The National tribune., 1908-04-16

and maintaining their position with
| frmnesS.
Buschbeck's Line.
| The position known as the Busch
! beck line was as follows: The pit to
| the south of the Plank road was occu-
! pied by the 154th N. Y, 73d and 27th
| Pa, and by some of the rallied men of
Devens's and Schu,z's commands. The
Plank road was defended by Dilger and
his one gun, supported by the two COM
panies of the 61st Ohio and some Of
! Devens's Division. North of the road
the 29th n. Y. was first in line and to
the right the space was filled with frag-
ments of Devens's Division and some OF
i Schurz's men, and to the right of them,
at the edge of the woods, were the SD
| ILL., and the SD Ohio, and in the woods
! further TO the right were the 5Sth n.
Y. and the 26th Wis. of Schurzs Divi-
sion. In the rear of the edge of the
woods the 157th n. Y. was placed in re-
Serve. The only piece of artillery in
this line of defense was Dilger's single
! gun. Weidrick's Battery, which had
been stationed just south of the Dowdall
House, and in front of Buschbeck, had
been Withdrawn shortly before, with the
| loss of two guns, taken by the flank
movement of the enemy passing to the
south of the Talley House. The horses
of one of these guns had been shot and
tthe cannOneers of the other had been
wounded. All of the reserve artillery
had been ordered to retreat some time
ipreviously, as there was no opportunity
to use it in the narrow space in rear of
| the rifle pit and the dense woods"
The Charge of the Sth Pa.
| Among the many incidents of Chan
! cellorsville none has been more extern
sively misstated and misrepresented
than the magnificent charge made by
Maj Patrick keenan,, of the Sth Pa.
Cav, which desperate rush cost his own
| life and those of a large portion of his
| battalion. Gen. Pleasonton, who had
the Regular Army passion for claiming
everything in sight, made strenuous as
| sertion of having ordered the charge to
save the Eleventh Corps and rose into
heroics about the dire necessity of sac
rificing the fine cavalry regiment to
avert still greater disaster. Pleason-
toms claim was baseless. Maj. Charles
II Wickersham, a Captain in the Sth
Pa. Cav, and Assistant Adjutan.-Gen-
eral, u. S. ", has contributed to the
papers of the Loyal Legion of Wiscon-
sin an account of the charge and the
circumstances leading up to it, which
seems to be unusually accurate. He
says that while Gen. Pleasonton was
nominally in command of the three reg
iments of cavalry retained with the
army, those regiments operated sepa-
rately, at wide distances apart, and no
member of them saw Pleasonton until
the evening of May 2.
The Sth Pa. Cav. had done good SER
vice in the crossing of the rivers, in
pushing back the enemy's cavalry, and
in picketing the roads. but on May 2
found itself in the rear while the infan-
try battle was going on in front. Sickles
sent back to Hooker for regiment of
cavalry to charge upon and capture the
ARTILLERY and ammunition of what he
supposed to be the enemy's retreating
column. The Sth Pa. Cav. was sent to
him. and while Maj. Huey went to Gen.
Sickles and reported its arrival the men
threw themselves on the ground to
sleep, and Maj. Keenan, and some Other
officers began a game of poker. As
Maj. Pennock Huey was conversing with
Sickles an officer arrived from Gen.
Howard, stating that his lines were Civ
ing away, and that he needed a regi-
ment of cavalry. Gen. Pleasonton came
up at that moment and when Sickles
spoke to him of the request he ordered
Maj. Huey to report to Gen. Howard.
who was supposed to be somewhere out
on the Plank road about a mile distant.
Maj. Wickersham says:
Starting for Howard.
when we left this point, the impression
being that the enemy was retreating.
and altho the firing was heavy on our
left, where we were to find Gen. How
ard, we had no thought of what was
impending. Sabers were in their scab-
bards: men We're riding listlessly at
walk. in the road which led to the
Plank road, where we were told We
would find Gen. Howard. The firing
which we heard had by this time in
creased very much, with some artillery
fire added. We had gone not more than
half mile, when a solid mass of gray
was seen on our left flank moving rap
idly toward us, firing as they came. In
another moment we found ourselves be-
tween the enemy's skirmish lines and
the line of battle, Maj. Huey command
ing the regiment, Maj. Keenan, COM
manding the first battalion; Adjt Had
dock, Capt. Arrowsmith and Lieut.. Car
penter were riding at the head of the
regiment. My position was on the right
or head of the I'd battalion. We could
hear no orders on account of the firing,
but we saw the battalion ahead of us
draw sabers and take the trot Spurs
pricked the horses sides, and down the
road plunged the column, the horses
straining every muscle. The men, COM
pretending the greatness of the mo-
ment, lifted their sabers high in the air.
Capt. McCallom turned in his saddle as
we trotted along, and, seeing the mass
of the enemy in front, said to me, L
think this is the last of the Sth Pa. Cav
replied, L think SO, too; but let us goI
down with our colors flying We were
close upon the rear of Keenan's bat
talon, and from the dreadful fire we
were receiving l feared the road ahead
would be obstructed by Keenans dead
and wounded men and horses, and III
raised my saber to check the men of
my battalion for a moment. AT this
juncture the fight became, if possible
more furious, the entire command using
sabers vigorously while pressing for
ward. At no time did the regiment lose
its formation, the only gaps being
caused by those who fell.
Sabering the Enemy.
"At the command 'Gallop and
charge we rushed upon the astonished |
Confederates, who, suddenly confronted
by what they thought was the head of
our cavalry corps, stood motionless and
irresOlute for a moment, the horses |
them. Saber blows fell thick |
and fast; some threw down their guns
and raised their hands beseechingly |
Soon the lines behind them opened fire |
and horses and riders tumbled head |
long; for several hundred yards the |
cavalry column plowed its way thru
more than one line of infantry before
ii lost its aggressive force 1t was the |
work of but q few minutes but in that
short time three officers and more than
80 men and 26 horses had gone down
I'VE were in the midst of Jackson's
Corps. Not shot was fired by our