The Council of War on July 2, 1863

The Council of War that took place at Lydia Leister's house in Gettysburg has always interested me. I found a neat little quote from John Gibbon about the Council of War that I am going to put here. It's pretty much self explanatory. Enjoy!

"A staff officer from army headquarters met General Hancock and myself and summoned us both to General Meade's headquarters where a council of war was to be held. We at once proceeded there and soon after our arrival all the corps commanders were assembled in the little front room of the Leister house-- Newton who had been assigned to the command of Doubleday, his senior; Hancock, Second; Birney, Third; Sykes, Fifth; Sedgwick, who had arrived during the day with the Sixth, after a long march from Manchester; Howard, Eleventh, and Slocum, Twelfth Corps; and myself, Second. IT will be seen that two corps were doubly represented, the Second by Hancock and myself and the Twelfth by Slocum and Williams. These twelve were all assembled in a little room not more than ten or twelve feet square, with a bed in one corner, a small table on one side, and a chair or two. Of course, all could not sit down; some did, some lounged on the bed and some stood up, while Warren, tired out and suffering from a wound in the neck, where a piece of shell had struck him, lay down in a corner of the room and went fast asleep and I don't think heard any of the proceedings.

The discussion was at first very informal and...each one made comments on the fight and told what he knew of the condition of affairs. In the course of this discussion Newton expressed the opinion that "this was no place to fight a battle in." General Newton was an officer of engineers (since chief engineer of the army) and was rated by me, and I suppose most others, most highly as a soldier. The assertion, coming from such a source, rather startled me and I eagerly asked what his objections to the position were. The objections he stated, as I recollect them, related to some minor details of the line of which I knew nothing except so far as my own front was concerned, and with those I was satisfied; but the prevailing impression seemed to be that the place for the battle had been selected for us. Here we are; now what is the best thing to do? It soon became evident that everybody was in favor of staying where we were and giving battle there. General Meade himself said very little excepting now and then to make some comment, but I cannot recall that he had any decided opinion on any point, preferring apparently to listen to the conversation. After the discussion had lasted some time, Butterfield suggested it would perhaps be well to formulate the question to be asked, and, General Meade assenting, he took a piece of paper on which he had made some memoranda and wrote down a question; when he had done this he read it off and formally proposed it to the council.

I had never been a member of a council of war before (nor have I been since) and did not feel very confident I was properly a member of this one; but I was engaged in the discussion and found myself (Warren being asleep) the junior member in it. By the customs of war the junior member votes first, as on courts-martial; and when Butterfield read off his question, the substance of which was "Should the army remain in its present position of take up some other?" he addressed himself first to me for an answer. To say "Stay and fight" would be to ignore the objections made by General Newton, and I therefore answered somewhat in this way: "Remain here, and make such correction in our position as may be deemed necessary, but take no step which even looks like retreat." The question was put to each member and his answer taken down, and when it came to Newton who was first in rank, he voted pretty much the same way I did, and we had some playful sparring as to whether he agreed with me or I with him; the rest voted to remain.

The next question put by Butterfield was: "Should the army attack or await the attack of the enemy?" I voted not to attack, and all the others voted substantially the same way; and on the third question, "How long shall we wait?" I voted "Until Lee moves". The answer to this last question showed the only material variation in the opinion of the members.

When the meeting was over, General Mead said, quietly but decidedly, "Such then is the decision" and certainly he said nothing which produced a doubt in my mind as to his being in accord with the members of the council."

I took this from my book "Gettysburg" by Earl Schenck Miers and Richard A. Brown but it was originally taken from "Battles and Leaders of the Civil War.