New York, December 15, '62.
I am at my mother's,
— a house of mourning. On Saturday afternoon my brother Joe fell dead at the
head of his regiment, ending at twenty-six years a stainless life in the
holiest cause and in the most heroic manner. God rest his noble soul, and grant
us all the same fidelity! My mother, who has felt the extreme probability of
the event from the beginning, is as brave as she can be; but it is a fearful
blow. She does not regret his going, and she knew the risk, but who can know
the pang until it comes?1
_______________
1 Joseph Bridgham Curtis was born in
Providence, R. I., October 25, 1836. Educated as a civil engineer at the
Lawrence Scientific School, Cambridge, Mass., he entered the Union service at
the outbreak of the war in 1861 as engineer on the staff of the Ninth Regiment
of the New York State National Guard. On the organization of the Fourth Rhode Island
Regiment, he was appointed Adjutant. He served with Burnside at Roanoke and in
the Army of the Potomac. The regiment was cut to pieces at Antietam, and fell
back in disorder. Lieutenant Curtis seized the colors, shouting, “I go back no
further! What is left of the Fourth Rhode Island, form here!” But there was not
enough left to form, and Curtis, for the rest of the day, fought as a private
in an adjoining command. He was made Lieutenant-Colonel on the reorganization
of the regiment, and was in command at Fredericksburg. He was instantly killed
at the head of his men on the evening of the battle of December 13,1862.
SOURCE: Edward Cary, George William Curtis, p.
160-1
