No fort as yet bears the name which your Board of Selectmen has so generously proposed for the larger fort now in progress in Plymouth harbor, nor had any ambition of my own ever suggested to my mind the possibility of becoming in that manner associated with such a work. I am deeply sensible of the honor; and, while I feel that it does not properly belong to me, I can only leave to you and your associates the final decision, with the single suggestion that it would seem to me more fitting the occasion to connect the name of Edward Winslow, who was the first Governor of the Plymouth Colony, with one of the fortifications of the harbor of Plymouth, than the name you propose, even if I were a hundred times more worthy than I know myself to be.The two forts here referred to were subsequently named Fort Andrew and Fort Standish. The largest and most important one was named after the Governor of the State, and the smaller one in honor of the Puritan captain of the colony, Captain Miles Standish. On the 17th of March, the Governor wrote to H. P. Sturgis,
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he came within the enemy's lines.
He was determined, however, not to be taken prisoner, if he could avoid it; and notwithstanding the severity of his wounds, and weakness from the loss of blood, he managed to make his way for three miles, part of the time on his hands and knees, until he came within our lines again.
He was sent to hospital; and, when he had recovered sufficiently to endure the fatigues of a voyage home, he was discharged, and sent to Boston.
He complained that he had been charged eighteen dollars, which sum was taken from his pay, for the loss of his musket and knapsack, which he had left on the field, being unable to carry them and save himself from being made a prisoner.
We thought it a hard case, and represented the facts in a letter to the proper department at Washington; but no attention was ever given to it, and the soldier suffered the loss.
It was proposed by the selectmen of Plymouth, to call one of the earthwork forts, being erected in that town for the protection of the harbor, Fort Andrew, in honor of the Governor.
On the 16th of March, he wrote to William T. Davis, chairman of the Board of Selectmen of Plymouth, as follows:—
1868. E. P. DUtton and Co. Boston,.
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