Camp Near Sharpsburgh, Md.,
November 11, 1862.
We had an interesting little reunion and supper at my tent
last evening. Yesterday morning, Bob Shaw and I rode into Hagerstown where the
First Massachusetts Cavalry are stationed, about fourteen miles from here. We
found our friends there getting ready for a move, having a preliminary inspection
of men, horses, etc., they having received orders to join Pleasanton. By dint
of a little persuasion, we got Curtis and Higginson to ride back with us. We
had already arranged a supper to which the five captains in the regiment had
been invited; Cogswell, Bangs, Robeson, Shaw, and myself. We sat down
immediately after “tattoo” and had a jolly time; there were seven of us, all
original “Seconds.” Of course, there were innumerable recollections recalled,
many of them sad, but a great many very pleasant; old times were talked over
and the many changes that had befallen us since our first Camp Andrew
experience. The supper was very good; a capital soup, followed by roast quail
and “fixings,” claret, coffee, cigars, etc., all done up in pretty good shape
for camp. An occasion like this makes up for many vexations, and we all
appreciate it.
Last night we received the news that Andrews had been
appointed Brigadier-General and assigned to Banks; so we have lost our second
Colonel, as honest and faithful a man as ever lived. He is one of the officers
in the army who has worked his way up himself, and has been promoted purely on
account of his own merit without political influence or wire-pulling. By this
promotion and the death of Lieutenant-Colonel Savage, Quincy becomes Colonel,
Cogswell, Lieutenant-Colonel, and Mudge, Major. I shall be third Captain and
have the colors, Savage's original place. Sawyer will be tenth Captain; at Camp
Andrew he was tenth Second Lieutenant, twenty grades he has gone through.
That was a very good article you sent me, taken from the “Advertiser,”
about Colonel Savage. It was evidently written by some one who knew him well.
It was perfectly true and did not exaggerate his good qualities an atom. He was
nearer to being a perfect man than any one I ever knew.
SOURCE: Charles Fessenden Morse, Letters Written
During the Civil War, 1861-1865, p. 104-5
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