Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Harvard Memorial Biographies

[393] with the Fifth Rhode Island Regiment on board, ran the blockade, reinforcing with some four hundred men, and bringing provisions and ammunition. On the 15th, General Foster ran the blockade on the same steamer, and reached Newbern, and started a relieving force immediately. The Rebels hearing of it, withdrew from Washington on the following day. We reached Newbern April 23d. The regiment did provost duty in Newbern from April 25th until the day of its leaving Newbern, June 6th. It arrived at Boston, and received a hearty welcome, June 10th; went into camp at Readville, June 15th, and was mustered out of the service June 18, 1863. I was mustered out of the service just in time to be present at Cambridge on Class-day. During the autumn of 1863 I studied, and made up the studies of Senior year, passing my examinations the last of October. I received my degree January, 1864. On November 12, 1863, I commenced business in the store of Messrs. Sabin and Page, 92 and 94 Milk Street, Boston, in the saddlery hardware business, where I continued until March 15, 1864. I then left, in consequence of being commissioned Second Lieutenant in the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Regiment. I leave Massachusetts to join my regiment, now stationed in Florida, in a few days. My plans for the future are very unsettled. I shall probably remain in the army, if life and health are spared to me, until the war is over. Heaven only knows what is before me. Whatever is before me, I hope never to disgrace the Class to which I am proud to belong, or the State which sends me to fight for the nation's life and freedom.

The career of Lieutenant Stevens, after he joined the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Volunteers, is identical with that of the regiment. He was killed at the battle of Boykin's Mills, April 18, 1865, near Camden, South Carolina, during an expedition to Camden under Brigadier-General Potter, which left Georgetown, April 5, 1865. The Fifty-fourth was ordered to cross Swift's Creek, about eight miles from Camden, at a point to the right of the road, in order to flank the enemy, (who were opposite the head of the column,) and, after considerable opposition, succeeded in crossing at Boykin's Mills, ten miles from the creek. The enemy vigorously resisted the movement, but began to fall back on the appearance of a piece of artillery, and five companies of the Fifty-fourth charged across