USA > Pennsylvania > Adams County > Gettysburg > Historical sketch: with exercises at dedication of monument and re-union camp fire of 150th New York Volunteer Infantry, Gettysburgh, Sept. 17, 18, 1889 > Part 4
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7
Another incident that brought deep sorrow to us all was the death of Lieut. David B. Sleight, who was killed while leading his company in almost the last battle of the war. No officer in the regiment was more highly es- teemed, and having so many times escaped the rebel bullets it was hard to be stricken down when the final victory was so near at hand.
We must not allow this opportunity to pass without a grateful allusion to the patriotic women of Dutchess County, who did so much to assist in recruiting the 150th Regiment and properly equiping it for service in the field. You recollect their kind hospitality, their thought- ful charities, the luxuries for camp and hospital, with which, by them, we were so generously supplied. They buckled on our swords, presented our colors, and sent us to the front with words of encouragement that inspired us with hope and valor.
Upon our return to Dutchess County they were the first to welcome us. They spread a banquet for our en- tertainment, and by what they said and what they did enabled us to forget the pains. sufferings and sorrows of the war and see only its glories. No regiment in the service had kinder friends at home who were ever mind- ful of its needs. When the time came to erect some suitable memorial to those who were killed on the field, they again came nobly to our assistance, and contributed liberally towards the funds necessary to build the monu- ment we now unveil.
We dedicate this monument to the memory of soldiers who died that a Christian Nation might be perpetuated. Soldiers with ideas unswervable concerning the dearest principles of civil and religious liberty. Soldiers who longed to see one flag floating over a people one in civil- ization, one in national policy, one in every enterprise for the furthering of universal freedom and the happiness of mankind. Like the prophet of old, they " died with- out the sight." But, thanks to them and their heroic comrades, that flag does float over a people one in civili- zation, one in national policy, and one in every beneficent enterprise, and will so float as long as time endures.
We dedicate this monument to the memory of the soldiers of the Dutchess County Regiment who were killed at the Battle of Gettysburg ; men who, when their coun- try called for soldiers, volunteered to fight her battles ; brave patriots who willingly gave up their lives to prove
to the nations of the earth the success of a republican form of government ; men who died to free an enslaved people.
We dedicate this monument to the memory of Ameri- can soldiers, who with their life's blood wrote a law upon the statute book of the United States, declaring that " he who bears arms in a war having for its object the dissolution of the Union is guilty of treason." Alas, that the mortal remains of Gridley, Marshall, Welling, Sleight, Sweet, Stone, Odell, Lovelace, Palmateer, Story and others of the regiment who were sacrificed upon their country's altar, cannot rest beneath this mass of granite, so well calculated to withstand the ravages of time, and thus have their burial places and their names perpetuated throughout the ages to come. The love of kinsmen and the loyalty of affectionate comrades and friends have done for them, as we have here to-day for those who sleep beneath this monument, all that human hands can do to fittingly mark their graves and keep their memories green. There is no difference in degree ; time will place all upon a common level. What are these monuments to which we point with pride? Some day they must crumble into dust. No matter how high and strong we build the fortresses of stone over and around the martyred dead-we might build their granite bases as broad as the pyramids and make their shafts touch heaven, yet would there be higher monuments and stron- ger fortresses built of the hearts of loyal Americans.
After music by the band, BENSON J. LOSSING, LL.D., addressed the audience as follows :
Mr. Chairman, Veterans, Ladies and Gentlemen :
I have been requested to say a few words on this august occasion. They should be very few indeed, for the wise and eloquent sentences just uttered by your beloved com- rade and distinguished fellow-citizen, Judge Gildersleeve, need no supplement. My words will be chiefly reminis- cential.
Sallust says: " I have often heard that Quintus Maxi- mus, Publius Scipio, and other renowned persons of the commonwealth used to say, that whenever they beheld the images of their ancestors, they felt their minds vehe- mently excited to virtuc."
Such is or ought to be the effect produced in our minds by the sight of this tattered ensign --- this symbol of the patriotism, the virtue, the heroism and the achievements of our fellow-citizens who carried it to the battle-field, followed it as their oriflamme through the fierce tempest of war and brought it back sadly disfigured-no, glorified, -- by scars which attest the bravery, the fortitude and the fidelity of the noble men who so honored it. What American can look upon such a flag with such a touch- ing record, anywhere, and especially they whose fathers, husbands, sons and brothers had borne it aloft for almost three years and came home with it in triumph, without being vehemently stirred by patriotic emotions ?
I remember with what keen interest was watched the growth of that flag, chiefly under the fostering care of the women of Poughkeepsie ; and I remember how carefully it was painted by an artist then residing in Poughkeep- sie ; and how tenderly and proudly it was cherished by its custodians until the supreme moment of its presenta- tion to the regiment.
I well remember the bright October day, twenty-seven years ago, when, at " Camp Dutchess." on the border of the Winnikee, that flag was first unfurled to the breezes of heaven and was presented to the regiment, in behalf of the women of Dutchess County (who had furnished it), by the late Judge Emott, in a stirring speech. It was then bright, unsullied and beautiful. Nearly three years later the same hand received it back again with glowing words of gratitude. It was then scarred by honorable wounds, as we now see it. It is more precious to-day than ever.
The Regiment departed-dismissed with fervent pray- ers from trembling lips. I soon afterwards followed the
19
beautiful flag to the training camp Belger, at Baltimore.
And I well remember passing a very stormy night in that camp enjoying the hospitality of our good friend General Smith, who was then the enthuiastic, gallant young Major of the Regiment. I remember the pride and pleasure I felt on being told by Lieutenant-Colonel Bartlett, a graduate of West Point, that Colonel Ketcham, a civil- ian, had so thoroughly learned the tactics that he then han- dled the Regiment with the skill of a " regular " veteran.
We, at home, watched the movements of our pet reg- iment with keenest interest. At length it became a part of the host that was opposing Lee's invasion of Maryland and Pennsylvan a. The thunders of battle were heard simultaneously at Gettysburg and at Vicksburg at the beginning of July; and alinost simultaneously the "swift coursers of the sun" brought intelligence of victory by the National forces at each point.
We did not know it then, but we do now, that the bat- tle of Gettysburg was the pivotal event in the war. which determined the destiny of our beloved country. Eleven years before that battle. Professor Creasy had published his famous " Fifteen Decisive Battles of the world, from Marathon to Waterloo. To that record a sixteenth should be added --- Gettysburg --- for it was more decisive -- solved a greater and more momentous problem in human history than any battle ever fought before or since.
A few days after the great battle, I stood upon the very spot now occupied by this beautiful memorial on famous Culp's Hill. In every direction around mementos of the great struggle were visible. Here were the breast- works of logs, and rocks and earth which had been cast up in front of the One Hundred and Fiftieth Regiment. On the slope below, up which the Confederates pressed, unexploded shells were half buried in oak trees, the branches of which were cut and bruised by others ; and the trunks of nearly all were scarred so thickly with bul- let-marks fourteen or fifteen feet above the ground, that
54
scarcely an inch between them of untouched bark re- mained, in front of General Slocum's lines. Under the edge of a log where the One Hundred and Fiftieth was stationed I picked up a letter written to one of its captains, by his wife, in which she most feelingly alluded to "our dear little baby," and her anxiety about her "darling husband." At that moment, there were thousands of mothers and wives all over the land,'from the lakes to the gulf, with " dear little babies" and anxious about " dar- ling husbands" in the armies.
The regiment went to Tennessee, and under General Sherman, it fought its way through Georgia to Atlanta, thence marched to the sea and made its way to Vir- ginia just as the war closed. Meanwhile grateful citizens at home and the regiment in the field had made the be- loved Colonel Ketcham their representative in Congress by election. I remember with what pride and alacrity, at that election, I followed the injunction of the average New York politician,-" Vote early, and often," -- for, serving as a proxy, I was authorized to cast fourteen bal- lots for their brave and kind Colonel, by " our boys," who were then " marching through Georgia." He was elected a quarter of a century ago and has been in Congress ever since, and may remain there as much longer as he chooses.
I followed that flag from Nashville to Atlanta, but at a respectful distance from danger. It was after the war, and I was in quest of historic materials. I followed the Regiment over the high table-lands of south-eastern Ten- nessee : descended into the valley of the Tennessee river ; crossed it and passed along the foot of Lookout Mountain to Chattanooga ; climbed to Lookout's lofty summit; went over the battle-field at Resaca and through Allatoona Pass; and near Marietta ascended to the summit of the Great Kenesaw Mountain, in the vicinity of which our Regiment had many hard struggles with the Confederates, while, for three weeks, there was a continual down-pour of rain. I stood upon the spot on the top of Kenesaw where Sher-
51
man signalled his famous despatch to Corse, at Allatoona (in sight), which was, substantially-" Hold the fort for I am coming." It suggested the stirring Moody and San- key hymn bearing that title.
I followed the flag across the Chattahoochee River to the defences of Atlanta, before which our Regiment achieved special renown, and where its gallant young Major, then promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel, won his spurs, by great skill and bravery. I did not follow the flag in its march from Atlanta to the sea. A few months after that mem- orable event peace came, and then appeared one of the most sublime spectacles ever seen on the earth. It was the disbanding of the Union army, then nearly 800,000 strong, in the space of a little more than one hundred days, and the transformation of such a vast body of soldiers into civilians, engaged in the pursuit of peace.
I well remember the coming home of our Regiment and its grand reception by 40,000 citizens of Dutchess and its vicinity on one of the fairest of June days. Flags, banners, arches, covered with evergreens and flow- ers, made brilliant the passage of the Regiment with its immense escort, through the streets of Poughkeepsie from the river to the Mansion Square Park. The tattered flag was saluted with cheers unceasing. Colonel Smith and his horse, covered with floral tributes, appeared like animated flower-beds. At the Park, crowded with the fair sex, thirty-six young girls, personifying the States, welcomed the returning heroes. Judge Emott, who gave them parting words of cheer, welcomed them with warm- est expression of gratitude.
These were thanksgivings that so many of the Regi- ment who went out with the flag, had returned with it. They had lost only one hundred and thirty-two comrades. Of these, two officers and forty-nine enlisted men had been killed, and three officers and seventy-eight enlisted men had died of disease, accidents, and in prison.
A grateful people are now building and dedicating monuments to the memory of those who died that the
52
Republic might live. That is our errand here to-day. It may be wise for us, and for every American citizen, to ponder the impressive words of President Lincoln, uttered on this battle-field in the Autumn of 1863, on a similar occasion. He said :
" In a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot con- secrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it far above our power to add or detract. It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work that they have thus far so nobly carried on. It is rather for us to be dedicated to the great task remaining before us-that from these honored dead we take in- creased devotion to the cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion-that we here highly re- solve that the dead shall not have died in vain-that the Nation shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom, and that the government of the people, by the people and for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
Friends : Every American citizen of both sexes, has an equally momentous duty to perform. To us is com- mitted the special work of cherishing those social and political virtues, which shall perpetuate indefinitely the power and beneficient influence of our great Republic, among the nations of the earth.
Let us be faithful.
Gen. H. H. LOCKWOOD, who was too ill to deliver his address, has furnished the manuscript which was prepared for the occasion; it is published as a part of the pro- ceedings.
When Gen. Lee crossed the Potomac in June, 1863, I was in command of a brigade of Maryland troops on the lower Potomac. Ordered to Baltimore with these Mary- land troops, the 150th N. Y. Regiment was attached to my command and the brigade ordered to Frederick. Marching to that place by easy stages we encamped on the Monocacy below Frederick, and awaited the arrival of the army of the Potomac. Soon long trains of baggage
58
wagons were seen crossing the lower bridge, followed by the grand army which, after many battles, had as yet failed to check the army of Northern Virginia.
You may remember the sublime spectacle presented by Meade's army as it lay below us encamped on the wide plain below Frederick. After nightfall its camp-fires were seen everywhere. My brigade was assigned to the 12th Army Corps, and on the following day marched with it by the upper road east of the Monocacy towards Littlestown, Pa., which village we reached on the second day and went into camp, while the rest of the 12th corps passed on towards Gettysburg. This was the night fol- lowing the first day's fight. The booming of cannon and the rapid movement of trains to and from the depots at Westminster showed that the strife had begun. Long before daylight the next morning we moved toward the battle-field and reported for duty soon after the rising of the sun.
Our position you will remember was on the extreme right, flanked by the small mill-pond above the bridge. This we held till the middle of the afternoon when, with other troops of the 12th corps, we were ordered to the left to reinforce Sickles. When we had reached this scene of strife the contest assumed great proportions. Gen. Hunt, chief of artillery, army of Potomac, says in his sketch of the battle of Gettysburg, published in the Century, that at no time was the result of Sickles' defence graver than at about the time the 12th corps joined in the contest. Formed in two lines Lockwood's indepen- dent brigade of the 12th corps-for such was its title and so known in official reports-rushed with many cheers into the thickest of the fight over ground strewn with dead and wounded, and many other evidences of having been successively lost and won. The enemy fell back and our brigade reached the celebrated peach orchard, and there, with other troops, held the enemy in check. Night following, the enemy fell back and gave up an at- tempt on the left. Colonel Maulsby, commanding one of
54
my regiments, thinks that the field just back of the peach orchard should be the site of our regimental monuments. Though little blood was shed here by us, our resolute charge and firm stand at that critical hour, had much to do in determining the contest. The Compte de Paris in his history of the battle mentions this independent brig- ade with rare merit, and ours is about the only brigade named by him because it was the only one 'not acting with a division.
Those of you that may desire a full account of this battle and of the part taken by our brigade should read this memoir. Many other accounts of this battle have been published, but are generally partisan or colored.
Falling back to resume our old position on the right we reached the Baltimore pike and were surprised to find the enemy's pickets near by. During the absence of the 12th corps the enemy had driven in the few troops left to guard our right and hold the works. We lay near the pike on our arms till break of day. The enemy lay under cover before Culp's hill. Our brigade then supported heavy batteries, which shelled the enemy, and afterwards formed line to charge them under cover of these batteries ; 150th N. Y. on the left of our line. This charge was made in the most gallant manner and at considerable loss, the enemy falling back behind a stone fence near the summit of the hill. With some difficulty the men were checked from exposing themselves to the deadly fire of the enemy. Doubtless they would have driven them back over the hill, but it was deemed best to bring other troops on their flanks and thus effect the same result with- out serious loss. Thus, the ground lost during our absence was recovered and the right regained.
It is to commemorate this phase of this memorable battle and gallant deeds of the 150th N. Y. therein, that this beautiful monument is erected.
Subsequently my brigade occupied the rifle-pits on Culp's hill till the close of the third day and the end of the struggle. You doubtless remember the glorious 4th
55
following, and how the heavens were opened and we be- came damp, half-drowned soldiers, as we lay in bivouac alongside the pike, and how with filled stomachs and haver- sacks, we made the long and dreary march to Williams- port, hoping there to encounter and capture the retreating army of Gen. Lee. How we made the dreary, wet, miserable march into the village and found the bird flown ; how with the 12th corps we marched to Maryland Heights, when my connection with the 150th N. Y. terminated, though by no means my interest in the gallant regiment. You will find when the volume of rebellion records con- taining an account of the battle of Gettysburg comes to be published that no brigade, no regiment, is more strongly commended than is the independent brigade of the 12th corps and the 150th N. Y. Regiment. The 150th N. Y. passed on with Meade's army to gain other laurels, whilst I with my Maryland regiments was added to the garrison at Harper's Ferry, of which I assumed the command. No battle stands more conspicuous in the history of the war than that of Gettysburg, nor had any one more important consequences. It was the turning point in the war, and had it been lost it is fearful to re- gard the consequences. Our success there, added to the capture of Vicksburg, the same day, broke the backbone of the rebellion. This battle looms up brighter and brighter as time rolls on, and your children and mine will ever be proud that we were there. Its bear- ing on the future was not so fully seen at the time as it is at this day because of the disappointment felt by the country in our failure to overcome Lee at Williamsport.
I knew from a personal interview with President Lin- coln, how grateful he felt at the success of our army on the Ist, 2d and 3d of July, and how deeply he mourned that this was not followed up before Lee escaped over the Potomac.
COL. WILLIAM P. MAULSBY, late of the First Regi- ment Potomac Home Brigade, Maryland Volunteers, was introduced by General Ketcham, and was greeted with a
56
volley of cheers ; in his own inimitable way he entertained his auditors with this fine address :-
I am asked to say something. After what has been said, what remains to be said ? And yet, under the in- spiration of seeing before me so many eyes into which I looked, over twenty-six years ago, for helpful encourage- ment that what we were jointly ordered to do would as- suredly be done, heightened by the beamings from the bright eyes of the ladies who are here to-day (from their New York homes) to testify their enthusiastic commen- dation of what was done, how can I refuse, my comrades ? Yes comrades indeed, and in truth ! It is impossible for any, who have not experienced it, to conceive the perfect community of thought, of feeling, of dedication of self to death or life, according as the God of Battles may de- cree, which is realized by masses of men engaged, side by side, and shoulder to shoulder, in the supreme duty of fighting, amidst shot and shell and storms of minnie balls, for the maintenance of the power of popular govern- ment to govern. We were brothers in fact and truth ! We are brothers to-day, as we recall the memories of our doings twenty-six years ago, and our children and our children's children will be brothers in like cause until government amongst men shall be superseded by the government of the only ONE Supremely perfect Governor.
This I say, not hypothetically, not hopefully, but as matter of hard fact, ascertained, fixed, demonstrated by the history of the time of which we speak. Let all men, on all the earth, take this as settled : we are one people, one Government, made up of many, but all in harmonious accord-Government, by the people, of themselves, is to stand.
Let political philosophers and theorists debate and pro- pose as they may. For us, and with us, political philoso- phy has culminated in the demonstrated, irreversible fact, that popular Government is the truest, the justest, the strongest Government devised by human wit.
57
And what can I say except to refresh our recollections of some of the incidents, in which we were joint actors, amid these trees and rocks, and on yonder fields.
We, 150th New York and Ist Maryland P. H. B., were closest associates from the commencement of the Gettysburg Campaign, at Monocacy Junction, to its close at Williamsport.
Of what we did together it is fit that I only speak on this occassion. The ist E. S. Maryland was brigaded with us as Lockwood's Brigade, attached to 12th Corps, but did not reach us until the morning of the third day at Gettysburg, where, at Culp's Hill, it proved itself a worthy associate.
When, on the morning of the 2d day, our line of battle was finally established, we were stationed together on the extrenie right and entrusted with the holding of that position.
In the afternoon of that day a movement occurred to which Judge Gildersleeve has referred, and which I ask his leave to attempt a fuller description of.
On the happening of the disaster to General Sickles' Corps on our left, we, 150th N. Y. and Ist Md. P. H. B., were ordered from the right to the left, to aid in repair- ing the mischief and retaking the field. We moved, as you will remember, in a quick step, breaking at times into a double quick, over the small wagon road leading from the Baltimore Pike to the Taneytown Road, under a broiling sun, the men with no encumbrances but their guns, full cartouch boxes, and blankets rolled and swung over their shoulders.
We found this narrow road filled with Sickles' men, seeking hospitals, and bearing every conceivable kind of ghastly wounds, some with one leg shot off, some with one arm shot away, carried and helped along by their less wounded comrades, and all covered with blood, sweat, and the black, grimy smoke and dust and dirt of the battle.
58
Don't you recollect. General Ketcham, when we first met this spectacle, how anxiously we turned in our sad- dles to watch the effect on our men : whether it unnerved them, or stiffened their sinews, and " summoned up the blood ;" and don't you remember how the sight we met was of every man unhitching his blanket, throwing it away in the road, and breaking into a quicker step ? And how we felt that all was right, and that every order we might receive, and give, would be obeyed to the letter?
Reaching a little eminence beyond the Taneytown Road, we were ordered by General Williams to form line of battle (which was done without halting), fix bayonets and charge at double quick.
Can you remember now, without a thrill, that scene, when with shell bursting around, and over, and amongst them, the men, with roars of cheer, which might well make the enemy in our front mistake the fourteen hund- red men moving on them for the entire right of the Union army-as General Longstreet did-made that bayo- not charge, at double quick, past the base of little Round Top, over the wheat field, to, and ending only at, the ravine beyond the wheat field, more than half a mile be- yond the Union line-capturing three pieces of artillery ; and how the enemy retired before them in a pace quick- ened by the bayonets in their rear?
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.