William Schouler, A history of Massachusetts in the Civil War: Volume 1

On the day the Adjutant-General received this letter, he communicated the substance of it to Mr. Maxwell, and said, ‘I shall write once more to-day, requesting that your company may be accepted as an independent company, to be elsewhere attached.’ He also said that, if Mr. Maxwell desired, under the circumstances, to continue recruiting, he might; if not, ‘I will issue orders to discontinue it at once.’ He received no answer to his letter to the Adjutant-General of the army, of Feb. 26, until March 22, nearly a month after it was written. The answer was as follows:—

This was communicated to Mr. Maxwell. As we had no regiment in the field that required a company to complete it, of course nothing was left to do but to disband the company, ‘to raise which Mr. Maxwell had spent four months of his time, and a considerable sum of money.’

The report concludes as follows:—

The Commonwealth never agreed to pay either of the parties any thing. If the company had been accepted by the United States, Mr. Maxwell would undoubtedly have been commissioned captain, and thus have been remunerated for his time and cost. But, as the United States refused to accept it after long delays, Mr. Maxwell has received no compensation whatever for his labor and expenses. He is a man of small means, and it is hard so great a burden should rest on him, for he acted in good faith. If the Legislature should reimburse him, I believe the case, if properly presented, would be favorably considered by the Federal authorities, and the money repaid to the Commonwealth.

We believe the claim of Mr. Maxwell was allowed.

At the battle of Fredericksburg, in December, 1862, Sergeant Plunkett, of the Twenty-first Regiment, lost both his arms. The color-bearer had been killed. Plunkett sprang forward,