Saturday, January 11, 2014

First Day at Gettysburg: Col. Livingston's Perspective



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.

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