To Magnify Appreciation of Yourself, General Campbell
The obituary of General Edward L. Campbell was published December 18, 1913 in The Chronicle News of Trinidad, Colorado and described him as “one of the most noted veterans of the Civil War”.
He may have been well-known to the residents of Trinidad in 1913, but such may not be the case today, so the purpose of this discussion is to gain more recognition for him, “the cool, brave Lieut. Col. Gen’l E.L. Campbell” as William H. Penrose described him in Penrose’s letter to the veterans of the 15th New Jersey Volunteers and read at the regiment’s reunion on the 16th anniversary of the battle of Cedar Creek.
Edward Livingston Campbell was born February 2, 1833 near Belvidere, New Jersey to Peter Proctor Campbell and Nancy Jackson Campbell whose father, Eleazar Jackson fought in the Revolutionary War. To them were born six children: Marshall Silliman, Henry Harrison, Lydia Ann, Mary Emmeline, Eleazer Jackson and Edward Livingston. Both Nancy and Peter, given the times in which they lived, were familiar with war; Peter and Nancy had much to worry about prior to, and during, the Civil War, for they had two other sons in the military. Marshall Silliman was a veteran of the Mexican- American war and Eleazar Jackson, my great-great grandfather, fought with Company C 19th Infantry Wisconsin.
In a letter to her daughter Lydia Ann, dated July 14, 1862, Nancy wrote: “We had a letter directly from Edward and that came into the Office last Saturday and today we have received one from Jackson [Eleazer]. I feel so thankful and rejoiced to hear they are both in good health, that I hardly know how to express myself. I hardly expected that Edward was safe after such an awful battle as they had before Richmond. I could not eat, work nor sleep. I could think of nothing but “Death and destruction in the field of battle.” I wept and became so nervous that I feared it would cause my death, although I knew I ought to exercise a holy trust in times of such distress and peril, and make it my business to trust God, with my friends and all the comforts of this life….When, O when will this abolition war come to a end. Excuse me for I believe it is such.”
Nancy wrote to Lydia again on Sept 7th, 1862:
“Dear Lydia Ann,…I suppose you have read the name of EL Campbell among the names of the killed on the 29th of August and you probably think it is so, but it is a mistake. When I read it in the paper, I had no doubt but what it was true—the second paper said he was missing and probably killed. The next told us he was wounded. There was a mistake somewhere it was evident but which or what to believe we did not know. We felt sad indeed, but we thought the next time the cars came in, we should probably know the truth, not supposing but what some mishap had befallen him. Many went to the Office for the news and returned in a few moments with a letter, and what was our surprise when we found it was a letter from Edward himself. A load was moved from our hearts at once….He had got away from the company and reported killed, taken prisoner, wounded or missing.
But there are more battles to fight, and I have more sons in the army than one. You cannot think what anxiety it causes me. Where are the other poor boys, O where are they----I don’t hear a word from Jackson [Eleazar, my great-great grandfather, General Campbell’s brother] neither do I from Marshall….I am so tired of every thing in the world today that I hardly know where to put myself—Why do I live so long? But stop------that is wicked to murmur at the dealings of Providence. All is ordered by an Infinite Being who knows what is best for us….”
By February 1863, Nancy Jackson Campbell would be dead.
Before returning to the discussion of General E.L. Campbell, I would like to share biographical information about his brother, Marshall Silliman, and of their grandfather and father, Dan and Peter Proctor Campbell, respectively; to reiterate, General Campbell’s brothers were Marshall Silliman and my great-great grandfather, Eleazar Jackson who was named after his maternal grandfather.
The Portrait and Biographical Album, Otoe and Cass Counties, Nebraska, stated this about about Dan Campbell, grandfather of General Edward L. Campbell and his brothers Marshall S. and Eleazer J. : “their grandfather, Dan Campbell, being a native of Scotland, where he was reared….. learned the trade of edge tool maker in Inverness, and afterward became a soldier in the British service. He came to this country with a Highland regiment during the Revolutionary War, and with the greater part of his regiment, he deserted, and joining the Colonists, fought with them until the close of the war. After peace was declared, he sent for his wife and child, and located in Litchfield, Conn., whence he afterward removed to Susssex County, N.J. He lived there a few years, and then returned to Litchfield, Conn., where he rounded out a useful life, always proving a loyal and devoted citizen to his adopted country.
This writer continues: It is not positively known whether Dan’s son, Peter Proctor, [father of Edward Livingston (General Campbell), Eleazar Jackson, and Marshall Silliman] was born in Scotland or Connecticut, but it is thought that he first drew the breath of life in the New England State mentioned. When quite young he was bound out to Deacon Richardson, of Cornish, N.H., and lived with him until he was twenty-one, receiving a good education in the New Hampshire schools. After leaving the home of the good old Deacon, he went to New York and taught school for two years. At the expiration of that time he returned to Cornish, to claim as his bride Miss Nancy Jackson, a native of Connecticut, and a pioneer of Cornish. After marriage, Mr. Campbell (Peter Proctor) went to LaFayette, Sussex Co. N.J., accompanied by his bride and lived there a short time. He subsequently bought the Serepta works, including the foundry, machine-shop, distillery, flouring and sawmill, and operated them all very successfully until about 1843. He sold his business in that year and moved to Belvidere, where he bought a foundry and machine shop, and managed them until his death in 1858, when a valuable citizen was lost to that community, as he was a man of sterling common sense, of much ability, and one who was in every respect worthy of the trust and respect of his fellowmen. His estimable wife survived him but a few years, dying in the same town in 1863. They were the parents of six children, all of whom grew to maturity, as follows: Harrison, Eleazer Jackson, Marshall Silliman, Lydia Ann, Mary Emmeline and Edward Livingston [General Campbell].
Marshall was an infant when his parents (Peter and Nancy) moved to New Jersey. He attended the public schools in that state and as soon as large enough, commenced to learn the machinist’s trade in his father’s shop. When he was eighteen years old, he was seized with the desire to be a sailor, and embarking on a whaling-vessel, was absent on a long voyage that lasted three years and three months. On his return, he desired to finish his education, and after attending school at Meriden. N.H., he entered a military academy at Norwich. He was a student there at the breaking out of the Mexican War, and eagerly and enthusiastically dropped his studies of the science of war to gain a practical knowledge of its grim realities on the bloody battlefields of Mexico, he being with many of his comrades volunteering, and entering the service under Gen. Scott. They fought bravely in the battle of Vera Cruz, and in every other battle from there to the City of Mexico [Mexico City]. At the capture of that city, he was detailed as bodyguard to accompany the remains of the gallant Col. Ransom, who was killed at the battle of Tehuantepec, to his home. Peace having been shortly afterward declared, Mr. Campbell [Marshall] was never called upon to enter service again, but was mustered out at Ft. Phillip, LA., in the fall of 1847. He returned home, engaged as a civil engineer, and was employed in the survey of different railways in Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey until 1855. In that year he went to the Territory of Kansas, and from there to Nebraska in the fall, coming here to assist in the survey of the land, and immediately commenced upon his work. In 1856 he returned to Leavenworth, Kan., and assisted in the survey of the Sac and Fox reservations. In the fall of that year, he returned to Nebraska City passing by the present site of Lincoln, where a house was not then standing. On the first day of December was the big snowstorm, which will ever be held in remembrance by the early pioneers of Nebraska. It continued so long, and was of such unprecedented violence, that our subject and his party spent nine days in the timber unable to get out and make their way to this city. In the spring, Mr. Campbell returned to Lincoln to complete the survey begun the year before, and he was employed in surveying for the government at times until 1859. He then took up his residence in town and did odd jobs of surveying for individuals, and looked up claims until 1861. He then moved to a farm nine miles west of the city, and was engaged in agricultural pursuits until 1871. He was then elected to the office of County Surveyor for Otoe County, and moved back to Nebraska City. In 1850, Mr. Marshall Campbell [to reiterate, General Campbell’s and my great-great grandfather, Eleazer’s brother] married Miss Eliza Bond, and she has since been to him a devoted helpmate. To them five children have been born, namely: Fennimore C., Mervy N., George, Mary E. and Edward L. [It should be noted that Marshall and Eliza may have chosen several names for their children to honor, not only Marshall’s brother, General Edward Livingston Campbell, but his sister Mary Emmeline.] Marshall Silliman has taken an active part in public affairs. He has served seven years as Justice of the Peace since coming to Nebraska City, and held that office for five years while a resident of Delaware Precinct. He was Deputy Clerk of the District Court for three years and was elected to the Clerk in the fall of 1887 for four years.” (Portrait and Biographical Album of Otoe & Cass Counties, Nebraska).
Of General Campbell’s other brother, Eleazer Jackson-my great-great grandfather- who also served in the Civil War, I know little, other than reading letters sent to him not only from Marshall but from his sisters Lydia and Mary Emmeline. I do know that after the war, he suffered from rheumatism and lived the last 12 years of his life with his son, my great grandfather, Charles H. Campbell.
To return now to the discussion about Marshall’s brother, General Campbell; Edward L. Campbell attended Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania and graduated in 1855, the valedictorian of his class. He taught at the Classical Academy and at the Female Seminary in Belvidere, respectively, until he was admitted to the bar in 1860 and became a lawyer in his hometown With the fall of Fort Sumter in 1861, however, and with the call for 75,000 three-months troops, he responded by organizing a public meeting on April 18th and was the first to enlist, not only at this meeting but also first among the rest of Warren County. According to The Biographical Encyclopedia of New Jersey of the Nineteenth Century, his eloquence was “a kind…nobly adapted to the occasion and not easily resisted, the result being that a company, with him as its Captain was formed by the next night;…(Biographical Encyclopedia of New Jersey, 312), but because the brigade assigned to New Jersey was full, he enlisted in Company D of the First New Jersey Volunteers, rising in rank from private to corporal to sergeant. Governor Olden gave him the authority to raise a three year’s company, and Campbell immediately re-organized his first company so quickly that the company was mustered in on May 28, 1861 as Company E of the Third New Jersey Volunteers. In less than a month, his company became part of the First Brigade and was at the front on the Chickahominy River. According to the source previously cited, “he served at the head of his company and as Acting-Major of the regiment, until he received, on the battle-field of Chantilly, September 2nd, 1862 a commission as Lieutenant-Colonel of the 15th New Jersey Volunteers” (312). He offered his resignation as Captain with the intention of joining his new regiment in Washington which his corps commander refused to accept until the “operation of the command became less active” (312). E.L. himself stated in his memoirs, “I was commissioned as Lieut. Co. 15th N.J. Vols., but General Franklin would not allow experienced officers to leave until after the battle of Antietam”;…His men circulated a petition begging him not to accept this new command; very simply but movingly they wrote:
To Capt. E.L. Campbell
We the undersigned members of 3rd N.J. Vol. feeling, that by tendering your resignation as Capt. Of this Co. we are about to be deprived of a most able & worthy leader and one whose place cannot be filled by any other, do most earnestly request the withdrawal of your resignation, and reunion with us, now when danger is (apparently) so near, hoping when it does come we may prove worthy of our Captain.
Thirteen sergeants and corporals as well as nine privates signed this petition.
In 1863, the officers of the Fifteenth presented Lieutenant Colonel Campbell with a ceremonial sash and collected money to present him with a sword the following year. At the sword ceremony, the best-known speaker of the regiment’s Adelphi Society referred to Campbell as a “brave and humane commander” (Bilby 113). These responses from his men—the emotional plea of the petition and the honor bestowed on Lt. Col. Campbell at the presentation ceremonies--cause us to consider General Campbell’s leadership. What character traits in this citizen-soldier, without benefit of a military education inspired this devotion?
On August 13th 1862 [The source above states September 2nd] he was commissioned Lieutenant Colonel of the Fifteenth Regiment, New Jersey Volunteers; October 19th 1864 he was made Colonel, by brevet, of United States Volunteers for conspicuous gallantry; February 16th 1865 he was commissioned Colonel of the Fourth Regiment, New Jersey Volunteers; April 9th 1865, he was commissioned Brigadier General, United States Volunteers, by brevet. General Campbell served throughout the war in the Army of the Potomac, and participated in all the battles and skirmishes in which the First New Jersey Brigade was engaged. He led his men in thirty battles; among these were Fredricksburg, Winchester, Opequan, Salem Heights, Spottsylvania, Fisher’s Hill, Gettysburg, Cold Harbor, Cedar Creek, Rappahanock Station, and Petersburg. “Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Campbell had come out of the battle of McClellan’s Maryland campaign with honor, and joined the 15th Regiment on the march to Bakersville. Here, upon the sickness of Colonel Fowler, he took command, which he held during most of the time the regiment was in the service, leading it in nearly every great battle in which it participated” ( Biographical Encyclopedia, 313). The chaplain of the regiment, Alanson Haines wrote: “No body of troops could have gained the honorable record belonging to this regiment without a good commander. There was one man with whom the regiment was always identified; who led it in thirty conflicts; who shrunk from no danger himself; and endured uncomplainingly his share of privation and toil (Fifteenth Regiment New Jersey Volunteers, 319).
His military record is best recorded by General Campbell’s personal memoirs in which he gives a detailed account of his service:
“When McClellan went to Yorktown in the spring of 1862, we were one of two stations south of Manassas Junction; Div. detached from the 1st Corps and sent to Yorktown; as soon as York River was opened, sent on our transports to head of York River, where we had battle; here joined by ‘Baldy’ Smith’s division and organized as the provisional 6th Corps; served with McClellan through all his campaign before Richmond and the battle thereof to Harrison’s Landing. I was commissioned as Lieut. Col 15th N.J. Vols., but General Franklin would not allow experienced officers to leave until after the battle of Antietam; served through four battles in the rank of captain with Lieut. Col.’s commission in my pocket.
When we reached Alexandra from Harrrison’s Landing, Washington had lost communication with Pope’s army; next morning our Brig. put on cars and sent south to drive away guerrillas, mend the telegraph wires and find Pope’s rear; struck Stonewall Jackson’s corps near Manassas Junction; attacked it boldly with three regiments and got badly beaten; this was the beginning of the fighting known as the second Bull Run and the only brigadier of the 6th under fire. I showed Gen. Phil Kearney over the ground at Chantilly a few minutes before he was killed and was of course at the battle; the 6th Corps had got so far toward Bull Run.
McClellan took command again; I was with him at South Mountain, Antietam, and until relieved by Burnside; with the latter at Fredericksburg and ‘the mud march’; with Hooker at second Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville (Salem Church); with Meade at Gettysburg and from that time until the end of he war, except while detached with Sheridan in the Shenandoah valley; struck the enemy (Early’s army) at the head of Seventh Street at Washington, and campaigned with Sheridan through the battles of Winchester, Fisher’s Hill (where my brigadier led the charge) and Cedar Creek, until Early’s rebel army was finally disposed of; then sent back to Meade before Petersburg and with him to Appomattox. When Lee surrendered, I was at the head of the column of the Army of the Potomac.
General Campbell continued:
“Was twice wounded (Antietam and Cedar Creek), but was in the fighting line again before any more fighting was going on; five times had horse shot (South Mountain, Crampton’s Gap, Antietam, Spottsylvania Court House on the 8th of May and the ‘bloody angle’ on the 12th and in one skirmish in the Shenandoah Valley; don’t know how many battles and minor fights I was in, never undertook to count them up; commanded brigade at Winchester (Opequan), Fisher’s Hill, Cedar Creek and Hatcher’s Run.”
E.L., as our family affectionately calls him, stated in his memoirs:
“I showed Gen. Phil Kearny over the ground at Chantilly a few minutes before he was killed….” One source described Kearney’s last moments as follows: “Kearny decided to investigate a gap in the Union line and dismissively responded to the warnings of a subordinate [possibly E.L.?] with, ‘The Rebel bullet that can kill me has not yet been molded’. Subsequently, riding into Confederate troops, Kearny ignored a demand to surrender and while attempting to escape, a single bullet penetrated the base of his spine, killing him instantly.”
In addition to serving in the brigade under General Kearny, General Campbell was also with McClellan in the Peninsula Campaign. He was wounded twice, once in the head at Antietam, and more seriously at Cedar Creek. According to The Biographical Encyclopedia of New Jersey of the Nineteenth Century, “In this battle he was severely wounded, the incident bringing into strong relief not merely his coolness but the devotion of his men”. (312). John Foster said in his book, New Jersey and the Rebellion:
“During the action, Colonel Campbell was struck by a bullet which shattered his left arm, but he kept command until the greatest danger was over, when, weak from the loss of blood, he was forced to mount an orderly’s horse and leave the field. The word flew along the line ‘Colonel Campbell is wounded’, and even in the excitement of the hour the men turned from the observation of the enemy to follow him with their eyes. As he rode away, he lifted his uninjured hand and motioned to them which they interpreted to mean, ‘Hold on’ ” (851). He was brevetted Colonel on October 19, 1864 for “conspicuous gallantry” in this battle.
In 1880, William S. Sharp, Printer and Stereotyper published General Campbell’s “Historical Sketch of the Fifteenth Regiment, New Jersey Volunteers, First Brigade, First Division, Sixth Corps.” In it, General Campbell said that its [the regiment’s] history is that of the famous “Sixth Corps”—than which, probably, no corps ever did more hard fighting and effective service, or achieved a more enviable fame. (6).” He narrated those incidents in which the 15th distinguished itself from “the general mass” -other regiments- “by position, or by special acts of endurance and courage.” He discussed the action of his men in the following battles: Fredericksburg, Dec. 13, 1862; the Heights above Fredericksburg, May 1863; Gettysburg, in which his men did an historic forced march and were re-enforcements under Little Roundtop; the Wilderness, May 4, 1864; Spottslyvania and Bloody Angle, May 12, 1864; Winchester, August 17, 1864; Opequan, September 19, 1864; Cedar Creek, October 19, 1864. Excerpts from “Historical Sketch” are included here; General Campbell wrote:
“It received its baptism of fire at the disastrous battle of Frederickburg, December 13, 1862. On the morning of the 12th, the division crossed the Rappahannock at Franklin’s Crossing, below the town, and advanced over the broad plain toward the high ground beyond, under cover of a dense fog, to ‘find the enemy’ whose position, below the town, could not be seen—the Fifteenth on the right of the line. Just before reaching ‘Deep Run,’ the enemy discovered the advance, and opened with their heavy guns from the Heights to the right and front. The long line of a full regiment did not waver in the least, though new to the field of battle, and saluted suddenly, for the first time, with the terrifying explosions of shells from guns of large calibre. Carefully observed, they seemed to be nerved and animated by the presence of danger. Patriotic resolve and high moral courage—which had brought them to the field—mantled to their brows. Their commander [here he refers to himself] then, and ever after, knew and trusted his command (7).”
Joe Bilby stated that by August 17, 1864, “the Fifteenth was now a burnt out, patched up regiment, yet it had demonstrated a resilience and inner toughness that made it go on and on” (170). Near Winchester, Lt. Col Campbell found himself in a tight squeeze, coming too close to the enemy when, in a heavy fog and shouting orders to his men, he realized his predicament, for those shadowy figures were doing the opposite of his orders: he was commanding the enemy.
“It was hard to tell friend from foe as Lieutenant Colonel Campbell, on the right of the Pike, rode to and from inside an increasingly diminished perimeter, trying to keep control of a situation where structure and logic no longer applied. As he rounded the corner of a mill on the left of his now truncated line, Campbell shouted to some shadows climbing over a fence, ordering them to rally in a graveyard to his rear. When they started shooting at him, coming over the fence in increasing numbers, he spurred his horse to the rear, half in the saddle and half out, hunched against the pursuing bullets” (173).
This is how General Campbell narrated the incident in “Historical Sketch”; throughout the entirety of the report, never referring to himself in first person: “ In the darkness the men sometimes became intermingled with the enemy, a Union officer, at one time, assuming command of a rebel regiment” (14). To reiterate: that Union officer was General Campbell. In a third source, General Campbell describes in animated and humorous detail the same incident which he told more succinctly in “Historical Sketch”. Alanson Haines quoted General Campbell in “History of the Fifteenth Regiment New Jersey Volunteers: “The problem with us was as serious as it was simple: how to hold up the right and obstruct the advance until the Fourth and Tenth, toward the left, could find out the situation and get safely out. There was but one thing that could be done—to rally the skirmish line on the right from one stone fence to another and hold it up to its work as tenaciously as possible. This was done, and the ground between the creek and the city was contested until about 11 o’clock at night. It required hard work on the part of the officers, as well as the steady and stubborn courage of veterans….It was not without its amusing incidents: One officer, [here, General Campbell refers to himself in third person] moving rapidly from the right in the process of rallying and re-forming the broken line, passed around the corner of the mill, and there found men just getting over the fence. He proceeded to instruct them where to reform, pointing out a stone fence and a small graveyard nearby. Before he had proceeded far with his instructions, more men got over than he had on his whole line, and what was even more to the point, they fired the wrong way. He took the hint and went back. I have often thought since, that a picture would be worth preserving of this officer [Campbell was referring to himself] getting back and around the corner of that mill, seated on a new, untrained horse, as badly scared as himself, his whole weight in one stirrup, both hands pulling at the rein, and both spurs in vigorous use. Many of the men became mingled with the enemy in the partial darkness, and many similarly humorous incidents occurred. It was a weird and impressive sight to see the sharp outlines of fire as the darkness increased, and the shadowy forms of the advancing and retiring men (243).
But General Campbell acquired a more somber, serious tone when he spoke about the action at Gettysburg; he stated that in pursuing the “flying rebel army through Pennsylvania, Maryland, and down the Katoctin valley back to the line of the Rappahannock; again on the advance up the Orange and Alexandria Railroad nearly to its crossing of the Rapidan, the Fifteenth reached the farthest point of any regiment”. His men took up the pontoon bridge in the face of the enemy—"a delicate and difficult service, executed without loss in a driving rain” (9).
Another example of the bravery of the 15th NJ Volunteers occurred May 8th, 1864 at Spottsylvania Court House; this is how General Campbell described the heroism of his men:
“…the Fifteenth, with the Third was selected to make an assault on the enemy, and develop his position and strength. No charge was ever more gallantly delivered. With two armies looking on, it advanced across an open field; when within about three hundred yards of the front of the wood in which the enemy was posted, it fixed bayonets, and with a line of glittering steel as steady as on dress-parade, dashed up to the rebel position, to find them strongly entrenched and in full force. As far as rifle-shot could reach, upon each flank they opened upon the devoted little band. Notwithstanding the deadly fire, it drove the enemy out of the work in its front,…”. (10).
In describing the battle of Opequan—known as the battle of Winchester, General Campbell narrated the action thus: “Sheridan’s army forced the enemy some distance from their position, but the impetus of the assault being broken by an obstinate resistance, the Union lines retired a short distance, and pushed forward on a double-quick, across a ravine, to take position of a hill and obstruct their advance, whilst the lines were being reorganized. It was a perilous duty gallantly discharged . One of our division commanders said the movement saved the day” (14). General Campbell ended his report, “Historical Sketch” by paying tribute to the men he commanded; his writing style changed from matter-of- fact narration to lyricism and his tone was one of pride “…it [15th NJ Vols] always did its duty. In the long marches, by night and day, in summer’s heat and winter’s cold, through loamy mud and mucky swamp, in rain and snow, over frozen hummocks or glaze of ice, burdened with arms, ammunition, rations, accoutrements and equipments, often pressed to the limit of human endurance, it was always in its place, and cheerfully responded to the word of command. In the numerous minor fights and skirmishes, which often try the soldier more than the general engagement, it did what was expected of it. In the death-grapples of army with army, from 1862 to 1865, it bore the stars and stripes with honor and distinction. No regiment fought with more tenacious courage, or presented a more steady and unbroken front to the foe. Where the fire was hottest, the charge most impetuous, the resistance most stubborn, the carnage most fearful, it was found. It was never ordered to take a position that it did not reach it. It was never required to hold a post that it did not hold it. It never assaulted a line of the enemy that it did not drive it. It never charged a rebel work that it did not breach it. Whatever might be the general result, the Fifteenth New Jersey Volunteers always performed the part assigned it” (16 ).
On October 19, 1880—the sixteenth anniversary of the battle of Cedar Creek—a reunion was held in Hackettstown, New Jersey for the surviving veterans of the Fifteenth Regiment, New Jersey Volunteers. One of the speakers that day was Rev. Alanson Haines, chaplain of the regiment, who wrote History of the Fifteenth New Jersey Volunteers, a moving account of all that the soldiers endured. In his speech at this anniversary-reunion, Rev. Haines recounted the regiment’s involvement at Gettysburg: “…we were hurried along the Potomac to join the First New Jersey Brigade, in the First Division of the Sixth Corps….Torbert commanded the Brigade, Brooks the Division and Sedgwick the Corps….On the 2nd of July, 1863, the regiment, by a forced march of thirty-five miles in sixteen hours reached Gettysburg. It was the critical moment of the whole war. This was the turning of the struggle. Lee had shown masterly powers in penetrating so far into the North, and now Philadelphia or Baltimore would shortly be at his mercy and all the disaffected elements of the Northern States would hasten to hail his coming. The arrival of the Sixth Corps was the saving of the country” (“Reunion” 15-16).
According to the Gettysburg Order of Battle, Campbell led the Third New Jersey Regiment, and in a telephone interview with Mr. Troy Harmon at Gettysburg National Park, Mr. Harmon said that these New Jerseymen were reinforcements under Little Round Top; he stated that a Confederate general had commended a Confederate regiment for doing a forced march which he—the Confederate general noted— was the finest forced march this general had ever witnessed, but Mr. Harmon pointed out that the Third New Jersey outdid this Confederate forced march in time and in distance.
General Campbell was famous—or infamous—as a disciplinarian and as a drill sergeant for which, at first, he was disliked; in fact, the Sussex Register had this to say of him: “Col. Campbell is not so popular in the regiment as he might be, from the fact that he is disposed to work the men too hard” (qtd. Bilby 45), but his men came to realize that it was this discipline which made the regiments he commanded so effective. Many of his men agreed with a soldier who wrote, “if we ever go into a fight, we want to go under Col. Campbell” (Gottfried 104). During the fall campaign of 1863 and the winter of 1864, Lieutenant Colonel Campbell left the Fifteenth, this time to command the Fourth. Soldier Lucien Voorhees stated “We are sorry to be derived…of so valuable an officer. He has won the admiration and good will of his men for his attention to them in camp and undaunted bravery on the field of battle” (148).
In General Campbell’s summary of the Fifteenth’s military service, “Historical Sketch of the Fifteenth Regiment, New Jersey Volunteers, First Brigade, First Division, Sixth Corps”, one can only imagine the exhilaration General Campbell felt—and which he describes in the following excerpt—when he witnessed his men do exactly as he had trained them in drills and as he now commanded them at the Bloody Angle. He wrote in “Historical Sketch”: …the Fifteenth Regiment was positioned on the extreme right of the front line. It was placed in a position, in a wood of low pines, by a superior officer [General Campbell—modestly, he does not refer to himself in first person] in a drizzling rain. At the order to charge, it dashed gallantly forward with bayonets fixed, and trailed to escape the low branches into the narrow strip of open ground, upon the opposite margin of which was the rebel intrenched line, covered with an abatis of slashed brush. Its line being very oblique to that of the enemy, it was compelled to execute a half-wheel, under a most murderous fire. Again, it dashed forward, carried the work at the point of the bayonet, and with some actual bayonet fighting,( a very unusual thing), captured a stand of colors and all the rebels who did not fall or run” (12). Of all the blood and gore that General Campbell witnessed, a grim, oppressive detail “was the trench, at least three feet deep, and in places where Confederate soldiers had died, a pavement of mud was placed so that the enemy could continue the fight by standing on top of their dead comrades” (12). In 1913—the year of General Campbell’s death—New Jersey commissioned a monument to the memory of these brave New Jerseymen at Spotsylvania. It reads: “Erected by the State of New Jersey to mark the portion of the Confederate line held by the 14th Georgia Regiment and assaulted May 12th 1864, by the 15th Regiment New Jersey Volunteer Infantry commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Edward L. Campbell. Engaged 429; Loss 116 killed; 159 wounded; 38 missing.” General Campbell died in November 28, 1913, and one might wonder that, if before he died, did he know he had been honored in such a way by his home state?
The Biographical Encyclopedia of New Jersey of the Nineteenth Century states that General Campbell “served in the Army of the Potomac, at the front throughout the war, from Bull Run to Appomattox, never missing a battle, and, with a single exception, never missing a skirmish; never so much as three months altogether, even when wounded;…” (313). The reason for his absence of several months was to attend the funeral of his mother, Nancy Jackson Campbell and oversee family matters. He was brevetted Brigadier-General on April 9, 1865 for “gallant and meritorious services”. In a letter dated Feb 22nd 1866 and sent from Major-General H.G. Wright to the adjutant General of the U.S. Army in Washington, Wright said this about E.L.,: “As Gen’l Campbell was connected with the 6th Corps when I first joined it, and continued his connection with it till the Army of the Potomac was disbanded, I had frequent opportunities for observing him, both in the camp and on the battlefield where he showed himself to be a well-instructed and intelligent officer, zealous of his duties, and as brave as the bravest. Indeed, I know of no officer more deserving for his service, or better fitted by education and gentlemanly qualities…”.
Between February 1865 until June 30th, he was Judge Advocate General of the Army of the Potomac, a position he held until the war was over. In a rather self-effacing way, E.L. stated: “Immediately after Hatcher’s Run for some reason never known to myself, was detailed as Judge Advocate of the Army of the Potomac on General Meade’s staff and so served until the fighting was over.”
Another example of E.L.’s self-effacing sense of humor was how he described meeting General Phil Sheridan:
Seeing what appeared to be a troop of cavalry about to make its way through the column, between the Fifteenth and the regiment in front of it, thus increasing its interval and interfering with the leg-weary men in the hard task of keeping ‘closed up,’ I put spurs to my horse and dashed back toward the little chap at the head of it, with both tongue and teeth ready charged with a message designed to let him know, in terms easily understood, my opinion of such a proceeding. Just before opening on him, I noticed a pair of stars on his shoulders and the headquarters flag of Phil Sheridan. I did not deliver the message (Haines, qtd. In Gottfried 205).
On Oct 18th, 1880-- the sixteenth anniversary of the Battle of Cedar Creek-- a reunion of veterans-comrades was held at Hackettstown, New Jersey; both General Campbell and Rev. Alanson Haines—the chaplain for the regiment referenced previously—were guest speakers. Both by what Rev. Haines said about Campbell in his speech and in his book History of the Fifteenth Regiment New Jersey Volunteers as well as by what General Campbell said in his speech that day, the reader can infer what contributed to General Campbell’s able leadership; perhaps the General reveals himself most poignantly on this occasion when he and his men were assembled again to celebrate their “proud participation” in the battle at Cedar Creek. The theme of General Campbell’s speech was “What it Meant to be a Union Soldier.” Early in his speech, General Campbell cited gruesome statistics: of the original 947 soldiers, 361 were “almost wholly taken;” he cited a mortality rate of 38%. According to The Biographical Encyclopedia of New Jersey, “The records show that his command suffered more than any other New Jersey regiment of the field” (3). Mr. John Kuhl challenged General Campbell’s statistics by explaining “361 the General referenced included those soldiers who died of disease or other causes. Mr. Kuhl stated the official tally for the 15th was 240 deaths from a total enrollment of 1702. Mr. Kuhl referred to William Fox, author of Regimental Losses in the American civil War which recorded that “the total killed and wounded was 856. Of the 947 who originally enlisted, 190 were killed in battle, a mortality rate of 20%. Total deaths included 19 who died in Confederate prisons, and 128 who died of disease or accidents, making the total dead 272. [Note discrepancy with the 240 cited above, perhaps because of the different total enrollment number]. None of these figures includes a few, one of whom died of the effects of diarrhea the day after he was discharged for disability and sent home; these statistics are both realistic and safely supportable” (Kuhl). General Campbell said this of the constitution of his men. In 1862, the regiment spent a month at Bakersville, Maryland “for much-needed drill and discipline—a short time to convert a thousand men fresh from the untrammeled freedom of civil life, strangers to the rigor of military discipline, weaponry and the art of war.” At White Oak Church and after Burnside’s ‘Mud March’, the regiment “spent a dismal winter. Typhoid fever, the enemy which no army can conquer, broke out with distressing virulence, and a considerable number died of disease. In every regiment, there is a somewhat uniform number of constitutions which cannot resist the privations, hardships, excitements and exposures of vigorous warfare. These must be eliminated by death and disability. In some cases the process is gradual; in others, sudden and rapid, as was the case with the Fifteenth, owing to its being suddenly taken from civil life and thrust at once into the severest service, sustained by excitements and courage until the campaign was over, and then dropped into a muddy camp [White Oak Church] in very inclement weather. It was ever afterward free from sickness to a marked degree” (Campbell 8).
General Campbell referred to the loss and suffering of his men in his speech at the sixteenth anniversary of Cedar Creek. He told them: “It was an honor to lead such a body of men, of which any man might well be proud; and… I feel it to be a crown of honor to have led it often into battle”. Rhetorically, he asked his audience of fellow veterans, “Do you regret the act which made you soldiers? In view of all the past; however much it may have entailed upon you of loss and suffering; however much it may have wrecked your plans of life; are you sorry today that you were Union soldiers?” This question to his men—and his response—give us great insight into his character. He continued: “I for one do not regret it. If I could turn back the wheels of time and had a thousand lives to offer, I would lay them all on the same altar. What was it to be a Union soldier? I would magnify your appreciation of yourselves. I fear you do not do this” (Reunion” 8).
Because he wasn’t self-promoting, he may not be well known today, so historians, and thus, America, cannot value what General Campbell has done. He wanted to impress upon his comrades the realization of what they had accomplished—he wanted his men to understand the magnificence of their service to the Union cause. “I would magnify your appreciation of yourselves”, he said in this speech. The purpose of this discussion is to do the same for General Campbell: to magnify history’s understanding of, and appreciation for, General Edward Livingston Campbell.
Several sources indicated that General Campbell did not seek publicity for himself; John Foster, author of New Jersey and the Rebellion stated:
“Frequently detached for special service requiring courage, coolness, and fertility of resource, he never failed to justify the expectations of his superiors. But he was not an officer to ‘shine’ alongside of self-seeking, scheming men, more solicitous to head the columns of newspapers than columns of attack; his tendency was directly to the opposite extreme; and he was no doubt less widely known and appreciated than some who, by no means his equals in merit, yet managed by adroit manipulations of newspaper correspondents, to obtain more frequent mention and a broader celebrity.”
The Biographical Encyclopedia stated: “what perhaps is most remarkable, never asking a promotion or encouraging a friend to ask it for him” (313).
His eloquence, his modesty as well as his magnanimity also earned the loyalty and respect of his men. He was, to quote Winston Churchill, ‘magnanimous in victory,’ for General Campbell said this about the Confederacy:
“Eleven millions of our people became dissatisfied. Let us speak no harsh words of them. They were descended from the same patriotic fathers; they were bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh; their country was our country and their God our God. Let us have malice toward none of them and charity for all (“Reunion” 12).
General Campbell’s explanation of the “grand issue” (13) of the Civil War offers insight into what motivated him, the depth or intensity of his conviction to an ultimate Union victory over the South. In his speech, he stated: “It was not merely the preservation of the Union as so commonly represented. That alone would have been a sared and sufficient cause…..It was not the destruction of slavery as some thought and even yet seem to think. That was one of the results—a grand and glorious result. No one can estimate its importance higher than myself, but it was not one of the purposes for which we took up arms against our brothers….Many of the best of our people failed to grasp the gravity, the immensity of the crisis….It was not these considerations that made you Union soldiers. It was more than these, immeasurably more.” General Campbell believed that if our country had been torn apart, it would have been “clear proof to all the world that the great experiment of free government was a failure;…” (“Reunion” 12). His commitment—his personal defense of liberty-- was not just for our country but for the whole world and for generations to come. General Campbell stated: If the South had won, “the accumulated results of a thousand years of self-sacrifice in the cause of human liberty was to be lost….The grand issue [of the Civil War] was the right and capacity of man for self-government” (“Reunion” 13).
Would that our current leaders in government as well as teachers of political science and military history have access to General Campbell’s inspiring words. His speech is a stirring reminder that democracy was dearly won and must be vigilantly guarded, protected and defended. His passion to preserve American democracy carried over to peace time as well, for he authored two books, The Science of the Law According to the American Theory of Government (Franklin
Classics Trade Press) and Defiance of the Law. In the Preface to the former, he wrote:
“The fathers of our Republic adopted a definite theory in the construction of the political institutions under which we live.” [In the century since the Revolutionary War, no serious attempt has been made of] “a comprehensive, logical [explanation] of the system of jurisprudence so established.” He refers to “adverse theories” of the time, to the “surprise” and “regret” of the ‘watchdogs’ like himself. The appearance of these “adverse theories” was the purpose of his book as well as the education of citizens on American law. “Good government can exist only where such knowledge and observance are general among the electoral body….no child should be allowed to grow up without a thorough knowledge of them.”
No child should be allowed to grow up without a knowledge of American soldiers and the wars in which they fought, soldiers like General Edward Livingston Campbell who risked every happiness in this life so that we might have every opportunity to achieve ours….
It would seem that his superiors wanted to honor General Campbell for his brave leadership because he was at the head of the column of the Army of the Potomac when General Lee surrendered at Appomattox. After the war, Campbell worked hard to secure the pensions of veterans—including that of my great-great grandfather, his brother Eleazer Campbell— but a great irony was that he struggled mightily to secure his own, as his military documents attest. He had successful law practices in Trenton and in Trinidad, Colorado where he spent the last 30 years of his life. He was the commander of the Department of the New Jersey GAR-Grand Army of the Republic-and later in Trinidad for the Colorado GAR. In 1909, four years before his death, he was honored as the parade marshal of a large GAR encampment in southeastern Colorado. An article published in the May 18th 1909 issue of the Trinidad Chronicle-News stated: “General Campbell will be the grand marshal of the pageant, an old warrior whose name is written in bold letters on every page of Civil War history”. The Chronicle-News also reported that as parade marshal, General Campbell rode a spirited black horse that seemed to prance when it heard the bands play military music; at age 76, he could still handle a lively horse.
One year after General Campbell’s death, the members of the Las Animas County Bar Association held a meeting to commemorate the lives of their colleagues who had passed away the previous year. What was said about General Campbell will be included here, this from The Chronicle-News, Sept. 1, 1914, another source which informs us more about him.
“A resolution memorial to General E.L. Campbell was read by F.M. Tipton, and Robert T. Yeaman responded with an address that was a splendid effort. Mr. Yeaman enjoyed a personal friendship with the deceased. To him had the soldierly old gentleman often confided and with simple yet affective eloquence, Mr. Yeaman related incidents of his acquaintance with the General replete as they were with pathos and human interest, not unmixed also with humor. The lights and shadows that play alternately upon the pathway of a man of learning had cast their fantastic figures over the life road of the deceased and it was with a tender word touch that Mr. Yeaman reviewed the earthly pilgrimage of the great man.”
Address by Hon. R.T. Yeaman Gen. E.L. Campbell
“It was my fortune to know our departed friend, General E.L. Campbell quite well. For several years we occupied adjoining offices, and afterwards, I spent many an evening with him at his little house where he resided.
I understand that General Campbell was a direct descendant of the famous Campbells of Scotland. He was a lawyer of the old school, of which we cherish so many fond traditions and pleasant memories. He not only had profound learning in the law, but he was also a scholar of many attainments, well-versed in his beloved Greek and Latin, devotedly fond of Plato, Homer, Dante and Goethe, thoroughly familiar with the works of Darwin, Wallace and Spencer, and deeply versed in the doctrines of philosophers, both ancient and modern. Naturally he had been a reader of Shakespeare, of Milton and other famous English poets.
As a soldier he had a proud record. He was officially commended for distinguished services and bravery and gallantry during the Civil War and he achieved the distinction of a Brigadier Generalship. He had, before moving to Colorado, served several times as City Attorney of the capital city of New Jersey. He was author of a work entitled “Science of Law” [sic].
He lived to the ripe age of almost eighty-one years and he died as he had wished to die, without the helplessness of preliminary sickness which would require attendance upon him. He feared no man nor did he fear death; to the contrary in his later years he looked forward to the Great Change with a calm expectation—sometimes almost tinted with wistfulness for the arrival of the appointed hour, feeling that the days of his greatest usefulness here had already run and desiring to learn the mysteries veiled beyond the grave.
Often, [General Campbell] talked with me of the Hereafter, and favored me with his speculations in regard thereto. As I recall some of them were substantially the following: He did not believe that as death found men in morals and intelligence accordingly will their character be stamped and their conditions fixed for eternity. He held that our education and our development, starting from the level we had attained in this life, would be influenced by our conduct and efforts after death. Regarding the mysteries to be unfolded to us in the endless time of our immortality, he was convinced that during our mortal existence we must remain uninformed, that we would not have the mental grasp to comprehend in this life even though all was unfolded before us. And he qualified his speculations by observing that probably when we pass through the portal of death we shall find conditions so unexpected from all we had imagined, that amazement will possess us and as infants we shall at first be at a loss to understand the change and the conditions of our spiritual existence. The conclusion of his philosophy on these topics was that he who did good works here had nothing to fear as to the Hereafter. He acknowledged the benefit of prayer—of the supplication springing untrammeled from the soul. He believed in righteousness for righteousness sake, not for the mere sake of hoping for future reward, and he held that an intentional wrong act necessarily became abhorrent to him who persisted in seeking the right way. He was convinced that in the life to come, the man of good deeds here
would have over the man of evil, such an immeasurable start and advantage as to be appalling to the one who had misspent his mortal life. But he charitably opined that according to our natural gifts and environment and opportunities and as we had striven for light and righteousness, even in such measure would we be judged and prepared for our future existence.
General Campbell never married, having neither wife nor children he was little prone to the anxieties that at times affect men who have mates and hostages to fortune for whom to care and provide.
Our departed friend delighted in intellectual controversy. He always had a foil with which to attack his adversary’s argumentative demonstrations and offset his academic assaults. As in war, so in argument, the imperious desire to prevail over his adversary in some degree justified with him the means of accomplishment. In the heat of contest he could substitute ridicule for logic. He was not addicted to the mincing of words—with him a heart was a RED heart and a pot a BLACK pot. He indulged in few flowers of speech but he was intense in his earnestness and a conviction once arrived at was with him as unchangeable as the law of the Medes and Persians. He had a robust sense of humor and was not averse to a little intellectual juggling of words and phrases with those whom he could not be thereby misled. If he could confuse an opponent by an entanglement of words and ideas, it caused him to be merry, and I can imagine that it might have been him who said ‘What is mind? No matter. What is matter? Never mind. What is the soul? It is immaterial.’ “
[Mr. Yeaman continued:] “My old friend General Campbell never wholly revealed himself to his most intimate friend. I know not why he never married. Concerning that subject a little incident happened at my home perhaps a dozen years ago after he had dined with us, and my second daughter, then a little child, laid her hand upon a locket attached to his watch-chain and their conversation as I recall it was about as follows:
‘What is inside?’ the child asked.
‘A picture of one I knew,’ he answered.
‘Let me see it,’ demanded the child with the curiosity of her age and of her sex.
‘I cannot,’ he answered.
‘Why not?’ she asked.
He answered, ‘Because it is sealed.’
She asked, ‘When did you seal it?’
He replied, ‘About forty years ago.’
‘Why did you seal it?’ she asked.
‘This is not to be told.’ He answered.
Then she persisted, ‘Why won’t you open it?’
And again he replied, “That is not to be told.’
He told me that he wanted not to be mourned after death, but only to be remembered with pleasant appreciation by those who had known him.
Our departed friend craved here below neither office nor adulation. He never expressed a desire for that which he did not have. The contest of others for gain and preferment influenced not the contentment of his way. He was inclined to regard their anxious rivalry as,
The worldly hope men set their hearts upon
Turns ashes—or it prospers; and anon,
Like snow upon the Desert’s dusty face,
Lighting a little hour or two—is gone.
Closing By Judge A. W. McHendrie
….It was not my privilege to enjoy an intimate professional acquaintance with General Campbell. He had retired from active practice before I had tried my first case, but in common with the entire citizenship of this community, I knew the old gentleman, and the record of his long and useful life, and the high standard of his professional activities is necessarily a part of the knowledge of anyone in the least familiar with the history of this bar and community. He was a lawyer of the old school, dignified and scholarly. The same courage and patriotism which impelled him in the flower of his youth, to consecrate to the preservation of the Union, his talents and his vigor, characterized his work in his profession. By his life and his achievements, he demonstrated that a good soldier is necessarily a good citizen. He gave bravely and cheerfully the best years of his young manhood to preserve his country’s honor, and with equal courage and like fidelity lived a life of unswerving devotion and obedience to his country’s laws. The word of his demise did not carry with it the shock which accompanies the death of one in early or middle life, for his was a greater span of years than ordinarily is vouchsafed to man, yet it is with difficulty that we are reconciled to the loss to this bar and this community.
This meeting, in August, 1914 among the lawyers of the Las Animas County Bar Association, and held to honor the lives of their colleagues who had died the previous year, 1913, ended with a memoriam for each. This was General Campbell’s:
IN MEMORIAM
General Edward L. Campbell
“With heavy hearts and under the shadow of deep affliction we have been assembled again in the presence of death around the bier of a departed bother and performed the last sad rites over his remains.
General Edward L. Campbell, a member of the Colorado bar, has heard the summons of the Great Reaper and is no more.
On the 28th day of November, 1913, at his home in Trinidad, Colo., unexpectedly to us, and apparently without a struggle, went out from among us and passed away from the busy scenes of life forever. His long and active life filled with noble deeds, great accomplishments and crowned with the admiration of his fellow men has been terminated at the full tide of its greatest development. Having reached the full measure of four score years he seemed to enjoy immunity from the infirmities of time almost to the hour of his dissolution.
General Campbell was born at Belvidere, Warren County, New Jersey, on February 2, 1833. He was practicing law at Belvidere at the commencement of the Civil War. He enlisted as a private on the 18th day of April, 1861, at the first call for volunteers. He was the first man to enlist from Warren County, New Jersey. He served continuously to the end of the war. By gallant and meritorious service he rose from a private to the rank of brigadier general. It was only a short time after his enlistment that the qualities of his young manhood were put to the severest test at the battlefield of Bull Run. Faithfully and bravely did he do his duty. Twice was he wounded—once at Antietam and once at Cedar Creek, and was in the battle of Gettysburg. He served for a time as judge advocate on the staff of General Mead and was with General McClellan in the Peninsula campaign. He served with great distinction in the Eastern army from the beginning to the end of the war and was in many of the battles fought from Bull Run to Appomattox. He was present when General Lee surrendered. After the war he was commander of the Grand Army of the Republic for the department of New Jersey.
Therefore, BE IT RESOLVED, By the Bar Association of Las Animas County, Colorado:
First. That we have heard with profound sadness of the death of our brother, General Edward L. Campbell.
Second. That in the death of General Campbell the bar has lost one of its ablest members, one highly learned in the law, who was efficient and successful in the practice. He was a man of much intellectual power and was possessed of an indomitable energy and will. As a citizen he was enterprising and industrious, as a man he was kind, generous and good and as a soldier he gave his young and vigorous energies to the cause of his country.
Third. That he was ever ready to aid in the cause of the weak or oppressed and was always solicitous to bestow out of his abundant experience the good counsel so often needed by his younger brothers.
Fourth. That these resolutions be filed with the clerk of the district court and that he be requested to enter the same on the records of said court.
— F.M. Tipton, A.C. McChesney, A. F. Hollenbeck, Committee
Most of the discussion so far relates to General Campbell’s leadership and the actions of his soldiers on the battlefield, including the high regard his men and superiors, as well as his colleagues, had for him; our family does not have a lot of information about his personal life with the exception of several letters, including those he wrote to his sister Emmeline as well as two letters he wrote to his niece Jessie Randolph, daughter of his other sister, Lydia Campbell Randolph.
In a letter to Emmeline, dated October 5th, 1861, E.L.C.-- as he refers to himself in the closing—stated,
”A few little incidents which happened occasionally are quite interesting and will be amusing when I come to tell them to my grandchildren. The last time I was out—we go out two companies at a time for 3 days—I had for a day or so a little family consisting of two of the prettiest little girls you ever saw. A mother—a lady (very much of a lady)--came in one rainy night, half scared to death. Said she had run away from the rebels who had occupied her house for a long time, had two more sick daughters at home and hadn’t seen her husband for five weeks. Her son had been taken out of a sick bed and taken off, together with her servants. She wanted to come inside of our lines, and of course I granted it. She wanted to go back and get her two sick daughters, and it being dark and muddy, left her children, 5 and 7 years old, with me. She didn’t get back, being captured by the rebels. What to do with my two little wards, I didn’t know, but made a nice bed for them in an old deserted negro house before a large fireplace, built up a large fire, put a guard over them and the little things slept there as snug as two little mice all night. The next day they stayed with me and seemed to be right well satisfied, but I had to disposed myself of them by putting them in charge of a woman near Cloud’s Mills.
In 1863, at the sword ceremony to honor him, the best-known speaker of the regiment’s Aldephi Society said that General Campbell was a brave and humane commander (Bilby 113) and the incident which he narrated above attests to his kindness, tenderness and compassion.
The regiment’s spiritual leader was Alanson Haines, whose description of General Campbell began this discussion. There was a mutual respect between the two. Frequently, they risked their lives to attend to those wounded, suffering and dying on the battlefield. Campbell stated: “The night [after Chancellorville] was spent in caring for and removing the wounded. The Fifteenth was one of the very few regiments which succeeded in getting off all their wounded, which was mainly due here, as afterward, to one of the most brave and faithful chaplains, who was ever with his men, in battle as in camp, and serving them with sleepless and tireless vigilance” (Campbell, 9). During the winter of 1863-64 at Brandy Station, E.L. said this: “The men, under the lead of the chaplain, built a large and commodious house of logs, in which religious services—never intermitted, when possible to be held….This was a great help to the religious and moral tone of the regiment, as well as conducive to its military effectiveness. A ‘Church’ of one hundred and thirty members was organized, and forty-six men were hopefully converted to the Christian faith. The services were interesting and solemn, and were attended by many even from distant camps. Two-thirds of the members of this little church, doubly militant, afterward fell in action, bravely battling for their country and their God. Who will question the usefulness and value of a zealous religious instructor in the ranks of an army on the field (10). General Campbell was as concerned about the spiritual welfare of his men as he was their physical needs.
Regarding General Campbell’s personal life, we have some insight after reading the Las Animas Memorial delivered by his colleagues and friends. What is curious to me is why his opinion about marriage changed throughout the years. He imagined one day being a grandfather with his reference to grandchildren in his letter dated 1861 to his sister Emmeline. Mr. Yeaman said that his daughter was insistent to know the identity of the picture sealed in a locket attached to his watchchain. Mr. Yeaman stated, “My old friend General Campbell never wholly revealed himself to [me], his most intimate friend. I know not why he never married.” E.L. told his daughter that the locket was sealed 40 years ago, and based on Mr. Yeaman’s narration, E.L. would have been about 30 years old. E. L. told the little girl that it contained a “picture of one I knew,” and he replied twice to her questions of why he had sealed it and why he wouldn’t open it, with: “This is not to be told.” I am as fascinated as the little girl about the mystery of the locket and the enigma that is General Campbell; although I want to respect his secret, I am curious about his change in his attitude toward marriage. He wrote Emmeline, telling her he anticipated having grandchildren one day; yet in 1913, nine months before his death, he wrote this letter to his niece Jessie; note his sardonic sense of humor.
February 5, 1913
Miss Jessie Randolph and Co.
….There doesn’t seem to be any use in my making good resolutions (or any other kind). Here I have been resolving and resolving for many months, (I guess a year past) that I would write to you on my next birthday, ground-hog day. But ground-hog day came and went and I didn’t get at it. By the way, isn’t it nice to have a famous day for a birthday. It might have been 4th of July, Washington’s birthday or St. Patrick’s Day, but what are they to ground-hog day?
But the importance of last birthday (February 2) was that I got to an Octogenarian. I used to think that was old, but it doesn’t look old now.
Here I am 80—well and in a measure healthy, eat three square meals a day, digestion like an ostrich (I have been afraid my hotel woman would put up the price of my meals) sleep like a top, day or night, smoke my pipe as usual, read fresh magazines an hour or two in the forenoon or two in the afternoon, sleep the rest of the time. I make no unnecessary use of my eyes at night (use candles for light). These are my chief weakness.
Now I have exhausted my resources. Don’t know a thing more to write about.
Nothing has happened here since the date of my last letter whenever that was. I have thought I would have to do something to make some news to write—get married, or some other fool thing. It may surprise you to be told that I have lived all these 80 years without ever in my life having had thought of such a thing as getting married. Have always considered it a humbug—a kind of painted lie—a whited sepulcher full of dead men’s and women’s bones. I suspect you have thought a little the same way.
Here E.L. speaks of marriage as a lie and a waste; recall that in his speech to veteran-comrades on the 16th anniversary of Cedar Creek, he asked his audience: “Do you regret the act [of enlisting] that made you soldiers?...however much it may have wrecked your plans of life?” Was marriage one of E.L’s plans of life wrecked by the Civil War?
As on the battlefield, General Campbell faced old age with calm, courageous stoicsm. Mr. Yeaman said “He lived to the ripe old age of 80 years and he died as he had wished to die, without the helplessness of preliminary sickness which would require attendance upon him. He feared no man nor did he fear death”. In the two letters he wrote to his niece, he described the tenor of his days. From the January 1908 letter, he wrote: My days are so excessively short that breakfast and dinner come close together, and bed time comes before supper, so I go to bed, and when my first sleep is out, about 12-2 a.m., I get up and get my supper. I always keep a coffee-pot, and some first-class coffee in hand; that is the extent of all my cooking—but I roast apples and chestnuts….After smoking my pipe awhile, I get drowsy and go to bed again, to get up in the morning when I get good and ready: generally get ‘over to town’ for my breakfast from 10-noon.
Reading his words makes me feel glad, for after enduring the deprivation, hardship, stress, pain and terror that was the Civil War, he enjoyed a contented, relatively pain-free old age. Regarding his solitude, he told Jessie in the 1908 letter, “It is a bright sunny afternoon, and somebody’s pidgeons are grazing I my back yard. They are great friends of mine, these pidgeons; the only sociable neighbors I have; they have found my backyard a very quiet place, where nobody disturbs them. I have cultivated their friendship & they come to see me everyday….I go out amongst them, and they trust me too much to fly away. They are nice company—would be sorry to lose them.
General Campbell’s letter to his niece Jessie continues:
Just 10 years ago, when I had my second semi-collapse—I pulled down my sign, sold off my law library and paid off all my little debts, made my will; then went to an undertaker and asked him to figure on the job and take a contract. But he wouldn’t do it: said “he always let ‘em get out of the way first; then he could charge what he pleased.” But the Old Man with the scythe didn’t come around, I guess, after being beaten out twice, he was afraid. Now I have made up my mind to live until I am 100. Now I’ll stop this or I’ll be telling you something that isn’t true pretty soon. Besides it is dinnertime. Love to all
Aff. your Uncle,
E.L. Campbell
On November 27 of the same year, General Campbell would be dead.
An obituary described General Campbell in death: “Sitting in his old arm chair in which for years he was accustomed to take his rest, a shawl draped about his shoulders, death sometime Thursday or yesterday entered the house at 725 San Pedro Street and claimed Brigadier General Edward L. Campbell, one of the best known Civil War veterans of Colorado. The general was found dead this morning by neighbors who became alarmed at not having seen him about the place. His body lay fully dressed upon the floor. The shawl covered him. The chair in which he had been resting was broken. General Campbell, venerable in appearance, has been a familiar figure on the streets [of Trinidad] for years. He lived alone in the house on San Pedro street where he lived.”
The Dec 18, 1913 edition of the Trinidad Chronicle News wrote: “Having reached the full measure of four score years, he seemed to enjoy immunity from the infirmities of time almost to the hour of his dissolution.”
After learning about General Campbell’s patriotic military service and record, about his opinions which come down to us in his speech as well as his ideas about government which he published in two books-- by reading the Las Animas Bar Association’s tribute to him in the 1914 memorial as well as his letters to family, --his accomplishments, his character, his personality—all warrant the attention of historians, scholars and students. Because of the North’s victory over the South, the Union was preserved, and General Campbell played an integral part in both. He was a patriot who took inspiration from both his maternal and paternal grandfathers; Lt. Eleazar Jackson fought in the Revolutionary War under Chase, and his paternal grandfather, Dan Campbell was a Royalist at first, but switched his loyalty to the Revolutionaries.
This discussion will end the way it began, with Alansan Haines’ tribute to General Campbell. “If the 15th [New Jersey Regiment] ever performed any efficient service for the country, or by its conduct reflected any honor upon New Jersey, it was due more to Edward L. Campbell than any other man. His bravery, integrity, capacity, and diligence, stamped the regiment with a character whose value was known in many critical junctures and hard-fought battles” (Haines, qtd. In Foster, 851). Of General Campbell, Mr. Joe Bilby wrote in his book Three Rousing Cheers that “Campbell would become one of the most respected officers in the Fifteenth,…” (20). What is so remarkable about Edward L. Campbell is what his great-great nephew David Johnson described as a “certain valor in modesty”. General Campbell did not seek recognition for himself, but if he had, he might be much better known today.
That he did not promote himself or ask others to do so on his behalf suggests that in his youth and middle age, he was not concerned about his legacy, yet in his old age, he seemed to be concerned with just that—with how, or whether—he would be remembered.
In a letter dated January 1st, 1908 which he wrote to his niece Jessie Randolph, he mentions three possessions: his old watch which, he said, “I purchased it just before the outbreak of our Civil War, which you may have heard of, and here it is, after going through all those battles from the first Bull Run to Appomattox, keeping as good time as anybody’s watch. It went with the first regiment that was started out for the first battle, and when Lee surrendered, was at the head of the column of the Army of the Potomac, sometime it kept time for us, and sometimes for the Rebels, and finally it ticked off the hour which Meade allowed for Lee to surrender,….I think I will will it to you. You can leave it to your oldest son, and before this century is over, it may inspire one of your descendants to write a ballad about it, like ‘The Sword of Bunker Hill’. The other two possessions he lists are the old family Bible; and his sabre (might it have been the ceremonial sword referenced earlier?). He continued: “Before forgetting the ‘relic business’—I gave the old sabre that I carried through so many battles, and which bore the scars of battle itself—to your brother Will—don’t know what he did with it—but if you could rescue that from loss, and entail it with the old Bible and the old watch, somebody, at sometime, would have a small nucleus for a Museum”. Reading this suggests that General Campbell was concerned about his place in history.
Scholars and students must learn more about him so that this generation—and future generations—will understand what he did for New Jersey, for the Union cause and for democracy. He may not have been widely known to previous generations, overlooked among so many of the officers who led their men in battle fighting to preserve the Union, but given the recent Sesquicentennial of the Civil War, what better time than this for him to come to the attention of more historians. Recognition of what General Campbell has done for this country and for democracy-- recognition long deserved and long overdue---is imperative, so historians and America can value what he has done.