Friday, July 24, 2015

Colonel Charles Russell Lowell to Josephine Shaw Lowell, October 15, 1864

Cedar Creek, Oct. 15, 1864.

I've only ten minutes to write to you; I was out all this morning visiting, junketing at the various headquarters, and only came home to dinner at two o'clock. Since that, has come an order to get in light marching order, and be in readiness to move. I conjecture a raid is on foot for our Division, — perhaps to Charlottesville, — if so, you will not hear from me again for a week or even ten days.

I think Sheridan will have to fight one more battle here, probably while we are gone, — I am sorry to miss it, but perhaps we shall be of more use where we are going. You will know that I am safe, at any rate, — so safe do I feel to-night that I shall be riding Berold; I rode him this morning, too, in making my calls. I heard for the first time that poor Colonel Wells of the Thirty-Fourth Massachusetts was killed in the attack the Rebs made on our camps day before yesterday, —  he was considered an excellent officer.1

What a letter this for the last one for ten days, but you know how I am when I have anything on foot, I'm all distracted.
_______________

1 George Duncan Wells, a faithful and gallant Massachusetts soldier. He graduated at Williams College, 1846, and at the Harvard Law School, 1848, and practised law until the outbreak of the war. As Lieutenant-Colonel of the First Massachusetts Infantry, he served at Bull Run and in the Peninsular Campaign. In July, 1862, he was commissioned Colonel of the Thirty-Fourth Massachusetts Regiment, and served in Western Virginia. In July, 1863, he commanded a brigade with General Naglee, with credit. Next year, in the Shenandoah Campaign, he commanded the First Brigade, in General Crook's First Division, and did good service in many fights in the Valley. He received the personal congratulations of General Sheridan, on the field of battle at Winchester (Opequan). On October 12, 1864, he was mortally wounded, and died next day, in the hands of the enemy. His commission as Brevet Brigadier-General dated from the day of his last fight.

SOURCE: Edward Waldo Emerson, Life and Letters of Charles Russell Lowell, p. 360-1, 473-4

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