Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Harvard Memorial Biographies

[6] outstretching its humble neighbors, cloud-encapped at its summit, while Harper's Ferry, with the many-curved Potomac and Winchester Railroad, is all laid open to your view. To crown all, looking eastward, almost at the limit of vision is the well-known Maryland shore and the Potomac River, so long to us an impassable barrier.

June 25.

‘dear mother,—Our regiment has been in a fight this morning, and we have lost quite a number of good men; but I am all right, not even a scratch. I received your letter just after we returned from the fight, and was right glad to have it, although it contained the sad news of my uncle's death. My head aches badly from the terrible din of the musketry and the smell of gunpowder, so that I cannot write you more. Besides, I must write to the friends of the poor fellows who have fallen. Good by for to-day, mother. Rejoice with me that I am not a coward. I never felt better in my life.’

July 10.

Poor Major How! He died a soldier's death. He was the bravest, coolest man I ever saw, and his place cannot be filled in an action. He said, when he fell, “Let me die here, on the field. It is more glorious to die on the field of battle.” He retained his senses perfectly to the last, conversing calmly and sensibly with those about him, dying at about eight in the evening. He expressed a wish that his body might be carried home, but it could not be done at this time. He told me on the occasion of one of our alarms at Fair Oaks, I think on June 14th, that in case he were killed, he wished me to take his pistol, and keep it in remembrance of our friendship as classmates and fellow-soldiers. Although I do not need that to keep him ever in my recollection, yet as he expressed that wish of himself, I should be glad to comply with it.

During the summer months the friends of George were made aware, from pauses in his correspondence, and from an occasional allusion to a slight illness, that his health was impaired from the duties and exposures of the campaign; and they keenly felt the impossibility of doing anything to obtain relief or respite, in order that his strength might be recruited.

July 15, he wrote from Malverton, Virginia:—

President Lincoln has been here, visiting the various camps and