Of the 22 offciers and 294 enlisted men who had marched up the Baltimore Pike on 1 July, 160 men (30 killed nad 95 wounded) and 12 officers remained. Not since the horror of Cedar Mountain had so many fallen. The bodies of Mudge and Stone were retreived from Spangler's Meadow and sent home. Tom Robeson lingered three days before dying in an Army field hospital. His remains were transported to New Bedford for burial, where Col. Harry Russell--formerly of the 2nd MA--served as a pall-bearer. Thomas Fox lingered until the 25th of July, dying in Dorchester. He was buried at Forest Hills. With the exception of Tom Fox and Gerald Fitzgerald (killed at Chancellorsville), all of the officers who had lost their lives in the line of duty (13) had been from among the regiment's original officers.
Wounded among the officers were the indestructible Crowninshield (his third wound), Parker, Comey, Sawyer, Mehan and Gelray, who lost his arm.
The question of who was to blame for the unfortunate order which sent so many gallant men unnecessarily to their deaths was never answered to any satisfaction. Lt. George Thayer's statement that "someone had blundered" is an understatement. But whoever was responsible--Slocum, Ruger, Snow, Colgrove, or a combination--it was difficult to persuade the survivors "that the waste of valor and life was not utterly disproportionate to the effect upon the morning's battle." But Capt. James Fox, whose brother died as a result of the botched order, chose not to search for the answer. "Where the mistake was made I never knew and don't care to know," he professed some years after the battle. When a likely candidate for blame was offered, he responded, "We never had any hard feelings towards Gen. Colgrove. He sent his own Regt. in with us, and they stood as long as brave men could be expected to."
Certainly the additional layer of command instigated by Slocum's role--real or imagined--as a "Wing" commander contributed to the confusion. By giving orders directly to Ruger and by-passing Williams, Slocum not only breached military etiquette, he left that officer's valuable opinion unsolicited. Unfortunately, Williams's letter home is missing the pages describing the action on the third day.
On July 4th, the 2nd MA formed part of the reconnoitering force along the front of the Union position. Later that day they buried their dead. Even though Thayer had long grown hardened to such sights "the effluvia and distorted bodies, swollen to blackness under the blazing sun, were becoming most intolerable to ever sensibiliy."
The following afternoon, the 2nd MA took its place in the column and moved away from the battlefield. As the regiment marched passed Slocum's headquarters, Morse watched as the general "and a large group of general and staff officers uncovered their heads."
The 8th of July found Williams and his division passing back through Frederick. The next day it crossed South Mountain through Crampton's Gap, and moved onto Rohrersville. To their disappointment, Meade's pursuit was not vigorous and Lee escaped across the river. On July 12, while at Williamsport, Col. William Cogswell returned to take command of the Second, having recovered sufficiently to do so. July 14 brought them to Sandy Hook, a place familiar to the men of the Second, as they had been stationed there two years previously. The enemy was still in striking distance, but Maj. (soon-to-be-Lt. Col.) Morse had the nagging feeling that Meade was not "at all anxious to make the attack." Like those before him, Meade lacked the killer instinct, much to Lincoln's dismay. The President soon went looking for a commander who would not shy away from dealing Lee's army a final blow.
The 2nd Massachusetts Infantry Goes to New York
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