The Gen

The Gen. Alfred T. A. Torbert Memorial
by George Alfred Townsend
Edited excerpts from The Army and Navy Journal, November 13, 1880

The death and funeral of Gen. Alfred Torbert have called the attention of the continent to that old and separated Peninsula on which he was born, who made such mark in the military, social, and diplomatic history of the country.

He was born at the present county seat of Georgetown July 1, 1833. There were three names once common on the Peninsula, which were frequently interchanged, Torbert, Turbutt, and Talbot; they were all pronounced Tawbot. In 1680, Hugh Torbert, of an English family, lived at or near the site of Dover, Delaware. He left considerable estates and his will and family papers are the property of William W. Torbert of Wilmington. His great-grandson, William Torbert, was a merchant at Camden, three miles below Dover, and there was born Jonathan Torbert, the General’s father.

He (General Torbert’s father, Jonathan) was a man of great natural humor and very attractive to young people; in early life he was a private tutor to in the family of Milby---people rather aristocratic in that day---and he married their daughter, Catherine Milby. Her grandmother was a Miss Robinson, of Sussex, a great belle in her period, whose finery is still extant. William Torbert became a pioneer Methodist preacher, and Jonathan Torbert becoming an active Methodist, was lay or local preacher in that church, and spent the greater portion of his life as teller of the bank of Georgetown. He is said to have named his son Alfred Archimedes Torbert, but the General, later in life, abbreviated it to A. T. A. Torbert.

On a corner of the public square at Georgetown, in a house still standing, and which reminds visitors by its shingled exterior, of the old sea captains’ homes on the New England coast, Gen. Torbert first saw the light.

His mother, Catherine A. Milby, was the daughter of Arthur Milby, a prominent man in the county. She had seven children, of whom two, a brother and a sister, survive Gen. Torbert. Doctor C. H. Richards writes of Torbert’s boyhood:

The fine physical appearance of young Torbert attracted the eyes of Judge E. Wooten, still living, and a man of the old style. He went to the member just elected to Congress, George Read Riddle, and obtained the promise from him, while in the midst of the enjoyment of a successful election, to send the son of Jonathan Torbert to West Point. The father was poor and had many children to provide for. A few weeks before General Torbert’s death, on the Third of July, at the first general celebration of our national anniversary ever held in Sussex county, Judge Wooten, now on the Supreme Bench of the State, was seated on Doctor Richard’s porch with the venerable Mrs. Richards, who had been present at his birth, and some of these incidents were told. The opinion was expressed that nothing but General Torbert’s party bias had stood in the way of his going to the United States Senate from Delaware. [Torbert was a Republican –Editor.] On that occasion the General, amid the haunts of his childhood, was the marshal of the first procession that the united people, black and white, had ever beheld as the fruition of his exposures in the war. Though the Presidential nominations had been made and a few important men present had been in the Rebellion, a general concord, like the prevailing sunshine, fell upon the pleasant sandy streets, and the flag of the Union, joyfully accepted by all, festooned the house where the General was born and the rostrum on the public square, and this was perhaps, his last visit to his birthplace.

At West Point Torbert became easily and genially acquainted with his fellow cadets. He held an upright, honorable, and unaggressive character. General John E. Corse, the hero of Allatoona, whose grandfather had been an officer in the Delaware line in the Revolution, was acquainted with Torbert there, and says that his amiable, yet substantial character has always suggested since, the nature of General Jas. B. McPherson, commander of the Army of the Tennessee, who was a part of the same time at the Academy. General W. B. Hazen was a room-mate of Torbert at West Point, and recalls him as a bright, sociable, prompt cadet, who felt that, perhaps, in the future he would have the care of his father’s family and was resolved to make his way as well as might be in the military profession. The Southern influences were powerful if not dominant at West Point while General Torbert was a cadet there. Robert E. Lee, venerated for his military descent and connection with Washington’s family, and influence with General Scott, was superintendent for almost all of Torbert’s term. R. S. Garnett and Wm. H. T. Walker, both killed on the side of Secession, were instructors, as was Fitz John Porter. But Torbert was also taught by George H. Thomas and Jas. B. McPherson, two of purest heroes of the Union cause, and was in a pupil’s intercourse with Seth Williams –whose brains gave way in keeping the vast roster of the Union Armies—with James B. Fry and Doctors Hammond and Barnes. He was the seventeenth and last cadet but one graduated from the State of Delaware before the Rebellion. The Southern cadets, taking their initiative from the audacity of their politicians and the meddlesomeness of slavery, enjoyed the moral regimen that with easy conceit they presumed they had enforced upon the institution, little knowing that in their apparently phlegmatic and negative classmates they were to encounter the qualities that should worry and wear out their utmost fury and brilliancy.

Among the persons at West Point during some of the time Torbert remained there were Henry W. Slocum, David S. Stanley, Jerome N. Bonaparte, Gen. L. Hartsuff, A. McD. McCook, George Crook, John M. Schofield, Philip H. Sheridan, John B. Hood, Custis Lee, O.O. Howard, J.E.B. Stuart, John T. Grable, George D. Bayard, and John S. Marmaduke. In Torbert’s class of ’34 graduates were Cyrus B. Comstock, Godfrey Weitzel, David McM. Gregg, Alexander S. Webb, Albert V. Colburn, George D. Ruggles, Lewis Merrill, W. W. Averell, and W. B. Hazen. His class standing was 21. Some estimates of his character and ability have been obtained from several of these gentlemen:

General Hazen writes: “Torbert was my room-mate...He was always studious in his lessons, fairly well learned...a kind, true companion and friend, was pleasant even to sweetness of temper and manner, and could always be relied upon. He professed piety, and never wandered from the profession of it, always claiming and profession Christianity, attending church from choice, never using profane language or indulging in liquors...He read industriously, and his books were well selected, being those of a moral and religious tendency."

General Torbert (far right) as Chief of Cavalry under
General Sheridan (center), along with their staff, August 1864

The gallant conduct and leadership of Colonel Torbert and his brigade at Crampton’s Gap, South Mountain, Maryland brought watchful eyes to him and without a doubt influenced his promotion to General of Volunteers on November 29, 1862. There is no question that the heroic conduct of Torbert and his 1st New Jersey Brigade had much to do with the success of that day.

After the battle of Manassas, or 2nd Bull Run, on August 29 and 30, 1862, the Army of the Potomac was in full retreat, followed by a victorious enemy that disappeared from in front of Washington and crossed the upper Potomac and proceeded toward Frederick, Maryland. This would be Robert E. Lee's first invasion of the north and he felt confident after his recent victory at Manassas.

The resistance Jackson met to capture at Harper's Ferry made it necessary to delay the Union Army as much as possible by preventing its using the passage in the South Mountain range. At Crampton’s Gap, the mountain range averages about one thousand feet in height, and forms a strong natural military barrier. The enemy occupied the crests of the commanding hills on either side of the pass, with artillery bearing upon all of the approaches, yet, it was a position that the Union Army had to carry.

Edward Burd Grubb was breveted Brigadier General of Volunteers on March 13, 1865. He had served on Torbert's staff, and later as Colonel of the 23rd New Jersey Regiment, which was added to the 1st N.J. Brigade after Antietam. Following is an extract taken from an address delivered by Grubb to the "Kearny First New Jersey Brigade Society" at their annual reunion on September 20, 1888 and gives a first hand account of this battle:

The road from Burkettsville to Crampton's Pass lies through a beautiful rolling country, with the sweet pasture lands of Maryland lying on either side, thickly dotted with farm houses. A short distance from Burkettsville the road rises to ascend the South Mountain and passes over it, through a narrow gorge, walled on either side by very steep hills; at the foot of the hills were fields enclosed by stone walls and the hills were thickly wooded. There were two ranges of low hills and then the mountain top, forming a natural and admirable position for the placing in position of artillery.

As General Franklin approached the gap, his scouts informed him that the pass was held by the enemy in force. He made his disposition about 2 o'clock in the afternoon of the 14th of September to attack them. The attack was intended to be made by Newton's Second Division and Slocum's First Division of the Sixth Corps. We may leave out the gallant part which the other troops of the First Division bore and confine ourselves to that which was borne by the gallant boys of our Brigade, for they really won the battle and I have never heard anybody deny it. Colonel Torbert was in command of the First Brigade and at half past two o'clock in the afternoon he was ordered to relieve one of the regiments of General Newton's division, which was on his right, which he did with the Second New Jersey, and this really commenced the battle as far as our Brigade was concerned. The distribution of the Brigade was in two lines, the First and Second in one line and the Third and Fourth, about one hundred yards in the rear, composing the second line. They were supported by, but had no need of the other regiments of the First Division.

Let us see what was opposed to them. The gap was held by Colonel T. T. Munford's brigade of the Second Virginia Cavalry, the Sixth Virginia Cavalry, the Twelfth Virginia Cavalry and Seventeenth Virginia Cavalry and Chew's and Pelham's Virginia Batteries, eight guns in all. They were supported by Semme's brigade, the tenth and thirteenth Georgia, the Fifteenth and Thirty-Second Virginia, and a short distance in their rear, and as it turned out, within supporting distance, Cobb's brigade, comprising the Georgia Legion, the Sixteenth and Twenty-Fourth Georgia and the Fifteenth North Carolina; also Mahone's brigade, commanded by Colonel Parham. Colonel Munford, on seeing the advance of infantry, opened with his artillery and sent back word to General Cobb to come to his support, and it was about that time that the Jersey Brigade charged. This charge is described by everyone who saw it, as one of the most magnificent, best sustained and most gallant charges that ever was seen. Torbert ordered the second line, composed, as I have said, of the Third and Fourth, to charge, which it did with a yell, rushing over the fence behind which the first line, composed of the First and Second, were lying, which line immediately joined them, and the entire Brigade went over the fence, up to the stone wall, behind which the rebels were hid, and from which they were pouring a deadly fire.

The enemy fell back before our men could reach the wall, fleeing in some confusion across a small field to the second wall, closely pursued by the Brigade. There was no stand made at the second wall, which was, remember, almost at the foot of a steep hill, and the entire Brigade, yelling and charging, firing and in many instance engaging in single combat with those who refused to surrender, rushed over the wall and scrambled, for that is the only word that expresses it, up the steep hill, with the enemy in front of them and in many cases among them. This hill was so steep that afterward, in company with some others, I found the greatest difficulty in cold blood in climbing it at all. Upon reaching the top of the hill, there was one of the most magnificent war scenes that any man could wish to see. Cobb's Legion and Semme's men were there, the artillery was at one end of the flat top of the hill, and the Jersey Brigade, flushed with victory, rushed with exultant yells upon it. The firing was very severe and a slight check was made on the top of the hill; it was only for a moment, but sufficient for the rebels to get off all their guns but one; another rush was made and this gun was taken.

These with three stands of colors fell to the possession of that magnificent regiment, which through no fault of its own or any of its members, but through the mischance of a badly arranged battle, had lost its liberty, its arms and its colors at Gaines' Mill - I mean that grand old regiment, the Fourth New Jersey. Well did the Brigade avenge them that day and well did they avenge themselves, for three hundred prisoners, three stands of colors, over seven hundred stands of arms of the most approved pattern, one piece of artillery and a large number of haversacks and blankets were the spoils of the top of the hill at Crampton's Pass.

Over the hilltop they pursued, the enemy fleeing panic stricken down, far down, on the other side. As long as they could pursue, they did pursue, but human breath and human legs cannot go very far over a mountain-top and so at the foot of the hill on the other side from where they made their stand, the rebels stopped when night came down and they could no longer be seen to be captured. And when the evening's shade hid them from the view of our sharpshooters, they fell back two miles along the plain, and Crampton's Pass, the key of the rebel position, was in the hands of the Jersey Brigade. This was a clear and undisputed victory, one of the few fights in the whole war, so far as I know, that the enemy made no claim to having won.

Howell Cobb, in his report of the battle says: 'After the lines were broken all our efforts to rally the troops were unsuccessful. It is important for me to report the casualties, as the fate of a very large portion of the number who went into the battle is not certainly known; there are missing and unaccounted for over eight hundred.' Well, we have accounted for three hundred of this number as prisoners and the others will probably answer to their names on the day of judgment.

General Semmes says in his report: 'I encountered fugitives from the battle and endeavored to turn them back; proceeding further up the mountain, the troops were pouring down in great disorder, when I found Howell Cobb and staff, at the imminent risk of their lives, using every effort to check and rally them.

And Colonel Munford, in his report, says: 'When the other two regiments of General Howell Cobb's brigade came up he again requested me to put them in position, but they behaved badly and they did not get into position before the wildest confusion occurred, the wounded coming to the rear in numbers and more well men coming with them. General Cobb tried to rally the men, but without effect; it would have been as useless to attempt to rally a flock of frightened sheep. I formed my command (cavalry) and moved down the mountain, the infantry still running in great disorder on the Harper's Ferry road, followed a short distance by the enemy who were then between them and the cavalry who had to go for their horses. The enemy was at the fork of this road before many of the cavalry, who were the last to give up their position.

This is the record of the Jersey Brigade made for itself on the 14th of September 1862. Its cost was heavy, but most remarkably light compared with that of the enemy, notwithstanding its magnificent charge over two stone walls held by Virginia's best troops and up a hill so steep that many of the enemy fleeing before them were shot lengthwise, that is from foot to head.

This battle was the most brilliant achievement of the Brigade to this time. The following order of congratulation was issued by Colonel Torbert: