The National tribune., 1886-09-02
ROBINETT.
Comrade HagIe Does not Agree with DR.. Buvinger's
Lccnnnt OF the Death Of Col. Rogers.

Account Oh Tue Otdln Oi tOi. hOsers-
To THE EDITOR: In your issue of July %
appears an article from the pen of G. w. Bu-
vinger, NJ. D., Surgeon, etc, in which he says:
"That Col. Rogers, acting Brigadier General,
or any other General or field officer, mounted,
should be able to approach as near to Battery
RObinett as where the brave Rogers is said TO
have fallen without horse and rider both being
killed is simply prepOsterous." at
would have been a lasting disgrace to Gen.
Stanley's whole division" etc.
The Doctor certainly writes from medical
standpoint, and had he been on the ground
with his scalpel and quinine brigade, STAN
ley's Division might have been saved the dis
grace. know that, from a medical or other
safe point of view, il does look as though 1t
were impossible for men 10 have reached Robi-
nett, or the strong works in the rear of Vicks-
burg, or to have scaled Lookout Mountain or
Missionary Ridge, and, however "preposterous"
and disgraeeful it may seem TO the man who
was not there, to the boys who were there and
saw with their own eyes these occurrences
were stubborn matters of fact, in no sense pre-
posterous, and if Gen. Stanley's Division was
disgraced at Robinett or elsewhere the boys
never dreamed of it until the Doctor, with PEN
Gil, tape-line and photography, turned the light
of science OH that sanguinary field.
The Doctor says: Battery Robinett was
principally supported by the Ohio Brigade"
Il
ported by the Ohio Brigade and by Gen. Joe
Mowers Second Brigade of Stanley's Division,
composed of the 18th Mo-, 47th ILL.,, Sth Wis.
and 9Th MINI. The Ohio Brigade constituted
the first or advanced line, and the second, or
Mowers Brigade, directly in rear, and in such
close supporting distance as to be under the
rebel fire from the time the enemy emerged
from the woods and were so near as to have a
full, fair view of the advancing rebel columns.
he NJ, " in Of
Ohio, with the colors little TO the right OF the
battery. From the time the enemy emerged
from the cover of the woods 10 the north the
battery and the Ohio Brigade poured volley
after Voley into their advancing lines, but on
they came, disgrace OF no disgrace, and hum
dreds of men yet live who saw Col. Rogers at
the head of his men from the time they left
the timber until Col Rogers rode up as it
were into the very mouths of the guns And to
make il still more prepOsterous To the Doctor
/ want TO tell him that Col. Rogers then turned
his horse and rode few PAGES toward his men,
with his sword in hand and raised above his
head, cheering on his men; ; and hundreds OF
men, many of them Of the Ohio Brigade, yet
live who saw this, aud TO see IL was to re-
member it. About this tune the Ohio Brigade,
or a part of il, waverod. aud the cd passed
through the ranks of the IIth Mo-, and the 11th
rose aud advanced to meet the assault. ! do
not write this 10 the discredit of the Ohio boys.
They fought as well and perhaps stood as long
as others would, and bad the positions of the
two regiments been reversed il is altogether
probable the l1th would have passed to the rear
and the 63d have gone TO the front. want to
say further, that many of the 63d boys fell into
the ranks of the 18th Mo- and returned to the
conflict. Ii was about the time the 18th was
parallel with the right Of the fort when Col
Rogers fell To the 18th Mo- he had been a
conspicuous figure from the timber to the bat
terry, but we were in reserve and not firing
but when we did advance more than one of OuI
boys fired at him in particular, and it was be-
lieved then and is now bya number of the 18th
boys that Bob Wood, of Co. ID, fired one of the
shots that struck Col. Rogers, and almost the
entire regiment plainly saw the Colonel and his
horse both fall, the man from the saddle and
the horse instantly thereafter.
The Doctor makes a serious break when he
speaks of the "enflading fire of the other bat
teries." Ny dear Doctor. do you not know the
"other batteries" had more than they could dc
| in their own fronts, and that TO the right Oul
line was driven clear into Corinth, and tina
Robinett was the key" and that Rogers as
sault was the last grand effort TO get possession
of that one point. and hence his desperation2
The Donors account of the encounter be
tween his friend and one of the Johnnies i
rather funny, to say the least.-D. e. HAGLE
Co. ID, 18th No., Louisville, Ill.