GDG- Re: Roebling on Little Round Top

[Brian Bennett]

>     David Mcullough in his book,”The Great Bridge”quoted of the 
> defense of Little Roundtop that Washington Roebling wrote after the 
> war. Roebling wrote “So we rode over
> Arriving at the foot od the rugged little knob, I ran up to the top 
> while Warren stopped to speak to General Weed. One glance sufficed to 
> note the head of Hood’s Texans coming up the rocky ravine which 
> separated little and big Round Tops. I ran down, told General Warren, 
> he came up with me and saw the necessity of immediate action.”
>    I had always pictured Warren spotting Hood’s men on Warfield Ridge 
> more than a mile away just before or as they started from their 
> departure points. For example, Coddington had Warren and his two 
> lieutenants, Roebling and another man, first seeing Hood’s men about a 
> mile away toward the West, whereas Roebling suggested they were 
> already in the saddle between the two knobs. Does anyone have any 
> thoughts about these interpretations of the timing of the events?
>
> Roger Johnson

Porter Farley of the 140th NY began corresponding with G.K. Warren 
about Gettysburg in 1872, and again in 1877. Warren detached the 140th 
to the defense of Little Round Top and the aide with Warren at the time 
accompanied the 140th up the slope. Farley questioned Warren as to who 
that officer was; Warren replied that "as nearly as I remember" the 
officer was Chauncey Reese. However Reese had died in 1870, so no 
corroboration could be gained from him.

Farley wrote an account of Gettysburg, part of a series of articles 
published in a Rochester newspaper. When the Gettysburg chapter was 
published in December 1877 ("No. IX" in the series), Warren had copies 
distributed to all members of the Engineer Corps - the installment also 
dealt with the death of Col. Patrick O'Rorke, who was in the Engineer 
Corps.

The distribution of "No. IX" beyond Farley's Rochester audience paid 
unexpected dividends when a copy made it into the hands of Washington 
Roebling, at that time supervising the construction of the Brooklyn 
Bridge. Roebling, one of Warren's staff officers during the war and his 
brother-in-law after the war (he married Warren's sister Emily), penned 
a letter to Farley. His primary reason for writing was to inform Farley 
that he, Roebling, was the officer accompanying Warren that day.

In his letter, dated Dec. 13, 1877 and subsequently included in Oliver 
Norton's "Attack and Defense of Little Round Top," (pp. 330-31) 
Roebling states that "I had been on the summit of Little Round Top for 
half an hour with the signal officer, before we rushed down to call on 
you for help."

The statement of Roebling from "The Great Bridge" pretty much flies in 
the face of what Roebling wrote, and of the generally accepted timeline 
of Little Round Top. Does McCullough give a date?

Brian