The Portland daily press., 1889-10-09


measure of the service to which he had called
them by soldiers death upon the field.
though it was not his privilege to range his
armies in order OF battle, to launch them
against his peoples enemies and under the
stress of duty, to WOO amid the wild turmoil
Oh the conflict glorious release from the never
snding labors, the infinite anxieties and sore
! neartaehes of the great task that was set for
nun, ne was none the less the commander in
cnie, giving to the functions of that high office
% close and unremitting care as if he had been
an oncer OF guard in the near presence of the
ehrmy. Sometimes during the war there were
mufmurs OF dissatisfaction at the restraints
exercised at Washington upon the movements
OF the armies, and subsequent criticism has
oeen severe upon the administration for its in
reference in military affairs. But whatever
opinions may be held as to the wisdom or un-
wisdom of the specific exercises of that au-
thority, none eau gainsay the loyalty to duty
of Abraham Lincoln. Amid a multitude Of
conflicting counsels from advisors skilled in
the art of war he did not profess he was ever
mindful of the responsibility he could not dele
gate, and decided upon the course that his
sagacious mind deemed the most prudent.
The words he uttered here with a studied
reticence doubly impressive in so great
master of speech, are as a monumental inserip-
tlon to be read to remote generations. They
breath the lofty genius of the battle in which
the existence OF free government was at stake.
As the vision of the embattled hosts, the in
termingled contestants in deadly strife, of
crags and plains gloomed with the internal in
cense of battle and lurid with the flashing of
wars dreadful enginery. of trampled fields
strewn with the dead and dying, rise before us,
the loud and confused sounds the strife seem
the accompaniment of mighty voice declaring,
like the chorus of the ancient stage, the mean
ing of the tragedy, and proclaiming "the gov
eminent of the people, by the people and for
the people, shall not perish from the earth"
The story of Gettysburg has been so well
told that it would be idle to attempt to here
rehearse it. Let us but glance at its various
features and phases in order to indicate the
part that Maine soldiers bore in the action.
indicate is the word, because within the
limits imposed by this occasion no adequate
account of the services of Maine regiments and
batteries could be given. Their deeds, if reeited
with the Homeric minuteness and fidelity which
Kinglake has bestowed upon the exploits of his
English heroes in the Crimean war, would fill
a bulky volume with shining pages. No one
man can tell the whole story which we and
coming generations would know. The battle
We are not waiting for the historian to arise,
but we may well fear that the casualties of
time are daily taking from us many man who
leaves untold the heroic saga of his personal
share in those eventful July days,-a tale that
may seem simple and void of interest to him,
but which would be of precious worth to his
countrymen to all time.
What men will went most to know of
Gettysburg is how it seemed to the thinking
brains and throbbing hearts that made up the
soulless mechanism of war, whose volition was
the will of the commanding officer; to the men
who grasping sword or musket, awaited the
coming onset with swiftly flashing, agonizing
thoughts of home and friends and sweet famil-
lar haunts of peace, and of the dread POSSIBLE
tiles of the minutes close upon him. nerving
his being to do and dare as country, honor and
duty called; and who met the foe with
fierce hatred, sickening fear that they might
prevail in spite of all that he and his comrades
could do to overmaster them, and wild long
ing to command some fell destruction to sweep
them from the face of the earth. Let this oc-
casion, comrades, inspire you with the purpose
to give enduring form to your recollections of
your army life that posterity may have fuller
knowledge of the splendid army to which you
belonged, Of the character and spirit of the
v
sacrifices. Such testimony giving as it must,
an insight to the tolls and sufferings of the
individual soldier, will show how dreadful a
thing is war and enforce the lesson that it can
be glorious only when it serves a cause so high
and noble as to countervall the extreme of hu-
man misery. Many nutable instances will
occur to you Of comrades who have done their
duty well with tongue and pen as once with
sword or musket. They should be many times
multiplied in the few years of life and memory
that remain to the army of the Potomac.
On the morning of July LIST Gen. Buford
with his cavalry command encountered the ad-
vance of Hills corps of Lees army. He
CALAMITY held them in check and sent back for
aid to Reynolds who was promptly on the
field with Wadsworth's division to which was
attached Halls Second Maine Battery. There
was work at hand for the new corners and at
once. The Second Maine Battery was placed
by Reynolds inl person in a position from
which battery of the cavalry division had
just been withdrawn, and there for half an
hour Hall held his ground with his six guns,
returning the fire OF seventeen pieces which
the enemy brought to bear upon him and, in
default of infantry support on his right de-
Tending himself against the enemy's infantry
with double shotted canister. The contest
became too unequal to continue. Rained upon
by artillery and musketry Hall withdrew all
his guns, the enemy so close upon him that six
horses of the rear piece were bayoneted and the
gun would have been lost bur for
the timely advance of infantry.
Eighteen men wounded, thirty eight horses
killed, the commanders own horse shot under
him, and three pieces disabled, prov more
eloquently than any words how well I'll, held
their post in the forefront of the desperate
fight on that brave day when the gallant Rey-
holds met a soldiers death, and the First Corps
stubbornly held the field against overwhelm-
ing numbers, confident that their comrades of
the army of the Potomac were pressing forward
to aid them.
The Sixteenth Maine was on the extreme
right of the line of the First Corps. Such a
position is sufficiently trying under ordinary
subject as it is to being over
Tapped by the enemy and thus to be exposed
to a fire in flank and reverse. The Sixteenth
not only had this danger to encounter from
Hills forces in front, but when Ewell came on
The field from the north his forces bore down
directly upon its flank with the fire of thirty
pieces of artillery supporting his attack. The
Eleventh Corps, formed at right angle to the
line of the First left gap between its left and
The right of the First and through it EwelPs
men poured in. The devoted regiment, thrust
ike a lance head into the very midst of the
enemy swarming from the west and the north
remained steadfast at its post. Tilden and his
men were surrounded and swept away to
undergo the horrors of Southern prisons. Re-
treat, when practicable, would have been dis
honor. Who will deny to them generous
share in the final victory over an enemy thinned
by their vollies and taught discretion by their
irmnesss
When the shattered battalions of the First
md Eleventh Corps were driven back through
he town, Halls battery delivered a Parthian
ire from time to time as it retired through the
Streets and kept the pursuers at respectful
distance. At the same time Stevens's Fifth
Maine Battery which had been posted near the
found the opportunity it had been
waiting for and wrought fearful execution up
IN the lines of the advancing enemy. saving
precious time for the formation of the new line
IN Cemetery Heights, though at great cost to
tself.
The Fifth Battery withdrew through the
own and ascending Cemetery Hill was met by
Hancock who called out for "the captain of
his brass battery" and ordered him to plant
lis guns where he could stop the enemy from
coming up the ravine. His six Napoleons were
lot long in opening fire and they maintained
so diligently and effectively as to check the
ADVANCE of the enemy in that quarter. Col.
3achelder has properly recognized the great
ervice done by this battery on the first and
econd days by bestowing the name of its
ON the ground it oecupied-the
pot now known as as vens' Knoll"