Bridgeton pioneer., 1888-07-12
1S63-1SSS.
Speech Of Col. Potter at the
Gettysburg Reunion.

dress prepared by Col. William E.
Potter, as the representative of the
Twelfth Regiment, for the occasion of
the dedication of the New Jersey
monuments at Gettysburg, June Both,
1888:
By her Governor and principal Off
GERS. by her chosen Commissioners, by
the battalions of her National Guard,
by her surviving veterans, the State of
New Jersey is present here to-day, to
do honor to the memories of her citi-
zen soldiers who fell in this battle, and
typically to the memories of all Of her
sons who died in the defense of the
Government of the United States in
the late great struggle. 1t is we'll that
it is SO.
New Jersey has always been dis,
tinguished in war. She bore honor
able part in the contest which wrested
the Canadas from France. During
the Revolution, the soil of our State
was trampled into bloody mire by the
feet of contending armies; and the
New Jersey brigade, under the COM
mand of the gallant Maxwell and Og
den, at Brandywine and Germantown,
at Springfield and Monmouth, in the
campaign in northwestern New York
against the savage allies of Britain,
and before Yorktown, freely shed its
blood, and was distinguished, even in
the army of Washington, for infiexible
courage.
With a population in 1860 of but
672, 1000, New Jersey was more than
decimated by the war against the Re-
belion, for she marshalled under the
flag SS,305 men, surplus of 10057 men
! over all calls made upon her-a larger
English speaking army than the King
dom of Great Britain and Ireland,
or the United Kingdom, although the
pillars OF its empire circled the whole
globe, was ever able to set in line of
| battle upon any one field. For not that
great army that Wellington led, that
| for seven years waged war among the
mountains of Portugal and Spain,
until it burst through the icy barriers
| of the Pyrenees, and brought fire and
sword upon the fertile plains OF
southern France; nor that other army,
| which, during a long summers day,
| held at bay the veteran leglons OF
France, and, with the aid of the Prus-
SLAMS, laid the mighty power of Ma
poleon in the dust; nor that other
army that for many months, in the
trenches of Sebastopol, confronted the
assembled forces of Russia, ever num-
bered sixty thousand English speaking
men.
Upon this very field, New Jersey,
! relative to her population, had large
percentage of troops. We had present
at this battle twelve regiments Of in
fantry, one regiment of cavalry, and
two batteries. The regiment whose
line was marked by the low stone wall
that you see before you, by the acci-
dent of its position, by its firm bearing
and the energy of its officers and men,
had the fortune to be among the most
distinguished in its services of the New
Jersey regiments upon this field. 1t
| was the only regiment from our State
| in the I'd army corps, and held the
right of the left centre of the army.
1t was the only regiment in the division
of which it formed a part armed with
the smooth bore musket. By a success.
full charge at critical moment OF the
afternoon of the Cd of July, with a loss
of two officers and forty men, it cap.
tured the Bliss barn, and established
a formidable force upon the flank of
the line of the advance of Heth's di-
vision Of Hills corps of the Rebel
Army. Every brigade to the enemy's
right of this point had been thrown
forward to the attack of this crest;
| and after the Bliss barn was thus cap
tured, no portion of Hills corps to the
ene,ny's left advanced. The hesita-
ton of these troops paralyZed the
advance of Rhodes division OF Ewell's
corps, which had formed line upon the
plain in front of the town for the
attack of the ridge, so that Early, still
! further to the left, attacked alone.
There can be little doubt now, that if
Heth and Rhodes had assaulted with
Early. the position would have been
carried, and the fate of the Union
might have been changed. ts
In the mighty assault of July Cd,
| this regiment, with its brigade, stood
as immovable as the stone wall in its
front No troops of the enemy
reached its line save as prisoners OF
war. And when, on that fateful day,
the heavy column of the enemy, under
the whitening fire which metit, melted
away into cloud of broken battalions,
leaving the slopes in our front strewn
with the soldiers and crimsoned with
the blood of the great States of Vir-
bility of the existence of the Slave
AAOANNi y N<oAiASdC1oSyt esA mug
pendent sovereignty, among the
nations of the earth, had ceased to be.
From the muzzles of those death deal
ing muskets, there spoke the fiat OF
omnipotence, declaring in tones which
overleaped the Ocean, and penetrated
Europe and Asia, until they reached
the farthest islands of the Pacific Sea,
that hencefOrth the United States was
to be, and forever to remain, mighty
and free, undivided and inseparable.
This regiment lost here two officers
and twenty enlisted men killed, four
officers and eighty enlisted men wound
ed, nine enlisted men missing. Or the
missing, three, at least, We're taken
prisoners while on the picket line, and
died under the nameless tortures of
Andersonville prison. Other regiments
from our State had their particular oc-
casions of heroic achievement, but in
the long list of martial deeds performed
in this battle, history will point to the
especial glory of the Twelfth Regiment
New Jersey Volunteers. Its loss here