Harvard memorial biographies ...

148

Harvard Memorial Biographies.

" DEAR FATHER, - I trust the first news you will hear will be of
my safety, so that you will suffer no anxiety. I have not even a
bullet through my clothes..... Our men behaved better than ever.
Cogswell was wounded early, and I then took command, gaining
and holding ground for fifteen minutes without a cartridge, until
ordered to retire, which I did very slowly, halting and facing frequently. We took in four hundred and thirty men and twenty-two
officers, and lost, as near as I can get at it at present, twenty-two
men killed, ninety-eight wounded, sixteen missing; one officer
killed, four wounded, several grazed. I think the killed is larger,
as none of the wounded could have lived long.
Later, on the 29th of May, 1863, he wrote further:"You ask me what my feeling was during the fight at Chancellorsville. Well, it was just what it should be. I was so astonished at
my coolness and courage, that I could not help thanking and praising God for it in a loud voice while I sat there on my horse. I had
prayed for it, to be sure; but I never believed a man could feel so
joyous, and such a total absence of fear, as I had there. I enjoyed
it as much as a game or race, until we were withdrawn; and from
that time until we were safely over the river, I, as well as every one
else, suffered the most terrible anxiety you can imagine. Yet I had
courage enough, by God's help, to bear it all coolly."
This letter may be noted as almost the only one in which
he dwells at any length upon himself or his own feelings; and
here it is in answer to interrogatories from home. It is always
of the regiment and of the men that he seems to speak and
to think.
His commission as Lieutenant-Colonel was dated on the 6th
of June following (1863). But owing to the absence of Colonel Cogswell, who had not yet recovered from the wounds
received at Chancellorsville, he was in actual command of the
regiment, and he had the honor, before he died, of twice leading it into battle, - at Beverly Ford and at Gettysburg. At
Beverly Ford the Second was one of a small number of regiments specially chosen from the whole army for a task more
than ordinarily arduous, and detailed to support a cavalry
movement. The choice was felt to be a great distinction, and
the troops strove eagerly and successfully to acquit themselves