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[235] 1860, and appointed a justice of the peace on the 30th of August in the same year. He practised law in Charlestown and Cambridgeport, Massachusetts, for two years, with good success,—being associated with Mr. Tweed in the former place, and with Mr. William F. Engley, in the latter. In the summer of 1862, when government was urgently calling for enlistments, and men were greatly needed for their country's protection, he responded by enrolling his name in the list of the Ninth Massachusetts (De Vecchi's, afterwards Bigelow's) Battery, August 5, 1862; and after a month set out for the seat of war. He returned home during the following spring, on a short furlough, and married Miss Adelaide Victoria Burrill of Cambridgeport, Massachusetts, March 18, 1863. She, with an infant son, survives him. The battery was in no engagement until the afternoon of July 2, 1863, at Gettysburg. It there assisted in supporting the Third Corps, under Major-General Sickles. When the corps was driven back, the battery was the last of five to leave the field, while Longstreet was advancing. Reaching an angle made by two stone walls, it was ordered to halt and hold the position at any cost, without infantry support, until a new line could be formed. Bravely did Captain Bigelow hold his post against a whole Rebel brigade, whose centre alone could be reached by his fire, while the wings closed in on either side. After suffering a fearful loss, with every horse killed, and only one commissioned officer and one sergeant left for duty, the heroic little band was recalled, having given Major-General Sickles time to prepare for a counter-charge, in which the lost ground was regained, and the guns secured by the Fifth Massachusetts Battery, Captain Phillips. Among the disabled sergeants was Fenton, who was wounded in the right leg, below the knee. He was in the most exposed position, and was taken prisoner, but was afterwards retaken by our forces. He was removed, after three days, to the Jarvis Hospital, Baltimore, and was thought not to be dangerously wounded; but fever prostrated him, and, gradually sinking, he died on the 28th of July. His wife and mother reached him
Sever and Francis, 1866.
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