Reply of the Philadelphia Brigade Association to the Foolish and Absurd Narrative of Lieutenant Frank A. Haskell Part 2

It has been asked, what could have been Haskell's object in so perverting the facts of history relative to the Battle of Gettysburg? Gen. Henry S.

Hindekoper, of Philadelphia, who won high renown in the battle, aptly answers the question in the statement made by him, wherein he said of Haskell's "Narrative," that "from a historical standpoint it is inaccurate and misleading, and from an ethical standpoint it is indecent, venemous, scandalous and VAINGLORIOUS."

After describing the first day's fight as minutely as though he had observed it all from the cupola of the Seminary Building on Seminary Ridge, Haskell thus seeks to acquit himself from all misstatements by saying: "Of the events of the first day of July I do not speak from personal knowledge."

At two o'clock in the afternoon of July 1st, Haskell was at Taneytown, 13 miles distant from Gettysburg, and between 8 and 9 o'clock in the evening the Second Corps was halted four miles south of Gettysburg, where it, and Lieut. Haskell, biouvacked for the night; therefore--except detracting from officers and men who rendered heroic service--no glory came to Haskell on the first day. He "did not see what he thought he saw."

At early dawn on July 2d Hanc.o.c.k's Corps was moved forward about four miles, and at 6.30 A. M. was placed in position on Cemetery Ridge. The Third Division (Hayes), on the right, connecting with the left of Howard's Eleventh Corps; the First Division (Caldwell's), on the left, connecting with the right of Sickles, Third Corps, and the Second Division (Gibbon), in the centre, and Haskell started in early on the second day to catch fame, and thus, according to his own "Narrative," he succeeded:

"A bullet entered the chest of my horse, 'Billy,' just in front of my left leg; a kick from a hitched horse in the dark that would likely have broken my ankle if it had not been for a very thick boot, but which did break my temper, and a bullet from a sharp shooter that hissed by my cheek so close that I felt the movement of the air distinctly."

And thus the "Narrative" recites as to the third and last day of the battle:

"I had been struck upon the thigh by a bullet which I think must have glanced and partially spent its force upon my saddle. It had pierced the thick cloth of my trousers, and two thicknesses of underclothing, but had not broken the skin, leaving me with an enormous bruise, that for a time benumbed the entire leg. At the time of receiving it, I heard the thump, and noticed it, and the hole in the cloth into which I thrust my finger, and I experienced a feeling of relief when I found that my leg was not pierced."

We shudder when we think what might have happened to that leg, if the bullet, when it saw Haskell, had not so kindly glanced and spent its force on his saddle before piercing the thick cloth of his breeches, and the two thicknesses of his underclothing.

The second and third days brought scant renown to such an ambitious officer as First Lieut. Haskell, but immortal fame is very chary with her favors. She tries a man long, and she tries him hard, before wreathing his brow with the laurel of victory, and fitting him for a niche in the Temple of Fame. Haskell realized all this at the close of the battle on this afternoon of July third, and he evidently concluded to create a niche for himself in the holy of holies by a page or two of romance in his "Narrative," and so he planned it all out.

Haskell knew--none better than he--that the Philadelphia Brigade met and repulsed the brunt of the charge of Pickett's Division, but he would immortalize himself as a hero by recording in his "Narrative," that the Brigade broke from the "b.l.o.o.d.y Angle" without orders or reason, with no uplifted hand of Webb, or Banes, or Dennis O'Kane, or Martin Tschudy, or R. Penn Smith, or Theodore Hesser to check them; that he, Haskell, met them, "a tide of rabbits," and ordered them to halt, to about face, and to fire, and hearing his voice they obeyed his command, and he led them back to glorious victory, and that he--as the one solitary horseman between the lines, only 40 yards from the enemy--repulsed Longstreet's Corps, and thereby, therein and thereon ended the great conflict at Gettysburg.

It was such a ridiculous page of fiction that if Haskell had survived the vicissitudes of war, he would have eliminated it, and if he died before the close of the Civil War--as he did--he would trust to luck; he trusted aright, for a Loyal Legion concluded to continue the fiction, thereby placing its laurel on Haskell's brow, crowning HIM the Hero of Gettysburg; and a State History Commission concluded to fill a niche in the Temple of the Immortals with the name and fame of First Lieutenant Frank Aretas Haskell, but not until fifty years after the fiction had been written, when few were left to refute that romance of the most vainglorious soldier of the Civil War.

AN OFFICIAL STATEMENT OF THE LOSS OF THE PHILADELPHIA BRIGADE.

The total number of officers and men present for duty of the Philadelphia Brigade, at the Battle of Gettysburg, was 1,573, and the total loss was 491, given in detail, as to regiments in the annexed tables:

NUMBER PRESENT FOR DUTY

+---------------+----------+------+-------+ REGIMENTS OFFICERS MEN TOTAL +---------------+----------+------+-------+ General Staff 4 -- 4 69th 22 312 344 71st 27 366 393 72nd 26 447 473 106th 30 313 343 Brigade Band -- 16 16 +---------------+----------+------+-------+ Totals 119 1454 1573 +---------------+----------+------+-------+

LOSS OF PHILADELPHIA BRIGADE AND SECOND CORPS AT GETTYSBURG.

-------+----------------+----------------+----------------+-------- Captured or No. No. of Killed No. of Wounded Missing Totals of +----------+-----+----------+-----+----------+-----+-------- Regt. Officers Men Officers Men Officers Men -------+----------+-----+----------+-----+----------+-----+-------- 69th 4 36 8 72 2 15 137 71st 2 19 3 55 3 16 98 72nd 2 42 7 139 -- 2 192 106th 1 8 9 45 -- 1 64 -------+----------+-----+----------+-----+----------+-----+-------- Totals 9 105 27 211 5 34 491 -------+----------+-----+----------+-----+----------+-----+--------

TOTAL LOSS SECOND CORPS.

---------------+-----------------+----------------+------- Captured or No. of Killed No. of Wounded Missing Total ---------+-----+----------+------+----------+-----+------- Officers Men Officers Men Officers Men ---------+-----+----------+------+----------+-----+------- 66 731 270 2923 13 365 4369 ---------+-----+----------+------+----------+-----+-------

The following table, furnished by our beloved Comrade, Sylvester Byrne, was the last letter the Philadelphia Brigade a.s.sociation ever received from that n.o.ble soul--that Comrade who loved his Regiment and Brigade with ardent and unfaltering affection. To the very last he was faithful to and watchful of his Command. The statement was furnished for the purpose of correcting some errors relative to the actual losses of the Philadelphia Brigade. The table is printed just as it was given by Comrade Byrne, and is regarded as his sacred contribution to the Brigade's reply to Haskell's charge of cowardice:

TABLE SHOWING THE LOSSES OF THE PHILADELPHIA BRIGADE FROM 1861 TO 1865.

+--------+--------+---------+---------+---------+--------------+-------+ Died of Died of Regt. Killed Wounded Missing Disease Other Causes Total +--------+--------+---------+---------+---------+--------------+-------+ 69th 178 346 185 91 15 815 71st 140 396 330 91 6 963 72nd 195 558 165 60 10 988 106th 99 416 157 81 14 767 +--------+--------+---------+---------+---------+--------------+-------+ Totals 612 1716 837 323 45 3533 +--------+--------+---------+---------+---------+--------------+-------+

The total loss in killed, wounded and missing of the Philadelphia Brigade at Gettysburg was over 32 per cent., about one soldier slain to every three engaged in the battle. Call you this "running like rabbits?"

The total loss of the Philadelphia Brigade during the Civil War was 3,533, of which number 545 were killed, wounded and missing at Antietam, the remaining loss of nearly three thousand was sustained in the 45 engagements in which the Brigade took part, and yet with the evidence of this loss, furnished by the United States Government and easily accessible to all, and on file in the library of the Loyal Legion of Ma.s.sachusetts, that Order appears to stand sponsor for a "Narrative" which falsely proclaimed to the world that the brave men of the Philadelphia Brigade "ran like rabbits" from Pickett's Division at Gettysburg.

What more need be said to convince this Military Order of the Loyal Legion that from the beginning to the end, the Philadelphia Brigade was just as loyal, just as brave, just as heroic, as they, our comrades, and with this statement of facts the a.s.sociation of Survivors of the Philadelphia Brigade calls upon the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, Commandery of Ma.s.sachusetts, and the History Commission of Wisconsin, to retract the statement made in the volumes published by them during the year 1908, as to cowardice.

In meeting and repulsing the charge of Pickett's Division at the b.l.o.o.d.y Angle of Gettysburg, the High Water Mark of the Civil War, the Philadelphia Brigade gained imperishable fame that will live in history as long as our country will exist as a nation, and that renown is so irrevocably fixed in the annals of the War that it can never be impaired while time itself shall last.

Since the foregoing reply was formulated, to the charge of cowardice made under the auspices of the Loyal Legion of Ma.s.sachusetts, the Philadelphia Brigade a.s.sociation has received a book of 185 pages, ent.i.tled "The Battle of Gettysburg, by Frank Aretas Haskell, Wisconsin History Commission, Reprint No. 1," an edition of 2,500 copies, printed under authority of the State of Wisconsin. In printing this book these words appear in the preface:

"The Wisconsin History Commission has, in accordance with its fixed policy, reverted to the original edition, which is here presented entire, exactly as first printed."

And this is what that "History Commission" records on pages 9 and 10 regarding the Eleventh Corps:

"Between three and four o'clock in the afternoon the enemy, now in overwhelming force, resumed the battle with spirit. The portion of the Eleventh Corps making but feeble opposition to the advancing enemy, soon began to fall back. Back in disorganized ma.s.ses they fled into the town, hotly pursued, and in lanes, in barns, in yards and cellars, throwing away their arms, they sought to hide like rabbits, and were captured, unresisting, by hundreds."

The Loyal Legion of Ma.s.sachusetts hadn't the courage to print that paragraph in their book.

These regiments formed the Eleventh Corps at Gettysburg: 17th Conn., 82d Ill., 33d Ma.s.s., 41st, 45th, 54th, 58th, 68th, 75th, 119th, 134th, 136th, 154th and 157th New York; 27th, 73d, 74th and 153d Penna.; 25th, 55th, 61st, 73d, 75th, 82d and 107th Ohio, and 26th Wisconsin. How do the Survivors of these Regiments regard the statement of the History Commission of Wisconsin, that "they sought to hide like rabbits?" and that the loss usually sustained by the Eleventh Corps was in prisoners?

And this is how the great State of Wisconsin, through its History Commission, maligns General Sickles and President Lincoln, who put upon General Sickles' shoulders the stars of a Major-General. (Pages 40 and 41.) The Loyal Legion of Ma.s.sachusetts eliminated the slander against Gen.

Sickles and President Lincoln.

"General Sickles commenced to advance his whole corps, from the general line, straight to the front, with a view to occupy the second ridge, along and near the road. What his purpose could have been is past conjecture. It was not ordered by General Meade, as I heard him say, and he disapproved as soon as it was made known to him. Generals Hanc.o.c.k and Gibbon, as they saw the move in progress, criticised its propriety sharply, as I know, and foretold quite accurately what would be the result. I suppose the truth probably is that General Sickles supposed he was doing for the best; but he was neither born nor bred a soldier. But one can scarcely tell what may have been the motives of such a man, a politician, and some other things, exclusive of the BARTON KEY affair, a man after show and notoriety, and newspaper fame, and the adulation of the mob, there is a grave responsibility on those in whose hands are the lives of ten thousand men; AND ON THOSE WHO PUT STARS ON MEN'S SHOULDERS, TOO! Bah! I kindle when I see some things I have to see.

"It is understood in the Army that the President thanked the slayer of Barton Key for SAVING THE DAY at Gettysburg. Does the country know any better than the President that Meade, Hanc.o.c.k and Gibbon were ent.i.tled to some little share of such credit?"

It is inconceivable that the great State of Wisconsin would in any way lend herself to the dissemination of what is not only untrustworthy, but absolutely scandalous, malevolent and false information, except it was done in ignorance of facts. It is still more inconceivable that the Loyal Legion of Ma.s.sachusetts, soldiers themselves, would act as sponsors or in any way help, aid or a.s.sist in depriving fellow soldiers of the honors fairly and bravely won in a battle where their loss was 491 of a total of less than 1,500 men, except they had given no heed to the statements before publication.

We believe that the State of Wisconsin and the Loyal Legion of Ma.s.sachusetts can do no less as American citizens and soldiers than to promptly disclaim all responsibility for the statements set forth in Lieut. Haskell's book. For however good Haskell's record as a soldier is, yet the fact must clearly appear to every intelligent mind that a man who would speak falsely of his superior officers and even go so far--at least in one case (Sickles)--as to bring to life out of the long dead past, a sad, sad epoch, which was no fault of his--displays in such writing a spirit unworthy of any American; and his self laudation of what he did--would cause anyone who was ever on a field of battle to use one of Haskell's expressions, "Bah."

A refusal to make this public disclaimer we feel would place both the State of Wisconsin and Loyal Legion of Ma.s.sachusetts in a position which, to say it very mildly, would be the reverse of creditable, and put them in the att.i.tude of sharing the ridicule and contempt which the narrative of Lieutenant Haskell deserves.

NOTES, CORRESPONDENCE AND REMARKS.

NOTE NO. 1.

This letter from General Alex. S. Webb is made a part of this paper:

NEW YORK MONUMENTS COMMISSION BATTLE FIELDS OF GETTYSBURG AND CHATANOOGA RIVERDALE-ON-HUDSON NEW YORK.

September 7, 1909.

My dear Frazier:

I could not find your address, but I had Dampman's, and wrote to him to try and obtain action on Haskell's book which is now circulated by the thousands to take from our Brigade and its Commander all the glory and reputation we acquired at the b.l.o.o.d.y Angle of Gettysburg.