188^] ^•^ [Carson. 



to support ; in vain did he endeavor to induce them to rise and join in the 

 charge, and with some bitterness he subseqviently wrote that had they 

 been withdrawn before he moved forward, a different result would have 

 followed. Indeed, so near was he to carrying the wall and heights that 

 the enemy were actually moving their guns out of the batteries, and on 

 the right they were beginning to quit the wall.* 



"His division, like the third breaker upon a beach, left its traces of 

 blood and wrecks a few paces further on, and nearer to the enemy than 

 the preceding two, lingered longer, strove harder to maintain itself so far, 

 and to accomplish the impossible. Finally it withdrew, singing in chorus, 

 to show that although shattered physically, morally its spirits were un- 

 shaken. His charge will yet be blazoned forth in history as one of the no- 

 blest efforts of Northern resolution, or, as he expressed it, of one of Kearney's 

 exhibitions of valor ''magnificent." f 



The reckless bravery of Humphrej^s as displayed on this and other occa- 

 sions, proved that he had a keen relish for conflict. Not that he delighted 

 in slaughter, or had the slightest trace of ferocity in his nature, but 

 the romantic love of peril and adventure, the wild rapture of battle 

 {certamirds gaucUa), the thrilling occasion, the mighty shock of armed 

 men, the encounter of mind with mind, of strategy matched against 

 strategy, of force directed against force, the issues trembling in the 

 balance, and the possible grand result, aroused all the tremendous energies 

 of his intellect, and transformed the quiet scholar into the very embodi- 

 ment of resistless heroism. Like the war horse, in Job, he mocked at fear 

 and was not affrighted ; neither turned he back from the sword. "Of all 

 the sublime sights within the view and comprehension of man," he wrote, 

 "the grandest, the most sublime, is a great battle. Its sights and sounds 

 arouse a feeling of exaltation, compared to which, tame indeed is the sense 

 of the sublime excited by all other great works, either of God or man." 

 And again : "That which makes the thrilling Interest of a battle is the per- 

 sonal incident. A battle so lifts a man out of liimself that he scarcely 

 recognizes his identity when peace returns, and with it flie quiet occupa- 

 tions." 



He was breveted Colonel United States Army, for gallant and merito- 

 rious services, with a commission bearing the date of the battle of Fred- 

 ericksburg, and was warmly pressed by Burnside for a full Major-Gen- 

 eral's commission. His promotion, however, was of later date. 



His next services in the field were at Chancellorsville, where he com- 

 manded the Third Division of the Fifth Corps, then commanded by Meade. 

 He was posted upon the extreme left, where, near the brick house called 

 the Chancellor house, he was sharply engaged with the enemy. In his 

 testimony before the Joint Committee of Congress on the conduct of the 

 war, he declared that he probably knew le-ss in regard to the battle of 

 Chancellorsville than any other battle he ever took part in. With other 



* Letter of Gen. Humphreys to Wm. Swinton, May 10, 18C6, ut supra. 

 t De Teyster. 



