Talk:David McMurtrie Gregg

First hand account of Gregg's reasons for resigning his commission

First hand accounts of General Gregg's reasoning for his departure from the Union Army, apparently, were not all lost to history, merely residing in a succession of family attics for the last ninety seven years. So, I offer in digital form a transcription of a passage from my great great grandfather A.D. Rockwell M.D.'s autobiography which sheds light into Gregg's character and his reasoning for resigning his commission by an officer who served on his staff and was privy to the conversations quoted in the wiki article. I would probably want to include more of this material than is probably warranted for an encyclopedia entry so I place it here to see if some other editor wants to use it. The book also contains a great deal more first hand accounts of the Overland Campaign and character sketches of a number A.D.'s friends, acquaintances, and patients, many of whom have their own Wikipedia articles from: Salmon P. Chase to Theodore Roosevelt.

Alphonse David Rockwell M.D., b.1840, served a in the Union Army during the Overland Campaign in Sheridan’s Corps as regimental surgeon of the 6th Ohio Volunteer Cavalry in General Gregg’s division, and by family tradition the youngest surgeon of the war. He was also related to Lieutenant General Adna Chafee through the general's second wife Annie Frances Rockwell.

Bibliographic Data

• Rambling Recollections, an Autobiography,
• A. D. Rockwell, M.D.
• copyright 1920 by Paul B. Hoeber, New York
• published January 1920
• printed in the USA
• pp. 163, 164

This account was published in January 1920, so it may already be out of copyright, but I have made no investigation to see if the copyright is still in force.

Quotation

While at headquarters this timidity [of the author’s] received a rude shock one Thanksgiving Day [1864] General Smith [Major General Charles H. Smith] had invited General Gregg, our division commander, with his staff, to dine with him and his staff. It was quite an imposing military array, and as we we about to sit down to a long table with its bounteous repast, he motioned to me to take the head of the table and do the carving. “as I was used to handling the knives,” Now, if there is anything at which I was a non-expert, and still am, it was carving fowls, and to my dismay I found that the bird in front of me was a goose. I certainly was a goose not to have entered my protest before attempting the job, but at it I went pursuant to orders. I did my best, but made such a poor hand at it that I begged our host to have pity, and let some layman, with more skill than I possessed with that kind of a knife, take my place.

It was after dinner the dinner that I overheard a conversation between Generals Gregg and Smith which greatly impressed me, especially in view of what I knew of General Gregg. He was modesty itself and his reputation for calm and steady bravery was of the best. I recall one scene apropos of this. I saw the general during an engagement, sitting on his white horse and surrounded by many of his staff, as calmly smoking his big meerschaum pipe as if on his own porch at home. The enemy got our range, and began dropping shells in our direction thick and fast. The staff gave evidence of more or less excitement, but the general sat unmoved, slowly smoking, nor did he immediately change his attitude. He calmly removed his pipe from his mouth and said, “Be calm, gentlemen, - no occasion for haste,” and then deliberately moved away to a more secure location. In admiration I said to myself at the time, “you certainly are a very cool and courageous man.” I was not a little surprised then to hear Gregg say to Smith that he was about to resign from the army. “The fact of it is,” said Gregg, “I am a good deal of a coward. Every engagement tells upon my nervous system to the last degree, and it is only by the exercise of all my will power that I can appear natural and unafraid.” The general may have exaggerated this defect or weakness, yet nevertheless, there must have been a measure of truth in what he said, and granting this I have always that such men illustrate the highest form of courage; duty and noble pride, triumphing over every inherent obstacle and ignoble sentiment.

I have always understood that it was not alone this distaste for active service that hastened the resignation of General Gregg. He served from the beginning of the war and was never found wanting, but he probably did not possess those brilliant and aggressive qualities so marked in some of the younger officers. He possessed a calm courage and sound judgement, but these did not capture the fancy, as did the hurrah and dash of such excellent men as Custer, Kilpatrick and others. As a consequence, such youngsters as these forged ahead of men like Gregg, whose qualifications perhaps were more solid. There is no question but that he was disappointed in a way, and that this disappointment was no unimportant factor in his decision to leave the service.

Notes

• Inline notes in brackets are by me.
• The publisher Paul B. Hoeber [1915-1991], was former head of the medical book division of Harper & Brothers. The book bears the imprint of Hoeber, but not Harpers, so one might presume that it was privately published by Hoeber as a favor to a well known New York physician.

Atani (talk) 16:36, 21 April 2017 (UTC)