Harvard memorial biographies ...

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Harvard Memorial Biographzies.

this active life intensely. That march of ours showed no common
pluck and endurance on the part of the men. We lost two men,
who fell behind the first night, and one sent back sick. One company lost eleven; no other over three or four."
In the battle of Gettysburg the regiment was not very actively engaged, but was ordered to support a battery, and in
doing so the men were forced to be inactive while exposed
to the shelling of the enemy's guns. Arthur felt hungry, and
gave an instance of his coolness by making a fire against a
stone wall and cooking and eating his dinner. His comrades,
whom he invited to share it with him, preferred to wait until
a quieter season. The following letter, written on the 5th,
gives a partial account of the battle.
" DEAR -, -The Baltimore Clipper of the 4th gives a weak
account of our successes. The fight of Friday, P. M., the climax of
the whole, had not been heard from. I have just been to a part of
the field where the Rebel masses were urged upon our intrenchments, and met with a terrific slaughter. I give no newspaper account. I saw in one place a company of fifty or sixty, with the captain and lieutenant, on one flank, laid out in their ranks nearly as
thickly as they advanced in line, occupying about the space of a
company and a half. In five small fields there were, I was told,
fully one thousand dead, and my eyes confirmed the estimate. The
wounded had all been removed, and a considerable part of the dead
already buried. Regiments are going out with picks and spades to
finish the work. The Rebels were advanced to within fifteen or
twenty rods of the fortifications, when the batteries opened with
grape and canister, and the lines rose from the ramparts and poured
in their volley. As for our part, we reached here on the ist, after a
very rapid and trying march. We took up our position in front of
the cemetery and behind a stone fence. The batteries did all or
nearly all the fighting in that quarter, and we were not engaged.
The next day we moved to the right centre, and in the afternoon
were taken up to a field in front of one of our batteries. A Rebel
battery soon opened and played on us and the guns we supported
for over an hour. We lay behind the stone fence with the shells
bursting all around us. One shell instantly killed two of our company, another lost his arm, a third was severely wounded. Other
companies also suffered. Companies I, D, and A were then sent
out as skirmishers. Soon after, our battery silenced the Rebels,