Cedar Creek, Oct. 15, 1864.
I've only ten minutes to write to you; I was out all this
morning visiting, junketing at the various headquarters, and only came home to
dinner at two o'clock. Since that, has come an order to get in light marching
order, and be in readiness to move. I conjecture a raid is on foot for our
Division, — perhaps to Charlottesville, — if so, you will not hear from me
again for a week or even ten days.
I think Sheridan will have to fight one more battle here,
probably while we are gone, — I am sorry to miss it, but perhaps we shall be of
more use where we are going. You will know that I am safe, at any rate, — so
safe do I feel to-night that I shall be riding Berold; I rode him this morning,
too, in making my calls. I heard for the first time that poor Colonel Wells of
the Thirty-Fourth Massachusetts was killed in the attack the Rebs made on our
camps day before yesterday, — he was
considered an excellent officer.1
What a letter this for the last one for ten days, but you
know how I am when I have anything on foot, I'm all distracted.
_______________
1 George Duncan Wells, a faithful and gallant
Massachusetts soldier. He graduated at Williams College, 1846, and at the
Harvard Law School, 1848, and practised law until the outbreak of the war. As
Lieutenant-Colonel of the First Massachusetts Infantry, he served at Bull Run
and in the Peninsular Campaign. In July, 1862, he was commissioned Colonel of
the Thirty-Fourth Massachusetts Regiment, and served in Western Virginia. In
July, 1863, he commanded a brigade with General Naglee, with credit. Next year,
in the Shenandoah Campaign, he commanded the First Brigade, in General Crook's
First Division, and did good service in many fights in the Valley. He received
the personal congratulations of General Sheridan, on the field of battle at
Winchester (Opequan). On October 12, 1864, he was mortally wounded, and died
next day, in the hands of the enemy. His commission as Brevet Brigadier-General
dated from the day of his last fight.
SOURCE: Edward Waldo Emerson, Life and Letters of
Charles Russell Lowell, p. 360-1, 473-4
