DUFFIÉ & THE MONUMENT TO HIS MEMORY
go to page [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ] [ 7 ] - TRADUCTION FRANCAISE par Jean-Philippe Chereul
At daybreak on the morning of June l8th the 200 of the regiment
who remained were attacked by over-whelming numbers, and were scattered in the
attempt to cut through the enemy, and Duffié passed through Hopewell Gap, and
reached Centreville at noon with four officers and twenty-seven men, which he
sup-posed to be all that remained of his gallant regi-ment. There were others,
however, who had es-caped. Major Farrington brought in two officers and twenty-three
men; Lieutenant Colonel Thomp-son, eighteen men; Sergeant Palmer, twelve men,
and Captain George N. Bliss, six men. Some others who had been captured escaped,
so that the total loss of the regiment in killed, wounded and prison-ers was
less than two hundred in these two days. Colonel Duffié made his report direct
to General Hooker, who recommended him for promotion, and June 23d he was appointed
Brigadier-General, and the story of his connection with the regiment here ends
with his farewell address:
WASHINGTON, D. C., July 18, 1863.
To the Officers and Men of the First Rhode Island Cavalry:
In bidding farewell to my old regiment I do so with senti-ments of unfeigned
pain and grief at being obliged to sever a connection which has been at once
my pride and honor to have held from its commencement to this moment, bearing,
as it does, no personal unkindness to forgive, no private grief to be assuaged,
on my part, and may I be allowed the pleasurable hope of the same immunity from
yourselves.
I leave you, satisfied of your high resolve to be worthy of the reputation you
have earned upon many a hard fought field. But remember that in the great school
of war every man is weighed and tested by the touchstone of daily truth, and
is valued at what he is actually worth. Success reflects not back-wards to the
individual only so far as he has positively contrib-uted to that success. As
the aggregation of goodness in a community depends upon the individual virtues
of its mem-bers, so the effectiveness of any military organization depends upon
the individual performance of its duties.
Heroic courage, based upon pure motives, becomes in devo-tion to country sublime.
Let yours not fall short of this high standard. The proud consciousness that
he has not only done his duty, but has done it cheerfully, with willing heart
and hand, is to the soldier a full recompense for all the sacri-fices, hardships
and privations he has borne in the defense of his country's flag, her institutions
and her laws, and be assured that the solace of life shall be in saying, "I,
too, was a faithful defender of my country's integrity during the most infamous
rebellion that ever blotted the fair page of a nation's history.
I bid you an affectionate farewell,
A. N. DUFFIÉ, Brigadier-Genéral.
The record of Duffié's military service as Brigadier-General is taken from Memoirs
of Rhode Island Officers by John Russell Bartlett, for many years Secretary
of State of the State of Rhode Island.
General Duffié was ordered to report to Brigadier- General Kelley, then commanding
the Department of West Virginia, and on the 7th of September, 1863, was ordered
to proceed to Charleston, West Va., to organize a cavalry force of three thousand
men consisting of the Second Virginia, Third Vir-ginia and Thirty-Fourth Ohio
Cavalry, and in two months he succeeded in making this brigade one of the best
cavalry commands in the service.
In November he was put in command of a force of two thousand cavalry and one
thousand infantry and ordered to capture Lewisburg, a town one hundred and twenty
miles from his base of supplies, which he did, defeating the Confederate General
Ewell, and capturing artillery, wagons and war ma-terial. After pursuing the
enemy to Union, Gen-eral Duffié returned to Charleston and the enemy having
again occupied Lewisburg, General Duffié once more forced the rebels to retreat
from the town and then joined Brigadier-General Averill in his raid to Salem.
In April, 1864, General Duffié was ordered to re-port to General Averill and
received high praise for gallant and effective service in the battles of Saltz-ville
and Wyethville. In May he was ordered to report to Major-General Hunter, and
soon after was ordered to turn his cavalry command over to General Averill and
to assume command of the First Cavalry Division of West Virginia, composed of
the first New York Veteran, the First New York Lincoln, the Fifteenth and Twenty-first
New York, the Twelfth and Twentiesth Pennsylvania Cavalry.
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