Friday, March 29, 2019

Governor John A. Andrewto an Officer in One of the First Three Years' Regiments of Massachusetts

Dear ———: I followed the regiment through the streets, and tried hard at the Depot to find you and ——— at the cars last evening to shake hands and say goodbye, but, in vain. I cdnt find in which car was the Company even; and I began and walked through the cars shaking hands along, but the train started and I had to jump off, in motion, before I had finished. . . . Allow me to beg of you all — officers of the field — to have a single eye to the common good, happiness, success and welfare of the whole.

Let no standing on etiquette or dignity, or nice points ever postpone the interests even of the humblest private. Let each one think that the regiment depends on him, as much as if he was the only officer in it. And I pray you regard every little thing that makes for the comfort and convenience of the command, or that promotes its order or safety. A lynch pin out of a cart wheel and not supplied is fatal to the whole load, loses the cargo, and makes the cart and team as useless as if there were none. Every soldier shd be taught and made to care for and save all his property and implements, whether of war or convenience.

I think the regiment, if it fails at all, will fail for the want of that nice and regular discipline and care, which constitutes, in a trader the difference between a bankrupt and a thrifty business man and which in a household marks the odds between the good housekeeper and a disgusting slut. Col. ——— seems to me to think a regiment mainly intended for exhibiting a dress-parade, which is after all, to a regiment, just about what making a handsome bow is to a man. It is a proper accomplishment and properly comes in on receiving or parting with your host or your guest and on occasions of ceremony; but it wont stand in the stead of yr dinner when hungry, nor packing your trunk and getting yr ticket for a journey. . . .

I think Col. ———, under the excitement of battle or great duties is likely to [do] his best. I am more afraid of his failure by the weakness of not comprehending the value of details, and not understanding that all the victories of Life have to be won by preparation long before the battle itself begins. A man must see a thing in his mind, before he can do it with his hand; and unless he has seen every step of the process he has not seen it at all.

Professor Cleaveland1 lectured on chemistry at Bowdoin College for fifty years; and yet, year after year the grand and charming old man whose memory brings tears to my eyes while I write his name, — patiently worked out every experiment in his laboratory before exhibiting it to his class, and would not believe that he could perform it successfully this year, until he had tried it by testing every process and manipulating it anew — though he had done the same thing a hundred times before — today was always given wholly to its own work. And in fifty years the tradition is that he never failed before his class. What an example and what a happiness there is in such a faithful, devoted, dutiful life. Shallow men may think glory is won by showy action, like a vapid actor tearing passion into tatters close to the foot-lights. But you, I know, are not misled by any such folly; though to you as to me it is always possible not to remember that such notions are always hanging at the door of the wisest and may catch even them.

If you ever read through this long and tiresome sermon, you will see, I hope, in it the evidence of the personal interest and watchful, heart-felt affection, which ought to be entertained by a friend, whose acquaintance has been an intimacy of years. — With every good wish and fervent blessings, believe me, faithfully and always

Yours
John A. Andrew.
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1 Parker Cleaveland, professor at Bowdoin from 1805 to 1858.

SOURCE: Henry Greenleaf Pearson, The Life of John A. Andrew: Governor of Massachusetts, 1861-1865, Volume 1, p. 229-31

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