Saturday, January 10, 2015

James Freeman Clarke to E. C. C., June 18, 1864

June 18, 1864.

... Do you remember David W. Norton, who joined our church eight years ago, and afterwards went to Chicago? He became major in an Illinois regiment, fought in all the chief battles, and was killed, June 3, by a rebel sharpshooter, while in front of our lines with the general, sketching the enemy's lines. Monday I went to Mount Auburn to the funeral. Yesterday I received a cane he cut for me on Lookout Mountain, after the battle.

. . . Do you see how bravely the colored soldiers have fought at Petersburg? They have been praised by the generals on the field for their courage. Still, Government can pay them only seven dollars a month! I talked with Governor Andrew about it after church last Sunday. He said, “I wrote last week to Charles Sumner and Thaddeus Stevens that I should pursue this matter without rest or pause; that I should neither forget nor forgive any neglect or opposition in regard to it; that I would not die till I had vindicated the rights of the colored soldiers.” . . .

SOURCE: Edwin Everett Hale, Editor, James Freeman Clarke: Autobiography, Diary and Correspondence, p. 289

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