On July 2, 1889, the survivors of Companies A, B, D,
and H, 1st U.S. Sharpshooters dedicated their monument in Pitzer’s Woods at
Gettysburg. Lieutenant Charles J. Buchanan (Co. D) delivered an address in
which he made the following statement:
“A great deal has been said and written
as to when precisely these four companies (D, E, F, and I) left the regiment
that morning; just when we moved into the woods; exactly how far we went; and
how long we remained in the timber. None of these details are of the slightest
consequence to what we actually accomplished….This is not as most of us
remember it; but what is the use of quibbling over these nonessentials, thereby
losing sight of its merits of our spirited and successful reconoissance [sic]?”
His offhand dismissal of the particulars
of the skirmish was not as important as the results of it irritated me. He
sounded a lot like a former a school principal, who at an in-service, told us
we could teach history without teaching fact, that conclusions and not trivia
were all that mattered. My mental response came from the Bill Mauldin cartoon
in which Willie and Joe are sharing a muddy foxhole in Italy. One of them,
while reading a newspaper lauding D-Day sarcastically quipped, “The Hell this
ain’t the most important hole in the world. I’m in it.”
Despite his assertion that the facts did
not matter, Buchanan expounded upon the exploits of the four companies and
their alleged times of engagement by including every contemporary source he
could find describing the foray. [Note: I italicized the references to the time
of the attack.)
1.
Major
General Daniel E. Sickles, III Corps commanding, wrote a letter apologizing
because he could not attend the ceremony and added I should have found great
satisfaction in meeting the survivors of the sharpshooters who made that
brilliant reconnoisance [sic] one the morning
of July 2, 1863.
2.
In
his own account, Buchanan stated, “A great deal has been said and written as to
when precisely these four companies (D, E, F, and I) left the regiment that
morning...”
3.
Major
General David Birney, in the Official
Records, said Sickles gave him the order to send the sharpshooters with the
3rd Maine in support into the woods at 12 noon.
4.
Colonel
Hiram Berdan, commanding the 1st U.S. Sharpshooters stated in his
official report that around 11:00 a.m.
Birney commanded him to make the reconnaissance.
5.
Lieutenant
Colonel Casper Trepp, commanding the 1st U.S.S.S. on the field, in
his report said that he deployed the regiment early in the morning and that in a short while he received an order to sent
Companies D, E, F, and I forward to the woods with the 3rd Maine as
support.
6.
Colonel
Moses Lakeman, 3rd Maine, stated he formed his regiment parallel to
and facing the Emmitsburg Road at early
morn and shortly thereafter sent the regiment forward to support the
sharpshooters.
7.
F.
E. Garrett, Company D, wrote in his diary that day: “2d July, noon. We have just come out of the
fight.”
8.
Captain
F. E. Marble, commanding Companies B and G, in his diary wrote: “July 2d, 12 o’clock m. Just on my left the
sharpshooters, with the Third Maine, are advancing in line of skirmishers…”
Buchanan concluded: These extracts
simply show that sometime between 7:30
a.m. or early morn, whenever that
was, and 12 m, July 2, 1863 Colonel
Berdan…ordered a retreat of his small force…
Buchanan then proceeded to add the
following information:
1.
“Rebel
accounts state that this reconnoisance [sic] was made about 9 a.m.”
2.
“My
own recollection of the time and detail with this attack of ours was made is
not satisfactory even to myself, though there is no doubt but that it was
sometime during the morning of July
2, 1863.”
3.
“We
were here sometime in the forenoon,
and the exact time has no more to do with our gallantry and service on that
occasion than the spots on the sun.”
While it is evident that Buchanan did
not agree with the time as stated by Birney, Berdan, Garrett, and Marble, he,
apparently decided not to create brouhaha over it. The monument said the four
companies engaged the Confederates in the woods “about 12 M.”
No comments:
Post a Comment