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He left his mark upon my mind. He was a boy of great independence of character, of generous and honorable impulses, and of a high and chivalrous sense of honor. He was naturally impulsive, and fonder of being a leader than of being led, yet he possessed so much native manliness and so nice a sense of what it is to be a true gentleman, that his name holds an enviable place upon the records of our school. He was a diligent as well as a very ambitious scholar. He entered Harvard College without condition in 1856.One of Abbott's schoolmates, J. Davis, Esq., writes:—
As a boy he was always gentlemanly, and I do not recollect a mean act ever attributed to him by his schoolmates. While fitting for college he was very ambitious to stand well in his class. . . . I remember an incident illustrating his fortitude under physical suffering. We had in our school-house yard a tree with a limb broken off near its body, on which we used to swing by the arms and take flying leaps. Abbott soon excelled in this. One day he unluckily fell and broke his arm. It seemed but a day or two before he was back again at school, looking a little pale and with his arm in a sling, yet cheerful as ever, and in a day or two more, with his arm still in the sling, he was back upon the old limb again, showing what could be done with one hand. The arm was afterwards fractured a second time, yet not in the same manner.Besides these two instances, he broke his arm again, making three fractures within the same six months. These childish mishaps developed a contempt for danger, and a personal courage which amounted almost to rashness. This was well illustrated by an accident which occurred just before he was fifteen years of age. His parents had gone to the sea-shore for a few days, leaving Edward, his sister, and one of his younger brothers in charge of the house. It being warm summer weather, Edward slept on a lounge in one of the upper rooms, and carried up with him every night in a small basket the silver-ware in daily use. This basket he placed on the floor by the side of the lounge. A burglar, aware probably of the absence of Edward's parents, entered the lower part of the house through a window which he managed to raise. After ransacking various other rooms, he entered the one where Edward was sleeping, and took
