(Gettysburg) | “Genl. Doubleday has taken charge of the battle”: Abner Doubleday’s autograph witness to the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg, illustrated by fourteen insightful maps and plans

Doubleday, Abner

Autograph manuscript with cover title “Gen. Abner Doubleday’s Account of the Battle of Gettysburg. Original Autograph Manuscript with Twelve (sic) Original Maps.” [New York, ca. 1875–1885]

20 pages (209 x 170 mm) written on the rectos only of twenty nearly consecutive leaves of blue-line wove paper (one intervening blank leaf, another leaf without manuscript text, bearing only a large tipped-on map), 9 of the text leaves with tipped-on or pasted-down maps or plans, 4 of these with over-slip maps illustrating changes in troop positions, for a total of 14 maps (maps range in size from 28 x 128 mm to 208 x 235 mm), the maps and plans are largely drawn or finished by hand on slips cut from a mauve lithographed topographical map of the battlefield, text with a number of seemingly immediate deletions and emendations, as well as a more formal, later revision in red ink affecting four pages, including the addition of an extensive paragraph (ca. 85 words) to the penultimate text page. Bound, with additional blank leaves, in early twentieth-century green buckram, front cover lettered in gilt as above. Half blue morocco slipcase, chemise.

A moment-by-moment account of the first day of Gettysburg, the most famous—and arguably the most consequential—battle in American history, in the hand of one of the commanders of the victorious Union forces.

Abner Doubleday (1819–1893) was a career officer in the United States Army, graduating from West Point in 1842. Commissioned as a lieutenant in the First Artillery Regiment, he served at Monterrey and Buena Vista during the Mexican-American War. Over the next decade he held various posts and saw action in the Southwest and Florida in various iterations of the American Indian Wars. Fortune, good or otherwise, found Doubleday, by then a captain, second in command at Fort Sumter to Major Robert Anderson when the South Carolina Militia artillery fired the first shots of the Civil War. Doubleday was the first to return cannonade, later writing in Reminiscences of Forts Sumter and Moultrie in 1860–’61 (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1876), “In aiming the first gun fired against the rebellion I had no feeling of self-reproach, for I fully believed that the contest was inevitable, and was not of our seeking. The United States was called upon not only to defend its sovereignty, but its right to exist as a nation. The only alternative was to submit to a powerful oligarchy who were determined to make freedom forever subordinate to slavery. To me it was simply a contest, politically speaking, as to whether virtue or vice should rule” (pp. 143–144).

After Sumter was abandoned by the Union garrison, Doubleday continued to rise in rank as he served in the initial defenses of Washington, D.C., before leading troops in the Shenandoah Valley, and at Second Manassas, the Rappahannock River, Groveton (Virginia), South Mountain, Antietam, and Fredericksburg, after which he was promoted to major general of volunteers.

Doubleday’s finest achievement in the Civil War came on 1 July 1863, when command of the First Corps fell to him after corps commander Major General John F. Reynolds was killed in the dawn of the battle. Leading 9,500 Union troops against ten Confederate brigades with almost twice that strength, the First Corps was obliged to retreat through Gettysburg and take up a defensive position on Cemetery Hill. Still, Doubleday’s men inflicted ferocious casualty rates on the rebels.

“Gettysburg proved to be Doubleday's last major battle, however. He left the Army of the Potomac afterward, believing that Meade was planning to reorganize the army along political lines. … Humiliated by Meade's decision to replace him as corps commander, Doubleday resented Meade’s treatment of him [Meade gave permanent command of the First Corps to a more junior officer, Major General John Newton.] Before long he began to circulate rumors that Meade had planned to retreat after the second day of the battle. He repeated these charges in an appearance before the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War in March 1864” (Simpson and Van Atta, in American National Biography). Although Meade was thought to dislike Doubleday, he likely passed him over for permanent command because of an inaccurate report by Major General Oliver O. Howard, commander of the Eleventh Corps that Doubleday’s First Corps broke first, causing the entire Union line to collapse.

In retirement, Doubleday became a notable historian of the Civil War, publishing, in addition to numerous articles, three major monographs: Reminiscences of Forts Sumter and Moultrie in 1860–’61 (cited above), Chancellorsville and Gettysburg (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1882), and Gettysburg Made Plain: A Succinct Account of the Campaign and Battles with the Aid of One Diagram and Twenty-nine Maps (New York: The Century Co., 1888).

His publications were intended in part to justify his own actions and undermine Meade’s decisions, and sometimes mired him in controversy. The present manuscript, however—running to some 1,800 words—is for the most part a straightforward and objective account, perhaps an early working draft later revised for publication. The account begins with a map showing the positions of the two armies at 6:00 a.m. after “The Confederate general A. B. Hill advances with two divisions of his Corps to take Gettysburg, which is only held by Buford’s division of Cavalry.” Doubleday further explains, “Pender’s division with 48 guns is back of Heth but is not represented in this map, as it would take up too much space.”

The second entry is datelined 10:10 a.m. and describes the pivotal moment of day, again accompanied by a map, this one with an overlay: “Meredith’s brigade (commonly called the Iron Brigade) is ordered into the woods by the Corps Commander Genl. Doubleday who has ridden up from the rear of the column at Marsh Creek.

“At this juncture Genl. Reynolds goes into the woods in advance of the troops and is killed. Genl. Doubleday has taken charge of the battle.

“The Confederate general Heth sends two brigades under Archer and Davis to attack the Union forces.

“A curious state of things now occurs for the left of each force folds around the right of the other.

“The Union left is quite successful. It captures Archer and a great part of his brigade, but the two Union regiments on the right are flanked and ordered to fall back to the town by Genl. Wadsworth. The third regiment (the 147 N. Y.) is surrounded by the enemy and loses heavily. Hall’s battery being attacked by skirmishers also retires as its supports are gone.

“Genl. Doubleday sends his reserve, the 6th Wisconsin regiment, to rescue the 147 N. Y. The 6th Wisconsin under Lieutenant Colonel Dawes goes forward to the attack. It is joined by two regiments of Cutler’s brigade under Col. Fowler; the 14 Brooklyn and the 95th New York, who were about to attack the same enemy.”

The manuscript moves forward just twenty minutes, to 10:30 a.m., with the text explicating another map with an overlay. “The plate represents the 2d Wisconsin who led the attack against Archer taking charge of the prisoners in the woods. The three remaining regiments have crossed the stream and formed line of battle on the other side.

“Fowler and Dawes advanced to attack Davis’ Confederate brigade the greater part of which rushes into a railroad cut for shelter. Here being assaulted in front and flank, most of them are captured.

“Genl. Doubleday finding his immediate front clear of the enemy reforms his lines east of Willoughby’s Run.

“A glance at the Map would naturally lead one to inquire why Hill did not at once advance his reserves and sweep away the small force opposed to him. The fact is[,] owing to the absence of Stuart’s cavalry[,] that the movements of the Union army were not known to Genl. Lee or his subordinates. Hill therefore did not know whether he would find 5000 men or 50,000 in his front.”

The cartographically illustrated narrative advances to 2:45 p.m., by which time, O. O. Howard’s Eleventh Corps has joined the First Corps in the field. At this point, Doubleday’s disaffection with the aftermath of the battle begins to show slightly, though his tone remains largely sober and impartial. “Ewell's two divisions under Rodes and Early now make a furious attack against both the First and the Eleventh Corps.

“As Hill did not move promptly to second Ewell the First Corps repulsed the attack at all points, resisting repeated assaults, driving back O'Neal's brigade on the North and capturing all but one regiment of Iverson's brigade on the West. Daniel's attack on Stone’s brigade soon after was also driven back.

“The enemy were more successful in their advance against the Eleventh Corps which indeed was too far out. Barlow being badly wounded and his division left in an angle between Dole’s Confederate brigade on the North and that of Gordon on the northeast the right flank of the Eleventh Corps was turned and forced back.” After further details of the battle, Doubleday admits that his own men could no longer carry the fight forward. “The First Corps from its heavy losses was no longer in a condition to repel the advance of four large brigades under Pender which up to this time had not been engaged but which now came forward.”

The retreat of the First and Eleventh Corps are detailed next, but without finger-pointing or blame being assigned by Doubleday: “The Eleventh Corps are overwhelmed by superior numbers and are almost entirely driven from the field back to the rallying point on cemetery Ridge. … General Doubleday orders the First Corps to retreat undercover of a severe artillery fire from Seminary Ridge.” The manuscript concludes with the ending of the first day of battle, “Genl. Hancock now turns over the command of the troops to Genl. Slocum and rides back to report the state of affairs to Genl. Meade. The latter leaves Taneytown and reaches the field of battle soon after midnight.”

The striking maps and plans are precise and detailed, depicting the shifting battlefield almost minute by minute. The positions of infantry, cavalry and artillery of both the Union and Confederate armies are indicated by Doubleday in red, yellow, green, blue and black inks, with the movements of troops, and the names of commanders are clearly designated.

A number of similar maps appear in Gettysburg Made Plain, and versions of five of the maps from the present manuscript are reproduced in Battles and Leaders of the Civil War. Volume III: The Tide Shifts; Retreat from Gettysburg (New York: The Century Co., 1988), pp. 272, 282, illustrating General Henry J. Hunt’s chapter on “The First Day at Gettysburg.”

PROVENANCE

The Walpole Galleries, New York, 26 June 1916, lot 82 (undesignated consignor) — John Gribbel (bookplate; Parke-Bernet, 30 October 1940, lot 181) — Clendenin J. Ryan (Parke-Bernet, 5 November 1958, lot 54) — The Elsie O. and Philip D. Sang Foundation (Sotheby Parke Bernet, 20 June 79, lot 690)