Hunt, Henry Jackson, 1819-1889 to William Sherman
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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC06415.02 Author/Creator: Hunt, Henry Jackson, 1819-1889 Place Written: Atlanta, Georgia Type: Manuscript Date: 25 February 1880 Pagination: 56 p. ; 35.7 x 21.6 cm. Order a Copy
Hunt's analysis of artillery at Gettysburg, written as part of his long, ongoing feud with Winfield Scott Hancock. The first part of the manuscript explains and defends the organization artillery and the post of Commander in Chief of the Artillery. Hunt quotes Hancock's letters and responds at great length, mapping out the role of the artillery in battles prior to Gettysburg, pointing out weaknesses in the lack of centralized command. He notes why batteries were placed in certain positions, why they fired and did not fire at certain times during the battle, etc.
In an earlier letter to the Senate Committee on Military Affairs, Hunt had discussed Hancock's confusion at Gettysburg over artillery command authority. When Hancock learned of the letter, he took it as a personal attack, and wrote a rebuttal, critical of Hunt's actions during the battle, to William T. Sherman, then general of the Army. Sherman forwarded Hancock's letter to Secretary of War Robert Todd Lincoln; it was eventually published by the Senate. When Hunt sent this lengthy counter-rebuttal, however, Sherman did not forward it through normal channels, but instead had it filed in the military archives (per Thomas A. Desjardins, These Honored Dead, p.51). As a result, it was never published by the Senate.
Selected excerpts:
"…at the time of the battle of Gettysburg and for several months previous under the immediate predecessor of General Meade, 'common sense,' had run riot in the Army of the Potomac, and was rapidly dislocating the machine" (p.13). Additional excerpts available.
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