}4ixi QOoebSOsaaH^ HoUinger pH8.5 Mill Run F3.1955 S H i C^ TJ H I I I TO ilENERAL M'CALL'S REPORT OF THE PENNSYLVANIA RESERVES IN THE PENINSULA. f ^■h <\1> V 1 Sequel to GeiieralU'Call's Report OF THE PENNSYLVANIA RESERVES IN THE PENINSULA. T reirrot estremely that justics to myselt and to my di\^SIOIl shoj'd render any iiirther comment ot mine on the ofEcial statemoiits oi Ueueral McClellan, in his report ol the Peiiinsula Campaisu, at fill neces- sary. But havinj,- been i romoved in seii-doionse to publ.sh my own report, immcd atolv on observing in a daily joun.al an extract from that officei's report reflectiaa: on my tiivisioa, published in advance of the oC.cial document pnnted by order of CoDsrres?, and haviuff subsequently discovered m the la ter nir- thcr statements iuiurious to myself and my cod> mand. I was led to open a correspondence vv'itn seve- ral Genera officers who served in that campalpn. This correspondence has but recently closed. It hcs brought to lis:ht some interesting tacts, and I ave taken the earliest le.sure I could devote to the ma:- tcr to lay these developments before my countrymen. Tte services ot my division have been either mis'u- terpieted or miiund! rs^qod,■ and consequent misre- prcscurations, as discreditable to the author as unjust to mi'seli, have Lecu issued to the world in every toim of publication by the hundred thousand copies. It is an uniiJeasant task to revert to this subject, lor bclore the war I had enteriained no other lee^intrs than (hose ot amity lor General McClellan, and coufldence in his ability ana iutegrivy. When, how- ever, asseitions are made which in my jud,'rn;ent are unsupported by tacts, it becomes my dut. to "rectify the lecord." I now iiroceed :— General McClellan, in his ofiicia! report (House Eeji. Ex. Doc, No. 15, page 137), quotes from and indorses Genera' Heiht- zi LMAs's report, wnh res] ect to the operations of my division in the battle ol Kelson's iarm, Glendale or ICew Market Cross Heads, as var ouslv- called, rather Ircely, considering that Heij.tzelman Vias all the time in my rear, separated by a strip of pine lorest from my battle-:ncurd, where he cou'd, from personal observation, know absolutely uothin? of what was passing in my division. One of these quotations is the fol'.ovring: — "Gene- ral Heistzelm ax states that about five o'clock P. BI. General I'IcCall's Divi ion was attacked in larce force, Pvidently the principal attack; that in less than an hour the diviion gave way . " In order to expose the error here promulgated it is only neccssaiy to cile Gci eral McClellan himself. On the same page an« the .o;io\v;n?> one of his Ee- port (p. 137-8), he makes this statement:— 'Gen' ral ScMXEEsaysci this battle, 'Ihe battle ot Glendale was the most severe r.ction siiice the battle ot Fair Oaks. About 3 (three) o'clock F. M. the act:oii com. menced. a:-d aiter a lurioas contest, 'asling til! aitcM dark, the enemy v, as routed at all p„iuts and driven from the field.' " Now it is known beyond the possibility of a cavil that my division wasengap-ed T\ith ihe enemy, single haLded, for two hours telore either Sumker or Hooker saw the enemy at all, font was not until about S (five) P- M. when Setmouk's Brigade of ir.y division was lorccd back on .Sdmnee's right and par- tially on Iiookee, that the commands Ol either oi these officers became engaged. That thes: troops received the shock handsomely no one has denied, though General Sumner told me in Washmjton aiDout the early part of November, 1862, that he be- lieved Genc-al Hooker s Division wou d have been driven in by the impetuosity of the enemy, had he not sect the best reciment o. his corps (Col. Owe>, ! Sis.ty-ninth Penn'sylvania Volunteers) to the support I ol that General, 'ihls en passant. But what makes ' the official reiJ.Tt of General HEI^■TZELI1AN apnear a little sin /ular is the tact that General Hooker, who commanded a divir^ion of Heintzelman's Corps, in his official report to Heintzelman himself, makes this statement: — "About three o'clock the enemy commenced a vl.crorous attaciv on McCall." (See Kelclliou Record, vol. 5, p. 260.) Thus, loth Stjmneb and Hooker being in my immediate vicinity, and their unasked tes;imony as to the hour at which my division was attacked aTceiug with my own official reporl, it is rendered patent that my division was at. tacked at three o'clock P. M., and not at five o'clock P. M.. as reported by General McClellan. With respect to my d, vision having given away in less than an hour, I need only say that, as the testi- mony 01 every officer commanding a regiment and many others oi the division provin ■■ the assertion to be uniounded, has been published heretofore in my report. 1 shall now only refer to the irank and manly testimony ot Cer.erai 3Ieade, in a letter to me, dated Camp Warrenton, "Va., Nov. 7, 1862:— " # * * * It -was only ihe stubborn resistance offered by our division (the Pennsylvania Reserves;, prolonciing the contest till alter dark, and checkinsr till that time the advance ot the enemy that enabled the concentration dunng the nisrht of the whole army on James iiiver, which saved it." (See pnnted report.) It is thus rendered equally patent that my division did not give v»'ay in less than an hour, but fought til! night put an end to the battle. Ihe loiviroiug are my prrounds lor declaring the atoicsaid p:;ssage in General McCLELLAii'a re;;ort to be not in accordance icith facts. There is another passage in General McClellan'S report, the oiiO immediately i receding that just dis- cussed, '.n which he makes it appear that "my Divi- sion was re'uctantiy compelled to give way belore [ 2 ] heavier force accumu'ated upon rhc.n," and quotes my report. Wheclicr my nport was m'squoled or miscoi iod I cannot pretend to say; but I certa'.n'v did not intend to convey that idea. What I did mean to cor.vcy is this: — i hat the two repriments (Fourth and Seventh) ot Meade's Bri^rade, in sup- port ot Randall's battery "were reluctantly com- pelled to {nve way tefoie lieavie ■ lorce accumu- lated upon them." Ann tliia will appoar to every impartial reader when he reads in the n"xt sente: ce oi my report ti.ese emphatic words : - "The centre of my division was still encased," * * Tins sen- tence {general JIcClellah ignores and omits, a;.d ot course the impression intended to be leit on the public mind is ihat I had stated in my report that my Licision was compelled to give wa j. This w:.s not my intention, certainly. The truth is, when Uaxdall's battery, on the ri,"ht of the divis.on, was capUired in my i resence. I rode to the centre 01 the division in order to brir.g up a sufficient lorce to recover the battery which stil lay upon its own eround, seme ol the suns overturned ai;d sur- rounded bv tony odd dead horses; hut I found the centre so hotiv engacced as to demand all my alteu- tlon and sobcilude until the attack at that point shou'd be reije led, which in a short time I had the satislatjtion to witness, with the capture ot the s'an- dard oi the Tenth Alabama. In the meantime Eaiv- dall's Battery was recaptured by Lieu:, nant-Co- lonel BoLLiNGEn, of the Seventh, "alter one oi the guns had been turned upon him and its contents tired into his rauts." (S"e :.is (Bollinger's) testi- monv in my printed report.) And 1 uow assert that the division was not compelled to give way, as stated by General McClellak. 0:1 the same ):a- e witli the toreaoinar (137) General JIcC'LELLAN states: — "General JIC'all's troops " soon bcran to emer^ie irom the wood- into the open " liild. Several battenes were m position and beiraii " to fire into the woods over the heads ot our own " men in Iront. Captain De Kussy's Battery was " placed on the light of General Sumnek's artillery, " with orders to shell ihe woods." It IS necessary, in order that the foregoing state- ment may be understood, to explain to the reader that it is a quotation from General Heixtzelman's report (Heiatzelmak himself Lavinj? "placed De EtrssY's battery), and reiers to a,-\ earlier part of the action, when Seymour's Brigade oi my division fed back on Sitmner, and before EA^DALL's Battery was attacked. Indeed, J^IcGlellan's report ol tins battle IS rather olscvre and uninlelli.prib'e to one not present, but tl c reader is recommended to conipare the above trom McClellan's Report, page 137, with Hli^tzelman's report m tha "Companion Vol. Rebellion Record, page 276." The his^tory ot this affair is as follows :— When Seymour's brigade was driven in, the gt eater part were leioimod by their Colonels m rear ol their own grrouna; the lesser part lell backon Genera;s Sumner and llcoKER, carrying with them some two (200) huLdrt'd prisoners just taken by (hem. On the sirength ot this display ot retiring loices, Genoial Hooker reponed officially that MoCall's "whole division was completely routed, &c." On the same data, Gereral Sumner told me in Washinirton, early in Kovember, 1862, "I saw your men coming out oi the woods; but in a lew moments I saw they were strasgltTs, and I thought no mon- about it." Sum- ^EE was a brave and 1 onorabie man; and he would have scorned to say more or less than the truth. Peace to his ashes, in the name of God, amen! In reierenco to this stase of the battle, when the enemy, lollowiug the leit portion ot Seymour's men, fell upon Sumner and Hooker, the latter states in his report that he "rolled the enemy back, and passng S^tmneu's iront, they were by him hur- riedly thrown ove- on to Kearney." The ?ailant General might have said, witiiout much stretch of the hypeibole, that the enemy was "hurriedly thrown over the moon!" the one being qmte as practicable as the othei', Kearney beuiff on my right, halt a mile trom Hooker (who was on my leit). and six ol my re.-fiments and three battenes. Cooper's, Kerns' and Randall's, in the interval hotly contest ng the ground with part of Long- TTREET's Divis:ou, whic'i, I am proud to say, aiter hard fl.o-h tin w, recoiled before the Pennsylvania Re- serves. The simple tact is, the enomv was thrown over bv Sumner (for the meeting with Sumner and Hooker was aito.,'ether unexpected by the enemy, and they were disordered by their rencontre with Seymour) on to my centre, as established by the testimony of Colonel Roy Stone heretolore given; and repulsed as I have just stateJ. In a letter to me, dated Columbus, Ohio, February 14, 1834, m reply to inqiuries ot mine. General Heinttzelman says, "about five o'clock it was re- ported to me that the Fe^n^'ow, my dear Geiieial, had vou, attcr , osting De Ru?SY's Battery, ridden through the V arrow strip or woods in .ront o; you, a little to the nsht of where you saw my men 'emerging from the woods,' you would have founa mo in the open field ill front, with the centre of my division; and iieneial Meade, with his briirade, on the riglit of the division; and six regiments of the reunsylvania Reserves and three battenes, at that very moment blazing awav at the enemy, who was advancing with great steadiness to cio>e quarters, but was driven bade with great slaughter from every point of luy right and centic. Before you started to re- [ 3 ] ^ turn, you placed De Eussy's Battery on the riglit of SuiiMER's ArtiileiT) with oidars to shall tue woods in your front. Soon alter this shelhnsj com- menced, General Meade rode vip to me and re- ported that 'the shells Irom those batrenes were lall- ina: amon„' his men,' and requested mo to cause them to cease flrin,"'. 1 immediately seut my Aid- de-camp, Captain ScHEETZ, to state the fact to the officer commanding the baitery, and request him to cease flriup-, as my troops were in his Irout. In the meantime s! ells be?an to fall about the centre ot my division ; there is no mistake a' out this, as some ot them exploded over my own head. Cap- tain SCHEETZ returned acd reported tliat he had delivered my messaore, but that the officer com- manding the artillery refused to stop firins without orders 1 10 LO his own General. I then directed hi n to seelt' the (Tonei al commanding the troops and re- peat my request. The horse oi my Aid vias killed on the way, and he did not fina the General. The filing, however, ceased not long afterwards, the enemy havius; been repulsed bv me." It will be seen by the lorefoing extract that, while I was steadily resisting a heavy pressure from the enemy m Ironi, I was subjecled to "a fire in the rear" irom my inends. I trust that this plain and unvarnished explana- tion ot the rather crude passage in General McClel- lAN's reiiort, above quoted, will be sulDciently in- telligible to the public and all concerned. Kefer- ence may at auy time be made to Geueral Meade and the otiicers oi botli his and my own staff'. I must still reler to another passage in General McClellan's rejiort. On the same pa?e (137), he says : — "Late n the day, at the call ot General Keae- NET, General Taylor's First New Jersey Bri^-ade, Slocum's Division, was sent to occupy a portion ot General McCall's deserted position, a ba'terv ac- companying the brifl-ade. They soon drove back the enemy, who shortly alter p-ave up the attack." Had this been true, it would have been the most ungene- rous and unn.ateful expression— the deserted posi- tion!— ever used by a commanding General towards a general oflicer, who had fought his division tor four hours, against superior numbers, even it over- come. But the check given to Lee by my division ou the Kew Market load, havmar, m the judgment 01 more than one Federal, and at least one Coniede- rate Gene.a , "saved McGLELLAN'sarmy," it makes the sti?-ma attempted to be cast on the division the more claiing and unpardonable. I have Within a short time been unofficially in- formed that General McClellan, desirous ot smoothing over the unmannered epithet, has writ- ten to the Adjutant-General at Washington, request- ing leave to ciianae his phraseology to the lollovnng. viz:— "A portion ot General McCall's position, from which he had been driven by tsuperior num- bers." Previousl_\- to this, however, I had, on receiving the official copy of General McClellan's report, written to General Heintzelman, to ask whether this term "deserted," had also been derived irom his report. Heintzelman disclaimed the authorship, and sent me a pnnted copy of his report oi the bat- tle. In this report he says: — "Seeing that the enemy were g'.vine way (tliis refers to their sudden repulse by Sumner and Hooker, upon whom they unex- pectedly came while following Seymour) I returned lo the forks ol the (Charles City) road, where laterin the day I received a cail from General Kearney lor aid. Knowing that all General Sedo wick's troops were unavailable, I was gladto avail myse if of the kind off'3rot General Sloottm to send the New Jersey Bri- gade ot his d; vision to General Kearney's aid I rode out iar enough on the Charles City road to see that we had nothing to fenr from that direction and re- turned (o see the New Jersey Bri?.icie en' er tho woods to General Kearney's relief. A battery ac- companied this brigade. They soou drove back the enemy. It was now growing dark." On comparing Hei~ zelman's statement just given with that of iilcCLKLLAN srivou abovo, it is evident that the latter is a transcript ot the lonner, in part. I woula that I might, tor General McClellan's credit, say a transcript; entire and correct. But I am constrained to say that it is incomprehensitile how General Mo- C'LELLAN could havp happened to suLstitiite General Mc'''ALL's position for General Kearney's position. Having written to General Heintzelman on this subject, he replied to me in a letter dated ( olur.ibus, Ohio, March 24, 1864 as lollows: — "I had some dis- cussion with Ceneral Kearney, some time alter, he saying that; he never asked lor rein orccments, thou^rh when I recalled what had occurred, he ac- knowledged tliat the message he had ssnt virtually amounted to that. \\'hetht'r Kearney's Division, or auy part, was driven back, or ii so, how far, I cannot now remember." From the foregoing it is seen that the Fiist New Jersey Brii^ade, under Geueral Taylor (Kearney's old Brigade) was oifered by Slocum .or Kearney's support, and reported by Heintzelman to have entered the woods to Kear- ney's reiiet, under his own eye, it is thereiore in- controvertible that General McClellan's report in this connection is not m acconianoe with facta. There is stili one more remark ot General Mc- Clellan's that requires my notice. In his letter to the Piesideut, dated ''Harnso.'s Bar, .tames River, July 4, 18j2" (his report, page 142), he asserts, " We have lost no guns, exceot twenty-five ou the field of battle, tweniy-one ot which were lost by the giving way ot McCall's Division under the onset of supe- rior uumi ers." The General should have been a little more careful what he wrote to Mr. Lincoln, or perhaps a little more cautious what he published. By turning to pase 127 ot his report, it will be seen that m the account of the ba.tle ol Gaines' Mills he makes this statement: — " The number ot «runs captm-od by the enemy at this battle was twenty-two, three 01 which were lost by being run off" the bridge dunnff the final withdrawal." The number ot guns, then, lost by McClellan in this bat'le was nineteen. Soon alter I read the letter to Mr. Lincoln above quoted, I wrote to iieneral Wm. F. Barry, General McClellan'* Chief of Artiilcry during tho Peninsular campai.en, request- ing him 10 refer to his reports and to luiorm me bow many euns he had reported lost by my division at Gaines' JiiUs, and receive;' the lollowing reply. Washington, March 10, 1864. ily Dear General:— Your note ot Tihinst. i>! just received, and finds me on the eve ot departure lor the southwest, whither I am Otcered lor duty 'vith Grneral (jEant's armies. I regret extremoly that my papers reiatimr to the Peninsular campais'n are all packed up, and have I ecn sent away, acd that I have no better reierence than my memory to enable me to answer your queries. I can, however, siate in general terms thati tiie i>uns lost by field iiaiteries bc- lono-iuff to your division tvere biU a very small por- tion 01 the %. ole number lost at Gaines' Mil ?. * * Faithiuily yours, ^\ illiam F. Barry. With respect to the guns lost at Nelson's tarm or New Marki t cross roads, it is a tact well known that alter IJandall's Battery was taken by tho enemy and retaKcn h\ the Reserves (see Colonei Bollin- ger's report), tho guns could not be removed i LLIN- A d for Aa A [ 4 ] want of horses, forty odd oi those belonjrinjj to the battery iyiuff dead on the ground; and 1 am autho- rized to say that Kasdall applied to General Heintzelman, axter i.i >litlall, lor men to drajr ins guns off fh? croiind, tut was reliised by that ofljcer 01! the plea that "it w ouid brin? on a renewal ot the battie." For instance. General ."iIeade says to me in a letter dated Head-quarters, Army of the Poto- mac, March 2, 1Sj4: — "1 iiavc always mainamedthat these euns (R^'.i.dall's lialtery) were not lost by the division, but were abandoned bv the army. "It IS notorious that t'ey remained all niaht in their ori'.inal position on the Sold. out«ido the line of the enemy's pic! ets, the enemy having withdrawn Irom the field alter dark, and not returnins till ei?ht o'clock the next day, when their skirmishers ad- vanced ill order of battle, and finding these euns, took |iofsession of them. I haye this from Ran- dall, who, bein? aware of it at tiie time, applied to Keaenet, and, I ihink, to Heixtzelman, for au- thority and men to drag his guns off, but was refused on the iirouud it would bring on a renewal of the battle, and at one o'clock the division with the army moved on to Malvern Hill. When I say I had it ironi KA^DALL, I mean the lact that the enemy did not take possi ssiou of tbem (tlio guns) the evening ot the battle, but lell back and left them for us to drag off it we chose. The lact that they took pos- session ot them tiie next morning, about eiffht o'clock, I got from Dr. Collins, Third Sediment, P. E. C, who remained with the wounded, and saw the advance oi the enemy the next day," [ Aeain, Mr. J. K. Syphee, of Lancaster, some time j since \ntii the Army of the Potomac, state" that i he was tol 1 by Randall hiuiself that "he had ap- j plied to General Heintzelman ior men to drag off bis auns, and was relused," on the grounds stated by General JIeade in ihe toregoing letter. Now liere is satistactory testimony that these guns lay on the outside ot the enemy's lines, and were seen there long alter sunrise the loUowing morning by Suraeon James Collins, of the Third Regiment Pennsilvania Reserves (Meade's Bri- gade), and by many others who remained to care lor our wounded (as since reported to me), and were not in possession 01 the enemy until, by the retreat otJIcC'LELLAN's army, they fdl, uncared for, into the hands of the enemy. It must also be remembered tba*^ at this time Col. S. G. Sijimons, commanding the First Brigade ot the Reserves, was mortally wounded, General G. G. Meade, commanding the Second Brigade, was severely wounded and com- pelled to leave the field, and General T. Seymour, oonimanding Third Brigade, was not to be found : while I, myself, about dark, while moving tor- ward at the head of about five hindred men, under the command oi Lieut. Col. Thompson, of tbe 3rd Redmeut, and being som3 distance in advance oi him, with ihe purpose of :e;oyering this same battery, had been made prisoier;— rememliering this, 1 say, it will be seen that Gtne-als Kearney and Heint- zelman were the jjropcr officers to whom Randall should have applied for the means to save his guns, which could without loss have been done after the enemy had retired. I thereiore do not hesitate to assert that the six guns ot RA^DALL's Battery were shavi:etul!y abandoned by McClellan's urmy— not lost by me. As regards the German battery left behind, by whose autborily I know not, and lound on my ground by me, and unfor- tunately, as it turned out, assigned by me, in consequence ot finding it there, a position in my line ot battle, its guns could not have been included in the twenty-one reported by 31cClellan lost by my division giving way under the onset of svper;or numbers, lor the best of reasons, viz., they did not,awa.t the onset, but inglouously fled with their limbers, leaving their guns behind, and ran over and trampled my men (lour companies Fuurtli Re/imcut), placed in their rear for their sup- port and proteciion. Colonel Roy Stone, com- manding the Bucktails (First Regiment Reserves), stating 111 his report to me, " This advance of the enemy" (when Seymour was driven in), "might have been checked by the Dutch battery belonging to Porter's corps, and temporarily with your divi- sion that day, but it was deserted by its (junners on the first appearance ot the enemy." Some ot these guns, however, were saved, and brought off. In re- ferring lo this incident ot the battle, I Lave not in- tended to speak siightinffly, although the whole affair in that connection was ratiior ludicrous. To sum up, I think I may say I have established the lollowing points: — 1st, That my division was attacked at 3 o'clock, P. M., June 30th (battle or' Nelson's Farm, or New Market cross roads), not at 5 o'clock, as stated by General McClellan, 2d. That it did not give way in less than an bou7, as stated by General McClellan, but fought till nightiail (about lour hours), with what result let the j country judge. I 3d. That the Now Jersey Brigade was not sent to occupv a portion oi my deserted position, as stated by General McClellan, but was sent to the re ief ot General Kearney, who had called lor aid. 4th. That General McClellan's report to Presi- dent Lincoln, that "he had lost but twenty-five guns on the field ot battle, twenty-one ot which were lost by McCall's Division giving way under the onset of superior numbers," is not in accord- ance with facts. Tiie statements I have made in the toregoing pages are the record, m parr, oi the operations oi my divi- sion in the battle of Nelson's Farm, or Newmarket Cross-Roads, well known either to General Meade or to the co'onels of re?iments and other ofliceis of the division, and can be proved beiore any mLitary tribunal in the country. On the 28th September, 1864, I sent to General McClellan a copy ot a letter written to a friend of mine, which letter was in substance and almost in language identical with the foregoing statement in full. This I did, wishing to afford him an opportu- nity to correct errors in his official report reflecting upon my division and myseit, if arising from hastily examined reports ot his subordinates, and as hastily written and published in his own. 1 his I should have done at an earlier date had all th? materials I desired to collect beea earlier in my possession. I indulged the lio.ie that on being made acquainted with the lacls here stated, he would have accorded to the Pennsylvania Reserves the meed of praise earned with the best blood or the State. This he has decUned or tailed to do; and I am reluctantly compelled, in justice to my brave associates, to make known their claims to their country's gratitude. My object is vindication and justice, not attack. The re- po.tsot General Heintzelman and others I have necessarily referred to, I take it lor granted were honestly made, though probably without as strict ex- amination ot the subject as should always mark the othcial reports ot mi itary commanders. They have proved their galiaLiiry in the fie.d, and I e:itertain no unkindly feelings towards them; their errors I have been forced to expose. George A. McCall. Belair, October 22, 1862 A pw OF CONGRESS Mil UBRARVOF CONGR^ 0002bE053aH^ HoUinger pH8.5 Mill Run F3-1955 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 0QQ2bED53aH< HoIIinger pH8.5 Mill Run F3-1955