From the book
Forty-eighth Regiment New York State Volunteers
Prefatory Letter by Abraham J. Palmer
written in 1885
A PREFATORY LETTER
TO MY COMRADES:
The most gifted of modern women has written that, "If you would love a woman without ever looking back upon your love as a folly, she must die while you are courting her; and if you maintain the slightest belief in human heroism, you must never make a pilgrimage to see the hero."
I hope that in all your homes that double sarcasm is doubly contradicted. This book -- which is the poor record of your heroic deeds -- has been written chiefly that your children, who daily "see the hero," may know his history, and when they can no longer see you, that they may still possess the story of your most glorious years.
Three years ago, when I was requested to become the historian of the regiment, I consented conditionally that some one should be procured to write the historical sketch, while I would edit the book and see it through the press. For a while it seemed that we had succeeded in procuring the very services we needed from an officer who had been with the regiment through most of its career. But vexatious delays occurred, and finally, to our great disappointment, an entire miscarriage. Nothing remained but the abandonment of the enterprise -- which all lamented -- or my assuming the task. With great reluctance I therefore undertook it.
I had but little time to give to it, and moreover I felt myself disqualified by the subordinate position I had held in the regiment to write its history. "Privates" were not always informed of the real object of every movement, and the surmises of "the men" were doubtless often incorrect. Moreover, so many years had passed, the survivors of the regiment were so far scattered, and such meager data came in response to the repeated appeals, that the work has been difficult.
Certain rhetorical infelicities and amanuensis and written by dictation -- a mode of composition to which I was unaccustomed. However, I have cared less for that than for many omissions which have been unavoidable and which all will lament, and for certain inaccuracies which I fear have crept into the narrative despite the greatest care. Nevertheless it will not be safe to trust one's own memory even against this record. A prominent field-officer of the regiment read this history in manuscript, and noted twelve "inaccuracies," in every one of which he proved to be mistaken. Twenty years have made our memories less reliable than we think.
Great care has been taken with the "Roster and Record;" yet there are doubtless many errors, and to some may have come the sorriest fate of a soldier -- "to be killed in battle and have his name spelled wrong in the Gazette."
In the company sketches there is some disparity in the space given the several companies; that, however, is because the various contributors have not written equally extended narratives. This I greatly regret; but no partiality has been shown. I found it impossible to get sketches of four companies from former members of them, and was therefore compelled to call upon others to prepare them.
It was desired to have a picture of one of the companies in Fort Pulaski. The artist happened to send the negative of Company E. If the means had warranted it, the picture of all the companies would have been printed.
There is one thing that will be noticed, for which I ask especial consideration. I refer to the mention of certain personal friends (private soldiers like myself), when, as the narrative has progressed, circumstances have recalled them to my mind. I know that their rank in the regiment would not warrant this writing of their names while many who were their military superiors are unmentioned. But when I have been describing a scene chiefly memorable to me because of a personal friend in my own company who was there shot dead by my side, I could not forbear to write down his name in loving memory of it, although he was but a private soldier whom few will remember. It is not that I have designed to exalt the private soldier above his officer, nor my friends above the friends of others, nor to call especial attention to the company to which I happened to belong.
I have not wished to claim for the regiment more than its fair share of the glory of the battles in which it participated. I have sought to be generous and just to all; however, this book does not pretend to contain the history of any regiment except that of the Forty-eighth New York.
There is doubtless some disproportion in the accounts of the great battles in which we were engaged. The descriptions of the assaults on Morris Island and Fort Wagner are more extended than any others. Olustee and Cold Harbor were fought while I was absent in rebel prisons, and FOrt Fisher after the expiration of my term of service. Concerning them I have been compelled to rely upon the representation of others. That should be considered if those three great battles are not properly described; but it has always seemed to me that the career of the Forty-eighth Regiment reached, in some sense, its climax in the darkness on the banks of Fort Wagner; therefore the extended space which has been devoted to that battle.
The statement on page 183, of the extremely small number of men present with the regiment within Fort Fisher, will occasion surprise; yet it is based upon the authority of two reliable diaries, and it makes the prominent part taken by the regiment in the engagement consistent with its slight casualties. It will be noticed also that three weeks afterwards the regiment was greatly reinforced.
While this book has been passing through the press our illustrious commander, General ULYSSES S. GRANT, has fought his last battle, and put his last enemy where, long before, he had put all others, "underneath his feet." It is a noticeable fact that the U. S. Grant Post, G. A. R., of Brooklyn, to which a number of our comrades belong, should have had the distinguished honor of guarding his remains at Mount McGregor, Albany, New York. Comrades Brush, Corwin, Frankenburg, Mackellar, Powles, Raymond, and Whitson were among those detailed for that solemn and august duty.
The long delays in the publication of this history, which must have tried your patience, have been unavoidable. For the first two years they have already been explained; financial embarrassments will account for the last year. The MS. of this book has been ready for the printer for more than a year.
There are certain comrades and others to whom I wish to make especial acknowledgments of services which they have rendered to the history; first and chiefly to James A. Barrett and William J. Carlton; if their names recur frequently in the book, it is because they have been constantly active during its preparation. Major Barrett had been indefatigable in securing subscriptions and given much time to preparing the Roster and Record, besides conducting a large correspondence. Indeed without him this history would never have been published. Captain Carlton has also given much work to the Roster and Record, and has prepared the valuable tabulations at its close; he has procured the illustrations, and had the chief charge of printing and binding the book. His judgment and experience have been greatly relied on through the entire work. I acknowledge gratefully their gratuitous contributions of valuable time and labor that this undertaking might succeed.
George B. Staley has been the treasurer of the fund for the History, and his fidelity and care of the finances deserve a grateful recognition.
Captain D. C. Knowles has made most valuable contributions, as well as appear upon their perusal. The various officers of the Veteran Association have helped the good work on by active sympathy and counsel.
Many comrades have loaned their diaries and letters, and contributed items of interest, and others have generously advanced money to make the publication of this book possible.
Although the entire work has been done gratuitously, the cost of publishing this history has been nearly one thousand dollars. It is not supposed that the sales will more than meet the expenses. If, however, there should be a surplus, it will be turned into the treasury of the Veteran Association.
Among those who have helped by loans of money and large subscriptions are: Lieutenant-Colonel D. W. Strickland, Captain George W. Brush, Lieutenant R. F. Mackellar, Major Barrett, Quartermaster Avery, and Comrades Fletcher, Carlton, Doering, Holton, Hale, Knowles, Marten, Newman, Pugsley, Schultz, Stayley, Stoney, Shannon, Twamley, Tuttle, Wyckoff, and Mr. Benjamin Silliman of the Long Island Historical Society.
Among those who loaned diaries and other memoranda, I wish especially to mention Messrs. Acker, Conklin, Fagans, Frankenberg, Hibson, Cummings, Townsend, Thompson, Wohlfarth, Mrs. Luther B. Wyman, and Mr. Charles Cowley.
General Viele and Colonel Barton have aided with valuable suggestions. Senator George F. Hoar has kindly sent us a copy of the official list of casualties during the war. We are indebted to Henry W. Phillips for a loan of the History of the One Hundred and Fiftieth New York, and for a like favor to Lieutenant-Colonel Isiah Price, author of the History of the Ninety-seventh Pennsylvania, which has been especially valuable.
Acknowledgments also should be made to the publishers of Lossing's History of the Civil War, from which many of the illustrations are taken, and to Mr. H. P. Moore of Concord, N. H., who has given us the use of his negatives for the three pictures taken at Fort Pulaski.
The sister of Colonel Chan has furnished his portrait, and Colonel Barton his. Finally, to all the people who have wished us well and helped us as they were able, we gladly make acknowledgments.
And now this book, which has been to me a labor of love for the past three years, -- in writing which I have lived over again many of the experiences herein described, -- I send forth to the limited company of readers who will peruse its pages, not without consciousness of its imperfections; and I send with it greetings to all my comrades who may welcome it, to their children who may treasure it, and to those dear people, unknown to me, who shall read with tears the record of this Forty-eighth New York, because of their loved ones who marched away with the us four-and-twenty years ago but did not come back. To all who will care for it, I send it forth with the hope that it may serve, in some sense, to bind us all together into a loyal brotherhood of patriotic men who possess in common many glorious memories, and this one virtue: when our country, in her hour of peril, called us, we did not refuse to answer, nor send "substitutes," nor wait till we were bribed for bounty or coerced by conscription, but volunteered for her defense.
Whoever is also conscious that he did his duty faithfully, will find in that his best and lasting reward.
A. J. Palmer
Brooklyn, November, 1885.
Index and Introduction
Preferatory Letter by Abraham J. Palmer
Chapter
I II
III
IV
V
VI
VII
VIII
IX
X
XI
Roster and Record
Company A
B
C
D E
F G H
I K Band
Stories of the 48th not in the book
Illustrations