[267]
After an experience of sixteen days, here I am, humiliated, exhausted, yet well and determined. Pope's retreat, without a line and without a base, is a military novelty. We lived on the country with a witness,—green corn and green apples. Twice cut off by the enemy, everything in discomfort and confusion, forced marches, wakeful bivouacs, retreat, retreat! O, it was pitiful!Some days later, from ‘Camp near Rockville,’ he writes: ‘We want soldiers soldiers, and a general in command. Please notice the words, all of them. For the history of the past fifteen months is the sad record of that want.’ On September 10th he wrote from Washington: ‘I am here now, two days, getting arms for our recruits. All is reported quiet beyond Rockville, and I do not return till to-morrow.’ This is the last he wrote us until the morning of the fatal day. From others, we have an account of the intervening days. Chaplain Quint has recorded his return to the regiment on the evening of Friday, September 12th, when ‘his horse bore marks of his haste to find them,’ the movement of the regiment during the three following days, and his last march on the evening preceding the battle of Antietam, when, ‘at half past 10 they halted.’ They were roused the next morning at five A. M., by cannonade, and their corps was speedily moved towards the front. At this time he wrote, in pencil, to his mother as follows:—
dear mother,—It is a misty, moisty morning. We are engaging the enemy, and are drawn up in support of Hooker, who is banging away most briskly. I write in the saddle, to send you my love, and to say that I am very well so far.Chaplain Quint writes:—
Colonel Dwight was as active and efficient as ever. It was not for several hours that our regiment went into action. . . . . I am told of his bravery and daring,—that after our regiment had captured a Rebel flag he galloped up and down the lines with it, amid the cheers of the men, reckless of the fire of the enemy.His last act before receiving the mortal wound was to walk along the line of the regiment, which was drawn up under the shelter of a fence, and direct the men to keep their heads
