Near Summit, 9 P. M., Sept. 8, 1864.
To-day has quite changed the face of things, — the Third
Brigade (my brigade) has been broken up: the Second Massachusetts is
transferred to the “Reserve Brigade,” and I take command thereof, Colonel Gibbs
being transferred to command of Second Brigade: the change looks like making
the Second Massachusetts a permanent member of the Army of the Potomac, or that
portion of it which is here.1
I am now where, if there is anything to be done for Mr.
Linkum2 in
the way of fighting, I may have a chance to do it. Good-night, — it's dark and
rainy and windy enough to make a move to-morrow certain, — it's just the night
to injure forage and rations, and very naturally they have arrived.
_______________
1 The reorganization of General Merritt's
Division was as follows: First Brigade, Brigadier-General Custer; Second
Brigade, Brigadier-General Devin; Reserve Brigade, Colonel Lowell. The Reserve
Brigade consisted of the First, Second, and Fifth United States Cavalry and the
Second Massachusetts Cavalry; also Battery D (horse artillery) of the Second
United States Artillery.
2 The negro “contrabands” called their far-off
benefactor “Massa Linkum,” and the Union Army the “Linkum soldiers.”
SOURCE: Edward Waldo Emerson, Life and Letters of
Charles Russell Lowell, p. 337, 460-1
