Biography of Strong Vincent
The Army of the Potomac on the march to Gettysburg was full of Pennsylvanians who felt a special significance in fighting on the ground of home. Some, like Colonel Richard Roberts of the 140th Pennsylvania, made patriotic speeches before giving their lives in places like the Wheatfield. Of the many Pennsylvanians in the AOP was a very young Colonel commanding the Third Brigade, First Division, Fifth Corps, Colonel Strong Vincent.
Strong Vincent was born in Waterford, Pennsylvania on June 17, 1837. He graduated from Harvard in 1859 and pursued a career in law, opening an office in Erie, Pennsylvania in the northwest corner of the state.
When the war broke out, Vincent was amongst the first to volunteer, serving as the adjuctant at the rank of 1st Lt. for a 3 month milita regiment. When that expired, he reenlisted and became the Lt. Col. of the 83rd Pennsylvania, a regiment destined to finish one file behind the Fifth New Hampshire in number of battle deaths.
In appearence, Vincent looked like a soldier. Athletic, barrel-chested, he was something of a marinet as far as displince. The letters to his young wife, Elizabeth, who he married the day he enlisted, were studded with phrases about the righteousness of the Union cause. To her he wrote, "If I fall, remember you have given your husband to the most righetous cause that ever widowed a woman." On the march to Gettysburg, Vincent marched along with the knowledge that his wife was preganant. The ideal couple, the young woman was a skilled horsewoman, and she had given him her riding crop as a keepsake.
In 1862, Vincent fought on the Pennisula. The colonel of the 83rd was killed on June 27, 1862, and Vincent became colonel of the regiment. However, deadly malaria made him too ill to continue in the field, and he did not return to the Army until Fredericksburg in December. He was offered the position of Judge Advocate for the Army; he turned it down saying he had come to fight.
In the reorganization of the Army after Chancellorsville, Vincent became a brigade commander. He passed his 26th birthday on the march to Gettysburg. It was then he uttered the words the moonlit night of July 1... what more gallant death could a Pennsylvanian desire?
monument
At the extreme left of the Union line was Little Round Top, a rocky, mostly bald eminence on one side that rose 650 feet. General Gouvernoor K. Warren, chief engineer of the Army, saw the vital position uncovered and sent for help, sending couriers scrambling for anyone to hold the hill. One of his couriers ran into Colonel Vincent, halted at the front of the First Division.
"Where is General Barnes?" the courier asked.
"What are your orders!" was Vincent's terse reply.
"General Warren wants someone to occupy yonder hill."
"I will do so and take the responsibility."
Bypassing the protocol of command in not waiting for formal orders, Vincent gave command of the brigade to senior colonel James C. Rice of the 44th New York, and rushed to the hill accompanied by his flag bearer. Scouting out the ground, he chose for his brigade to occupy a spur in the hill that now bears his name. From right to left, his regiments were the 16th Michigan, 44th New York, 83rd Pennsylvania, and 20th Maine.
Vincent spent most of his time on the right of his line. As the fighting escalated, the tiny 16th Michigan got into trouble. Vincent, on top of a large boulder, brandished his wife's riding crop and cried out to his men: "Don't give an inch!" (the statue of an officer bearing a striking resemblence to Vincent* which surmounts the 83rd Pennsylvania's regimental marker by the way, shows him pulling out his sword, not holding a riding whip -- which would have probably required some explanation ...). As he uttered the words or soon after, a bullet tore through his thigh and groin and he fell from the rock. It fractured the thigh bone and lodged somewhere inside his body.
With reinforcements in the form of the 140th New York sent in by Warren, Vincent's line held. He was carried from the hill and placed at the Bushman farm. He expressed the wish to return home, which of course could not be done with the severity of his wound. He lingered for five days. On the evening of July 2, General Meade reccomended him promoted to brigadier general. It came down dated July 3, 1863, but it is unknown whether he ever saw it. On July 7, 1863, his soul departed this world.
Colonel James C. Rice (himself later killed during the Spotsylvania Campaign) issued the following order upon Vincent's death:
The colonel commanding hereby announces to the brigade the death of Brig. Gen. Strong Vincent. He died near Gettysburg, Pa., July 7, 1863, from the effects of a wound received on the 2d instant, and within sight of that field which his bravery had so greatly assisted to win. A day hallowed with all the glory of success is thus sombered by the sorrow of our loss. Wreaths of victory give way to chaplets of mourning, hearts exultant to feelings of grief. A soldier, a scholar, a friend, has fallen. For his country, struggling for its life, he willingly gave his own. Grateful for his services, the State which proudly claims him as her own will give him an honored grave and a costly monument, but he ever will remain buried in our hearts, and our love for his memory will outlast the stone which shall bear the inscription of his bravery, his virtues, and his patriotism.
While we deplore his death, and remember with sorrow our loss, let us emulate the example of his fidelity and patriotism, feeling that e lives but in vain who lives not for his God and his country.
Vincent's wife gave birth to a daughter two months later. The baby girl sadly only lived a year and was buried next to her father.
Colonel Vincent's actions on Little Round Top perhaps saved the Union cause at that moment.
From the Official Records, praise for Colonel Vincent and his actions at Gettysburg....
Night closed the fight. The key of the battle-field was in our possession intact. Vincent, Weed, and Hazlett, chiefs lamented throughout the corps and army, sealed with their lives the spot intrusted to their keeping, and on which so much depended.... General Weed and Colonel Vincent, officers of rare promise, gave their lives to their country.
--From the report of Maj. Gen. George Sykes, commanding the Fifth Corps
It was at this time that Colonel Vincent, commanding the brigade, while rallying this part of his command, fell, mortally wounded. He was a gallant officer, beloved and respected by his command and by all who knew him. His death is a serious loss to the army and the country. ....A tribute is due to the memory of Colonel Vincent, who fell, mortally wounded, early in the engagement. He lingered a few days after the engagement. His promotion as a brigadier-general was sent to him at once as an appreciation of his services by the Government, but it reached him too late for his own recognition. He expired soon after its receipt.
---Report of Brig. Gen. James Barnes, commanding the First Division
* Pennsylvania did not allow regiments to place likeness of commanders on regimental monuments. Thus, the striking likeness of Vincent on the top of the 83rd Pennsylvania's monument is not identified on the marker as being Vincent. I guess its just a striking look-alike. :)