The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1890-03-13
STORY OF A CANNONEER.
Continued from Ist pase.)

Continued from LIST paSe.)
derly then, and kept no notes Of what / heard,
| will not undertake to reproduce the express
siOns of these ollicers-threc OF whom are dead
while Gen. Gibbon Is quito able to speak for
himself if he wants to. But Gen. Griffin never
said u word on the subject that could be con-
strued into personal criticism The most he
would say was that as Warren's successor, he
of all men, must be silent. | think Sheridan
expected too much Of the infantry in that cam
paign, and the faults he attributed to Warren
were mainly due to the frightful condition of
tho roads, the almost inccssant rain, the un-
fathOmabe mud and the consequent inability
OF the infantry to move with the CELEBRITY which
Sheridan's long command of cavalry led him to
consider possible.
Gen. Sheridan always wanted things done
ut gallop. On many occasions he got
GREAT MARCHING
out of the infantry under his command but
am sure that he was inclined TO overwOrk that
branch of service, particularly after he had
been for sometime in command of the Cavalry
Corps Then. | think Sheridan had q prejudice
against engineer officers commanders of large
bodies of marching and fighting troops / am
not prepared to say that this prejudice, as a
rule, is not we'll founded In my humble judg-
ment the whole tendency of the training and
experience Of an engineer officer is opposed to
rapidity of conception and celebrity of move
ment in the field. They want to make too
many diagrams An accurate diagram is a fine
thing TO embellsh a report with, but in most
cases it should be made after the battle, not
before. However do not wish to be under
stood as crticisng Gen. Warren by implication
in these observations. / think that Warren
was as thorough and az prompt q fighter as
ever commanded q corps, and | do not know
that anyone else could have got more work ont
of an infantry command than he did out OF the
IA -..,1rt
OF the corps commanders of the Army of the
Potomac while / belonged to it, from first to
last, Reynolds, Griffin and GibbOn were aTtil-
lerymen; Meade, Newton, Warren, Humphreys
and Wright were engineers. / have never
taken the trouble to inquire what Burnside
and Howard were. Hancock, SedgwiCk, Sykes
and others were infantrymen. So far as my
humble opportunities enabled me TO judge,
there was never any fault found with the three
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS, Griffin and Gbbon.
Though | may view them with partial eyes,
from tho fact that they belonged TO my branch
of the service, and that one Of them-Gibbon-
was Captain of our battery in the Regular Army
even while commanding the Twenty fourth
Corps rs "A Major General Of volunteers OF the
engineers, knew only Warren and Wright,
having served under both of them; and | can
only say that they had the entire confidence Of
their troops. | do not know what military
value is To be placed upon the estimation in
which corps commanders are held by the en-
listed men under their command But if the
opinion of the soldiers are to be taken as a cri-
terian of the merits of corps commanders, then
it is certain that Warren and Wright were very
mertorous.
do not know that the history Of the civil
war furnishes any instance of a cavalry bred
officer commanding an infantry corps for any
length of time with particular distinction at
least not on side. For my part, / had great
Es.,,, I. o., q
a fierce resentment against Gen. Sheridan for
relieving him as he did at Five Forks-a feel
ing which, | venture to say, was generally
shared by all of Warren's veterans. But at
the same time | was glad TO see Griffin get
command of the corps. because our battery had
been attached to Grifin's Division almost all
the time since Bethesda Church, and in that
way we had all got to know him personally
almost as well as we did our own battery Off
GERS.
Griffin was a peculiar man. He had re-
marlsable faculty of making everybody at ease
in his presence yet no one ever dared TO pre-
sumo upon his good nature. For example,
while was with him mounted Orderly no
treated me with the utmost kindness. conversed
with me in the most companionabIo way, and
actually shared his supper more than once, and
yet ! would rs soon have thought of being
familiar" with the Almighty as with him
He had the " faculty of command" to greater
degree than any man 1 ever saw except Stew
art
Bat. as usual. | am getting ahead of my story.
which was temporarily abandoned TO relate
anecdotes. Let us return to the White Oak
road.
iNoTE.-Comradc A. NJ. True, Bethel. Me, Co. A,
l2th Me, First Brigade. Second Division, Nine
tccnth Corps, writes to say. among other things,
that he would like to- "a statement OF the losses
OF the Nineteenth Corps at Cedar Creek together
same authority NJ that from which the battle sta
tistcs of the Sixth Corps ~ published in No. Xxx
OF the sketch, were compiled"
The field return OF tho Nineteenth Corps for
Sept 90 1864 shows that it had two divisions of the
following strength:
fiTst DIVISION 1856 muskcts.
Second DIVISION 55 muskets.
Artillery Us guns .............-...... 3gS men.
TOTAL. 1887