Tweet
Re: Historical Tidbits about the Battle
Excerpts from the Pickett’s Mills chapter of Hazen’s A NARRATIVE OF MILITARY SERVICE:
Hazen quoting General Joseph E. Johnston:
“The Federal troops approached within a few yards of the Confederates, but at last were forced to give way by their storm of well-directed bullets, and fell back to the shelter of a hollow near and behind them. They left hundreds of corpses within twenty paces of the Confederate line. When the United States troops paused in their advance within fifteen paces of the Texas front rank, one of their color-bearers planted his colors eight or ten feet in front of his regiment, and was instantly shot dead. A soldier sprang forward to his place, and fell also as he grasped the color-staff. A second and third followed successively, and each received death as speedily as his predecessors. A fourth, however, seized and bore back the object of soldierly devotion.”
Hazen himself :
“My command was re-formed with great difficulty near Pumpkin-Vine Creek. I rode rapidly to each place where I saw a regimental color, and halting it would order the bearer to stand in his position, and then, with my aides, orderlies, and the staff of other officers, would direct the men one by one to their colors. It was slow work, as the men were in bad humor, and felt that they had not been properly supported. They went into the fight with the implied promise of immediate support that a column attack always gives, and they felt, as they expressed it, that they had been “sold out.” As soon as I had gotten together a small fragment of three or four of my nine regiments, I was taken, by General Howard’s order, to a new position on the right. Everybody was morose, and found fault with his superior, --- the men with their captains, the captains with their colonels, and so on all the way up.”
Excerpts from the Pickett’s Mills chapter of Hazen’s A NARRATIVE OF MILITARY SERVICE:
Hazen quoting General Joseph E. Johnston:
“The Federal troops approached within a few yards of the Confederates, but at last were forced to give way by their storm of well-directed bullets, and fell back to the shelter of a hollow near and behind them. They left hundreds of corpses within twenty paces of the Confederate line. When the United States troops paused in their advance within fifteen paces of the Texas front rank, one of their color-bearers planted his colors eight or ten feet in front of his regiment, and was instantly shot dead. A soldier sprang forward to his place, and fell also as he grasped the color-staff. A second and third followed successively, and each received death as speedily as his predecessors. A fourth, however, seized and bore back the object of soldierly devotion.”
Hazen himself :
“My command was re-formed with great difficulty near Pumpkin-Vine Creek. I rode rapidly to each place where I saw a regimental color, and halting it would order the bearer to stand in his position, and then, with my aides, orderlies, and the staff of other officers, would direct the men one by one to their colors. It was slow work, as the men were in bad humor, and felt that they had not been properly supported. They went into the fight with the implied promise of immediate support that a column attack always gives, and they felt, as they expressed it, that they had been “sold out.” As soon as I had gotten together a small fragment of three or four of my nine regiments, I was taken, by General Howard’s order, to a new position on the right. Everybody was morose, and found fault with his superior, --- the men with their captains, the captains with their colonels, and so on all the way up.”
Comment