I have resumed this letter since last night, and must now
get ready for the review this bright Monday morning. Have you read Colonel
Harvey Brown's clear, manly, sensible despatch from Fort Pickens? — his
statement of results, — fruits of experience ripe and real. There is a modesty,
directness, absence of cant about it that stamp the man a soldier fit for
command. It is refreshing to read such a statement, after General –––’s
vaunting return from Hatteras; after such a telegram as that which chronicled
Colonel –––’s braggadocio ride on a cannon from a smart little skirmish near
Harper's Ferry, which is called a “great victory”; after the many magnificent
records of routine exploits, which surprise our volunteers into the foolish
belief that they are sudden heroes; after the constant record of the movements
of my friend –––, who is a first-rate fellow, and doing a good work with too
much noise about it. These men seem to be all attempting a “hasty plate of
glory,” as Colonel
Andrews calls it. The simple discharge of duty, and then an intelligent attempt
to learn a lesson, and do better next time. Let us hope for imitation of
this Colonel Brown of the regulars. But the Colonel puts his head into
my tent and says, “Major, the line will be formed at twelve o'clock,” and so I
must “prepare for review.”
SOURCE: Elizabeth Amelia Dwight, Editor, Life and
Letters of Wilder Dwight: Lieut.-Col. Second Mass. Inf. Vols., p. 174-5
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