The National tribune., 1893-02-16
GEN. S. s. CARROLL.
The Cannoneer Pays Tribute to the Memoir
of tie GalIant " Hricktop."

| EDITOR NATIONAL tribune: hope the
myriad readers of The NATIONAL TRIBUNE
| will acauit me of any intrusive purpose or of
| desire to pose as an obituarist of distinguished
| men, But the past month has included in its
neurology two veterans Of the Army of the
| Potomac who were not only among its most
! brilliant and successful soldiers, but who also
| did me the honor to receive mo into their in
| innate, personal friendship and association
| during many years. These were Joseph Jack
son Bartlett and Samuel Sprigg Carroll. No
| one who has read my humbclittie book, 1.-THE
| Cannoneer," will ask any question to what
| my estimate of those two men was while they
| lived and. therefore, it is not necessary TO offer
| apology for disposition to lay chaplcts on
their graves.
1t was never my fortune to serve with or
under Con- Carroll, as l did under Bartlett,
| because Carroll was i'll the Second Corps, with
| which had nothing to do. In fact, the only
| time / over saw Carroll and his brigade in
| ton was at dusk the Cd of July, 1863 on the
| north front of Cemetery Hill; but that was
| enough. There has been great deal of con-
| troversy about that transaction and the events
| which led to it, evoked largely by my own de-
scription of 1t in o serial published some years
| ago in The NATIONAL TRIBUNE. | do not
| wish to rekindls that controversy alongside of
| Gen. Carrolls grave; but must be permitted
| to remark that after everybody gets through
vindicating" everybody else who seems to
need or who may think he needs "viudication !"
80 years afterwards in respect to that affair, the
| fact that Sprigg Carroll and his men OF the 4th
| Ohio, 18th Ind and 7th w. Va. "vindicated "
| themselves right then and there the spot
and for all time will be indelible in history.
| In my observations about Joe Bartlett the
other day. l confessed prejudice in his favor
due to considerations other than those of COM
| radeship in war. ! might say the same of
| Carroll because, though never serving with
him or under his command was attached to
him by personal ties. His sister, who was
Sallie Carroll, was the bride of Gen. Charles
Griffin at the tiine when / was attached to
Griffin in capacity which brings an enlisted
man into close relations with officers family.
Mrs Griffin was one of the most beautiful and
accomplished women OF that time-and is yet,
for that matter-and she is not more than
year older than /, anyhow; for as Gen.
Grflin's bride she was girl Of 90 while as his
personal Orderly was boy of 49, OF course, Mrs.
Grifiin's admiration for her chivalric brother
was Undesirable. Years afterward, when,
after the death of Con. Griffin. she married the
Austrian Minister, and became Countess Ester
hazy these wartime relations were renewed,
and these old memories were refreshed, and L
was brought into personal contact with her
brother, Sprigg Carroll. l easily shared his
sisters admiration for him. During my long
residence in Washington there was no place
old Carroll mansion. at Eighteenth and F
streets, and few hospitable homes that l visited
oftener.
However, this Is too much about myself and
not enough about Sprgg Carroll. The leading
thought in my mind WAS comparison be-
tween those two peerless sodiers-Carroll and
Bartlett; very much alike in personal traits,
equal in all tho essentials of robust manhood
co. ordinate in military rank and fame we'll
earned, alike in virtues and in faults, and yet
totally different in antecedents and training
Carroll was q born and bred aristocrat of the
oldest Maryland cavalier stock. Bartlett was
a scion Of the hardest and most pious Puritan
yeomanry. Carroll was educated at West Point;
Bartlett got his first lesson in tho art of war
July 81, 1861. Notwithstanding the total
difference in their antecedents and training.
their careers as fighting soldiers were almost
identical in the Army Of the Potomac except
In the matter of casualty. Carroll was disabled
at Spottsy lvania; otherwise he must have fol-
lowed in Gibbons tracks as to promotion, the
same way that Bartlett followed Griffin. There
can be no question but that Carroll would have
got Gibbons Division when the latter was pro-
NOTED to a corps command, the same as Bartlett
got Griffius Division under similar circuin-
stances, had he been able to take it. But, ire
spective of the =" batte-luck Of either Of them,
it must be said that they both gained their en-
during fame as brigade commanders. Most
Bartlett commanded the First Division, Fifth
Corps, from Five Forks to Appomattox. But
every schoolboy, generations hence. will know
that no commanded q brigade of the Sixth
Corps at Salem Church and at Gettysburg, and
the old Third Brigade of the First Division,
Fifth Corps, all the way from the Wilderness
to Five Forks while CAROLS fame will rest
on his achievements with that old Bricktop
Brigade" Of Gibbons Division, Second Corps.
which he led alike over the north brow of
Cemetery Hill the second day at Gettysburg.
into the blazing breast works the Brock
road the second day of the Wilderness, and up
against the impregnable lines of Spottsylyania
the 18th and 18th of May.
What Bartle;t's Brigade was to Griffin's
Division CarrolPs Brigade was to Gibbons
the strong right Each always the
main reliance Of his commander; and, c0rre-
sp0ndngly, each vindcatcd his commanders
choice Whenever called upon. Both were born
soldiers. West Point, with its legends and it's
logarithms could not have added one single
s0ldierly quality or attribute to the New York
civilian Joe Bartlett, who exchanged the
books of the lawyer for the trappings of the
warrior Mt the beat of Recruiting Sergeant's
drum. Conversely, West Point, with its ped
antry and precision, could not have clouded
one single instinct of the battle. king which
Sprgg Carroll inherited from his Revolutionary
grandsires.
AT the outset Oh Gne CIVIL war Dotn Wero
Democrats-Bartlett in the free State of New
York. Carroll in the slave State of Maryland.
Neither wavered moment in his choice of
sides. But l think it was harder for Carroll,
raised an heir to slave property, and educated
as q slaye.State cadet at West Point. to draw
his sword for universal freedom than for Bart
lett. raised Democrat in free State, and
taught by his environment to abhor slavery.
However, / don't think that other of them
thought once about the fate of slavery where
they thought . thousand times about the fate
of the Union! There were a great many
Democrats like them in 1861. If there had
been no such Democrats as they were in 1861
the rebel army would have occupied Bunker
Hill, and Robert Toombs would have been call.
ing the roll Of his slaves in Fanueil Hall by
1863.
Well, they are both gone now. Peace to
their ashes! The good that they have done
they were the only sufferers, are buried be-
meath them. Their virtues will live forever,
for they were both brave, true, honest, manly
men.
And one Of these days, away yonder. when
the history Of the Army of the Potomac shall
have crystalized into classic, and its Had
shall be sung by new race and studied in the
colleges Of another civilization, Sprgs Carroll
and Joe Bartlett will be something like it's
Ajax and its Achlles.-AUGUsrUs BUELL.
Pittsburg, Feb g.
The 9th Mass.