The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-06-10
THE REWRITING OF HISTORY.

No other part Of the very interesting
"reminiscences of Long Life of the
late Carl Schurz. which serial is running
in Mcclure S Magazine, possesses the
vivid interest Of the section of those
"reminiscences in the June number,
which tells about the battle of Chan
cellorsvile, II appears, from this ac-
count, that il is absolutely necessary
to wholly revise and alter the tradi-
tional and official accounts Of the CON
duct of the Eleventh Army corps in
that battle.
General o. o. Howard was com
mander of that corps: Schurz com.
manded one of its divisions II will
be remembered by those familiar with
the history Of the Peninsular cam
paigns that Hooker, in command of the
Army of the Potomac in the spring of
1868, performed A very brilliant piece
of military tactics by moving around
Lee s left flank and striking his com
munications. This flank movement
Hooker seemed TO consider the winning
of the campaign, without reckoning
that the battle was yet TO be fought,
and he remained inactive upon com.
pleting it, However, he had every ad.
vantage in numbers. in position and in
initiative lie had Lee within his grasp
absolutely, speaking technically from
the military standpoint; but paralysis
seemed to overcome Hooker Immediate
ly upon the completion of his strategic
move. He gave no orders, made no
moves, but appeared to think that he
was in an impregnable position and that
Lee was obliged to attack him at such
disadvantage that Confederate defeat
was sure. However, Stonewall Jackson
managed to slip around the right wing
of Hooker S army, to make very
long Ranking move and find his right
wing Gin the air. to attack IL both
in flank and rear at the same time.
double it mp like a sheet of pasteboard.
having found it in an utterly indie.
fensible position and apparently with
out the least expectation of or prepar-
alton for the attack which he delivered
The rout Of that division followed sure
ly and inevita bly,; but from the ac-
count given by Schurz, the rout was
not by any means as disgraceful as the
official reports allowed to be repre-
sented
The movement of Stonewall Jackson
was, in fact. known to a considerable
portion of the officers of the right wing
of the army. Schurz knew of it; other
officers knew Of it, and dreaded the
attack. Early in the day, as Schurz
says. he notified Howard of the i'm
pending danger, and warned him Of il
repeatedly along in the day, asking
that better disposition of the troops
be made, but Howard was absolutely
oblivious and incredulous, He refused
not only to believe in any such attack
as was impending and the imminence
of which was insisted upon by Schurz.
but he refused to allow of any correc-
tion Of the disposition of the troops to
guard against such attack in case it
came. Howard appeared to have been
thoroughly inoculated with the Hooker
idea that Lee was helpless and that
the Union arms were triumphant even
without striking blow; that Lee must
attack at a disadvantage. But the at
tack which Schurz dreaded came. 1t
was delivered, however, many hours
after it had been foreseen by Schurz
and, so far as allowable, guarded
against by him and by other alert Off
GERS. Howard was fully informed,
Schurz says, of the exposed position of
the right wing of his corps and about
the certainty that the attack was
coming, but did nothing about it, and
refused to modify the orders and give
new ones providing for a strong de-