"The Hibriten Guards", Co. F of the 26th Regiment North Carolina Troops is perhaps the most famous company of the most famous North Carolina Regiment. Company F suffered 100% casualties at Gettysburg, all of its 91 members present at the battle either killed or wounded. This remarkable fact, apparently the only example during the War of an entire command being wiped out, was repeatedly brought to the attention of the public by the Company's articulate Captain, Rev. Romulus Tuttle in numerous post‑war articles and speeches.
Little has been known about the rank‑and‑file members of this command beyond the published roster. We are therefore. particularly grateful to Mr. David Setser of Hildebrand, N.C. for permission to print this collection of letters written by members of the Setser family, most of which pertain to Company F.
Indvidual letters written by Confederate soldiers are not particularly hard to find; whole collections such as this are very scarce. Most of the letters are written by cousins W.E. Setser and Thomas W. Setser to W. E.'s father, W.A. Setser. They are by turns humorous and poignant, chronicling war‑weariness and a persistant confidence in ultimate victory. If you are moved by the experience of our Confederate ancestors, you may both laugh and weep in reading these letters.
Like most Americans of the mid-nineteenth century, the authors of these letters spelled words the way they prounounced them. To preserve the flavor of the originals, spelling and capitalization are unaltered. The letters are totally without punctuation and paragraphing. These have been added by the editor. Occasional clarifications have been inserted into the text with brackets.
Individuals and places are identified by footnotes located at the end of each letter, however such identifications are usually made only the first time the person or place is mentioned.
In order to place the letters in context, some connective narration of the history of the Regiment and Company is included.
A particular debt of gratitude is owed to member Greg Vaughn who located, transcribed. and typed the letters.
Note: These letters were published in 1989 in the Company Font newsletter, as a 4 part series. The copies I received were hard to read because of the type and they were in 2 column format. I find this format hard to read on a webpage because of having to scroll up and down to read a page. I have changed all the type to 'arial font' and re-formatted to 'single column'. All other formatting and spelling are as they were originally edited and printed. I have kept the letters as the original 4 part series.