Harvard memorial biographies ...

7ohn Henry Tucker.

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tendants remained. In these meetings Tucker was always
prominent, dividing the charge with the comrade before mentioned; and as he added the influence of his private life to
that of his exhortations, he was well known in the regiment
as "the peacemaker."
In a paper which he had read before the Irving Literary
Association in Cambridge, a short time previous to his departure, he had contrasted the causes of the Revolutionary
War with those of the present struggle; depicting in a striking manner the steadfast determination of the heroes of former days to overcome all obstacles and make every sacrifice;
and declaring that of such material alone should the new
army of liberty be composed. Being himself of a strong
constitution (though short in stature), inured in some measure
by the toil of past years to the arduous service he was now
to perform, and, above all, being of a cheerful, uncomplaining
spirit, disposed to compromise with every necessary inconvenience, he was far better fitted for the severe duties,
exposure, and accumulating privations of the campaign in
Louisiana than might be supposed. He went through the
first advance on Port Hudson and the Teche campaign,
without losing a day's duty or being once under the surgeon's
care; though he had a narrow escape at Fort Bisland, where
a shot from the enemy marked in its course the very spot
where he had just been resting, and from which he had but
slightly moved.
In a letter to a messmate, who had been left behind at
Algiers on account of sickness, he writes:"If we should be called on again to meet the enemy, I hope it
will not be till after you are with us, so that, as we have been together so long ' in city and in camp,' we may have it to say, that we
have been on the battle-field together. But I am not very anxious,
individually, to again go into battle; not that I am afraid, but really
I cannot understand the pleasure of shooting at these unfortunate
men, who are fighting against us more from necessity than from
choice. If there is any other way of bringing them to terms, even
by marches so long that our past ones would be but pleasant walks,
surely, for the sake of humanity alone, it is preferable."
VOL. II. W