Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 64, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 April 1902 — CIVIL WAR CHARGES. [ARTICLE]

CIVIL WAR CHARGES.

THE ASSAULTS At GETTYSBURG ANO I KENESAW MOUNTAIN. I . —— A Veteraa’® Opinion of the Two Brtlliaat a*4 Darla* Daahei—A Lieutenant’a Report oa 5 Tired Male®_ With Ravenous Appetltea. “Shortly after the battle of Chickamauga,” said Captain Fitch, “I was appointed chief quartermaster of the signal corps of the department of the Cumberland, stationed at Chattanooga. On taking account of the quartermaster’s stores I found that I was in need of some light wagons to be used in the mountainous country, and the only way to get them was to go to Nashville and have them made, so I went to Nashville and had five light wagons made by the quartermaster’s department. When I got back to Chattanooga with the wagons, I put a citizen teamster in charge of the wagons and mules. “The teamster, being a green hand, did not know that mules would eat anything within their reach and innocently tied them to the wheels of the wagons. Not long after that I got an order to be ready to march, and on going out to inspect my outfit I found that the mules had eaten the spokes of the wheels nearly off, so that the wagons were ready to fall down of their own accord. As I could no.t use them I had n® ecourse but to drop them from my returns, and, being obliged to assign a reason for so dropping them, I gave the true one—viz, ‘Eaten by mules.’ “Shortly afterward I got a lettei from the quartermaster general sarcastically inquiring if Lieutenant Fitct had observed whether the mules had eaten the tires or not. I replied that 1 presumed they had, as they seemed to be thoroughly tired the next day. The quartermaster general wrote back, ‘Any further trifling with this department on the part of Lieutenant Fitch will probably result in his being retired to private life.’ Thereupon I dropped the subject, but my first report was correct.”

“At Chickamauga,” said the tnajor, “Longstreet’s men ran over our headquarters teams. Every mule in one of the teams went down, and the wagon stood an obstruction in the road. Five minutes later every mule was on Its feet, and a wounded teamster yelled at them to pull out They started without more ado, swept along the road after our broken regiments and, turning at just tbe right point, came into our new lines and stopped where the headquarters flag had been stuck in the ground. The driver reported later and drove into Chattanooga. “One of these mules the night before had pulled the blanket off our division commander, had run over the lines of soldiers sleeping in close battle order, had raided tbe Confederate pickets and had returned to our bivouac under a furious fire. Tbe men of the brigade took a solemn vow to shoot the mischievous mule at daylight, but when daylight came they had other things to shoot at, and tbe mule was forgotten until be came in at the bead of the team attached to the beadquarters wagon. Then tlffi boys who had witnessed the charge and the escape of tbe driverless team counted the mule’s deviltry as nothing.” “That charge of Longstreet, by the way,”-said the colonel, “was one of tbe great charges of the war, and it was as successful as any as a breaker of lines. Of course we think of Pickett’s charge at Gettysburg in a class to itself, but 1 have often wondered whether the Union assault on the Confederate position at Kenesaw mountain June 27, 1864, should not be put in the list with the Confederate charge at Gettysburg. Pickett’s charge was of course the more spectacular, and the assaulting force was more compact, but while it broke the Union Hue at one point it was driven back in disastrous retreat. “Tbe direct assault on the fortified line on Kenesaw was made by three brigades, no better troops than Pickett’s Virginians, but it must be remembered that while they failed to pierce the Confederate line they held their position and did not retreat. Their loss was correspondingly as heavy as Pickett’s at Gettsburg. Sherman’s idea was to show his own army as well as the Confederate army that he could make a frontal attack. If tbe assault bad been made and tbe assaulting column had retired, as did Pickett’s column at Gettysburg, tbe effect on the army would not have been as it was when the regiments that led the assault clung to their position not more than 30 paces from the Confederate parapets. “Tbe attack failed except In that It was an Illustration of tbe spirit of tbe Union troops In assault Lee’s purpose at Gettysburg was undoubtedly to drive Pickett’s 16.000 men like a wedge through tbe Union lines. The failure of the attempt led to the retreat of the whole Confederate army. Sherman’s purpose at Kenesaw was to capture tbe Confederate fortifications. Tbe attack let to tbe retreat not of Sherman's army, but of the Confederate army, and 1 have always held that the ground over which the Union regiments of that day swept forward ought to be as precious to tbe men of McCook’s, Harkerts and Mitchell's brigades as Is the ground at Gettysburg to the men of Pickett’s brigades.” Chicago Inter Ocean.