Cantonment Hicks, February 13, 1862.
The splendid news of the fight and victory of Roanoke Island
reached us this morning, and has caused great excitement and enthusiasm. We are
most anxious to hear the particulars, especially as the Twenty-fourth is
mentioned as being terribly cut up by the fire from the batteries. It will be
dreadful to hear of any of our friends being among the killed or wounded. What
a record there will be for the New England Guards after the war is over! I
believe all its old members have done well so far; after the Second has been
heard from, the list will be complete. Our news from the west is scarcely less
interesting; what a plucky and successful thing that was for those gun-boats to
go right through the heart of Tennessee and into Alabama! It's a great pity
they couldn't have stayed to the ball at Florence.
Last night, General Banks received a telegram from General
McClellan saying that he, the latter, wanted five hundred men from Banks'
division to go out to join the gun-boat expedition down the Mississippi; they
were all to be volunteers. We were called upon to furnish thirty from our
regiment, three from a company. As soon as it became known to the men, there
was a perfect rush from the company streets to the captains' tents; everybody
wanted to go. We chose three good fellows from “B,” who when they found out
they were the lucky ones, were perfectly wild; one, a fine, big Irishman, that
I enlisted at Chicopee, jumped right up in the air and gave a regular wild
Irish whoop.
SOURCE: Charles Fessenden Morse, Letters Written
During the Civil War, 1861-1865, p. 34-5
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