The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1892-11-10
FIRST GUN AT GETTYSBURG.

| N "a Il L y
| The Cannonee Ell Thinks 1t Useless Controversy
| and Wants to know Who Fired the Las
| Shot.
SEE by to-day's NATIONAL TRIBUNE tina
| \ the boys are still keeping up the OLD
= quarrel as to which of Wadsworth's Bri
| gades-the Iron Brigade or Cutler's-go
in action first at Gettysburg the morning O
| July l. 1868.
Perhaps the boys of both brigades would &C
| cept me or the old man (Capt. Stewartl as ar
bitter on this point. The battery did not get OF
| the ground until both brgades were fghtins
| for all they were worth, but we certainly haG
| opportunity to see all there was 20 be seen abon
| the position, and from 1890 a. m. until O'Clock
| p. M, We witnessed their battle almost like
| one would look at grand panorama. After
! 2:3G in the afternoon we had so much bushes!
/ of our own to attend to that we could not follow
| their movements, but we were fully conversant
| with them during the forenoon. The fact that
most of our men were from the Iron Brigade
did not prevent Us from approaching in the
highest degree the grandeur of Cutters Bri-
gade; and / venture to say that though we
had but two or three men in our ranks from that
brigade, as against 60 or 20 from the Iron Bri-
gade Cutters men took as much interest in our
"Old Brass Thrashing Machine" (as they used
to call u.s. as any one did, and we always felt
quite as well fixed when Cutters Brigade was
backing US in battle as we did when the Iron
Brigade itself was behind US.
So, there can be no partiaity Oh our part
Now, to get back to the main point, it is a
matter of history easily accessible in the off,
cial records that Cutters Brigade. the 10Th n.
Y. In front, had the head of column of Wads-
worth's Division, and thereby of the First Corps,
when We started for Gettysburg from our biv-
onae at Marsh Creek that July morning.
The distance was about five and half miles
and the infantry of Cutters and the Iron Bril-
gades covered il in about so or So tes-cer-
tainly within an hour. They marched very rap
idly; faster, in fact. than the guns did, because
when we got there, about 10 o'clock, both bri-
gades were fighting like HI, and were to all
intents and purposes standing off Heth's whole
division, about 5000 strong
AS to the moment of going into action, or fir
ing the first musket, think that the 10Th n.
Y. is entitled to claim the credit of it, though
the seth Pa. was close at hand; and the late
Capt Ira N. Burritt. for many years editor of
the Sunday Herald of Washington, has often
endeayored to demonstrate to me that his regi-
ment (56th Pa. fired the first gun there
If you will visit the field you will see that
Cutters Brigade kept on up the Emmitsburg
road till they came to the lane leading west
from that road past the north side of the
Lutheran Seminary, when they ieft-obiqued
in the narrow pasture just south of the CASH
town road and east of Willoughby's Creek they
struck the leading men of Heths Division;
the result Of which was doubtless, the most
desperate aud bloody collision ever expe-
rienced by two formations of troops anywhere
Gu earth.
Even after we got there. which was at least
two hours after the first onset, we could see
those troops over on the other ridge in our
from ri int n M OF
Of not more than 80 or 40 yards
But the Iron Brigade left the Emmitsburg
road at point considerably south of the end
of this lane which have spoken of and they
also left obliqued and got into action south and
west of the Seminary about the same time that
Cutlers Brigade struck the enemy in the pas
ture. 1t must be borne in mind. when speak
ing OF the action of the Iron Brigade there
that the I'd and 18th Wis, 18th Ind, and oath
Mich. went into action together in regular
brigade formation of regimental front ex-
tended, while the 9th Wis. obliqued TO its right
until it became entirely detached from the rest
of the brigade and went clear up to the railroad
cut where ii struck the advance of Archer's
rebel brigade, which, with the help of tine 14th
Brooklyn. it captured or destroyed. After
that the 9th Wis. came down the railroad to
our position about o'clock D. NJ, and with the
aid Of Big Dick Couiter's 18th Pa, of Robinson's
Division, supported ms to the end of the first
day, and were the last Of our infantry to leave
the field.
have taken some pains to locate these posi-
tons, because my mothers cousin, Capt. Am
brose Baldwin, commanding consolidated Co.
Tx Of the Goth n. Y, was killed there about
IL o'clock in the morning, and l have hunted
out the spot where he fell
Col. Rube Dawes, Adjt Ned Brooks, and
others of the 9th Wis, claim that they got in
first al the outer railroad cut, where they can
tured Archer. Col. Lucius Fairchild. Capt.
Bill Homes, and others of the ID Wis, and
Gen. Bill Dudley, of the 18th Ind, declared
with equal vigor that they were the first to
strike the enemy, when they wiped out the
26th n. C. regiment at the fence lust this side
of the creek (Willoughby's). A singular feature
Of this brief but awful combat was that one
entire company Of the 26th n. c. was CON-
pletely destroyed by the Iron Brigade at that
fence, not one man in il ever afterward report
ing for duty, while the 26th n. c. rs whole,
was made to suffer the greatest aggregate loss
OF any regiment in any battle of any war!
The truth OF history, though slow, is prob.
ably sure, and for that reason some day the
human race will learn that the fight made by
the old First Corps the first day of Gettys.
burg was the grandcst exhibition of soldierly
manhood ever recorded. Cambronne at Water
loo said, "The Old Guard dies; it does not sur
reuderi" The First Corps at Gettysburg
neither died nor surrendered. Sixty-five out
of every 100 of its men died or were crippled,
but the other 30 in every 100 were on hand
the nextday, quite as good as If they had never
experienced any trouble.
Under such circumstances, and with such a
history, why should the veterans of the First
Corps dispute about the firing of the Erst gun
IL wasn't the first gun of Gettysburg that
tod the tale; it was the last gum
Let us yield to the claim Of the 10th N. Y.
as to the first gun, and proceed to inquire who
fired the last one.-BUELL, Philadelphia, Pa
AT CEDAR CPEED