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 5
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It is true that as Phoebus'tired horses were descending to their western resting place, he helped us to seem many more than, in fact, we were, by darting his brightest rays on our clean gun-barrels and bayonets, and so producing such glittering corruscations as might well make one gun and bayonet appear to be ten.
This charge was led, in part by General Meade, and wholly by Generals Williams and Lockwood.
You and I, sir, (General Ketcham) were proper and dis- creet enough to keep in our assigned places in the rear of our men ; but you know, and all know, that our Brigade Commander, Lockwood, would always be right in front of the front rank. forgetting that, if the enemy should make
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a stand, he must have been right between the meeting bayonets and could not well have avoided getting hurt. But on this occasion, anyhow, he would not heed pru- dence.
I have referred to this charge because Judge Gilder- sleeve, who was in it too, has said that we were not obliged to fire a gun. I beg to remind him that we were not called on to fire minnies on this occasion, but to use bayonets.
That the bayonets were not bloodied was because our friends on the other side did not stand long enough to give the bayonets a chance to show what metal they were made of. I thought then, and have always thought, that no more beautiful movement could ever have occurred on a field of battle than this bayonet charge, continued, as it was, for at least a mile-and-a-half with the same vim with which it started. And I have mentioned it, too, be- cause I have, within a few years past, heard it asserted by those who have professed to know, that this charge was an important factor in the result of the Gettysburg cam- paign. I believe the facts were that the enemy had ob- tained a footing within the Union lines in such a position as would have enabled it to assault Hancock's line in its rear, and so, much endanger the result of the battle. It was absolutely necessary that this force should be dis- lodged. A large force from our right had been ordered `to meet our two regiments and assist in the work. In some way that force had mistaken the road, and our Reg- iments only were at hand. I recollect the intense anxiety of General Williams' manner and tone when he gave the order for the bayonet charge. Uniformly tranquil and quiet, this was the only occasion when I ever saw him betray excitement. General Meade's presence and partici- pation indicated the importance he attached to it. By good luck. favored by the character of the ground over which we passed, by the play of the sun's rays, and by the woods on both our flanks, or by God's help, as it may have been, our comparatively small force accom- plished the end desired.
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That movement may have been an important factor. But please, Mr. Historian (Mr. B. J. Lossing), do not state it so on my authority. I am no authority for any his- toric fact, except that our two regiments tried to do their duty, as did tens of thousands of other men.
The fact is that neither General Ketcham nor I thought or knew anything, on the occassion in question, save only that Generals Meade, Slocum, and Williams gave orders to General Lockwood. He gave them to us, we to our officers and men, and they executed them. This is no mock modesty ; only the plain, real truth. Yes, it was the men who carried the cartouch boxes, the muskets, and the bayonets, who, in real fact did what was done. And it is not just that whatever honor accrued from their doings should be given to other than themselves.
And here let me say that the 150th New York stands alone, so far as my knowledge goes, in rendering to the men the honor that is their due. Inscribed on its noble monument appear the names of all its officers and of all its men; those who have been spared, as well as those who have gone from earthly to Heavenly places. May I not, Mr. Chaplain (Rev. E. O. Bartlett). hope that, having been obedient to duty unto death, they have reaped the reward of obedience? Nay, may we not believe that the moment they faced death a Di- vine voice, audible only to each man's inner conscious- ness, commanded them to die like men in rendering to duty its due service ; that their perfect obedience to that voice, mounting above every other hope, and fear, to the last. highest pinnacle of duty, won that compassionate Mercy, which merged in that last act of perfect obedience the shortcomings and misdoings of former lives? that they are safe, how much safer, there, than we, the survivors, here? Straight and blessed is the path of duty !
Time would be wanting, if it were otherwise in good taste, to recount the acts of our two regiments on the third and last day. How at early day-break both were supporting the batteries first opened to drive the enemy
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from our entrenchments, which, in our absence on our left the night before, the foe had occupied. How at sunrise, near Spangler's Spring, nearly a hundred of the officers and men of my own regiment lay dead and wounded within a few minutes; and how, in a short time after, both regiments were engaged, for hours, with Ewell's Corps, on Culp's Hill; you, where your monument stands, and we near by-and how, when Ewell was driven, and we had hoped that the worst was over, we were summoned to Cemetery Hill to aid in repulsing that last desperate charge of Pickett.
Pictures of battle-fields show the horses of command- ing officers with curved necks, distended nostrils, with one foot of the earth, and the other three clear above it ; and their riders with flashing swords, streaming plumes, and gold lace glittering in the sunlight, dashing as if the issue of battle depended on the speed with which they were borne.
Our experience at Gettysburg cannot attest the faith- fulness to life of such pictures. I do not believe that one single horse was seen with three feet in the air, and only one on the ground, outside the cavalry or artillery. A more quiet, gentle, orderly set of horses than those of the general officers, or moving at more deliberate pace, it would be hard to find anywhere.
More unostentatious, sedate, thoughtful-looking, plain men, than the horses' riders, would be equally hard to find. I feel assured that no one plume floated in the breeze ; no one sword flashed in the sunlight, nor one golden epaulette made its appearance, nor other insignia than of downright hard work. Their orders were deliv- ered by gentlemen to those whom they recognized as gentlemen, and rather in the tone and garb of polite re- quests than of orders ; and they were none the less effect- ive on that account.
Every man within the sound of my voice, who was there, will say that this description fits Slocum, Williams, Ruger, Greene and Lockwood, with whom we were
brought into more immediate contact. Each was a courteous gentleman. Each assumed nothing towards officer, or private. They, and all of us, were comrades. All were equal-each in his sphere of duty.
Your regimental commander at that time was, and is, a fair example of the rest. Who ever saw him anywhere, other than an unobtrusive, quiet gentleman, always alert, and never demonstrative.
It may pain you, ladies, to know that the gold laces and flaunting feathers which decorated them when you (proudly but nervously too) bade them good-bye on their leaving your homes for the tented fields, were all tucked carefully away when they reached the field, and only brought out again, looking fresh and new from their Jong retirement, when they were donned for your admiration, on coming home.
The truth is, that at Gettysburg they were not hand- some. Their looks would not have thrilled the bosom of a maiden, however susceptible. They were neither shaven or shorn, nor was their linen immaculate, nor their boots nicely blacked.
In fine, they were not lovable in appearance, anyhow. Of course, present company is excepted. I know that I could not convince some of you that the early or the later commander of the Dutchess County Regiment, and others of the gentlemen around us who were lucky enough to be owned --- such, for instance, as Captain Wood- in-were not moulded by Nature after the same model on which the old-time sculptor fashioned his Apollo Bel- videre.
The owners of such chattels have " optics keen, I ween, to see what is not to be seen " by duller eyes, in studying the lines of beauty of their own flesh and blood statues : and well it is that it is so, or else none of us might pass for the Adonises that our ommers know we are. Who would not be held in such slavery " hath no music in his soul."
But one thing is certain. They stood in their tracks. When told to advance they advanced. They were never
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told to retreat, and they did not retreat. The battles of Gettysburg may fairly be said to have been marked by one distinguishing feature-one peculiarity, and that was of plain, hard, stand-up fighting. On both sides the rule of every man was to stand and fight. Evolutions, tactics, and science were not in requisition.
If the retiring disposition of our friends on the other side, on the occasion of the charge alluded to, was an ex- ception, I dare say it was induced, somewhat, by their own consciousness that they were trying to get behind, and fight at the backs, instead of in the front, of Hancock's men, and their feeling that it was not exactly the fair thing.
An incident, illustrating the real spirit of the Union private soldiers of 1863, and to the end.
In the course of the charge mentioned we were obliged to pass over a long line of killed and wounded earlier in the day. As we passed, stepping carefully over and between the bodies, not a sound was uttered by the suffering wounded.
They suffered and were still, so long as actual service was being done in the cause for which they had fallen. But when, in a short time after, the charge had ended, and night was coming on, and they realized that their comrades were no longer in action and could heed and help them without neglect of other duty, their groans and cries for help went up, and were responded to. Such was the manhood of the masses of the men who com- posed the Army of the Union. The cause was first, them- selves secondary.
It is neither a poetic fiction, nor a rhetorical flourish, but a hard fact, that little more than a hundred years ago, our Fathers founded a government whose corner stone was that " Governments are instituted among men deriv- ing their just powers from the consent of the governed." And that they toiled, and suffered, and shed precious blood, through seven years for the privilege of doing so.
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The sequence that the governed are best qualified and entitled to exercise their own powers, and to give or withhold their own consent, was the cause in which the Gettysburg of 1863 took place-in which the dead died, and the wounded suffered.
We would be littler than little mice -- smaller than the pigmiest dwarfs, if we did not hold " our lives, our for- tunes, and our sacred honor," as but tributary to that cause.
This is not rhetoric. Plain fact to be realized, and always kept in mind, by every true-hearted American citizen.
This is the whole story. This, the whole meaning and intent of the men who gave to the Gettysburg of July, IS63, its fame. Esto perpetua.
CAPTAIN WILLIAM R. WOODIN, late of the 150th, delivered an address of beauty and power, which the editor apologizes for not publishing by; making a statement of the reason therefor: The reporter for the regiment and the representatives of the press present, supposing his address was in manuscript, all failed to take notes ; when his speech was asked for the Captain replied, "I have never written one in my life," and when it was suggested that he then write it his declaration was, " I don't remember a thing that was said,"
The editor greatly regrets the omission of such a fine address, and that this break in the chain of oratorical eloquence, pathos and eulogy, should have thus unwit- tingly been made.
CAPTAIN OBED WHEELER, owing to the length of the exercises, requested an excuse from speaking.
LIEUT .- COL. STEPHEN V. R. CRUGER was introduced and spoke as follows :
General Ketcham, Comrades of the 150th, Ladies and Gen- tlemen :
It has long been a cherished wish of mine to visit Get- tysburg, but I am now glad that it has not been fulfilled until to-day, as it enables me to join you, my comrades, in visiting the memorable battle-field of twenty-six years ago, where our regiment had its first experience in actual service, and in dedicating this beautiful monument to the memory of those brave comrades who went with us, full of hope, enthusiasm and patriotism, and gave up their lives in a great cause.
It is right that we should perpetuate their memory, not alone because we fought side by side with them, but to constantly keep before the people the history of our great war for the preservation of the Union, to fill the hearts of the young men of to-day and of the future with the de- sire to study its history, and thus be prepared to respond to the call of their country with the same alacrity as did the hundreds of thousands of brave men. to the call of Abraham Lincoln.
Let us hope that our country may never again be plunged in civil war; but the sufferings and sacrifices of the War of the Rebellion were in vain, unless the spirit of 1861 is inherited by the coming generations, and a de- termination that one great question was then settled, for all time, that this Union can never be dissolved.
In dedicating this monument to our heroic dead, we appeal to you, young men, to hold aloft the standard car- ried by those who are fast passing away. We extend cordial expressions of sympathy to those relatives and friends of our dead heroes who participate with us to- day in these ceremonies. They have the proud satisfac- tion of feeling that the memory of their loved ones is treasured by a nation.
In conclusion, comrades, let me assure you of the pleasure it gives me to meet you again on this his- toric field.
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MRS. REV. E. O. BARTLETT read the poem composed by WALLACE BRUCE for the occasion :
ON GUARD.
THE 150TH REGIMENT AT GETTYSBURG.
" We cannot consecrate this field, Or hallow ground where heroes stood ;"- Thus spoke the man whose words have sealed Our lips in Freedom's Holyrood.
" We cannot dedicate :" too well Our Lincoln knew the Temple's cost ; He heard the nation's anthem swell :- "Your deeds survive, our words are lost."
" The brave men, living and the dead, Who wrought the epic of the free, Have consecrated here," he said, " The land, the world, to liberty."
And now amid the whirling years, That punctuate the swift decades, You come with blended joy and tears, In peace beneath the gathering shades,
To contemplate from"hill to hill The line you held those bitter days : Again to feel your pulses thrill. Once more to take your meed of praise ;
With noble monument to mark The spot where Dutchess, tried and true, ' Stood by the faith when skies were dark, And stars were blotted from the blue;
A picket outpost here for aye, With watchword of the Hudson born, To note the moonlight shadows play, To greet with joy the early morn ;
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Afsilent sentinel to keep
Its post along the quiet line ;
A Bannockburn, where brothers sleep ; A Waterloo, where roses twine.
Ay, Gettysburg, thy name at last Proclaims the triumph of the race ;-
'Tis here the future greets the past, And faith asserts her crowning grace:
No other battle field like thine, Where love joins hands across the way :
One flag, one land, a sacred shrine Alike unto the Blue and Gray.
Then rear the graven stone with pride Along the line where freedom's van Shall speak to generations wide The final victory of man :-
That love and law shall reign supreme Where'er the starry banner waves,
When stones that now in sunlight gleam Shall lie in dust above their graves.
The services were concluded by CHAPLAIN E. O. BARTLETT, who pronounced the
BENEDICTION :-
The God of Peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the Sheep, make His face to shine upon you, and be gracious unto you, and make these memorial services a great and lasting blessing to us and to our country, Amen.
INFORMAL, RE-UNION CAMP-FIRE.
A rousing, and in every way an enjoyable, .camp-fire was held in the large hall of the Springs Hotel, on Wednesday evening, Sept. 18th, which was attended by most of the veterans of the regiment who had been present at the dedication ceremonies, and the guests who accompanied them.
The Gettysburg Grand Army Band furnished appro- priate music.
Gen. A. B. SMITH requested Captain OBED WHEELER to read a number of letters received by the committee having in charge the erection of the monument and the dedicatory exercises. They were as follows :--
75 WEST ZIST ST., NEW YORK, Aug. 31, ISS9. Col. A. B. Smith, Poughkeepsie, N. Y .:
MY DEAR SIR .- I greatly regret my inability to be present at the unveiling of a monument to their fallen comrades by the survivors of the 150th Regiment N. Y. Infantry, on the 17th proximo, your kind invitation to which is just received.
Please accept my sincere thanks for this remembrance, and with as- surances of my highest regards to every member present, believe me,
Very truly yours,
W. T. SHERMAN, General.
Aug. 23d, '89.
MY DEAR COL :- Your favor of yesterday has just come to hand. I regret that I cannot be with you at the dedication of your monument. I am compelled to leave for New Mexico on Sept. Ist, and shall be absent during all the month. I hope I may be able to meet your Association on some future occasion.
Yours truly,
H. W. SLOCUM.
COL. A. B. SMITH.
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ELEKSLIE, RHINECLIFI-ON-HUDSON, Aug. 19, 'S9.
MY DEAR SIR :-- Many thanks for your cordial invitation to join your excursion to Gettysburg on the occasion of the dedication of the monu- ment erected to the memory of the brave men of the 150th New York Infantry, who gave their lives to save the nation on that historic field.
It would give me great pleasure if I could join members of the Regi- ment and other friends from our county on so interesting an occasion, but I expect the return of my wife and eldest daughter from Europe on the day of your departure and must meet them on their arrival in New York.
Very truly yours,
A. B. SMITH.
LEVI P. MORTON,
TROY, N. Y., Sept. 5, ISS9. Gen. A. B. Smith, Poughkeepsie, N. Y .:
SIR .- I acknowledge with pleasure the receipt of your kind invitation to be present at the Dedication of the 150th Regiment Monument on the 17th inst., at Gettysburg.
Our commission meets at Gettysburg on Tuesday next, and will be in session nearly all the week, consequently, I will not be able to stay over for your ceremonies on account of business engagements.
Thanking you most cordially for the beautiful badge and kind re- membrance,
I remain,
Yours very truly, JOSEPH B. CARR.
SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA, Sept. 6, ISS9.
To Colonel Al. B. Smith and others :
GENTLEMEN OF THE COMMITTEE. - I am glad for the remembrance shown in your very kind invitation to be present at the dedication on the 17th inst., of the Monument of the 150th New York Infantry on the field of Gettysburg, and am very sorry I cannot be present, except in sympathy as to the object, and in good will to those engaged, which I offer as to the former and send to the latter.
Very truly yours, TIIOS. HI. RUGER. Brig. General, U. S. Army.
CAMP IST U. S. INFANTRY. SANTA CRUZ, CAL .. , Sept. 13, 'S9.
MY DEAR COLONEL .- Your very kind letter inviting me to meet the surviving men' des of the 13th is at hand and I regret that I am not
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able to accept it. I will be with you in spirit on the 16th, 17th and 18th, and beg you to give my warm regards to all my friends.
Very sincerely yours,
CHIAS. G. BARTLETT. Lt .- Col. Ist U. S. Infantry.
CAMP ALEXANDER CHAMBERS, MONT.,
Aug. 31, ISS9. Gen. A. B. Smith, Poughkeepsie, N. Y :
DEAR GENERAL .- Yours of the 23d reached me here where we are camped for so days with 1Ith Cavalry and 9th Infantry companies to learn the art of war, so you will see that I cannot accept your kind invi- tation to be present at Gettysburg. I should like to be very much. Will you please remember me to all our old crowd that you meet. 1 shall think of you all on the 17th of September.
This camp of ours is on the Little Missouri in the southeast corner of Montana. When I tell you that it is 150 miles from our Post and that I marched on foot you will know my health is not delicate. Please excuse my writing with a pencil as I have no ink in my tent. Thank you kindly for remembering me.
Very truly yours, P. M. THORN, Capt. 22d Infantry. Late Capt. 150th N. Y. V.
CHICAGO, Sept. 10, 1889.
MY DEAR GENFRAL. - Nothing would delight me more than to attend the Regimental re-union at Gettysburg to dedicate a monument to the momory of our comrades who fell in that battle. I have waited two weeks thinking I might manage it, but am now obliged to decline. I am just getting settled in a house in the city, where I suppose I shall be stationed for the next three or four years, unless the exigencies of the times should in the meantime call General Cook, upon whose staff I am and A. D. C., to some other part of the country.
Will you please say to my friends how much I regret the loss of this opportunity to see so many of them, the more as I am fully sensible of the havoc that is yearly made in our ranks.
My family is fairly well, the boys, one of them as large as I am, at- tending school.
My wife joins with me in kindest remembrances for yourself and Mrs. Smith. Very sincerely your friend,
GEN. A. B. SMITH,
C. S. ROBERTS.
Poughkeepsie.
MAYOR'S OFFICE. POUGHKEEPSIE, N. Y., Sept. 14, 1SS9.
Genl. A. B. Smith :
MY DEAR GEN'L .- Your kind invitation to accompany you and your friends to Gettysburg, Monday next, is at hand. It would afford me
great pleasure to go with you, but my absence for nearly six weeks, compels me to attend to my personal affairs in N. Y., requiring the most of next week. You will please accept my thanks for your kindness, and the hope of both Mrs. R. and myself that you may all have a pleasant time and safe return.
Yours truly, C. M. ROWLEY.
CANANDAIGUA, N. Y., September 4th, 1889. General A. B. Smith, Chairman Gettysburg Monument Committee, 150th Regt. N. Y. Inft., Poughkeepsie, V. Y.
DEAR GENERAAL .- I regret that I shall be unable to be present at Gettysburg at the dedication of your Monument on the 17th, inst. By previous appointment I shall be engaged as referee in the trial of a cause during that week.
I highly appreciate the honor of receiving your invitation to meet with you and I hope you will have an enjoyable occasion and a favora- ble time for your dedicating services, and for visiting the battle-field now made so interesting by the many monuments erected to maik the posi- tions of the troops there engaged.
I thank you for the very beautiful badge designed for the occasion.
I send you by this day's mail a report of the proceedings at the dedi- cation of my Regiment Monument last October which I trust may in- terest you.
Very sincerely yours, C. A. RICHARDSON.
After the band had entertained the company with patriotic airs, Captain WHEELER stated that at the hour of dedication, on the day before, a dispatch conveying fraternal greetings had been sent to the Thirteenth New Jersey, then holding a re-union at Montclair, N. J., and read what had been sent.
GETTYSBURG, PA., Sept. 17, 1359. To Dr. John J. HI. Love, Montclair, N. J. :
The One Hundred and Fiftieth New York, now dedicating its monu- ment, sends fraternal greetings to the glorious Thirteenth.
GEN. JOHN H. KETCHAM, Prest. Asso. Col. A. B. SMITH.
The Captain stated that to this dispatch an answer had been received, and read it :-
MONTCLAIR, N. J., Sept. 17, 1SS9.
To Gen. John H. Ketcham :
The Thirteenth New Jersey Veteran Association here received your cordial greeting and return to our late commandes-in-arms, and side-
partners for three years, our fraternal. earnest and hearty well-wishes to you all -- that you may live long and nobly die. "Love to Pete."
A. M. MATTHEWS, Prest. Asso.
The Captain requested " Pete " to rise up and speak ; no one responding. Gen. SMITH said, " there he sits be- hind you," pointing to the Rev. E. L. ALLEN, late of the 13th New Jersey; Capt. WHEELER called upon him to answer for " Pete," and the Rev. conrade arose and said :- --
Mr. Chairman, brothers of the 150th New York, Ladies, Gentlemen and Friends : There is no obligation resting upon me to reveal the reason why my old friend Capt. MATTHEWS refers to me as "Pete." I suspect, however, that this old-time and tried army friend of mine (he was kindly notified several days ago that, be- cause of an acceptance of the invitation given by my brothers of the 150th New York to attend the dedication of their monument, I would necessarily not be present at the re-union of my old regiment, which occurred on the same day ; and, no doubt, because I deserted my own colors to do duty on this auspicious occasion with the Igoth New York) has taken this means to punish me, and also to stab my ministerial dignity.
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