The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1895-06-27
LIGHT OF THE RECORDS.
Comrade BIakesIee Sums Up the Four-Gun
Battery Controversy.

certain parties claiming all the honors of the
capture of the fort at Resaca, May 10, 1864,
seems TO have walked snakes amongst the
BOYS Yet the fact remains that in the light
of the records my statement as given is his
torically correct, and as the evidence is ap-
parently all in now j desire 10 review some
which was intended TO confouDd me, and
will ciie your readers TO reports of officers
commanding on that line that day.
l. the issue of March 81 we find an article
headed mo Glory There by a comrade
who, TO make his statements more impress
i've. informs us he was a Second Lieutenant.
Now, his regiment, have every reason to
believe came on the field and did its duty,
as shown by the records. Then, why does
he deny any honor or glory to the partici-
pants in that struggle? Simply the old
story of the fox and the grapes The honors
in this case were poor, sour and dTied-up
things, anyway.
On page 421, Part 9, Vol. So Official Rec
ords, report of Capt. David Anderson, COM
mauding the regiment after Col. Gilberts
death. and who made the report of this days
doings says:
ARRIVED at Resaca at IL a. m, May Is.
The Second Brigade was Immediately formed
in order of battle and ordered to advance.
The order was promptly obeyed, and with
other regiments of the division there en-
gagged they won for themselves on that
memorable day honors imperishable."
Col. John COburn, in his report, says, on
page $50, speaking of Resaca:
The conduct of the brigade, under the
peculiar try ing circumstances, was excellent.
Their determined and gallant charge secured
the position SO boldly won by the First Bril-
gade, and together they held il under the
very muzzles of the enemy's guns five hours
in daylight and their prompt and vigorous
actioB on the left late in the day contributed
powerfully to repel the fierce assault"
On page 341 Gen. Ward, of the First Bril-
gade, reports that after carrying the first line
of works and having 800 men in the lunet,
in which were the captured guns:
81 had these men formed to charge the
second line. and kept those in line firing at
the enemy's works, when Col. Gilbert, with
the 18th Mich, came up on horseback"
This was, as the reader can see, after the
First Brigade had carried the works and
captured the guns. A little farther be re-
ports the loss of $50 men of his brigade on
this charge.
Our doughty Second Lieutenant says:
"The fort was no fort at all. The guns
Just stood there in hollow in the ground.
There may be some digging there, but the
ground was all sodded over" Yet he before
this informs us that when they first came in
sight. which was al least half a mile away.
" We can see where the earth has lately been
disturbed, and are told there is a battery
there.
1.-THE dirt was so low around the guns that
no one could stand there and work them any
more than if there had been no hollow"
Yet, Just above this statement, he says:
Some of the men ran up 10 the fort, jumped
through the embrasures and inside" And
again he says: Edmund V. Monroe jumped
through an embrasure into where the guns
weren
"The fort was no fort at all" yet ii seems
by his story there were embrasures all the
same. Again he says: No one was there TO
work the guns, and no ammunition OF cal
sons there" This fully corroborates Gen.
Wards report, quoted above. that when Col.
Gilbert rode up Ward had 300 nen in the
fort.
On page 352 we read in the report of Col.
f. {. Smith. l02d H., of the FIRST Brigade,
Third Division, in describing this charge
and the results:
"Members of Cos. i and e of my regi-
ment captured five prisoners, including the
This will account for some of the battery
men who were not there TO work the guns"
when our Second Lieutenant arrived at the
fort This comrade asks: Can anyone
say that a single person was hurt by one of
these guns that day?o ] will answer: No.
not after the 18Th Mich came on the ground
but about half an hour previously / saw
single dose OF canister from one of those guns
sweep through the 1929 H., placing hors d n
combat its entire color-gusrd. Then the
brave Sergt Elias T. Champlin, of Co. ID,
caught up the flag and carried it into the
fort and planted it on the earthworks, and
was himself shot dead.
The comTade declares the guns were old
smoothbores, called Napoleons. and of no
account Will he ask any batteryman that
saw service what better guns were in use
for short range than the Napoleon? They
were not old ones, either; they were new,
and dandies, and Corput's men knew how 10
handle them, too. IL is true, to all intents
and purposes they were Quaker guns at
the time of the arrival Of Col. Gilbert and
the 18th Mich, and that is possibly why our
comrade could see no glory there.
Any man who AYERS that those guns were
30 be fired with fuse, instead of a LANYARD
and primer, subjects himself TO the ridicule
Of his comrades. Fuses-nothingl Anyone
who saw those fellows crack the whip in
the air that day will tell you they were
not waiting to light fuses.
Another comrade, in commenting on the
charge Of the First Brigade at Resaca, sneer-
ingly remarks: Ii was but riot anyhow,
and the rebs in the fort could not depress
their muskets so as to hurt US if they wanted
to-
This assertion is about on par with those
made by some other "sour-grape fellows
that are barking at the Blue Star.
In the March % issue Comrade johnson,
l1lth Pa, complains that try TO belittle
the report OF Col. George A. Gotham. j de-
sire TO say that the so-called report as pub
lished in THE NATIONAL TRIBUNE, and
sent TO Gen. Howard by Capt Alexander,
does not agree with the official records,
which il was intended TO do; not that the
Captain intended 10 give wrong impress
sion by any means, bat il was somewhat in
line with the other statement made by
Comraoe johnson, that the men Of their
regiment were born with gun in their
hands," which would be rather Of an
anomaly, 10 say the least.
Another comrade criticises my map as in
correct ia showing the formation of Wards
Brigade. j have never pretended that this
was the formation when ready for the charge
1t was the line, however, previous TO the
formation by regimental front, when ready
for the charge. So, also, again he correcis
me IN saying was wrong in calling il Har-
rison's Brigade, when il was Wards. Now
TO be particular about il, il was Wards Bri-