William Schouler, A history of Massachusetts in the Civil War: Volume 1

Captain Schmitt, who is mentioned as having been wounded, was an instructor at Harvard College. We well remember the day he came to the Adjutant-General's office, accompanied by two young gentlemen,—Mr. Putnam and Mr. Lowell, one of whom was killed at Ball's Bluff, and the other wounded,—for leave to raise a company for the Twentieth Regiment. Leave was granted, the company was raised, and the three gentlemen were commissioned officers of it. Putnam and Lowell were cousins, and belonged to distinguished families. Lieutenant Putnam, we thought then, and think now, was, in style, manner, and features, a youth of rare beauty. The writer little thought then, that, in a few short months, he would attend his funeral ceremonies, which were performed in the old church on Cambridge Street, of which his grandfather, Dr. Charles Lowell, had been the pastor for half a century. But the paths of glory lead but to the grave. As an evidence among the thousand which might be given of Governor Andrew's kind regard for the soldiers and their relatives, we copy the following letter, written to the father of Captain Schmitt, while the son was lying wounded in hospital, near the banks of the Potomac:—