The National tribune., 1883-07-26
CHASE, LAKE Co., Mich.
NEW YORK SOLDIERS ERco1LEcrIoNs.

A NEW YORK SOLDIERS ERCOLLECTIoNs.
To the Editor NATIONAL TRIBUNE:
] notice that in your issue of June 18th you
publish an account of the affair at Mine Run No
vember 30, 1868, and call on some survivor of
General Warrens command to give an account
of his experience. was with that command
at that time, and was in company III, One Hun
dred and Fifty -second New York volunteers,
First brigade, Second division, Second Corps
Colonel Baxter, Seyenty-seeond Pennsylvania,
was acting brigadier- general, commanding our
brigade. About o'clock on the morning of
the Both, we moved around to the left reached
Mine Run at daylight, and formed in line of
battle under cover of the banks of that stream
which at that point was only a small brook or
rlvulet. Our skirmishers were thrown out
about three hundred yards in our front We
all knew well what that meant. We knew that
there was bloody work ahead of u.s. We could
look forward over bare, smooth slope, ascend
ing gently for half mile or so to wooded
crest or ridge, perhaps a hundred feet above the
surface OF the stream, which was bristling with
abatis, infantry parapets, and batteries. | well
remember when Colonel Baxter rode along the
line and told us we were about to charge the
enemy's works in our front, and that we must
not fire a shot until we got into the works He
said the works were held by North Carolina
troops, and that they would not stand fire. We
knew better. We knew that they would fight
DSuiuu SuCu NuTkS, anu we COulu see DIV the
excited manner of Colonel Baxter-and he was
as brave a man as any in that army-that he
knew that If we made that charge one half of
our number would never answer to another
roll-call. We stood in line and waited for the
signal to charge. Eight o'clock, the time set to
make the charge, came and still we were wait
ing. Presently Generals Mead and Warren,
with their staff, came riding down the line
when they got opposite ourregiment they stop
ped, and with their glasses scanned the rebel
works. They could count thirty pieces of artil-
lery in front of the Second division. | did not
see or hear that any of our boys had slips of
paper, with their names on, pinned on their
blOuses, and do not think there was any in our
brigade, though do not know what was done
in other brigades or divisions. i give General
Warren the credit of ayerting the disaster
which would have followed had we made that
charge 1t would surely have been another
Fredericksburg slaughter. OF course, General
Meade was in command, and could have had
the charge made, regardless of Warrens iudg-
ment, but when he saw the strength of those
works his own good Judgment would not al
low it. l wondered at the time that the rebels
did not give US shell and grape when we stood
there in line within easy range of their guns,
but suppose they were waiting to get us into
the slaughter-pen that they had fixed for u.s.
Had we been in line there twenty-four hours
sooner, before they had strengthened that part
of their works and REINFORCED tho troops in
them, we might have carried them, but at the
time we were ordered to make the charge they
had more troops in their works than we had in
the charging column. J. j. VALLEY,
EDGAR, NEB. Co. III, 1921 N. Y. vi.