How General Meade Turned the
Army of the Potomac over
to Lieutenant Haskell
See Page 10
PUBLISHED BY
THE PHILADELPHIA BRIGADE
ASSOCIATION
BOWERS PRINTING COMPANY
PHILADELPHIA, PA.
REPLY OF THE PHILADELPHIA BRIGADE ASSOCIATION
TO THE FOOLISH and ABSURD NARRATIVE
OF Lieutenant FRANK A. HASKELL
WHICH APPEARS TO BE ENDORSED BY
THE MILITARY ORDER OF THE LOYAL LEGION
COMMANDRY OF MASSACHUSETTS
AND THE WISCONSIN HISTORY COMMISSION
COMPLIMENTS OF THE
PHILADELPHIA BRIGADE ASSOCIATION
MARCH, 1910
HEADQUARTERS,
PHILADELPHIA BRIGADE ASSOCIATION,
S. W. COR. FIFTH AND CHESTNUT STREETS,
PHILADELPHIA, PA.
At the stated meeting of the Survivors of the Philadelphia Brigade, Second
Brigade, Second Division, Second Corps, Army of the Potomac, held at the
above place, Tuesday evening, September 7, 1909, letters were read from
Gen. Alexander S. Webb, who commanded the Philadelphia Brigade at the
Battle of Gettysburg, July 1, 2 and 3, 1863, requesting the consideration
of the Brigade Association to the most astounding misstatements made by
First Lieut. Frank Aretas Haskell, 6th Wisconsin Infantry, in a paper said
to have been written by him under date of July 16, 1863, two weeks after
the Battle of Gettysburg had been fought and addressed to his brother, who
printed it for private circulation about fifteen years afterward.
The letters of Gen. Webb were accompanied by a volume of 94 pages,
containing the most absurd statements as to the action of the Philadelphia
Brigade at the Battle of Gettysburg, which, upon being read, led to the
unanimous adoption of the following preamble and resolution:
"WHEREAS, in the 'Narrative of the Battle of Gettysburg,' by Lieut.
Frank A. Haskell, First Lieut. 6th Wisconsin Infantry, and an aide
upon the staff of Gen. John Gibbon, said to have been written within
a few days after the battle, and reprinted in 1898 as a part of the
history of the Class of 1854, Dartmouth College, and republished in
1908 under the auspices of the Massachusetts Commandery of the
Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, the
Philadelphia Brigade has been recklessly, and shamelessly, and
grossly misrepresented; therefore, with the view of correcting these
wilfull misstatements, it is
"RESOLVED, That a committee consisting of the officers of the
Philadelphia Brigade Association, together with two comrades from
each of the four regiments of the Brigade, be appointed to carefully
consider the matter, and, if deemed advisable by the committee, to
publicly enter its protest against the malicious statements
'reprinted in 1898 as a part of the history of the Class of 1854 of
Dartmouth College,' and again republished by the Loyal Legion of
Massachusetts in 1908, with a degree of recklessness and disregard
for truth unparalleled in any publication relating to the Civil War;
statements so false and malevolent as to be wholly unworthy of a
class of Dartmouth College, or of a Commandery of the Loyal Legion of
the United States; of the name of Capt. Daniel Hall, of General
Howard's staff--who prepared the story for publication--or of 'Chas.
Hunt, Captain U. S. V., Committee on Publication.'"
The committee named under this resolution consists of these Comrades: Wm.
G. Mason, Commander; John Quinton, Vice-Commander; Chas. W. Devitt,
Quartermaster; John W. Frazier, Adjutant; John E. Reilly, Wm. S. Stockton,
Joseph MacCarroll and James Thompson, Trustees, and Edward Thompson and
James Duffy, 69th; John W. Dampman and Edward P. McMahon, 71st; John Reed
and Thos. J. Longacre, 72d; Wm. H. Neiler and Thos. Thompson, 106th
Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers.
An examination by the Philadelphia Brigade Association of the records
relating to the "Narrative" written by Lieut. Haskell, discloses these
facts:
First--That Lieut. Haskell entered the service in July, 1861, as First
Lieutenant of the 6th Wisconsin Infantry, and in June, 1862, became an
Aide-de-Camp upon the Staff of Brigadier General John Gibbon, and was
serving as such at the time he wrote his "Narrative" of the Battle of
Gettysburg. On February 9, 1864, Haskell was commissioned Colonel of the
36th Wisconsin Regiment, which at his request was assigned to the First
Brigade, Second Division, Second Corps, Army of the Potomac. The Division
was commanded by Gen. Gibbon, Gen. Hancock commanding the Corps. In the
advance of Gibbon's Division at the Battle of Cold Harbor, against a
strongly intrenched position, Col. Henry McKeen, who commanded the First
Brigade, was killed. Colonel Haskell succeeded to the command, and he,
too, fell mortally wounded under the heavy artillery and musketry fire,
against which his Brigade advanced. Haskell's record as a soldier of the
Civil War is, therefore, an enviable one; but as a writer of events of the
war he was absurd, reckless and unreliable.
Second--The manuscript alleged to have been prepared by Lieut. Haskell, as
stated by him, "At the Headquarters, second Corps D'Armee, Army of the
Potomac, near Harper's Ferry, July 16, 1863," was sent to his brother, who
printed it about fifteen years later in a pamphlet of 72 pages for private
circulation.
Third--The book was reprinted in 1898 as part of the History of the Class
of 1854, Dartmouth College, in honor of Colonel Haskell's memory, but with
certain omissions that severely reflected upon the Eleventh Corps, Gen.
Sickles and President Lincoln, which are explained in a foot-note by Capt.
Daniel Hall, a classmate of Haskell's, who was an Aide upon the Staff of
Gen. O. O. Howard, and who prepared the Haskell story for republication.
Fourth--The pamphlet published in 1878, by Haskell's family for private
circulation, contained 72 pages; the costly volume published in 1908,
under the auspices of the Commandery of Massachusetts, Loyal Legion of
the United States, prepared by Captain Daniel Hall, an Aide upon the Staff
of Gen. Howard, Commander of the Eleventh Corps, with the official
endorsement of "Chas. Hunt, Captain, U. S. V., Committee on Publication"
is a book of 94 pages; therefore, apparently containing much more matter
than was originally published by the Haskell family in 1878.
The charge of cowardice on the part of the Philadelphia Brigade, purported
to have been made by Lieut. Haskell, is printed on pages 60, 61 and 62 of
the volume published by the Loyal Legion of Massachusetts, and is in part
as follows:
"Unable to find my General, I gave up hunting as useless--I was
convinced General Gibbon could not be on the field; I left him
mounted; I could have easily found him now had he so remained, but
now, save myself, there was not a mounted officer near the engaged
lines--and was riding towards the right of the Second Division, with
purpose to stop there, as the most eligible position to watch the
further progress of the battle, then to be ready to take part,
according to my own notions, wherever and whenever occasion
presented. The conflict was tremendous, but I had seen no wavering in
all our line. Wondering how long the rebel ranks, deep though they
were, could stand our sheltered volleys, I had come near my
destination, when--great heavens! were my senses mad?--the larger
portion of Webb's Brigade--my God, it was true--there by the group of
trees and the angles of the wall, was breaking from the cover of the
works, and without orders or reason, with no hand uplifted to check
them, was falling back, a fear-stricken flock of confusion. The fate
of Gettysburg hung upon a spider's single thread. A great magnificent
passion came on me at the instant; not one that overpowers and
confounds, but one that blanches the face and sublimes every sense
and faculty. My sword that had always hung idle by my side, the sign
of rank only, in every battle, I drew, bright and gleaming, the
symbol of command. Was not that a fit occasion and those fugitives
the men on whom to try the temper of the Solingen steel? All rules
and proprieties were forgotten, all considerations of person and
danger and safety despised; for as I met the tide of those rabbits,
the damned red flags of the rebellion began to thicken and flaunt
along the wall they had just deserted, and one was already waving
over the guns of the dead Cushing. I ordered those men to 'halt,' and
'face about,' and 'fire,' and they heard my voice and gathered my
meaning, and obeyed my commands. On some unpatriotic backs, of those
not quick of comprehension, the flat of my sabre fell, not lightly;
and at its touch their love of country returned, and with a look at
me as if I were the destroying angel, as I might have become theirs,
they again faced the enemy. General Webb soon came to my assistance.
He was on foot, but he was active, and did all that one could do to
repair the breach or to avert its calamity."
Colonels O'Kane and Tschudy, of the 69th, were killed in action; Baxter,
of the 72d, wounded and carried off the field; Morehead and his 106th
Regiment had been sent by Gibbon to the support of Howard's Corps, thereby
materially weakening the Brigade; Col. R. Penn Smith, of the 71st, and
Lieut. Col. Theo. Hesser, of the 72d, were with their commands--which they
never left--encouraging their men to even greater deeds of heroism; Webb
is yet living and in a supplemental paper to this Reply will state
specifically where the Commander of the Brigade and his Adjutant were and
what they did.
While Haskell has long been dead--killed in action at Cold Harbor, in
1864, and it seems cruel to speak harshly of the dead, yet duty to the
living, and to the honored dead of the Philadelphia Brigade compels reply.
The unreliability of Lieut. Haskell as a writer of military matters was
equaled only by the egotism of the youthful Lieutenant. Thus this reckless
First Lieutenant wrote of General Howard and General Doubleday, and thus
he maligned the brave men of the Eleventh Corps:
"The two divisions of the Eleventh Corps commanded, by Generals
Schurz and Barlow, making but feeble opposition to the advancing
enemy, soon began to fall back. Back in disorganized masses 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.
"I suppose our losses during the first day would exceed five
thousand, of whom a large number were prisoners. Such usually is the
kind of loss sustained by the Eleventh Corps." (Haskell narrative,
page 6.)
The actual loss of the Eleventh Corps was 153 officers and 2,138 men
killed and wounded, and 62 officers and 1,448 men captured and missing, a
total of 3,801, thereby attesting that at least 2,291 brave men of the
Eleventh Corps did not "hide like rabbits," but that they fell like heroes
facing the enemy.
And thus of General Doubleday as to his action during Pickett's Charge on
the afternoon of the third day:
"Doubleday on the left was too far off, and too slow. On another
occasion I had begged him to send his idle regiments to support
another line, battling with thrice its numbers, and the 'Old Sumter
Hero' had declined." (Haskell narrative, page 62.)
If Haskell, or any other first lieutenant, would dare to have had the
impudence to direct a Major General, and he a graduate of West Point, a
soldier of distinction in the Mexican War, and placed in command of the
First Corps upon the death of Gen. Reynolds, is it not more than likely,
indeed, does it not seem certain that such a presumptuous lieutenant would
have been sent back to his command under guard, if not committed to the
guard house?
And did not Capt. Daniel Hall, an Aide upon General Howard's Staff, who
prepared the Haskell "Narrative" for republication; and the Military Order
of the Loyal Legion, Commandery of Massachusetts, in publishing the
Haskell "Narrative" become responsible for the Haskell slander upon
Generals Howard and Doubleday, and the brave men of the gallant Eleventh
Corps, and of the Philadelphia Brigade?
The egotism and recklessness of Haskell are in evidence upon almost every
page of his book. On page 39 he says:
"I heard General Meade express dissatisfaction at General Geary for
making his attack. I heard General Meade say that he sent an order to
have the fight stopped, but I believe the order was not given to
Geary until after the repulse of the enemy." Is it not clear that if
such an order had been sent and obeyed, the enemy would not have been
repulsed? Is it anywhere upon record that General Meade sent such an
order?
On page 82 of the Haskell "Narrative" of the Battle of Gettysburg appears
this silly statement:
"About six o'clock on the afternoon of the third of July, my duties
done upon the field, I quitted it to go to the General (meaning
Gibbon). My brave horse Dick--poor creature! his good conduct in the
battle that afternoon had been complimented by a brigadier--was a
sight to see. He was literally covered with blood. Struck repeatedly,
his right thigh had been ripped open in a ghastly manner by a piece
of shell, and three bullets were lodged deep in his body, and from
his wounds the blood oozed and ran down his sides and legs, and with
the sweat formed a bloody foam. To Dick belongs the honor of first
mounting that stormy crest before the enemy, not forty yards away,
whose bullets smote him, and of being the only horse there during the
heat of that battle."
Haskell might, with equal truth and egotism, have written: "To Dick and
his rider belong the honor of meeting and repulsing Pickett's Division,"
and who can say that it would not have been accorded equally as generous
consideration by the Loyal Legion of Massachusetts, and the History
Commission of Wisconsin, as was given to all the other nonsense he wrote
of the Battle of Gettysburg.
It has been said of Pickett's Virginians, that accustomed to handling a
gun, or rifle, from boyhood, any one of them could kill a jay bird at a
distance of 150 yards, but not one of Pickett's Division of 4,000 Veterans
could kill that horse or that first lieutenant, and they the only horse
and man in sight, and not forty yards away, parading between Hancock's
Corps of the Union Army and Longstreet's Corps of the Confederate Army.
Oh! Veterans of Pickett's Division, you who killed or wounded 491 of our
Comrades of the Philadelphia Brigade from the time you began one of the
most desperate charges ever recorded in the history of wars, starting from
Seminary Ridge, one mile distant from the Bloody Angle, until you reached
the culminating point where the intrepid Armistead fell mortally wounded
within the lines of the Philadelphia Brigade. You who made such slaughter
in OUR RANKS AT LONG RANGE could not kill First Lieutenant Frank Aretas
Haskell, or his horse, and they not forty yards distant from your firing
line, and he "the one solitary horseman between the Second Division of
Hancock's Corps and Pickett's Division of Longstreet's Corps." And the
Military Order, Loyal Legion, Commandery of Massachusetts, and the History
Commission of Wisconsin, as late as the year 1908 in expensive
publications confirm the Haskell "Narrative" of his wild "Buffalo Bill"
ride between the Union and Confederate lines, and depicting your skill as
marksmen, with a horse and officer as the inviting target not forty yards
distant--defying the bullets of the most skillful marksmen of the
Confederate Army.
Is there a veteran soldier of the Civil War, or even a thoughtful man in
the United States, who believes this part of Haskell's Narrative "of
riding between the lines the one solitary horseman, and he not forty yards
distant from the enemy?" Do Captains Daniel Hall and Charles Hunt, the
Loyal Legion of Massachusetts, and Wisconsin History Commission,
themselves endorsing it, really believe it?
It was on the third day that "Dick" was plugged with enough of Confederate
lead to have warranted Haskell in organizing a Company to mine the lead in
"Dick's" dead body. His horse "Billy" was pumped just as full of lead on
the second day, as this absurd statement on page 37 attests:
"And my horse can hardly move. What can be the reason? I know that he
has been touched by two of their bullets today, but not to wound or
lame him to speak of. I foolishly spurred my horse again. No use--he
would only walk. I dismounted; I could not lead him along. So, out of
temper, I rode him to headquarters, which I reached at last. With a
light I found what was the matter with 'Billy.' A bullet had entered
his chest just in front of my left leg as I was mounted, and the
blood was running down all his side and leg, and the air from his
lungs came out of the bullet hole. I rode him at the Second Bull Run,
and at the First and Second Fredericksburg, and at Antietam after
brave 'Joe' was killed, but I shall never mount him again. 'Billy's'
battles are over."
Just one more instance of the scores of the colossal vanity of Haskell. It
tells how General Meade turned the command of the Army of the Potomac over
to the youthful First Lieutenant of Infantry--Frank Aretas Haskell. It is
to be found on pages 69 and 70 of the Haskell "Narrative." The battle had
ended, and the Napoleon of Gettysburg, while patting himself on the back,
was planting data in his mind for printing in his "Narrative," and thus
Paul planted, and the Apollos of Massachusetts and Wisconsin watered.
"Would to heaven Generals Hancock and Gibbon could have stood where I
did, and have looked upon that field. But they are both severely
wounded and have been carried from the field. One person did come,
and he was no less than Major-General Meade, who rode up accompanied
alone by his son--an escort not large for a commander of such an
army. As he arrived near me he asked, 'How is it going here?' I
answered, 'I believe, General, the army is repulsed.' With a touch of
incredulity he further asked, 'What! IS THE ASSAULT ENTIRELY
REPULSED?' I replied, 'It is, sir.' And then his right hand moved as
if he would have caught off his hat and waved it, but instead he
waved his hand and said, 'Hurrah!' He asked where Hancock and Gibbon
were, but before I had time to answer that I did not know, he
resumed, 'No matter, I will give my orders to You, and YOU will see
them executed.' He then gave directions that the troops should be
reformed as soon as practicable, and kept in their places, as the
enemy might be mad enough to attack again, adding, 'IF THE ENEMY DOES
ATTACK, CHARGE HIM IN THE FLANKS AND SWEEP HIM FROM THE FIELD--do you
understand?' The General then, a gratified man, galloped in the
direction of his headquarters."
Of course, General Meade rode back to his headquarters a gratified man.
Had he not just received the information from First Lieutenant Haskell
that the enemy had been "entirely repulsed?" and had not Meade issued an
order to this Wellington of Lee's Waterloo to sweep the enemy from the
field, if he were mad enough to renew the attack, by charging him on the
flanks? General Meade's order to Haskell was so sedately humorous as to
leave us in doubt as to whether the First Lieutenant and his horse alone
were to charge the enemy's flanks, or for Lieutenant Napoleon Wellington
Haskell to order the First, Eleventh and Twelfth Corps to charge his left
flank, and the Third, Fifth and Sixth Corps his right flank, while Haskell
and Dick swept his centre from the field.
And this is the "narrative" that a Loyal Legion and a History Commission
feel honored in publishing. If the object was to prove that they were just
as vainglorious as Haskell, has not this fact been fully established by
their published books? Vaccinated by the Haskell virus of vanity and
venom, the buffoonery of Haskell has been transmitted by a Military Order
of the Loyal Legion, and the History Commission of a great State, to their
admiring friends and the public. Like Haskell, "A great, magnificent
passion came on them that seemingly sublimed every sense and
faculty--when, great heavens! their senses mad," the Battle of Gettysburg,
by Frank Aretas Haskell, First Lieutenant, Sixth Wisconsin Infantry, was
"published under the auspices of the Commandery of the State of
Massachusetts, Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States,
and the Wisconsin History Commission."
General Roy Stone, of Pennsylvania, commanded the Second Brigade, Third
Division, First Corps, at Gettysburg. Upon receiving serious wounds he
was carried from the field, and Colonel Langhorne Wister, of Philadelphia,
commanding the 150th Pennsylvania Regiment, succeeded to the command of
the Brigade, and the Lieutenant-Colonel took command of the Regiment, and
soon after was shot in the leg, remaining in command until his right arm
was shattered. Carried into an adjacent barn, used temporarily as a
hospital, the flow of blood was stopped by a tourniquet, and the arm
bandaged--occupying about thirty minutes--after which he returned to his
regiment and assumed command, maintaining the line held by it until the
excruciating pain and faintness from shock and loss of blood compelled him
to retire. The next day his arm was amputated at the shoulder.
For that--perhaps--unprecedented instance of heroism at Gettysburg the
Lieutenant-Colonel of the 150th Pennsylvania was awarded a Congressional
Medal of Honor; he was promoted for bravery on the field of battle, and
this is what he, General Henry S. Huidekoper, of Philadelphia, a member of
the Loyal Legion, Commandery of Pennsylvania, says of Haskell's book:
"In the first print much of what Haskell said was suppressed, and we
cannot but regret that any of it was made public, for, from a
historical standpoint, the story is inaccurate and misleading, and
from an ethical standpoint it is indecent, venomous, scandalous and
vainglorious."
And this is the "narrative" that the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of
Massachusetts, and the History Commission of Wisconsin, have recently
published in attractive and costly form, giving the same wide circulation,
unmindful of the fact that thereby they are inflicting irreparable injury
to both the living and the heroic dead.