The Cortland
News, Friday, September 3, 1886.
THE GALLANT FIRST CORPS.
How it Bore the Brunt of the Battle on the First
Day—General Barksdale’s Death.
The following letter from Col. Livingston to the Philadelphia Press, published
in that paper July 8, 1886, is of especial interest to veterans in this
vicinity in view of the excursion to Gettysburg, next Tuesday.
To the Editor of the Press:
SIR:—Perhaps
nothing is more difficult during a battle than for a participant confined to one
point or one command to obtain a correct idea of what occurs elsewhere, casual
view of the flanks serving rather to confuse his more or less excited imagination.
Naturally
the balls are thicker and the shells burst louder about one's own position than
elsewhere. Great allowance must therefore be made for unintentional exaggeration
and misstatements of battles and skirmishes fought over twenty years ago. Still
there is no excuse for attempts frequently made to exaggerate the deeds or
bravery by one command by casting reflections upon another, perhaps equally
brave and deserving. A good soldier should be quick to approve the deal of his
comrade but slow to blow his own trumpet. We read one day in the' Press or National Tribune how one regiment
saved the battle; the next another command did all the important work, and
possibly the third day, we are paralyzed to find that still another checked the
first two in full retreat, and single handed saved the day and flag. Again, the
most minute accounts are read from the pens of officers who were far from the "unpleasantness"
at the time. I greatly respect all who fought in the great cause from the general
up, in inverse ratio to their pay, and have hitherto refrained commenting, no
matter what I read. The late speeches of Generals Sickles and Carr, however, reflect
discredit upon the members of the First Corps still living, as well as upon the
thousands of its heroes whose
"Pulseless bodies strewed the peaceful
field on the first day at Gettysburg."
General
Sickles says:—"Mark you, the battle of Gettysburg was fought on our front
[Third Corps] on the 2d of July. Gettysburg was not the accidental collision of
the two corps on the right flank on July 1. An accidental combat without
significance, etc., etc., etc."
This
is on par with Howard's report to Meade: -"The First Corps broke and fell back,
etc., etc.," a most unwarranted and untruthful statement, unworthy of a
soldier, especially of one who poses as the model Christian of the United
States Army. Where would Sickles or Howard have been had the First Corps not thrown
itself in Lee's path and by almost unaided and desperate resistance held back
and so shattered and intimidated the rebel advance that Ewell feared to attack
until other troops arrived, and the heights of Gettysburg were safe? What would
have befallen our seven scattered corps on July 1 had Lee gained Gettysburg and
forced us to attack his veterans duly entrenched? It was a close fight as it
was, and on July 2 plans were laid for an anticipated retreat on Westminster.
It is
one thing to lay behind stone breastwork and pour your fire into an advancing foe. You can't retreat, you dare not stand up to
run, the safest thing is to lay low and fire fast, trusting to drive the enemy
back. Such, in a great measure, was the position of our troops July 2 and 3,
but on the 1st it was man to man. The First
Corps struck the enemy on the march, no chance to secure cover, in fact, a
stonewall a few rods in front could not be reached, and there in full view,
flanked and outnumbered five to one, the First Corps' advance brigade
(Cutler's) stood and fought, losing as follows.
The
leading regiment, 76th New York, 375 rank and file, lost 169. The 56th Pennsylvania,
next in line, of 225 lost 78, and the 147th New York, of 380 lost 207. Nor were the remaining brigades a jot behind.
All fought bravely and suffered in proportion. Upon taking command of the First
Corps General Doubleday retained his old staff, upon which I was acting
inspector general of division. We observed a large gap on our right flank, Northeast
of the Seminary. I was sent to Howard to ask assistance and to protect this
interval.
GENERAL HOWARD'S CONDUCT.
I
found him with his staff on the hill above Gettysburg, with many regiments massed
about him idle He said he had troops in position on our right and could spare
no more. Later, our troops were forced back to a breastwork of rails skirting the
grove West of the Seminary. General Doubleday sent me again to Howard. I begged
for a division, a brigade, even a regiment; told him we had greatly dampened
their ardor by our severe fight, and in our new position could hold them at bay
if we were supported a little. General
Howard said he had no troops. I pointed to the brigades massed about us. He
replied in a low tone, "I cannot trust these men out there." They
were of the Eleventh Corps, the same we had vainly tried to rally that awful
night at Chancellorsville in the woods.
I
gave it up and hastened back to the front, passing, as I then noticed, an
unusual number of men falling back in squads, but slowly and with their arms. I
saw no field officers (in fact the First Corps field officers were mostly shot
at the time.) Arriving at the rail breastwork I found no general, no troops!
Dead and wounded only lay about, but there, right before me and filling the
open fields West of the Seminary Ridge, an endless line of rebels advancing,
silent and grim, in perfect order, the skirmish line but a few rods distant.
Then
I understood the retiring lines of wounded I had passed. It was all that was
left of the 1st Corps. My horse also took in the situation; on a dead run we
crossed the bridge through the woods, stopping only to call in a squad of half
a dozen of my construction corps, organized in the Third Division the preceding
winter by permission of General Doubleday, and who remained by themselves
deliberately pouring in their fire, unnoticed and unreturned, upon the
advancing host in the valley below.
The
sight was a grand one. Thousands of Lee's best troops in line! The column, in square
against cavalry advancing by front of square, silent. Infantry and artillery (I
noticed no cavalry) all moving slowly on in perfect discipline, every man ready
and expectant. I learned afterwards from prisoners that they thought from the stubborn
fight of the First Corps that the whole army was there and that an ambush was prepared
on the ridge.
Regaining
the General at Gettysburg, we passed slowly through the town, fired on by
rebels at some of the cross
streets. The General placed Captain Halstead and myself at the head of the street
to turn the retiring troops right and left and form a new line of battle on and
near the cemetery and beyond, which line was afterwards prolonged and rectified
as additional troops arrived. I saw no disorder, no demoralization—the men were
tired, many were wounded, but all were in good heart, ready and willing to fight
to the bitter end. This was the First Corps that Howard says broke and fell back.
SICKLES AND CARR.
This
was Sickles “accidental combat" that "did not count" for
Gettysburg. Now, I believe General Sickles and Carr are both brave officers who
would not intentionally misrepresent facts, but brave and efficient as they may
have been, they and the Third Corps are not exclusively Gettysburg. There may
have been two Gettysburgs, there certainly were two General Barksdales killed
there, one (Gen. Carr's Barksdale) a Chesterfieldian individual delivering
pompous speeches and dying with much rhetorical flourish in General Carr's
lines and under his care; the other, a terribly wounded and elderly man,
convulsed with pain, exhausted with loss of blood, with at least two great holes
through his breast and lungs, and his left leg all shattered with grape or canister,
whom I found in our front. brought in and who died in my tent at Doubleday's
headquarters late in the night.
General Carr said, July 3, 1886, at Gettysburg, replying to Colonel
Norris' strictures on Sickles, as reported:
"Barksdale
led that charge. He struck my flank and made things exceedingly unpleasant, but
he didn't get any further. When he fell I sent out into the field and brought
him in and cared for him. When he revived in my lines he asked:—‘To whom am I
indebted for this kindness?’ An aid replied, 'To General Carr,' 'I did not
think,' said he, 'that such consideration would be shown toward an enemy. If
General Carr ever meets Mrs. Barksdale let him tell her that I died in the defense
of my country.’ I sent the message to Mrs. Barksdale, but never received an answer.
Barksdale was a brave man and so I cared for him. The Lord hates a coward."
Now,
just what the Lord hates I don't pretend to know; he may hate war, he may not.
However, Carr seems to know, if he don't he can ask Howard, he is posted.
The
following, however, I do know and can prove by hundreds who knew the facts at
the time. After the charge of July 2, made about 5:30 p. m., in the bright
light of the season of the year, sometime after, when the coming darkness made
it safe to venture out, for our picket line was not far advanced, I found, I
think in General Stannard's front, the rebel General William Barksdale, of McLaw's
division, Longstreet's corps. I was out in front with an orderly and canteens of
water giving the dying and wounded drink, which they always greatly crave. I
went in for a stretcher and meant to remove him, got one, returned, met a party
who had got him on another stretcher. He was very heavy; certainly 250 pounds,
if not more. I took charge of the party, conveyed him direct to my tent, at Doubleday's
headquarters, remained with him, gave him brandy, plugged the bad holes with
rags to permit inhalation, did what I could. He knew he must die. He gave me
his last message to his wife and children; told me to send his cuff buttons,
studs, watch and some hair to his wife—this in brief disjointed sentences,
paroxysms of pain preventing longer utterances. I think he died more easily,
from loss of blood, but do not distinctly remember. I found his watch gone, but
traced it to an officer in an adjoining division, who gave it to me and I gave
him a receipt.
The small articles and messages I sent Mrs.
Barksdale by mail, and received several letters of thanks from her in reply.
The watch I afterwards delivered by her direction to his brother, then Member
of Congress from Mississippi, at my house in Twenty-first street, New York, to
which he was directed by Roger A. Pryor.
I saw
nothing of General Carr or his staff, though of course, they may have visited
my tent unknown to me. The papers at the time published an account of his death
as above. I neither asked nor deserved credit for an act of common humanity nor
is the incident worth notice except as an example of the wonderful effects of
twenty years on the imagination. If so trivial an occurrence can be so
misrepresented, how excusable is it for a great warrior to imagine that he
alone is Gettysburg?
C. E. LIVINGSTON,
Late colonel 76th N. Y. V., acting inspector general,
First and Third Divisions, First Corps., A. P., 839 North
Twenty-Second Street, Philadelphia, July 12.
P. S.—Since the above was written I am informed
that during my absence on picket line Gen. B. was removed to a temporary field
hospital and cared for by Dr. Hamilton, asst. surgeon of a Pennsylvania Regt.,
where he died about 2 a. m., being afterward embalmed and taken South by his
family. C. E. L.
Reference:
76th New York Infantry Regiment: http://dmna.ny.gov/historic/reghist/civil/infantry/76thInf/76thInfMain.htm
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