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Joseph Perrin Burrage.
Sergeant 33d Mass. Vols. (Infantry), July 18, 1862; Second Lieutenant, May 18, 1863; killed at Lookout Mountain, Tenn., October 29, 1863.Joseph Perrin Burrage was born in Boston, May 4, 1842, the son of Joseph and Frances (Perrin) Burrage. Through his father he was descended from John Burrage, who settled in Lynn about 1630. Through his mother he was related to Hon. D. P. Thompson, the well-known novelist of Vermont, and also to Count Rumford. He pursued his preparatory studies at Phillips Academy, Andover, and entered Harvard College in the autumn of 1858. He secured and always maintained a good rank as a scholar, and soon made a public profession of religion. After the attack on Fort Sumter and the Baltimore riot, he felt a great desire to enlist, but decided to complete his college course. He therefore remained in the University and graduated honorably in the Class of 1862. He pronounced an oration at the Commencement exercises, and three days later enlisted as a private in the Thirty-third Massachusetts Volunteers. Four days later, just one week from his graduation, he entered upon his duties in camp at Lynnfield. He was immediately appointed a Sergeant, was soon after made the First Sergeant of the company, and in May following received a commission as Second Lieutenant. All who knew him felt that his promotion was fairly and honorably won, and was but the earnest of still higher honors. Indeed, his captain wrote, that, had he survived the engagement in which he fell, he would at once have been promoted. His regiment joined the Army of the Potomac, with which it remained nearly a year. It bore its part in the fruitless struggle at Chancellorsville, and participated in the perils and honors of Gettysburg. After the disaster at Chickamauga it was sent to reinforce the imperilled Army of the Cumberland.
