The National tribune., 1904-07-14
ERRORS m WAR HISTORY.

TheO. +. Rodenbough. Gen. Boynton is
| the well-known correspondent. author of
several books, and the President of the
| Board of Education of the District of Co
| lumbia. Gen. Rodenbough is a retired Off
Ger of the Regular Army. Secretary Of
| the Military Service Institution of the
United States. the author of several
works of much interest. and the contribu-
tor to the International Encyclopedia or
Cavalry and the United States Army"
and Military Service
In response to Gen. Boynton's criticisms
upon the article in the Encyclopedia on
the Battle of Chickamauga, Gen. Roden-
bOugh said:
II have consulted the official War Rec
oris and other authorities and find as fol-
lows:
Il. Roynton says battle (Chickamauga)
began 30 n. m. Cyclic says a. m. The
weight of evidence is in favor of Cyclic.
(See extracts from official reports in
"2. Cyclic. says it began with fierce
attack by the Confederate right under
Polk Il. says Polk was miles away and
did not command Confederate right until
next day Prof. Coppee lin Gen.
Thomas. Great Commander series, Ap
pleton, 1899, an excellent authority, says:
With the dawn of day both armies were
ready for action. The enemy were posted
on the right bank of the creek in two
wings. commanded. respectively, by Polk
and Longstreet. The furious attack upon
Thomas was designed to be made at break
of day. and explicit orders had been sent
to Polk to that effect
Gen. Boynton proceeds to use up Gen.
Rodenbough's authorities. Gen. Cist
wrote small volume on the Army of the
Cumberland, along in the early SOS, be-
fore the War Records came out, and he
naturally fell into many errors. Gen.
Boynton says that in IA pages there 'are
81 serious conflicts with the official rec
ords.' Next, he takes up Prof. Coppee
and gives us an astonishing picture of the
way men presume to write '.war history"
Prof. Coppee wrote his life of Gen.
Thomas, and sent it i'll manuscript to
Col. $. c. Kellogg. a nephew of Gen.
Thomas and an officer on his staff dur
ing and long after the war. After ex-
amining it Col kellogg informed Prof.
Coppee that he could write him a new
book more easily than he could correct
this one. This postponed the publication
year. Prof. COppee then came to Wash
ington with his revised manuscript, and
resubmitted it to Col. Kellogg. The lat
ter. taking up volume of the War Rec
ords pointed out dispatch of Gen.
Thomas which directly contradicted one
of the Professors statements. Prof. Cop
pee inquired what book that was. and
being informed that it was one volume
of the complete War Records, the Pro
fessor expressed his surprise that he had
never heard that the Government had
Il H. Al
obtained a set. He then made third at
tempt at revising his manuscript, and
when the book came out. in the nine
pages relating to the opening moves of
the campaign toward Chattanooga there
were ID serious conflicts with the Official
Records; in the % pages on Chickamauga
| there were 53 and in the 20 pages on
Chattanooga there were 16 such serious
errors. Prof. Coppee's final manuscript
was edited by Gen. James Grant Wilson,
| who as editor of various war books has
allowed more military fiction to pass un-
| corrected than any other writer in Amer
| lea. But even he must now look out for
| his laurels. Further. Prof. Coppee had
represented the Union army, which was
on the march the whole night before the
battle, as actively engaged in throwing up
| field works Still further, he had written
up movements which belonged to the sec
ond days battle as operations of the first
day. And it is this very part. relating ex-
| clusiveiy to the second day, which Gen.
RodenbOugh quotes to overthrow my
statements from the official record con-
| corning the first day, as will appear from
| paragraph 2 Of his communication as
given above.
This quotation from Prof. Coppee,
which Gen. Rodenbough applies to the
| first day, and which he uses to reinforce
himself, relates to the opening of the sec
yg 90 M yuhn pnIl
| in command of the right wing, and Long
street, who did not arrive until after the
close of the first days fight, in command
| of the left wing. That Prof. Coppee has
| the Confederate army drawn up on the
wrong side of the stream, namely, the
right bank, where it could not fight the
Union army. which was some distance be-
yond the left bank, either did not attract
Gen. Rodenbough's critical mind, or, to
use his own language, was regarded by
him as trivial circumstance
Gen. Boynton gives this as his state
ment of the opening OF the battle of Chick
| amauga:
"As to the time of opening the battle of
| the first day, everybody who knows any
| thing of the matter knows that Gen Dan
McCook's Brigade began it's skirmishing
| with Forests cavalry soon after day
| light Sept. 10. The sun rose that day at
5:44. AS Dan McCook was withdra wins 2
at a. m, Croxton's Brigade Of Brannan' s
Division marched in and opened the bat
tie by heavy attack on Forrest at 7:3O,
followed by Van Deryeer's Brigade Of the
same division at 8 o'clock. Gen. Brannan,
in his report, gives the attack as shortly
after a. m. Bushrod Johnson, of the
Confederate side, speaking Of the attack,
says in his report: The first gun was fred
at 7:3O a. m Col. Connell, commanding
the remaining brigade Of Brannan, fixes
between 6 and as the opening. Col.
Chapman, who commanded Croxtons
Brigade, gives the same time, and Col.
Hays, who later commanded one Of the
brigades, says a few minutes after e.
These were the Union participants, and
the reports of the Confederates who were
opposed conform to these hours. Gen
Liddell. commanding a division in Walk.
er's Corps, from which Wilson's and Ec-
tors Brigades were sent to the assist.
ance Of Forrest, and reached him about
an hour after the battle opened, says ia
his report: About 8 o'clock the firing OF
Gen. Forests cavalry and Ectors and
Wilson's Brigades became very heavy,
etc. These were the officers on both sides
who opened the battle. The official rec
ords are specific that Polk was not put in
command of the right wing until non,