Defeating Lee: A History of the Second Corps, Army of the Potomac

8 Memories The Postwar Era

227 8 Memories T h e Post wa r Er a Soldiers of the Second Corps demonstrated a strong desire to record their stories even before the guns had fallen silent around Appomattox Court House. As early as the winter of 1864, soldiers of the 57th New York eagerly snapped up a history of their regiment published in a local newspaper. Lieutenant Cornelius Moore believed that the men were almost as excited about obtaining a copy of the history “as they would their discharge.” That fall, veterans of the 15th Massachusetts formed a regimental association only weeks after they had mustered out. The purpose of the organization was to “keep alive the good feeling which always existed among its members while comrades-in-arms.” Attendees made toasts and listened to speeches while dining on oysters, beef, chicken,andpartridge.Onlylateeveningbroughtanendtotheceremonies . Participants agreed to meet the next year and beyond, pledging, “Hereafter it will delight us to remember.”1 Writing the History of the Second Corps Other veterans were nearly as quick to record their stories, and their wide focus initially threatened to overshadow the memory of the Second Corps. By the late 1860s and early 1870s, former soldiers were reminiscing about their military careers. The eagerness to tell about the war suggests that many of these men did not undergo a period of “hibernation ,” where otherwise hard memories softened. Yet, in the glow of Union victory, Hancock’s former soldiers focused mostly on comradeship and remembrance.2 Veterans of the 14th Connecticut met “for the purpose of perpetuating reminiscences of the past.” Those attending a 228 defeating lee reunion of the 108th New York pledged to “perpetuate the friendly feeling and aid that so closely allied them in the field.” Amid the convivial atmosphere,veteransexpresseddeterminationthattheircomradeswho had been killed in battle and died of disease and wounds would not slip forgotten into the mists of time. They exalted their dead as “heroes” and “martyrs” whose “figures loom up grandly in our memories.” One speaker declared that the dead were dead only in body. “Forgotten! no!” he exclaimed, “for at the mere mention of our dead comrades, lo! they areherewithusagain.”Thoseresurrectedinmemorydidnotform“dim andghostlyprocession,”butimages“sovividandlife-likethatwealmost reachforwardtograspinourowntheirembrownedandsturdyhands.”3 Some Second Corps veterans had even broader ambitions in remembering the war. Thomas Murphey published his history of the 1st Delaware in 1866. A chaplain in the regiment, Murphey attempted to impart moral lessons as much as to trace the unit’s history. Those soldiers who kept their faith in God often survived the war unscathed. And when a Godly man fell, it was because “he had done and suffered all that was appointed for him here.” Disbelievers who flaunted the Ten Commandments, most commonly by “taking the name of God in vain,” often met a grisly end. “Judgment may be slow,” Murphey warned, “but it is sure to follow the guilty.” The next year, David Power Conyngham published The Irish Brigade and Its Campaigns. Conyngham had served in late 1862 and early 1863 as an aide to Thomas Meagher, the brigade’s commander. Now, in the postwar era, he hoped to bring recognitiontothesacrificesmadebyIrishsoldiersinpreservingtheUnion . Conyngham described the Irish soldier as a “patriot” who went to war toprotectthe“safetyandwelfareofhisadoptedcountryanditsglorious Constitution.” The willingness of ethnic soldiers to fight and die for the Union merited “stronger claim to the protection and gratitude of the American nation.”4 CharlesMorganworriedwhetherthememorieswerebecomingtoo diffuse, and in the late 1860s, he began to chronicle the Second Corps and its doings. Morgan had a good vantage point to write from, having servedastheinspectorgeneralandchiefofstaffoftheSecondCorps.He also had precedent to draw upon, with surgeon George Stevens of the 77th New York publishing a history of the Sixth Corps in 1866. Stevens Memories 229 claimed that throughout his writings he had “endeavored without partiality to give the story of the Corps.” The attempt proved difficult, because Stevens wrote the narrative largely based upon his own wartime notes. Readers were through nearly one-third of the book before Stevens shifted from detailing the career of his regiment and division to discussing the creation of the Sixth Corps.5 Morgan initially made some headway before finding the obstacles too many to overcome. Most difficult, as an officer in the postwar army, Morgan felt it a breach of professionalism to speak his mind “on some pointsasIwouldliketo.”HeespeciallydisapprovedofGeneralMeade’s failure to reinforce the Second Corps during the Battle of Ream’s Stationinthelatesummerof1864 .Butevenifcomfortableofferingopinion freely, Morgan believed that the history of the...