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Saturday, May 15, 2021

An Honest Observation From an Old Veteran

(Edwin Forbes, LOC)

Doing some research this morning, I came across this amusing nuggest from H.O. Crosby of the 5th U.S. Cavalry in some recollections he prepared in 1894. You don't see this kind of thing much in the veterans' stories:

"When comrades are giving their accounts of battles they were engaged in, many of them can, with apparent truth, give their exact positions in all subsequent movements. I never could, and can only explain it that I was so badly scared and so intensely interested in the immediate demands of the occasion, and my time was so occupied that I had no thought to give to the general direction of affairs and correcting the errors of my superiors, even though I was a noncommissioned officer. This, I think, must be part of sincere regret on the part of said officers. Either of this apology to them, and here with tender it, even if rather tardily offered.”