Year: 1878

every who there will cerroborate the assertion
that the 40h regiment reached the crest Of Little Round
Top in the very nick of time and before other troops
were there except part of Hazletts red battery and
that il had not reached first thirty sixty seconds
later Hoods Texas brigade, which the force met
would have seized the hill which the key to the whole
Union line The dsorganzed remnant of Sickless routed
corps would have been surrounded three sides Haz
ets battery would have been taken and its guns turned
upon the Union troops the field below The principal
ammunition train which parked about half mile il
the rear, would have been lost the general line of bat
would have been doubled up and disastrous defeat wou
have been almost inevitable Vincents brigade of the
Division of corps which just getting into positic
on Round TOP still further to the left might have dor
something to avert this disasters but to do it they wouo
have had to change their front under fire and ground
the most unsuitable for such evolution. We of the
140th regiment self gratatory to think the arr
val of the Monitor in Hampton Roads just when and as
she did circumstance more fortunate for the
Union than timely arrival to fill the gap just
when and did on Little Round Top at Gettysburg


vincent brigade on our left fought spenodly ana lost
guns i'll position just at the time when Sces sscorps


falling back in great disorder before overwhelming force,
and was against these advancing and for the
torious lines that he poured ia effective fire. Here too
he met his death in manner dramatic to the last degree
and yet TO be described.


When Warren detached and sent us up the HILL word
sent to our brigade commander General Stephen H.
Weed, notifying him of the fact he having gone at the
head of the brigade directly to the front to the support of
Sckless corps Upon receiving this word Weed brought
back the regiments with him hastily possible and put
them in position right along the of little Round
Top, not however arriving till bloody affair
But the sharpshooters still doing their best against
fiaZiett gunnerS, 1t while standing among them
that Weed received mortal wound Believing that he
about to die he the very act of committing his
last message to his friend Hazlet who stopped him
when there the whizz and thud of another bullet
it sunk into Hazetts brain and that brave arlleryman
fell corpse the body of his dying friend.


Thus had fallen our brgadier, the commander of the
battery which supported and gallant young colonel
In honor of the first of these three the of Little Round
Top has been changed and it is now known Weeds


The general was carried at behind the shelter of
rock and was soon taken an ambulance to the farmhouse
of Louis A. Bushman, which, well his barns and out
houses had been taken possession of and was being used
division hospital. Weed suffered intensely but for
time after he was hurt entirely conscious and
able to communicate the messages which he had begun to
give to Hazlett This he did to Lieutenant William H.
Crennell quartermaster of regiment who with the
other quarterasters of brigade had served during this
campaign Weeds aids. Among other things, Weed
asked that when he dead the ring which he
might be taken from his finger and with the pocketbool
containing his private letters be carried the young lady
TO whom he engaged TO be married AS the father of
that young lady has for many been public charac
Ger may not be inappropriate to state that she was the
daughter OF Simon Cameron of Pennsylvania.


Weeds bravery unto death, andhs bluff, outspok-
EN- manner we'll exemphHed by the cleaFiess with
which he made his dying requests, well knowing they
such, and by the emphasis with which he spoke par
tculary in reply which almost epitomses the character
of the made to Crennell when he said TO him, Cen
eral hope you not so badly hurt. Said Weed " I'm
as dead man as Julius Cesar He soon became deliri
ols and died about o'clock that evening.


During the fight surgeons, Dr Dean and Lord had
been stationed but few rods in of the regiment just
the crest of the HILL Here they gave the wounded
such immediate attention they needed before being sent
TO the division hospital at Bushmans farm. To this place.
when the fight oyer Sergeant wright and three other
men Of Company carried young. colonel and there
laid him on the ground | went with them. He had
fallen instantly dead. bloody froh each side of his
neck showed the fatal track OF the bullet.


Up to that time in my life had never felt grief so
sharply realized the significance of death we'll
then, when the wild excitement Of fight and
saw O'Rorke lying there pale and peaceful. Tome
and all Of us he had seemed the beau ideal Of sol
dier and gentleman all that he had been and the bright
promise of what he to be fresh IN minds
and now in an instant the fatal bullet had cut short the
chapter of that fair life. choked with grief stood
beside his elegs form. had known and loved him we'll
and in these last few weeks better than my position
his adutan naturally leading intercourse of the most
familiar kind day by day alto soldiers fare to-
gether and ofte at night slept with the same blanket
erng For him to die to like losing brother
and that brother almost the perfection of the manly gace
What blow such death to the young wife and loving
family who far away waited for the from Gettysburg
what it to of that regiment whose fortunes he had
shared whose wants and welfare he had watched and