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dear father,—I trust the first news you will hear will be of my safety, so that you will suffer no anxiety. I have not even a bullet through my clothes.... Our men behaved better than ever. Cogswell was wounded early, and I then took command, gaining and holding ground for fifteen minutes without a cartridge, until ordered to retire, which I did very slowly, halting and facing frequently. We took in four hundred and thirty men and twenty-two officers, and lost, as near as I can get at it at present, twenty-two men killed, ninety-eight wounded, sixteen missing; one officer killed, four wounded, several grazed. I think the killed is larger, as none of the wounded could have lived long.Later, on the 29th of May, 1863, he wrote further:—
You ask me what my feeling was during the fight at Chancellorsville. Well, it was just what it should be. I was so astonished at my coolness and courage, that I could not help thanking and praising God for it in a loud voice while I sat there on my horse. I had prayed for it, to be sure; but I never believed a man could feel so joyous, and such a total absence of fear, as I had there. I enjoyed it as much as a game or race, until we were withdrawn; and from that time until we were safely over the river, I, as well as every one else, suffered the most terrible anxiety you can imagine. Yet I had courage enough, by God's help, to bear it all coolly.This letter may be noted as almost the only one in which he dwells at any length upon himself or his own feelings; and here it is in answer to interrogatories from home. It is always of the regiment and of the men that he seems to speak and to think. His commission as Lieutenant-Colonel was dated on the 6th of June following (1863). But owing to the absence of Colonel Cogswell, who had not yet recovered from the wounds received at Chancellorsville, he was in actual command of the regiment, and he had the honor, before he died, of twice leading it into battle,—at Beverly Ford and at Gettysburg. At Beverly Ford the Second was one of a small number of regiments specially chosen from the whole army for a task more than ordinarily arduous, and detailed to support a cavalry movement. The choice was felt to be a great distinction, and the troops strove eagerly and successfully to acquit themselves
