Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Harvard Memorial Biographies

His military character was of a peculiar type. He being the last man who would ever have been expected to become a soldier, and a soldier's career being the last he would have chosen, there were qualities latent in his character which needed only the touch of duty and danger to make him conspicuous among the brave. When his sense of duty urged him into war, it would have been expected that he would exhibit a sober and unshrinking faithfulness in all duties and dangers. The enthusiastic valor he displayed was a surprise to many, and perhaps to all who knew him. All would have been confident that his Christian purity and rectitude would be maintained in the camp as before; but few would perhaps have expected the continuance of such a peculiar and earnest zeal. While by such a record we are taught the power and passion which may slumber unknown in the depths of the most quiet natures, we may also learn anew the lesson that a man may be a hero without disregard of the claims of humanity or defiance of the laws of God.