Successful, crediting him with several key decisions and maneuvers that played a major role in the union victory. The Gettysburg Heritage Center is the host of this 40 minute discussion. Tammy welcome. My name is tammy myers. And i am the president here at the Gettysburg Heritage Center. For those of you not familiar with the Gettysburg Heritage Center, we are an interactive museum. We value education, community, and preservation. Based upon our value system, we have developed a museum that is a collaborative effort with the adams county historical society, civil war trust, land conservancy of adams county, and Evergreen Cemetery association and center for civil war photography. We officially opened in may of 2015, and we count the battle of gettysburg story from a new perspective, one that focuses on both the military aspects as well as the civilian perspective. Beyond the museum, we do offer additional programming focus to for both the general consumer and the scholar. In addition to book talks such as today, you can experience our living history programs every weekend. And we have a saturday spotlight series where we have Educational Programs in the evenings. When you are in gettysburg, be sure to visit us. We are open seven days a week. Or visit us online at gettysburgmuseum. Com. We do offer shipping. So now i will move on to introduce our first speaker today. His name is paul e. Bretzger. Paul received the 1987 history award for outstanding senior thesis at Stockton State College now Stockton University in new jersey. He later spent years researching and writing his book, observing hancock at gettysburg, which mcfarland published in 2016. He now teaches in new jersey. His latest article, the hancock controversy, is now available in a newly released july issue of the gettysburg magazine. Introductionurther i present to you Paul Bretzger. ,Paul Bretzger thank you. Ok thank you very much, ms. , myers. It is my pleasure to be here. I assume everyone who needs to hear me can hear me well enough right now. Well, i have nothing to correct in what ms. Myers said. That was very accurate, very well pronounced. Lets get right to it. My book is about hancock at gettysburg, and since we are relatively limited, because i can talk about this forever basically, i can talk about it for 30 hours we are limited to a little over 30 minutes. So i am going to focus on hancock at gettysburg on the first day of battle. Here at gettysburg. But first, a little bit, some very brief background to talk about who is general Winfield Scott hancock or who was general Winfield Scott hancock. Well he was born an identical , twin with his brother hillary in 1824, february 14, at Montgomery Square pennsylvania. But the two boys ended up growing up essentially in norristown, pennsylvania, where they relocated to at a very young age. He was admitted to west point on july 1, frankly of 1840. ,and that would be, as it turns out, 23 years to the day before he rode onto the battlefield at gettysburg as a Major General. Ok . Now it may not have seemed like he would someday become a Major General based on the fact that excuse me based on the fact that he was 18th in a class of 25, the class of 1844, u. S. Military academy. But he was well respected and well liked despite mediocre grades. He joined the mexican war after lobbying very hard for it over approximately a years time in july 1847. After the mexican war, he met all my rep. Russell he met elmira russell in st. Louis and they were married on january 24, 1850. Elmiran october 1850, gave birth to their son russell , and in 1857 to their daughter ada. Now hancock in the civil war, when the civil war broke out, he was not a general then. I believe captain hancock was in los angeles, which was more than just a threehour flight away from the eastern theater. So he did not get actively involved in the civil war until the Peninsula Campaign the following spring, spring of 1862. And that is where he won renown, at the battle of williamsburg, the williamsburg battle early in the Peninsula Campaign. I believe general mcclellan referred to him as hancock the because of superb the job he did, and the name stuck. Hancock the superb. Later in 1862, he replaced the mortally wounded general israel richardson, commanding a division, at antietam. He took that division into battle in the futile series of charges that took place at fredericksburg that december, 1862. And later, about two months before gettysburg was the battle of chancellorsville, where his division carried out a what was , considered a brilliant rearguard action, helping the army get away to safety at the battle of chancellorsville. So come june 10, about 21 days before the battle of gettysburg, he becomes commander of the second corps. So that is june 10. Only in command of the second corps for about three weeks when the battle starts on july 1. What made hancock superb . Well i like to break it down , into three things. Excuse me, i keep pressing the wrong button. I like to break it down into four things, three of which were most important during the first days engagement. Tactical facility, a fast eye, all right, an ability to read a battlefield instantly, which the french would say, which i am probably going to all butcher, but literally translated as the ira cut of the a coupa cut of the eye, doeil. A fast eye. He was a good tactician in that way. Not as important on the first day, but important the next two days was his tenacious discipline. Ok, he was a disciplinarian. Very decisive guy, a very confident man. When he made a decision, when he took sides in a controversy, he stuck with it. And he could it wasnt just a matter of being stubborn. You really believed, he really believed he really , believed it. He had confidence in his decisions. This helped him deliver orders very emphatically. He did not hesitate. He did not waffle. He did not he did not mince , words. When he made an order, it was clear what the person he was ordering was supposed to do. And they tended to do it. This is also related to his charisma. Now some people called him the most handsome man in the army of the potomac, so surely he was goodlooking to substantial degree. He had great posture. He was 62. He always dressed very cleanly and very well organized. And apparently in combat, he was , you know, he was magnetic. You could recognize him from afar. He had a booming voice and frankly was, speaking of his voice, he quite profane in battle which seemed to be effective for him. And in the Social Circle, however, he was properly courteous, generous, and genial. So he was popular both among his Social Circle and as a combat commander. Ok, so that brings us to july 1. What is going on on july 1 . Well, the confederates are north of gettysburg. In the process of concentrating, lee would prefer them to concentrate around cash town. Now this diagram here is not a historical, is not a diagram of a historical actuality. It is for the confederates. It is not for the union army. This was meades plan. This was the socalled pipe lee intended at least tentatively to use. To the south and southeast were baltimore and washington, which were the two main points that meade, commanding the army of the potomac, was supposed to cover, and probably not long after midnight on july 1, the wee hours of july 1, he and his come upith staff with this plan to organize the army around pipe creek and await attack from lee. So that is the tentative plan when hancock rides up to tiny tony town with his corps, about 12 miles south of gettysburg, and meets meade in the late morning. And meade tells them about the pipe creek plan. And they discuss various matters and then adjourn. And i believe at the time they did know the first corps had been engaged in some way outside of gettysburg. But they definitelyand i know ar the meeting, probably minutes after their meeting finishes, meade gets word that general reynolds, commanding the first corps, which has begun an engagement with the army of northern virginia, he learns that the commander reynolds has been either killed or taken out, unable to perform. He at that point says to hancock, he goes to hancocks tent and tells him, i want you to go to the field at gettysburg and take command. , the firstth corps reynolds, and the 11th core was general howard was also there. Howard by rank assumed command when reynolds was killed. So he is leading the 11th corps. There is also the first corps and beaufords cavalry outside of gettysburg. Hancocks jobs it to go up there and relieve howard of command and take the hill. There is an irregularity in that. Hancock isdes junior in rank to general howard, not by much. I believe they became Major Generals on the same day, which makes them equal. But i believe that howard became a Brigadier General before hancock, making him in that sort of tiebreaker, making him hancocks senior. By the way, this picture, this deal gallon image, shows the two men, hancock and meade, at gettysburg. Ok, so im not saying this illustration intends to illustrate them at taneytown. It is just a nice image of the two meeting at taneytown, not gettysburg, for accuracy there. Here is a diagram that intends to be accurate for july 1. We have the confederates attempting to concentrate west of gettysburg. And we have the union scattered itself not very far from gettysburg. But what happens is, by the end of the day, only the first corps, which was already fighting, and the 11th corps would reach the battlefield that day to take part in the battle. While roughly the entire Confederate Army, or almost the entire Confederate Army gets there first. So the confederates get there as some would say, the firstus with , as one likes to do in a meeting engagement like this. On the right they outflank general barlow, and on the left they overpower general doubleday and gain a very thorough victory, pushing all the union units. They would be from the first and 11th corps, back into town, a very small town not much more inhabitants. 00 now you are talking about 20,000 or so union troops retreating into town and out through south of town, coming up cemetary hill. So this defeat occurs while hancock is en route to gettysburg. First hancock gets get close to gettysburg, you might say the first order hancock made at gettysburg, he finds wagons on the taneytown gettysburg road, and he orders them back he orders them south, to get out of the way in case , a retreat is needed. So he is acting like a commander of the field even before he gets there. The i have putn , some circles around the main players here in this nice amity ofion by troy what it may have looked like at the Evergreen Cemetery gate when hancock arrives. He is there in the Center Circle appearing to give orders to general doubleday, who was the first Corps Division commander, and there is general howard who seems to be sulking, seems to be unhappy about something. The fact is no one is precisely sure what happened when hancock arrived on the field. He was supposed to tell howard of course that he was taking and one assumes that he did so. However there are, there are various there is a spectrum of opinions. It is a controversy, the hancockhoward controversy. There is a spectrum of versions as to what happens when these two men met. Howard, who was in command of the field, and and hancock who came to take over under orders of general meade. On the one hand you have hancocks version of events, which is he simply rode up, found howard, told him he was taking command of the field, and howard acquiesced. On the other extreme, you might call it the howard camp, extreme, that hancock said meade sent me here to take command, and howard said, no, you cannot take command. I am your senior in rank. And then in between is the idea, also pushed by some people, that they knew how important it was to cooperate, and they split command one way or the other, one version being one guy take the right side of the baltimore pike, the other guy take the left side of the baltimore pike. Here is some flavor of what we are talking about. Avenel. Holstead, who claims to to have been the only one to have witnessed the initial conversation between hancock and howard when hancock arrived, he says that howard, when hancock told him, you know i am here to , take command, he said no. And hancock offered to show him the orders, and howard said simply, general hancock, i do not doubt your word, general hancock but you can give no , orders while i am here. Ok . Later, hancock himself in a later publication said simply that howard replied, when asked if he wanted to read the orders from meade, replied that he did not want to read the orders but acquiesced in my assumption of command. Guys go and really argue about this for the rest of their lives. A person who gives you an idea d of the middle ground version is howards younger brother howard, Charles Charles howard, who was , on general oliver otis howards staff. He is the one who says, or one of several people who says they split command, saying howard replied now was no time for talking, that he would be glad of hancocks cooperation, and suggested that he locate the troops south of the pike, and that is the baltimore pike, and that howard would attend to the north side. Ok . So there is your three versions. Hancock assumes command is one. Howard stubbornly maintains command is another, and they split command is the third. Doubleday, present there later wrote several books, and in one of the books he wrote we have copy, we have the copy of hancocks writing in the margins of doubledays book, and in one of the books hein y says howard refused to accept hancocks assumption of authority and quite a scene occurred. Hancock scribbles in the margins, general howard may know made no objection. No scene occurred. You see how these two different really are notee going to relent. We do know that howard wrote a note to meade later in the day, saying, referring to the order to replace him in command saying, the above has mortified and will disgrace me. Howard is clearly upset about something. He is upset about being replaced by command in command, but he does not admit to it. Another version by howard, his official report published at the end of august that year, he says that actually howard actually hancock said general meade had sent him, on hearing of the state of affairs, that he had given him his instructions while under the impression that he was my senior. So this is a new version of howards of what happened. Meade did intend to replace me in command, but he was mistaken. He thought that howard that hancock was my senior. Hancock again it is initial report, very simple and clear, i arrived at gettysburg and assumed command. Now one last bit of the forth, the sort of courtroom argument, if you will. In 1876, howard publishes an article in the atlantic magazine 1876, sayingly that hancock said general meade has sent me to represent him on the field. Ok . There is no talk according to hancock according to howard in 1876, there is no talk about replacing him in command. It did not strike me then that hancock without troops was doing more than directing matters is a as a temporary chief of staff for meade. Ok . Now hancock seizes on this. He thinks, as he publishes an article a few months later in the galaxy, december 1876, he thinks he has a perry mason moment he has caught howard in , an inconsistency. That generalproves howard contradicts himself. In his report he admits that when i arrived on the field he knew that general meade 70 to to supersede him. In his article, it did not strike him that hancock without troops was doing more than directing matters as a temporary chief of staff for meade. If he stands by his report, he falls by his article. If he stands by his article, he falls by his report. So i think the facts are pretty pretty well on hancocks side. ,and he makes a good point here. But i am going to explain now why i dont think what transpired between them was particularly important. Here is what i mean. Hancock has this commanding transpired between them was presence. Hancock has a reputation. People know about him. People respect him. People want to want to follow , his orders. Wast was hancock who animated, who was dynamic, who is magnetic in appearing to the fleeing soldiers. Soonal laurent warren, to become the savior of Little Round Top says, i think hancocks personal appearance there did a great deal toward restoring order. Sydney cook of the 147th new york says, hancock almost let us to doubt whether there was cause for retreat at all. Ok, continuing, lieutenant of whittier and the knoll, whose knoll . Im sorry, that just slipped my mind. , stevens was commander of the battery but was replaced by whittier. I shall never forget the inspiration of his commanding, controlling presence and the fresh courage he imparted. Says whittier commanding what was often known as stephens battery. A follower or subordinate of eral cutler says cutler cutlers manner and action was simply the result of hancocks presence. We are really getting a sense that hancock got the attention and the obedience of the fleeing soldiers who stopped fleeing and took position. Carl shirts, a Division Commander in the 11th corps, second in command to howard, in the 11th corps, says his mere presence was a reinforcement, and everyone on the field felt stronger for his being there. All right, so this is howards secondincommand saying that. Conversely well, actually, let me continue this. Francis wiggin of the 16th maine mentions is the magnificent form of hancock, who was mounted on a charger. William switten of the New York Times said he had potent magnetism. This quality hancock possesses in a high degree and his appearance soon restored order out of seemingly hopeless confusion. Ok, so there is a lot of people i can go on, but i wont. I can go on about hancock being in control. People responding to hancock. He stops the retreat, he turns retreat into retrenchment. He turns flight into fight, and starts, and they start to settle the soldiers down into commanding positions on Cemetery Hill. Ok . Conversely, howard now i am not accusing howard of being a bad guy. He gave his he gave his arm in , the Peninsula Campaign. He is courageous. He is welltrained. He is thoughtful. He is a good guy but he does not , have the command presence, apparently, that hancock had. And that is no, that is not a really severe criticism, because not a lot of people did. Ok . Staffer, charles morgan, reports, general howard himself was apparently despond ondent and his brother major howard could not restrain his mortification at the behavior of the corps. Halsted, the guy who claims to be the only person who had witnessed their first meeting, says howard was near the cemetery gate and looked the picture of despair. And swinton now from the times, howard was inefficient officer, was an efficient officer, but rather of a negative nature. And referring to the confusion, says, he had not been able to quell the confusion on Cemetery Hill. And this is what i think is really damning. General beauford, division, calvary Division Commander who basically you could say started the battle of gettysburg, who was there from the opening shots in the morning west of town, by 3 20 in the afternoon writes a note to his boss, cavalry commander Alfred Pleasanton and says general reynolds was killed early this morning. In my opinion there seems to be no directing person. I think that is critical. There seems to be no directing person. We need help now. Ok, so he is saying we are getting into the late afternoon, he doesnt sense anybody is in command, even though officially howard was in command of the field upon hearing that reynolds was killed. Alright . So i think that is particularly damning coming from beauford. So, i believe that the debate over what was said, or who said what to whom, is essentially moot because people were responding to hancock. They were not responding to howard. I dont know if howard was despondent, that could be a little severe. But anyway, hancocks disposition. Hancock is the guy who populated culps hill. Howard had been there all day, but hancock when he shows up, he sees we have to worry about more than just Cemetery Hill where the soldiers are coming. We have got to worry about the right flank. And he sends wadsworths division of the first corps to culps hill. That is what i call his major disposition, sending soldiers to culps hill. And number three, he takes the battery, whichs i forgot his name, but it was stephens battery of the fifth maine, at that point under edward whittier, he places them on stephens knoll. That is an important disposition, because the east side of east Cemetery Hill is very steep. Now that is a good thing, it makes it tougher for the enemy to climb. But it makes it impossible for artillery to cover it. Artillery that is on the crest cannot shoot down. So hancock puts artillery next to or beside east Cemetery Hill, on what becomes known as stephens knoll. That is major disposition number three. Ok . And then his fourth disposition occurs when the 12th shows up in up in the fourth of eries division of the 12th corps. This is getting late. This is about one hour or so perhaps after hancock had arrived. But he sends your east division eries division of the 12th corps down to the northern slope, or the northern foot of slope, or the northern foot of Little Round Top. Which i think was impressive, because the battle had occurred north and west of town. And they were populating these strong positions on cemetery ridge, Cemetery Hill, and culps hill, but hancock has the tactical facility, the presence to think, little round we have got to do something about Little Round Top. It is an elevated piece of ground. And secondly, it will help alleviate the threat of lee trying to turn or flank the union left. Ok . And effectively, what hancock does is sketch out the framework for what becomes known as the unions fishhook line. If there is if they are going to gettysburg, they will will they will fill in between the positions that hancock has laid out. The famous fishhook will develop from hancocks dispositions. So he is effectively the architect of the fishhook line. Ok. I dont have too much more time, here, but i want to say a few more things. Oh. Hancocks, of course, his first order was to take command of the field. Secondly, however, he was to report to meade on what was going on there. Need meade wanted hancock to help him make a decision on whether to abandon the pipe creek plan and send everybody to gettysburg, or to stick with the pipe creek plan and withdraw from gettysburg. Hancock sends two messengers at different times. First his staffer charles morgan, then second, with a wgtten message, major mitchell. He sends them both down to meade, telling him the state of affairs at gettysburg. And does not take a stand. He does not say, yes, we should fight here. And he does not say the opposite, oh, we got to get out of here, this is no good. He says we are in a place that cannot will be taken. And i think we will be alright until night. He also says, we can retire. We can fight here, as the ground appears not unfavorable for good troops. So this is what he says to meade. And meade now has two versions himself of what was going on. He reports to the joint committee on the conduct of the war. The next year, not 2016 i do not know where that came from. 1863, excuse me. He says, excuse me, that was 1864. I received the report from hancock. Which caused me had once to determine to fight a battle at that point. That is what he says on march 5, 1864. Sorry about that incorrect piece there. A week later, on march 11, he testified to the committee, i therefore did not wait for general hancock. Ok it is possible he was feeling , pressure from the terrible trio of butterfield, sickles, and hooker, who were accusing him of being not just e orggressive unagressiv lacking aggressiveness but of , being cowardly. So he says in his second testimony, i sent people before i got word from hancock. So anyway, those again these are the two men at gettysburg. Not taneytown, but that essentially concludes my presentation on hancock on the first day of battle. Two points. First, that he was in command regardless of what transpired between howard and hancock. And second, that he disposed, distributed the troops in a very deft way. And i should say finally of course that he also communicated , with meade about the situation. So i will leave it at that. I think he was a very important guy on the first day, clearly. Thank you very much. [applause] Paul Bretzger if anybody has any questions, i will be glad to take them. I dont know if we have to get a microphone on them or anything. Anybody have any questions . Can you talk about why it was so important to howard that he would have been in command . Or that he would not have had Paul Bretzger i can, i think. Good question. The question was, why would it be so important to general howard that he be thought of, at least, as in command . He was having some reputation problems, especially after chancellorsville. He had some reputation problems i think you know since bull run. He had a terrible showing at chancellorsville. Stonewall jacksons famous flank march landed on howards corps, the 11th core, landed on his right flank in the woods. They snuck around Stonewall Jackson snuck around and attacked roughly at dusk and sent howards corps really. It was a stampede, and i think down people come sometimes people come down hard on howard, but i think it was a stampede. It was a rout, and so howard was still reeling from this, and he did not want then it to be known that he was then superseded in command by a junior. Ok . So i think he had this, i suppose, he had this on his mind when it came to, when it came to talking about who was in command at gettysburg. You know, reputation was everything in this era, especially to these guys. So he did not want he wanted to find a way to something to , counteract the fact that he had failed so badly at chancellorsville. Good question. Thank you. Are there any other questions . Ok. Well, i hope you have enjoyed it , and i thank you all very much. [applause] announcer 1 American History tv on cspan3 is in prime time. Monday night from the National Constitution center in philadelphia, discussions on Landmark Supreme Court cases including karma two versus United States and brown versus board of education. The lifestyle of buffalo bill cody. Wednesday night, the 60th anniversary of roe little rock central high schools integration with bill clinton. Thursday night, a lead up and response of the 1957 forced desegregation of the central high school. And from American History tvs moral history series, interviews with photojournalists who documented major events through American History. Watch American History tv this week in prime time on cspan3. The cspan bus is traveling across the country on our 50 capitals tour. We recently stopped in richmond, virginia, asking folks what is the most important issue in their state. Hello, i am a virginia resident, and i am concerned about the department of notronmental quality limiting the expansion of Natural Gas Pipelines through our state. 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