mmittee on Publications_, COMMISSIONERS LEGLER, THWAITES, AND TURNER

PREFACE

Frank Aretas Haskell was born at Tunbridge, Vermont, the son of Aretas
and Ann (Folson) Haskell, on the 13th of July, 1828. Graduating from
Dartmouth College with distinguished honors, in the class of 1854, the
young man came to Madison in the autumn of that year, and entered the
law firm of Orton, Atwood & Orton. His career in this profession was
increasingly successful, until in 1861 it was interrupted by the
outbreak of the War of Secession.

Commissioned on June 20 of that year as First Lieutenant of Company I of
the Sixth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry of the Iron Brigade, he served as
Adjutant of his regiment until April 14, 1862. Contemporaneous accounts
state that "much of the excellent discipline for which this regiment was
distinguished, was due to his soldierly efforts during its
organization."

He was called from the adjutancy of the Sixth to be aide-de-camp to
General John Gibbon, when the latter assumed command of the Iron
Brigade, and remained in such service until (February 9, 1864) he was
promoted to be Colonel of the Thirty-sixth Wisconsin. While aide to
General Gibbon he was temporarily on the staffs of several other
generals, including Edwin V. Sumner and G. K. Warren, and won wide
repute as a soldier of unusual ability and courage. With the Iron
Brigade, he participated in the campaigns of the Army of the Potomac,
taking part in reconnoissances at Orange Court House and Stephensburg,
in skirmishes at Rappahannock Station and Sulphur Springs, and in the
battles of Gainesville, Second Bull Run, South Mountain, Antietam,
Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg. Reporting upon the
battle of December 13, 1862, at Fredericksburg, General Gibbon alluded
to his favorite aide as being "constantly on the field, conveying orders
and giving directions amid the heaviest fire."

Writing of Gettysburg, which is herein so graphically depicted by
Haskell, General Francis A. Walker, in his _History of the Second Army
Corps_,[1] refers to our author as one who was "bravest of the brave,
riding mounted through an interval between the Union battalions, and
calling upon the troops to go forward." He further says: "Colonel Frank
A. Haskell, of Wisconsin, had been known for his intelligence and
courage, for his generosity of character and his exquisite culture, long
before the third day of Gettysburg, when, acting as aide to