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good old city of Boston cry, “ God of our fathers, as thou wert to them, so be to us!”
We can do no more.
Early in 1860 he had joined the Independent Company of Cadets; and on the day after the attack by the
Baltimore mob upon the Massachusetts Sixth Regiment, determined to serve his country in the field, he tendered his services to
Fletcher Webster,
Esq., to assist in enlisting the Twelfth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers for three years service, and opened recruiting papers for that purpose on the morning of April 22, 1861.
In three days the list was closed, and in sixteen days the regiment was full, officered, and in camp.
On the 25th of April he was elected by Company D as its
Captain.
The regiment remained in camp at
Fort Warren nearly three months, constantly improving in drill and discipline.
It arrived at
Harper's Ferry, July 27th, and was placed in
General Banks's division.
They soon proceeded to
Hyattstown, Maryland, where
Captain Shurtleff was taken dangerously ill with malarious fever, and was brought home on sick-leave early in September.
He returned to duty on the 14th of October, and devoted himself to the care of his company with all his natural energy.
On the 26th of January, 1862, he was detailed as Divisionary
Judge Advocate, and performed the duties of his office to the entire satisfaction of his commanding general until his regiment was transferred to
Major-General McDowell's division.
On the 11th of March, 1862, he was sent to
Boston to recruit for the regiment, and returned in the latter part of April.
But as he enlisted the first in his regiment, so was he the first to fall.
The sad circumstances of his death are best given in letters from
Lieutenant-Colonel Bryan, at the time in command of the regiment, and from
Lieutenant J. Otis Williams, of the same company:—
On the night of Saturday, the 9th instant (August, 1862), the Third Brigade, General Hartsuff commanding, was ordered to take a position on the extreme right of General McDowell's corps.
Whilst the Twelfth (the left regiment of the brigade) was crossing an open field but a few yards distant from some woods, which Generals Pope, McDowell, and Banks, with their escort, were on the point of entering, the enemy, seeing and hearing the horses, opened a sharp fire upon them.
We happened to be immediately in the
