Compliments of FREDERICK HOWARD WELLS FRANK RICHARDSON WELLS BERTHA WELLS JACKSON Burlington, Vermont BRONZE STATUE OF BRIGADIER AND BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS U. S. VOLUNTEERS DEDICATION OF THE STATUE TO BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS AND THE OFFICERS AND MEN OF THE FIRST REGIMENT VERMONT CAVALRY ON THE BATTLEFIELD OF GETTYSBURG JULY 3, 1913 PRIVATELY PRINTED 1914 IN AFFECTIONATE MEMORY OF MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS HIS FAMILY AND HIS COMRADES IN ARMS PREFACE THE compiling of the following pages has been a labor of love. The unveiling and dedication on the battlefield of Gettysburg, July 3, 1913, of the memorial erected in honor of Major-General Wells and officers and men of the First Vermont Cavalry, on Confederate Avenue, in front of Round Top, was an occasion never to be forgotten by all who were present, men of the North, and men of the South. This charge of the First Ver mont Cavalry was so swallowed up in the multitudinous incidents of the great battle that few have followed it as it deserves. I am proud to say that Vermont, however, remembers well her gallant sons in this soul-stirring feat and that by a happy thought the Legislature of the State made an appropriation for a monument to be erected near the spot from which the regiment started upon its memorable charge. Burlington, Vermont October 13, 1913 An Act to Provide for Procuring and Erecting on the Battlefield of Gettysburg a Monument to General William Wells and the Offi.cers and the Enlisted Men of the First Regiment, Vermont Cavalry. It is hereby enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Vermont: Section 1. The sum of six thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary, is hereby appro priated for the purpose of erecting a monument on the battlefield of Gettysburg and for suitably preparing the ground and foundation therefor, commemorating the services and perpetuating the memory of General William Wells and the officers and enlisted men of the First Regiment, Vermont Cavalry. Section 2. The governor shall, on or before the first day of January, 1913, appoint five commissioners to carry out the provisions of this act, and the auditor of accounts is hereby directed to draw his order for the sum of six thousand dollars, or any part thereof as the work progresses, in favor of such commissioners whenever they shall make requisition for the same. Section 3. This act shall take effect from its passage. CHARLES A. PLUMLEY, Speaker of the House of Representatives. FRANK E. HOWE, President of the Senate. Approved December 20, 1912. ALLEN M. FLETCHER, Governor. SEYMOUR H. WOOD GEORGE L. MCBRIDE BARNEY DECKER, Chairman JOHN E. MCCLELLAN HENRY O. WHEELER His EXCELLENCY, ALLEN M. FLETCHER, GOVERNOR OF VERMONT, APPOINTED THE FOLLOWING COM MISSIONERS: BARNEY DECKER, Chairman SEYMOUR H. WOOD GEORGE L. McBRiDE HENRY O. WHEELER JOHN E. MCCLELLAN MEETINGS OF THE COMMISSIONERS THE Commissioners held their first meeting in Burlington, Vermont, December 21, 1913, Mr. Barney Decker, Chairman, being the only mem ber of the Commission absent. General Theodore S. Peck and General Lee S. Tillotson, the Adjutant- General, were also present, General Peck being made Secretary of the Commission and General Tillotson its Treasurer. In view of the limited time before the monument must be in position, July 1, 1913, and the high recom- GENERAL LEE S. TILLOTSON Treasurer GENERAL THEODORE S. PECK Secretary mendation which had been accorded the Van Amringe Granite Company, of Boston, Massachusetts, it was 5 IN AFFECTIONATE MEMORY OF decided to request them to have a representative present at the next meeting of the Commission. The Commissioners held their second meeting in Burlington, on January 6, 1913, all the Commissioners being present, also the Treasurer and Secretary. By special invitation Chaplain John E. Goodrich of the Regiment was invited, as well as the members of the Wells family, which included Charles Wells, Frederick Howard Wells, the two surviving brothers of General Wells; the General s son and daughter, Frank R. Wells and Mrs. Bertha R. Wells Jackson; her husband, Dr. H. Nelson Jackson, and George M. Besett, Managing Director, Wells & Richardson Company. The Com missioners regretted very much that General Wells sister, Mrs. Sarah Carpenter Wells Brock, and her husband, the Honorable James W. Brock, on account of sickness, were unable to be present. Mr. Van Amringe, President of the Van Amringe Granite Com pany, was also present. The Secretary, General Peck, reported to the Com mission that a delegation had been appointed by the First Vermont Cavalry Association in the fall of 1910 to go to Gettysburg and confer with the Gettysburg National Military Park Commission about the loca tion of the site for the monument, and that on Octo ber 30, 1910, this site had been granted by the War Department. 1 a While at Gettysburg Colonel Nicholson, Chairman of the Commission, assured the Vermonters that when the monument was in position a vista would be cut from that point to the granite monument of the First Regi ment Vermont Cavalry erected by the State in 1889, a distance of some one thousand yards. 6 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS Commissioner McBride stated that he was author ized to inform the Commission that the sum of two thousand dollars had been added to the State s appro priation by members of the Regiment. Mr. Van Amringe brought with him several photographs of work which his house had done and said that within the time given he could finish a monument which would be in every way worthy of what it commemo rated and meet the approval of all interested. He also stated that while at Gettysburg, several years ago, he had the pleasure of meeting General Wells with Dr. Edson. They went over the field with him and also gave him a description of the charge, and for this reason it would be especially pleasing to him to do the work. Colonel John P. Nicholson, Chairman of the Gettysburg National Military Park Commission, declared Mr. Van Amringe, was particularly interested in this monument; indeed, during all his intercourse with him for over thirty years he had never known him to show T so much interest in any statue except that of his own father. Mr. Van Amringe agreed that his firm would furnish a bond to have the work completed by July 1, 1913, and the contract was accordingly drawn up and the bond executed. The Commission then took up the details of the work and endeavored in every way possible to furnish the contractors with material and information to enable them to erect the finest memorial possible of the charge of the afternoon of July 3, 1863. ANNUAL REPORTS. WAR DEPARTMENT FISCAL YEAR ENDED JUNE 30. 1911 REPORT OF THE GETTYSBURG NATIONAL MILITARY PARK COMMISSION 191 WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1911 O m T. MAJ. GEN . WILLIAM WELLS A committee of the First Vermont Cavalry came from Vermont to select a site for a statue to Bvt. Maj. Gen. William Wells, colonel of First Vermont Cavalry, and on October 30, 1910, accompanied by the commission visited the battle field in the vicinity of the operations of that regiment in its desperate charge through the lines of the Confederate Army on July 3, 1863. After carefully considering several appropriate sites, the committee unanimously agreed on a location on section 7, at a bowlder on the south side of the avenue, 270 feet -west of the bridge over Plum Run, and a map of the position has been made showing the site selected and the field of operations in the charge. FORTY-FIRST ANNUAL MEETING OF THE VERMONT CAVALRY REUNION SOCIETY The forty-first annual meeting of the survivors of the First Regiment Vermont Cavalry will be held on the battlefield of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, in connection with the semi-centennial celebration of that battle. All Vermont cavalrymen, in whatever State they may now reside, are earnestly invited to be present. Business meeting will be held in the "great tent" on Wednesday, July 2, at 10 o clock, A. M. (If it becomes necessary to change the hour of holding the meeting, due notice of such change will be posted at the headquarters of the Vermont contingent.) Comrades will report at Vermont headquarters immediately on arrival at Gettysburg, register and procure badges furnished ex pressly for this celebration. Services of unveiling and dedication of the Memorial in honor of General William W T ells and officers and men of the First Vermont Cavalry will be held at 3:30 o clock, p. M., July 3, 1913, near the spot where the second battalion crossed Plum Run on the charge of July 3, 1863. These services will be of unusual interest and it is expected and hoped that all survivors of the regiment who are physically able will be present. Owing to advance in price by the manufacturers, the society badges will, in future, be two dollars and fifty cents each; this price w r ill include membership fee. DEATHS. Families of deceased members who receive this notice are requested to notify the secretary of the date of such decease. MYRON M. PARKER, President, 1418 F Street, N. W., Washington, D. C. H. O. WHEELER, Treasurer, Burlington, Vermont. S. H. WOOD, Secretary, Saint Albans, Vermont. Saint Albans, Vermont, June 2, 1913. 10 BURLINGTON, VT., JUNE 5. 1913. BY DIRECTION OF HIS EXCELLENCY, ALLEN M. FLETCHER, GOVERNOR OF VERMONT, THE COMMISSION ERS APPOINTED BY HIM TO HAVE CHARGE OF THE ERECTION OF A MONUMENT ON THE BATTLEFIELD OF GETTYSBURG IN HONOR OF THE OFFICERS AND MEN OF THE FIRST REGIMENT VERMONT CAVALRY AND THEIR DISTINGUISHED COMMANDER, MAJOR GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS, RESPECTFULLY INVITE YOU TO BE PRESENT AT THE DEDICATORY EX E R C I S ES , W H I C H WILL TAKE PLACE ON THAT HISTORIC FIELD AT 3.3O O CLOCK ON THE AFTERNOON OF JULY 3, 1913, THIS BEING THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THAT TERRIFIC CHARGE NEAR ROUND TOP IN WHICH SO MANY OF THE MEMBERS OF THIS REGIMENT "PAID TO THE NA TION THE UTTERMOST TRIBUTE OF DEVOTION." THE EXERCISES WILL BE IN CHARGE OF THE VERMONT CAVALRY ASSOCIATION. OF WHICH COLONEL MYRON M. PARKER OF WASHINGTON, D. C., is PRESI DENT. WE WOULD APPRECIATE THE FAVOR OF AN EARLY REPLY. VERY SINCERELY. BARNEY DECKER, CHAIRMAN") SEYMOUR H. WOOD ) GEORGE MCBRIDE ^COMMISSIONERS HENRY O. WHEELER JOHN E. McCLELLAN SECRETARY. CHARLES WELLS Brother of General William Wells CHARLES WELLS IN January, 1863, when a boy of eighteen, Charles Wells left Waterbury, Vermont, to join his brother, Major William Wells, at the front, and in that same month joined the First Vermont Cavalry at Eort Scott, Virginia. He remained with the command some eight months, and was present with Major W T ells in the Gettysburg campaign. In August, 1863, he left the regiment and returned home. Later he removed to Wawpun, Wisconsin, where he enlisted as a private in Company B, Forty-first Wisconsin Infantry, and went to Memphis, Tennessee, the regiment forming a part of the Sixteenth Army Corps, Major-General A. J. Smith commanding. At Memphis he was in action against the raid of Confederate General Forrest. He was mustered out with his regiment in September, 1864. It was a source of deep regret to the members of the First Vermont Cavalry Regimental Association that Comrade Wells could not be with them at the dedica tory exercises, especially as he was one of the party who selected the site for the monument, and it was their wish to have him assist the other members of the family in unveiling the statue of General Wells, but, owing to the condition of his health, his physician considered it too great an undertaking. He was by no means forgotten, however, and was often spoken of most lovingly by his many friends and comrades. 13 It was expected that Honorable James W. Brock, with Mrs. Brock, would be present at the unveiling ex ercises, but illness prevented, much to the regret of their many friends in the regiment. The Vermont Cavalrymen remember with great pleasure Mr. Brock s desire that the battlefield of Get tysburg should have a fitting memorial in honor of their desperate charge on the afternoon of July 3, 1863, and his efficient services toward securing the monu ment. MRS. SARAH CARPENTER WELLS BROCK Sister of General Wells HONORABLE JAMES W. BROCK V SURGEON-MAJOR P. O M. EDSON 7, HONORABLE GEORGE F. EDMUNDS United States Senator from Vermont. Elected 1866. Resigned 1891 841 South Orange Grove Avenue, Pasadena, California, June 14, 1913. Dear Sir: I have received your kind invitation to Mrs. Edmunds, our daughter and eyself to attend the Dedicatory Exercises at Gettys burg in honor of the late Jifajor General Hilliam Wells. We all greatly regret that it is impossible for any of us to be present. General Wells was a great soldier and deserves the proposed honor to his memory. I am, in haste. Very truly yours, General T. S. Peck, Secretsrv *c. Burlington, Vermont. CHAPLAIN JOHN E. GOODRICH First Vermont Cavalry The Commission is under great obligations to our Chaplain, John E. Goodrich, for the valuable aid rendered them in their work, particularly in the tablet inscriptions, which have been pronounced as among the very finest at Gettysburg. MAJOR-GENERAL JAMES H. WILSON, U. S. Volunteers H. WILSON .June ISth, 1913. T. S. Peck, Rao. , 152 follef e ptr eet , Purlinfton, " t. My dear ? r . Peek: I , was a very nleasant. experience after two weeks absence in the west to receive tbro i^h you Governor 71 e t- che* s very cordial invitation to *oin in t^e dedication r> -r fva "errnont nonutient to t^e E irst ^ *!>* i^fn* o*" "ftmont Crt / ilry nnd : o its l*st r- 1 or ions, ro ", T !n.n p , on r c^d friend "ajor ^ener ^1 <r illiam 7 fills. >T o r-nn estft-nd -itv, er the rfiriment or i t r , las* rolon*! ""^r <* ^irMv *><nn T did .n^ I run rlad to note that >f r . ^.ans 1 ow in r^-v^inr "Trsder t 1 - - Old s lar" h !& r<?rceivd h.it in *>n* work T endeavored to express my horour-b re&pect and ,-ny v ip- v admiration ^or the first Vermont cavalry and its noble rorr.and*?? . ">ar- wet t rife rood soldiers a^ ever .\or: t>e An*i r ir" : m uni**orr and that is the hif-v&t. r-raise I or any other man car give them. I repret eroe.-d .i nrly t. -at I shall not be al "Mys- rurr on he prea* occafrion whicV is ; ,. -:- > g 1 *o that. h,ifc oric ^ield. ^en i^:- i f* - - exlain uon more than on- instance I v^ve ans*A r ered nest - half in .ief-t that T war- enfor^- : in s etta* lob - thou- t -ri" ailes nwr.y on that eve^t^ul day. It was my p-ood ^or- tune to ^sjrry the ^1 ar of *r;ice and to deVand the surren der of "ioksliur p on t l ^e ni- v t o- % 7:j\y : rd, 136-1, As you well, know tv, e surrender of "en>ior ton .=-. entire sr-ny and all. its arms vie s*ore*. took pi ^ce t>e n^-t d ny p.nd T WF whioh ended at "- r-l r on t v at p-lorious day. Anoth eral officer o ^ *he volunte^-r a-my w^o c-Trclsed ai inde pendent command in the las-t c s^r ai ^n , I v nve not ~*een of ficially in- ited "by ~>>y on <=-Tse *->-n Governor ^letc v er to ?e present at t^e rrr,rt reunion .vh ch is ^o t n* e nlace at Gettysburg in t\e early d=?y, o 1 " 1 Jixly, * r a tnp made o A h? c oratn i tia G n t s it : s no " oo 1 ite for ns to recons-.ider even should such an invitation finally reach me. ^"^^ Wishing you, -he governor, and all the gallant sons of rr ermont who join in that remarkable reunion every he- nor and consideration, v;it : ^~, TI-IC"^ en.io:/nen* a?, can he had from sue 11 solemn or ore-, d tar? , I 5:1 Very /(/-erel- you "ri-=nd<" Wtfc&o^ GENERAL EDWARD H. RIPLEY Colonel Ninth Vermont Volunteers MAJOR-GENERAL D. M. M. GREGG, U. S. Volunteers Commanding Division of Cavalry, Army of the Potomac, at Battle of Gettysburg ^iu OS flU** a*cvvL*~t A ??yl)hi*ju-ci:tx*) u &-t4i r , OS frt^U frt, REAR-ADMIRAL CHARLES E. CLARK, U. S. Navy CRAGSMOOR,N.Y If t( , w COLONEL JOHN P. NICHOLSON HONORABLE JOHN C. SCOFIELD Chairman Gettysburg National Military Assistant and Chief Clerk of the War Park Commission Department HONORABLE HENRY BRECKINRIDGK Acting Secretary of War COLONEL E. B. COPE MAJOR CHARLES A. RICHARDSON U. S. Army Engineer in Chief Gettysburg National Military Park Commission WAR DEPARTMENT AND GETTYSBURG NATIONAL MILITARY PARK COMMISSION THE citizens of the State of Vermont, the officers and men of the First Regiment, Vermont Cav alry, the monument commissioners, and the fam ily of General Wells are loud in their praises of the courteous treatment received by them at the hands of the War Department and of the Gettysburg National Park Commission, and especially from Colonel John P. Nicholson, chairman, who personally rendered valuable assistance in the various and delicate details connected with the erection and dedication of the monument. From the time the Vermonters first visited Gettys burg, in 1910, for the purpose of selecting a site, Colonel Nicholson manifested a strong desire that a memorial should be placed on that historic field which should fittingly "signalize the valor of the officers and men of the First Regiment, Vermont Cavalry, who here paid to the nation the uttermost tribute of devotion," and forever stand as an object lesson in true patriotism. INVITED GUESTS ATONG the distinguished guests invited are the following: His Excellency, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States. Honorable William H. Taft, ex-President of the United States, New Haven, Connecticut. Honorable Theodore Roosevelt, ex-President of the United States and colonel "Rough Riders" Spanish- American War, New York. Honorable Lindley M. Garrison, secretary of war, Washington. Honorable Henry Breckinridge, assistant secretary of war, Washington. Honorable John C. Scofield, assistant and chief clerk of the War Department, Washington. His Excellency, John K. Tener, governor Common wealth of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg. General Thomas J. Stewart, the adjutant-general Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg. Honorable William P. Dillingham, United States Senator from Vermont, Montpelier. Honorable Carroll S. Page, United States Senator from Vermont, Hyde Park. Honorable Frank Plumley, member of Congress from Vermont, Northfield. Honorable Frank L. Greene, member of Congress from Vermont, Saint Albans. 32 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS Representing the United States Army: Lieutenant-General Nelson A. Miles, U. S. A. (re tired), Washington, D. C., second army corps, Army of the Potomac. Lieutenant-General S. B. M. Young, U. S. A. (re tired), Washington, D. C., colonel Fourth Pennsyl vania Cavalry, Sheridan s Cavalry Corps. Major-General Leonard Wood, chief of general staff, U. S. A., Washington, D. C. Major-General F. C. Ainsworth, U. S. A. (retired), Washington, D. C. Major-General James H. Wilson, U. S. A. (retired), W ilmington, Delaware. Brigadier-General Charles H. Tompkins, U. S. A. (retired), Washington, D. C. Brigadier-General Eugene D. Dimmick, U. S. A. (retired), Washington, D. C., captain Fifth New York Cavalry. Brigadier-General Charles Shaler, U. S. A. (retired) > Indianapolis, Indiana. Brigadier-General Walter S. Schuyler, U. S. A. (re tired), Nevada City, California. Brigadier-General John M. Wilson,U. S, A. (retired), Washington, D. C. Colonel John C. Gresham, Tenth U. S. Cavalry, and all officers of the Tenth Cavalry, Fort Ethan Allen, Vermont. Lieutenant-Colonel S. L. Faison, Fifth U. S. In fantry, and all officers of the Fifth Infantry, Plattsburg Barracks, New York. Lieutenant-Colonel Daniel L. Tate, U. S. A., W T ash- ington, D. C. 33 IN AFFECTIONATE MEMORY OF Major James S. Wilson, medical corps, U. S. A., Fort Ethan Allen, Vermont. Major E. W. Evans, pay department, TJ. S. A., Fort Ethan Allen, Vermont. Major Francis J. Koester, U. S. A., adjutant- general s office, War Department, Washington, D. C. Major James E. Normoyle, quartermaster s depart ment, U. S. A., Washington, D. C. Captain Ira L. Reeves, U. S. A. (retired), professor of military science and tactics, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont. Representing the United States Navy: Admiral George Dewey, U. S. N., Washington, D. C. Admiral Charles E. Clark, U. S. N., Washington, B.C. Honorable Horatio L. Wait, late commander, U. S. N., Chicago, Illinois. Representing the "Old Vermont Brigade": Major-General Lewis A. Grant, commander, Min neapolis, Minnesota. General Sumner H. Lincoln, U. S. A. (retired), colonel Sixth Vermont, San Francisco, California. General Stephen P. Jocelyn, U. S. A. (retired), private Sixth Vermont, Burlington, Vermont. Ex-Governor Samuel E. Pingree, lieutenant-colonel Third Vermont, Hartford. Ex-Governor Urban A. Woodbury, first sergeant Company D, Second Vermont, Burlington, first empty sleeve from Vermont in War for the Union. 34 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS Colonel Edward R. Campbell, Eleventh Vermont, Washington, D. C. A. J. Maxham, private Third Vermont, Washington, D. C. Colonel James H. Walbridge, colonel Second Ver mont, Bennington. General Frank G. Butterfield, lieutenant-colonel Sixth Vermont, Derby Line. Honorable Henry T. Cushman, regimental quarter master, Fourth Vermont, North Bennington. Honorable Byron C. Ward, first lieutenant Second Vermont, Gettysburg commissioner from Iowa, Des Moines, Iowa. Representing the Second Vermont Brigade: Colonel Heman W. Allen, private Thirteenth Ver mont, Gettysburg commissioner from Vermont, Bur lington. Ex-Governor John A. Mead, private Twelfth Ver mont, Rutland. General Crosby P. Miller, U. S. A. (retired), corporal Sixteenth Vermont, Burlington. Colonel Henry O. Clark, sergeant Thirteenth Ver mont, East Orange, New Jersey. Colonel Frank Kenfield, lieutenant Thirteenth Ver mont and captain Seventeenth Vermont, Morris- ville. Colonel W 7 . H. H. Slack, private Sixteenth Vermont, Springfield. General George H. Bond, private Sixteenth Vermont, Washington, D. C. 35 IN AFFECTIONATE MEMORY OF Representing Other Vermont Regiments, Batteries, and Sharpshooters : General William W. Henry, colonel Tenth Vermont^ Burlington. General Edward H. Ripley, colonel Ninth Vermont, Mendon. Major Ira H. Evans, private Tenth Vermont (adju tant genera] Second Division, Twenty-fifth Army Corps), Austin, Texas. Major Charles H. Foote, first lieutenant Michigan company, Second U. S. Sharpshooters, South Burling ton. Honorable Cassius Peck, sergeant Vermont company,. U. S. Sharpshooters, Burlington. General Joel H. Lucia, first lieutenant Seventeenth Vermont, Montpelier. Representing the Armies of the United States: General Horace Porter, U. S. A., aide-de-camp to General U. S. Grant commanding, New York City. Representing the Army of the Potomac: Major-General Joshua L. Chamberlain, ex-governor of Maine, Fifth Corps, Portland. General Elisha H. Rhodes, colonel Second Rhode Island, Sixth Corps, Providence. Colonel Andrew Cowan, artillery battalion, Sixth Corps, Louisville, Kentucky. General James A. Beaver, colonel One Hundred and Fortieth Pennsylvania, First Corps, Bellefonte, Penn sylvania. 36 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS General Thomas H. Hubbard, colonel Thirtieth Maine, New York City. Colonel Harry G. Cavenaugh, U. S. A. (retired), colonel First Delaware (Second Corps), New Castle, Delaware. Representing Sheridan s Cavalry Corps: Major-General David McM. Gregg, commanding First Division, Reading, Pennsylvania. General James M. Schoonmaker, colonel Fourteenth Pennsylvania and chairman of the Gettysburg com mission from the State of Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh. Colonel Arnold A. Rand, Fourth Massachusetts Cavalry, Boston, Massachusetts. General Jonathan P. Cilley, colonel First Maine Cavalry, Rockland, Maine. General Horatio C. King, General Sheridan s Staff, Brooklyn, New York. Representing Confederate Armies: General E. M. Law, of Florida. General Andrew J. West, of Georgia. General Felix H. Robertson, of Texas. Ed\vard C. Brush, of Massachusetts. Representing the Spanish- American War: Colonel Herbert S. Foster, U. S. A. (retired), com mander Vermont Commandery, Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, North Calais, Vermont. Honorable Frank L. Greene, M. C., captain First Vermont Infantry, Saint Albans, Vermont. 37 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS General Lee S. Tillotson, First Regiment Infantry, the adjutant-general of Vermont, Saint Albans. Representing the First Vermont Cavalry Regiment: General Charles H. Tompkins, U. S. A. (retired), third colonel of the regiment, Washington, D. C. Colonel Edward B. Sawyer, fourth colonel of the regiment, Hyde Park. Colonel John W. Bennett, lieutenant-colonel of the regiment, Chicago. Lieutenant P. C. J. Cheney, first lieutenant Com pany C, Washington, Vermont. Major P. O Meara Edson, surgeon, Roxbury, Massa chusetts. Colonel Clarence D. Gates, adjutant, Burlington. Alphonzo L. Barrows, private, Company B, Burling ton. THE DEDICATORY EXERCISES JULY 3, 1913 MONUMENT OF MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS AND FIRST VERMONT CAVALRY SHOWING BAS RELIEF SIDE VIEW OF STATUE, SHOWING TABLET NUMBER ONE SIDE VIEW OF STATUE, SHOWING TABLET NUMBER Two KEY TO BRONZE RELIEF PANEL SHOWING THE CHARGE MADE BY THE REGIMENT NEAR ROUND TOP, GETTYSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA, JULY 3, 1863 THE figure at the extreme left, with sabre raised, is Major William Wells, who, in command of the Second Battalion, First Vermont Cavalry, is leading the charge on Law s Brigade, Hood s Divi sion, Longstreet s Corps, Army of Northern Virginia, at five o clock on the afternoon of July 3, 1863. On Major Wells s right appears Brigadier-General Elon J. Farnsworth, commanding the Brigade, who is falling from his horse mortally wounded. Immediately behind Major Wells, and lying face downward upon his horse, is seen Captain Henry C. Parsons, commanding Troop L. Captain Parsons was a graduate of the University of Vermont. To the right of Captain Parsons, with raised sabre, rides F. Stewart Stranahan, First Sergeant Troop L. In after years he became Lieutenant-Go vernor of Vermont. Still farther to the right, and a little to the rear of Sergeant Stranahan, is Trumpeter Gilbert C. Buck- man of Troop L, who was General Farnsworth s orderly bugler and sounded the charge, while immediately to the rear may be seen Edgar J. Wolcott, Troop L, with both hands covering his face, where he has been desperately wounded. Behind Wolcott, and wearing a 45 IN AFFECTIONATE MEMORY OF slouch hat, is Lieutenant Alexander G. Watson of Troop L. At Wolcott s left, and directly behind Ser geant Stranahan, leaning forward on his horse, rides First Lieutenant Hiram H. Hall, Troop E, who was serving on the Brigade Staff. Captain Hall was another graduate of the University of Vermont, and was killed at Nottaway Court House, Virginia, in 1864. Behind Lieutenant Hall is Sergeant William L. Greenleaf of Troop L, who wears a slouch hat. Later he became a General, and for many years commanded the National Guard of Vermont. The non-commissioned officer with full beard following Sergeant Greenleaf is Sergeant Willard Farrington, Troop L. In the center background, a little to the right, upon a rearing horse, between two guidons, appears Lieutenant-Colonel Addison W. Preston, the officer wearing a slouch hat, with sabre raised, he having joined the Second Battalion with reenforcements. Colonel Preston was killed at the battle of Cold Harbor in 1864. The figure lying dead upon the grass in the fore ground is that of Sergeant George H. Duncan of Troop L, while behind him to the right is seen Al- phonzo Barrows of Troop B, raising himself from his horse, which has been killed. At the left of Comrade Barrows appears Sergeant George L. McBride, Troop L, springing from his horse, which has been shot; rushing forward he seized Sergeant Duncan s horse and continued in the charge. To the right of Sergeant McBride is shown Captain Oliver T. Cushman of Troop E, who, having been severely wounded in the face, has fallen backward on his horse. The following 46 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS year he was killed at the battle of Cold Harbor, Vir ginia. Near Captain Cushman may be seen a riderless horse, the rider, Rufus D. Thompson of Troop L, having been killed, while just beyond appears Gilbert O. Smith of Troop C, falling backward, wounded. Upon the extreme right of the panel, leaning against a boulder, is Lieutenant Perley C. J. Cheney, Troop C, who was shot through the body, the ball entering his back and coming out near his pantaloons watch pocket. The watch and ball are now in possession of the Vermont Historical Society at the State House, Montpelier. At the foot of the tree, near Lieutenant Cheney, reclines Corporal Ira E. Sperry of Troop L, who was mortally wounded early in the charge, and died on the 22nd. The first of the two horsemen at the extreme right of the background, with drawn revolvers, is Sergeant Seymour H. Wood, Troop L, who, with his companion, is taking Confederate prisoners to the rear. Almost the last charging soldier is Edwin E. Jones of Troop K, who was wounded, and may be seen fall ing backward, with his arm raised and sabre falling. Many of the faces shown in this relief panel are from such actual pictures of First Vermont Cavalrymen participating in the charge as it was possible to pro cure, these pictures being taken about the year 1861, but by no means are all of the brave Vermont Cavalry men who took part in this terrible action and were killed and wounded represented, the limited space making it impossible to include each one. 47 1*3- a& WiOlAR WELLS C^ V KISSN3C CUSSED rt .5 POINT CK^ciSlKC OVER CCHFEiM&OT dvTUE SPOT WHERE ic RfeCltlUUtfct RQUU^tKT S I t KGKTREKLY TO I KUG TKEUKE4KO 51U^ClvU^V^tstl(3.l\5E IK 111; tu __._. t 35S iXi\D R>5klTl^ B seta TQ THE aeli^ :<s mron SOOK oaAt UHIBI iiiE HIIE oi r iiiE <^ ^Sl^lUi^tllV RKUlRl" HO EKtTTO 1VE ^I lx Y :i D vETlvV RRi: 11-JOSE- M TABLET NUMBER ONE TABLCT NUMBER Two MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS SAINT ALBANS, VERMONT, November 14, 1913. H. NELSON JACKSON, M.D., Burlington, Vermont. DEAR DOCTOR: Fearing that the detail in the bronze relief panel , showing two cavalrymen going to the rear with un armed prisoners, may seem inconsistent with the charge as depicted, may I relate the following? When the charging column reached a point some one hundred and twenty-five feet from the spot where General Earns worth fell, the writer, who is supposed to be one of the two cavalrymen mentioned above, saw four or five Confederates among the rocks near our left flank, and, riding to ward them, demanded their surrender. At the same instant a comrade came to my assistance, as the Confederates objected to going to the rear and were dodging behind boulders and rocks where it was impossible for us to ride. During this manoeuvring I lost sight of my comrade and of all but two of the rebels, one of whom soon succeeded in es caping, but the other I brought into our lines. SERGEANT S. H. WOOD MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS On the 3rd of July, 1913, fifty years later, as Mr. Van Amringe, the contractor, was engaged in draping the statue of General Wells for the unveiling cere monies, a one-armed man inquired if that was the statue of General Farnsworth. Mr. Van Amringe in formed him that it was the statue of Major-General W 7 illiam Wells, who led the charge of the Vermont Cavalry. In southern accents the old soldier replied: "I am one of the Johnnie Rebs that stopped those boys on July 3, 1863," and, looking about him, said: "There must be a run somewhere around here. I remember it well, because we were greatly in need of drinking water, and two men from each company in my regiment were detailed to take a large number of canteens and get them filled at this run. They never came back, and we heard they had been captured by this Cavalry com mand that afterward made the charge on us." Mr. Van Amringe, pointing to the two cavalrymen at the extreme right of the panel, said: "There is the ex planation why the six men did not come back." With much emotion the Confederate replied: "My God, it is worth coming all the way from Alabama to find out what became of Jimmie, my bunkie, for I never knew whether he and his companions were killed, captured, or what became of them." This explains the mystery of why that group of Confederates should be separated from their command without arms, when every man should have been on the firing line. Yours sincerely, SEYMOUR H. WOOD, Late Sergeant Company L, First Vermont Cavalry. 50 COLONEL MYRON M. PARKER President First Vermont Cavalry Association THE DEDICATORY EXERCISES THE exercises opened with "assembly," the call being sounded by the Fifth Infantry Bugle Corps, which, with the regimental band, fur nished music for the occasion. Prayer was offered by the Rev. Albert W. Clark, of Bohemia, sergeant Twelfth Vermont Regiment in 1863, as follows: OUR HEAVENLY FATHER, let thy special blessing rest upon us w T ho have met to-day at this historic spot so nobly and valiantly consecrated by our brother soldiers fifty years ago. We recall with thanksgiving to God their bravery and self-denial at a time when Gettys burg demanded supreme sacrifice. We behold with wonder this wooded hillside where our Vermont cavalry made such a brilliant charge. We are here to-day, O Thou Great Captain of our Salvation, to honor the memory of our fellow comrades, and to take by the hand the survivors of that magnificent devotion to our flag. Bless these veterans here before Thee, and re ward them with inward peace and intense loyalty to all the interests of humanity and to the welfare of the kingdom of our Lord. On this spot, where our com rades gave blood and life for our country, we pledge our devotion to the still unsolved problems of our nation. Accept our consecration of heart and soul to every noble cause. Behold, O God, to-day our offering of granite, marble, and bronze. We cannot 52 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS consecrate to Thee this hillside, this witness of un paralleled valor, but we do dedicate to Thee this monument in memory of the Green Mountain Boys and of their unflinching leader from the very heart of the State we love. We thank Thee, Saviour Divine, for the presence this day of our Confederate brothers who now love the one flag of America. Bless richly the Southland and draw all our hearts into closer har mony. O Thou that changest not, behold the change that has come over so many of us, so that many who wore the blue fifty years ago, are now wearing the gray, as our silvery hair bears witness. Once more, where our comrades fell, we dedicate anew to Thee our few remaining years. Lead us by Thy wisdom, and help us to live "soberly, righteously, and godly" in the present world until we enter the land that knows no strife, until we hear Thy gracious words: "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of Thy Lord." To Father, Son, and Holy Spirit be everlasting praise. AMEN. REVEREND ALBERT W. CLARK Private Twelfth Vermont Regiment, Missionary of A. B. C. F. M. in Prague. Bohemia FREDERICK H. WELLS Youngest Brother of General Wells "The Star Spangled Banner" was then played by the Fifth Infantry Band, during which the statue was unveiled by Mrs. Bertha Wells Jackson and Frank Richardson Wells, daughter and son of General Wells; beside them stood Frederick Howard Wells, the youngest brother of the General, and Dr. H. Nelson Jackson. Colonel Myron M. Parker, the chairman, George L. McBride, and the Secretary, General T. S. Peck, of the commission appointed by the Governor of Vermont to erect the memorial, then escorted the members of the Wells family to the speakers stand. FRANK R. WELLS Son of General Wells DR. H. NELSON JACKSON BERTHA WELLS JACKSON Daughter of General Wells ADDRESS OF COLONEL MYRON M. PARKER OF WASHINGTON, D. C. PRESIDENT OF THE FIRST VERMONT CAVALRY ASSOCIATION " A HALF century ago on this historic and sacred /% spot it was decreed that the Union should be ^ jL. preserved. That result was reached only after three days of battle and carnage. It was a crucial test which called forth the supreme effort of every man who was fighting for the Union. History has failed to record acts of greater heroism and bravery. At the dawn of each day s battle every soldier looked into his open grave, but none faltered or turned back. Amid volleys of musketry, the roar of cannon, the crashing and shrieking of shells, the groans of the mangled and moans of the dying, they swept on to victory, death, and immortality. Each side participating in that sanguinary conflict displayed equal valor. Though both sides are now united in loyalty to a common country, each fought for a principle they believed to be right. Conspicuous among those who took part in this great battle on the Union side were the fearless soldiers of Vermont. It was the Vermont Brigade under the command of the gallant General Stannard, that met Pickett s charge, a charge that for desperation and daring has challenged the admiration of the world, and by a determined front and deadly flank fire arrested its advance. Those heroic services, appre- 60 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS ciated and applauded by the State and Nation, have already been recognized by the erection of a suitable monument on this field. "To-day the survivors of the First Vermont Cavalry have assembled here to dedicate a monument to the officers and men of that historic regiment and to their distinguished commander, Major-General William Wells. Standing here are some of those who, just fifty years ago, participated in the terrific charge of the First Vermont Cavalry near Round Top, where we are now standing, in which so many of our comrades went to a glorious death. "It will be recalled that at about five o clock in the afternoon General Kilpatrick, commanding the cavalry division, ordered General Farnsworth s Brigade to charge Hood s Division of Infantry, then in possession of Round Top. A battalion of the First Vermont Cavalry, consisting of four companies, led by Major William Wells, supported by another battalion of the regiment, immediately went forward. They rushed through Plum Run, up over the rocks and through woods, charging into Law s fighting Confederate Brig ade, consisting of five regiments of infantry. The conflict was terrific and hand-to-hand; bayonets, sabres, muskets, and pistols clashing together. Wells s bat talion not only suffered from the close range of mus ketry fire of Law s Brigade, but also from two Con federate batteries of twelve guns, located on a hill near by, also from a longer range of musketry and artillery fire from the right of the Confederate line of battle near the Emmettsburg Pike. The battalion did not consist of over two hundred and twenty-five men, 61 IN AFFECTIONATE MEMORY OF and when the charge was over it was found that seventy-five, or thirty per cent of the whole number, had fallen. "Lieutenant-Colonel Preston, commanding the regi ment, in his report, July 11, 1863, says: The charge of Wells s battalion upon a brigade of infantry has seldom been excelled in desperation and valor. This charge is reported in the war histories as one of the most desperate ever known. "Colonel William F. Fox, a historian of the United States Volunteers, says: The greatest loss of life in any one brigade during the Civil War occurred in the Vermont Brigade, and Of Cavalry Regiments in the Union Armies, the First Vermont was one of the five which suffered the greatest loss through those killed and mortally wounded. It is admitted by all that it was second to none in the capture of guns, prisoners, and battle flags. "What a splendid regiment was this First Vermont Cavalry! W T hat brave men and fearless officers! It saw four years of service and participated in seventy- six battles. It was the common remark of both Gen erals Sheridan and Custer that the presence of the First Vermont Cavalry always inspired confidence and assured victory. In the action of Hawe s Shop, looking down into the sightless eyes of the gallant Colonel Preston, General Custer said, There lies one of the best Cavalry Colonels in the Army. It was a privilege to serve in such a regiment and under such command ers as Sawyer, Preston, Hall, Wells, and Bennett. Those who fell on the field of battle have always been envied by those who survived. The proudest heritage 62 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS we can leave our children is the official record that we were permitted to serve our country in that fighting regiment, the First Vermont Cavalry. The story of loyalty, courage, and sacrifice of this memorable regi ment will be told by those who follow me, and I now have the honor and pleasure of introducing His Ex cellency, Allen M. Fletcher, Governor of Vermont, who will speak for the State." Governor Fletcher, addressing Major Lasseigne, said : "Sir, to you as representative of the United States Government, on the part of a State more noted for deeds than words, on the part of a State ever ready to shed its blood for the country, on the part of a State which never lost a color, in behalf of the State of Ver mont, as a memorial to the First Vermont Cavalry and General Wells, I transfer to you this monument." By direction of the Secretary of War Major Armand I. Lasseigne, Fifth United States Infantry, received the monument in behalf of the United States Gov ernment. Introducing General Peck, Colonel Parker said: "I am going to introduce a man, a man who, when a boy, enlisted as a private in Company F, First Ver mont Cavalry, from which he was promoted to a Lieutenancy in the Ninth Vermont Infantry. A soldier who served with such gallantry that he was awarded a gold medal of honor by the Government of the United States. I am going to introduce a man who for twenty years, as Adjutant-General of Vermont, and 63 His EXCELLENCY ALLEN M. FLETCHER Governor of Vermont MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS as a citizen, has been working for the betterment of the old soldiers ; a man who did most of all in obtaining an appropriation for this wonderfully striking, forceful monument we have just unveiled, and in securing its erection. I call upon General Peck." He spoke as follows: "Mr. President, Ladies, and Gentlemen: I have the honor of describing to you the First Vermont Cavalry monument. "During the Legislature of 1912 the State of Ver mont appropriated $6,000 for a monument to com memorate the services and perpetuate the memory of Major-General William Wells and the officers and enlisted men of the First Regiment Vermont Cav alry. "This monument now stands near where the Regi ment began its desperate charge at five o clock on the afternoon of July 3, 1863, under the leadership of Major W 7 ells, who was in command of the Battalion, with Brigadier-General Elon J. Farnsworth, command ing the Brigade, riding by his side. "The first boulder, which forms the base, is in its original position, while the second was taken from a spot near by. "The two boulders, from the foundation to the top, measure some eight feet, and the bronze statue of General Wells is of the same height, making the total height of the monument sixteen feet. "The uniform, hat, boots, belt, and revolver worn by General Wells during the war were used by the artist, Mr. J. Otto Schweizer, in modeling the statue, the 65 GENERAL THEODORE S. PECK MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS portrait being from a photograph taken at the time of the war. "The bas-relief, costing some $2,000, is the gift of the honorary and active members of the Regiment. War pictures of various members of the First Vermont Cavalry were furnished the artist for use in this panel, and the horses are of the Morgan type, one thousand of which went with the Regiment to the front in 1861. "While it is impossible to mention all of the officers and men who participated in this charge, among the foremost in the bas-relief may be seen Major Wells leading the charge, and at his right General Farns- worth, falling from his horse mortally wounded. In the center background is shown Lieutenant-Colonel A. W. Preston, with sword raised and horse rearing, his battalion having joined that of Major Wells after passing the Slyder house. "The Commissioners having charge of this work have endeavored to furnish the contractors and the artist with all the material possible to make this a fitting memorial whereby the world may know the story which is so familiar to the veterans of our Green Mountain State. "They wish to place on record their sincere gratitude to Honorable Henry Breckinridge, Acting Secretary of War; Honorable John C. Scofield, Assistant and Chief Clerk of the War Department; to the Gettysburg Na tional Park Commission, of which Colonel John P. Nicholson is chairman, and to Colonel E. B. Cope, U. S. A., Engineer-in-Chief, for the valuable assistance rendered in the erection of this monument near the 67 MAJOR JAMES H. McREA MAJOR CHARLES D. RHODES Commanding Battalion Fifth U. S. Infantry Commanding Battalion Fifteenth U. S. Cavalry MAJOR JAMES E. NORMOYLE, U. S. ARMY Chief Quarter Master, in charge of Veterans Camp at Gettysburg, July 1-4, 1913 FIRST LIEUTENANT THOMAS L. CRYSTAL FIRST LIEUTENANT GEORGE M. RUSSEL Adjutant Battalion. Fifth U. S. Infantry, having Commanding Platoon, Fifteenth U. S. Cavalry charge of Fifth Infantry Band MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS spot where the Regiment began its desperate charge on the afternoon of July 3, 1863. "To Colonel John C. Gresham and Captain W. H. K Godsen, of the Tenth U. S. Cavalry, and to Major James E. Normoyle, of the United States Army, Chief Quartermaster of the National Camp, and to his assistants, are due our hearty thanks for efficient service given; also to General Hunter Liggett, commanding the United States Army Camp; to Major James H. McRea, commanding the Fifth Infantry, and to Major Charles D. Rhodes, commanding the Fifteenth Cavalry. "The Commissioners are deeply grateful to Mr. W. B. Van Amringe, president of the Van Amringe Granite Company, the contractors, and to Mr. J. Otto Schweizer, the artist, for their splendid service, which has made this memorial so successful. "By this monument Vermont honors the valor of her sons who here paid to the nation the uttermost tribute of devotion. She records her pride in their un flinching courage, their soldierly obedience, their un hesitating attempt of the impossible. She testifies her admiration of the manhood of the brigade commander who twice told his superior officer that the charge ought not to be made, yet for himself shunned not the danger. No more gallant or more desperate charge was made during the war, nor one more fruitless. "This was but a single holocaust one of many offered on the altar of American Freedom. "During its four years of service the Regiment had seven Colonels, three of whom resigned and one was killed Colonel Addison W. Preston, who fell at Cold Harbor. Had he lived a few days longer he would 69 IN AFFECTIONATE MEMORY OF have been promoted to the rank of brigadier-general, for he stood very high with his superior officers, and they were only waiting for his appointment as Colonel to give him higher rank and more responsible duties. General Custer, who commanded the Brigade, voiced the opinion of many when he said, as he turned from Colonel Preston s body, There lies the best fighting Colonel in the Cavalry Corps of the Army of the Potomac. Of the remaining three, one committed suicide; another, William Wells, was promoted Brigadier-General and Major-General; and one, Colonel Josiah Hall, returned home in command of the Battalion. "The Regiment had five Lieutenant-Colonels; one resigned; two, Preston and Wells, were promoted Colonels; one, Lieutenant-Colonel John W. Bennett, was mustered out after three years service; and the other, Lieutenant-Colonel Cummings, returned home with the Regiment. "There were twelve majors; two resigned, five were promoted, one was mustered out after three years service, and four came home at the close of the war. "The Regiment served most of the time in the Second Brigade and Third Division of Sheridan s Cavalry Corps, Army of the Potomac, under Generals Wilson, Custer, Chapman, Wells, and others. "In Colonel Fox s list of Three Hundred Fighting Regiments of the Union Army, which lost over one hundred and thirty men in killed and died of wounds during the war, the First Vermont Cavalry stands the fifth, the First Maine and the First, Fifth, and Sixth Michigan Regiments preceding it. There were two 70 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS hundred and seventy-two Regiments, forty-five Bat talions, and seventy-eight Companies of Cavalry in the Armies of the Union from 1861 to 1866. "So far as we know, the following officers of the Regiment are living to-day: "Two Colonels, Charles H. Tompkins, now a Brigadier-General (retired) of the United States Army, who resides in Washington, D. C., and Edward B. Sawyer, of Hyde Park, Vermont. "One Lieutenant-Colonel, John W. Bennett, a resi dent of Chicago, Illinois. "Two Majors, Robert Schofield, who resides in Kil- bourn City, Wisconsin, and Andrew J. Grover, a resi dent of Los Angeles, California. "Of the Staff there are three living Adjutant Clar ence D. Gates, of Burlington, Vermont; Assistant Surgeon P. O Meara Edson, of Boston, Massachusetts ; and Chaplain John E. Goodrich, of Burlington, Vermont. "Of all the officers of the different companies there are living: Four in Company A, four in Company B, three in Company C, one in Company D, one in Com pany E, one in Company F, one in Company G, two in Company H, two in Company I, one in Company K, and none in Companies L and M. "The last Vermont soldier killed in battle was Private George B. Dunn, of Company M, First Ver mont Cavalry, who was killed on the evening of April 8, 1865; and the last Vermont soldier wounded was Lieutenant Willard Farrington, of Company L, same regiment, who was wounded early the same evening. "As the Second Vermont Brigade, under the heroic 71 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS Stannard, did valiant service on the flank of Pickett s charging column at three o clock on the afternoon of July 3, 1863, and as the First Vermont Brigade, which had marched thirty-six miles in one day to reach the battlefield and was being held in reserve, stood ready to respond to a call to any part of the field where they might be most needed, and also as the courageous sharpshooters covered themselves with glory in the action of July 2-3, so the brave men of the First Ver mont Cavalry, under the noble Preston and the gallant Wells, did magnificent work at five o clock of the same afternoon in charging Round Top, when they knew the impossible lay before them, yet faltered not in soldierly duty." FIRST TABLET A 5 p. M., July 3, 1863, the Second Battalion, First Vermont Cavalry, led by Major William Wells, General Farnsworth, commanding the brigade, riding by his side, crossed Plum Run near this point, charging over stone walls, amid rocks and through woods, till they encountered five regiments of Law s Confederate Brigade, near the spot where the regi mental monument stands. The first battalion and part of the third, Lieutenant- Colonel A. W. Preston commanding, were ordered to the support of the second, moved northerly to the Slyder house, turned into the lane, and struck Law s Brigade in flank. The onset was terrific, sabres and bayonets, revolvers and muskets being freely used. After a struggle the hill was carried by the First Ver mont and the prisoners captured sent to the rear. The three battalions united soon came under the fire of the Fourth Alabama Infantry and presently of the Ninth Georgia Infantry. Finding no exit to the south, they turned to the east and charged the Fif teenth Alabama Infantry, which answered a summons to surrender by a destructive musketry fire, those unhurt escaping mostly to the south. This memorial signalizes the valor of the officers and men of the First Vermont Cavalry who here paid to the nation the uttermost tribute of devotion. SECOND TABLET WILLIAM WELLS Brevet Major-General U. S. Vols. 1837-1892. First Lieut. Co. C 1st Vermont Cavalry Oct. 14, 1861, Captain Co. C. Nov. 18, 1861. Major Dec. 30, 1862. Colonel July 2, 1864. Brevet Brigadier-General U. S. Vols. Feb. 22, 1865. Brevet Major-General U. S. Vols. "for gallant and meritorious services" March 13, 1865. Brigadier-General U. S. Vols. May 19, 1865. Honorably mustered out Jan. 15, 1866. Once wounded and once a prisoner. Awarded Medal of Honor for "most distinguished gallantry at Gettysburg" July 3, 1863. Commander of Sheridan s Cavalry Corps. MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS Introducing Senator Dillingham, Colonel Parker said: "Vermont has been most fortunate in the selection of those who were to direct the affairs of the State and to represent the State in the Congress of the United States. The names of Collamer, Foote, Edmunds, and Morrill adorn the pages of national legislation. The same may be said of the distinguished representatives who have served in the lower House. No less fortunate are we to-day in our representation. I am going to in troduce as the next speaker a man who enjoys the confidence of every man who occupies a seat in the Senate; a man, the impress of whose mind may be found in much of the important legislation of the country; a man who never forgets his State and the protection of her interests. I am going to introduce a man who has the courage of his convictions; a man who searches out the right and, having found it, hews to the line, letting the chips fly where they may; a man whose votes in the United States Senate are cast according to his convictions, uninfluenced by any passing sensational clamor; a man who has the courage to do right even though the doing might cost him his seat in the Senate. Such a man is William P. Dilling ham, whom I now have the honor to introduce." "MR. PRESIDENT: "Speaking for the surviving members of the Wells family, most of whom are present on this occasion, as well as for the circle of their kinsmen of whom I am proud to be one, I beg leave to express to you, and through you to the people of Vermont, the profound 75 HONORABLE WILLIAM P. DILLINGHAM United States Senator from Vermont MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS sense of pride and satisfaction which we feel in the action of their General Assembly in causing to be erected upon this historic spot a monument com memorating the services and perpetuating the memory of General William W ells and the officers and men of the First Regiment Vermont Cavalry, whose loyal de votion and gallant support gave him confidence in every emergency and which he always insisted was the chief element in the success whidb he achieved. To speak of him is to speak of all those who constituted this intrepid band of young men who rode loyally with him through all the campaigns of the Army of the Potomac, and toward every surviving member of which our hearts go out to-day in affectionate regard. "But, Sir, it is not possible for me to limit myself to a mere expression of the grateful sentiments which fill to overflowing the hearts of the Wells family to-day. I must speak for that larger family, the citizen body of the town of Waterbury, of which the Wells family have been prominent members for more than a century of its history. "The character of the military service rendered by General W ells was such as to challenge the attention of thoughtful men, and suggests an inquiry as to the sources of that inspiration which found expression in his heroic deeds. "It must be remembered that when he so proudly rode at the head of the Second Brigade of the Third Division of the Cavalry Corps in the Grand Review of the 22nd of May, 1865, as well as at the time when he became the Commander of that gallant corps, he 77 IN AFFECTIONATE MEMORY OF was less than twenty -eight years of age. That during a period of less than five years, and at a time in life when young men are commonly found in the colleges and universities, he had passed from the rank of private in the First Vermont Cavalry to that of Brigadier-General and Brevet Major-General of Vol unteers in the Army of the United States. That as Company and Field Officer of his regiment he had led his troopers in not less than half a hundred engage ments, and as Brigade and Division Commander in not less than eighteen others, some of which were the greatest and most important battles of the war. And so, at an age when most men are but entering the activities of life, he had made a record the brilliance of which fifty years of time have failed to lessen, and which is now recognized by those not then born. To them this story of achievement comes as a tale which never loses interest, and one which will stand through all ages to the credit of that splendid civilization which gave him birth, which shaped his thought and de veloped his character, and which has made Vermont a republic in which liberty, under law, finds its highest expression, and one in which the door of opportunity stands open to all those who are worthy to enter. "The town of Waterbury was settled by men who represented both in blood and sentiment that splendid element of liberty-loving Englishmen, who, after the great intellectual awakening of the Sixteenth Cen tury, asserted the supremacy of personal liberty over absolutism, and in the struggle which followed moved with a majestic purpose and heroic courage through a century of conflict, which resulted in the destruction 78 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS of arbitrary power, the establishment of a constitu tional and parliamentary government, under which the liberties of the English people have been main tained down to the present time. Many were also the product of a century and a half of colonial life, and in every fiber of their being represented the fundamental principles upon which human rights are founded and upon which only can governments find a sure founda tion. Some of them had served in the Revolutionary War, had afterward lived under the Confederation and had seen their dearly-bought liberties brought into peril; but they had also lived to see the Government of the United States firmly established under a Con stitution of provisions which have excited the admira tion of the world s greatest statesmen. Of this colonial stock were Ezra Butler, Roswell Wells, Paul Dilling- ham, Sr., Dan Carpenter, Sylvester Henry, Henry F. Janes, and others too numerous to mention. General W r ells and his three brothers, who also found service in the War, were grandchildren of both Roswell Wells and Dan Carpenter, and were the sons of W 7 illiam W. Wells, a graduate of the University of Vermont; a man of marked characteristics, strong, aggressive, generous, just, and honest, and, above all else, a man of such patriotism that in the years preceding the W T ar every power of his being was dedicated to the cause of human rights, and such that during the War he sacrificed every selfish interest to serve as Chairman of the Board of Selectmen of Waterbury, devoting his great energies to securing enlistments to the Army and in other ways promoting the common cause. Such was the stock from which General W r ells sprang. 79 IN AFFECTIONATE MEMORY OF "And speaking of the larger family of which General Wells was a member, may I be permitted to carry a little further the suggestion of the influence which the colonial type of patriotism had upon even the second and third generations and say that every man going out as an officer of volunteers from the town of Water- bury to battle for the Union was a descendant of that pioneer element of which I have spoken and that all were friends and some of them kinsmen of General Wells. Did birth and education and environment find expression in their character and in the great con trolling convictions of their lives? Let the facts answer! Let it be remembered that forty -three per cent of such officers were killed in battle, their faces to the foe, and glad in their hearts that they had lives which they could give for the principles in which they had been educated. Major Dillingham, Captain Thompson, and Lieutenant Henry need no eulogy at my hands on this occasion. And may I further call your attention to the fact that of the three Vermont officers who reached the rank of Brevet Major-General of Volunteers in the War for the Union, Waterbury has credit for that one whose name is upon the lips of every person present in the audience, and who, fifty years ago to-day, almost at this hour and upon this field, nobly supported by his devoted men, rendered a service of such distinguished gallantry that he received the recognition of the Congress of the United States and the gratitude of his native State through whose action his memory is so signally honored here to-day. It is also of interest to note that of six Vermont officers who rose to the rank of Brevet Brigadier-General of 80 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS Volunteers, Waterbury was credited with one in the person of William W. Henry, a grandson of Sylvester Henry; and that one of the founders of the town, Ezra Butler, who was clerk of its original proprietors, and who later became Judge of the County Court, Governor of the State, and member of Congress, was represented by Surgeon Henry Janes, a grandson, who during his service had wounded men under his care or direction twice greater in number than the standing army of the United States prior to our recent war with Spain. Unable to be with us to-day because of im paired health, he sits in his home at Waterbury a man of kingly intellect, of strong but modest nature, think ing, I doubt not, of more than twenty-five thousand wounded men who fell into his hands after three days of fighting on this historic field, when he was placed in charge of all the hospitals in and about Gettysburg by Medical Director Letterman. "And speaking further of this larger family to which General Wells belonged, I am reminded of the often- quoted statement that in the Franco-Prussian War the losses in killed and mortally wounded in the vic torious German Army were only three and one-tenth per cent of the whole, while those in the Union Army of the War of 1861 amounted to four and seven-tenths per cent; and that the percentage of such losses among the Vermont troops was greater than that of any other State, excepting Pennsylvania, and amounted to six and eight-tenths per cent. And may I add the simple statement that Waterbury s loss was more than eight per cent, and that in a single year, in the campaigns of 1864 alone, that town lost in killed or mortally 81 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS wounded six and six-tenths per cent of all the men who were credited to her quota during the entire period of the War. On fourteen different occasions during that never-to-be-forgotten year the bells tolled the announcement that another one of Waterbury s sons had given his life for his country. I could speak of the horrors of that dark period, when fathers and mothers mourned the loss of manly sons; when wives mourned for their husbands and wept over their fatherless children, but this is neither the time nor the place to do so. "In view of all these considerations, Mr. President, I have felt justified in speaking not only for the imme diate members of the Wells family, but also for this community, in all whose interests its members had a conspicuous part for a century of time. And so, as a member of this community, I can do no less than express its keen sense of appreciation of the great honor which Vermont has done the town of Water- bury, as well as General Wells and his associates of the Vermont Cavalry, in placing upon this field this im posing statue of its most distinguished soldier." The air "Dixie," a graceful compliment to the men in gray, preceded the presentation of General Law. Introducing General Law: "I fully appreciate the anxiety of those who are familiar with the program arranged by General Peck to hear the next speaker. They want to look into the face of the man who met and resisted the charge of Wells and his daring troopers. They and you want to look into the face of the only surviving Major- MAJOR-GENERAL E. M. LAW Commanding Brigade and Hood s Division, Longstreet s Corps Army of Northern Virginia IN AFFECTIONATE MEMORY OF General of the Confederate Army. You are anxious to hear from his lips the impression made on him when he witnessed the onrush of this heroic band. "General Law, standing here you will look into the faces of the daughter and son of the man who led this heroic charge; you will look into the face of the brother of General Wells; you will look into the faces of many of those grizzled veterans who went forward in that charge. Looking into the faces of these children and that brother; looking into the faces of these brave men, your thoughts will go back fifty years to the time when, on this very spot, you stood in front of your brigade making dispositions to resist this charge. "General Law, being then, as now, a perfect type of Southern chivalry, your eyes must have been moistened with tears and your heart must have been filled with pity for the certain fate that awaited these brave men, a fate you would gladly have averted could it have been done with honor. "Comrade Law, every survivor of the First Vermont Cavalry rejoices that your life has been spared and that you are here to-day to participate in the unveiling of this monument. We welcome you to this ceremony. We take you in our arms and to our hearts. I now have the pleasure of introducing Major-General Law." "Mr. Chairman and Comrades of the First Vermont Cavalry Association: "Fifty years ago to-day, and at this very hour, we met on this ground in mortal strife in the greatest battle of modern times; to-day we meet as comrades, each ready and willing to acknowledge the devotion to 84 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS duty, the heroism, and the patriotism of the other. If there is any rivalry between us, Federals and Con federates, it is in devotion to a reunited country and in thankfulness that we are all citizens of the greatest and freest country in the world. Men who have given and taken hard knocks always respect each other, and when the kindly hand of time has smoothed away all passion and bitterness, the true spirit of comradeship follows as surely as the night follows day, and thus it is that the old soldiers of the blue and the gray meet here to-day where they fought each other fifty years ago, not as enemies, but as friends not as strangers, but as comrades. "The battle of Gettysburg was the culminating point of the Civil War which marked an epoch in American history, yet I feel justified in the assertion that the meeting of the two hostile armies on this field fifty years ago was scarcely more important in its results than the meeting now being held by those same armies on this same field will be in its influence on the American people. The one saved the Union, the other will bind it together in bonds far stronger than armed force or military power the bonds of mutual esteem, friendship, and brotherhood. Scenes such as are being enacted on this field to-day have no parallel in history, and could not have occurred anywhere else than in America. "At your kind invitation, my friends, I am here to-day to assist in the dedication of a beautiful memo rial to your comrades of the First Vermont Cavalry who took the most prominent part in one of the most striking incidents of the battle. On this very ground, 85 IN AFFECTIONATE MEMORY OF fifty years ago, that gallant regiment was hurled against the line of my right flank, which extended from the main line on the slopes of the Round Top to the Emmettsburg Road. This flanking line was composed almost entirely of infantry drawn from my main line, and formed a considerable angle to it. The appearance of General Kilpatrick s division of two brigades of Federal cavalry, Merritt s and Farnsworth s, on that flank during the forenoon of the third day of the battle, caused me great uneasiness. Though two of my bat teries had been withdrawn to take part in the grand artillery attack that preceded General Pickett s fatal charge on Cemetery Ridge, I still had at my disposal twelve pieces of splendid artillery, and these I arranged in such a way as to command thoroughly every part of the line threatened by the Federal cavalry. "General Kilpatrick at once commenced operations by attacking my flanking line with dismounted skir mishers of Merritt s Brigade, continuing this movement steadily to my right until the line was stretched out to a considerable distance beyond where it crossed the Emmettsburg Road. This stretching process con tinued until I became fearful that my line beyond that road would soon become so weak that it might be easily broken by a bold cavalry attack. To avoid this I withdrew two regiments from the main line on the slopes of the Round Tops, and leading them rapidly to my extreme right across the Emmettsburg Road, attacked Merritt s reserve, and then, wheeling on the flank of his line, doubled it back to that road just beyond Kern s house. Here I left the two regiments engaged in this movement, together with the Ninth 86 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS Georgia Regiment that had been previously posted there, under the command of Captain George Hillyer, who had done conspicuous service during the battle and who is with us here to-day to take part in doing honor to the men who fought against him so gallantly fifty years ago. "Being relieved for the present at least from the pressure of Merritt s Brigade on my right, and having reduced the length of the line to more manageable dimensions, I turned my attention to that part of the line threatened by Farnsworth s Brigade, which faced the left front of my flanking line extending from the lower slope of Round Top toward the Emmettsburg Road. I had not long to wait. The rush of the Federal horsemen, and the crash of the musketry from the Confederate infantry, came with startling suddenness, and as I watched the fight with intense interest and no small degree of anxiety, I saw that portion of the Federal line that had attacked directly in front of the First Texas Regiment, and had ridden up to the very muzzles of their guns, recoil and finally fall back into the cover of the woods through which they had ad vanced. Further to my left, however, and nearer the foot of Round Top, at a point which I recognize as the very ground on which we stand to-day, a body of the Federal horsemen broke through the line and rode boldly down the Plum Run Valley directly in rear of my main line on the slopes of the Round Tops. At that time I did not know, of course, to what command they belonged, but when the fatal charge had ended I learned that these brave men who had ridden so gallantly into the jaws of death were a battalion of the 87 IN AFFECTIONATE MEMORY OF First Vermont Cavalry of Farnsworth s Brigade, Kil- patrick s Division. "The moment was a critical one. This irruption in the rear of my main line, if promptly followed up by an attack of Kilpatrick s entire force, might produce disastrous results if not met with the utmost prompt ness and decision. The cavalry had scarcely broken in before I sent a staff officer post-haste to my main line on the slope of Little Round Top with orders to detach the first regiment he should come to on that line, face it to the rear, and come in a run to throw itself across the path of the cavalry as they charged up the Plum Run Valley. This movement was executed with almost incredible promptness, and the Vermonters soon faced a withering fire from the Fourth Alabama Infantry, which was the regiment brought down from the main line under my order. Recoiling from this fire with fearful loss, they turned to their left and rear, and rode directly up the slope toward where I was stationed near one of my batteries. "In the meantime I had ordered the reserve of the Ninth Georgia, under Captain Hillyer, which I have already referred to as being on picket near Kern s house on the Emmettsburg Road, to come in a run to the support of the batteries, one of which I had shifted a short distance so as to face the approaching cavalry. Here again the brave Vermonters, now fearfully re duced in numbers, faced a storm of fire against which mere human courage could avail nothing, and, turning again, and for the last time, toward the spot where the charge had begun, the remnant which survived the fiery ordeal through which they had passed rode back 88 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS into the woods in the direction of their own line. During the whole of this brief but bloody drama, which came directly under my own eyes, I recall distinctly two conspicuous figures riding side by side at the head of the charging column. One I afterward learned was General E. J. Farns worth, who was killed near the close of the charge; and the other, Major William Wells, commander of the battalion of the First Vermont Cavalry that made the charge, who afterward by con spicuous service rose to the rank of Major-General and whose memory you honor to-day in the striking like ness of that handsome statue which crowns the memo rial you have dedicated to him and his gallant comrades. General Wells commanded as brave a body of horsemen as ever drew sabre. "I have gone somewhat into detail, my friends, in order that you, the survivors, the friends and fellow citizens of these men, may know, from the lips of one whose stern duty it was to destroy them if possible, that their gallantry excited the admiration even of their foes, who now, as friends and comrades, join with you in honoring their memory. "It has been the general opinion until very recently that Pickett s famous charge on Cemetery Ridge on the third day was the pivotal point of the battle of Gettysburg, but the truth of history is asserting itself, and it is now being recognized by all intelligent military critics that the ragged mountain spur known as Xittle Round Top/ which rises just yonder behind us, was the real key to the battlefield, and that the struggle for its possession on the afternoon of the second day really decided the fate of the battle. History has not 89 IN AFFECTIONATE MEMORY OF yet recognized, however, the importance of what has always been classed among the minor incidents of the great struggle, but which might easily have become of the most vital importance to the Confederate army. That incident was the breach made in my flanking line by the First Vermont Cavalry, which I have just been describing. Pickett s fatal attack had just been re pulsed; my flanking line, which covered the right-rear of our army, had been stretched to its utmost limit, being reduced to a mere skirmish line in many places. If under these circumstances General Kilpatrick had thrown Farnsworth s entire brigade through the gap in my line where the First Vermont Cavalry had en tered, and at the same time had attacked with the full strength of Merritt s Brigade up the Emmettsburg Road, on which it was in position, the result must have been disastrous to that wing of our army at least. "I fully realized the critical nature of the situation and bent every energy toward preparing for the ex pected attack. That General Longstreet also felt the gravest anxiety as to the result of the fighting on this flank is evidenced by the fact that he rode hastily over from the center, where he was assisting in rallying and re-forming the troops that had taken part in Pickett s attack, and, with the most marked expression of relief in his tone and manner, warmly congratulated me on the manner in which the situation had been handled. The charge of the Vermonters was then over, and the heavier attack which was expected to follow had not been made. "And now, my friends, let me in conclusion repeat that true soldiers always respect each other, it matters 90 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS not on which side of the battle line they may have stood. You did your duty as you saw it, and we did ours. There is no monopoly of heroism on either side. Nearly a quarter of a century ago, in an address before the Association of the Army of Northern Virginia, in Richmond, I predicted that the time would come when the heroism of both victors and vanquished in the great struggle between the sections would be claimed as the common heritage of the American people. The time has come. The bloody chasm created by pesti lent politicians for selfish ends has been closed forever by the men who fought the battles, who suffered and died for principle, and who illustrated the heroism of the American soldier as that of no other soldier of any army of any other country has ever been illustrated in the annals of time. "For many years a steady and increasing tide of invasion has been sweeping into the South from the North and East, but invaders come without the pomp and circumstance of war. Their spears have been turned into plowshares and their swords into pruning hooks, and they march under the white banner of peace and progress. In my own State the influx of old Federal soldiers and their families has been especially marked, and indicates that it will not be long before those who once wore the blue will be equal in numbers to the former wearers of the gray. They come to find homes among us, and we welcome them as friends and co-workers with us in developing the fairest land on God s footstool, where they are finding peace and plenty in their declining years and the promise of prosperity and happiness for those who will come 91 IN AFFECTIONATE MEMORY OF after them. Away down South in Florida we have long since realized that the war is over, and that all of us, blue and gray alike, are loyal Floridians and true Americans. "No incident of a long and eventful life has ever caused me such mingled emotions and vivid memories as this meeting with you, my comrades of the First Vermont Cavalry Association, on this historic spot to-day. The warm welcome you have given me; the meeting face to face with the daughter, son, and brother of that splendid soldier, General William Wells, whose memory, and that of the brave men whom they led, we are here to honor; the cordial spirit of comradeship which fills the very atmosphere around us, have all touched my heart to its very depths, and their memory will remain with us while life shall last. It is not probable that we shall ever meet again, but when we have returned to our several homes, you to the verdant hills of The Green Mountain State, and I to the smiling shores of The Sunshine State, memory will often bring us back to this day, this meeting, this spot, where after fifty years of patient waiting, Mercy and Truth have met together, Patriotism and Peace have embraced each other." Introducing General Felix H. Robertson: "During this battle a Texas battery was commanded by a young Confederate officer, Captain Robertson. Captain Robertson was a son of General Robertson, who commanded a Confederate brigade of Hood s Division, and was fighting side by side with Law s Brigade on the afternoon of the third of July. Com- 92 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS rades, it gives me pleasure to introduce General Robertson." "Mr. President and Members of First Vermont Cavalry Association and Ladies and Gentlemen: "Since its organization I have been familiar with Hood s Division of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia; and if any cavalry commander should have asked my professional opinion as to the advisability of charging that Division with one regiment of cavalry I could only have repeated the advice which Punch gave to the two young people who wrote to Punch asking whether they should get married. Punch answered in one word, Don t. All who know the ground over which two battalions of your Regiment were ordered to charge from this spot fifty years ago, and the sol dierly qualities of the troops against which that charge was made, must conclude that the order which from this spot started your comrades unsupported on such a charge was an inexcusable military blunder. But the fault of giving that order lies not on the First Vermont Cavalry. All honor to that splendid Regi ment for its prompt, heroic effort to effect the purpose which alone could justify such an order! Napoleon in Spain ordered his Polish Lancers to charge a Battery on the hills above, and that charge was successful. A broad, smooth road led up to that Battery, and it was defended by Spanish Irregulars. Here, over this ground strewn with granite boulders, thickly studded with trees and covered with undergrowth, your com rades had to advance upon trained Confederate soldiers over ground where it was impossible to keep an align- 93 BRIGADIER-GENERAL FELIX H. ROBERTSON Commanding Cavalry Brigade in Wheeler s Corps, C. S. Army of Tennessee MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS ment, and upon an enemy skilled in the use of rifles and in taking every advantage of cover, well protected by boulders, trees, and stone fences. There Napoleon had to use all his powers of command, entreaty, and promises of reward to start his unwilling cavalry on its charge. Here your comrades, without hesitation, promptly and cheerfully obeyed the first order to charge. It is an honor to claim such soldiers as coun trymen. That beautiful monument just unveiled fitly typifies such a splendid manifestation of soldierly virtue as was your charge. "Among the great number of monuments which stand along what was General Meade s line during the Great Battles of fifty years ago none is so beautiful or better deserved than that splendid testimonial you here dedicate to your comrade, General Wells. "Alike a credit to the artist who achieved it, and to you, the surviving comrades of the First Vermont Cavalry, that monument, instinct with soldierly ac tion, fitly commemorates an event that worthily illus trates the best achievements of American Soldiers. "I know how you old soldiers feel, and I know that you are glad to pass your remaining days in peace, and that no more will you be called to set a squadron in the field. "There are two things about our great war that im press me more strongly the better I am able to appre ciate the wealth and power of the North and the poverty and weakness of the South. First, why did our statesmen permit us to enter into a war with such an adversary? Second, how did the South, beginning the war with no army, no established government, no 95 IN AFFECTIONATE MEMORY OF navy, no treasury, keep such a war going four years? Since no great fact can exist without adequate cause, I declare to you that the only cause to which that great effect can be attributed is that there was at the head of the Confederate Government the greatest statesman of our time Jefferson Davis! I know that you Yanks are not prepared to agree to that state ment, but as honest men you must seek to reach cor rect conclusions on all subjects. If you desire to reach sound conclusions about Mr. Davis you must fairly consider the circumstances by which he was sur rounded the scanty means at his command and the enormous forces arrayed against him. As long as there shall remain in Vermont any of the descendants of the men who, fifty years ago, from this spot started on that memorable charge, I shall confidently expect from them a just yes, a generous recognition of the high qualities Jefferson Davis manifested as President of the Southern Confederacy. Nor will he suffer in the opinion of your descendants when they know how firmly he adhered, in his high office, to the principles he professed before he became President; his scrupulous observance in all his acts of his official oath, and the courage and dignity with which he met all his reverses. The overthrow of the Confederacy should no more operate to deprive Jefferson Davis of the fame justly due for his many high qualities displayed as President of the Confederacy than should the heroic failure of the First Vermont Cavalry in its charge on Hood s Division warrant us in mutilating that beautiful monu ment to General Wells and denying to you, the sur vivors, the right that you have noble earned to be 96 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS called Heroes worthy of the affectionate regard of all your countrymen." Introducing Colonel John McElroy: "Ladies and Comrades: "I am going to call as the next speaker a gentleman who is known and loved by every surviving soldier of the Union Army, one who through the columns of the National Tribune has brought happiness to the home and fireside of every man who wore the blue, a man who, when fifteen years of age, served in the Sixteenth Illinois Cavalry, a man who, as a boy, endured the horrors of prison life in Anderson ville. That boy and this man is Colonel John McElroy, editor of the National Tribune, whom it is now my pleasure to introduce." "Mr. President, Ladies, and Gentlemen: "In the countless centuries since the sword began to devour, myriads of flags and standards have been flaunted in the light of day. "All these were born of the lust of greed, the arro gance of power. "Our own stainless banner is the only one among all those tens of thousands which was conceived in liberty, born to assert a principle, and supported with exalted courage to maintain that principle. "When our forefathers set it up as the symbol of the strange new political doctrine that the supreme func tion of government is to secure right and justice for every man, even the lowliest, they solemnly pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to 97 COLONEL JOHN MCELROY MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS the maintenance of the principle the Flag repre sented. "Never since history began has a pledge been kept with such unfaltering faith, such an unparalleled sacri fice of life and fortune. "To make that Flag mean all that the fathers pledged it to mean far more men have bravely died on land and sea than have fallen under all the banners now floating in Europe. "Briton and Gaul, German and Frank, Russian and Turk have shaken the earth with their gigantic con tests, but not so many men have fallen under all their banners as have gone down to valiant death under ours in the one hundred and thirty -seven years of its existence. "This cannot be wholly accounted for by the Amer icans being an heroic composite of the chief fighting races of the world the English, Irish, Scotch, Dutch, Germans, and French. "A vastly stronger reason is that the men under our Flag were always fighting for the principle it em bodied for a principle imbued into them, and made the law of their lives by the churches, schools, and homes they had left. A something for which their fathers and mothers prayed, and for which their sisters, wives, and sweethearts ardently longed. "It was something dearer to them than life itself. To achieve success for that principle, hardships were welcomed as a joy, and danger courted as a bride. "What places our common American manhood upon the pinnacle of humanity is that we are able to say truthfully of it: 99 IN AFFECTIONATE MEMORY OF "So near is grandeur to our dust, So nigh is God to man, That when Duty whispers low, Thou must/ The youth replies, T can. "A sad Oriental proverb says that grass never springs again from a spot trodden by the hoof of the Sultan s horse. "We can make a glorious antithesis to this by saying that wherever the American soldier has fought, justice and righteousness have become the enduring law. Churches, schools, and homes have sprung up, and there white-winged Peace has made her permanent dwelling place. "The character the American soldier has always displayed can be illustrated by a single chapter from the voluminous history of the greatest war which ever reddened the earth. "In May, 1864, an army of one hundred and twenty thousand American soldiers crossed the Rapidan and clutched in mortal struggle another army of eighty thousand American soldiers. The advantage of posi tion fairly equalized the forces. "For eleven months, fiercely swirling with hate and manslaughter, that death grapple never slackened for an instant. "For eleven months the relentless rifle sought its victims day and night. The angry cannon never ceased its hideous bellowing. "The gloomy labyrinths of the wilderness became an ocean of flame, scorching the living, burning up the dead and wounded, but the fury of the Blue and Gray rose above that of the flames as they charged one 100 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS another through the stifling reek like demons in some infernal combat in the underworld. "For eleven long months the march of the Con federates was marked by a trail of thickly-lying mounds of new-made graves. Every house in Virginia for a hundred miles to the rear was crowded with the wounded sent back from the front. "For eleven long months the red earth in the rear of the Army of the Potomac daily received a noble tribute of hundreds of the first-born of loyal homes, and even the dearly -loved little Benjamin of the flock. Every steamer for the North was filled with a sad load of the terribly wounded. "Rank, birth, and wealth all fell alike before the undiscriminating musket. The same red clay was thrown over the Major-General s double stars and the Corporal s double stripes. Professors in colleges and humble day-laborers were buried in their coarse blankets side by side. "But the thinning battalions of both sides, marching into other fights from their yet warm dead, struck at each other with the same fierce courage of their first battles. "Lee s decimated brigades poured out their blood as lavishly at Spottsylvania as Meade s shrunken ranks did at Cold Harbor. "The awful slaughter of the Union troops at the Crater was matched by the sweeping destruction of Gordon s Confederates at Fort Stedman. "In the last battle the remnants of the Confederate Army turned at Sailors Creek and struck valiantly at their pursuers as Pickett had charged at Gettysburg. 101 IN AFFECTIONATE MEMORY OF "The scarred, battered, and depleted Second and Sixth Corps rushed as furiously at the obstinate Con federates as they had charged the blazing heights of Fredericksburg. "The American soldier had shown himself the greatest ever marshaled in his exalted courage that no hardship, no long-continued strain, no bloody defeat, no terror of death could quell or even dampen. He rose superior to the worst that fate could do. "We can say with confidence that no other than an American army could have endured unshaken the terrific hammering the Army of Northern Virginia received from the Rapidan to the Appomattox. We say this with conviction, because in all the rolling centuries no other army ever did endure such a test of its mettle. "We can say without fear of contradiction that no other than an American army could have made such a campaign as the Army of the Potomac did from the Rapidan to the Appomattox. Every man whose eyes were gladdened by the flag of truce on that fateful April 9 could look back with moistened lids on five comrades who had started with him, but were now in hospitals of pain or sleeping in Virginia s clay. "Every mile that the Army of the Potomac marched had been crimsoned by the blood of thousands of its best and bravest, every rod of ground it gained cost the dole of some precious life. But it never released the iron clutch upon the throat of the Confederate Army. Discouraged by no failures, appalled by no slaughters, relentless as death, it clung to its mighty purpose until it wrung victory out of adverse fate. 102 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS "We can claim this surpassing glory for the Army of the Potomac without fear of contradiction, because neither Europe nor Asia ever produced an army with such a record for endurance, courage, and fortitude. "When we recall Napoleon overrunning Germany with less loss on both sides than occurred in the Wilderness, when we remember that Germany overcame the great martial nation of France with less fighting and less loss than in the campaign against Richmond, we get some comparison whereby to estimate the Army of the Potomac s towering greatness. "We are now entering upon the period when the people look back upon the tremendous war with glow ing pride in the exalted American manhood on both sides, displayed in every field, while "The mighty mother with her tears Turns the pages of her battle years, Lamenting all her sons." Introducing Colonel Heman Allen: "It is a pleasure now to introduce one who was my boyhood friend, a man who served with distinction as a member of that famous Thirteenth Vermont Infantry; a man whose admiration for Chaplain Woodward, known as the fighting Chaplain of the First Vermont Cavalry, was so great that recently, at his own ex pense, he erected a monument to Chaplain Woodward in the town of Westford, the boyhood home of both. This man is Colonel Heman Allen, Gettysburg com missioner for Vermont, who will now address you." "Mr. President, Ladies, and Gentlemen: "One of the distinguished officers of this splendid 103 COLONEL HEMAN W. ALLEN MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS Regiment was the Reverend John H. Woodward, its first chaplain. At the time the Regiment was raised, Mr. W r oodward was serving in the Legislature of Ver mont as one of the Senators from Chittenden County. He was elected Chaplain, resigned from the Senate, accepted the appointment and joined the Regiment; served for nearly two years most acceptably as its spiritual advisor and teacher. He was popular with the officers and men, ever ready to be of help, ac companying the troops in many of their raids and reconnaissances. So active was he that he became known as the fighting Chaplain of the First Vermont Cavalry. "In 1910 the town of Westford, his home town, voted to erect a monument in honor of the Boys in Blue who marched from that town to the battlefields of the Civil W r ar. A handsome monument was erected and dedicated on July 4, 1912. This monument is surmounted by a life-size statue of Chaplain Wood ward, who served as Pastor of the Congregational Church of that village for a period of twenty-six years. The statue was presented by two friends, natives of Westford, his former parishioners. "Mr. W oodward has passed to his reward, mourned by his comrades and those who knew him, leaving behind him a record of patriotism, good living, and service to mankind." Introducing Colonel Henry O. Clark: "Few men in Vermont have taken more interest in the veterans of the Civil W 7 ar than Colonel Clark. Much of his time and much of his money have been 105 COLONEL HENRY O. CLARK MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS freely given that his State might be benefited and honored and the comforts of his comrades enlarged. Colonel Clark, like the speaker who has preceded him, was a member of the Sixteenth Vermont Infantry, but the liberality of his thought and high sense of patriotism extends to all Vermont regiments, more especially the First Vermont Cavalry. Colonel Clark, it is up to you to tell us what you think of that famous First Vermont Cavalry, the statue of whose gallant commander, just unveiled, must surround you with inspirations; Colonel Clark." "Mr. Chairman, Ladies, and Gentlemen: "I have been introduced as a member of the Six teenth Vermont Volunteers. While any man might be proud to have belonged to that grand organization, I cannot claim the right. I was a soldier in the Thir teenth Vermont Regiment in the same Brigade as was the Sixteenth (Stannard s). The Thirteenth Regiment did about the hardest fighting that was done on this great battlefield fifty years ago to-day. At least, that is what is claimed by its survivors, many of whom are present with us here. In charging the flank of the enemy in Pickett s assault, it contributed largely to the success of our arms at the critical point, and captured more prisoners than it had men in its ranks. "The First Vermont Cavalry, whose beautiful moun- ment is dedicated here to-day, is well known to us all as the bravest, most intrepid, and hardest fighting Cavalry Regiment in the service. We are proud of its record of achievements. W T e knew it well during the 107 IN AFFECTIONATE MEMORY OF war. Many times, I remember, while marching on a heavy mud road, loaded down with knapsack and equip ment, weary and footsore, a detachment of the First Vermont Cavalry would pass, mounted on fine horses, men jolly, nattily dressed and up to date something like our chairman of the day, who was a member of the First Vermont; and we foot soldiers used to say, If I ever enlist again it will be in the Cavalry, where I can ride. Those chaps have an easy time compared with us. We little knew then of their trials and hard ships, though later we learned of them. While the Infantry had hard days of marching and many priva tions, they were often in regular camps with stockaded and comfortable tents and a warm place to sleep; and sometimes for months with light duties and only suffi cient drills to keep them in fit condition for active service, whereas the Cavalry rarely had an estab lished camp. They were out on raids and scouts in small parties, doing picket duty in exposed positions, living in brush houses and exposed to cold, sleet, and rain with no shelter available. Every soldier in every branch of the service had to keep himself in good condition physically, but the Cavalry soldier had in addition to keep his horse sound and in shape to start on any desperate adventure at a moment s notice; to look out for his feed, often so difficult to obtain that many times the soldier divided his ration of hard biscuit with his faithful and uncomplaining horse. "We of the Infantry learned that the life of a Cav alryman was not one of ease and comfort, but rather one of unceasing work, hardship, and care, with never- 108 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS ending watchfulness to prevent surprise, capture, or death. "We feel proud of the monument erected by the State in honor of the First Vermont Cavalry, so well known for valor during the entire four years of the Civil War. Having been many times on this field, I have seen all the monuments, and, in my opinion, this is one of the most beautiful and artistic of the many erected to commemorate brave and gallant deeds performed here fifty years ago." Introducing General L. A. Grant: "The Old Brigade will be the next sentiment. How fortunate that the beloved and distinguished Com mander of that Brigade is with us. At the advanced age of eighty-three he comes from far-away Minnesota that he may, on this historic ground, meet the survivors of his old Brigade; meet those who followed and loved him. General Grant, we welcome you. You honored both your State and nation." "Mr. President, Ladies, and Gentlemen: "Inasmuch as I was not named in the program, it ought not to be expected that I should make any re marks. I knew the First Vermont Cavalry to be one of the best, if not the best, Cavalry Regiment in the field. I knew General Wells to be one of the best officers in the army, and this monument, erected to their memory, shall stand as a witness to their valor and heroic deeds." 109 MAJOR-GENERAL L. A. GRANT, U. S. Volunteers Commanding the Old Brigade and Second Division Sixth Army Corps MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS Introducing Governor IT. A. Woodbury: "The man I am now about to introduce brought back to Vermont the first empty sleeve. He was a brave soldier and efficient officer; a man who always stood high in the counsels of the State and nation; a man who was honored by being made Governor of his State, but who made honors easy by the splendid administration he gave his State; a man whose friend ship I have prized and enjoyed for many years. This man is Governor Woodbury, whom I now have the honor to introduce." "Mr. President, Comrades, Ladies, and Gentlemen: "The First Vermont Brigade played an important but not prominent part in the drama enacted here fifty years ago. As a part of the Sixth Corps it guarded the left flank of the Union Army, which was an assurance of the more actively-engaged forces of the Army of the Po tomac that they would not be flanked in that direction. "If the Sixth Corps had been called into action im mediately after Pickett s repulse, Gettysburg might have been a more decided victory and the war con siderably shortened. Speculations of this kind fifty years afterward are not of much value, however, and it is more satisfactory to believe that the duration, the sacrifices, and the hardships of the gigantic struggle were ordained of God to work out his righteous purpose. "I esteem it a high honor to be asked to take even a small part in these interesting ceremonies. This is a great day the fiftieth anniversary of a great battle in which the flower of Northern and Southern manhood met in a deadly struggle. Happily for our now united 111 GOVERNOR U. A. WOODBURY Second Vermont Regiment, "Old Vermont Brigade" MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS country, the victory rested with the North. Enemies of half a century ago who were then eager for the blood of each other meet to-day in friendship, each eager to perform some loving service for the other. The erection of this beautiful monument gives me much satisfaction. It is a fitting recognition by Ver mont of a gallant officer and a gallant regiment. I have always had a warm place in my heart for the Vermont Cavalry, for I had a brother in that regiment who gave his young life while fighting for his country. He was a typical cavalryman, brave and dashing, and I believe would have attained high rank had he lived. He was killed in action in April, 1863, while First- Lieutenant of Company B. "I have also many lifelong friends in this Associa tion, among whom are your President, Colonel Parker, and General Peck, your Secretary. To General Peck and his associates much credit should be given for this monument, its location, and dedication. The ground upon which we stand is sacred ground, made so by the blood of patriots shed in making one of the most dash ing and gallant cavalry charges of the Civil War. It was here that the First Vermont Cavalry, under its heroic leader, Colonel Wells, added to its fame and presaged its brilliant service for the future. May these anniversary days of the greatest events in human history awaken in us a greater love of God, of Country, and of mankind." Introducing General E. D. Dimmick: "The First Vermont Cavalry and the Fifth New York Cavalry were fighting chums. Whenever one 113 GENERAL E. D. DIMMICK, TJ. S. Army MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS regiment got into a tight place the other was always ready to rush in and help it out. They were fighting friends, and were so known in the Cavalry Corps. I am about to call upon a gentleman who was known as a fighting Captain in the Fifth New York. A gen tleman, who, at the close of the war, was commis sioned in the regular army and rose to the rank of Brigadier-General. It gives me pleasure to introduce General Dimmick." "Your Excellency and Honorable Members of the Commission, Ladies, and Gentlemen: "I feel highly honored through the courtesy of my esteemed friend and comrade, General Peck, that I have been given this privilege of making a few remarks on our Brigade. I was an enlisted man in the Fifth New York Cavalry, and it was my good fortune to be brigaded with such fine regiments as the First Vermont, Eighteenth Pennsylvania, and the First West Virginia Cavalry, regiments that their States and the nation may well feel proud of. Time will not permit me to speak of our many cavalry fights in the valley of the Shenandoah, Harrisonburg, Culpeper, Warrenton, Thoroughfare Gap, Hay Market, Cedar Mountain, Second Battle, Bull Run, Antietam, and other places; but I want to speak more particularly of the First Vermont Cavalry. A strong bond of friendship sprang up between it and my regiment from the day that we were first brigaded together; and this friendship grew stronger from day to day and month by month through out the war, and will be more firmly cemented by the crowning events of this day. I know that I voice the 115 IN AFFECTIONATE MEMORY OF sentiment of every surviving member of the Fifth New York Cavalry when I say that there was no braver regiment of cavalry in the Army of the Potomac, nor one with a finer record than the First Vermont. Of the services of Our Brigade during the Gettysburg campaign the stubborn battle with Stuart s Cavalry, in the town of Hanover, on June 30th; at Hunters- town on the evening of July 2nd; the part we took in the battle of Gettysburg, particularly the part played by the gallant First Vermont Cavalry on July 3rd at this hour, the pursuit of the enemy over the mountain that pitch-dark, rainy night; the capture of most of General J. E. B. Stuart s wagons; and the fight at Hagerstown, Maryland, July 6th, opposed by Hood s Division of Infantry, supported by the cavalry, is a matter of history. Time will not permit me to. go into details, but we have the authority of Generals Grant, Sheridan, J. H. Wilson, and other cavalry leaders that there were no better cavalry regiments than the First Vermont and the Fifth New York Cavalry." Introducing Colonel W. D. Mann: "Colonel Mann, it was most kind of you to honor this occasion with your presence. You were Colonel of the Seventh Michigan Cavalry, a Regiment that affiliated and often fought side by side with the First Vermont. You knew our men. You knew our officers. We knew you and your men. Without further intro duction you will find us interested listeners." "Mr. Chairman, Your Excellency, and Gentlemen: "I deeply appreciate your consideration in giving me opportunity to say a word of that grand old Regiment 116 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS on this occasion of dedicating this noble monument to the one-time Colonel of the First Vermont Cavalry. It was my opportunity to see and know a good deal of the Regiment, and at one time a detachment of it, under Lieutenant-Colonel Preston, was under my com mand when I was charged with the duty of guarding the Orange & Alexandria Railroad the line of com munication between the base of supplies and our army on the Rappahannock against the pernicious activi ties of the guerrilla chief, Mosby. I had in my command my own regiment, a detachment of the Fifth New York, and a part of the First Vermont, and I assure you that Mosby kept us all very much on the alert and pretty busy. At one time he secured a sec tion of artillery from Stuart s command, and, gather ing a force said to have been nearly four hundred troopers, he made a raid on the road, May 30, 1863, firing upon a train of supplies with his cannon, a shot going through the locomotive and knocking it from the rails. He promptly proceeded to pillage. It was at a point some three miles from my headquarters camp. When I heard his cannon I mounted my force, dividing it, going myself with a part directly to the train, and sending the other detachment under Colonel Preston off to the right, with the idea of reaching Mosby s line of retreat if he should run away before I got at him. W T hen I came within his sight he began a hurried retreat exactly in the direction I had expected. At Grapewood Farm, near Greenwich, he encountered Preston, and about the same moment my own de tachment arrived, and he was brought to bay, the only time history relates when he stood for a fair fight. 117 COLONEL W. D. MANN MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS Colonel Preston, with the First Vermont, charged in the lead, and a more gallant action I never witnessed. He was met by cannon firing grapeshot, but grapeshot could not stop Preston or his Vermonters. We suc ceeded in giving Mosby a severe drubbing, resulting in seven of his men killed and fifteen wounded that were unable to get away in the thickets and became our prisoners. We captured his guns and a number of other prisoners. We lost four men killed and some eighteen wounded, among them being Lieutenant Barker, of the Fifth New York. Captain Haskins, of the Forty -fourth British Infantry, on leave and serving with Mosby, was mortally wounded, and Lieutenant Chapman, in command of his artillery and graduate of West Point, was severely wounded. No braver sol dier, no more patriotic citizen, no nobler man than Preston served in our Civil War. I did not personally know General Wells, but I knew enough of him to say he well deserved the honor which the Green Mountain State has done him in this monument you have un veiled. The monument honors the Regiment as well as General W T ells; and no State had a regiment more deserving of its honor than did Vermont in its First Cavalry Regiment." / Introducing Captain George Hilly er: "Unexpectedly and most graciously we are favored w T ith the presence of a distinguished Confederate officer, one who was a Captain in the Ninth Georgia, a regiment whose casualties had been so great that, on the third day of the battle on this historic ground, not a field officer was left, and Captain Hillyer, whom I 119 CAPTAIN GEORGE HILLYER, C. S. Army MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS am now about to introduce, was called on to command the Regiment. Judge Hillyer, you earned distinction as a fighting Confederate soldier during the four years of war, and have since been honored by your State by being made one of its Judiciary. We gladly welcome you to this ceremony, and will follow you with interest. I have the pleasure of introducing Judge Hillyer, of Georgia." "Mr. President, Ladies, and Gentlemen: "I am here merely as a spectator an exceedingly interested spectator and listener in these ceremonies. That beautiful and tasteful monument in enduring stone and bronze, with the splendid utterances of noble men on both sides, where fifty years ago we struggled over this historic spot, including the inspiring words and splendid sentiments of my former com mander, General Law, have stirred my heart and moved me to a most unusual degree. "My regiment was the Ninth Georgia Infantry, of General George T. Anderson s Brigade, the Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, Eleventh, and Fifty -ninth Georgia of Hood s and Law s Division. W r e had been severely engaged during the afternoon of the 2nd of July on the left flank of the Division. I was only a Captain, the third Captain in rank in line of the Ninth Georgia. During the severe fighting back and forth, three or more times across the historic wheat field, and one time, when we advanced to the very foot and a small distance up the slope of the Little Round Top, we had suffered severely, losing more than half of the officers and men of the regiment, every officer above IN AFFECTIONATE MEMORY OF me having fallen, being either killed or so severely wounded as not again to be able for duty for more than three months, leaving me during that time in command of the regiment. But I know your thoughts are fixed on the cavalry fight on this historic spot, something more than a mile to the right of where we had been engaged on the 2nd. "During the forenoon of the 3rd of July the Eleventh Georgia, under command of Major McDaniel, a noble and splendid man, afterward Governor of our State, was withdrawn from the front, or Plum Run line, and sent along the Emmettsburg Road to meet Kilpat- rick s Cavalry, then making demonstrations at that point. The Seventh Georgia and the First Texas were already in position on that line. The First Texas had been badly decimated, like my own regiment, in the battle of the day before, and they had hardly force enough to station their men closer than five or six feet apart. Soon after I arrived at the point of actual fighting on the Emmettsburg Road Colonel Maddox, of the Seventh Georgia, was severely wounded and taken from the field. The combat went on for some time thereafter, we holding our line successfully, my regiment in a position for immediately supporting and relieving the Seventh Georgia when necessary. "The Emmettsburg Road at that point is on slightly rising ground, and suddenly I saw a force of Federal cavalry, charging in column of fours, break through the thin line of the First Texas, and come galloping up a ravine toward a six-gun battery, which through the war and until that time we had known as Riley s Bat tery, but which I notice is put down as Baughman s MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS Battery on the maps of the battlefield Baughman being the name of a later commander. I called out to Cap tain Hudson, who had succeeded Colonel Maddox in commanding the Seventh Georgia, that the Ninth was going to the support of Riley s Battery, toward which evidently this cavalry was making the dash. The Ninth was double-quicked along the diagonal line, partly in the road, but mostly in a straight and shorter line; and the Federal cavalry being impeded by a stone wall and possibly other obstructions, we suc ceeded on a quick movement in reaching the battery first. "Talking with Vermonters here during this Reunion I discovered that there is some difference of recollec tion as to whether this attacking column of cavalry was fired on by Riley s Battery. My recollection is quite distinct that as the Ninth Georgia in its rapid march passed for a short distance along the Emmettsburg Road, \vhen just in front of two other Confederate guns, being what was called flying artillery and smaller guns than those of Riley s, they were fired over our heads this flying artillery being on slightly higher ground, one of my men was severely wounded by the follow block from one of those cannon. But I think, in point of fact, Riley s men did not see and did not fire on the approaching column of cavalry, because it was advancing in the ravine I have mentioned and out of easy sight of the gunners. So it was that I halted my regiment immediately in the rear of Riley s Battery, and, facing to the front, we advanced between the guns; and there right in front of us was that solid mass of horsemen, just preparing to make their dash 123 IN AFFECTIONATE MEMORY OF at the battery. When the volley came from our line at this solid mass of men and horses, right before us, and in easy range, you can easily imagine what hap pened, the advantage of position and opportunity being so much in our favor. "What was left of them changed direction and at tempted to find a new position in a body of woods, or timbered land, some two hundred yards away. There they encountered a regiment, which I learned that General Law had sent to meet them, the Fifteenth Alabama. From the roar of musketry which followed we knew that the fighting in those woods was quite severe. In a little while fifteen or twenty came back out of the woods, some of them wounded and a few on foot, but by this time the First Texas had concen trated in a new and better position, and with this ad vantageous position and successful attack of the Ninth Georgia the few who thus returned from the timbered land, as I mentioned, were nearly all killed or captured. I learned afterward that quite a number retreated in a different direction and passed out into the main Federal lines through the timber to the right, or south of Big Hound Top, though I did not know this at the time. "I had a man in my company named Craig, who was a bad hand to forage and sometimes to straggle, but in reality a splendid young fellow and a good fighter who was always on hand in every battle. I had not missed Craig, but a few minutes after the scattered remnants returned toward the position of my regiment, as I have just described, I saw Craig coming from the direction of those woods. He walked straight up to me and said: Captain, those men are Vermont Cavalry, and their 124 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS commander was General Farnsworth, and he has been killed. I saw him killed. His horse had been shot down and he was on the ground still fighting and firing his pistol. We commanded his surrender, and when we were very close to him he said he would die before he would surrender, and turned his pistol and shot him self. I had learned before from other persons that it was Vermonters that we were fighting, but I did not know the name of the commander until Craig told me. Now he told me this certainly within fifteen or twenty minutes from the moment of Farns worth s death. I had not then, and have not at this moment, the slightest doubt as to the truth of what Craig said. I think it likely, however, and I have so heard, that General Farnsworth had received several wounds before he shot himself, but Craig did not know it. "Either the same afternoon or early the next morn ing I learned or heard the statement made in such a manner that at the time I fully believed it, that just before the charge began some of the scouts or pickets of the First Texas had crept up through the thick bushes and boulders, or rocks, very close to the Federal position, and overheard what they called a quarrel between General Kilpatrick and General Farnsworth, in which, whilst I cannot pretend to quote the words accurately, it appeared that General Farnsworth be lieved it would be unwise to make the charge at that point, he having reconnoitered the ground, but that his commander (General Kilpatrick) overruled him in language that Farnsworth thought reflected upon his courage, including the statement that if he (Farns worth) was unwilling to lead the charge he (Kilpatrick) 125 IN AFFECTIONATE MEMORY OF would lead Farnsworth s men himself. To this Farns- worth was said to have replied: If you will take the responsibility of ordering the charge I will show you whether I am afraid to lead my men or not. This seems to be a corroboration of what Craig had said, and supplied a motive in a man of sensitive nature and lofty pride like Farns worth, that would lead him to say in the crisis of the succeeding struggle that he would die before he would be made a prisoner. I think I have seen it stated, from other sources, in some of the literature of the battle, but without giving any distinct authority for the story, that as a historical fact Farnsworth did take his own life, though doubt less already mortally wounded at the time. "It is proper to add that I have not gone out of my way to volunteer an account of these personal inci dents, but some of the survivors of Farnsworth s com mand here have asked me to do so, so that my testimony and observations from the Confederate side might aid in correctly recording these historic events. 1 "Now let me give you another incident. Across the field from which Farnsworth s command charged was a rock wall sloping up and down the hill. After the first crisis I moved my regiment forward and occupied this rock wall as a breastwork. Our litter-bearers came forward and lay down with us behind the wall. Just in front was a wounded Federal soldier, about twenty steps off. He was suffering intensely with the heat and thirst, and occasionally cried out for water. We wanted to relieve him, but it was as much as a man s life was worth to show himself above the wall before *See reproduction of letter from Surgeon P. O M. Edson on page 128. 126 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS the Federal sharpshooters. I called for a handker chief to use as a flag, but there was not one, at least not one that was white. Then I told Rains, one of the litter-bearers, to raise his stretcher above the wall and wave it. It was not even as white as the handker chiefs, being mostly red from what it had gone through the evening and day before. But as soon as it appeared above the wall the firing on the other side slackened and presently ceased altogether. I then told Rains and Upshaw, the other litter-bearer, to get up on the wall and wave the stretcher before them. They did so, and half a dozen Federals appeared from the bushes on the other side. Not a shot was fired by them, nor a shot from either side, until Rains and Upshaw went forward and brought the wounded Vermonter in and laid him down in the shade behind the wall, where we gave him water and what comfort we could. This day I rejoice more in that act of mercy and kindness than in any claim of glory or success in the battle. "Such scenes were common. In the still moonlight the evening before, in front of Little Round Top, a hundred or more instances occurred where the Federal litter-bearers were invited and allowed to come within our picket lines, and our men allowed to do the same, to bring out the wounded of their comrades. No solitary instance occurred at such times of a cowardly shot being fired, or blow struck, or any unkind word spoken from either side to the other, and we gladly did the office of humanity and kindness to the gallant Vermonter I have mentioned. In fact, that day was not the first time it had been my fortune in the war to fight Vermonters. At Dam Number One, before 127 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS Yorktown, early in 1862, we fought a Vermont regi ment; I do not remember its name or number. (A voice on the ground The Third Vermont. ) Yes, doubtless that was it, but, like Farnsworth s Cavalry, they were brave and noble men hard to handle, and worthy of all honor and praise. Vermonters! You could not break or even bend our spirits with swords or bullets, but you win our hearts by kindness ! "And now, Veterans, let me tell you why I think the kind Providence has spared us all during these inter vening fifty years. I say, old Veterans I mean both Confederate veterans and Union veterans God has spared us in order to give us more opportunity and additional opportunity to behave. Let us love one another, and do our duty to our fellow men and to our country and to our God until we die." Introducing Colonel John W. Bennett: "The next speaker I am to call upon is the only sur viving Lieutenant-Colonel of our Regiment. Colonel Bennett was one of the most reliable and fearless offi cers of the Regiment. He won his promotions through efficient service. He was always at his post of duty wherever and whenever duty called. On the third day of this great battle, and immediately preceding the charge, Colonel Bennett was in command of his bat talion on the skirmish line. Colonel Bennett was present with General Farnsworth when General Kil- patrick ordered that reckless, ill-advised charge a charge that cost the Regiment so many lives. Colonel Bennett, your presence adds interest and honor to the occasion. Colonel Bennett." 129 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS "Mr. President, Ladies, and Gentlemen: "The First Regiment, Vermont Cavalry, was or ganized September 4, 1861, and was mustered into the United States service November 1, 1861, for three years or during the war. At that time the Regiment consisted of ten companies, but later two companies were added, making it a twelve-company regiment of twelve hundred men. The original regiment was mus tered out November 18, 1864. The re-enlisted veterans and recruits were consolidated into a battalion of six companies, and were mustered out August 9, 1865. From first to last the regiment had 2,304 men There were killed in action and died of wounds 134 men Died of disease, including 149 who died in Confederate prisons 304 " Total deaths 438 men "To this must be added many who, from the effects of wounds received, disease contracted, and exposure in the service, died within a very few years. "Commencing with the action at Mount Jackson, in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, April 16, 1862, and terminating at Appomattox Court House, April 9, 1865, the Regiment participated in seventy-six battles and combats. "Major Wells assumed command of the Regiment upon the death of Colonel Preston, early in June, 1864, and was promptly promoted to the Colonelcy; ad vanced to the command of the Second Brigade of Cus- ter s Division of Cavalry on September 25, 1864. From that date to October 22, 1864, the speaker 130 COLONEL JOHN W. BENNETT IN AFFECTIONATE MEMORY OF then Lieutenant-Colonel was continuously in com mand of the First Vermont Cavalry. The three years term of service ended, the re-enlisted and recruits were organized into a battalion of six companies. "PROPERTY CAPTURED. At Tom s Brook, Virginia, October 9, 1864, the First Vermont Cavalry captured two pieces of artillery, with the horses attached, and also a large group of prisoners. At Cedar Creek, Vir ginia, October 19, 1864, the Regiment captured one hundred and sixty-one prisoners, including one general officer, one lieutenant-colonel, twenty-three pieces of artillery, fourteen caissons, seventeen army wagons, six spring wagons and ambulances, eighty-three sets of artillery harness, seventy-five sets of wagon harness, ninety-eight horses, and sixty-nine mules. "April 9, 1865, at Appomattox Station, the First Vermont Cavalry captured eight guns, and some of these were from the famous Washington Artillery Battalion of New Orleans. The regiment captured, October 9, 1864 2 guns October 19, 1864 23 " April 9, 1865 8 " 33 guns In addition to the above, my recollection is that Colonel Preston, when captain, captured one gun from the noted rebel, Mosby, making a total of thirty- four pieces of artillery captured by the Regiment. "The career of the battalion of six companies sus tained the Regiment s unsurpassed record of efficiency and came to a triumphant close on April 9, 1865, at MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS Appomattox, Virginia. Here the battalion was mov ing rapidly to a charge when halted by the flag of truce that preceded the unconditional surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia. "A word on what I saw and heard regarding the charge on the third day of the battle of Gettysburg: "About noon on the third day of the battle of Gettysburg, General Farnsworth s Brigade, of Kil- patrick s Division of Cavalry, moved against the enemy lying near the southwest base of Round Top, the First Vermont leading the Brigade. Soon after the Regiment struck the enemy s skirmish lines my battalion of four companies was dismounted and the Confederates in my immediate front were slowly forced back to their main line at the very base of Round Top. The battalion continued to press for ward, creeping from rock to rock, until the groans and moans of the wounded in the opposing lines were heard with equal distinctness. No relief could be given beyond a drink of water by the tossing of a canteen to the sufferer. The wounded could not be removed, for a hand or arm shown beyond the edge of the protecting rock was likely to add another name to the list of wounded. "After the fearful cannonading away to the right of us had slackened, and the awful musketry that soon followed had mostly died away, indicating the failure of Pickett s efforts to break our lines, I was standing behind a large tree. Hearing a whistle, I looked to the rear, and quite a distance back saw General Farns- worth in the edge of the woods. He motioned with his hand for me to come back. As he was still approach- 133 IN AFFECTIONATE MEMORY OF ing, I nodded my head and with my hand signaled him to stop. Having already received a slight blister on each cheek while endeavoring to keep a watch of what was being enacted in my front by peeking around first one side and then the other of the trees, I was not highly elated at the prospect of a trip to the rear. I delayed my start until one of the men, putting his hat on a stick, slowly pushed it out a little beyond the edge of his protecting rock, and the enemy commenced to blaze away at the hat. Then I darted behind the next big tree, some thirty feet to the rear. The bark flew from both sides; the dirt jumped up all around; and a number of sharp spats against my only shield betokened objection to my departure. Here I paused until the next outbreak along the contending lines, and then dashed to the protection of another big tree. Each succeeding dash was followed by the whiz and hiss until out of range. "Generals Kilpatrick and Farnsworth, both dis mounted, were engaged in conversation as I approached. General Farnsworth, addressing me, said in substance: General Kilpatrick thinks that there is a fair chance to make a successful charge. You have been up in front all day, what do you think? Before I could speak General Kilpatrick broke in, saying, The whole Rebel army is in full retreat. I have just heard from the right, and our cavalry there is gobbling them up by the thousand. All we have to do is to charge, and the enemy will throw down their arms and surrender. This remark was addressed to me. I replied, Sir, I don t know about the situation on the right, but the enemy in our front are not broken or retreating. Then 134 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS I described the position of Hood s (Rebel) Infantry Division behind a stone wall near the front of the hill; that there was not a horse in the division that could jump the wall from the lower side. And further, the necessary solidity required to make such a charge effective against infantry would be destroyed by the huge rock covering the ground between us and the enemy s lines. I closed by saying, General Kilpatrick, in my opinion, no successful charge can be made against the enemy in my front. General Kilpatrick was evidently annoyed, not to say angered, at my remarks. He did not attempt to conceal his dis pleasure, yet he failed to challenge the accuracy of any part of my statement of fact. General Farns worth was a listener during this conversation with Kilpatrick. "Then General Farns worth requested me to ac company him for a further observation and examina tion of the field, position of the enemy, etc. We mounted our horses and rode away to the west. The General made a careful inspection of the position of the enemy, of the field covered with large stones and boulders, and all the conditions, stopping frequently to make a careful and minute examination, both going and returning. I recall that at one point in the field of rocks, aliundred feet or more in front of the enemy s main line, was a light advance force lying behind the remnants of a stone wall (partly removed). When the General had completed his examination of all the conditions, and we were returning to Kilpatrick s headquarters, he turned to me and said, Major, I do not see the slightest chance for a successful charge. I fully acquiesced in his conclusion. Kilpatrick arose as 135 IN AFFECTIONATE MEMORY OF we came up, and General Farns worth explained the conditions as he had found them, calling attention to the leading facts, and briefly summarized the situation and expressed his conclusions. General Farns worth and I were sitting on our horses side by side. General Kilpatrick replied: General Farnsworth, well, some body can charge. 9 He did not say that he would lead a charge; did not indicate that he would do so while I was present. General Farnsworth s set lips turned white almost instantly as the sting of the insult seemed to burn into his very soul. There was a short pause following these words. No language of mine can convey a picture of the tension of that moment of silence. As General Farnsworth straightened up, every fibre of his being seemed rigid. Fearing results that might follow, and anxious to arrest General Farns worth s attention before he should speak or act, I kicked his foot three or four times with my boot, but failed to attract his attention or divert it to the extent I intended. The silence was broken by General Farnsworth, who replied, General Kilpatrick, if any body can charge, we can, sir. "Only three persons were present during this inter view, and I made the third. General Farnsworth and I had moved a short distance away when he directed me not to mount my battalion, but be ready to aid in protecting his right as he moved to the charge. In a few moments the mounted column, with the Ver- monters in front, came up. My memory is that one battalion of four companies, numbering about one hundred and twenty men under command of Major Wells, was all of the First Vermont Cavalry that par- 136 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS ticipated in the charge. General Farnsworth, with Major Wells at his side, led the column as it swung into the open field swept by shot and shell, and moved to the charge. My battalion charged the enemy s line, thus diverting the enemy s fire from the charging column for a moment. Away into the jaws of death and into the mouth of hell rode that splendid body of brave men. They smashed through that slight outer line of the enemy, and the men that composed it threw down their arms and sprang to the opposite side of their protecting rocks to escape the deadly fire from their main line that was being poured upon our charging body. As our charging column passed, many w r ho had thus surrendered gathered up their rifles and fired into its rear. "Soon, scattered over the field, rushing to the rear for shelter from the murderous fire, were dismounted men and riderless horses, injured and uninjured, while the dead and dying marked the course of the charging column. These were the first fruits of the abundant harvest that was gathered through the wild insanity that ruled the hour." Introducing Mr. W. B. Van Amringe: "It gives me great pleasure to present Mr. W. B. Van Amringe, President of the Van Amringe Granite Company of Boston, Massachusetts, the contractors of our beautiful monument, and to say that we are indeed glad to have him here with us to-day. Our only regret is that the accomplished sculptor, Mr. J. Otto Schweizer, is not." 137 J. OTTO SCHWEIZER, The Artist W. B. VAN AMRINGE MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS "Your Excellency, Mr. President, Ladies, and Gen tlemen : "The celebration of a Golden Wedding Anniversary, in any family, is always a notable event, not only to the happy couple who together have traveled the half- century journey of married life, but to their children and younger generations of relatives present, who naturally look upon the Bride and Groom of long ago with much awe and veneration. "Fifty years to the younger generation seems like a long time for Father and Mother to be care-sharing and home-building, and it really is a long time reckoned by what has happened in the span of fifty years and by the marked changes that have taken place. "We are gathered here to-day from the Northland and the Southland to celebrate the Golden Anniversary of a wonderful wedding which took place on, and near this spot, fifty years ago, at this very hour. "Do you ask the names of the Bridegroom and Bride? The pages of history give their names; let us read together its record. Lo! we find the following: " Wedded this day, by the God of War, Heroic Deed and Sacrifice to Sweet Memory and Everlasting Fame. " Witnesses: God Almighty, the Angels of Heaven, and a great host of friends and foes. "That was indeed a wedding never to be forgotten; a Union which no man can ever put asunder, try as he may, for on that day the Bridegroom inscribed his name and that of his Bride on the Scroll of Fame in letters of blood with the point of his sabre, to the accompaniment of a wonderful wedding march, in 139 IN AFFECTIONATE MEMORY OF which the hoarse roar of nigh two hundred cannon joined the chorus of a hundred thousand muskets; in which the shrill notes of the bugle blast, which started your own wild charge, could scarcely be dis tinguished. Yes, that day and hour and ceremony, amid shot and shell, will never be forgotten. Blessed are the names and memories of those brave comrades who are not with us this day in the flesh. "It occurred to me while listening to the distin guished speakers who have so vividly and interestingly pictured the events that took place here fifty years ago, to look around for visible objects, that may be seen and recognized to-day, that we know for a cer tainty were here on that eventful afternoon of 1863. "Only two visible objects can now be seen by the natural eye. Old Mother Earth, for one; and you men in blue and gray, who were participants in that event, are the only other objects that we can see to-day and say for a certainty, They were here in 1863 and are here to-day. "And these two objects can scarcely be recognized to-day. Even Old Mother Earth has changed in fifty years; and though we recognize her in a general way, we find her face seamed with deeper lines, even by winding avenues and twisting water courses. Her sunken cheeks, with rocks and boulders over and around which the mad dash of horse and rider is so well remembered, has grown a heavier and whiter beard of moss and lichens. "You, too, comrades, have changed. You who were here at that wedding of Heroic Deed and Everlasting Memory. Your faces also have deeper lines engraved 140 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS on cheek and brow; you too have grown a heavier and whiter crop of reminders of the flight of years, and so we look in vain for some visible object that has not changed with years. "We turn to bronze and granite, and attempt to put into pleasing form our gratitude and our remembrances; but a strange truth may here be recalled that there are things more enduring and more lasting than even bronze or granite. "It is the invisible which the natural eye cannot see that is more real and lasting, the one and only thing that will never be lost nor forgotten in the centuries to come. "It is the glorious Record of Heroic Deeds per formed by you and your comrades on this spot, and the unselfish Sacrifices which you and your companions made, that will always endure; and when you shall have passed away, and this spot on the face of Old Mother Earth shall no longer be recognized, the record of your heroic deeds, and the everlasting memory of your service and sacrifice, will still be as bright and as enduring as though the two were wedded to-day. "It can be well said of this twain, who were wed ded fifty years ago, that they have not changed; they are the same yesterday, to-day, and forever, and where mortal tongue shall name the one, he shall likewise name the other. Wherever the historian s pen shall describe the Deed there shall be also inscribed Memory. "Comrades and Friends, I esteem it a great honor and privilege to have been invited to be present with 141 IN AFFECTIONATE MEMORY OF you to-day, and to have had a part, a small part, in what I have called the Golden Wedding Anniversary celebration; and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for such an honor and privilege. "I rejoice with you to have with us to-day the worthy foemen of fifty years ago. They are our honored guests and esteemed friends. Our enemies of yes terday have become the true friends of to-day, for we know by their presence and earnest assurances that they are our comrades, rejoicing in the Citizenship of a United Country, living under and loving but one Flag, Old Glory. May God bless all of us and for many years to come." President Parker announced: "Comrades, fifty years ago, on this very spot, at five o clock in the afternoon, Major Wells, standing in front of his battalion, with drawn sabre, ordered his bugler to sound the charge, a charge that for daring and desperation has challenged the admiration of the world. The hour of five o clock has now arrived. Let all uncover and stand with bowed heads while our bugler, in commemoration of that historic moment, sounds the charge." Gilbert D. Buckman, of Sacramento, California, was present with the members of the First Vermont Cav alry Regimental Association at the unveiling and dedication of the monument in honor of the Regiment, at Gettysburg, July 3, 1913. He was the bugler of Company L, First Vermont Cavalry, and for several months was orderly bugler 142 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS for General George A. Custer, commanding the Michi gan Cavalry Brigade of the Cavalry Corps, Army of the Potomac. At Gettysburg he was relieved from this duty and sent to General Farnsworth, commanding the GILBERT D. BUCKMAN brigade of which the First Regiment Vermont Cav alry was a part, and acted as his orderly bugler on the afternoon of the charge on July 3, 1863. It was now six o clock, and the audience rose and sang "America," accompanied by the band of the Fifth United States Infantry, and upon the sounding of "Taps" the exercises closed. 143 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS FORTY-FIRST MEETING FIRST VERMONT CAVALRY REGIMENTAL ASSOCIATION IN VERMONT CAMP, GETTYSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA 10 A. M., July 2, 1913 MEMBERS PRESENT Lieutenant-Colonel John W. Bennett, 454 South Main St., Great Barrington, Mass. Adjutant Clarence D. Gates, Burlington, Vt. Gilbert D. Buckman, Oak Park, Sacramento, Cal. COMPANY A Edwards, Ellis B., Yonkers, N. Y. Edwards, George Albert, Richmond, Vt. Fay, I. E., National Soldiers Home, Kennebec County, Me. Grow, J. H., Bethel, Vt. Hood, Albert, Woodsville, N. H. Moore, Mark S., Granville, N. Y. Morse, C. W., Manitowoc, Wis. Ryan, T. G., Cambridge, Vt. Taft, Levi A., Huntington, Vt. Whipple, E. J., Ashland, Neb. COMPANY B Bonner, L. H., Pasadena, Cal. Henry, William P., 16 Winslow Road, Brookline, Mass. Knight, Orris P., North Hero, Vt. St. Germain, M., Saint Albans, Vt. Stetson, Horace B., North Troy, Vt. L^fford, Samuel, R. F. D. 2, Lewiston, Winona Co., Minn. 145 IN AFFECTIONATE MEMORY OF COMPANY C Brunelle, Toussant, Canaan, Vt. Gordon, J. W., Montpelier, Vt. Rice, M. M., Saint Albans, Vt. Stevens, D. W., East Hardwick, Vt. Wheeler, John A., Irasburg, Vt. COMPANY D Burnham, F. E., Littleton, N. H. Clifford, C. W., Warren, N. H. Curtis, A. H., Berlin, N. H. Gracey, John C., Peacham, Vt. Hutton, Abia, Westville, N. H. Kennison, A. H., Camden, N. Y. Moore, H. A., Passumpsic, Vt. Walker, D. C., Jeffersonville, Vt. Wheaton, W. M., Ottumwa, Iowa. COMPANY E Brush, Solomon M., Stowe, Vt. May, Edgar, 120 Cottage St., Norwood, Mass. Royes, B., 3372 Indiana Ave., Chicago, 111. Snow, S. M., West Hartford, Vt. Stevens, John W., Lancaster, N. H. Wheeler, Charles, Springfield, Vt. COMPANY F Brink, D. A., Brandon, Vt. Dickenson, N. P., Shelton, Neb. Farr, Charles R., 25 Manen St., Northampton, Mass, Farr, Ransom C., West Chesterfield, N. H. Greene, William F., Dighton, Kan. 146 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS Joyce, William C., Northfield, Vt. Nash, John M., Saint Albans, Vt. Peck, Theodore S., Burlington, Vt. Streeter, Henry C., Brattleboro, Vt. Thwing, John A., Bellows Falls, Vt. Warner, M. C., Proctor, Vt. COMPANY G Barrett, James, North Clarendon, Vt. Eddy, Daniel W., Hoosick Falls, N. Y. COMPANY H Bostwick, R. E., South Londonderry, Vt. Flynn, William, Alton, 111. Leland, Charles C., 617 East Nineteenth St., Minne apolis, Minn. Robie, F. C., Coos, N. H. Ross, Frank, Amsterdam, N. Y. Stoddard, Edgar, Colebrook, N. H. COMPANY I Cowles, A. E., North Craftsbury, Vt. Enos, Joseph, Franklin, N. H. Ferry, F. E., South Sutton, N. H. Hall, W. H., Portage, King County, Washington. Kaiser, S. H., Stowe, Vt. Norris, Richard C., Boon, Mich. Skinner, G. E., Nyssa, Ore. Stevens, J. T., Hyde Park, Vt. Washburn, E. A., Crown Point, N. Y. Waterman, A. E., 124 Tazwell St., Norfolk, Va. 147 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS COMPANY K Guyette, Frank, Stony Point, N. Y. Higbee, Edwin H., Groton, Mass. McSorley, John, Malone, N. Y. COMPANY L Blinn, W. F., Penacook, N. H. Fobes, J. A., Beloit, Kan. Irish, Calvin H., Northfield, Mass. Knight, B. T., 849 Summit Ave., Pasadena, Cal. McBride, George L., 119 North Willard St., Burling ton, Vt. Marchessault, Charles, 3118 Russell Ave., Minne apolis, Minn. Munsell, William H., Wells River, Vt. Pratt, Henry W., East Berkshire, Vt. Stoughton, Augustus C., 80 Colchester Ave., Burling ton, Vt. COMPANY M Aldrich, John, Island Pond, Vt. Boswell, J. H., Castlewood, S. D. Deso, Alvah, Swanton, Vt. Farrington, George M., North Ave., Burlington, Vt. Lander, Peter, 163 North St., Burlington, Vt. Parker, Myron M., 1418 F St., N. W., Washington, D. C. Williams, T. J., Randolph, Vt. FIRST REGIMENT VERMONT CAVALRY FIRST REGIMENT CAVALRY BY LIEUTENANT WILLIAM L. GREENLEAF AND SERGEANT SEYMOUR H. WOOD OF the two hundred and fifty -eight regiments of cavalry in the service of the LTnited States dur ing the W^ar of the Rebellion, but few, if any, performed more arduous service, or took part in more engagements, than did the First Vermont, which dur ing three years at the front participated in seventy-six battles and skirmishes a brief account of which would far exceed the limits of this sketch and achieved a reputation as one of the best fighting regiments in the army, standing fifth in the list of cavalry organizations suffering the greatest loss in killed and mortally wounded. The Regiment was recruited by Lemuel B. Platt, who had been specially commissioned by the Secretary of War for that purpose, and was the first full regiment of cavalry raised in New England. The several com panies were enlisted as follows: A, Chittenden County; B, Franklin County; C, Washington County; D, Orange and Caledonia Counties; E, Windsor County; F, Windham County; G, Bennington County; H, Rut land County; I, Lamoille and Orleans Counties; K, Addison County. In forty-two days from the time Colonel Platt received his authority the Regiment was in camp at Burlington, uniformed and mounted. The 151 IN AFFECTIONATE MEMORY OF organization was then completed by the appointment of the following Field and Staff Officers: Colonel Lemuel B. Platt Lieutenant-Colonel George B. Kelloff. Majors William D. Collins and John D. Bartlett. Adjutant Edgar Pitkin. Quartermaster Archibald S. Dewey. Surgeon George S. Gale. Assistant Surgeon P. O Meara Edson. Chaplain John H. Woodward. The following company officers were elected by the several companies and commissioned by the Governor: Company A Captain, Frank A. Platt; First Lieuten ant, Joel B. Erhardt; Second Lieutenant, Ellis B. Edwards. Company B Captain, George P. Conger; First Lieutenant, William M. Beeman; Second Lieutenant, Jed P. Clark. Company C Captain, William Wells ; First Lieuten ant, H. M. Paige; Second Lieutenant, Eli Holden. Company D Captain, Addison W. Preston; First Lieutenant, John W. Bennett; Second Lieutenant, William G. Cummings. Company E Captain, S. P. Rundlett; First Lieuten ant, Andrew J. Grover; Second Lieutenant, John C. Holmes. Company F Captain, Josiah Hall; First Lieutenant, Robert Scofield. Jr.; Second Lieutenant, Nathaniel E. Hay wood. Company G Captain, James A. Sheldon; First Lieutenant, George H. Bean; Second Lieutenant, D. M. Blackmer. 152 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS Company H Captain, S. G. Perkins; First Lieuten ant, F. T. Huntoon; Second Lieutenant, Charles A. Adams. Company I Captain, E. B. Sawyer; First Lieuten ant, H. C. Flint; Second Lieutenant, Josiah Grout, Jr. Company K Captain, Franklin Moore; First Lieutenant, John S. Ward; Second Lieutenant, John Williamson. The Regiment was mustered into the service of the United States, November 19, 1861, and started for Washington on the 14th of the next month, requiring for the journey one hundred and fifty -three cars, made up into a train of five sections. After passing through the experiences common to all new regiments, besides losing one Colonel by resignation and another by death, it met the enemy for the first time April 16, 1862, in the Valley of the Shenandoah. In this en gagement it charged through the little village of Mount Jackson and drove Ashby s cavalry for more than a mile to the North Fork of the Shenandoah, where the enemy set fire to the bridge, hoping to cut off further pursuit. Finding the stream unfordable, part of the Regiment dashed over the burning bridge after the flying Confederates, while the remainder brought water from the river in their feed-bags and extinguished the flames. The loss on this occasion was slight, but the regiment displayed in its maiden effort that dash ing valor and fertility of resource so essential to its success as a cavalry organization, and for which it was afterward noted on fields of greater magnitude. On the 23rd of May the Regiment was joined by its new Colonel, Charles H. Tompkins, of the Regular 153 IN AFFECTIONATE MEMORY OF Army, who had already achieved a reputation as a dashing cavalry officer, and under his leadership, in the retreat down the valley under Banks, the Regiment had its full share of fighting, meeting the enemy at McGaheysville, Middletown, and Winchester. In the campaign under Pope, which culminated in the second battle of Bull Run, the First Vermont was constantly on the move, and was engaged at Luray Court House, Culpeper Court House, Orange Court House, Kelley s Ford, Waterloo Bridge, and Bull Run. At the close of this campaign the Regiment, much reduced in num bers by its arduous service, was assigned to duty in the defenses of Washington. Its headquarters were established near Alexandria, and detachments were stationed at Annandale, Lewinsville, Dranesville, and other points. In September Colonel Tompkins re signed and was succeeded by Edward B. Sawyer, making the fourth Colonel within one year. The Regiment had lost during its six months of active service three hundred and nineteen men by death or discharge, but this loss was made good by the addition of Company L Captain, H. Chester Parsons; First Lieutenant, John W. Newton; Second Lieutenant, Alexander G. Watson recruited in Franklin and Chit- tenden Counties; and Company M Captain, John W. Woodward; First Lieutenant, George W. Chase; Sec ond Lieutenant, Enoch B. Chase recruited princi pally in Chittenden County. These, with the addition of two hundred recruits distributed among the ten original companies, raised the aggregate of the Regi ment to ten hundred and thirty-four. During the winter, portions of the Regiment were 154 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS frequently engaged with Mosby and other guerrilla leaders. These affairs were comparatively bloodless, but the one of April 1, 1863, when Captain Flint, with a detachment of the Regiment, undertook the capture of Mosby near Broad Run and met with a serious re pulse, in which Captain Flint, Lieutenant C. A. Wood- bury, and seven men were killed or mortally wounded, twenty-two wounded, and eighty-two men and ninety- five horses captured, was a serious blow to the Regi ment. This misfortune was in a measure retrieved on May 30th, when Mosby, who had captured a supply train of ten cars near Catlett s Station, was attacked by Lieutenant-Colonel Preston with about one hundred and twenty-five of the Vermont Cavalry and pursued to Greenwich, where he attempted to make a stand, but was completely routed by a charge led by Lieutenant Hazelton, of Company H, and his one piece of artillery captured. The loss of the Regiment on this occasion was but one man killed and seven wounded, and this was its last encounter with this famous partisan leader. Early in June, 1863, the scattered detachments of the Regiment assembled at Fairfax Court House, pre paratory to joining the Army of the Potomac, then on the march to Gettysburg. On the 28th of June it was attached to the Cavalry Corps of that army and was afterward associated with it until the close of the war. During the campaign of 1863 the Regiment bore a conspicuous part in the brilliant operations which first brought the cavalry into notice as a valuable arm of the service, and won for itself fresh laurels on the field of Gettysburg, where, under the lead of the gallant 155 IN AFFECTIONATE MEMORY OF Farnsworth, it penetrated within the enemy s lines for nearly a mile, encountering the fire of five regiments of infantry and two batteries, leaving its leader on the field, the only general officer killed within the lines of the enemy. It also participated in the cavalry engage ments at Hanover, Hunterstown, Hagerstown, Boons- borough, Falling Waters, Buckland Mills, and many skirmishes of lesser account. During the ensuing winter the Regiment was sta tioned at Stevensburg, engaged in picketing the line of the Rapidan. It formed a part of Kilpat rick s force in his famous raid on Richmond, and was selected to make an attempt to enter the city and release the prisoners confined in Libby Prison and on Belle Isle. A portion of the Regiment was with the ill-fated Dahlgren when he made the dash within the fortifications around the city which cost him his life. In the reorganization of the Cavalry Corps previous to the opening of the Wilderness Campaign, the Regi ment was assigned to the Second Brigade of the Third Division, and Colonel Sawyer having resigned, Lieuten ant-Colonel Addison W. Preston was commissioned as his successor. The Regiment crossed the Rapidan at Germanna Ford at daylight on the morning of May 4th, and moved forward to Parker s Store. Early on the morning of May 5th the Second Brigade, with the First Vermont Cavalry in front, proceeded to Craig s Meeting House, where, at about eight o clock, the advance squadron encountered Rosser s brigade of Hampton s calvary, and the engagement which fol lowed was the opening fight of the battle of the Wilder ness. In this action the Union forces were largely 156 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS outnumbered, and the Regiment suffered a heavy loss in killed and prisoners. The Regiment was with Sheridan in his expedition to Richmond in May, 1864, and participated in the engagements at Yellow Tavern and Meadow Bridge which resulted in the death of General Stuart, the famous cavalry leader of the Confederates, and the total rout of his forces. Returning to the Army of the Potomac, it took part in the cavalry engagements at Hanover Court House, Ashland, Hawe s Shop, Bot toms Bridge, White Oak Swamp, Riddle s Shop, and Malvern Hill. In the action at Hawe s Shop the Regiment met with a severe loss in the death of the gallant Preston, whom General Custer declared to be "the best cavalry colonel in the Army of the Potomac." The army, having crossed the James River, was fol lowed by the cavalry, and the First Vermont, with the Third Division and that of General Kautz, was sent to destroy the W^eldon, South Side, and other railroads leading south and west from the rebel capital. The ex pedition, numbering about five thousand men, started from Prince George Court House at one o clock on the morning of June 22, striking the Weldon Road at Ream s Station, where the buildings and a portion of the track were destroyed. During the following seven days the Regiment was constantly engaged in tearing up railroads and skirmishing with the enemy. At Nottoway Court House, Roanoke Station, Stony Creek, and Ream s Station these skirmishes were quite severe, and the Regiment, bearing its part in all of them, suffered considerable loss in killed and wounded. At Stony Creek the brigade to which the 157 IN AFFECTIONATE MEMORY OF Regiment belonged was attacked by Hampton s di vision of cavalry and cut off from the rest of the division. After severe fighting it managed to cut its way through and joined the other brigade at Ream s Station. The whole force then made its way back to the Union lines with the loss of its artillery and wounded. This expedition was the most severe in which the Regiment had as yet been engaged; and, re duced in numbers by the hard service of the last sixty days, it went into camp near Light House Point, on the James, where it remained some three weeks re cruiting the men and horses for harder experiences yet to come. On the 8th of August the Third Cavalry Division, including the First Vermont, now under Colonel Wil liam Wells, who had succeeded to the command after the death of Colonel Preston, embarked for Washing ton on its way to join General Sheridan in the Shenan- doah Valley, arriving at Winchester on the 17th. General Sheridan was at this time retiring down the valley, and the Regiment participated in the engage ments which occurred at Winchester, Summit Point, Charlestown, and Kearneyville, crossing the Potomac with the rear guard at Harpers Ferry on the night of the 25th. On the following day Early began falling back up the valley followed by the Union cavalry, and during the following week the First Vermont took part in several reconnoissances and was in slight skirmishes near Berry ville and Paris. In the battle of the Opequan, September 19th, the Regiment bore an active part and was in close pursuit of the retreating enemy when darkness put an end to the engagement. 158 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS On the 21st the Regiment led the advance in the move ment, having for its object the clearing out of the rebel cavalry in the Luray Valley. The First New Hamp shire, fighting dismounted, had driven the enemy across the river, but was unable to effect a crossing. The First Vermont was then brought up and charged across the stream, driving the enemy from its position. The division having in the meantime crossed along the pike to the right, the Regiment joined the main col umn and followed the enemy to Front Royal, a distance of two miles. Here the Regiment was again detached and sent to Gooney Manor, four miles above Front Royal, where it found the enemy s rear guard in a strong position on a hill south of Gooney Run. After skirmishing until after ten o clock at night the Regi ment was relieved, and joined the brigade. The next morning it was again actively engaged near Milford, but, finding the position too strong to be carried, our cavalry retired to Bucks Ford. On the 26th Colonel Wells was assigned to the command of the brigade and turned the command of the Regiment over to Lieuten ant-Colonel John W. Bennett. During the first week in October the Regiment was in camp near Mount Crawford. On the 7th, as rear guard of the cavalry column, it had a severe engage ment with the enemy near Columbia Furnace. General Sheridan was disgusted with these constant attacks on his rear and ordered his cavalry out the next morning with instructions to either whip the enemy or get whipped themselves. The result of this order was the splendid victory at Toms Brook, in which the First Vermont acquitted itself with much credit, capturing 159 IN AFFECTIONATE MEMORY OF two pieces of artillery, a large number of prisoners, and pursued the flying enemy for more than ten miles. On the morning of that memorable 19th of October, when "Sheridan rode from Winchester twenty miles away," Colonel Wells s brigade was guarding the fords across Cedar Creek, on the extreme right of the army. At the first sound of the firing on the left Lieutenant- Colonel Bennett was ordered to move out with his regiment, select a position covering the camp, and feel the enemy. The Rebel cavalry was found to be in force, and arrangements were made to resist its ad vance in case one should be attempted. About nine o clock the bulk of the cavalry was ordered to the extreme left to assist the infantry, Colonel Wells with his brigade being left to guard the right and prevent the enemy from turning that flank. Orders were soon received to retire sloVly and keep in line with the infan try. After falling back about a mile a halt was ordered, and the cavalry held its position, skirmishing briskly for several hours. General Custer then returned to the right with the First Brigade and a battery, and ordered a charge in which the enemy was driven back and the Regiment regained its former position. In the final advance of our army, leaving the First Brigade to watch the enemy on the right, General Custer took the First Vermont .and Fifth New York rapidly across the field to strike the left and rear of Early s infantry, which was then trying to hold its position along the north bank of Cedar Creek, but, unable to resist the last furious charge of the Union infantry, the enemy broke and fled. The infantry halted in their old camps, but the cavalry kept on. 160 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS The First Vermont led the way across the creek at a difficult ford west of the pike, the leading squadron, under Captain Watson, advancing to a stone wall about a quarter of a mile beyond, where it was brought to a halt by a volley from the enemy s infantry. Waiting until the remainder of the Regiment came up, Colonel W T ells ordered a charge. In a moment the Regiment was over the wall and driving the enemy before it with great slaughter. Pushing on more than a mile from any support, the Vermonters still in the lead, the two regiments struck the valley pike along which the enemy w^as retreating. Night was fast settling over that field, both lost and won, but weariness and hunger were forgotten by the men at the sight of the rich harvest before them, and they pushed on with renewed energy to gather in the spoils of the great and un paralleled victory. Reaching a point half a mile beyond Strasburg they found the road blockaded for miles with guns and wagons and ambulances filled with wounded. Whole batteries were captured, with guns, men, and horses intact. Captured cannon were sent to the rear in charge of small squads, and wagons and ambulances by the score were ordered back in charge of their rebel drivers. The pursuit was kept up until nearly midnight, when the Regiment, satiated with victory, returned to the north bank of Cedar Creek, having captured one hundred and sixty-one prisoners, among whom were one general, one colonel, and one lieutenant-colonel, three battle-flags, twenty-three pieces of artillery, fourteen caissons, seventeen army wagons, six spring wagons and ambulances, eighty- three sets artillery harness, seventy-five sets wagon 161 IN AFFECTIONATE MEMORY OF harness, ninety -eight horses, and sixty -nine mules. Eight medals were awarded to the army of the Shenan- doah for colors captured in this battle, of which mem bers of the First Vermont received three. The term of enlistment of the original members of the regiment having nearly expired, on October 22, twelve officers and two hundred and seventy men were sent home to be mustered out, some four hundred re-enlisted men and recruits remaining under the com mand of Major William G. Cummings. During the next sixty days the Regiment was employed in outpost duty and scouting, keeping itself in fighting trim meanwhile by taking part in the engagement at Middle Road, Middletown, Lacey s Springs, and Waynesboro. At the close of active operations it went into camp near Winchester. On the 27th of February, 1865, the cavalry in the valley started to join the armies of the Potomac and the James in the operations around Petersburg. After twenty-one days of marching, the long column of nearly ten thousand mounted men crossed the Appomattox and went into camp near Hancock Station, on the military railroad, having made a longer march within the limits of the Confederacy than Sherman s famous march "from Atlanta to the sea." To any other com mander than Sheridan such a march would have been deemed impossible. The rain fell incessantly, and the roads led through streams, swamps, mud, and obstacles that would have been insurmountable had not the whole command been stimulated with the belief that they were on their way to lend a helping hand in the final struggle of the war. 162 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS On the morning of April 1st the Regiment moved to the front of the Division, and during the afternoon was actively engaged in the battle of Five Forks, where it captured a large number of prisoners. The following day it had a slight skirmish with the enemy s cavalry at Scott s Corners. On the 3rd it had the advance of the cavalry, and struck the enemy behind breast works of considerable strength, behind a deep, muddy creek. A part of the Regiment was dismounted, and, crossing the creek at some distance from the road, came down on the flank and rear of the works, which were immediately abandoned by the enemy. The remainder of the Regiment having crossed the stream, the enemy was followed up and found in force on the summit of a hill near Namozine Church. The Regi ment was formed in column of battalions and charged the enemy, driving it back upon its reserves. The First Vermont and Eighth New York then charged together, scattering the enemy in every direction, capturing their only piece of artillery and many pris oners, and continuing the pursuit for eight miles. General Sheridan called this engagement the battle of Winticomack Creek, and gave General Wells the credit for its successful management. On the 4th the Regiment crossed Deep Creek and proceeded to Jeter s Station, on the Richmond and Danville Railroad, which was reached the next morn ing after a tedious all-night march. In the opera tions of the 6th the First Vermont was sent to the extreme right of the line and followed the retreating enemy all day. During the evening of the 8th the Regiment arrived at Appomattox Station, where the 163 IN AFFECTIONATE MEMORY OF enemy s reserve artillery and ammunition trains were found. A portion of Colonel Wells s Brigade was at once dismounted and sent through the woods to take the enemy on the flank, while the First Vermont charged them in front. The batteries opened a brisk fire, but were soon defeated with the loss of thirty guns and a large wagon train. Eighteen of the guns were taken by Wells s Brigade, of which number the First Vermont captured eight. Among the captured guns were those of the famous Washington Artillery of New Orleans, which had long boasted of never having lost a gun. On the morning of the memorable 9th of April the Regiment had the advance of the Second Brigade, which moved rapidly forward, forcing back the enemy s skirmish line. Moving to the right to uncover the Fifth Corps, it passed along nearly the entire front of the enemy s line under the fire of two batteries, and came upon the rebel flank and rear in full view of the supply trains. Lieutenant-Colonel Hall was ordered to charge the train with the First Vermont, and the First Battalion had broken into a gallop, when word was received that General Lee had sent in a flag of truce, offering to surrender his army, but before the Regiment could be halted it had captured the last line between it and the train, w r hich in a few minutes more would have been added to its long list of captures. Sabres were returned never to be drawn again in the fury of battle, and the surrender having been com pleted, the Regiment went into camp near the scene of its last charge. On the following day the Regiment started for Petersburg, where it arrived on the 19th. 164 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS On the 24th it was ordered to North Carolina to join General Sherman, but when near South Boston learned that Johnston had surrendered, and immediately re turned to Petersburg, where it remained until the 10th of May, when it started for Washington, there participating in the Grand Review on the 23rd. June 9th it left Washington for Vermont, and on the 13th arrived at Burlington, where the men whose term of service would expire previous to October 1st were immediately mustered out. The remainder were consolidated into six companies and stationed at Saint Albans, Vermont, and at different points in Northern New York until mustered out August 9, 1865. During its three years of active service in the pres ence of the enemy the Regiment captured in open field three battle-flags, thirty-seven pieces of artillery, and more prisoners than it had men a record which, it is believed, was not excelled by any regiment in the Union service. ENGAGEMENTS Mount Jackson, Va., April 16, 1862. McGaheysville, Va., April 27, 1862. Middletown, Va., May 24, 1862. Winchester, Va., May 25, 1862. Luray Court House, Va., June 30, 1862. Culpeper Court House, Va., July 10, 1862. Orange Court House, Va., August 2, 1862. Kelley s Ford, Va., August 20, 1862. Waterloo Bridge, Va., August 22, 1862. Bull Run, Va., August 30, 1862. 165 IN AFFECTIONATE MEMORY OF Ashby s Gap, Va., September 22, 1862. Aldie, Va., March 2, 1863. Broad Run, Va., April 1, 1863. Greenwich, Va., May 30, 1863. Warrenton, Va., June 18, 1863. Hanover, Pa., June 30, 1863. Hunterstown, Pa., July 2, 1863. Gettysburg, Pa., July 3, 1863. Monterey, Pa., July 4, 1863. Leitersville, Md., July 5, 1863. Hagerstown, Md., July 6, 1863. Boonsboro, Md., July 8, 1863. Hagerstown, Md., July 13, 1863. Falling Waters, Va., July 14, 1863. Port Conway, Va., August 25, 1863. Port Conway, Va., September 1, 1863. Culpeper Court House, Va., September 13, 1863. Somerville Ford, Va., September 14, 1863. Raccoon Ford, Va., September 15, 1863. James City, Va., October 10, 1863. Brandy Station, Va., October 11, 1863. Gainesville, Va., October 18 and 19, 1863. Buckland Mills, Va., October 19, 1863. Falmouth, Va., November 4, 1863. Morton s Ford, Va., November 28, 1863. Mechanicsville, Va., March 1, 1864. Piping Tree, Va., March 2, 1864. Craig s Meeting House, Va., May 5, 1864. Spottsylvania, Va., May 8, 1864. Yellow Tavern, Va., May 11, 1864. Meadow Bridge, Va., May 12, 1864. Hanover Court House, Va., May 31, 1864. 166 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS Ashland, Va., June 1, 1864. Hawe s Shop, Va., June 3, 1864. Bottom s Bridge, Va., June 10, 1864. White Oak Swamp, Va., June 13, 1864. Riddle s Shop, Va., June 13, 1864. Malvern Hill, Va., June 15, 1864. Ream s Station, Va., June 22, 1864. Nottoway Court House, Va., June 23, 1864. Roanoke Station, Va., June 25, 1864. Stony Creek, Va., June 28 and 29, 1864. Ream s Station, Va., June 29, 1864. Winchester, Va., August 17, 1864. Summit Point, Va., August 21, 1864. Charlestown, W. Va., August 22, 1864. Kearneysville, W. Va., August 25, 1864. Opequan, Va., September 19, 1864. Front Royal, Va., September 21, 1864. Gooney Manor Grade, Va., September 21, 1864. Milford, Va., September 22, 1864. W 7 aynesboro, Va., September 28, 1864. Columbia Furnace, Va., October 7, 1864. Toms Brook, Va., October 9, 1864. Cedar Creek, Va., October 13, 1864. Cedar Creek, Va., October 19, 1864. Middle Road, Va., November 11, 1864. Middle and Back Roads, or Middletown, Va., Novem ber 12, 1864. Lacey s Springs, Va., December 21, 1864. Waynesboro, Va., March 2, 1865. Five Forks, Va., April 1, 1865. Scotts Corners, Va., April 2, 1865. Namozine Creek, Va., April 3, 1865. 167 IN AFFECTIONATE MEMORY OF Namozine Church, or Winticomack Creek, Va., April 3, 1865. Appomattox Station, Va., April 3, 1865. Appomattox Court House, Va., April 9, 1865. STATISTICAL Killed, died of disease or wounds, wounded, pris oners, and missing from each company, and the regi mental Field and Staff will be found in the following list: COMPANY a fc O a H a i jf, 5 K * s i 1 H * Q s PN S A 3 26 33 78 2 142 B 4 28 28 65 6 131 C 5 28 40 64 1 138 D 4 36 26 67 133 E 9 23 28 46 2 108 F 3 31 24 35 1 94 G 34 25 94 153 H 10 23 32 56 2 123 I 8 24 24 61 117 K . . 3 24 30 47 104 L 10 19 27 43 99 M 3 18 4 38 63 F and S 1 3 9 10 23 63 317 330 704 14 1,428 Total enlistment, including officers, 2,304. Percentage of killed, died of disease or wounds, wounded, prisoners, and missing, nearly sixty-two. The last Vermont soldier killed in battle was Private George B. Dunn, of Company M, First Vermont Cav- 168 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS airy, April 8, 1865, and the last wounded was Lieu tenant Willard Farrington, of Company L, of the same regiment, early in the evening of April 8, 1865. Colonel William F. Fox, in his work entitled "Regi mental Losses in the American Civil War," mentions nine regiments which lost from one hundred and nine teen to one hundred and seventy -four men each killed or mortally wounded in action. In this list the First Vermont Cavalry stands fifth. It is admitted that this regiment was second to none, however, in capture of guns, prisoners, and battle-flags. NAMES AND POST OFFICE ADDRESSES OF SURVIVORS OF THE FIRST VERMONT CAVALRY, OCTOBER 13, 1913 FIELD AND STAFF COLONELS Charles H. Tompkins, Washington, D. C. Edward B. Sawyer, Hyde Park, Vt. LIEUTENANT-COLONEL John W. Bennett, Austin Station, Chicago, 111. MAJORS Robert Schofield, Kilburn City, Wis. A. J. Grover, 746 Maple Ave., Los Angeles, Cal. ADJUTANT Clarence D. Gates, Burlington, Vt. ASSISTANT SURGEONS P. O Meara Edson, 36 Elm Hill Ave., Boston, Mass. Edward B. Nims, Springfield, Mass. 169 IN AFFECTIONATE MEMORY OF CHAPLAIN John E. Goodrich, Burlington, Vt. NON-COMMISSIONED STAFF QUARTERMASTER SERGEANTS Henry A. Curtis, Tacoma Park, Washington, D. C. William C. Joyce, Northfield, Vt. HOSPITAL STEWARD George W. Brush, Proctor, Vt. CHIEF BUGLER Laforest M. Smith, Hyde Park, Vt. COMPANY A CAPTAINS Ellis B. Edwards, Yonkers, N. Y. Harris B. Mitchell, Maiden, Mass. LIEUTENANT Henry O. Wheeler, Burlington, Vt. SERGEANTS George A. Edwards, Richmond, Vt. Henry C. Smith, Burlington, Vt. CORPORALS Francis B. Macomber, Westford, Vt. Michael Quinlan, North Ferrisburg, Vt. SADDLER SERGEANT Andrew W. Taylor, Ord, Neb. WAGONER John Hogan, Parkersburg, W. Va 170 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS BLACKSMITH Mark S. Moore, Granville, N. Y. PRIVATES Allen, Samuel J., Vergennes, Vt. Blinn, Charles H., Custom House, San Francisco, Cal. Carroll, James, Jericho, Vt. Farnsworth, Silas A., Moretown, Vt. Fay, Irving E., National Soldiers Home, Kennebec County, Me Greene, Lester C., Crowley, La. Grow, Jerome H., Bethel, Vt. Hall, Alexander, Shelburne, Vt. Hood, Albert, Woodsville, N. H. McKenna, Bernard, Montpelier, Vt. Rouban, James, East Orange, R. F. D. Washington, Vt. Ryan, Thomas G., Cambridge, Vt. Shanahan, John, Proctor, Vt. Shannon, James, Albia, Iowa. Sprague, Sylvester, Newaygo, Mich. Stone, Henry H., Elizabethtown, N. Y. Stowe, Wlllard S., Glen wood, Iowa Taft, Levi A., Huntington, Vt. Taft, Milo S., Huntington Center, Vt. Tart, Abel, Whallonsburg, N. Y. Upham, John, Wallingford, Conn. Weber, George, 915 Avenue C, San Antonio, Tex. W T hipple, Edward J., Ashland, Neb. COMPANY B CAPTAIN William M. Beeman, Hartford, Conn. 171 IN AFFECTIONATE MEMORY OF LIEUTENANTS Anson L. Chandler, Bradford, Vt. Charles B. Stone, Avon, Colo. Eri D. Woodbury, Cheshire, Conn. SERGEANTS Antoine Fortuna, Rodney, Iowa. Samuel Ufford, Lewiston, Minn., R. D. 2. QUARTERMASTER SERGEANTS William C. Humphrey, 30 West Third St., Saint Paul, Minn. John W. Erwin, Derby Center, R. F. D. Derby Line, Vt. CORPORALS Warren W. Conger, Rutland, Vt. Orris P. Knight, North Hero, Vt. Eugene B. Soule, Ripon, W 7 is. WAGONER James A. Davis, Starksboro, Vt. SADDLER Deforest Shattack, Hatfield, Mass. PRIVATES Austin, Julius R., North Creek, N. Y. Ballard, James N., Hyde Park, Vt. Barrows, Alphonzo, Burlington, Vt. Bates, George L., Manchester, N. H. Benjamin, Joseph S. M., Plainfield, Vt. Bonner, L. H., Pasadena, Cal. Bowen, William B., Bozeman, Mont. Brigham, Antipas, Hudson, N. Y. 172 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS Brown, John, East Richford, Vt. Carter, Allen H., Groton, Vt. Cavanaugh, James, National Soldiers Home, Kennebec County, Me. Corse, Malcom L., Fort Worth, Tex. Cota, Charles H., Saint Albans, Vt. Currier, George W., Waterville, Vt. Daniels, Noble A., Telluride, Colo. Dean, Calvin, West Berkshire, Vt. Domina, Darius, Montgomery, Vt. Henry, William P., 16 Winslow Road, Brookline, Mass. Hickok, Charles H., Wakefield, Mass. Hull, George J., Franklin, Vt. Hutchinson, Peter P., Morrisville, Vt. Kinney, Francis B., Milton, Vt. Loveland, Nathan, South Hadley Falls, Mass. Pratt, Jerome J., 46 Dix St., Boston, Mass. Putnam, Emerson, Northfield, Mass. Scott, P. M., Appleton, Minn. Sharrow, George W., Sheldon, Vt., R. D. 1. St. Germain, Marshall, Saint Albans, Vt. Stetson, Horace B., North Troy, Vt. Touchett, Francis, Montgomery Center, Vt. W 7 ilson, Merritt, Cambridge, Vt. COMPANY C CAPTAIN Mason A. Stone, 82 Beacon St., New York City. LIEUTENANTS Barney Decker, Danby, Vt. Perley C. J. Cheney, Dover, N. H. 173 IN AFFECTIONATE MEMORY OF SERGEANTS Thomas S. May, Athens, Pa. Marcus M. Rice, Saint Albans, Vt. Lester K. Stiles, East Westmoreland, N. H. Chester L. Dwyer, Wood Lake, Neb. Harvey S. Dow, Lower Cabot, Vt. QUARTERMASTER SERGEANT Samuel C. Vorce, Randolph Center, Vt. CORPORALS Orange A. Baldwin, Hinesburg, Vt. Horace Burnham, East Calais, Vt. Francis H. Ketchum, Randolph, Vt. Albert George, Hard wick, Vt. PRIVATES Allen, Chauncey M., Woonsocket, S. D. Bailey, Walter, National Soldiers Home, Kennebec County, Me. Bannister, Foster L., South Weymouth, Mass. Barrows, Martin, Middlebury, Vt. Blancherd, Timothy, Williamstown, Vt. Brunelle, Toussant, Canaan, Vt. Carrigan, Thomas, 118 West St., Worcester, Mass. Clark, Leonard G., 526 Jervis St., Toledo, Ohio. Clough, Franklin H., Wilmot, N. H. Coburn, Benjamin F., Montpelier, Vt. Coburn, David, Lyme, N. H. Edson, Henry L., Brookfield, Vt. Gordon, John W., Montpelier, Vt. Hammond, Orange S., Nevada, Iowa. Hastings, Flavel J., Middlesex, Vt. 174 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS Ingram, John, Granby, P. Q. Kent, Sanford H., Northfield, Vt. Kneeland, Seymour L., Tewksbury, Mass. Lewis, Frederick A., Northfield, Vt. McAllister, Ziba H., Waitsfield, Vt. Northrop, Albert A., Barre, Vt. Palmer, John W., Waitsfield, Vt. Savery, George W., W f illiamstown, Vt. Stevens, Daniel W., East Hard wick, Vt. Vincent, Noah W., Mound City, Kan. Wheeler, John A., Irasburg, Vt. COMPANY D LIEUTENANT Stephen A. Clark, Willow Lake, S. D. SERGEANTS Martin V. B. Sargent, Danville, Vt. Daniel C. Walker, Jefferson ville, Vt. James W 7 right, Sidney, Iowa. QUARTERMASTER SERGEANT John C. Gracey, Peacham, Vt. CORPORALS Benjamin F. Clifford, Danville, Vt. Carlos Kingsbury, West Washington, R. F.D. Barre, Vt. BLACKSMITH Enoch Aiken, Keene, N. H. PRIVATES Austin, George A., Piermont, N. H. Benoit, Frederick, 906 Harrison St., Chicago, 111. Brown, Lorenzo, Lunenburg, Vt. Buck, W T illiam N., 261 Essex St., Salem, Mass. 175 IN AFFECTIONATE MEMORY OF Burnham, Frank E., Littleton, N. H. Cilley, Edwin J., Hanover, N. H. Clifford, Commodore W., Warren, N. H. Curtis, Antipas H., Care of Geo. B. Day, P. O. Box 52, Berlin, N. H. Duraw, Jerry, Stonington, Conn. Hall, Oliver C., Saint Johnsbury, Vt. Hartson, Abel, Danville, Vt. Higgins, Samuel L., Manchester, N. H. Hutton, Abia, Westville, N. H. Kennison, A. H., Camden, N. Y. Leet, Charles, Delphi Falls, N. Y. Leet, Henry, Topsham, Vt. Long, Clark L., Rutland, Vt. Marckres, Harvey A., San Jose, Cal. Moore, Henry A., Barnet, Vt. Morse, John F., East Peacham, Vt. Palmer, Nathan P., Thompson ville, Conn. Roundy, William R., West Burke, Vt. Sargent, Harrison E., Berwick, Me. Stacy, Curtis L., Concord, Vt. Stevens, Z. T., Bethany, Mo. Waldo, Darwin E., Cabot, Vt. Wheaton, W T illiam M., Ottumwa, Iowa. Wheeler, Mark M., East Peacham, Vt. Wiggins, Frederick C., 209 Vaughan St., Portland, Me. Woodward, William, Groveton, N. H. Worthing, George B., Ayers Cliff, Canada, P. Q. COMPANY E LIEUTENANT Richard A. Seaver, Hartford, Vt. 176 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS SERGEANTS Albert W. Allen, 24 Oak Ave., Leominster, Mass. Charles Wheeler, Springfield, Vt. John M. Buckley, Chicopee, Mass. COMMISSARY SERGEANT Eugene H. Abels, 520 Ellicott Square, Buffalo, N. Y. CORPORALS Valton C. Bailey, Marlow, N. H. M. Lafayette Perham, Springfield, Vt. Oscar M. Parkhurst, Springfield, Vt. BLACKSMITHS David B. Daniels, Kansas City, Mo. William Stafford, 1253 Fifth Ave., Watervliet, N. Y. PRIVATES Aikens, George C., Everett, Mass. Blake, E. B., Greenfield, Mass. Bride, Henry A., Pulaski, 111. Bridge, George E., Felchville, Vt. Bromley, Erwin E., Dodge Center, Minn. Brush, Solomon H., Stowe, Vt. Bryant, Carlos, Hammondsville, R. F. D. Felchville, Vt. Carter, Constant, (address unknown.) Clapp, Albert S., Springfield, Neb. Crowell, Alexander, East Barnard, R. F. D. South Royalton, Vt. Fassett, Dean B., Randolph, Vt. Finney, Mitchell J., Hinesburg, Vt. Gould, Amos, Perkinsville, Vt. Haskins, Marcus, Jericho Center, Vt. Kendall, Albert A., Enosburg Falls, Vt. 177 IN AFFECTIONATE MEMORY OF Labell, Peter, Barre, Vt. Lafonde, Thomas, La Bale, Canada, P. Q. Lee, Alonzo N., Bellows Falls, Vt. Lyon, Josiah T., Omaha, Neb. May, Edgar, Norwood, Mass. Messer, Allen P., Claremont, N. H. Partridge, Monroe, Wessington, S. D. Pendergast, Michael W., West Concord, Minn, Perry, Edward A., South Woodstock, Vt. Potter, Charles H., Bridge water Vt. Priest, Samuel, Barton, Vt. Royes, B., 3372 Indiana Ave., Chicago, 111. Scott, Marcus D., Beecher Falls, Vt. Sleeper, Charles T., West Groton, Mass. Sleeper, James M., South Woodstock, Vt. Snow, Sylvester M., West Hartford, Vt. Stevens, John W., Lancaster, N. H. Stone, Edmund, Beverly, Mass. Taylor, Edwin S., Brownsville, Vt. Thompson, Charles H., Felchville, Vt. Willard, John H., Ludlow, Vt. Wood, Charles H., Hanover, N. H. Young, Hosea B., White River Junction, Vt. COMPANY F LIEUTENANT Henry C. Streeter, Brattleboro, Vt. SERGEANTS John A. Eddy, Dalton, Mass. John M. Nash, Saint Albans, Vt. 178 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS QUARTERMASTER SERGEANT John A. Thwing, Bellows Falls, Vt. COMMISSARY SERGEANTS Charles R. Farr, Northampton, Mass. James H. Woodburn, Wessington Springs, S. D. PRIVATES Adams, Newall H., Traer, Iowa. Bancroft, Fernando, Sparta, Wis. Brink, Darwin A., Brandon, Vt. Dickenson, Nathaniel P., Shelton, Neb. Farr, Ransom C., West Chesterfield, N. H. Field, George W., Proctor, Vt. Fisher, William H., Brattleboro, Vt. Gilles, Simeon J., Marysville, Kan. Greene, William F., Dighton, Kan. Jillson, John S., Brattleboro, Vt. Lamphere, George A., Vienna, Va. Miner, Charles, Brandon, Vt. Peck, Theodore S., Burlington, Vt. Sherman, Nathan A., York, Neb. Simpson, Edwin E., Saint Johnsbury Center, Vt. Tuttle, Norman E., East Wallingford, Vt. Wallin, Harrison, Halifax, Vt. Warner, Myron C., Proctor, Vt. Woodward, Flavil, Greenfield, Mass. COMPANY G LIEUTENANT James Barrett, North Clarendon, Vt. 179 IN AFFECTIONATE MEMORY OF COMMISSARY SERGEANT Hiram W. Waters, Castleton, Vt. MUSICIAN Horatio N. Leach, Los Angeles, Cal. WAGONER Hiram S. Hall, North Bennington, Vt. PRIVATES Bailey, Henry M., Glens Falls, N. Y. Bartlett, Charles A., La Crosse, Wis. Barton, Charles, Bennington, Vt. Belford, John, Acona, R. F. D. Lexington, Miss. Benson, Homer, Coldwater, Mich. Burroughs, Thomas, Alexandria, Va. Dayer, Fayette, Pasadena, Cal. Demore, Medor, 97 Knox Ave., Minneapolis, Minn. Eddy, Daniel W., Hoosick Falls, N. Y. Fitzgerald, Philip H., Pawpaw, 111. Gault, Jerome, Arlington, Vt. Graves, Noble W., New Britain, Conn. Harrington, William, Bennington, Vt. Harrington, W. J., Salisbury, Vt. Hill, John H., Pownal, Vt. Hosley, Thomas C., Arlington, Vt. Howe, Theron, Wells, Vt. Kearce, Mort, Niles, Kan. Kent, Rollin D., Manchester Depot, Vt. Kilbourne, A. J., Manchester Center, Vt. Marsh, Edward A., Leominster, Mass. Saunders, James, Sunderland, R. F. D. Arlington, Vt. 180 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS Sculley, Barnet, National Soldiers Home, Kennebec County, Me. Stone, Richard, Danby, Vt. Towsley, Nathaniel, Manchester, Vt. Webb, Arnold, Sunderland, R. F. D. Arlington, Vt. West, C. H., Anaconda, Mont. Wlieeler, L. D., Bell Center, Wis. Wilson, Alonzo R., Hollis, N. H. W yman, Myron G., Saint Paul, Minn. COMPANY H CAPTAINS Frank T. Huntoon, 16 W 7 est 25th St., New York. Emmett Mather, 11 Grimshaw St., Chicago, 111. SERGEANTS Royal E. Bostwick, South Londonderry, Vt. Samuel Dowling, Rutland, Vt. CORPORALS Alonzo E. Doty, Belmont, Vt. Sewell S. Whitcomb, West Randolph, R. F. D. Ran dolph, Vt. Stephen Corey, Hampton, Va. BUGLER Charles C. Leland, 617 East Nineteenth St., Minne apolis, Minn. BLACKSMITH Patrick Callighan, West Rutland, Vt. PRIVATES Bailey, William H., North Wolcott, Vt. Bean, William M., South Wheelock, R. F. D. Lyndon- ville, Vt. 181 IN AFFECTIONATE MEMORY OF Bishop, Orlando S., Rutland, Vt. Bovia, John, Sleepy Eye, Minn. Brockney, Joseph, Burlington, Vt. Bugbee, Daniel W., Bellows Falls, Vt. Butler, John, Raceville, N. Y. Buxton, Stephen L., Lyons, Iowa. Churchill, Charles H., Brandon, Vt. Churchill, Edwin R., North Platte, Neb. Currier, George A., Colebrook, N. H. Davis, Don C., Harrison ville, Mo. Dupuy, John A., Derby, Conn. Dyer, Frank, Ware, Mass. Earle, Henry J., Brockton, Mass. Flynn, William, Alton, 111. Fuller, Myron C., Bloomfield, Vt. Greenough, David, Pittsford, Vt. Guertin, Joseph, Wallingford, Vt. Jones, William, Pittsford, Vt. Ladderbush, Frank, Pittsford, Vt. Locklin, Ralph, Marion, Kan. Menard, Renay, Southington, Conn. Pearsons, Collamer, Poultney, Vt. Price, Isaac, Tyro, Kan. Ranney, Edson H., West Concord, R.F.D. Concord, Vt. Robie, F. C., Coos, N. H., R. F. D. 2. Stoddard, Edgar, Colebrook, N. H. Wellman, Austin B., Wallingford, Vt. Wheeler, Cullen, Castleton, Vt. COMPANY I CAPTAIN Josiah Grout, Derby Center, R. F. D. Derby Line, Vt. 182 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS LIEUTENANT James T. Stevens, Hyde Park, Vt. QUARTERMASTER SERGEANTS Aaron M. Crane, 5 Durham St., Boston, Mass. CORPORALS Albert E. Cowles, North Craftsbury, Vt. Mark Warner, East Hardwick, Vt. SADDLER William Sparrow, Springfield, Vt. BLACKSMITH Samuel H. Kaiser, Stowe, Vt. PRIVATES Bickford, George D., Sheffield, Vt. Boden, Edward, Duarte, Cal. Brooks, Reuben E., East Albany, R. F. D. Irasburg, Vt. Bundy, George G., Morrisville, Vt. Clark, S. B., Templeton, Mass. Drew, Ira S., Irasburg, Vt. Durkee, Royal E., Orange, Mass. Enos, Joseph, Franklin, N. H. Ferry, Francis E., South Sutton, N. H. Flanders, Joseph T., Springfield, Wis. Gauthier, Joseph, Toledo, Ohio. Gibson, Thomas R., Plainfield, Vt. Greaves, James, Rutland, Vt. Hall, William H., Portage, King Co., Wash. Jackson, G. W., Waterville, Conn. Malony, William J., North Troy, Vt. Martin, Julius H., 1214 Magnolia Ave., Los Angeles, Cal. 183 IN AFFECTIONATE MEMORY OF Martin, Russell C., 423 College St., Los Angeles, Cal. Maxfield, John B., New Hampton, Iowa. Needham, Edward C., Norwich, Vt. Norris, Richard C., Boon, Mich. Page, Austin A., Irasburg, Vt. Pettingill, Harry B., Beecher Falls, Vt. Skinner, George E., Nyssa, Ore. Spofford, George S., East Atlanta, Ga. Taylor, A. W., Saint Edward, Neb. Tice, Robert S., Coventry, Vt. Washburn, Edward A., Crown Point, N. Y. Waterman, Alonzo E., 124 Tazwell St., Norfolk, Va. Webber, Philip, Newbury Center, R.F.D. Newbury, Vt. Weber, George, Groton, Vt. Wheelock, Elisha B., Plymouth, N. H. Whitcher, O. C., Albany, Vt. Whitney, Abija F., Morrisville, Vt. W oodbury, Henry, Box 202, Keene, N. H. COMPANY K CAPTAIN Edwin H. Higbee, Groton, Mass. SERGEANTS John Goodrow, Ripton, Vt. Horace Lapham, Shoreham, Vt. CORPORALS Frank Goodrow, Brattleboro, Vt. James Bodoin, Cornwall, R. F. D. Middlebury, Vt. PRIVATES Chilson, Eugene, 2313 Portland Ave., Minneapolis, Minn. 184 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS Conant, William J., Panton, R. F. D. Vergennes, Vt. Craig, Myron, Stanbridge East, P. Q. Fales, Myron L., Middlebury, Vt. Gaulett, Lewis, Middlebury, Vt. Gibbs, Henry G., Lisbon, Iowa. Guyette, Frank, Stony Point, N. Y. Hatch, Isaac F., Burlington, Vt. Heitmann, Hermann H., Orwell, Vt. Jackson, John W., Port Henry, N. Y. Jones, Edwin E., Middlebury; Vt. La Vake, Lewis, Montour, Iowa. Lewis, David H., 1714 Grand Ave., Knoxville, Tenn. McSorley, John, Malone, N. Y. Mayhew, Alfred, Bennington, Vt., R. D. 2. Mayhew. Frank, West Cornwall, R. F. D. Middlebury, Vt. Pecu, William, Ferrisburg, Vt. Rock, George H., New Bedford, Mass. Young, Francis, Morris ville, Vt. Youtt, Charles E., Middlebury, Vt. COMPANY L SERGEANTS George L. McBride, Burlington, Vt. Seymour H. Wood, Saint Albans, Vt. Truman B. Webster, Shelburne, Vt. Charles H. McCarroll, Saint Albans, Vt. William A. Clapp, Denver, Colo. COMMISSARY SERGEANT Samuel S. Watson, Muskegon, Mich. 185 IN AFFECTIONATE MEMORY OF CORPORALS Charles C. Bennett, Bridgewater, Mass. Clarence H. Cornell, 113 West Twelfth St., New York City. Charles Marchessault, 3118 Russell Ave., Minne apolis, Minn. Andrew A. Smith, in Regular Army, U. S. Josiah A. Fobes, Beloit, Kan. Isaac Ryan, Stevens Mills, Vt. BUGLER Gilbert Buckman, Sacramento, CaL PRIVATES Avery, Seymour, Enosburg Falls, Vt. Blinn, William F., Penacook, N. H. Burlett, Abram, Brooklyn, N. Y. Carr, Hezakiah B., Underbill, Vt. Clark, William A., Haverhill, Mass. Cleveland, William H., Hoyt, Okla. Cornell, Charles, North Chelmsford, Mass. Cox, Albert F., Providence, R. I. Erwin, Charles L., Newport Center, Vt. Fobes, Aaron E., Underbill, Vt. Gingham, Enos, Hartland, Vt. Greene, Sidney T., Schenectady, N. Y., R. D. 1. Hand, John, East Fairfield, Vt. Irish, Calvin H., Northfield, Mass. Irish, Horace N., Home, Bennington, Vt. Munsell, William H., Wells River, Vt. O Claire, Peter, Bennington, Vt. Perkins, Ahira H., Manchester, N. H. Pratt, Henry W., East Berkshire, Vt. 186 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS Rand, George B., Burlington, Vt. Rawley, Edward, Adams, Mass. Stoughton, Augustus C., Burlington, Vt. White, Joseph, Sheldon, Vt. W T olcott, Edgar J., Essex Junction, Vt. COMPANY M SERGEANTS John Kinnehan, Saint James Hotel, San Antonio, Tex. John Aldrich, Island Pond, Vt. BUGLER Azro F. Hackett, Proctor, Vt. PRIVATES Carleton, Charles, 1011 Walnut St., Chicago, 111. Consigney, John F., Audubon, Iowa. Deso, Alvah, Swanton, Vt. Farrington, George M., Burlington, Vt. Fullington, Birney S., Johnson, Vt. Jackson, Hiram F., Westford, Vt. Jordan, Francis, Saint Jerome, P. Q. Landor, Peter, Burlington, Vt. Leavitt, Edwin B., 141 Elm St., Biddeford, Me. Parker, Myron M., 1418 F St., N. W., Washington, D. C. St. Michael, Charles, 710 North Twenty-fourth St., Richmond, Va. Sargent, Martin, Randolph, Vt. W T illiams, Theodore J., Randolph, Vt. W^oods, Horace S., Ontario, Cal. W right, Allen, Office of Paymaster General, War De partment, Washington, D. C. 187 WILLIAM WELLS BRIGADIER AND BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL UNITED STATES VOLUNTEERS 1837-1892 WILLIAM WELLS was born in Waterbury, Vermont, December 14, 1837. He was of a good English family, being the seventh in direct descent from Hugh Wells. Hugh Wells was born, about 1590, in the county of Essex, England. He was married in 1619, and emi grated to America in 1635. He remained in Boston for a time, and subsequently aided in founding a colony in Hartford, Connecticut. He died in Wethers- field, Connecticut, in 1645. Thomas Wells, the first child of Hugh Wells, was born in Colchester, England, in 1620, and was taken with his parents, in 1635, to America. In 1651 he married Mary Beardsley, of Wethersfield, Connecticut, daughter of William Beardsley, of England. In 1659 he went to Hadley, and lived there until his death, in 1676. Ebenezer Wells, eleventh child of Thomas Wells, was born at Hadley, Massachusetts, July 4, 1668, and died at Hatfield, Massachusetts. His second child, Dr. Thomas Wells, was born at Greenfield, Massachu setts, September 25, 1693, and died at Deerfield, Mas sachusetts, March 7, 1745. The third child of Dr. Wells, Joseph Wells, born in Deerfield, Massachusetts, October 8, 1731, died at Greenfield, December 22, 1804. The fifth child of Joseph, Roswell Wells, was born in Greenfield, Massachusetts, September 9, 1769, and in 1805 moved to Waterbury, where he died July 26, 1826, aged fifty-seven years. His wife was Pamelia White, a 192 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS descendant of Peregrine White, the first white child of civilized parentage born in New England. Of this marriage were born two children, William Wellington and Roswell Wells. The Honorable William Wellington Wells was born in Waterbury, October 28, 1805, and died at the same place April 9, 1869. He was a man of liberal educa tion, excellent business qualifications, and sterling char acter. He was graduated from the University of Ver mont in 1824, and studied law in the office of Charles Adams, Esq., in Burlington. He was admitted to practice at the Chittenden County Bar, but before he began the practice of his profession (for which he was thought to be particularly well suited both by nature and education), owing to the death of his father, he was obliged to return to Waterbury and administer the estate of the deceased. He soon became so much interested in business pursuits that he abandoned the idea of a professional life and identified himself with the interests of both his family and his town, and was numbered among the most successful men of affairs in the State. Mr. Wells represented Waterbury in the Legislature in 1840, 1863, and 1864, where he took an active part in legislative matters. He was a member of the Eleventh Council of Censors in 1855, and town treas urer and selectman several years. He was deeply interested in the welfare of his coun try, and when the Rebellion broke out, and during its continuance, he gave himself almost entirely to his country s service with an enthusiasm and hopefulness that was an inspiration to all around him. As chair- 193 HONORABLE WILLIAM WELLINGTON WELLS Father of General Wells MRS. ELIZA CARPENTER WELLS Mother of General Wells SEVEN SONS AND DAUGHTER OF MR. AND MRS. WILLIAM WELLINGTON WELLS, 3872 Curtis Wells, Edward Wells, William Wells, Henry Wells Roswell White Wells, Charles Wells, Sarah Carpenter Wells Brock, Frederick Howard Wells FOUR GENERATIONS OF THE WELLS FAMILY Mrs. Curtis Wells and Son Karl C. Mrs. William Wellington Wells Mrs. Dan Carpenter Mr. Curtis Wells WELLS FAMILY REUNION, 1876 mmmm Pll III I in WELLS FAMILY REUNION, 1876 WELLS FAMILY REUNION, 1876 WELLS HOMESTEAD, WATERBURY, VERMONT MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS man of the board of selectmen during the greater part, if not the whole, of the war, he was the strongest among the strong. There was no call for soldiers that was not promptly filled.* He fully believed that it was for the town s best interest to "pay as it went," so that Waterbury was subsequently free from debt at the close of the war. Mr. Wells lived in the faith that work was honorable, and his whole life conformed to his faith; his boys, too, having been reared in this faith, have cheerfully and faithfully followed him in faith and practice. Mr. W r ells was married to Miss Eliza Carpenter, second daughter of Judge Dan Carpenter, January 13, 1831. This choice of a wife was a most fortunate one for him, as his subsequent life demonstrated. They buried two children in infancy, but reared seven sons and one daughter. Roswell W^hite Wells was born November 14, 1833, died February 4, 1883. Edward W 7 ells, born October 30, 1835, died February 19, 1907. William Wells, born December 14, 1837, died April 29, 1892. Curtis W T ells, born February 1, 1840, died March 16, 1898. Charles Wells, born June 22, 1845. Sarah Carpenter W T ells, born June 22, 1845. Henry Wells, born February 15, 1848, died January 7, 1911. Frederick Howard, born September 27, 1851. Mrs. Wells survived her husband four years and died August 5, 1873. Four of the sons, Edward, William, Curtis, and Charles, served in the Union Army. William W r ells began his education in the common *Mr. Wells joined a company in Randolph in the fall of 1862 and drilled for two weeks, but was not accepted on account of eyesight and over-age. 199 IN AFFECTIONATE MEMORY OF schools of his native town, and mastered the higher branches in Barre, Vermont Academy, and Kimball Union Academy, Meriden, New Hampshire. While in Barre he performed a remarkable piece of work, using an odometer in surveying for a county map of Cale donia County, a task which occupied him for two months in his seventeenth year. From the age of nineteen until the spring of 1861 he was his father s assistant in his extensive business. After the out break of the Rebellion he, with three of his brothers, became a soldier of the army of the Union. September 9, 1861, at the age of twenty-three, he enlisted as a private soldier, and as sisted in raising Company C, First Regiment, Vermont Cavalry; was sworn into the United States service October 3, 1861; was commissioned First Lieu tenant October 14, 1861, and Captain November 18, 1861; mustered Novem- ber 19, 1861, with the Field and Staff of the First Regiment, Vermont Cav alry, to serve for three years. He was commissioned Major December 30, 1862 and was mustered the same date. Through the recommendation of all the officers of his regiment he was commissioned Colonel June 4, 1864, and mustered July 2, 1864. He was appointed Brevet Brigadier-General of Volunteers February 22, 1865, and Brevet Major-General, "for gallant and meritorious service," March 13, 1865. In recognition of his brilliant services, and upon the recommenda tions of General Sheridan and General Custer, he was commissioned Brigadier-General May 19, 1865, having 200 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS received more promotions than any other Vermont officer during the war. He was placed in command of the Seventh Regiment, Michigan Cavalry, March 2, 1864, by order of General Judson Kilpatrick, while near Richmond, Virginia, on what is known as Kilpatrick s Raid, and continued in command of the regiment for several weeks. He was in command of his regiment from June 4, 1864, as Major on Wilson s raid south of Richmond. He was in command of this regiment from date of muster as Colonel until September 19, 1864, at which date he assumed command of the Second Brigade, Third Divi sion Cavalry Corps, Army of the Potomac. He com manded this brigade at the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia, at Appomattox, Virginia, April 9, 1865, and until May 22, 1865, when he assumed com mand of the Third Cavalry Division. From September 19, 1864, to April 9, 1865, he was several times in command of the Third Cavalry Division. The de parture of Sheridan and Custer for Texas left him as the ranking officer of the cavalry corps, which he com manded from June 1 to June 24, 1865. He was the last commander of General Sheridan s Corps. He was in command of the First Separate Brigade, Twenty- second Army Corps, from June 24, 1865, to July 24, 1865. He was mustered out of the service January 15, 1866, by General Order 168, War Department, Wash ington, D. C., dated December 28, 1865. He distinguished himself repeatedly in action. He was in the thickest of the fight at Orange Court House, Virginia, August 2, 1862, and commanded the Second Battalion, First Vermont Cavalry, in the repulse of 201 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS Stuart s Cavalry at Hanover, Pennsylvania, June 30, 1863. In the famous and desperate cavalry charge on Round Top, Gettysburg, July 3, 1863, he com manded the leading battalion, rode by the side of General Farnsworth, the brigade commander, and, al most by miracle, came out unharmed, while his com mander fell in the midst of the enemy s infantry. This charge penetrated the enemy s lines for about three quarters of a mile. A few days later, in the savage cavalry melee at Boonsboro, Maryland, he was wounded by a sabre cut. At Culpeper Court House, Virginia, September 13, 1863, he charged the enemy s artillery with his regiment and captured a gun, and was again wounded by a shell. He was a prisoner of war in Libby Prison, Richmond, Virginia, from March 17, 1863, to about May 6, 1863. He commanded a battalion in Sheridan s Cavalry Corps at the battle of Yellow Tavern, Virginia, May 11, 1864, in which General Stuart, the greatest Con federate cavalry general, was killed. In the cavalry fight at Tom s Brook, Virginia, October 9, 1864, General Wells commanded a brigade of Custer s Di vision; and at Cedar Creek, October 19, 1864, his brigade took a foremost part in turning the rout of the morning into a decisive victory at nightfall, cap turing forty-five of the forty-eight pieces of artillery taken from Early s fleeing army, the First Vermont capturing twenty-three of these, the heaviest capture ever made by one regiment in the war. Major W 7 ells served under Generals Kilpatrick, Sheridan, and Cus- ter, and was with Kilpatrick in his famous raid on Richmond, and with General Wilson in his daring WILLIAM WELLS, 1859 CAPTAIN WILLIAM WELLS, November, 1861 BRIGADIER-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS, 1865 MAJOR WILLIAM WELLS, 1862 COLONEL WILLIAM WELLS, 1864 BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS, 1865 GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS, 1874 MAJOR WELLS AND ASSISTANT SURGEON EDSON, 1862 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS foray to the south of that city. At Appomattox, on the morning of the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia, his brigade had started on its last charge and was stopped by General Custer in person. At the grand review of the Army of the Potomac in Washington City, May 22, 1865, he commanded the Second Brigade of Custer s Division of the Cavalry Corps, which led the advance. A medal of honor was awarded General Wells by Congress "for distinguished gallantry at the battle of Gettysburg, July 3, 1863." During his services with the First Regiment Cavalry he took part in the following battles and skirmishes: Middletown, Winchester, Luray Court House, Cul- peper Court House, Orange Court House, Kelley s Ford, Waterloo Bridge, Bull Run, Warrenton, Hanover, Hunterstown, Gettysburg, Monterey, Leitersville, Ha- gerstown, Boonsboro, Hagerstown, Falling Waters, Port Conway, Port Conway, Culpeper Court House, Somer- ville Ford, Raccoon Ford, James City, Brandy Sta tion, Gainesville, Buckland Mills, Falmouth, Morton s Ford, Mechanics ville, Piping Tree, Craig s Meet ing House, Spottsylvania, Yellow Tavern, Meadow Bridge, Hanover Court House, Ashland, Hawe s Shop, Bottom Bridge, White Oak Swamp, Riddle s Shop, Mal- vern Hill, Ream s Station, Nottoway Court House, Roanoke Station, Stony Creek, Ream s Station, Winchester, Summit Point, Charlestown, W. Va., Kearneysville, and Opequan or Winchester. As Brigade and Division Commander he participated in the following battles and skirmishes: Opequan, Front Royal, Gooney Manor Grade, Milford, Waynes- boro, Columbia Furnace, Toms Brook, Cedar Creek, 205 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS Cedar Creek, Middle Road, Middle and Back Road or Middletown, Lacey s Springs, Waynesboro, Five Forks, Scott s Corners, Namozine Creek, Winticomack, Appomattox Station and Appomattox Court House. His military career may be summarized by saying that he participated in seventy cavalry engagements, in eighteen of which he led a brigade or division, and his service in the field was continuous from the date of his muster-in until the close of the war. January 15, 1866, he was honorably mustered out of the United States service, having been held in useful service for eight months after the war ended, a fine testimonial to his soldierly ability. The official record speaks for itself, and General Wells s military career throughout four years and a half in the War of the Rebellion evinces the highest personal qualities of a cavalry commander, combining coolness, promptness, and daring intrepidity with most thoughtful consideration for his men. General Wells was married, January 18, 1866, to Miss Arahanna Richardson, who was born July 20, 1845, in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. To them were born two children, Frank Richardson and Bertha Richardson. Frank Richardson Wells was born, Feb ruary 1, 1871, in Burlington, Vermont, and was mar ried, in California, November 7, 1900, to Miss Jean Mary Hush, of Oakland, California. Bertha Richard son Wells was born April 23, 1873, and was mar ried in Burlington, Vermont, July 6, 1899, to Dr. Horatio Nelson Jackson, of Burlington, Vermont. Mrs. Wells died suddenly in Burlington, Vermont, June 12, 1905. Soon after General Wells s return to civil life he 206 MRS. WILLIAM WELLS (Arahanna Richardson), 1850 MRS. WILLIAM WELLS (Arahanna Richardson), 1861 MRS. WILLIAM WELLS (Arahanna Richardson), 1860 MRS. WILLIAM WELLS (Arahanna Richardson), 1862 MRS. WILLIAM WELLS (Arahanna Richardson), 1899 MRS. WILLIAM WELLS (Arahanna Richardson), 1899 MRS. WILLIAM WELLS (Arahanna Richardson), 1862 MRS. W T ILLIAM WELLS (Arahanna Richardson), 1882 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS became a partner in a firm of wholesale druggists at Waterbury. In 1868 they transferred this business to Burlington, which was thereafter his residence. He represented the town of W T aterbury in the Legislature of 1865-66, being chairman of the military committee and an influential legislator. In 1866 he was elected Adjutant-General of Vermont, and held the office until 1872, when he was appointed Collector of Cus toms for the District of Vermont, a position which he ft, RESIDENCE OF GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS, 1877 filled with efficiency and credit for thirteen years. The Burlington Free Press of that year, in speaking of his appointment as Collector of Customs, said: "For sev eral years past General W r ells has been a resident of this city, Burlington, and a member of the firm of Henry & Co., wholesale drug merchants. His personal standing is high, as a man of integrity, good sense, correct habits, and unblemished character, and his 209 IN AFFECTIONATE MEMORY OF appointment will be generally accepted throughout the State as one eminently fit to be made. : At the end of that time he resumed his active connection with the business house known the world over as the Wells & Richardson Company. In 1886 he was State Senator from the county of Chittenden. He was active in veteran soldiers soci- ties, was one of the presidents of the Reunion Society of Vermont Officers, and president of the Society of the First Vermont Cavalry. He was one of the trustees, and first president of the Vermont Sol diers Home, and was a member of the Gettysburg Commission in 1889-90. He was the first commander of the Vermont Commandery of the Loyal Legion, and would have been re-elected had he lived until the coming annual meeting of the Commandery. He was a member of Stannard Post No. 2, G. A. R., Depart ment of Vermont, and would have been made depart ment commander had he been willing to accept the election. He was a member of the Vermont Society of Sons of the American Revolution. General Wells was identified with many important business enterprises in the city, being president of the Burlington Trust Company, president of the Burling ton Gas-Light Company, president of the Burlington Board of Trade, director in the Burlington Cold Storage Company, director in the Rutland Railroad Company, and director in the Champlain Transportation Com pany. He was a member and a vestryman of Saint Paul s Church, was one of the trustees of the Young Men s Christian Association of Burlington, and one of its liberal supporters. Few men touched the life of the 210 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS community in which he lived in so many important capacities. His sudden death from angina pectoris, in New York City, April 29, 1892, removed,while in the prime of life, a most genial, courteous, and kind-hearted man, a gallant soldier, and one of the most respected citizens of the Green Mountain State. He was buried in Lake View Cemetery, at Burlington, Vermont, where a large granite boulder marks his last resting place. General Sheridan, in speaking of General Wells, said, "He was my ideal of a cavalry officer." MEDALLIOX PORTRAIT OF MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS IN STATE CAPITOL AT MONTPELIER, VERMONT, DEDICATED OCTOBER 5, 1910 DEDICATION OF THE STATUE TO BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS AT BATTERY PARK, BURLINGTON, VERMONT MAY 30, 1914 STATUE OF MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS AT BATTERY PARK, BURLINGTON, VERMONT, DEDICATED MAY 30, 1914 JOINT RESOLUTION RELATING TO MEDAL LION PORTRAIT OF MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives: That the governor be, and is hereby, authorized to procure and place in the State capitol a bronze tablet with medallion portrait of Brigadier and Brevet Major- General William Wells, who enlisted from Waterbury, Vermont, as a private soldier in Company C, Eirst Regiment Vermont Cavalry, September 9, 1861, and W 7 as sworn into the State service in said Company October 3, 1861, at the age of twenty -three years; commissioned first lieutenant October 14, 1861; cap tain, November 18, 1861; mustered into the United States service to serve for three years, or during the war, November 19, 1861; promoted major October 30, 1862; colonel, June 4, 1864; appointed brevet brigadier- general of Volunteers February 22, 1865, and brevet major-general of Volunteers March 30, 1865, both for gallant and meritorious conduct in the field; appointed bridadier-general of Volunteers May 19, 1865. Mus tered out of the United States service January 15, 1866. (A detailed account of General W T ells service, cover ing a period of almost four and a half years, may be found on page 749 of the "Revised Roster of Vermont Volunteers in the War of the Rebellion.") His command participated in seventy-six battles and skirmishes, in all of which he was present except when a prisoner of war or absent and wounded. General Wells distinguished himself on many occa sions, but especially while leading his battalion in the heroic charge against Confederate infantry on Round 217 IN AFFECTIONATE MEMORY OF Top, Gettysburg, July 3, 1863, for which he received the Congressional medal of honor. He also won dis tinction in the charge of his brigade at Cedar Creek, Virginia, October 19, 1864, when they captured one hundred and sixty -one prisoners, including one general, one colonel, one lieutenant-colonel, three battle flags, twenty-three pieces of artillery, fourteen caissons, twenty -three \vagons, one hundred and fifty-eight sets of harness, ninety -eight horses and sixty-eight mules, this being the largest capture on record of any regi ment in the war for the Union. Finally, at Appomat- tox, Virginia, April 9, 1865, when his command was attacked by Lee s army shortly before his surrender he bore the brunt of the assault until the infantry formation was completed, and which resulted in the surrender of the army of Northern Virginia. No cavalry officer stood higher with General Sheri dan or General Custer than did General Wells, who was a born cavalry leader with a wonderful war record, whose gallant, distinguished, and patriotic services re flect lasting honor upon the State of Vermont. Resolved, That the State auditor is hereby directed to draw his order on the State treasurer in favor of the governor for any monies expended or required to be expended in complying with the foregoing directions in respect of the tablet in question. THOMAS C. CHENEY, Speaker of the House of Representatives. JOHN A. MEAD, President of the Senate. Approved December 2, 1908. GEORGE H. PROUTY, Governor. 218 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS As Burlington was so long the home of General Wells, it is but fitting that Battery Park, one of its most historic places, overlooking Lake Champlain and within a short distance of the Old Fair Grounds, which was the rendezvous of the First Vermont Cavalry and many other regiments from this State before leaving for the war, should be the site of a monument to his valor and that of the regiment he so nobly commanded, and in this memorial is signalized not only the true patriotism of those defenders of our flag, but an act of filial devotion on the part of the donor, Frank Richard son Wells, the only son of General Wells, it being a gift from him to the city of Burlington in honor of his father and of the First Regiment Vermont Cavalry. The base of the monument is of Barre granite, eight feet square at the bottom and seven feet three inches in height. On the front is a bronze tablet giving the record of General W 7 ells, and on the reverse, facing in the direction of the Old Fair Ground, is the bas-relief, depicting the charge made at Gettysburg. Surmount ing the whole is a bronze statue of General Wells, a reproduction of the one erected by the State upon the battlefield of Gettysburg, July 3, 1913. Under a cloudless sky, and amid a large gathering of friends, veterans, representative citizens, members of various patriotic organizations, the Second United States Cavalry, detachment of the Vermont National Guard, Students Battalion of the University of Ver mont, and the Boy Scouts, its unveiling and dedication to the city took place May 30, 1914, the occasion being a noteworthy feature of Memorial Day. The exercises opened with the sounding of "assembly" by George D. IN AFFECTIONATE MEMORY OF Sherman, of Company II, Ninth Vermont, followed by a formal salute to the dead by the veterans of Stannard Post and prayer by the Rev. John E. Goodrich, chap- lian of the First Vermont Cavalry. While the band played "The Star Spangled Banner" the statue was unveiled by Mrs. James W. Brock, sister, and Mrs. H. Nelson Jackson, daughter, of General Wells, assisted by his two surviving brothers, Mr. Charles Wells and Mr. Frederick H. Wells, and his son-in-law, Dr. H. Nelson Jackson, the members of the First Vermont Cavalry acting as escort. It was an impressive sight as the heroic bronze figure was revealed, with the gray -haired veterans of the First Vermont Cavalry grouped around the base and the members of the Wells family and Dr. P. O M. Edson, the assistant surgeon of the regiment, in the foreground, and the cheers that arose from the surrounding audience testified to their admiration and appreciation of both the beautiful and the patriotic. Mr. Wells then formally presented to Mayor James E. Burke, as the city s representative, the deed trans ferring the title of the monument to the people of Burlington, and said: "Mr. Commander, your honor the mayor, my father s comrades, and friends: For years it had been my mother s wish and mine to have a statue of my father in Burlington, and now that that wish has come true I am indeed happy. "The First Vermont Cavalry is a regiment whose record has never been surpassed. General Sheridan told a friend of mine that when, as commander of the cavalry corps, he needed a regiment on whose valor, MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS fidelity, and stubborn fighting he could always rely, he called for the First Vermont Cavalry. "It gives me great pleasure, therefore, to honor the First Vermont Cavalry by placing on this pedestal the bas-relief of the charge which father led at Gettysburg; and it is my hope that this statue and bas-relief may remind future generations that Vermont raised men who dared do even more desperate deeds than that famous charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava. "It is a great pleasure to present you, the mayor of the city of Burlington, this deed of gift." In behalf of the city Mayor Burke accepted the gift, and thanked the donor for his generosity and the spirit which prompted the erection of so lasting and appropriate a tribute to one of Vermont s most gallant commanders in the war for the Union and the men who followed him. After music by the Second United States Cavalry band, the exercises were continued by Stannard Post, G. A. R., with the address of the day by Rev. I. C. Smart, D. D., of Burlington, and closed with the sing ing of "America," the benediction, and the sounding of "Taps." Whereas, Frank Richardson Wells, the son of Major- General William Wells, has placed upon the monu ment erected in honor of his father in Battery Park, Burlington, a bronze relief panel depicting the des perate charge made by the First Regiment Vermont Cavalry and its gallant Commander, the said General Wells, at Gettysburg on the afternoon of July 3, 1863; therefore, be it 221 IN AFFECTIONATE MEMORY OF Resolved, That we, the members of the Regiment here assembled, do most deeply appreciate the honor conferred upon us by Mr. Wells in thus perpetuating the memory of our distinguished Commander and of the First Vermont Cavalry. Resolved, That is this beautiful monument, standing near the earthworks and cannon commemorative of the War of 1812, and near the Old Fair Ground, where the Regiment rendezvoused before it left Vermont for front on the 14th of December, 1861, the youth of our city and State will have a lasting object lesson in true patriotism, unflinching courage, and soldierly obedience, and a memorial of the valor of those sons of Vermont, who on that day paid to their country the uttermost tribute of devotion. Resolved, That a copy of these Resolutions be given to Mr. Frank Richardson Wells, to the First Vermont Cavalry Regimental Association, and to the press. Passed by the survivors of the First Regiment Vermont Cavalry at Burlington, Vermont, May 30, 1914. Whereas, Frank Richardson Wells, a Companion of the Vermont Commandery, Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, has given to the city of Burlington a replica of the monument erected July 3, 1913, by the State of Vermont on the battle field of Gettysburg in honor of his distinguished father, Major-General William Wells, and of the First Regi ment Vermont Cavalry; therefore, be it Resolved, That we, Companions of the Vermont Com mandery, put on record our deep appreciation of this 222 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS generous act of our Companion in thus perpetuating the memory of one who was a charter member and its first Commander: Resolved, That we regard this memorial as a fitting tribute to the valor of one of Vermont s most gallant officers and to the bravery of a regiment which partici pated in seventy-six battles and combats, and won for itself a record second to none in the armies of the Union : Resolved, That we regard this monument as a per petual educator in true patriotism, destined to teach successive generations of our youth more fervently to love and more faithfully to serve their country: Resolved, That these Resolutions be spread upon the records of this Commandery, and a copy sent to Mr. Wells and to the press. Passed by the Vermont Commandery, Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, at its annual meeting, May 12, 1914, held in Burlington, Vermont. Whereas, Frank Richardson Wells, a Companion of the Vermont Commandery, Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, and a member also of the Sons of Veterans, has given to the city of Bur lington a replica of the monument erected July 3, 1913, by the State of Vermont on the battlefield of Gettys burg in honor of his distinguished father, Major- General William Wells, and of the First Regiment Vermont Cavalry; therefore, be it Resolved, That we, Comrades of Stannard Post No. 2, Grand Army of the Republic, put on record our deep IN AFFECTIONATE MEMORY OF appreciation of this generous act of our townsman in thus perpetuating the memory of one who was a brave soldier and a successful general: Resolved, That we regard this memorial as a fitting tribute to the valor of one of Vermont s most gallant officers and to the bravery of a regiment which partici pated in seventy-six battles and combats, and won for itself a record second to none in the armies of the Union : Resolved, That we regard this monument as a per petual educator in true patriotism, destined to teach successive generations of our youth more fervently to love and more faithfully to serve their country: Resolved, That these Resolutions be spread upon the records of Stannard Post, and a copy sent to Mr. Wells and to the press. Passed by Stannard Post, G. A. R., at its meet ing, May 15, 1914. To ALL PERSONS TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, GREETING: Whereas, The undersigned, Frank R. Wells, of Bur lington, in the County of Chittenden and State of Vermont, on the 27th day of April, 1914, by a com munication in writing under that date addressed to the Mayor and Board of Aldermen of said city, did propose to erect and donate to said city a bronze statue of his late father, Brevet Major-General William Wells, to be placed upon a suitable pedestal of Barre granite, with tablets showing among other things the subject at the head of his command leading the First Vermont Cav alry charge at Gettysburg; and, 224 LOT OF GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS, LAKE VIEW CEMETKRY, TURLINGTON, VERMONT MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS Whereas, In said communication the undersigned in dicated that it was his desire to have said statue erected in Battery Park owing to the historic and military asso ciation connected with that site and the nearby "Old Fair Grounds," where the above-named cavalry was in 1861 mustered into service; and Whereas, The undersigned in said communication further proposed to erect said statue, pedestal, foun dation, and tablets, and grade the grounds about the same without expense to said city upon condition that said city shall from time to time keep the same in good repair and condition, and that said statue shall con tinue to occupy the site in Battery Park then chosen by said city and the undersigned ; and Whereas, Said city by resolution of the City Council, approved April 28, 1914, and recorded in volume 12, page 58, of the records of the Board of Aldermen, did accept said proposition and monument upon the terms stated in the aforesaid communication; and Whereas, Said Frank R. Wells has heretofore erected said statue in pursuance with the terms of said com munication and resolutions; and Whereas, Said city hath on its part undertaken, and doth by the acceptance of this deed of dedication undertake, to keep the same in good repair and condi tion, and that said statue shall continue to occupy the site whereon the same now stands. Now, therefore, Be it known that I, Frank R. Wells, in consideration of the aforesaid undertakings of the grantee and other good and valuable considerations, have dedicated, remised, released, and forever quit claimed, and do hereby dedicate, remise, release, and 225 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM WELLS forever quitclaim unto the city of Burlington aforesaid all right and title which I, the said Frank R. Wells, have in and to the aforesaid bronze statue of my late father, Brevet Major-General William W^ells, with the aforesaid tablets, pedestal, and foundation now stand ing in said Battery Park in said city. To Have and to Hold all my right and title in and to said statue, tablets, pedestal, and foundation to said city of Burlington, to its own proper use, benefit and behoof forever, subject, however, to the aforesaid stip ulations and conditions. In Witness Whereof, I hereunto set my hand and seal this 29th day of May, A. D. 1914. In Presence of (Signed) J. E. CUSHMAN, (Signed) (Signed) FLORENCE M. MOORE. FRANK R. W T ELLS STATE OF VERMONT, ) CHITTENDEN COUNTY, ) Personally appeared at Burlington, in said County, Frank R. W r ells, the signer and sealer of the above- written instrument, and acknowledged the same to be his free act and deed, this 29th day of May, A. D. 1914. Before me, (Signed) J. E. CUSHMAN, Master in Chancerv. 399987 -IY4-J3 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY