Item No. 6662436

This small archive of three documents relates to Brevet Brigadier General J. William Hofmann, who led the 56th Pennsylvania Infantry at the Battle of Gettysburg. Included are:

• a 6-page handwritten manuscript of Hofmann's remarks to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, given March 8, 1880, in which he describes the fighting done by his regiment during the opening hours of the the battle, paying particular respect to General John F. Reynolds, who died during the first day's fighting. Hofmann also recognizes and honors General Winfield Scott Hancock for organizing the defense of Cemetery Ridge and Culp's Hill that evening. Six pages, 7 3/4" x 12 1/4". Docketed on the reverse of page 6.

• a printed transcript of Hofmann's remarks to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. 8 pp. Measures about 6" x 9 1/4". Printed by A. W. Auner, Philadelphia, 1880.

• an 1887 pension document indication Hofmann was to receive $26.25 per month "for severe deafness of both ears." Measures about 8" x 10 3/4".

The full transcript appears below:

Mr. President and members of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Ladies & Gentlemen,

In complying with the request to make a few remarks upon the operations of the battle of Gettysburg, I am quite conscious that I shall have to ask you to accompany me over a field that has been traversed by many writers who have published the result of their labors. Therefore, if I shall fail to present anything that will be new to you, my plea must be my desire to add interest to the occasion when we have assembled to do honor to the memory of one whom I feel proud to have served under, one who had won the respect and love of his officers and men to so eminent a degree as that which had been won by General Reynolds.

I shall confine my remarks to the operations of Wadsworth's division of Genl. Reynolds own corps, but then commanded by Genl. Doubleday, Genl. Reynolds being in command of the Left wing of the Army, but more particularly to what concerns Genl. Cutler's Brigade, of which my Regiment formed part, and that which came under my own personal observation.

Come with me to the banks of Marsh Creek, where it is crossed by the Emmitsburg–Gettysburg road. Here our division bivouacked on the morning of June 30, 1863. Excepting the bi-monthly "muster for pay" and standing to arms to resist an expected attack, the day and following night were quiet. Next morning at about eight o'clock, the brigade, consisting of the 76th N.Y., 56th Penna., 147th N.Y., 14th Brooklyn, 95th N.Y., and the 7th Indiana, the latter, however, detached for special duty, moved out in the order named, and moved on Gettysburg, distant about for and a half miles. When about two miles from the town, the column was halted for a short time. I then noticed Genl. Reynolds dismounted at the side of the road and examining what appeared to be a large county map. It was the last time that I saw him. Ere another hour had passed, he had sacrificed his life upon the alter of his country.

As we neared the town, shells bursting in the air indicated that our Cavalry, under the gallant Buford, were checking the enemy on the road coming east through the gap in the mountain at Cashtown. When within about three-fourths of a mile of Gettysburg, our column left the road, bore off to the west, crossed the ridge, which at about half a mile west of the town, stretches along north and south for several miles, and is now known as Seminary ridge. We crossed just south of the Seminary building, then moved down the western slope, and at the foot of it met our cavalry that had rendered such valuable service, and was now clearing the field for the infantry conflict that was soon to take place. In conforming with his instructions, General Cutler moved his leading three regiments north across the Cashtown road and the R.R. grading, which at this point is about one hundred and fifty yards north, and parallel with it, then moved some two hundred yards further north. We now formed line of battle and moved a few yards westward to near the crest of a swell, one of a great number that break the otherwise smooth surface of the land between Gettysburg and the South Mountain some seven miles west of it. We now observed the enemy moving in a line of battle extending far to our right, and just rising to the crest of the swell west of the one which we were on. We immediately opened fire by regiment, and brought down a number of his men. Our fire was almost instantly returned, killing a number of officers and men, wounding many more. Genl. Cutler and two of his staff were unhorsed. Among the killed was Maj. Young, commanding the 76th N.Y., and estimable gentleman and a gallant soldier, one who had laid aside the cassock to gird on the sword in the defense of his country's flag. He was without doubt the first of the long roll of heroic officers who sealed their devotion to their country with their life upon the sanguinary field of Gettysburg. In my own regiment, Lt. Gordon, whose commission was the reward for brave service on many field, fell early in the fight, and now with his fellow comrades sleeps in the National Cemetery. Col. Miller of the 147th N.Y. was carried to the rear severely wounded, was succeeded by Major Harney, who was also wounded but continued in com'd of the regiment. The two lines continued thus engaged, firing upon each other for some fifteen minutes, while on the south side of the Cashtown road, Genl. Wadsworth had moved Cutler's two rear regiments forward to support Hall's Battery, which he had placed upon an advanced ridge and near the road.

Meredith's Brigade arriving, its regiments the 2nd, 6th & 7th Wis., 18th Ind., & 24th Mich., and constituting the balance of our division, were soon, under the personal supervision of Genl. Reynolds, deployed in a line extending south from the Cashtown road, and were by his direction moving forward when he met his death, as supposed, from the hands of a rebel sharpshooter. The love borne for Genl. Reynolds by his officers and men I have before alluded to. In the National Cemetery, close by, they ahve recorded it in cranite and bronze for future generations to read.

The small force of Genl. Wadsworth's division, numbering not over 3,800, with one Battery, was all that at this hour could be interposed between Gettysburg and a whole Corps of the enemy, present or fast approaching. An hour and a half to two hours must elapse ere the other two divisions of our Corps can arrive. It would seem to be a correct conclusion that Genl. Reynolds intended that Genl. Wadsworth's division should keep the enemy at bay west of Seminary ridge until the whole Corps could be assembled upon the ridge; and faithfully the division performed this duty. True, that, when an overwhelming force of the enemy was moved against Genl. Cutler's three small regiments on the right, Genl. Wadsworth directed these Regiments to retire to Seminary ridge, and ordered the Battery to withdraw from its advanced position, but when the enemy, mistaking the nature of the movement, attempted to rush impetuously forward, he was signally checked, first by a volley from one of these three regiments, and then by the capture of two of his entire regiments by Cutler's two left regiments, the 14th Brooklyn, Col. Fowler, and the 95th N.Y., Col. Biddle, aided by the 6th Wis., Lt. Col. Dawes of Meredith's brigade—whereupon Cutler's three right regiments immediately resumed the line they occupied when the battle opened, and held this line well on to one o'clock. Meredith's Brigade, in moving forward, had captured some three hundred prisoners, including a brigadier General.

The enemy now received large reinforcements by the Carlisle road coming in on our right. This necessitated a change of front. Gen'l Cutler now formed his line facing north at the north end of the wood upon Seminary ridge. We again became speedily engaged with the enemy, but our ammunition was mostly expended in the first onset. What was then left was now soon exhausted. We could no more than hold the ground.

By this time, however, the 2d Division of our Corps under Genl. Robinson had arrived. One of his brigades, commanded by Genl. Baxter—he of Michigan, who had won his star for gallantry in leading the "Forlorn hope" across the Rappahannock at the first battle of Fredericksburg, and who had among his regimental commanders Col. (now Genl.) Coulter of the 11th Penna., who had crossed the Cerro Gordo with Scott, aided in the capture of Chapultapec & the City of Mexico, and our late townsman, Colonel Lyle of the 90th Penna., now known as the 2d Regt. N.G.—came to our relief. Genl. Baxter, leading with that same spirit that had distinguished him at Fredericksburg, soon sent some four hundred prisoners to the rear. Then came also a brigade under Genl. Paul, a major in the regular service, distinguished at South Mountain and at Antietam, a gentleman whose estimable qualities did much to bring about pleasant relations between regular and volunteer officers, gallantly leading his brigade over the crest of the ridge, to be carried back soon thereafter, to linger in a world of physical darkness. Two divisions of the Eleventh Corps, which had arrived, were sent to support the right of the First Corps, but the disposition failed to accomplish its object. The right of the First Corps still rested in air. It became evident that when the avalanche that the enemy was preparing on the height beyond our right should roll down that it would become impracticable to hold our line. A little before four o'clock we received orders to retire.

Genl. Wadsworth's division moved to the rear by way of the R.R. embankment at the north west angle of the town, and while crossing it, suffered considerable from fire of the enemy now on Seminary ridge. While passing through the town, our progress was necessarily slow. The streets were full of wounded men. When the head of our column reached the Baltimore road, it came in contact with troops of the Eleventh Corps, and our progress was checked, and although but momentarily, still it caused a large loss in prisoners at the rear of the column, which was intercepted. Soon the two columns surged together, and all organization was for the moment gone. The current moved south over the Baltimore road to the foot of the northern slope of Cemetery ridge, which comes north in a broken line from the Round-Top Mountain some three miles south of Gettysburg, to within half a mile of the town, then curves to the east and ends in the elevation known as Culp's Hill. It became evident as we moved up the slope that we were approaching a point where the topographical features of the locality would, in some measure, compensate for the absent corps. But where each individual brigade or regimental commander should reform his command, whether upon the right or upon the left, seemed to be a difficult subject to decide. The orders received were constantly conflicting. Under these circumstances we moved up the slope and at the crest met a group of mounted officers, among them one whose qualities were such as eminently fitted him for the critical hour. He saw before him a commingled mass of troops, troops of the army whose fortunes he had shared from its birth. He knew that the discipline that had been instilled by him who had organized them into a army—that grand, undaunted, indestructible Army of the Potomac—was still within him. Directing this division to reform upon the right, that one upon the left, it was but a short time and he had wrought order from chaos. This accomplished, he directed the occupation of Culp's Hill. The hill was soon occupied, but not a moment too soon. The 7th Indiana, of our brigade, detached in the morning for special duty, as I have stated, and not engaged in the conflicts with the enemy, rejoined us as we were reforming in the cemetery, and being a compact organization, it was sent at once to form a line on Culp's Hill. Major Grover, its commanding officer, established a line from the pinnacle down to the foot of the eastern slope, and on his way back to his centre encountered and captured a scout of the enemy, who had crossed the hill before the line was established and was on his way back when captured, with the report that the hill was not occupied by our troops. Grover's line of pickets was soon reinforced into a line of battle, which, on the following evening, successfully repulsed the desperate assault made by the enemy to capture the hill. It has always seemed to me that the merit for restoring order, and the foresight in directing the occupation of Culp's Hill, have failed to be fully appreciated by those who have written upon the subject. Without Culp's Hill in our possession we could never have held our line on Cemetery ridge on the second and third day of the battle. That line on Culp's Hill became the high water line of the tidal wave of the Rebellion. That far north had human slavery again carried her shackles, and from that line it ebbed back, back to Appomattox.

Mr. President and members of the Historical Society, whose special province it is to colate and make record of all that concerns the history of our great state, the events that transpire within her borders, the deeds of her sons, I desire to place myself upon record with you as saying that the officer to whom I have alluded, as having rendered such inestimable service on that remarkable evening, is a son of Pennsylvania. His name is Winfield Scott Hancock.