lawn in Roxboro, Person County, North Carolina. His body was never recovered.
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Civil War Confederate Officer. Green Daniel and Mary Anderson Satterfield (Jordan) of Roxboro, North Carolina became parents of a baby boy on June 17, 1837. The couple christened their new arrival, Edward Fletcher Satterfield. Unbeknownst to them, this newborn son would become an immortal twenty-six summers later on a battlefield in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

Edward grew to manhood in a privileged setting on the family's plantation named "Jordan." He was provided a higher education at the University of North Carolina, where he earned a law degree in 1858. He returned to Roxboro and began a livelihood as a lawyer. He was successful in this profession, and his future promised to be one that was secure and promising.

In his personal life, he almost certainly looked forward to a "happily ever after" life with his fiancée, a Miss Jennie Pearson. Tragically, the American Civil War voided all of the expectations and dreams this young man may have had. The war started in the spring of 1861, and all North Carolinians who joined in the defense of the South in that historical year were volunteers. Satterfield was no exception. With prior service in Company A, 24th North Carolina Infantry, Satterfield, with a lieutenancy commission, joined Company H, 55th North Carolina Infantry. He was promoted Captain on March 10, 1863.

Satterfield's 55th North Carolina marched to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania as an element of the brigade commanded by Brigadier General Joseph Robert Davis of Henry Heth's Division. Now in Gettysburg, his regiment saw action on July 1, 1863, during which Satterfield escaped death and capture at the unfinished railroad cut. The North Carolinians again would see the glory of war two later days, during a charge now known in history as "Pickett's Charge." This charge would be a death-defying feat for each and every participant. A Confederate soldier recalled later: "I never expected to get out alive when I went up in line of battle." After a great cannonade, the command to advance was ordered. An awaiting Federal infantryman remembered the advancing Confederate "lines were unbroken and they looked in the distance like statues. On they came, steady, firm, moving like so many automatons."

Amongst these thousands of southerners was Captain E. Fletcher Satterfield, leading roughly 70 members of Company H. The North Carolina officer tramped over the fields of the Bliss Farm, leaped the split railed fences bordering Emmitsburg Road and continued the onward push to the Union line in the vicinity of the Brien/Bryan's barn. In the words of a Union officer the Confederates "suffered terribly getting to us, but they marched up like tigers keeping perfect line." Satterfield is now close to his enemies at this time, and the balance of his life was mere minutes. Had his parents seen what happened next, it would have devastated them. For their soldier boy was killed-in-action in an instant within 25-feet of the Union line.

Depending on the source one cites, he was killed either from shrapnel from artillery fire or a "buck and ball" volley from the 12th New Jersey Infantry. In the post-battle and post-war years, his fellow North Carolinians confidently proclaimed that he had occupied the furthermost position of all Confederates who participated in "Picket's Charge." Satterfield's lifeless body was likely shorn of all personal identification and insignia making it impossible for family or friends to claim his remains. Then his nameless form was consigned to a shallow trench with little dignity and rites.

Exertions began in 1870 to locate, exhume and transfer the Gettysburg Confederate dead back South. Alas, Satterfield's name was not recorded as one who made this move. It is possible he was one of the many unknowns who were reinterred in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia or Oakwood Cemetery in Raleigh, North Carolina. Nevertheless, his life, service and sacrifice are not forgotten.

In his native Roxboro, North Carolina, a monument was erected in 1931 on the Persons County Courthouse lawn as a remembrance to those who served the Southern Confederacy. Inscribed on the memorial are eight names, and atop the list is the name E. Fletcher Satterfield, the one who went "the farthest at Gettysburg".