Reply of the Philadelphia Brigade Association to the Foolish and Absurd Narrative of Lieutenant Frank A. Haskell Part 4

LETTER FROM AN INTIMATE FRIEND OF LIEUTENANT HASKELL.

Philadelphia, Pa., Feb. 19, 1910.

"I am in receipt of your favor and note what you say about the extract from the book published by the Wisconsin History Commission relative to the description of the Battle of Gettysburg, by Col.

Haskell. It confirms what I stated in my letter to the "Public Ledger" in September last. My daughter, who resides in Milwaukee, has sent me a copy of the book that you mention. I knew Col. Haskell intimately and was confident from the intimation that I possessed that had Col. Haskell lived to see the end of the Civil War he would have modified his description of the battle, as compared to that shown in the publication made by the Loyal Legion of Ma.s.sachusetts.

Yours very truly, W. YATES SELLECK."

Mr. Selleck was the military agent at Was.h.i.+ngton for the State of Wisconsin. The remains of Col. Haskell were forwarded to Mr. Selleck, at Was.h.i.+ngton, D. C., who sent them by express, on June 7, 1864, to Haskell's mother, at Portage City, Wisconsin. In Mr. Selleck's letter to the "Public Ledger" of Philadelphia, under date of September 21, 1909, he said: "I was intimately acquainted with Haskell and had several conversations with him after the Battle of Gettysburg in regard to that battle, and I have good reason for stating that had Haskell lived until the close of the War the criticisms contained in his diary would not have been made public."

NOTE NO. 7.

THE CONCLUDING NOTE.

What amusing history makers the Companions of the Loyal Legion of Ma.s.sachusetts and the Comrades of the Wisconsin History Commission are.

The State of Wisconsin enacted a law creating a History Commission, and straightway it begins printing very costly books, which they claim to be "histories of great battles of the Civil War," one of which "histories"

the Governor of Wisconsin sententiously says: "Is what the author saw, OR THOUGHT HE SAW"; and because of its inaccuracy the chairman of that History Commission contemplated correcting by himself, "writing notes giving the more accurate view," but instead engaged a staff officer, who really saw what he thought he saw, to write a book correcting the inaccuracies that Chairman and Comrade Estabrook himself contemplated doing; and in the meantime the Secretary and Editor of the Commission "intends reprinting other rare Wisconsin Civil War material," regardless of the supremely ridiculous opinions or errors of facts of the authors, thereby continuing to hold the State of Wisconsin responsible for the ridicule and expense that attach to such so-called histories, one of which a distinguished officer of the Civil War pithily characterizes as "inaccurate, misleading, indecent, venomous, scandalous and vainglorious."

CAPT. EDWARD THOMPSON, 69th.

CAPT. JOHN D. ROGERS, 71st.

JOHN W. DAMPMAN, 71st.

THOS. H. EATON, 72d.

FRANK WEIBLE, 72d.

WM. H. NEILER, 106th.

JAMES THOMPSON, 106th.

Committee on Publication.