Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Harvard Memorial Biographies

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[99] Army of the Potomac. Clasps and medals cover the breasts of many European soldiers who have never approached the merit of his services. Many European generals die in bed, at a good old age, who have never had more than a fraction of his experience of marching and fighting. The worth of military service is to be estimated, not by rank or length of years, but by the extent and variety of dangers bravely faced, and the amount of good done. Judged by this standard, Major Abbott deserves a very high place among the heroes of the war. At an age when most men are completing their education, or serving their apprenticeship to their future calling, this young veteran was wisely forming and bravely leading soldiers. That his rank was no higher when he fell was owing only to his youth, and to his humble grade on entering the service; but it is safe to say, that more than half our generals could have been better spared by our country and our army than this remarkable officer. He had been in so many bloody battles, and so often stood unharmed, hour after hour, in the midst of his brave men as they fell in heaps, that it seemed as if there were really ground for hoping that he was reserved to render his country the same rare services on a large scale that he had long been rendering on a comparatively small one.

His company was always the pride of the regiment. Composed of brave and intelligent men, mostly natives of Nantucket and Cape Cod, commanded at first by the brilliant soldier whom our people now admire as Brevet Major-General Bartlett, with Brevet Major-General Macy and Major Abbott as his lieutenants, it constantly bore the highest reputation, and rendered the most gallant and efficient service. It gave to the regiment from its ranks the lamented Alley and four excellent officers besides. The soldiers were worthy of their officers, and the officers were worthy of their men.

Major Abbott was long in command of his regiment, at different times; and the high tone which he inculcated, the discipline he maintained, and the instruction he imparted, combined, with its gallantry in action, of which he offered so bright an example, to give it the name of having no superior