About That 'First at Bethel, Farthest to the Front at Gettysburg, Last at Appomattox' Slogan-- Part 1

In the last post, I wrote about Sgt. Ivey Ritchie of the 14th North Carolina Infantry Regiment being the last member of the Army of Northern Virginia to lose his life and that happened on April 9, 1865, at Appomattox.  That was the day Robert E. Lee surrendered his vaunted army.

Imagine fighting the whole war and then getting killed on the last day of your fighting in it?  That's hard to take.

Then I remembered an oft-repeated honor that I've heard many times growing up in North Carolina and since, a tribute to the soldiers from North Carolina who fought for the Confederacy:  "First at Bethel, Farthest to the Front at Gettysburg, and Last at Appomattox."  Only, I'd always heard it as "First at Bethel, Farthest at Gettysburg and Last at Appomattox."

I had to wonder if that Last at Appomattox might have referred to Sgt. Ritchie.

--Old Secesh