“Between three and four o’clock in the afternoon the enemy, now in overwhelming force, resumed the battle with spirit. The portion of the Eleventh Corps making but feeble opposition to the advancing enemy, soon began to fall back. Back in disorganized masses they fled into the town, hotly pursued, and in lanes, in barns, in yards and cellars, throwing away their arms, they sought to hide like rabbits, and were captured, unresisting, by hundreds.”
The Loyal Legion of Massachusetts hadn’t the courage to print that paragraph in their book.
These regiments formed the Eleventh Corps at Gettysburg: 17th Conn., 82d Ill., 33d Mass., 41st, 45th, 54th, 58th, 68th, 75th, 119th, 134th, 136th, 154th and 157th New York; 27th, 73d, 74th and 153d Penna.; 25th, 55th, 61st, 73d, 75th, 82d and 107th Ohio, and 26th Wisconsin. How do the Survivors of these Regiments regard the statement of the History Commission of Wisconsin, that “they sought to hide like rabbits?” and that the loss usually sustained by the Eleventh Corps was in prisoners?
And this is how the great State of Wisconsin, through its History Commission, maligns General Sickles and President Lincoln, who put upon General Sickles’ shoulders the stars of a Major-General. (Pages 40 and 41.) The Loyal Legion of Massachusetts eliminated the slander against Gen. Sickles and President Lincoln.
“General Sickles commenced to advance his whole corps, from the general line, straight to the front, with a view to occupy the second ridge, along and near the road. What his purpose could have been is past conjecture. It was not ordered by General Meade, as I heard him say, and he disapproved as soon as it was made known to him. Generals Hancock and Gibbon, as they saw the move in progress, criticised its propriety sharply, as I know, and foretold quite accurately what would be the result. I suppose the truth probably is that General Sickles supposed he was doing for the best; but he was neither born nor bred a soldier. But one can scarcely tell what may have been the motives of such a man, a politician, and some other things, exclusive of the BARTON KEY affair, a man after show and notoriety, and newspaper fame, and the adulation of the mob, there is a grave responsibility on those in whose hands are the lives of ten thousand men; AND ON THOSE WHO PUT STARS ON MEN’S SHOULDERS, TOO! Bah! I kindle when I see some things I have to see.
“It is understood in the Army that the President thanked the slayer of Barton Key for SAVING THE DAY at Gettysburg. Does the country know any better than the President that Meade, Hancock and Gibbon were entitled to some little share of such credit?”
It is inconceivable that the great State of Wisconsin would in any way lend herself to the dissemination of what is not only untrustworthy, but absolutely scandalous, malevolent and false information, except it was done in ignorance of facts. It is still more inconceivable that the Loyal Legion of Massachusetts, soldiers themselves, would act as sponsors or in any way help, aid or assist in depriving fellow soldiers of the honors fairly and bravely won in a battle where their loss was 491 of a total of less than 1,500 men, except they had given no heed to the statements before publication.
We believe that the State of Wisconsin and the Loyal Legion of Massachusetts can do no less as American citizens and soldiers than to promptly disclaim all responsibility for the statements set forth in Lieut. Haskell’s book. For however good Haskell’s record as a soldier is, yet the fact must clearly appear to every intelligent mind that a man who would speak falsely of his superior officers and even go so far—at least in one case (Sickles)—as to bring to life out of the long dead past, a sad, sad epoch, which was no fault of his—displays in such writing a spirit unworthy of any American; and his self laudation of what he did—would cause anyone who was ever on a field of battle to use one of Haskell’s expressions, “Bah.”
A refusal to make this public disclaimer we feel would place both the State of Wisconsin and Loyal Legion of Massachusetts in a position which, to say it very mildly, would be the reverse of creditable, and put them in the attitude of sharing the ridicule and contempt which the narrative of Lieutenant Haskell deserves.