The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1882-10-15
Did Gen. Armistead Repent in Dying

Gettysburg victory. His father was Gen.
WALKER X. ARMIsTEAD, an old Virginian,
and one OF the earliest graduates Of West
Point The son was one OF the officers Of the
regular army who threw up their commits
sions TO go into the rebellion.
In q recent monograph ON "Chancellors-
vile and Gettysburg" Gen. ABNER DOUBLE
DAY OF the army thus spoke OF Gen. ARMS
TEAD In describing the charge Of PICKErr's
rebel division at Gettysburg:
"ARxisrKAp was shot down by the side Of the gun he
had taken II is said he had fought side in the
rt battle at Bull Rum but had been seduced by South
affiliations TO join in the rebellion and now dying
the effort to extend the of slavery the free
States he with clearer vision that he had been
gagged in an unhoy cause and said to Of officers
who leaned over him: Tell HAScocK have wronged
him and have wronged my country"
This paragraph has given rise to the
present discussion. Gen. ARMIsTEAD's South
ern friends showing an easily explainable
anxiety to refute its statements as contain
ing what they call "a SANDER out OF the
whole cloth" on the deceased officer. They
have accordingly taken the pains to get to-
gether for the Southern Historical Society
all the facts relating to Gen. ARMIsTEADs
espousing the rebel cause, and 10 the circum-
stances OF his death.
They seem to have proved beyond ques-
ton that one Of the assertions Of Gen.
DOUBLEDAY regarding him was entirely
without foundation. At the breaking out of
the war, Gen. ARMIsTEAD was Major in the
Sixth Infantry and was serving on the Pa
ciflc coast. When ALBERT SIDNEY JOHNSTON
resigned his commissioni and journeyed
across the Plains tc engage in the rebellion,
ARMIsTEAD joined him. There is no doubt
about this, for JOHNSTON speaks Of him as Of
his party in private letters written at the
time, and other evidence shows him to have
been Jealous in his desire to embarrass his
late military associates. But the cinching
testimony is that which proves him to have
been at Mesilla, In New Mexico, six days after
the battle Of Bull Run was fought. ARMS
TEAD and the most OF JOHNsTON's party,
writes one Of the authorities quoted, "were
my guests for a week from July q, 1861
during which time they assisted us in the
capture OF large amount Of stores and ma
terial, also forcing the evacuation Of the posts
west Of the Rio Grande." Bull Run was
fought July 81, 1861, and therefore 1t was q
physical impossibility for ARMIsTEAD to be
there. He was beyond the Mississippi, help
ing to demoralize the army in which he had
held commission for twenty-five years.
This point his Southern friends who are
SO anxious to defend the reputation Of Gen.
ARMIsTEAD have apparently established, and
the rumor referred to by Gen. DOUBLEDAY
about his fighting with his old comrades in
stead OF against them at Bull Run, must be
dismissed as untrue.
To find out the truth about ARMIsTEAD's al
lonod dyyip pto Of h{, fo;t tv,%
rebel cause, the Secretary OF the Southern
Historical Society wrote to Gen. HANCOCK,
into whose hands his old comrade OF the
Sixth Infantry fell at Gettysburg. "All who
knew Gen. ARM1sTRAD," said the Secretary
must feel that he followed the fortunes OF
the State that gave him birth from consci-
entious convictions Of duty, and those who
knew him well will be slow to believe that
after leading his men to the heights OF Get
tysburg with unsurpassed heroism, he
whlmpered and repented of his course after
he received his fatal wound, unless, indeed,
he was delirious from that wound"
Gen. HANCOCK simply referred the letter
to Gen. II. II. BINGHAM, now member OF
Congress from Philadelphia. but at the bat
tie the officer Of Gen. HANooCK's staff to
whom the message was delivered. Gen.
BINGHAM replied last July that the report
he made just after the battle. from which
Gen. DOUBLEDAY seems to gave got his in
formation, twas correct In every particu-
lar" And he adds that when he told the
dying ARMIsTRAD that he was staff officer
OF Gen. HANCOCK, ARMIsTEAD said, as Gen.
BINGHAM now recalls the words: "Say to
Gen. HANCOCK for me that have done him,
and all LII.
which shall always regret"
This, however, Is very different from the
expression quoted from Gen. DOUBLEDAY,
which was, Tell HANCOCK have wronged
him and wronged my country" and there
really was no justification for finding In the
remark actually made by the dying man. the
rather bombastic assertion Of Gen. DOUBLE
DAY that ARMIsTEAD saw with clearer
vision that he had been engaged in an unholy
cause" Seriously wounded, completely ex-
hausted, and seemingly broken-spirited," as
Gen. BINGHAM describes him, he probably
felt sorrow that he had been fighting against
his old comrade, HANCOCK, who had shown
him great kindness after his capture, and he
therefore used the words reported.
Such dying words, under such circum-
stances, are not OF much account anyway as
showing the real character and settled con-
victions OF man. They are utterances de-
livered when the intellect Is weak and only
the emotions are left strong; when no is of
his balance. What man says and does when
he has command Of his faculties, not what he
signs out when his bodily force is nearly
spent and his eyes are glazed by approaching
death, are the things to Judge him by.
II 1t gives those who cherish the memory