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 6
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There are some things-some events in our lives-that we love to think about ; others we wish to forget, while we never can rest until there has been confession. Such a burden has been mine for many years, and now that an opportunity is given me I shall rid myself of it. It has been a great mystery-has sorely puzzled the officers of the 150th to ascertain how, at Milledgeville, the regiment was made happy-so happy as to be unfit for duty : it was my good fortune to discover, not far from the town, a number of barrels containing a liquid which was very strong -- peppery ; having no use for it myself, and know- ing that some of the troops would find it and appropriate it, I went over where the 150th was eneamped, and, like your illustrious Colonel -- now a General and Member of Congress-went about among you whispering in your cars!
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Soon one of those barrels was in your camp, and it was asserted next day that every man in the regiment was " full," save a sober elder in the Presbyterian church at Poughkeepsie and Capt. WOODIN. And, now, having cleared up this mystery of so long standing, my way is clear to tell you what I think of you-an opportunity long desired and now happily afforded me.
Your invitation, which I considered a high honor, was accepted (and I am here with you instead of attending my own regimental re-union), because of the friendliness which was always manifested by the 150th New York to- ward the 13th New Jersey, and the fact that since the war I have been more closely identified with the members of the 150th than those of my old regiment. I wanted to join my thanksgivings with yours and have a share in the sat- isfaction which came with the culmination of your noble efforts to mark the spot where you stood with us and made history, while receiving your first assault from the armed hosts of rebellion.
The members of my regiment and you were like brothers; we stood together in times of great peril, and the 13th New Jersey always felt safe when the 150th was by its side or in the line behind it ; for you always stood and never re- treated. We always believed you felt the same when our positions were reversed, and have had good reason for our faith.
I am glad to look down into your eyes-to grasp your hands, and to say-what is true-that no braver men, better officers, or truer soldiers could be found anywhere than were in the 150th New York. Your record is second to none in that mighty army which made so much history by fighting its way from Chattanooga to Raleigh.
I remember how the stars appeared in broad daylight upon Lookout's summit, rising above the clouds and shooting down the sides of the mountain, moving on and on, chasing the flying confederates and compelling the "Western " boys to take back the assertion that the
" Army of the Potomac soldiers could not fight." The stars kept sailing on, while aide after aide, orderly after orderly were sent to order them back, until at last there was no one to send and Gen. Grant said " for God's sake tell Hooker's men to come back : Stop the stars ! "
You dashed up against Rocky-faced Ridge; scaled Buzzard Roost; rushed through Snake Creek Gap and knocked at the back door of Resaca for admission to the town ; but, after battering away and finding it effectually closed, tried the front door and soon gained entrance.
You were at Pine Knob, Lost and Kenesaw moun- tains ; and at Culp's farm, we-the 150th New York and 13th New Jersey -- did nearly all the fighting. You trod the wine-press in front of Atlanta for nearly six weeks, and then entered the city as its conquerors. You went on the pic-nic to the sea and suffered with the rest of us in the rice swamps in front of Savannah. On Argyle Is- land you remember that a gun-boat sent us some 64- pound pills, and one of them, after penetrating a build- ing, went on and took seven legs from five men in your regiment. There, also, I stood over your gallant, severely wounded, Colonel Ketcham -- and it has been a memory. You went across the Carolinas, and at Averysborough and Bentonville maintained your reputation and added to your deserved renown ; you were also "in" at the death of the Confederacy when Johnston surrendered ; and thus you made history, as you also did here, at Get- tysburg. of which you doubtless wonder why I have not spoken. It has been reserved for the last, because here you began making history by being veterans-which may be accounted for partially by the fact that you were fighting with veterans -- in your first engagement, and were led by such capable and gentlemanly officers-men who since the war have attained eminence in so many directions, in civil, social and military circles ; and be- cause, also, here you are perpetuating, in your magnificent monument, the history you made. And this is fitting ; for here, where the waves of disunion rose the highest,
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and dashed and surged against the battlements of the Union with the greatest fury, you laid your own bodies down as a break-water and defence, declaring that over them the high-swelling sea of rebellion should not ride unless you first died. When you rose up, the tides had carried secession Appomattox-ward, and the beginning of the end was seen -- for you had kept your word.
Permit me to say that, in my opinion, you should per- petuate your history, also, by placing in every library in Dutchess Co., in every historical society, and in every public library, a well-bound, printed record of your dedica- tion ceremonies, that your history may also be known by the generations which will follow those now living.
GEN. ALFRED B. SMITH was a " volunteer" for the statement that, as the camp-fire was an entirely informal affair, all present were to take part-everybody to speak -- and have as enjoyable a time as possible. But before they called any one out, and while upon his feet, he wished to acknowledge the fact that no adverse criticism of the monument or of . the work of the committee had been heard. The reverse was true, for every expression was that of satisfaction and commendation. While it was to be expected that a few of the members could not please the many, and the committee expected sugges- tions offered as to how improvements might have been made, it was remarkable that not only all the survivors present, but the guests as well, used the most gratifying terms when speaking of the monument and those who had labored to build it and secure such a successful dedi- cation. For this expression, which was characteristic of the men of the regiment, he was grateful, and voiced the sentiments of his associates in tendering acknowledgment for the favor with which the whole enterprise, from its inception to the final culmination of their efforts, had been received ; and though a very few had felt the bur- den and responsibility, the crowning success and admira- tion of the regiment and its friends for the memorial shaft. fully compensated for all the toil.
GEORGE E. BISSELL, a veteran of the army and navy, the designer of the monument, was invited to speak and said as he had never been accustomed to public speaking, he would request the privilege of providing an excellent " substitute" in the person of Rev. Dr. HAT- FIELD.
The Rev. W. F. HATFIELD, D.D., was immediately "enlisted " into the service and gave voice to his patriot- ism in the following admirable words :--
Mr. President, Veterans, Ladies and Gentlemen: To speak for one who has immortalized his name by per- forming a duty to his country and to the brave men who were members of the regiment under whose auspices we have met, and who laid down their lives to preserve the Union is no ordinary task. Had I been called upon to discuss a moral or a theologic question I might have said something pertinent to the subject, but to speak on mon- uments is a topic not usually introduced into the pulpit, for the good reason that clergymen know less of their merit than they are supposed to know of the merit of those for whom they are erected.
The position that I am called unexpectedly to fill, al- though not as perilous as that occupied by this regiment 26 years ago yonder on Culp's Hill, yet it is nevertheless quite responsible, and I would that some worthier one had been chosen to represent my distinguished friend who is too modest to speak of the noble work that he has done ; a work that has received the highest commendation from some of the most celebrated masters of art. I have be- held with wonder and admiration the various designs carved out of granite and marble that have been reared on this memorable battle-field, but none has more deeply impressed me by its beautiful symmetry and its artistic design and finish than the one dedicated yesterday by the 150th .N. Y. Regiment to the memory of their fallen comrades. Long may it stand on the spot so gallantly defended by the living and the dead, not only a monu-
ment to those who fell, but also a monument to the genins and skill of him to whom we all owe a debt of gratitude we can never repay.
It was a custom among the Greeks for their young men, their soldiers and those on whom the burdens of the state rested. frequently to visit the nation's battle- fields-Thermopylae, Marathon, Salamis-to build monu- ments, to recite poems and pronounce orations in mem- ory of their fallen heroes, that patriotism might not die out, and that those who fought for their country might know that they would be held in grateful and lasting re- membrance. Those who laid down their lives in the war of the Great Rebellion need not monuments to perpetuate their memory. The pen of the historian will do that, but that love of country may grow stronger -- human sympathy be more manifest, and that we as a people may show to present and future generations that Republics are not un- grateful. it is fitting that monuments should be erected, and dedicated with imposing ceremonies, camp-fires kin- dled and visits made to such sacred places as Bunker Hill, Yorktown. and Gettysburg as long as the nation exists.
I thank you, sir, for your cordial invitation to accom- pany you and other members and friends of this honored regiment to the spot so eventful in our history. It has been to me an occassion of profound interest and of un- measured enjoyment ; and among the things that will linger longest in my memory, and afford me greatest happiness in the years to come, will be the remembrance of my visit to Gettysburg on the occasion of the dedica- tion of your monument, and to have seen, and to have rode over the ground where was fought the fiercest battle, between the two mightiest armies of modern times, and where the great questions of national unity, liberty and equality were settled forever on these West- ern shores.
DR. S. G. Cook. late Surgeon of the regiment, was called upon to speak of the services of the medical de- partment of the command, and of the late DR. CORNE-
LIUS N. CAMPBELL, the first Surgeon of the regiment, and delivered a touching eulogy of the deceased. (The ad- dress was only given in part, as it was designed for an obituary to be read at the re-union on October 11th, but is here published in full.)
Mr. Chairman and Comrades : It would seem entirely appropriate at a time like this, that something should be said in memory of him, whose name has just been called, and it would seem just as appropriate that 1, his lincal military descendant, should say it.
For thirty-five years our lives ran along in parallel grooves in civil, in military and in professional friendship, without a single discord-without one unpleasant word or deed to mar the perfect harmony of our lives.
In the remarks I am about to make, I shall speak of him, Ist (briefly), as a practicing physician ; 2d, as a mili- tary Surgeon, and 3d (more extendedly), as a man-as a comrade and as a friend.
As a physician, his career was a success from the very start, and added years only served to increase the confi- dence of the community in which he labored and to mul- tiply the cases that called upon him for relief. In prac- ticing his profession, the poor, the needy, the outcast would receive his attention as promptly and as faithfully as the wealthy. He was no respecter of persons, or rather, he respected all persons alike. A call to the poor man's humble home and to the rich man's mansion, com- ing to him simultaneously, the chances are that he would attend the poor man first.
The practice of medicine during the past twenty years has been making prodigious strides. The physician who should now attempt to practice on the lines and by the light of that time would be styled, and would be, an old fogy. Dr. Campbell was not an old fogy in his profes- sion. Although slow in adopting new remedies until their worth had been thoroughly established, he kept well abreast of the times, and was worthy of being classed among successful practitioners.
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Perhaps, however, his success depended as much upon the influence he carried with him into the sick room as upon the careful selection and judicious application of remedies. The sick are prone to be despondent, and continued despondency retards convalescence.
A marked characteristic of him was his optimism-or belief that everything was ordered for the best, and this feeling he carried with him into the sick room. He hoped. because he wished, and he imparted new hopes and new resolutions into the minds of the patient and the patient's friends. Ile filled the sick room with an atmosphere of hope, and left it with that feeling predom- inant. This is half the battle in medical cures, and if there could be any difference in halves it would be the larger and better half.
As a surgeon both in civil and in military practice he ranked high. He fully appreciated the value of a limb or any part thereof, as well as of a life ; and if he erred at all, it was on the side of conservatism, and conserva- tive surgery is as commendable for what it refrains from doing as for what it does. Hence conservative surgery is never brilliant surgery. In this light and accepted in this sense, he was not a brilliant but a practical, conser- vative surgeon.
The ingredients that go to make up a successful army are many and varied, and if the cause and effect could be traced back to first principles and there thoroughly analy- zed and properly computed, it might be found that the surgical department had contributed no unimportant part to the result.
The duties and responsibilities of a medical officer com- mence with the very incipiency of the regiment, where he is called upon to discriminate between the general effectiveness of its future and the avarice and cupidity of the recruiting officer, to whom the semblance of men, raked from the purlieus, the slums, the lazar houses, and the hospitals, count in the numerical scale as much as the farmer from his fields, the mechanic from his shop or the
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merchant from his counter. The general who depended for success upon the one would find himself leaning upon " a broken reed," while the other would stand the shock of battle " like a stone wall."
The sanitary watchfulness necessary in the early camp, its location, its drainage, the supervision of the food, etc., is soon transferred to the field, where eternal vigilance is necessary to prevent, as well as to cure, disease. A sick man cannot fight -- cannot get to where the fight takes place, and only for the watchfulness and labors of its medical officers, an army would soon be decimated. Then again, there are always so many who think they are sick, and especially is this true on the brink of a battle, that the surgeon's power of discrimination, his knowledge of his men, and his keen insight and knowledge of human nature, are put to the severest test. Should he, under such circumstances, make a mistake, it should be viewed with extreme leniency.
As to whether men would fight better with the knowl- edge that, if they should become wounded, they have somewhere near them a skillful surgeon, thoroughly equipped with all needful appliances, ready to, and capable of, administering to their necessities, is a ques- tion impossible of a positive answer ; but the probabilities are strongly in favor of the affirmative. For me to say that Dr. Campbell did his full duty as a surgeon under all circumstances, is only stating a generally acknowl- edged fact. Take for one instance, the work he did at Kelly's Ford, Va. : We had been hurried from our lux- urious quarters in Baltimore, where for six or more months we had been having our regular meals, with fairly good beds to sleep in, and precipitated by forced marches into the battle of Gettysburg, where we were not only initiated in " the baptism of fire," but also into the mys- teries of hard tack and bacon as a steady diet, with a scant supply at that. After the battle we started in pur- suit of Lee's retreating army, marching every day more than twenty, and on two occasions more than thirty
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miles in a pouring rain and through deep mud, compelled to sleep, when sleep was possible, in our wet clothes and on the wet ground. It was in this desperately bad, un- sanitary condition, we were thrown in midsummer, in such a climate as Virginia, with its intensely hot days, cool nights, and miserable water. The result was typho- malarial fever, which attacked nearly one-half of the regi- ment. It was at a time like this that he proved himself equal to the emergency. Both of his assistants had been fever-stricken and sent to the rear : far from well himself, yet with a noble perseverance and an exemplary forti- tude did he apply himself to the work before him, and, thanks to his skill and indefatigable industry, succeeded in bringing all through the much-dreaded epidemic. Not a single grave was opened at Kelly's Ford. Of those present here to-night, there are some who are living mon- uments of his skill.
I will now speak of him as a man, a comrade and a friend : As the morning sun, clouded at its dawn, breaks from its environments and with ardent beams dispels the fogs of the valley -- the malaria from the jungle and the mists from the mountain side-and climbing to the zenith of its power, makes the whole earth glad with its presence, and sets at eventide with the lingering halos of a glorious day, murmuring their tender good-byes over its dissolving grandeur, so did he, in the morning of life, dispel whatever fogs and mists had gathered about him ; and as he grew into early manhood, shook off all entangle- ments, dug deep the foundations, built strong the super- structure of honest worth and erected thereon so proudly, so grandly, so honorably, that, long before life's noon was reached, his popularity had been established in all its far-reaching consequences ; and he quietly took his un- questioned place among his peers, living honored and re- spected all down life's western slope, and finally sank to rest, hallowed by the memory of his associates and the tender good-byes of the thousands of the poor and af- flicted whose lives, by him, had been made better, health-
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ier and happier. In this, my friends, consists true nobil- ity. Outside and beyond this the word has no legitimate place in the American vocabulary. Let it (the oldl-world stamp of nobility) maunder on with constantly losing lustre among the effete and decaying monarchies of the old world : but on American soil it can never take ef- fective root, though fawning sycophants and dudish im- itators try never so hard to fertilize it with their absurd- ities, and water it with their vagaries.
His life was another glorious demonstration of the truth of the familiar couplet in Pope's Essay :
" Honor and shame from no condition rise, Act well your part ; there all the honor lies."
And from life's sunrise until life's sunset he filled the duties of life's cup to the very brim. Not that he was entitled to any extraordinary credit for so doing either, for he was so constituted that he could not help it ; could not help being kind ; could not help being true; could not help being honorable ; could not help being just, excepting to himself. " Flattery is for fools," and the friend that flatters either the living or the dead is a false friend. "Could not help being just, excepting to him- self." " Aye, there's the rub." His one great fault,-his one great failing-was his utter neglect of being true to himself ; and especially was this true in financial affairs. Why, with the two or three little fortunes that fell in his way, used as a nucleus, with the capacity he had for labor in his chosen profession, and the life-long manner he in- dulged that capacity -- and had he been properly remuner- ated for services rendered-the nucleus should have in- creased and enlarged like a snow ball rolling down hill ; and death should have found him the legal possessor of a large segment of this beautiful city.
But the trouble was that he always acted as though the money in his pocket was not rightfully his, but held subject to the call of the first person who might ask for it : and it seemed to, matter but little whether the caller
was worthy or unworthy of assistance, with a slight per- centage of success in favor of the latter.
Of the many instances of his lack of financial ability which, first and last, have come mider my direct observa- tion during the many years of my acquaintance with him, I will here relate two.
The first occurred many years ago, " before the war," while he was a resident of the town of Stanford. One afternoon I saw him come driving up the road at a furi- ous pace, and as he reined up I inquired what the trouble ,was? Why driving so fast ? "Get in here and I will tell you on the way over," was his reply. The story he had to tell me was like this :- - A family living away off on the hills of Western Stanford, near the town of Clinton, owed him a large sum of money for professional services, and he had just learned that they had sold their real es- tate and were packing and boxing their household goods preparatory to moving to the far West, and he was going to have the money that was his due, or know the reason why. When he drove up to the house the husband was absent, but the wife was there, and she was equal to the emergency and evidently knew the man. By the time we had got to the door she had got her tear fountains opened. and like the river Iser. they were "rolling rapidly."
A sight like that has unnerved men with harder hearts than Dr. Campbell possessed ; and just imagine the effect it had on him; with few words, deftly commingled with sobs, she told him how little ready money the sale of the farm had realized -- how the expenses of the long journey were likely to consume it all and probably more ; how she was forced to leave the home of her childhood and abide among utter strangers; and-Oh ! dear, dear, dear. Well, what was the result ? Instead of the bill for services rendered, which he had ridden seven or eight miles to present, he drew forth his wallet, took therefrom a five (5) dollar bill (all it contained) handed it to her, and then bade her good-bye as though that had been his sole
object in coming to see her; and we rode back slower than we rode over. On the way I could not resist the opportunity of chaffing him a little upon his success as a collector, asked him what per cent. he would charge to collect some bills for me, etc. He stood it for a little while, but suddenly turned on me, almost fiercely, and asked, " Well, what would you have done in such a case?" I had to confess that I should probably have done as he did about presenting the bill, but instead of giving her money I would have given her-good advice. After all, he thought it was very fortunate that he had no more money with him, for if he had more she would have received more.
The second instance occurred but a few years ago, right in the city of Poughkeepsie. We were riding down the South road when we met a carriage drawn by a spanking team of bay horses, with silver-mounted harness, silver chains rattling and with liveried driver and footman on the box. The gentleman in the carriage directed his driver to stop as soon as he saw the Doctor, and the two vehicles stopped just abreast of each other. The gentle- man in the carriage asked the Doctor why he had not sent his bill as he had requested, to which the Doctor made some indefinite reply, when the other said, " Here, let me pay you something on account," at the same time taking from his pocket a good-sized roll of bills and reach- ing them as far towards the Doctor as he could without getting out of his carriage. The top bill, as he reached the bundle past me, had two XX's on it, and if they were all of that denomination, there must have been at least $200 in the roll. But, do you think he took them? Not a bit of it. It would be time enough for him to pay his bill when it was regularly made out and regularly pre- sented; and yet, mark the sequel ; before the ride ended he borrowed $5 of an intimate friend in order to properly meet current expenses.
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