The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1886-02-24


the force of that by implying and even
asserting that Hancock came as a sort
of staff officer to Meade. But his
record is absolutely against any such
imputation. Hancock was sent to take
command, and did take command, and
did command all the troops of the First
and Eleventh Corps, which had been
broken, organized them, sent them here
and there, rehabilitated the line and
prepared for the defence of the position.
And there is fact in regard to Gettys-
burg to which sufficient attention has
never been given. Hancock, coming on
to that field on the afternoon of the LIST
of July, amid the wreck of the battle
for the First and the Eleventh Corps
had been terribly defeated, after gallant
fighting against vastly superior force,
not only occupied the cemetery hill,
of which we hear so much, but ordered
the First Division, then coming up Ga
division of the Twelfth Corpse, to Little
Round Top. When l was at Gettys-
burg, in November, was very much
struck to see the monuments of regi-
ments of the Twelfth Corps on Little
Round Top. Ihad never heard of their
fighting there, had never thought of the
Twelfth Corps as there, because the
Twelfth Corps was at the other end of
the line, and it was the first time it was
ever impressed upon me that Little
Round Top was occupied by Hancock's
orders on the very afternoon of the first
day. General Geary's division having
been withdrawn by somebody's orders
that night, Little Round Top was left
unoccupied the next day, and General
G. X. Warren has always had immense
credit, and justly, for having, in the
crisis of the second days fight, seen
that the enemy were about to seize that
top, and having hurried troops there
and occupied the top, and by that means
saved us from great catastrophe. So
that it is intensely to Hancock's credit
that, even in the very first approach to
the field, he should have appreciated
the Importance of that position and
have provided for its occupation, and it
was no fault of his that General Geary
was withdrawn. On the second day
that great and terrible battle of the
second day-Hancock was put in COM
mand of more than his own corps. He
commanded the entire left center of the
line, and on the third day he received
the charge of Picket, so that his rela-
ton to Gettysburg was not merely that
of having repealed the great final charge,
but of having had very important com
mand during the two preceding days,
and having made the arrangements
which stopped the flight of the First
and Eleventh Corps and also provided
for the occupation of the whole position
of Culp's hill to the Little Round Top at
the other extreme end. / never have I'M
derstood who ordered General Geary's
withdrawal from that position, and
never have been able to find out. For
tunately, through Warren's remarkable
insight and prompt action, the mischief
which would have resulted from it was
prevented.
The next great day of Hancock was,
of course, the battle of the Wilderness,
in which he commanded the entire left
wing of Meade's army, consisting not
only of his own corps, but of divisions
sent to him from other corps. On the
morning of the second day of the Will
derness he made that great assault in
which he carried A. p. Hill's intrench-
ments and fought one of the greatest
battles of the war on any field of opera
tons. Then the next-and, perhaps,
some would esteem it greater than
Gettysburg in some respects-was the
18th of May at Spottsylvania, and some
would regard this as the elimination of
Hancock's glory as commander, where
he formed his troops early in the morn
ing and assaulted the confederate posi-
ton near Spottsylvania Courthouse.
capturing 1900 prisoners and twenty
pieces of artillery, and held his position
for thirteen hours against what | sup
pose was the most terrible series of as.
saults ever delivered. 1t was very com.
mon to speak of the dead being piled on
each other, but very few men have ever
seen it. You go over a bloody field
like Antietam, or Fredericksburg, OF
Gettysburg, and dead men are good
way apart. Sometimes they are piled
in row. Here and there you can steI
from man to man, and sometimes the
dead lie in contact. But it was literally
true that here, when the enemy were
attempting to retake the works and gel
back those guns, the dead lay in piles
of three, four and five deep, and the
wounded under the dead in many cases
Il VI tllll tCCh tHC
was of the most terrific character. OF
course that was not Hancock's last day
of action. He commanded his corps in
various operations following, but it was
perhaps, the elimination of the mans
glory. His Gettysburg wounds con
tinued to trouble him, so that he was
obliged to relinquish command of his
corps more than once during the cam
paign of 1864, and finally his wounds
broke out afresh and he was obliged to
leave the field. Then he began to raise
the first veteran corps, as it was called
to be composed entirely of men who
had completed their terms of service in
the army, of honorable record, and was
not engaged with the enemy in the APP
pomattoX campaign, although in the
field with his corps.-General r. A
Walker.
IN .-..