BOWERS PRINTING COMPANY
PHILADELPHIA, PA.
REPLY OF THE
PHILADELPHIA BRIGADE
ASSOCIATION
TO THE
FOOLISH and ABSURD NARRATIVE
OF
Lieutenant FRANK A. HASKELL
WHICH APPEARS TO BE
ENDORSED BY
THE MILITARY ORDER OF THE
LOYAL LEGION
COMMANDRY OF MASSACHUSETTS
AND
THE WISCONSIN HISTORY
COMMISSION
COMPLIMENTS OF THE
PHILADELPHIA BRIGADE ASSOCIATION
MARCH, 1910
HEADQUARTERS,
PHILADELPHIA BRIGADE ASSOCIATION,
S. W. COR. FIFTH AND CHESTNUT STREETS,
PHILADELPHIA, PA.
At the stated meeting of the Survivors of the Philadelphia Brigade, SecondBrigade, Second Division, Second Corps, Army of the Potomac, held at theabove place, Tuesday evening, September 7, 1909, letters were read fromGen. Alexander S. Webb, who commanded the Philadelphia Brigade at theBattle of Gettysburg, July 1, 2 and 3, 1863, requesting the considerationof the Brigade Association to the most astounding misstatements made byFirst Lieut. Frank Aretas Haskell, 6th Wisconsin Infantry, in a paper saidto have been written by him under date of July 16, 1863, two weeks afterthe Battle of Gettysburg had been fought and addressed to his brother, whoprinted it for private circulation about fifteen years afterward.
The letters of Gen. Webb were accompanied by a volume of 94 pages,containing the most absurd statements as to the action of the PhiladelphiaBrigade at the Battle of Gettysburg, which, upon being read, led to theunanimous adoption of the following preamble and resolution:
“WHEREAS, in the ‘Narrative of the Battle of Gettysburg,’ by Lieut. FrankA. Haskell, First Lieut. 6th Wisconsin Infantry, and an aide upon thestaff of Gen. John Gibbon, said to have been written within a few daysafter the battle, and reprinted in 1898 as a part of the history of theClass of 1854, Dartmouth College, and republished in 1908 under the[Pg 2]auspices of the Massachusetts Commandery of the Military Order of theLoyal Legion of the United States, the Philadelphia Brigade has beenrecklessly, and shamelessly, and grossly misrepresented; therefore, withthe view of correcting these wilfull misstatements, it is
“RESOLVED, That a committee consisting of the officers of the PhiladelphiaBrigade Association, together with two comrades from each of the fourregiments of the Brigade, be appointed to carefully consider the matter,and, if deemed advisable by the committee, to publicly enter its protestagainst the malicious statements ‘reprinted in 1898 as a part of thehistory of the Class of 1854 of Dartmouth College,’ and again republishedby the Loyal Legion of Massachusetts in 1908, with a degree ofrecklessness and disregard for truth unparalleled in any publicationrelating to the Civil War; statements so false and malevolent as to bewholly unworthy of a class of Dartmouth College, or of a Commandery of theLoyal Legion of the United States; of the name of Capt. Daniel Hall, ofGeneral Howard’s staff—who prepared the story for publication—or of‘Chas. Hunt, Captain U. S. V., Committee on Publication.’”
The committee named under this resolution consists of these Comrades: Wm.G. Mason, Commander; John Quinton, Vice-Commander; Chas. W. Devitt,Quartermaster; John W. Frazier, Adjutant; John E. Reilly, Wm. S. Stockton,Joseph MacCarroll and James Thompson, Trustees, and Edward Thompson andJames Duffy, 69th; John W. Dampman and Edward P. McMahon, 71st; John R