The Battle of Gettysburg

A Soldier's First-Hand Account...An Eyewitness Civil War Dispatch "The book is an account written a few days after the battle by one who, though only a staff officer, took so prominent a part that he was promoted from a lieutenancy to a colonelcy for his bravery. On the third day of the conflict he happened to be the only mounted man in the field, and, says Gen. F. A. Walker, 'rode between the two lines, then swaying backward and forward under each other's fire, calling upon the men of the Second Division to follow him, and setting an example of valor and self-devotion, never forgotten by any man of the thousands who witnessed it.' He is a master of good English....Particularly interesting is the description of the council of war held by Gen. Meade in the bedroom of a little farmhouse; and it would be difficult to find a more thrilling narrative than his account of the repulse of the final assault. Col. Haskell was killed in the battle of Cold Harbor, and about fifteen years later, this story, written for his brother, was printed for private circulation. In 1898 it was reprinted in this history of the class of 1854, Dartmouth, of which he was a member. These editions were so small that they attracted little attention. It is now printed again 'as an incentive to patriotic thought.'" -The Nation