The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1919-09-08
FINEST BRIGADE 49, ---
IN POTOMAC ARMY
What General Mcmahon Said About
the Vermonters in the Civil War
Reprinted by Request.

p e
| We reprint by request the following
tribute to the old First Vermont brigade.
1t was first printed soon after the. close
of, the Civil war, and was entitled The
First Vermont Brigade-by one who did
not belong to it, and who was never in
Vermont Its authorship was not known
for some time but finally was discovered
and acknowledged by its author. y This
was Gen Martin II. Mcmahon, who was
chief of staff of the Sixth Army Corps,
under Uncle John Sedgwiek : and had
| ample opportunity to see the Vermonters
i'll camp, on the march and in battle. He
has been United States marshal IN New
York, United States minister to Paraguay,
| and held other important offices. He is
now Judge of the rcourt of general sessions
in New York city, and he takes back
nothing of his old high opinion of the
| Vermont troops. 49,
They were honest farmers turned vaga-
, bonds. They were simple corntrymen
changed into heroes. They were quiet
townsmen that had become rovers. They
stole ancient horses and bony cows on
the march. They pillaged moderately in
other things. They swept the diaries and
stripped the orchards for miles where
| they travelled They chased rabbits when
| they went into camp after long marches,
and they yelled like wild Indians when
neighborng camps We're silent through
| fatigue They were i'll disciplined and ia
milar with their officers. They swag
gered in cool, impudent way, and looked
down with patrOnizing Yankee GOODNESS
/ upon all regiments that We're better drilled
and upon that part of the army gener-
ally that did not belong to the Vermont
brigade. They were strangely proud, not
of themselves individually, but of the
brigade collectively, for they knew per
fectly well they were the best fighters
in the known world They We're long OF
limb and could outmarch the army. They
were individually self-reliant and skillful
III the use of arms, and they honestly be-
lieved that the Vermont brigade could
not be beaten by the combined armies of
the rebellion.
They We're veterans III fighting qualities
almost from their first skirmish This was
, at Lees Mills. They crossed a narrow
dam under hot fire, made the attack
they were instructed to make and came
back wading deep in the water with a
steadiness that surprised the army. They
were an incorrigible, irregular, noisy set
of raScals. They were much sworn at
during their four years of service, yet
they were at all times a pet brigade.
There were but two things they could do
march and fight; and these they did in
a manner peculiarly their own. They had
u long, slow. swinging stride on the march,
which distanced everything that followed
. them. They had quiet, attentive, earn
: est, individual way of fighting that made
them terrific in battle Each man knew
that his neighbor in the ranks was not
i. going to run away, and he knew also
that he himself intended to remain where
ne was Accordingly none ofsthe atten
, ton of the line was directed from the i'm
e portant duty of loading or firing rapidly
:. and carefully. When moving into action
/. and while hotly engaged, TREY made queer
: quaint jokes and enjoyed them greatly
), They crowed like cocks, they baa-ed like
i sheep, they neghed like horses, they bel
S lowed like bulls, they barked like dogs
+ and they counterfeited with excellent eff
feet the indescribable music of the mule
[. When, perchance, they held a picket line
). III forest it seemed as if Noah's ark hac
II gone to pieces there.
t, In every engagement in which this brig
|. ade took part it was complimented fol
gallant conduct One of the most re
markable of its performances, however
= has never appeared in print, nor has i
been noticed in its reports. After tn
battle of Gettysburg, when Lees arm,
was in the vicinity of Hagarstown and tn
: Antetam, the Vermont brigade was de
ployed as a skirmish line covering a iron
| of nearly three miles. The enemy were il
| force in front near Beaver Creek TIL
Sixth corps was held in readiness i'm tn
rear Of the skirInish line, anticipating
| general engagement. The enemy had evi
IDENTIFY determined to attack At last hi
line of battle came forward The batter
res opened at once and the skirmisher
| delivered their fire. Our troops were o.
the alert and stood watching for the skin
mishers to come in and waiting to receiv
| the coming assault But the skirmisher
would not come i'll and when the fire die
away it appeared that the Nermonter
thus deployed as a skirmish line had az
| tually repulsed a full line of battle attacks
| Twice afterward the enemy advanced t
| cary the position and were each tim
| driven back by this perverse skirmis
| hne The ermonters, it is true, wer
strongly posted in the woods, and eac
man fired from behind a tree But ther
everybody knows that etiquette in sue
matters is for the skirmsh line to com
in as soon as they are satisfied the enem
means business These simple minded ps
triots from the Green mountains, how
ever adopted a rule of their own on thi
| occasion, and the enemy, disguised wit
this stupidity, retired across Beaver ereel
~ When the Nermonters led the column