| Title | : | The Battle Of Gettysburg |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Kindle Edition |
| Number of Pages | : | 122 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1908 |
In this keenly observed narration, Haskell vividly describes each day's events and what they wrought: the wounded, the skirmishes, attacks and counterattacks, estimates of losses, marks of battle, and burial of the dead. Of the crests in Gettysburg known as Cemetery Ridge, he writes: "Men looked like giants there in the mist, and the guns of the frowning batteries so big, that it was a relief to know that they were our friends." On the second day of battle, he lost his horse "Billy" to a bullet that just missed Haskell's left leg. Mentally, he "begged [Billy's] pardon for spurring him." On the last day, he notes: "The Rebel guns make no reply to ours, no charging shout rings out to-day . . . the jostling, swaying lines on either side boil, and roar, and dash their flamy spray, two hostile billows of a fiery ocean. . . . The frequent dead and wounded lie where they stagger and fall . . . and none can be spared to care for them." He helped bury the dead that day and ended his letter on a note of hope, speaking of a future in which the Union would "repose in a securer peace and bloom in a higher civilization." Almost a year later — on June 3, 1864, at Cold Harbor, Virginia — Colonel Haskell was killed in action. He was 36 years old.
One of the war's best eyewitness accounts, this classic narrative, required reading for students of American history, will be treasured by Civil War buffs.
The Battle Of Gettysburg Reviews
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The Battle of Gettysburg has been the subject of extensive chronicling, almost from the moment the guns fell silent late on July 3, 1863. And while Walt Whitman once wrote that “The real war will never get in the books”, I feel closer to an understanding of the Civil War experience when I read books by veterans who experienced campaigns and battles of the American Civil War and lived long enough to tell their stories. And a good example of a book that provides an effective setting-forth of that sort of battlefield experience is Frank Aretas Haskell’s The Battle of Gettysburg.
Haskell, a Wisconsinite who graduated from Dartmouth College and practiced law in Madison, went to war as a first lieutenant in the 6th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, a regiment that was part of the Union’s famed Iron Brigade. From an adjutancy with the 6th Wisconsin, Haskell moved to a position of higher trust, as aide-de-camp to General John Gibbon, commander of the Iron Brigade. Before Gettysburg, he had fought with the Army of the Potomac at several of the major battles of the Civil War in the East – Second Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville. By the time the army arrived at Gettysburg, therefore, Haskell was an exceedingly well-informed observer of and participant in Civil War battle action; and his position as aide-de-camp to General Gibbon placed him at the center of some of the battle’s fiercest moments.
Describing the Army of the Potomac’s long northward trek toward Gettysburg, Haskell displays his classical erudition when looking back at the army’s long marches through the dust and rain of late June 1863: “‘Haec olim meminisse juvabit.’ We did not then know this. I mention [these circumstances] now, that you may see that in those times we had several matters to think about, and to do, that were not as pleasant as sleeping upon a bank of violets in the shade” (p. 10). The Latin quote, in case you were wondering, is from Virgil’s Aeneid; early in the poem, after Aeneas and his men have successfully escaped from burning Troy, Aeneas assures his weary men that “Perhaps someday it will give you joy to remember even these things.”
No doubt, as he was on the march, Haskell was hoping that he would live to look back on whatever awaited the army at Gettysburg – to remember, with some touch of joy, even the difficult things from his wartime experience. At least, as he remarks with satisfaction, there was one reason for the Union soldiers to move toward battle with some measure of guarded optimism: General Joe Hooker, who had led the Union to defeat at Chancellorsville, had been removed from command; and “The Providence of God had been with us – we ought not to have doubted it – General Meade commanded the Army of the Potomac” (p. 11).
As aide-de-camp to General Gibbon, the commander of II Corps, Haskell participated in the Union defense against Pickett’s Charge, the massive infantry charge against the Union center ordered by Confederate commander Robert E. Lee on July 3, the battle’s third and final day. It should be no surprise, therefore, that some of the most moving passages in The Battle of Gettysburg are those in which Haskell relates his memories of that day.
He recalls, for example, the emotions that he felt when he was awakened by General Gibbon on the morning of July 3: “[T]here were palpable evidences to my reason that to-day was to be another of blood. Oh! For a moment the thought of it was sickening to every sense and feeling. But the motion of my horse as I galloped over the crest a few minutes later, and the serene splendor of the morning now breaking through rifted clouds and spreading over the landscape, soon reassured me” (p. 53). He doesn’t pretend to have been fearless; instead, he acknowledges the process by which a good soldier summons the courage with which to face battle. I appreciated his honesty.
Haskell also describes well the feelings of suspense among the Union soldiers at the center of the Gettysburg line as they faced Pickett’s Charge on July 3. Like many other Unionists who recorded their impressions of the war and its battles, Haskell seems to have respected the battlefield courage of his Confederate enemies, even as he despised the secessionist cause for which the rebels fought. Speaking of a crucial moment in the rebel charge, when the Confederate artillery had been silenced but the rebel infantry continued with the charge, Haskell recalls that “no charging shout rings out to-day, as is the Rebel wont; but the courage of these silent men amid our shots seems not to need the stimulus of other noise.” Struck on the right flank by heavy fire from a Vermont regiment, “The gray lines do not halt or reply, but withdrawing a little from that extreme, they still move on” (p. 77).
And Haskell conveys eloquently the alarm he felt when a retreat along part of the Union line made it seem for a time that Pickett’s rebels might actually be able to achieve their dearly sought breakthrough: “The larger portion of Webb’s brigade – my God, it was true – there by the group of trees and the angles of the wall, was breaking from the cover of their works, and, without orders or reason, with no hand lifted to check them, was falling back, a fear-stricken flock of confusion! The fate of Gettysburg hung upon a spider’s single thread!” (p. 78)
Racing back and forth on horseback between the lines, Haskell encouraged the Union soldiers to return to their place in the line and remain resolute; and generals like Winfield Scott Hancock praised the part that Haskell played in preventing that part of the Union line from disintegrating at a crucial moment. Yet Haskell downplays his own heroism on that day, as if not wanting to draw attention to himself. His modesty wins the reader’s admiration.
Looking back at the Union repulse of Pickett’s Charge, and at the overall Union victory at Gettysburg, Haskell praises General Meade’s leadership during the battle, defending him from the accusations of those who felt that Meade did not pursue Lee vigorously enough during Lee’s retreat from Gettysburg to the Potomac River. At the same time, he makes clear his feelings about those fellow Unionists that he believes failed to uphold the honor of the Stars and Stripes.
Of the Union 11th Corps, for example, Haskell writes that “The 11th Corps behaved badly; but I have yet to learn the occasion when, in the opinion of any save their own officers and themselves, the men of this corps have behaved well on the march or before the enemy” (p. 100) And he excoriates the poor generalship of Dan Sickles, the politician-turned-general who, against orders, led the Union III Corps forward into the Peach Orchard on the second day at Gettysburg. Through his recklessness, Sickles needlessly sacrificed the lives of many good Union soldiers and endangered the entire Union line. And Haskell, who elsewhere calls Sickles “a man after show and notoriety, and newspaper fame, and the adulation of the mob” (p. 33), is unsparing in his verdict regarding Sickles’s performance as a corps commander:
I know, and have heard, of no bad conduct or blundering on the part of any officer, save that of Sickles, on the 2nd of July, and that was so gross, and came so near being the cause of irreparable disaster, that I cannot discuss it with moderation. I hope the man may never return to the Army of the Potomac, or elsewhere, to a position where his incapacity, or something worse, may bring fruitless destruction to thousands again. (p. 100)
Promoted once again, this time to colonel, and given command of the 36th Wisconsin Infantry, Haskell died leading his troops at the Battle of Cold Harbor on June 3, 1864. He was just 35 years old. That knowledge gives a certain pathos to the young officer’s remarks about the Battle of Gettysburg.
Originally printed as a pamphlet – and, in the case of one edition, selectively edited to remove Haskell’s criticisms of Dan Sickles’s poor generalship -- The Battle of Gettysburg was published in unexpurgated form, in 1908, by the Wisconsin History Commission, Haskell’s The Battle of Gettysburg is a fine and valuable memoir of the battle, set down by a participant who played an important role in that battle – but who, sadly, did not live to see the final victory of the Union cause that he represented so well. -
Haskell's "True Grand Epic of Gettysburg"
Frank Haskell (1828-1864) left the practice of law in Wisconsin at the outbreak of the Civil War and became a Lieutenant and an aide to Union General John Gibbon. He was killed at Cold Harbor in 1864.
Haskell is remembered for two related reasons. First, he performed heroically during Pickett's charge on the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg. Almost single-handedly, he rallied the Union troops after the Confederates had breached the Wall and saw to the movement of supports from one portion of the line to another. Union Generals Hancock and Harrow, as well as Gibbon lavished praise on Haskell, with Gibbon writing that "I have always thought that to him, more than to any one man, are we indebted for the repulse of Lee's assault."
The second reason for remembering Haskell is the book under review. Haskell wrote it in mid-July, 1863 when the Battle of Gettysburg remained vivid in his mind. The book was initially cast as a long letter to Haskell's brother in Wisconsin and did not appear as a published book for a general audience until 1898. Haskell's book is one of the best first-hand sources we possess for the Battle of Gettysburg. It is not, Haskell himself knew, a complete history of the Battle but focuses on what Haskell saw and heard. The story is told with a passion, sweep, and literary skill that is moving. (Some modern readers may find the style overbearing at times.) Those who have studied the Battle of Gettysburg through the many secondary sources that are available, (Coddington, Sears, Trudeau, Pfanz, and others) will learn a great deal about the battle and the troops who fought from the immediacy and force of Haskell's account.
Haskell's book covers all three days of the Battle. It includes little material on the first day since, as part of the Second Corps of the Union Army, Haskell did not witness the events of that day. There is considerable material on the second day of the battle focusing on the efforts of the Union Second and Fifth Corps in repulsing Longstreet's and Hill's assault on the Union left and center. Haskell also describes well General Meade's "Council of War" on the evening of July 2 and the Generals who participated.
The chief subject of the book is the third day of Gettysburg -- commonly known as Pickett's charge. Haskell's writing picks up sweep and describes the events of that day from the opening preparations, to the famous lunch of the Federal generals before the opening of the Battle, through the cannonade, assault, breaching of the Wall and repulse. As stated above, Haskell played a pivotal role in rallying the troops at the wall to repulse the assault. Haskell's book remains an invaluable first-hand source for Pickett's charge, but it transcends them. It is a work of literature and of the history of the Civil War in its own right.
Haskell also describes the aftermath of the battle and the attempts of the Union troops and civilians in the area to care for the wounded and bury the dead. Interestingly, Haskell witnessed and took the trouble to record the visits of tourists and curiosity-seekers to Gettysburg immediately after the Battle. Visits have continued, of course, since that time as Gettysburg became a national shrine.
Haskell realized the difficulty that historians would have in describing the battle and in coming to a full understanding of what took place at Gettysburg. He had the wisdom to recognize that his own account captured his own impressions and experiences only and was not the full story. He wrote that "by-and by, out of the chaos of trash and falsehood that the newspapers hold, out of the disjointed mass of reports, out of the traditions and tales that come down from the field, some eye that never saw the battle will select, and some pen will write, what will be named 'the history'. With that the world will be and, if we are alive, we must be, content."
Haskell knew that a great event in our nation's history took place at Gettysburg. He voiced his hope that the Battle would lead to a stronger united nation devoted to freedom and to the best of its ideals. His book concludes with the observation that "Tradition, story, history -- all will not efface the true, grand epic of Gettysburg".
Robin Friedman -
In his account of the Battle of Gettysburg written just a few days later as a letter to his brother, Lieutenant Haskell puts the reader “in the moment” of his many courageous moments under fire and in attendance to hastily-called strategy sessions as an aide-de-camp to General John Gibbon during the three-day carnage, culminating in facing Pickett’s Charge eyeball-to-eyeball.
This is a rare eye-witness account. The fighting takes place simultaneously on the field and inside this soldier’s beating heart. You are there!
Haskell was killed at Cold Harbor.
This is a very quick read that will transport you to another time and another world if you are on a boring plane ride or train trip to no where in particular in this life. -
Years ago, when I was a student at Dartmouth College, I remember writing a story for the school newspaper about famed alumnus,
Frank A. Haskell, whose book on the Battle of Gettysburg during the Civil War as one of the best descriptions by an actual participant in the battle. He was at the time a First Lieutenant serving as aide-de-camp to General John Gibbon who was at several key points of the battle. Even as such, it was impossible for him to be everywhere. For instance, there is no mention of the fight for Little Round Top.
It is a difficult book to read, because Haskell keeps referring to the different Union corps by number, which was of greater interest to him than to readers over a century later. Nonetheless, I recommend
The Battle of Gettysburg: A Soldier's First-Hand Account to readers interested in reading a first-hand account of perhaps the greatest battle of the war. -
This is a good read. Keep in mind writer is making assertions based on things he witnessed in the battle but is also adding to the narrative assumptions based on things he did not witness. He would have no special knowledge of what was happening elsewhere on the field. That being said, it is a moving and well written account by a Civil War hero who died tragically, less than a year later at Cold Harbor.
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Contemporary Account
Haskell’s account of Gettysburg was derived from a letter to his brother. A staff officer, he was able to see critical elements of the battle as one of the few remaining mounted officers. The letter reads well, though some knowledge of the battle and players are needed. The author died in action a few weeks later. A good contemporary account of the battle from a mid grade officer. -
Frank Haskall's The Battle of Gettysburg provides an exciting, detailed first-hand account of the eponymous battle. Haskall was an aide to Major General John Gibbon, commander of the Second Division of the II Corps, and was in the thick of the some of the heaviest fighting on July 2 and 3.
The narrative, though occasionally a little over-wrought, is quite readable and exciting. The book is also relatively short, and well paced. The narrative suffers a little bit when it covers the parts of the battle for which Haskall wasn't present. This book was also written a very short time after the battle took place, so when it comes down to bare facts and figures it is also somewhat lacking.
Where this book shines is in the authenticity of the author's experience. Haskall gives us a great window into the experiences of the Union leaders and men at Gettysburg, how they fought, and what they were thinking and feeling. This isn't some memoir couched in hazy nostalgia, the author jotted down his experiences just a few days after the campaign ended and sent them off to his brother in Wisconsin. He sadly didn't survive the war (Haskall was killed in action in 1864), but for us this means that his narrative remains purer for not having been later revisited.
This is a free Kindle edition, so all of the illustrations have been removed, but the text is free from the transcription errors that often show up in scanned books that are offered as free or cheap e-book editions. If you're interested in the Civil War, or Gettysburg specifically, this is a must read! -
This has been on my reading list for quite some time. With the 150th anniversary of the battle, now it made it to the top of my list. And I am glad.
This is an account written by a soldier in that battle and the only first person full account ever. He wrote this as a letter to his brother and died in a future battle of that same war.
It is written in strictly a Union Army perspective, of course, so it isn't a full accounting of the battle, but boy is it graphic and factual. I loved hearing a cool reminiscing of his heroics. A pretty quick read. AND a must read. -
If not for Haskell's disrespectful and entirely ignorant ranting about the supposed "cowardice" of the US Army's 11th Corps, it would be a very excellent book. I'd probably give it 5 stars if not for this.
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An amazing first hand account of the Battle of Gettysburg. Originally written for his brother and not publication, however thank God for publishing such a work for students of true history, written by those that were there.
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Written by the ill-fated Haskell a few weeks after Gettysburg, its main strength is its description of the repulse of Pickett's Charge. A quick read.
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An excellent older history of the Battle of Gettysburg. Stylistically much different than modern books, but still very good.
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I rated THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG by Haskell five stars due to Haskell's on field description of the battle. Haskell gives an up close point of view of each day's events as they took place. Now, granted I have not read other books on the Battle of Gettysburg to compare Haskell's narrative. However, there are footnotes from outside sources confirming Haskell's numbers as to numbers of soldiers fighting, wounded and who died.
Haskell, at times, interjects his own personal thoughts as to how he believes some of the generals should have acted, but that did not take away from the book for me. Haskell's letter put me right on the field of battle allowing me to see what the other generals looked like and how many of the soldiers felt while they were waiting to fight and while they were fighting.
While reading Haskell's letter I realized that The Battle of Gettysburg was just not an event on a chronological timeline, but that it was a truly destructive and horrible event where many men died ...and died terribly. Haskell's writing vividly informs the reader that the Battle of Gettysburg was three days of blood, gunpowder, guts and death.
