Harvard memorial biographies ...

yoseph Perrin Burrage.

269

On the evening of the 28th of October, 1863, the regiment, wearied with the fatigues and hardships of a long
passage, reached Brown's Ferry, in the vicinity of Chattanooga,
Tennessee, and encamped with the hope of an unbroken
night's rest. It was soon discovered, however, that the Rebels
had obtained possession of a hill near Lookout Mountain,
which commanded the road and the railway. It was necessary
that they should be dislodged. They were evidently in force
and carefully intrenched. To assail them was a work of
"peril, but at all hazards it must be done; and the wearied
troops were called out at midnight. In the bright moonlight
the assaulting column was formed; the Thirty-third Massa-.
chusetts and Seventy-third Ohio in the advance, the One
Hundred and Thirty-sixth New York and Fifty-fifth Ohio as
a support. At the word of command they moved forward
with a cheer. As they climbed up the steep ascent, that full
October moon made them but too plain marks for hostile
fire; but they pressed on till the routed enemy was driven
in confusion. Colonel Underwood wrote, that the Massachusetts Thirty-third on that night won the applause of the
veteran Army of the Cumberland.
When the brief struggle was over, along the slope of that
steep hillside were strewn the wounded, the dying, the dead.
Two thirds the way up the ascent, falling in the second
charge while cheering on his men, the body of Lieutenant
Burrage lay peacefully in the soft white moonlight. He fell
in his early prime, scarce twenty-one years of age, struck by
a ball which pierced his heart.
Lieutenant Burrage had great simplicity of character. He
was thoroughly honest, and transparent as crystal. There
was a great charm in his naturalness and guilelessness, his
unaffected modesty and truthfulness. He had also great kindness of heart. No one was readier than he to do a favor,
and to do it without seeming to impose an obligation. He
was remarkably pure-minded. He came from college with
his heart unstained, and he maintained the same character
to the end.