Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1886-08-27

out the jurisdiction of the United States.
Meade and SiCkIcs
Gen. Daniel f. Sickles delivered a long
address at Gettysburg on the Cd of July
last. In this he developed with great
elaboration, the theory of the battle of
Gettysburg long known to have been held
by him, to wit, that the real hero of Get
tysburg was Gen. Sickles; that Gen.
Meade had not much to do with the bat
tie and that what little he did was done
reluctantly and was damage instead of
a help to his army To this theory he
now added the claims, never so squarely
stated before, that the fighting of the first
and third days was no part of the battle of
Gettysburg, that the battle began when
the guns of Sickles's corps opened in the
afternoon of the I'd of July, 1868 that it
was fought by Gen. Sickles without as
sistance from the commander of the army,
and that it ended in victory about the
time (at 6 O'Clock of the second day. that
Gen. Sckles fell with the wound which
cost him his leg. 1t is impossible to state
these most modest claims any more
squarely than they We're stated by Gen.
Sickles in his Gettysburg address. But
there still remained few people in the
United States who had some remembrance
of Gen. George q. Meade who remem-
bered that he was "A soldier by profession,
trained to arms and not to the arts of the
special pleader and politician; who re-
membered that he had won his major-gen
erals stars solely by his merits, and that he
stood so high as a capable and successful
corps commander that neither the army
~ ha tbp,,s,bt <.
rather than Gen. Sickles should have been
appointed commander of the army of the
Potomac who remembered that under
him that army won its first unmistakable
victory; who remembered that he was
modest as well as gallant officer that he
was neither self-assertive nor captious
and that in all his previous history he had
never shown Il trace of the unmanly jeal-
Ousy which leads man to drag others
down in order that he may eXalt himself
Some of these persons declined to accept
Gen. Sickles's implied assertion that Meade
was not a general but marplot, or at
best a man of straw that he had made
false claims and false reports, and assum-
ed credit which did not belong to him,
and passed into history upon the fame of
achievements in which he really had no
share. Some of them perhaps wondered
/ if a speech like that of Gen. Sckles would
have been made if Gen. Meade was still
| living, and wished that they could call
| him back to life to face the robbers of his
well earned laurels.
Ii happened that there existed here in
Burlington, letter from Gen Meade,
written with "A, for him, remarkable alb
sence of reserve, and containing 50 far as
is known the fullest statement he ever
made in writing, Of his view of his own
side of the controversy, and of the char
acter and consequences OF Gen. Sickles's
movement on the second day at Gettys-
burg 1t seemed TO Gen, Meade's surviv-
ing relatives and nearest friends that this
letter, which the Philadelphia Press calls
THE most decisive contribution to Ameri-
can history made in recent years, should be
given to the public in order that Gen.
Meade might be permitted to speak as it
were from the grave, word in his own
! behalf and at the request of Col. George
Meade of Philadelphia, Gen Meade's son,
the letter was sent to him for publication
and it appeared the other day in the Phil
adelphia Press, from which it is copied in
another column of this paper
Since it has appeared Gen. Sickles has
attempted to break the force of its facts,
by giving to reporter, in an interview
mass of bubbles, untOunded assertions
and flat misstatements We have no
space in which to follow these up and
Will take but one as sample OF Gen
Sickles's habitual recklessness in asser
ton. He says:
Gen Meade proceeds in his confidential
statement to Col. Benedict: - told him
lSickles his right WAS to be Hancock
left, and his LETT on Round Top, which
pointed out.
To this answer that this statement Is
contradicted by Gen. Meade's official re-
port, and by his testimony before the COM
mittee on the conduct OF the war.
Now any one who will read Gen. Meade's
official report will lind that this statement
is not contradicted by it and one who
reads Gen. Meade's testimony before the
committee on the conduct of the war, will
find (vol. |, p 33D that he testified as
follows: II had sent instructions in the
morning to Gen. Sickles, directing him to
form his corps in line of battle on the left
of the Second corps, commanded by Gen.
Hancock, and had indicated to him that
his right was to rest on Hancock s left and
his left was to extend to the Round Top
Mountain, plainly visible, if it was pos
slble to occupy it, Gen. Meade's testi-
mony and his letter thus exactly agree.
Most of Gen. Sickless statements are in
like manner refuted by the olhclal
records and to those, and to Gen. Meade
unanswered ana unanswerable letter, we
leave him.
Foolhardness often becomes epidemic.
First Graham went through the whlrlpooI
rapids of the Niagara in a ught cask
then with his head out OF the cask then
a Boston man swan the rapids with no