Oct. 17th, Same Camp.
Good-morning. Such a night's sleep as I had — ten hours strong
— only interrupted a few minutes at reveille, waking up and reflecting
cosily that it was not yet time to turn out!
I am very glad that George is nominated for Congress, and
hope that, in the great revolution which has been going on, his chance of election
may be better than you describe it.1
_______________
1 Excepting the few words of farewell to his
wife, written in the last hours of his life, the three following letters,
written on the same day, with which this volume closes, were the last which
Colonel Lowell ever wrote. Two days later, the bullets, among which for three
months he had ridden unheeding, doing his duty to the uttermost, cut short his
life. Had Lowell lived through that day, it seems probable that he would have
survived the war. The victory of October 19 at Cedar Creek virtually ended the
Valley Campaign, and put an end to the dangerous service for the cavalry,
except for the short period in spring, ending in Lee's surrender. Moreover,
Lowell's commission as Brigadier-General, signed the day of his death, Sheridan
intended to follow by making him his Chief of Cavalry, a position in which he
would have been less exposed.
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