Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Harvard Memorial Biographies

[81] the task of mastering what he intended should be his future profession. He secluded himself very much from society, and applied himself to hard and laborious study. From my present recollection, he was in the office from ten to twelve hours a day on an average. He was determined to excel in his profession; and the assiduity with which he devoted himself to his books was sure evidence that he would have succeeded. No medium or average position at the bar would have satisfied him. He had fixed his eye on the topmost round of the ladder of professional eminence, and was determined to reach it. He was self-reliant, had industry, perseverance, energy, and patience. He knew no such word as fail in anything he undertook. His judgment was very mature for a youth of twenty years in age. His mind seemed to be peculiarly adapted to unravelling intricate questions of law, and applying principles to cases. I considered him a very good lawyer when he had been in my office six months.

But from these quiet pursuits he was aroused by the call to arms. Even before graduation he had expressed to a classmate and intimate friend from Mississippi, who subsequently became a captain in the Confederate service, his intention, in case hostilities should ever break out between North and South, to take part in the struggle. When, therefore, the Rebellion was formally begun, this resolve was put into immediate execution. He was not actuated in so doing by any distinctively antislavery feeling or sentiment. His father was a prominent member of that wing of the Democratic party which had supported Mr. Douglas for the Presidency in 1860; and Edward, though not old enough to vote, entertained the same political convictions, and had taken a warm interest in the Presidential campaign. Throwing aside, however, all partisan feeling, he applied himself with such energy to recruiting a company, that before the end of April he had obtained the requisite number of men. This company, called, after his father, who contributed largely to its equipment, the Abbott Grays, was composed of excellent material. It is worth mentioning, that, at one of their preliminary meetings, a stranger came in slightly intoxicated, and began to be very noisy and create quite a disturbance. Abbott ordered him to be put