Col. J. D. Webster

Col. Webster, the chief of Gen. Grant’s staff, whose desperate artillery line of battle held the enemy on Sunday night and saved the army, is, we believe, a brother of Rev. Mr. Webster of Hopkinton, Mass. Few men are more modest, and so efficient and none more brave. Minister’s sons are bearing witness to the world what stuff those ministers are made of who meddle with politics in the pulpit.

– Published in the Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 19, 1862