Wilder Dwight1 died of his wounds the other day
in a hospital at Boonesboro. One after the other we hear of our friends falling
off and still our dearest aren't touched. I wonder why? Col. Dwight will be a
dreadful loss to the Regiment and to his Mother, who adored him, but he himself
(as I have just seen in a letter from his mother to Mr. Ward) was ready to go.
Knowing that he is gone and that I shall never see him again, the only day of
our acquaintance dwells pleasantly in mind. He introduced himself to me in the
coach at Nahant one day this summer and we had a very pleasant talk about the
Regiment, the war, etc., and his pride in the former was good to see. After
leaving him in the coach, we met again at the Sanitary and he walked home with
me, bidding me goodbye in these words: “As, if the worst comes to the worst,
this is the last walk I shall ever take with you, goodbye,” and then we shook
hands and he went gaily off across the fields. In the afternoon he came to Aunt
Mary's2 and gave us an account of how he managed to get paroled when
he was taken prisoner, and was in very good spirits, “Ridiculously good spirits”
he said I thought them. I shall always remember him pleasantly, he was so
bright and cheerful and so brave and good an officer. Heaven rest his soul! I
can see him now as he stood saying a few last words in the little parlor at
Nahant and, nodding brightly to me, went out on the piazza and so out of my
sight forever. Of Bob he seemed very fond and that was enough to open my heart
to him, even if he hadn't been so pleasant himself.
_______________
1 Wilder Dwight, Major in the 2d Mass. Infantry,
mortally wounded at Antietam.
2 Mary Sturgis, wife of Robert Shaw.
SOURCE: William Rhinelander Stewart, The
Philanthropic Work of Josephine Shaw Lowell, p. 34
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