Harvard memorial biographies ...

Nathaniel Bradstreet Shurtleff.

51

line of that fire, and, returning it at once, covered the retreat of
our generals."
Lieutenant Williams adds, that the regiment was then ordered to lie down upon the ground, and that Captain Shurtleff
" had just raised himself on his elbow to see that his men were
protecting themselves," when a second volley came from the
enemy concealed by a thick wood in front, and he received a
ball in the neighborhood of the heart. He said, "I am shot!
Mary! pardon! " He was tenderly raised by three of his men,
but before they reached the rear he was dead.
" His loss to his company and the regiment is almost irreparable.
As brave an officer as ever drew the breath of life, a true soldier
and gentleman, he fell as falls the truly brave, patriot hero, shedding his life's young blood in defence of that sacred boon bequeathed him by his fathers."
His body was conveyed to Washington, there embalmed,
and thence transported to Boston. He was buried (in accordance with his own request, made in anticipation of such an
end) from the Church of the Immaculate Conception, in
Boston, on the i6th of August, 1862, with a high mass of
requiem, and was laid to rest at Mount Auburn with a soldier's
honors and with heartfelt grief.
That the death of this young 'man, of but twenty-four years,
was esteemed no common bereavement, was manifested in a
public meeting of sympathy by the citizens of the ward, by the
adjournment of the Superior Court until after the funeral, and
by the numerous letters to his parents from distinguished and
eminent citizens, expressive of the general sorrow at his sudden
and early death. Perhaps this record cannot better close than
with the following extract from a letter by Hon. Robert C.
Winthrop:"His name is now enrolled where it cannot be forgotten on earth,
and it will often be called up to inspire our American youth with
ardor and heroism in the service of their country. I know how
poor a consolation this is for the first sorrows of a father's and a
mother's heart. God alone can supply strength for such an hour
of anguish. Yet the time will come, when you will look back on
such a death for your boy as better than any life which even his
rich promise and accomplishments could have realized."