Headquarters 6th Corps,
Warrenton, Virginia, August 17, 1863.
Colonel:
It is with no ordinary pleasure that I seize this occasion
to add my testimony to and express my admiration for the ability of the
officer, the high attainments of the gentleman, and the soldierly qualities
which have marked your career from your entrance into the service, and which
you, Colonel, have so often exhibited while serving in my command during the
past winter and spring. When you passed from the command of your regiment to
that of the brigade of which it formed a part, it was but to win a not
insignificant addition to that reputation of which your fellow-officers were so
justly proud, and which your friends cannot too warmly cherish.
Of your gallantry and undaunted bravery on the occasion of
the storming of the heights of Fredericksburg while at the head of your
brigade, and subsequently on the hotly contested field of “Salem Heights,”
where you received your agonizing wound, I cannot speak with too much praise.
The bravery of the soldier, the skill of the officer, and the courage of the
gentleman were so happily blended that your conduct in that day afforded a
noble example, the memory of which must long live in the hearts of all your
friends and comrades. I am glad to learn that you are doing so well as to be
already on crutches, and I trust, Colonel, that the day when you will again
take the field in that grade to which your skill and merit so well entitle you
is not distant.
No officer in the army will be more ready to welcome you
than myself.
I am, sir, very respectfully,
Your obedient
servant,
John Sedgwick,
Major-General.
Colonel Brown,
36th New York.
SOURCE: George William Curtis, Correspondence of
John Sedgwick, Major-General, Volume 2, p. 142-3
