NATIONAL TRIBUNE: WASHINGTON, D. C.. November 2, 1915
Some Criticisms of Comrade McConnell’s Account.
Editor
National Tribune: I was much
pleased and entertained by the contributions in The National Tribune of July 13
and 20 last, in which the terrific fighting of the “Iron Brigade,” and
especially the 24th Mich., of that brigade, of the First Corps in the first
day’s fight at Gettysburg is in graphic and positive terms told by Comrade
McConnell, of that regiment.
He
gives due notice that he writes his impressions from memory of what he saw and a
diary, personally written, “Johnny on the spot.”
Before
making comments on the contribution of this comrade I will mention an item
contained in a history of an organization that was attached to and fought with
the Iron Brigade that day. He says
in the substance, that while standing at attention, behind Seminary Ridge,
awaiting orders for the battery to advance to the attack, he was in plain sight
of the Twelfth Corps, in line and massed, in the cemetery on Cemetery Hill, and,
later, while engaged and being driven back, he wondered why the Twelfth Corps,
that had good fighting blood in it, was not hurried to their relief, as he again
saw that it had not yet been moved. This
history was written several years after the war, from memory and such reports
and letters as best served his purpose.
The
fact is, that what he saw was the two small brigades of Steinwehr’s Division,
of the Eleventh Corps, held there as a reserve at the cemetery for both corps,
as no other troops arrived until after 7 p. m. on that day.
Sight
and impressions are not always correct. The
Twelfth Corps had halted at 10 a. m., until about 3 p.m., at Two Taverns, on the
Baltimore Pike, four miles from the cemetery, yet he insists that he saw them
there.
Had
not Comrade McConnell denied the official reports of some of the officers of his
corps and some reminiscent writers, as well as a historian who was a member of
it, that “Cutler’s Brigade took the advance that morning,” and that the
56th Pa. fired the first infantry volley,” many readers of the splendidly
vigorous account of his experiences that day would be read with more credence
and less dubious doubt than now.
He
says that when near Gettysburg they “changed direction to the left, leaving
the Emmitsburg road at a point about one mile west of Gettysburg.”
They
left that road about one mile southwest of the town and turned north thru the
fields about one mile until west of the town, then turned west over Seminary
Ridge and on down toward Willoughby Run, to the attack.
The
Emmitsburg road runs from southwest to northwest to Gettysburg.
The
First Corps’ Hard Fight
I have believed since that day that the First Corps did the hardest and most
persistent fighting of any organization in that army up to an including that
day.
Our
comrade seems to have been possessed by a calm, determined frenzy of battle
equal to any of them, for, “when out of ammunition and relieved by another
regiment,” he “walked back to the Seminary,” emitting voluble profanity
that must have left a sulphurid haze in his rear.
Arriving at the Seminary, he says: “A sight met my gaze that
transferred me into a record-breaking sprinter.
The entire Eleventh Corps was in wild flight, a disorganized, disgraceful
mob, with the rebels in close pursuit.”
The
battle frenzy had gushed form him as suddenly as squeezing water from a sponge,
and he probably reached town ahead of the Eleventh Corps, thereby proving
himself to be a record sprinter.”
His
supersensitive and overwrought sense of vision did not see the “entire
Eleventh Corps in wild flight” etc., but he probably saw the 45th of N.Y., of
Shurz’s Division who had reached the rear of the right or Robinson’s
Division of the first Corps for the purpose of establishing a line at a
right-angle to Robinson, up to which Schurz’s Division expected to advance and
occupy. This regiment was
surprised, cut off and nearly surrounded, and fled across the fields to escape
capture and arrived at the division in great disorder.
One
Can See Wonderful Sights
A soldier can see wonderful sights when out of ammunition.
A short time later Schurz was attacked by Rhodes’s Division and fought
them off until Doubleday and Wadsworth’s Divisions had retired safely thru the
town to Culp’s and Cemetery Hills, and when forced by superior numbers to
retire, its officers’ reports say they retired in good order, and Gen. Early,
who had ridden order to see if Rhodes had made proper connection with Hill’s
Corps, witnessed the retreat of Schurz, and says:
“They
withdrew in comparatively good order,” and Early had no reason for paying any
compliments to the Eleventh Corps.
Only
Wadworth’s Division of the First Corps, retired to and occupied Culp’s Hill
until the conclusion of the battle, and Comrade McConnell “viewed Pickett’s
charge thru a glass” from that point, instead of “Cemetery Hill,” as he
states.
Doubleday’s
and Wadsworth’s Divisions, some 15 minutes ahead of Robinson’s, passed by,
close to the rear of the 55th Ohio, of Steinwehr’s Division; Doubleday’s to
their temporary position in rear of the left of Steinwehr.
When
Robinson arrived he took position in front of Doubleday, and next morning they
extended our line south, up to the right of the Second Corps, with Doubleday in
support of Robinson.
Some
reports and historians assert that Robinson retired first from the battle of the
first day, but he was the last of the First Corps to retire.
The
first Corps had shot all thought of “platoon formation” from them, some
hours previous.
The
comrade also asserts that the 56th Pa. and 76th N.Y. were attacked in flank and
forced back in confusion,
retreating to town in disorder before they rallied.”
Seeing
these two regiments in flight, Howard sent a dispatch to Meade “that the First
Corps had fled from the field at the first contact of the enemy.”
The “reports” of their officers say their regiments fell back to the
Seminary and vicinty and reformed and returned to the battle at once.
If “Howard was not on the battlefield,” as he asserts, how did he see
these two regiments? The probability is he never knew of this affair, of such
minor importance, and if he did, his informant must have been a First Corps
officer, who greatly exaggerated the truth.
Much
that has been written as a history and as reminiscences of this battle,
purporting to be absolutely true, when studied and compared with the “Official
Records of the Rebellion,” and the field visited, are found to be absolutely
false.
The
Probable Facts.
Practically all the historians and other writers agree that Schurz’s and
Barlow’s Divisions of he Eleventh Corps were driven back to and retreated thru
the town to Cemetery Hill, closely followed by Rhode’s and Early’s
Divisions; that Rhodes halted his division in line close to the north side of
the town, and that the Early’s Division extended Rhodes’s line to the east,
along the Hanover-York road, and that Hay’s Brigade advanced to Middle Street,
an east and west street that crosses the two streets that the two corps retired
thru the town on, which he occupied before the First Corps reached the town.
This line was formed after they had captured 1,500 prisoners in the town
from the Eleventh Corps. They also agree that the First Corps retired
“leisurely” later, an that Doubleday’s and Wadsworth’s Divisions reached
and marched thru it “without molestation by the enemy,” and the officers
reports for these two decisions also state this fact.
If
the first statement be true, how can the second statement be true?
Perhaps
the enemy, having spent their wrath upon the Eleventh Corps, felt peacably
inclined toward the First Corps, and stacked arms and held up their hands in
token of a temporary armistice, that the First Corps might “go thru without
molestation.”
No
writer has attempted to explain away the antagonistic impossibility of harmony
of statements in this matter, and the reader must accept such “stuff” for
history.
Great
writers would have their readers believe that the First corps retired east to
town, along the front of Rhode’s Division, then turned to their right and
marched thru Hay’s “Tigers” to Cemetery Hill “without molestation by the
enemy,” after the Eleventh Corps has retreated thru town.
The
old adage, that, “All history in an agree-upon lie,” is especially true of
much that has been written about the fighting and action of the Eleventh Corps o
the first and second days of the battle of Gettysburg.
I
would like to exchange photos with Comrade McConnell, that I might look upon the
face of an acknowledged hero of the Iron Brigade of the First Corps, and he look
upon the face of a reputed coward of Steinwehr’s Division of the Eleventh
Corps.—A.F. Sweetland, 55th Ohio,
State Soldiers’ Home, Erie County, Ohio.
I would like to express my gratitude to Nancy Howe for typing this Article.
Last Updated: 10/26/2000
Webmaster: Rob Richardson
robr@advnet.net
No copyright is claimed for newspaper articles.