“I suppose our losses during the first day would exceed five thousand, of whom a large number were prisoners. Such usually is the kind of loss sustained by the Eleventh Corps.” (Haskell narrative, page 6.)
The actual loss of the Eleventh Corps was 153 officers and 2,138 men killed and wounded, and 62 officers and 1,448 men captured and missing, a total of 3,801, thereby attesting that at least 2,291 brave men of the Eleventh Corps did not “hide like rabbits,” but that they fell like heroes facing the enemy.
And thus of General Doubleday as to his action during Pickett’s Charge on the afternoon of the third day:
“Doubleday on the left was too far off, and too slow. On another occasion I had begged him to send his idle regiments to support another line, battling with thrice its numbers, and the ‘Old Sumter Hero’ had declined.” (Haskell narrative, page 62.)
If Haskell, or any other first lieutenant, would dare to have had the impudence to direct a Major General, and he a graduate of West Point, a soldier of distinction in the Mexican War, and placed in command of the First Corps upon the death of Gen. Reynolds, is it not more than likely, indeed, does it not seem certain that such a presumptuous lieutenant would have been sent back to his command under guard, if not committed to the guard house?
And did not Capt. Daniel Hall, an Aide upon General Howard’s Staff, who prepared the Haskell “Narrative” for republication; and the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, Commandery of Massachusetts, in publishing the Haskell “Narrative” become responsible for the Haskell slander upon Generals Howard and Doubleday, and the brave men of the gallant Eleventh Corps, and of the Philadelphia Brigade?
The egotism and recklessness of Haskell are in evidence upon almost every page of his book. On page 39 he says:
“I heard General Meade express dissatisfaction at General Geary for making his attack. I heard General Meade say that he sent an order to have the fight stopped, but I believe the order was not given to Geary until after the repulse of the enemy.” Is it not clear that if such an order had been sent and obeyed, the enemy would not have been repulsed? Is it anywhere upon record that General Meade sent such an order?
On page 82 of the Haskell “Narrative” of the Battle of Gettysburg appears this silly statement:
“About six o’clock on the afternoon of the third of July, my duties done upon the field, I quitted it to go to the General (meaning Gibbon). My brave horse Dick—poor creature! his good conduct in the battle that afternoon had been complimented by a brigadier—was a sight to see. He was literally covered with blood. Struck repeatedly, his right thigh had been ripped open in a ghastly manner by a piece of shell, and three bullets were lodged deep in his body, and from his wounds the blood oozed and ran down his sides and legs, and with the sweat formed a bloody foam. To Dick belongs the honor of first mounting that stormy crest before the enemy, not forty yards away, whose bullets smote him, and of being the only horse there during the heat of that battle.”