I believe that it is now conceded that the advanced position at the Peach Orchard, taken by your corps and under your orders, saved that battlefield to the Union cause. It was the sorest and saddest reflection of my life for many years; but, today, I can say, with sincerest emotion, that it was and is the best that could have come to us all, North and South; and I hope that the nation reunited, may always enjoy the honor and glory brought to it by that grand work.
Please offer my kindest salutations to your Governor and your fellow-comrades of the Army of the Potomac.
Reminiscences of the Fifty-Seventh Regiment, by Gen. William Birney.
Comrades:--It gives me pleasure to respond to your desire for my reminiscences of the 57th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers. They are all agreeable.
My first knowledge of it was from the gallant and chivalrous General Philip Kearny, under whom I had served in the New Jersey Brigade. August 12, 1862, I was exchanged as prisoner of war. August 13, the General sent for me and offered me the command of the 57th. speaking in very high terms of the intelligence, bravery and moral stamina of the men. All it needed, he said, to become one of the best regiments in the army was drill and discipline. I accepted his offer, was detailed by General McClellan from my own regiment and corps to General Kearny's, took command next day at the camp on James river, at Harrison's Landing, and kept it until October 12. These two months were filled with active service.
Your historian, in his kindly notice, has given a wrong version of the only unpleasantness that ever existed between General Kearny and me. Allow me to correct it. At a division drill, in the winter of 1861-2, conducted by General Torbert, I commanded a regiment. Receiving a wrong order from the brigade commander, I executed the movement, as was my duty. General Kearny, who was on the field, rode rapidly up behind me, hissed in my ears: "Major Birney, you'd better study your tactics, sir," rode off about fifty yards and halted. Being very angry at this unmerited reproof given me while at the head of my regiment, I followed him, expressed my resentment in bitter words and went back to my command. Ten minutes afterward, the General put me under arrest. The same evening he sent his adjutant to offer me a release if I would apologize. I refused on the ground that he should apologize first to me. He preferred charges, I was court-martialed, and, for lack of proof, acquitted. Not long after that, at an accidental meeting between us, the General offered me his hand after making a handsome apology for his haste. His magnanimity gave me occasion to express a conclusion I had reached on reflection, that my language to him had been insubordinate, and to express my regrets that I had not kept my temper; if I had waited for the General to learn the facts from General Torbert and other witnesses, he would have made amends. From the date of that reconciliation, we were better friends than ever before.