James Johnston Pettigrew

Eight miles south of here lies the grave of James Johnston Pettigrew, one of the most remarkable minds the antebellum South produced. Born in Tyrrell County in eighteen twenty-eight, Pettigrew graduated first in his class from the University of North Carolina and was said to read six languages including Arabic and Hebrew. He became a Confederate general and on July third, eighteen sixty-three, commanded the left wing of the massive assault on Cemetery Ridge at Gettysburg, the attack history remembers primarily as Pickett's Charge.

Pettigrew's division suffered very heavy casualties that day. Wounded in the hand during the charge, he was mortally shot eleven days later during the Confederate retreat at Falling Waters and died on July seventeenth, eighteen sixty-three, at only thirty-five years old.