Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1886-08-28
HOWARD AT CHANCELLoRsvILLE

Hope springs eternal in the human
breast, and that it does, is proven by the
following admission from General o. o.
Howard, who commanded the Eleventh
Army Corps at the battle of Chancellors-
vile in 1868, as it appears over his own
signature in the Century for September:
Somebody's guns thundered away for q
few short minutes, and then came the htful
rattle of musketry; and before could again
get into the saddle there arose the ceaseiess
roar of the terrible storm.
81 sent out my chief of staff, Colonel AS
mussen, who was the first officer to mount
The firing is in front of Devens, go and see
instantly turned and galloped away. l
mounted ard set off for n prominent place
in rear of Sohurz's line, so as to change
front to the northwest of every brigade
southeast of the point of attack, If the
attack extended beyond Deven's right
the enemy was now west of him.
l could see numbers of our men
not the few stragglers that always fly like
the chaff at the first breeze, but scores of
them-rushing into the opening, some with
arms and some without running or falling
before they got behind the cover of Devens'
reserves, and before General Schurz's wait
ing masses could deploy or charge. The
noise and the smoke filled the air with ex-
ctement, and to add to 1t Dieckmann'sg guns
and caissons, with battery men scattered,
rolled and tumbled like runaway wagons
and carts in a thronged city. The guns and
the masses of the right brigade struck the
second line of Devens before McLean's front
had given way, and, quicker than it could
| be told, with all the fury of the widest hail
storm, everything, every sort of organization
that lay in the path of the mad current of
panic-stricken men, had to give way and be
broken into fragments.
"My own horse seemed to catch the fury;
| he sprang, he rose high on his hind legs and
fell over, throwing me to the ground. Ny
aide-de-camp, Dessauer, was struck by
shot and killed, and for few moments l
was as helpless as any of the men who were
! speeding without arms to the rear. But
| faithful orderlies helped me to remount.
81 rode quickly to the reserve batteries. A
staff-officer of General Hooker, Lieutenant
Colonel Dickinson, Joined me there; my own
staff gathered around me. ] was eager to
| fill the trenches which Barlow would have
held. Buschbecks second line was ordered
to change front there. His men kept their
ranks, but at first they appeared slow, will
they never get there.
"Diokinson said, 'Oh, General, see those
men coming from that hill way off to the
right, and there's the enemy after them.
Fire, oh, fire at them you may stop the
"'No, Colonel | said, Il will never fire on
my own men9
The hope alluded to was that some
thing would some day appear to the
sight OF the men who survived that muir
derous and ghastly scene, and enable
them to fully understand how it was that
Jackson so easily routed the Eleventh
corps, and fell like whirlwind on the
Third corps, some three miles in rear OF
the Eleventh. 1t has come at last, and
is contained in the last eight words OF
the above extract. For years, writers oi
all classes, military and civil, have
handled the matter, all OF them blaming
Howard-and justly too-for advancing
where his hdnks were sin the air. or
away from support and then permitting
his men to stack their arms and light
fires, when he knew that the
Third Corps with Sickles was lying
on its arms fully three miles in his
rear or a full mile below Charlottesville
House on the plank road but the best
and truest OF these writers could only
surmise how it was that Jackson's men
could walk over ground covered by somt
OF the best artillery OF the army and fall
on Berry's (2d) Division OF Sickles Corp
with such impetuous force as to almost
break down his formation and complete
the rout OF the whole army. 1t was be
cause Howard would not fire on his owl
men. The reader will bear in mind thai