Harvard memorial biographies ...

366

Harvard Memorial Biographies.

strict in enforcing it as he was strong in his feeling for their
wrongs.
From the time that he received his commission his history
is identical with that of his regiment. He was usually at
head-quarters, seldom on detached service. Active campaigning agreed with his constitution, and many months after leaving home he was mentioned as the only officer whose name
had not been on the sick-list. So many officers had been detached that the service of the others was particularly severe;
and as his health was always good, he seems to have had his
full share, or even more. He left home as Lieutenant in the
company of his friend Captain Crane, and for many months
they were inseparable. During his whole term of service, in
all of which he never received a leave of absence, he wrote
home cheerful letters, - in some of them displaying a humor
and keen wit which few knew him to possess.
On leaving Boston his regiment went to Newbern, North
Carolina, where it remained for a few days. It was then sent
to take part in the attack on Charleston, and encamped on
Folly Island, where he accompanied it. He there passed
most of his remaining life, with the exception of a few months
spent in an expedition to Florida, and a few when with his
company he garrisoned Long Island, South Carolina.
His descriptions of his life were very graphic and interesting,
and he always seemed perfectly contented and happy. He
wrote in one of his earliest letters to his college chum: -
"Your description of all you enjoyed during your vacation for a
moment made me feel half sad, for it reminded me that I might
have experienced similar pleasures if I had chosen.... Yet I
would not change places with you for the world. I did not take
the step I took without seriously weighing the matter from every
point of view, and that step I have never regretted for an instant.
You have mentioned the chosen pursuits of many old friends, but
there is not one with whom I could be tempted to exchange. I
could not, during the war, feel the minutest particle of interest
in any of those pursuits."
And in another letter written nearly a year later, and within
about four months of the close of his life, he says: -