The National tribune., 1908-09-03
CHARLOTTESVILLE.
(Continhed from page two.) .

CHANCELLOkSVILLE.
i (Continhed from page two.)
II Il believe that as time goes on and
the events of ahe hast days of June and
the first days of July, 1853, are more
and more catefuiiy studied, in the light
of all the facts, ard with an impartial
Il and dispassionate spirit, the mighty
j judgment of the Industrious Chief of the
! Union Artillery, Gen. Henry j. Hunt
II Will be more and more fully approved:
Il He was right in his orders as to Pipe
i Creek. right In his determination un-
der certain circumstances to fall back
j to 1t. right ia pushing up to Gettysburg
after the battle commenced, right in
j remaining there right in making his
battle a purely defensive one, right,
j therefore, in taking the line he did
i right in mot attempting a counter at
Il tack at any stage of the battle, right as
to his pursuit. of Lee /"
| ss Gen. Gibbons Account.
I The best and most impartial story of
I the council is in a paper by Maj.-Gen.
John Gibbon, published in Battles and
Leaders," and is as follows:
i Soon after all firing had ceased q
staff officer from headquarters met Gen.
Hancock and myself, and summoned
i US both to Gen. Meade's headquarters,
4 where a council was to be held. We
at once proceeded there, and soon after
/ our arrival all the corps commanders
were assembled in the little front room
/ of the Liester House-Newton, who had
| been assigned to the command of the
First Corps over Doubleday, his senior
Hancock, Second; Birney, Third; Sykes,
Fifth; 'Sedgwick, who had arrived dur
ing the day with the Sixth, after
long march from Manchester; Howard,
Eleventh, and Slocum. Twelfth. besides
| Gen. Meade; Gen. Butterfeld, Chief of
Staff; Warren, Chief of Engineers; A.
S. Williams, Twelfth Corps, and my
self, Second 1t will be seen that two
| corps were doubly represented, the Sec
| ond by Hancock and myself and the
| Twelfth by Slocum and Williams. These
IL were all assembled in a little room
| not more than 10 or IL feet square,
with a bed in one corner, a small table
on one side and a chair or two. OF
course, all could not sit down; some
did, some lounged on the bed, and
some stood up, while Warren, tired out
and suffering from a wound in the
neck, where piece of shell had struck
him, lay down in corner of the room
and went sound asleep, and I don't
think heard any of the proceedings.
"The discussion was at first very in
formal and in the shape of conversa-
ton, during which each one made COM
ments on the fight. and told what he
knew of the condition of affairs. In
the course of this discussion Newton
expressed the opinion that this was no
place to fight battle in Gen. New
ton was an officer of engineers (since
Chief Engineer of the Army, and was
rated by me, and 1 suppose most 9TH
ers, very highly as soldier. The as
sertion, therefore, coming from such a
source, rather startled me, and / eag-
erly asked what his objections to the
position were. The objections he stat
ed, as recollect them, related to some
minor details of the line, of which Il
knew nothing except so far as my own
front was concerned, and with those l
was satisfied; hut the prevailing i'm
preston seemedT to be that the place
for the battle had been in measure
selected for us. Here. we are; now
what is the best thing to do? 1t soon
became evident that everybody was in
favor of remaining where we were and
giving battle there. Gen. Meade him
self said very little, except now and
then to make some comment, but II
cannot recall that he expressed anyl
decided opinion upon any point, pre-
ferring apparently to listen to the con-
versation. After the discussion had
lasted some time Butterfield suggested
that it would prhaps be well to for
mulate the question to be asked, and |
Gen. Meade asserting, he took a piece
of paper, on which he had been max
ing some memoranda, and wrote down
question:; when he hod dono ho road |
it off and formally proposed it to the
council.
81 had never been member of a |
council of war before (nor have 1 been
since), and did not feel very confident
was prOperly q member of this one: |
but 1 had engaged in the discussion, |
and found myself (Warren being
asleep) the Junior member in it. By
the custom of war the junior member
votes first, as on court-martial; and
when fButterfield read off his question,
the substance of which was, Should |
the army remain in its present posi-
tion or take up some other?' he ad-
dressed himself first to me for an
answer. To say, Stay and fight was
to ignore the objections made by Gen.
Newton, and 1 therefore answered
somewhat in this way, 'ReTnain here,
and make such corrections in our po-
sition as may be deemed necessary, but
take no step which even looks like re-
treat The question was put to each
member and his answer taken down,
and when it came to Newton, who was
the first in rank, he voted in pretty
much the same way 1 did, and we had
some playful sparring as to whether
he agreed with me or l with him; the
rest voted to remain.
'The next question written by Butter
field was, Should the army attack or
wait the attack of the enemy?' 1 voted
not to attack, and all the others voted
substantially the same way; and on the
third question, How long shall we