The National tribune., 1893-01-26
GEN. JOE BARTLETT.
The "Cannoneer" Grows Eloquent
Over the Death of His COmrade
and Friend.

of the Army of the Potomac, passed away. 1t
was Gen. Joseph Jackson Bartlett. OF Bing-
hamton, New York, and of the Fifth and
Sixth Army Corps. Possibly / am not the
proper one to write his obituary. In youth he
was my neighbor in the Old Chenango Valley.
When war overlook US, and the hills and daies
of I" the Southern Tier" Of York State poured
fourth their yeomanry of farmer-boys to grid
on the trappings of battle, he became my COM
mander. In later life he was my bosom friend
Because of all these things perhaps am preJu-
diced in his favor. But it was easy to become
prejudiced in favor of Joe Bartlett; and so
hard to nurse prejudice against him that
living or dead, he had and has no enemy. lie
was Union soldier of the truest blue; but
among the sincerest of his mourners will be
found men of the Con federate gray who faced
him on every field from Bnll Run to Apo
mattox. He was Democrat Of the deepest
dye; but among his most ardent admirers and
most devoted friends will be found men OF
high rank in the Republican party.
This is because, in every affair of life and
under every test of manhood, Joe Bartlett was
perfectly honest, perfectly true and perfectly
brave.
After all, these are the traits that endure.
Men may succeed through possession of other
or even opposite traits but it is a poor success
and leaves bad taste i'll the mouth of man.
kind. 1t is only success based such traits
as Joe Bartlett had that makes the dead mans
name o sweet morsel to roll under the tongue
of all posterity.
Whether as boy at homo in Binghamton; as
student in the old law Office of Daniel s. Dick
inson; as private, Captain, Major and Colonel
of the 9th n. Y. at the first Bull Run /; As COM
mander Of his brigade in the First Division
of the old Sixth Corps on the Peninsula, at
Champions Pass, at Antietam, at Fredericks.
burg, at Salem Church hancelorsvillel, at
Gettysburg, and at Mine Run; or as COM
mander of that grand old Veteran Brigade"
of Griffins Division, new Fifth Corps-made
up especially for him when Grant reOrganized
the Army of the Potomac, in March, 1S64-as
commander of that brigade whose glory my
pen falters at the attempt to describe in the
deadly jungles of the Wilderness; before the
blood clotted breastworks of Spottsylvania;
wading the North Anna at Jericho Mill waist
deep; holding the right of our line at Bethesda
Church, June 2, 1864, and cheering our old bat
terry On to the grandest performance in its 80
years of service and probably the grandest it
will ever do; storming the main works at
Petersburg June 49, right up into the ditch
and leaving their dead across the parapet;
through all the digging, desperation and death
Of those hanted trenches OH the Avery House
front; in the fierce rushes under the hot August
sun and the hotter rebel musketry to force the
lines, on Aug. 10 and 81 at the Weldon road
in the stealthy night march on Poplar Spring
Church, and in the sudden clash of Hatcher's
Run; in the rescue of Chamberlain, Gregory
and our old battery at Gravelly Run; III that
matches wheel in three lines of battle out of
the woods al Five Forks, when his old brigade
marked time ON it's pivot-f TANKS under murder
Gus musketry at 200 yards as steady as If IN
review; or in command of Grifin's old Di-
vision" First of the Fifth Corps and Second
to none" as we used to describe ton that
awful nine-days fox chase from Sutherland
Station to the Mclean House; at all these
times and in all these places he was the same
genial, gallant, handsome, honest and big
Drained Joe Bartlett whom everybody knew
and loved and admired alike az student-b0y IN
Binghamton and as Major. General at Apo
mattox.
As knew him better than most of the COM
rades, in consequence of our neighborly rela-
tous before the war; a little sketch of his origin
may be interesting. His father was a gum
maker in Binghamton and !" Bartlett rifle
at any time from 1880 to 1860 was considered
treasure anywhere between the banks Of the
Susquehanna and those of the Mississippi. In
his youth Joe preferred books to guns and for
that reason his father destined him for the pro-
fession of law. He had brother, we'll known
in Washington as the Rev. DR.. Bartlett, who
abandoned rifles for religion; and another
brother, whom we used to call "Chet " at home,
who mad little for either books, rifles or
religion but who became of the grandest
types Of soldierly manhood | ever knew, and
died in 1886 from the effects of a wound re-
ceiyed on the front line of battle in 1865, which
ought to have killed him in half an hour!
In those good old days "befoh dc wah," as
our colored felow.citizens say, as handsome
and as smart boy as Joe Bartlett was would at
once become the leader in his neighborhood,
no matter whether his father was rich or poor.
1t is not now, more's the pity. However,
Father Bartlett. the great ri6e.maker of the
Susquehanna and Chenango Valleys, drove
thriving trade in those days when an honest
farmer in cold Winter could often kill deer
from his bedroom window at daylight In the
morning as my grandfather did more than once,
with Bartlett rife" over near Windsor,
above Lanesboro bridge. So he had means %
| educate his boys
Thus it happened that our Joseph received
good academic education, and proceeded to the
study of the law about the year 1858 or 1883.
But distasteful as the making of rifles may
have been to onr beloved Joseph in 1853 or 1859.
events over which he had no control brought
him often into distressing familiarity with
their use in 1861 to 1861 His fortune SOL
der was singular. | doubt if any man, en-
listed or commissioned, in the Army OF the
Potomac, was ever under fire greater number
of times than he was. and yet he rever received
a wound worth mentioning. he had his clothes
torn about 80 times, seven or eight horses shot
under him first and last-incuding one which
the Binghampton people paid over $4,000 for
and presented to him, and for which our gen.
erous Republic allowed him the regulation
cavalry price of 1925, which he refused to ac-
cept.
He used to say that the only wound he ever
got that left scar, was that of bullet which
knocked the single star off his Brigadier- GEN
erals shoulderstraps on the left shoulder in
the Wilderness and he used to wear that
wounded strap afterward, telling his boys that
he would keep wearing it that way till Uncle
Sam saw fit to give him new shoulder-strap
with two stars
Neighbors though we were at home, it was
not until had been in service two years that
| came into the same command with him. But
from the crossing of the Rapidan, May 4, 1861,
till the Fifth Corps left Richmond for the
Grand Review the last Of April, 1865 there
were not many days when it was not my for
tune to see Joe Bartlett at the head of his com.
mand was away with the Sixth Corps Nc
Knights battery up in the Shenandoah Valley
from July 9 till Nov. IA, 1864, and again at the
Ammunition Wharf or on the second expedi-
ton against Fort Fisher from Dec. %, 1864, to
March 10, 1865; but those brief absences could
do little or nothing to Oblterate my memories
of the Joe Bartlett whom | had seen lead his
devoted old veteran brigade into the hell of the
Orange pike in front of the Lacey House in the
Wilderness against the impregnable earth
works Of Laurel Hill at Spottsylvania; across
the turbid river below the old Jericho Mill at
North Anna right up into the ranks of Rodess
infantry at Bethesda Church, and verify into
. In fra, in thrnatS of fLnir ambraSureS