[435] length obtained for him the appointment, which was received in February, 1862, bearing date December 25, 1861. He was immediately mustered into the United States service as Second Lieutenant in the Second Massachusetts, and proceeded to Frederick, Maryland, to join this regiment, which had left Massachusetts in the July preceding. Soon came the disastrous battle before Winchester, in which several balls passed through Crowninshield's coat and hat; but he seemed unconscious of the fact, and remained cool and collected. His company was slowly covering the retreat, when he was wounded in the leg. Then came the long retreat, the return home, the protracted confinement, and the slow recovery; but he was patient through it all. What he suffered will appear in the following extract from an account of this wound by Dr. J. Mason Warren:—
The case is given somewhat in detail to show to what extent the soldier is exposed, independently of the danger from his wounds. That a young man scarcely nineteen should be able to march thirty-five miles with his regiment, constantly fighting and without food, keep guard all night and engage in a battle lasting four hours the next morning, be wounded, and, while suffering and bleeding, lie thirty-six hours with a man on his swollen limb, and with nothing to sustain him, except on the second day a swallow of whiskey given him by a woman who saw his head hanging out from the ambulance with his pale and fainting face, show how much the human frame will bear when assisted by spirit and determination.Crowninshield, though not fully recovered from his wound, went through all the hardships of Pope's disastrous campaign, though his regiment was not actively engaged. Before this he had been promoted to the rank of First Lieutenant, his commission bearing date August 10, 1862. Then followed the battle of Antietam, where he was again wounded in the leg. This wound, though severe, healed more readily than the preceding, and after a short furlough he went into winter quarters with the regiment. He was promoted Captain, March 30, 1863, and passed through the battle of Chancellorsville without a wound, though
