Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Harvard Memorial Biographies

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[202] though it was not called on for very important services, its ingredients were peculiar. Its first and second officers were both Harvard men, and there were also in the ranks fourteen graduates and undergraduates of our college. Nearly all the mechanical and mercantile pursuits were numerously represented among the privates, as well as all the learned professions. There were two civil engineers, several authors, and three artists,—at least one of the latter being of considerable reputation; and of the college-bred men several had been distinguished by rank and ability at the University, and one, who was taken away by disease after five months service (Hopkinson), was one of the most brilliant writers and Latin scholars among our recent graduates. Company F, it is also to be noticed, afterwards contributed from its own ranks to the three years regiments in service one brevet brigadier-general, two lieutenant-colonels, nine captains, one first and one second lieutenant Three of these officers performed signal service and were wounded in the assault on Fort Wagner, and two others, Captain Simpkins and Captain Russell, were there killed.

The commission of Second Lieutenant in the Eighteenth Massachusetts Regiment was issued to Weston by Governor Andrew on March 4, 1863, and in the latter part of that month he sailed from Newbern for Boston. After a preparation of some ten days he set out for his command in Virginia, and joined it in its camp near Falmouth on the 18th of April.

The history of Lieutenant Weston, from May to November of 1863, is identified with that of the Eighteenth Massachusetts, in all whose marches and battles during that time he shared, never failing to do his work well. Both at Chancellorsville, which was his first great engagement, at Gettysburg, and at Rappahannock Station, his gallantry attracted the attention of the commanding officer of his regiment. Marches, far more than battles, seem to have given him anxiety, for his bodily strength was never equal to the drains they made upon it. He appears, however, to have kept in his place all