Reply of the Philadelphia Brigade Association to the Foolish and Absurd Narrative of Lieutenant Frank A. Haskell Part 1

Reply of the Philadelphia Brigade a.s.sociation to the Foolish and Absurd Narrative of Lieutenant Frank A. Haskell.

by Various.

HEADQUARTERS, PHILADELPHIA BRIGADE a.s.sOCIATION, 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 a.s.sociation 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 Cla.s.s of 1854, Dartmouth College, and republished in 1908 under the auspices of the Ma.s.sachusetts 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 a.s.sociation, 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 Cla.s.s of 1854 of Dartmouth College,' and again republished by the Loyal Legion of Ma.s.sachusetts 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 cla.s.s 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 a.s.sociation 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 a.s.signed to the First Brigade, Second Division, Second Corps, Army of the Potomac. The Division was commanded by Gen. Gibbon, Gen. Hanc.o.c.k 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 ma.n.u.script 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 Cla.s.s 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 cla.s.smate 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 Ma.s.sachusetts, 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 endors.e.m.e.nt 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 Ma.s.sachusetts, 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 G.o.d, 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 pa.s.sion 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 d.a.m.ned 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 Cus.h.i.+ng. 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 a.s.sistance.

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 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.

"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 Ma.s.sachusetts, in publis.h.i.+ng 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 d.i.c.k--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 sh.e.l.l, 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 b.l.o.o.d.y foam. To d.i.c.k 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 d.i.c.k 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 Ma.s.sachusetts, 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 Hanc.o.c.k'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 b.l.o.o.d.y 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 Hanc.o.c.k's Corps and Pickett's Division of Longstreet's Corps." And the Military Order, Loyal Legion, Commandery of Ma.s.sachusetts, 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 Ma.s.sachusetts, and Wisconsin History Commission, themselves endorsing it, really believe it?

It was on the third day that "d.i.c.k" was plugged with enough of Confederate lead to have warranted Haskell in organizing a Company to mine the lead in "d.i.c.k'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 Ma.s.sachusetts and Wisconsin watered.

"Would to heaven Generals Hanc.o.c.k 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 a.s.sAULT 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 Hanc.o.c.k 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 d.i.c.k swept his centre from the field.

And this is the "narrative" that a Loyal Legion and a History Commission feel honored in publis.h.i.+ng. 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 pa.s.sion 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 Ma.s.sachusetts, 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 a.s.sumed 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 Ma.s.sachusetts, 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.