Colonel Chas. H. Banes, late President of the Market Street National Bank,
was a typical soldier of the Civil War; he was a leading member of the
Baptist Church in Philadelphia, and was as devout as a Christian as he was
heroic as a Volunteer Soldier. In 1876 Colonel Banes published an
interesting volume, entitled, "History of the Philadelphia Brigade." No
man was as competent as he to write such a history, inasmuch as he had
long been the Adjutant of the Brigade and in possession of all its
records. In his preface to that book Colonel Banes says:
"The four regiments of the Brigade were composed chiefly of
Volunteers from the city of Philadelphia, and for that reason might
properly be called the Philadelphia Brigade. It consisted of the
69th, 71st, 72d, and 106th Regiments of Pennsylvania Volunteers. The
command had from the first enrollment until the muster out 350 field,
staff and line officers, and over 6,000 non-commissioned officers and
privates. The officers and men of the regiments were equal in
courage, endurance and discipline to the best commands of the army,
and their soldierly bearing on the march and in battle helped to make
the history of the Army of the Potomac."
As to the charge of cowardice against a Brigade that lost 3,533 in killed,
wounded, deaths from other causes, and missing, made under the auspices of
Dartmouth College, and the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the
United States, Commandery of Massachusetts, is so positive, so indecent,
so scandalous, so brutal, and so absolutely false, the Philadelphia
Brigade, in formulating a reply to these malicious and infamous
violations of facts, has deemed it proper to submit, as briefly as
possible, extracts from Colonel Banes' "History of the Philadelphia
Brigade," about what the Old Brigade did from the time it received the
order to move from Falmouth, Va., until it met and turned backward the
charge of Pickett's Division at the "Bloody Angle" of Gettysburg, on the
afternoon of July 3, 1863.